thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb When I visit the doctor I usually catch up on mass culture a bit by reading the magazines in the waiting room. Most of it’s flashy junk and nothing more, but yesterday at the eye doctor’s I ran into something worth reading, an article in New York Magazine about a distinguished professor at New York … More ...
The understanding of morality and public order that’s authoritative today holds that sex can’t have any meaning that’s publicly recognized. Freedom and equality demands that each of us construct its meaning for himself. Anything else would be institutionalized oppression that touches on the most intimate aspects of what we are. Such views are integral to … More ...
Here’s Howard Dean’s standard peroration:
… More ...This country depends on all of us uniting as a people, building a community, standing together. That’s what this country is all about. I am tired of being divided by race. I am tired of being divided by income. I am tired of being divided by gender. I am tired
A new religion needs a new holy book, so the German Evangelical Church is rewriting the bible in feminist language, getting rid of discriminatory expressions like “Lord” and “Our Father.” The effect is startling, but the effort is just an example of a general trend. Mainstream translations today always fudge things in a PC … More ...
More evidence that the modern bureaucratic state simply fails to understand family relations—how they work, what they mean, why they matter:
Trading favorable coverage for access is commonplace among journalists who cover politicians. John Burns, a New York Times reporter and apparently a principled man, complains that in Saddam Hussain’s Iraq that routine variety of corruption turned into something pretty horrible: “There Is Corruption in Our Business”. Cozy relationships are only one of the ways … More ...
The Pentagon inspector general reported recently that nearly 20 percent of female Air Force Academy cadets said they had been sexually assaulted since arriving at the academy. Because of related scandals, the Air Force has transferred the academy’s leadership and is looking into what has been going on.
It’s hard to determine particulars from the … More ...
The imperialism of the new sexual righteousness: European Parliament Says Athos Monks Must End 1000-Year Male-Only Tradition, and Dutch abortion ship invades Poland. Mount Athos has been the center of Orthodox monasticism for more than a thousand years, and part of their discipline has always been the exclusion of women. The European Parliament … More ...
A man was arrested in North Carolina for successfully passing a $200 bill. The bill included a picture of George Bush and slogans like “We like ice cream” and “The USA deserves a tax cut.” The cashier apparently thought that was good enough for $150 worth of groceries and $50 change.
It’s not clear … More ...
If the notion that there’s something amiss with homosexuality is just an ignorant prejudice based on nothing, why is it so durable and widespread? Could there be something wrong with the fundamental analysis? In India they seem to think so, but they’re not quite sure why: Centre says being gay will remain a crime, its … More ...