thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb There’s new hope for Europeans worried about vanishing pensions, a problem we just commented on: they can go to Switzerland and get humanely put down. From a recent survey it appears that 51% of all deaths in the country result from “end-of-life” decisions. A few old fogies are concerned about “suicide tourists” who want … More ...
In Europe they believe that everything can be administered, but even so some bugs have to be worked out. The abolition of the family is proceeding nicely, with parental authority giving way to that of the state (no spanking!) and marriage becoming equivalent to a temporary partnership between any two persons for whatever … More ...
More career news: I know very little about the new dean of the U Cal medical School, David Kessler, but this account of his career is persuasive enough to be worth some thought. The account presents a man who has made a career out of pose-striking, political grandstanding, and general self-promotion. As FDA Commissioner he … More ...
How to make a career: find a market that isn’t being served, put together a product line that might meet the demand, and roll out the offering as dramatically as possible. That’s what Tony Campolo seems to be doing. Campolo, an evangelical, sociologist and liberal, is best known publicly as one of the clerical props … More ...
The other side of sex, tolerance, democracy, autonomy and what-not: the Elks have to admit women, and if members make sexist remarks while discussing a particular application they can get stuck with stiff damages for emotional harm.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court decided that the Elks are a “public accommodation” because they have lots … More ...
People argue about whether Lawrence v. Texas will lead to “gay marriage.” How much does it matter if the existing legal treatment of marriage is accepted?
Traditionally, marriage drew its importance as a civil institution from the circumstance that it was the setting for legitimate sexual relations. Marriage therefore had to do with children—sex naturally … More ...
The European Syndrome takes hold in America: the U.S. birth rate has fallen to a record low, and over one-third of all births in the U.S. are now illegitimate. In spite of the demonstrable importance of the latter statistic, the reporter didn’t mention it until almost the end of the piece.
Philip Jenkins has written an interesting paper on the dodgy background of current scholarly images of Christ. Yesterday it was Madame Blavatskaya, today it’s Elaine Pagels. I had been inclined, in a broadbrush fashion, to view most current New Testament scholarship as a bunch of experts turning their predilections into expertise. Jenkins provides a … More ...
There is a paradox in the notion of ultimate goods. They set our goals and measure our actions, so we need to align ourselves with them if our life is to hang together. However, we can’t define what they are without diminishing them. To state them fully would be to subordinate them to what defines … More ...
It’s hard to keep people from believing what they want to believe. That’s especially true if the people are experts. After all, expert opinion defines what is true, that opinion is “expert” because of certain formal procedures and qualifications and coherence with the opinions of other experts, and a well-placed group can manipulate those things … More ...