thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb Some thoughts suggested by current discussions of racism and antisemitism:
The natural outlook is that there are a variety of peoples—East Asians, Fukienese peasants, Westerners, Jews, Irishmen—that are distinct enough to possess qualities that might be good or bad. Since qualities differ, it is natural to feel more or less attracted or tied to one … More ...
Here’s a good interview: Fr. James V. Schall on Reason and Faith. He touches on natural law and its critics, modern natural rights, St. Thomas, the Greek thinkers, Leo Strauss and his notion of a standoff between reason and revelation, the flaws of Islam, the current crisis in the Church, and what not else. … More ...
What’s at the heart of the current effort to abolish Christmas? Planned Parenthood’s “Choice on Earth” holiday card, which proclaims death instead of birth and the triumph of the will instead of the Peace of God, may provide a clue.
How can current public discussions of race be explained? Why the belief that sick and evil motives are everywhere, polluting whatever they touch? Why is defense against accusation impossible, so that suspicion and conviction are the same?
Part of the answer, surely, is bad conscience. The absolute irrelevance of race to any legitimate concern may … More ...
Social historian Barbara Dafoe Whitehead has two unmarried daughters in their thirties and has written a book about their problems: Why There Are No Good Men Left. The basic problem, she seems to believe, is a sort of mechanical lack of opportunity. Young women today are raised to find careers rather than husbands. When … More ...
Some medical bits confirming once again that sexual oddities go together with behavior that is otherwise disordered: Gay, Bisexual Women Take More Risks Than Gay Men, and Drugs, Unsafe Sex Common Among Men Living as Women. They seemed worth mentioning as somewhat relevant to the recent insistence by the American Psychiatric Association that … More ...
The admiration of the rich and famous for a left-wing tyrant: Critics assail Fidel Castro’s grip on Hollywood celebs. Why is mass-market entertainment and fashion left-wing? In part it’s because pop culture likes the exotic, miraculous and sexy—that’s what pleases the public—and a Caribbean Marxist paradise run by a personally magnetic strongman fits the … More ...
Merry Christmas!
From all of us at VFR
An update on what school textbooks are saying these days, published by the liberal-but-somewhat-populist New York Daily News: Schoolbooks are flubbing facts.
On the occasion of a long-time colleague’s hundredth birthday Trent Lott paid a compliment that suggested that Federally-mandated integration had been a mistake, and that some other way forward would have been better—perhaps one that preserved at least the legality of voluntary separation. The response of many people, including some prominent in the conservative movement, … More ...