thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb I’ll agree that who your parents were is part of who you are, and for that and other reasons every child has a right to both a mother and a father. But doesn’t that show that it’s wrong to do things—like use sperm donors—that intrinsically deny a child that right and force him to construct … More ...
This seems funny: Bovine Badinage, on animal rights demands. The problem is that nothing the Left does is funny, especially if it seems really crazy. “Crazy” means that the concepts are different from the ones you’re used to, and you’re just starting to see the consequences. As time goes on you’ll see more, much … More ...
If you give a woman abstract directions involving distances and points of the compass she does very badly, but with directions based on landmarks she’ll do better than a man: Tell Men Directions, Give Women Landmarks: Study.
No surprise there. There’s also no surprise that the (female) jounalist and (female) academic who did the … More ...
Free institutions, free men, free thought—something of the sort is needed for tradition. Tradition isn’t forced, administered, or intentionally created. It grows out of experience in ways that can’t be predicted, and it’s completely at odds with rationalized control based on explicit standards.
Nonetheless, tradition also requires subordination. It requires that we view ourselves as … More ...
Here’s the Boston Glob on the “No Place for Hate” to-do I mentioned a couple days ago: Debate of hate. Nice title!
John Leo discusses Vanderbilt’s decision to boost their academic standing by recruiting Jews: A big mess on campus.
The mess he’s talking about is worse than he is aware. He starts off complaining how offensive it is to say Jews are “lively, interesting, and hardworking,” because it’s “close to conventional stereotypes”—not to mention “the … More ...
Quandaries of multiethnicity in a post-9/11 world: in Texas they’re worried about maintaining privileges for illegal aliens at state universities when the feds are after them to crack down on foreign students here legally with visas.
And in France there was rioting in a camp for illegal immigrants near the channel tunnel after authorities tightened security. The French say they’ll close the place—eventually.
For more examples of bias and irrationality of among scientific experts and the like, see healthfactsandfears.com, a project of the American Council on Science and Health. A bigger problem, of course, is the treatment of things like sex as questions for scientific experts which fundamentally are nothing of the kind.
And in Canada, another traditionally Anglican country, the other side of the process becomes clear. The church may want to disentangle itself from the state, but the state won’t leave the church alone: Canada becoming anti-religious. Forcing a Catholic school to let a homosexual couple attend the prom was only the beginning. How … More ...