thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb The strength and weakness of the Anglican Church has always been its connection to English society and government. It’s hard to know how it can be maintained at present though: here’s a bishop asking that civil marriage be separated from the religious ceremony because the two just don’t mean the same.
Oddly, he he refers … More ...
September 11 does seem to have put immigration reform somewhat back in play—a report by the Center for Immigration Studies on weaknesses in the system and their effect on terrorist activities has been covered straight by wire services. The Center is even described as a “think-tank that favors reducing immigration” rather than an “anti-immigrant group.” … More ...
A summary from US News and World Report about debates over abstinence-only curricula. It’s slanted against them, of course, but does include a fair amount of material from more than one side. A basic problem is the scientific-social-policy approach that makes it possible for the Pennsylvania congressman to call the abstinence approach “a case … More ...
Another possible dialogue:
… More ...Alter: You’re invited to my daughter’s wedding—she’s marrying her partner Louise!
Ego: Don’t think I can make it.
Alter [suspicious]: Why not?
Ego: It’s not something I can celebrate.
Alter: Why not?
Ego: I don’t think the sexual union of two women is a good thing.
From the New York Times: take the politics out of universal human rights by letting the legal experts look after it! So the solution to the Israel obsession and the administrative mess the piece describes is to apply treaties based on uniform legal norms and procedures. Sounds great! For example: in spite of … More ...
Most Britons believe their own society is racist, according to a recent poll. Does the statistic mean they think they have to be behavior-modified?
Another sign that social issues are now a matter of international legal norms to be applied by jurists and other experts: the US State Department report on US compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. It lists “lingering disparities,” Rodney King and Amadou Diallo as examples of how far … More ...
American public life today: a Massachusetts town declines to sign on to an ADL re-education campaign so there’s a national outcry capped by the appearance of 8th grader on the Today show. A Bid to Legislate Love Splits a New England Town includes an account of someone who thought he had been a victim of … More ...
To be like one thing is to be different from another. The things that divide are therefore the same as the things that unite. That’s so obviously true that it’s hard to imagine how anyone could ever have seen “inclusiveness” as a possible ideal.
If it’s presented as an ideal there’s a shell game going … More ...
I wonder what would have happened if the Brits had the strong antidiscrimination law the UN says they’re obligated to adopt? Winterton race joke prompts police probe—she was a Tory MP who got sacked as rural affairs spokeswoman after referring to ethnic Asians as “10 a penny” while telling an after-dinner joke at a … More ...