thoughts in and out of season
The following essay was written for A Paleoconservative Anthology: New Voices for an Old Tradition, edited by Paul Gottfried, but was left out (apparently due to an administrative slip-up—editorial changes, author’s bio etc. had all been agreed on). A slightly revised version will be published in the Australian journal Observer and Review.
Maureen Mullarkey’s characteristically vivid comments on Pope Francis and the environment have drawn much attention from participants in the Internet Francis Wars. One big reason is that her comments sometimes go beyond the vivid to the caustic (“press toads,” “ideologue,” “meddlesome egoist,” “megalomania”). Another is that they were made on her blog at First Things… More ...
Racial differences and attachments are real, and they can’t be educated or administered away. Family, ancestry, and history are part of who we are, so they are part of identity. People take them to heart, and that’s not going to change.
So why do respectable people get so weird about them, and claim race doesn’t … More ...