thoughts in and out of season
I’m not impressed by the argument that America is good because it’s free, equal, democratic and prosperous, or because a lot of people from all over the world want to move here. There are good things to be said about America on those grounds, but they can also be said about other Western countries, and … More ...
Statements in a radio interview given by Anglican bishop Martin Reynolds display the essentials of liberal antihomophobia: Anti-gay archbishop Jensen likened to Hitler. According to Reynolds, the claim that deviant sexual intercourse is bad, so homosexual couplings aren’t equivalent to marriages and those who affirm such things in their lives shouldn’t be pastors of … More ...
In spite of hate speech laws the mainstream press is probably a bit freer and more diverse in Britain than America. Here, for example, is a reasonably straightforward article on reparative therapy for homosexual orientation—something you’re not likely to see in the national press here. For those who pursue it, more often than not … More ...
For another example of what looks like a gathering counterattack against technocracy by actual scientists, see Understanding the Derrida virus by the physicist, mathematician, and architectural theorist Nikos Salingaros. (I’m in the acknowledgements, which rightly suggests that I have a great deal of sympathy for what Professor Salingaros has to say.)
A summary of recent research, Hardwired to Connect, shows that even if you put all this stuff about traditional morality and spiritual values to one side, and just look at biochemistry, children still need something very like the authority of family and local religious institutions. It’s useful to keep these things in your back … More ...
Conservatives can be divided into (1) pessimists, who think the trend is down, down, down, and (1) optimists, who think things aren’t so bad. The pessimists point to things like Grutter, Lawrence, and the business-as-usual attitude of most mainstream conservatives to those decisions. The optimists point to things like practical limitations on the … More ...
Here are some extremely interesting observations by a Lutheran observer at Vatican II. From what the man says it appears that the bishops got to Rome without any particularly pressing concerns of their own to deal with, they were asked to pass on grand issues for which they weren’t prepared, the experts argued rings around … More ...
It’s interesting that it’s moral conduct—in particular, active homosexuality—and not moral or theological teaching that puts the kibosh on communion and ecumenism: UPI Analysis: A rift worse than schism? The Anglicans have been consecrating bishops for years who think homosexuality is just great and who reject almost any Christian doctrine you care to mention. But … More ...
I can remember when the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune were conservative papers. Nowadays there’s no such thing in the mainstream press, they’re all much too professionalized to be anything but left/liberal, so the two have become operatives for the Democratic Party and the pro-abortion movement just like everyone else. So it’s no big surprise … More ...
A straw in the wind: Google accepts ads for pornography but not legal firearms. They do have standards, you know.
The Google semi-monopoly, like the Microsoft semi-monopoly, does make me a little nervous. The main reason I moved my website from counterrevolution.net to jkalb.freeshell.org was that Google simply would not index more than one … More ...