thoughts in and out of season
The conviction that there’s something odd and repellent about making distinctions on grounds of religion, race, sex and the like calls for explanation. How come no one used to think it’s a problem and now everyone does? And why are such distinctions so much worse than distinctions based on the fact that someone’s a fundy, … More ...
“Affirmative action” means that if blacks fall short it’s the fault of whites, so it’s only fair to take the benefits of success from whites and give them to blacks. Our established intellectual, moral and religious leaders—including the bishops—all say that’s just and moral, so one is reluctant to argue the contrary. Still, the system … More ...
Wittgenstein notoriously argued that a private language is impossible. The problem is that if I am the sole authority for the meaning of a word there is no way to distinguish a case in which I am using it correctly from one in which I am not. If that’s so, though, the word can’t … More ...
There’s no substitute for seeing what’s there: Cardinal Arinze’s comment at Georgetown sparks protest. Mention that homosexuality mocks the family, and a theologian can’t bear to share the stage with you and 70 of her colleagues sign a letter of protest. In a way it’s all to the good—the more direct personal experience those … More ...
Among the claims Professor Bellesiles made in his Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture — a book once acclaimed and now thoroughly discredited — was that there was no significant market for guns in early America. Clayton Cramer, one of Bellesiles’ most effective debunkers, describes the results of a quick look at … More ...
So far as I can tell, this is business as usual in the defense of “affirmative action”:The Evidence of Things Not Seen. A University of Michigan study finds serious problems with racial preference programs. The summary is later rewritten to put a much more positive spin on the findings, the University uses it … More ...
Liberalism proposes to make social life rational and equal. To that end, everything habitual, irregular, particular and opaque to liberal reason must be done away with as bigoted and oppressive. The things to be abolished include family life in any traditional sense, with its associated habits, attitudes and institutions, and ethnic distinctions, with the particular … More ...
More tolerance: in Virginia, the Boy Scouts are going to get rid of Robert E. Lee. America’s history must be abolished, because her great men aren’t good enough for us any more. Since this is America, outside the big cities, and in the South, the event is played down—it’s just the “right thing … More ...
Commentaries on the war for the transformation of human life and attainment of absolute politically-correct purity:
A friend suggests similarities between Jaysongate at the New York Times and the pederasty scandals in the Catholic Church:
… More ...The Times first simply ignored the offenses of a journalist that touched the core of his profession. When the senior executives were forced to confront the situation, they believed Blair had been cured and then merely