thoughts in and out of season
Dear Mr. Kalb,
There was a recent disclosure of the loss of an infamous laptop containing too much information about veterans. The Top Boss did a backflip and issued political edicts such as “do not take work home,” all to protect veterans . . . if one can even grasp such an idea.
Background: this … More ...
Dear Mr. Kalb,
Dear Mr. Kalb,
Consider this: We (LSU) have a 6’6†260 lb. Junior quarterback who is a come-from-behind athlete. We have a 6’3†230 lb. Junior quarterback that demolished the humongous non-SEC Miami in the Peach Bowl. We have a 6’3†Freshman quarterback that was the number 1 high school draft pick … More ...
Dear Mr. Kalb,
Moderate Islam means Islam is unable to threaten Western Civilization: Israel, Europe, Australia, and America. Assuming this is true, how does one solve the problem caused by immoderate behavior by some Muslim people? Kill or eject immoderate Muslims wherever they hide regardless of collateral damage after careful evaluation.
Muslims are people, and … More ...
Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment
Dear Group Members,
I want to share my article with you. This is about the link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues. The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful … More ...
The following review of Christopher J. Insole, The Politics of Human Frailty: A Theological Defense of Political Liberalism (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005) appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of Telos.
What is liberalism and is it good or bad? Its pervasiveness makes it difficult to gain the perspective needed to … More ...
A friend wrote to ask what I thought of various academic attempts to try to avoid objections to liberalism that are based on the liberal tendency, now out of fashion, to claim that liberalism should rule because it’s based on universally valid rational principles of some sort. My response:
… More ...The attempts you mention basically claim
A correspondent asks what metaphysical liberalism, as “the denial of the Good as a self-sufficient entity which exists independent of any individual’s personal preferences,” has to do with “the modern Left’s hysterical denial of differences between (and in some cases among) different racial sexual and myriad other groups.”
My response:
… More ...To my mind, the craziness
The fundamental question of political legitimacy is the nature and purpose of authority, and thus the nature of man, the world, moral obligation, and the human good—in other words, which religion is correct. Liberalism cannot get by without answering that question, but it answers it indirectly, by claiming moral ignorance. We do not know what … More ...
What does it mean that something as idiotic as the Da Vinci Code has had a strong effect on how people answer pollsters’ questions about Christianity and Catholicism? (No, I haven’t read the book or seen the movie, and yes, I feel entitled to dismiss them as idiotic anyway.)
Some possibilities:
An old friend, who considers herself a liberal, asked why I classified W as one. It really seemed batty to her although she could see that the “big spender” label would apply. My reply (somewhat edited):
… More ...He’s a liberal because he thinks he’s called on to reconstruct things to bring about a universal order in