Rights

An atheist group is protesting the retention at the site of the World Trade Center of a steel beam in the symmetrical shape of a cross that had been found in the wreckage. They are considering bringing suit on the grounds that “[m]any people who died on September 11 weren’t Christian … This is a … More ...

The times in which we live:

• A UN committee has determined that a pension scheme that distinguishes between homosexual and normal (but unmarried) couples violates Australia’s obligations under international human rights treaties. The obligations aren’t really stated anywhere, but they’re there if you read between the lines.
• Meanwhile, in America, illegal aliens are suing for

How things are in the kinder, gentler, more humane societies of Europe, where they know how to do things: the oldsters are dying alone in France, because the younger generation is off at the beach and can’t be bothered, while in England (where it’s mostly too cold for the beach) they’re dying in hospitals… More ...

State and federal funds paid for part of a dental school building at Marquette, a Catholic university. Afterwards, some people at the school organized an unofficial weekly mass in the building. The state heard about the masses, got in touch with the school, and on advice of counsel the school decided it would be prudent … More ...

How to recognize a society in terminal decline: read what Juergen Habermas says in his call for renewal. According to the philosopher, whom many consider the leading German public intellectual, the renewal would be based on

“five attributes … Europeans share: the neutrality of authority, embodied in the separation of church and state, trust

This looks bad: New York Times radio station fires announcer over off-air remark. Gregg Whiteside had worked for WQXR 25 years and was their main classical music announcer. He made a comment (reportedly antisemitic) in a private conversation with a colleague and friend. Someone overheard the comment and reported it, and they fired him … More ...

The march of equal opportunity: Firms plan gay audit to avoid discrimination claims. Some big English companies are rushing to find how which employees are homosexual before laws go into effect that could expose them to huge liabilities if it they are found to have discriminated.

The problem, of course, is that employers can’t … More ...

The Bush adminstration has warned colleges about campus speech codes, and David Limbaugh says “hurrah!”

What ever happened to the conservative ideal of self-governing institutions? The speech codes I know about are bad, but they wouldn’t be such a problem if the civil rights laws hadn’t imposed affirmative action and so forced a regime of … More ...

The strong Church support for the United Nations and the international human rights movement has always seemed odd to me. The UN and human rights movement want to do more than promote within limits a few universally-recognized goods like peace and prosperity. What they want is to establish an effective system of universal governance that … More ...

Justice Kennedy is no genius, but in Lawrence v. Texas he did make some interesting conceptual moves:

• He cited and relied on the often-derided “mystery passage” from Planned Parenthood v. Casey: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the