Monthly Archives: February 2013

We disagree because we disagree

Rod Dreher has some interests thoughts and link roundups to the idea of Natural Law, by way of explaining how non-religious people need Natural Law to construct a rational foundation for ethics. I think Hume is right on this: Reason … Continue reading

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Making Friends and Influencing People

The Indianapolis Star reports: Women obtaining an abortion-inducing drug would be required to undergo an ultrasound before and after taking the drug under a bill approved Wednesday by an Indiana Senate committee. Though the bill doesn’t specify that it be … Continue reading

Posted in law, politics | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Old Nick, Dead Right

Isaiah Berlin on Machiavelli: Machiavelli’s cardinal achievement is his uncovering of an insoluble dilemma, the planting of a permanent question mark in the path of posterity. It stems from his de facto recognition that ends equally ultimate, equally sacred, may … Continue reading

Posted in philosophy | Tagged , | 7 Comments

The End of a “Catholic Moment”?

Ross Douthat mourns (prematurely, I fear) ‘the end of a Catholic moment’: The mid-2000s were the last time the Catholic vision of the good society — more egalitarian than American conservatism and more moralistic than American liberalism — enjoyed real … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Asteroid 2012 DA14

For some reason, the asteroid’s near(ish) miss brought this to mind…

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Ben Carson and neutral principle

A little over a week ago, renowned pediatric surgeon Ben Carson electrified the Right by giving a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast that was widely deemed a critique of President Obama’s agenda on health care, taxation, and stimulus spending.  … Continue reading

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Mass shootings and urban violence

President Obama once again conflated the Sandy Hook massacre with chronic gun violence in last night’s State of the Union speech: in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries have been stolen from our … Continue reading

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Benedict Resigns

Brendan O’Neill (atheist, former altar boy) looks at the pope’s resignation and is none too impressed: Benedict is aware of the crisis of vocation in the modern world, the way in which he what he called the ‘relativist cultural context… … Continue reading

Posted in Religion | Tagged , | 5 Comments

In the 21st Century

A hideous story from NBC: Assailants stripped, tortured and bound a woman accused of witchcraft, then burned her alive in front of hundreds of witnesses in a Papua New Guinea town, police said Friday after one of the highest profile … Continue reading

Posted in culture, Religion | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Nice Try

Well, this made me laugh: In authoring scripture, Origen [an early theologian] argues, God has deliberately planted all sorts of interpretive obstacles: problems, difficulties, mistakes, morally objectionable stories, and so forth. These manifold obstacles lead us to press beneath the … Continue reading

Posted in Religion | Tagged , | 3 Comments