Author Archives: Heather Mac Donald

Self-help in Harlem

I’m no fan of the death penalty, having concluded that its massive costs outweigh its obvious justice and that its deterrent effect is next to nothing, given the decades-long due process gauntlet that the courts have imposed on its exercise.  … Continue reading

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Magical thinking watch: the social engineering strain

Westchester County in New York just settled a lawsuit charging it with not building enough subsidized housing for minorities.  Announcing the settlement, HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims observed that studies show that zip codes can predict life expectancy and illness, … Continue reading

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Meanwhile, over in Taiwan

While the Ficarra town fathers wait to see whether the Virgin will respond to their lotto hopes, and believers elsewhere pray for a reduction in their credit card debt  (I have witnessed this), devastating typhoons pummel East Asia.  “How dare … Continue reading

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Pascal’s Wager

Piling one irrationality onto another, the town fathers in the Sicilian town of Ficarra have collectively invested in Italy’s $165 million lottery: ”We chose numbers which were connected with the town’s patron saint, the Virgin Mary of the Assumption,” Mayor … Continue reading

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The Mysteries of Faith

A xeroxed announcement appeared in the mail room of my Manhattan apartment building a while ago: “Our Lady of Fatima Visits Our Parish.”  The notice had a photo of one of those creepy painted sculptures of Mary with oversized, tear-encrusted  … Continue reading

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The Evolution of God

I have been reading in Robert Wright’s The Evolution of God. Lucidly written and cockily iconoclastic, it contains many mischievous pleasures. Wright rehearses the patent inconsistencies among the four gospels regarding the circumstances of Jesus’ birth (he is obviously not … Continue reading

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Take that, Francis Collins!

I was listening with equal parts fascination and incredulity to Christian radio KBRT 740 am this morning while driving back from the pool.  The topic on today’s segment of “Defending the Truth”: the self-delusion of “progressive creationists” and “theistic evolutionists”—those … Continue reading

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Mark Twain on God’s love

I recently read Mark Twain’s brilliantly acid Letters from the Earth, written in 1909, a year before his death.  I highly recommend it.    Satan visits the earth and sends back dispatches to his fellow archangels about humans’ conception of God, … Continue reading

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Beer Summit Theology

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. concluded the Beer Summit on a far more gracious, even presidential, note than President Obama.  Gates had the courtesy to acknowledge, however belatedly, that “police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day.”  … Continue reading

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Christian radio and moral decisions

I have been listening with considerable enjoyment to Christian radio, mostly KBRT, which is preset in the car I have been driving in Los Angeles.  Despite having wasted my college education on deconstructionist literary theory, I nevertheless still believe in … Continue reading

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