Author Archives: Heather Mac Donald

The logic of belief: the Palin version

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Heather Mac Donald

Sarah Palin loves God. God loves Sarah Palin. And that is why they hate her…and Him. And why she — and He — will be back. From God and Sarah Palin. So if they didn’t love each other, they’d both … Continue reading →

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Year One: Better than the Creationism Museum

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Heather Mac Donald

I cautiously recommend Year One, the Jack Black comedy about the early chapters of the Old Testament.  Granted, my frame of reference is exceedingly narrow, since I am only interested in comedies these days and see very few of even … Continue reading →

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Exhibitionism: more universal than faith

Posted on July 12, 2009 by Heather Mac Donald

Why else would contestants volunteer for this Turkish atheists-convert reality show: to prostrate themselves several times a day at Mecca just for the thrill of it?

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Right-wing identity politics

Posted on July 10, 2009 by Heather Mac Donald

Victor Davis Hanson hits hard at Sarah Palin’s liberal attackers today, launching the usual and undoubtedly often justified accusation that they have been driven to a state of frenzy by her anti-elite lifestyle.  But Hanson, for whose intellect, learning, and … Continue reading →

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Religious Right crack-up continues

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Heather Mac Donald

Now it’s Sarah Palin’s turn.   That icon of right-wing identity politics, revered for her populist authenticity  and lack of any taint of elite intellectualism, shows herself either to be involved in an as-yet-to-be-revealed scandal, or so nakedly ambitious that she … Continue reading →

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Enough already

Posted on July 1, 2009 by Heather Mac Donald

Where did Mark Sanford get the idea that he needs to reveal every last excruciating detail about his nauseatingly irrelevant love life–from his pastor, in some sort of open-yourself-to-Divine Forgiveness ritual?  Or is he just drunk with the false martyrdom … Continue reading →

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Not the usual political prayer venue

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Heather Mac Donald

Mark Sanford occasionally visited a secretive Christian boarding house for politicians  in Washington, reports the Washington Post.   Coincidentally, no doubt, fellow adulterer Nevada Senator John Ensign also lived there with a few other politicians.  A rival minister now charges that the house … Continue reading →

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Mark Sanford’s Thought for the Day

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Heather Mac Donald

“God moves in mysterious ways.” I would like to think that most people, even Republicans, wallow in sex scandals just for the sheer voyeuristic fun of destroying a politician’s career for no particular reason other than that one can.   For … Continue reading →

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Sounds like some Iranians we know

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Heather Mac Donald

Rabbi Leib Glanz, a leader in New York City’s Hasidic Satmar sect, told a meeting of New York Democrats last year that he saw God’s hand in the elevation of David Paterson to the New York governorship following the fall … Continue reading →

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Knowledge and happiness

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Heather Mac Donald

Writer Christopher Benson reviews The Wreck of Western Culture: Humanism Revisited, by John Carroll, in the Weekly Standard.  The book, which I haven’t read, appears to lodge the familiar conservative attack on the alleged pretensions of secular humanism to improve … Continue reading →

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