Category Archives: politics

Judge them by their actions

Recently on bloggingheads.tv Michael Brendan Dougherty, a professing Catholic, suggested that anti-Catholic movements in 19th century America had a point. In this Dougherty seems to be aligning with Ross Douthat’s implication, that American reaction drove American Catholicism to counter-reaction, and … Continue reading

Posted in culture, politics | Tagged , | 19 Comments

Bracing vs. insipid

Kingmaker: Why Sarah Palin’s Endorsements Really Are That Big A Deal vs. Romney’s Problem in a Nutshell. I estimate that Mitt Romney’s IQ is around two standard deviations above Sarah Palin’s. That’s democracy.

Posted in politics | Tagged , | 12 Comments

There is no prophecy

Posted in data, politics | Tagged | 4 Comments

Why Obama is likely to be privately irreligious

The heritability of religiosity is modest in the American environment. In some environments, such as Saudi Arabia, a normal range in variation in religiosity obviously can not express itself. But under more relaxed conditions it seems that around half of … Continue reading

Posted in culture, politics | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Obama’s Religion

I had a go at this topic in last week’s Radio Derb: . . . there’s been some shock and horror expressed at the finding by a Time magazine poll that 24 percent of Americans think the president is a … Continue reading

Posted in politics | 7 Comments

Obama the Muslim (2)

Over in the Corner, I take a look at some smart commentary on the Obama-is-a-Muslim poll findings.

Posted in politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Wisdom in Wisconsin

Good news from the Wall Street Journal: Wisconsin is pushing to expand a controversial program that uses federal Medicaid funds to provide free birth-control pills, vasectomies and other forms of contraception to low-income people, an effort made possible by the … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

The historical uses of relativism

Since Andrew noted a revision of the name for the “Cordoba House,” I thought I would discuss something which has alway bothered me: the perceptions of Muslim Spain by both the opponents and proponents of the project. The opponents argue … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged , | 10 Comments

About That Mosque (2)

New York City mayor Bloomberg receives praise here in the usually hostile Village Voice for his stance on the planned “Ground Zero” mosque. As he is in favor of letting it to be constructed (as am I) that’s not altogether … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged , | 1 Comment

About That Mosque

When Barack Obama says this, he is, of course, quite right: But let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. … Continue reading

Posted in politics | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments