mtpollack

In a recent comment-thread I cited William Voegeli’s opinion that liberalism admits of “no limiting principle” regarding what government can and should do. Indeed, one of our own more liberal commenters assured us not long ago that the bulging Constitutional aneurysm commonly known as the Commerce Clause is, in his opinion, “infinitely elastic”. We will have another test of this shortly, it seems, and not a moment too soon: two important briefs (you can read them here and here ) were filed... Read Full Story

DIVORCE AGREEMENT * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Dear American liberals, leftists, democrats, social progressives, socialists, regressive, Marxists, and Obama supporters, et. al.: We have stuck together since the late 1950s for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this... Read Full Story

Nicholas Kristof weighed in today on the Catholic-contraception kerfuffle, in a Times op-ed piece . Even Mr. Kristof acknowledges that this issue is hardly cut-and-dried. He writes: Look, there’s a genuine conflict here. Many religious believers were sincerely offended that Catholic institutions would have to provide coverage for health interventions that the church hierarchy opposed. That counts in my book: it’s best to avoid forcing people to do things that breach their ethical... Read Full Story

Having just had yet another another arid and pointless dust-up about the Constitution, it seems apt to link to this interesting little art project , which comes to us courtesy of David Duff . Read Full Story

Here’s something for you all to digest . Read Full Story

The Obama administration made an embarrassing political blunder recently when it mandated, with swaggering disregard of First Amendment niceties and pugnacious indifference to the moral teachings of the Roman Church, that Catholic organizations would be required to provide contraceptives to their employees. When Catholic institutions objected, they were told they had a year to get used to it. This not only aroused predictably heated emotions on the Right, but was too much even for many... Read Full Story

Our friend Kevin Kim has written a meaty response to Bill Vallicella’s latest remarks on Dennettian theoskepsis. (The study of religion is Kevin’s academic specialty; and in passing I’ll recommend his book Water From a Skull for those with an interest in the field of comparative religion.) A quibble: in this post Kevin discusses Bill’s dualistic, antimaterialist position on the nature of consciousness, and in doing so skims a little too close, I think, to conflating intelligence and... Read Full Story

This item has left me speechless, so I’ll just pass it along without comment. Read Full Story

The fragrant efflorescence of the Arab Spring is, as the old song goes, “busting out all over”. A particularly lovely blossom is the one we so carefully nurtured in Libya, where, as the Times reports today , the nation is descending into sanguinary chaos. Our love’s labour there is done, it seems; we are busy gardeners, after all, and have other beds to till! How noble we, to share our blessings so! Read Full Story

Two puzzles: NOT SO HARD and YES VERY HARD. NOT SO HARD. Can you think of a food that becomes a synonym for “later” when it’s spelled backwards? YES VERY HARD. I just wrote down a lower-case, seven-letter word–something you might consult with a lawyer about. I realized that if I added to the middle letter just the smallest of strokes, I would make a new word–something you might consult with a doctor about. What are the words? Read Full Story