The Secular Man lives for himself, so there is little he detests more than the idea of duty. Duty comes from things that are higher than oneself. It connects to authority, obligation, necessities laid upon him against his will. As a consequence, the Secular Man also has a complicated relationship with the notion of truth. […]
Joe Doe works as a machinist at a paper mill. He’s fifty-something, hopes to work till he’s mid-60s. When his kids finally moved out on their own, Joe kept driving his old beater car and accumulated a little money in savings. It’s not a fortune, just a few thousand dollars. But he’s been getting basically […]
It’s not often I find myself in hearty agreement with a gay rights activist, but today is an exception. It’s encouraging to find anybody out there who understands that the ongoing social contest about homosexuality has a deeper, underlying meaning that is bigger by far than gay rights. Chai R. Feldblum is an outspoken advocate […]
I was talking to a friend about how state run lottery systems that provide funding for colleges and universities tend to put downward pressure on the academic standards of the schools. When a lottery is begun, it usually results in a big influx of new students. This means the university has to have more classes, […]
Gay rights activists complain of being unfairly judged because, while there are hosts of sins the conservative church could be decrying, homosexuality seems to occupy too much of the church’s attention. Let’s draw a comparison with Islam. The Moslems are saying this also, and Katie Couric is famously getting all huffy and puffy with concern […]
The American Thinker has published an article by Jack Cashill on Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie’s quixotic lurch into the birther controversy. It’s not clear why the governor is doing this, and the Obots have got to be wishing he’d just shut up. Says Cashill, Although the president was likely born in the United States, he […]
The basic idea behind being a conservative is that civilization is built on certain ideas and institutions that need to be retained — conserved. Not everything in our society is good. But the things that are good arose for certain reasons. What underlies the good things should be conserved. Until recently, people in the West […]
The most common lie told at the funeral of a scoundrel is that he had a good heart. Preachers do this when the audience is likely to think the misdeeds of the dead arose from malice. It’s a sort of lame apology offered way after the fact. Audiences generally play along by agreeing that the […]