Recently The Weekly Standard ran an article by Ike Brannon and Benjamin Gitis suggesting that the mortgage deduction was no longer so important as it had been in the past, and recommending instead a program in Wisconsin called WHEDA, which stands […]
Culture
The Motivation of Conservatives and Liberals
In Gareth Cook’s article the psychologist Jonathan Haidt, following Romans 1, suggests that there are five inborn ‘instinctive’ virtues that humans recognize, though they do not always live up to, of course. These are: i. fairness, ii. not harming others, iii. […]
Are Corporations People? Part II
I have another observation to be added to my Corporations post. And it’s kind of a compliment, incidentally, on the work of corporations and business in general in creating wealth. In John 6:15, Jesus, after feeding the five thousand, “knowing […]
Sex-selection Abortion In Asia
The ugly specter of sex-selection abortion is a reality in Asia, and unfortunately not just in China. Modern technology has met old attitudes and made this possible. It is legal here in the USA de facto, but not much practiced […]
The Fate of Planned Parenthood: It Isn’t Just About Abortion
In the last two weeks votes were taken on whether Title X should continue to fund Planned Parenthood’s work in pregnancy prevention, prenatal care, and education. No Federal money, and to my knowledge no state money, funds Planned Parenthood’s abortion […]
Are Corporations People?
The ‘corporation’ has been an item of controversy in the past, and not only on the left. This The Economist article, “Peculiar people,” is a good primer on the issue. I would add that: 1. Most corporations in America are not ‘big […]
Different Kinds of Freedom
Here is a quotation from Aldous Huxley’s 1946 foreword to Brave New World: “As political or economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase. And the dictator (unless he needs cannon fodder and families with which to colonize empty […]
Dear Urban Cyclists: Go Play in Traffic
P. J. O’Rourke has taken off on the absurdity of bicycles. However, there are some people that really need and use them, and I’m thinking of “Los Midnight Riders” from my earlier post. There does need to be some safe […]
The Uses of Classical Music in the Public Square
It turns out that classical music in the public square has a function of value. Adolescents tend to disperse from where it is played, so even such as McDonalds are now discovering the delights of the Western classical music tradition. […]
An Amazing Millay Sonnet
This sonnet by Edna St Vincent Millay has, for some reason, been sitting on my desk for a year or so, and I just found it. Keep in mind that it was written in 1939, thirty years before men actually […]