A hundred and fifty years ago, it was common to refer to slavery as “that institution peculiar to the Southern States.” Blacks were considered by some religious “thinkers” to be “the sons of Ham, and therefore born into slavery. Southerners cried to the federal government, and then to the states, to defend this “Godly practice.” [...]
Matthew Avery Sutton writes about the inability of President Barack Obama to gain the goodwill of Evangelical Christians. His conclusion: So what can we do? Pray for the rapture. If evangelicals vanish, the rest of us might finally get better medical care, a healthier environment, a more just international community, and full civil rights for [...]
Yesterday, a facebook friend of mine fired off a message about Ayn Rand’s fictitious example of American Motors in Atlas Shrugged showing how communism defeats personal charity. Several responses flowed to his comment, all of which denounced socialism as being anti-thetical to Christian thought and/or existence. After a bit of thought, I find this to [...]
When I got home today, after picking up my sons from daycare, I was served with two summonses to appear in court on the 21st of this month. I am facing two court cases, one civil and one criminal, for kicking a dog in the park that bit one of my sons. The full story [...]
Wapo asks if Muslim holidays should be observed, we get one of the most asinine answers ever: The question of whether Muslim holidays should be added to public school calendars presupposes that Christian and Jewish holidays are now observed. If that were so, it would be appropriate to add Muslim holidays, and, as Mayor Bloomberg [...]
Short of the universe of the Jabberwock, words have some set meaning. Sometimes they have one denoted meaning and another connotated meaning, but they have a meaning. So I have to take one of my favorite columnists, Gail Collins, to task for this badly worded turn: We hardly need to point out that Ensign was [...]
I think it’s hard for people to think clearly about Palin, for some reason – and I’ll include myself in that. I had never heard of her before McCain picked her from obscurity, but I quickly found her so distasteful that I simply couldn’t bear to hear her speak. But, from the start, she was [...]
It’s all semantics, honestly. The difference between “prejudice” and “bias” is only in intensity. The difference between racism and stereotyping is fairly slight. Which is which is fairly subjective, and thus depends on which side of the judgment someone is on. Bias is derived from French and means, roughly, “slanted.” Generally speaking, it is having [...]
Kathy Kattenburg notes that the debate on torture is a pretty hollow one. I heave a heavy sigh that a debate is needed – and it angers me that a report on its use is even necessary. The truth is, as Kathy’s commenter points out: “You know what, I think fewer people than you realize [...]
