As expected, the U.S. Women’s National Team won the Women’s World Cup. As also expected, members of the women’s team, led by chief spokeswoman Megan Rapinoe, were known as much for their politics as for their play. Rapinoe got it going with her comment that she wouldn’t visit the “f–ing” White House if she was … Read more
Among all the quickly produced denunciations of the Covington Catholic students, the condemnations from fellow Catholics and fellow pro-lifers were perhaps the most disappointing. Covington Catholic High School and the Diocese of Covington quickly put out a statement saying: “We condemn the actions of the Covington Catholic High School students towards Nathan Phillips specifically, and … Read more
Some weeks ago, I spent a few days in downtown Salt Lake City. This bastion of Mormonism is probably not the first place one would think of when considering the plight of the homeless, but nonetheless they have their share. Across the street from my hotel was a McDonald’s. Venturing to the fast food establishment … Read more
By now most people have seen the videos on YouTube. An agent provocateur ventures to a college campus and asks students if someone with male chromosomes and genitalia is a woman if s/he claims to be a woman. The students uniformly accept that the person is whatever gender they claim. Then the provocateur asks the … Read more
Consider the life cycle of the penguin versus that of the sea turtle: Penguins only lay one or two eggs per year. They take very good care of their young, devoting much effort to making sure that the eggs hatch and that the little penguins remain safe and warm. The idea is to have few … Read more
In a recent episode of the podcast Freakonomics, Dr. Atul Gawande contrasted the adoption rate in the 1800s of two new technologies: anesthesia and antisepsis. An anesthetic gas, which could be used in surgery, was discovered and first used in Boston, and “…within two months of publishing the result that a gas could render people … Read more
If you had James Franco in your office pool as the next Hollywood mogul who would be accused of sexual misconduct then, congratulations, you win! Five women, in interviews with the Los Angeles Times, accused Franco “of behavior they found to be inappropriate or sexually exploitative.” About the allegations, Franco said on the Stephen Colbert … Read more
The truth doesn’t have a side. That thought came to me while re-watching To Kill a Mockingbird. To view this 1962 movie is to be taken back to a time and place that was black and white in many senses of that term. The story takes place in the South in the mid-1930s, when movies … Read more
Question: What do the push to admit those with irregular marriages to communion, the effort by Fr. James Martin to bless same-sex relationships, and the movie Silence have in common? Answer: They all assume that the demands of Christianity are too hard for ordinary people to live out. In the movie Silence, which is based … Read more
The bishops of the United States roundly condemned President Trump’s new plan to possibly end the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in six months unless the Congress passes legislation to authorize the program. (Trump is only possibly ending it since he tweeted later that he will revisit the issue if Congress does not make … Read more
To: All Google Employees From: Unoi’m Carasee, Vice President of Mutually Exclusive Propositions Subject: The Recent Outrage Dear Google Employees: In light of the horrific assault on Google values recently made by a former employee, we feel it is necessary to add a few further propositions to the official Google List of Mandatory Beliefs. In … Read more
Every year, Amazon releases several pilot episodes for different videos that they may later make into a series. This year, one of the Amazon pilots is a show called Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Looking at the description (a housewife decides to become a stand-up comedian and achieves great success) it seems to be based roughly on … Read more
On April 12, the attorney general of California, Xavier Becerra, said that North Carolina will remain on the list of states to which California employees may not travel using state money. The reason for the ban is simple: California wants you to know how virtuous it is. In other words, the state is virtue signaling. … Read more
Why is the U.S. Department of Justice—which one assumes deals with evidence all the time—so adamantly opposed to evidence regarding transgendered status? In the “Dear Colleague” letter that was jointly issued by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice, it is clearly stated that asking for evidence of transgendered status is … Read more
As the recent Starbucks red cup dustup shows, boycotts and rumors of boycotts will always be with us. It seems like there never really was any active Starbucks boycott over the cups, and one wonders if the whole thing was simply a public relations ploy. However, there are many actual current boycotts. A quick search … Read more
When Rick Santorum recently appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show, the host spent quite a bit of time during the interview trying to pin down Santorum on the question of whether sexual preference is an immutable characteristic. Maddow: Can I ask you if you believe people choose to be gay? Santorum: Ya know, I’ve sort … Read more
Why did same-sex “marriage” (SSM) activists focus only on gay marriage and not bring along polygamy for the ride? The arguments that apply to SSM certainly apply to polygamy, but with even more force. Consider that one of Anthony Kennedy’s arguments in favor of recognizing SSM was that there is a stigma attached to same-sex … Read more