Slavery is bad, not 'traditional', behavior

At Instapundit: concern about the Saudis' penchant for 'bad press'.

John Finnis on religion and the state

Professor Rick Garnett at Mirror of Justice commends to our attention John Finnis's essay "Religion and State: Main Issues and Sources".  I've read it, and sixty percent went swiftly over my head: but with some work maybe I can acquire some of the true science it...

Dutch government proposes to ban face veils in public places

The Dutch minister of immigration and integration, Rita Verdonk, proposed today officially to the Council of Ministers that the wearing of the niqab, or face veil, should be outlawed in public and semi-public places; the Council of Ministers voted to accept the proposal,...

Milton Friedman, champion of freedom

Nobel laureate Milton Friedman has died; Mr Eugenides posts a wonderful passage of his, and links to the Wikipedia biography.  His autobiographical essay at the Nobel Prize for Economics website is here.  Requiescat in pace.

'Don't forget Julius Nyerere'

Nelson Mandela of South Africa is already, in that vague secular sense, 'canonised', a 'saint' of the late 20th century.  Martyn Drakard at MercatorNet reminds us about a man whose causa is actually opened by the archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam, Cardinal Polycarp Pengo:...

Mr Khatami on civilisation

Dr Anne Bayefsky on former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, one of the principals of the recently concluded meeting of the U.N.'s Alliance of Civilisations:What do the members of the "high level group" who drafted the report, such as former Iranian President Khatami, have...

"Academic veneer to the old isolationism"

I hope that Mr Bush is hearing quite clearly from those who have been his staunchest supports these five or six years: 'realism', or 'neo-realism', that is code for cooperation with Tehran and Damascus is suicidal at worst and, at best, represents the laying aside of the...

Another response to Professor Kaveny

Gregory Sisk, professor of law at St Thomas University, responds also to Cathleen Kaveny's thèse distinguishing the 'practical reasoning' and the 'prophetic' forms of discourse about the place of morality in U.S. politics and her preference, in current circumstances, for...

The Supreme Court and the partial birth abortion ban

Professor Ilya Somin at Volokh Conspiracy yesterday, with my emphasis:... I should note that Solicitor General Paul Clement was right when he responded to Justice Ginsburg's questioning by noting that the federalism issue had not been raised by the parties to the case. Nor...

Mark Steyn's America Alone

It will be a few weeks before I get to Mark Steyn's America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It; this review, by Jeremy Rabkin, professor of international law at Cornell University, in the Weekly Standard, is the most substantial which I've seen that is both sympathetic...

Cathleen Kaveny at Mirror of Justice

Professor Cathleen Kaveny, who teaches law and theology at Notre Dame, gets to the heart of the matter, I think, in her post at Mirror of Justice (with my emphasis):He [Michael Scaperlanda, to whose post here she is responding--MP] is quite right to point out that my response...

'Gay parade' in Jerusalem becomes 'rally' in university stadium

The 'gay pride' parade, the prospect of which in Jerusalem had raised such violent opposition from the radical Orthodox, and opposition also from Muslims and Christians, including the Holy See, has been converted into a rally at the Hebrew University stadium, according to...

No progress in Oaxaca, alas

From Oaxaca, the penultimate post from Mark in Mexico, as of this writing; scroll up for yet more farce.  I suppose it is a much better thing, farce, than people being shot and injured: but it does very little to assure me of an eventual resolution of the catastrophic...

Post-election irenics

Professor Richard Garnett at Mirror of Justice, 'amending', in a 'friendly way', Professor Cathleen Kaveny's post at Commonweal, with my emphasis: We should not forget that culture-war rhetoric, a "Manichean world view," and a "take-no-prisoners-and-admit-no-doubt strategy"...