Let’s apply Just War Theory

September 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

As Congress and the nation as a whole decide on whether to attack Syria, let us take up the exercise of applying the guidelines for starting a “Just War,” according to Christian ethicists going back to St. Augustine.

The criteria are listed after the jump.  How would they apply to the current proposal to use cruise missiles to punish Syria for using chemical weapons?

Even if a war would be just by these criteria doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a good idea, but let’s see to what extent these ancient principles can offer guidance in a contemporary problem. [Read more…]

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Boy Scout dissidents form alternative organization

September 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Now that the Boy Scouts of America have accepted homosexuality, veterans of the scouting movement have announced the forming of an alternative organization:  Trail Life USA.  [Read more…]

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“Pontification, Prevarication and Postponement”

September 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Foreign affairs columnist Anne Applebaum (who is not a conservative) on our current international relations debacle:

The central problem of the Obama administration’s Syria policy is not that the president has failed to use military force but that both the president and his top officials have implied that they might use force, then backed away, then once again picked up the rhetoric. To put it bluntly, President Obama has also failed to understand the ways in which an American president’s words will be interpreted around the world. [Read more…]

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“So what’s your name and preferred gender pronoun?”

September 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

According to a new code of etiquette, it’s not enough to ask someone’s name.  You also need to ask, “what’s your PGP?”  That is, your “preferred gender pronoun.”  The choices may be “he” or “she” or “they” or the newly-coined “ze.” [Read more…]

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So how do contraceptives work?

September 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Pro-lifers are told not to worry about the morning after pill, as mandated by Obamacare.  It doesn’t work by preventing the fertilized egg from being implanted in the womb, though that was how it used to be described.  It simply prevents ovulation, just like a regular birth control pill.  (Though how it prevents pregnancy the morning after ovulation has occurred is not clear.)  See the facts cited and the links given in our discussion of the Morning After pill on this blog here and here.

But when pro-lifers promote measures defining “personhood” as existing from the moment of conception, we are told that this would outlaw contraception, including the birth control pill, which–though we were always told it prevents ovulation–prevents the fertilized egg from being implanted in the womb.  (Example after the jump.)  If that’s true, many women would not want to take the things.  But that’s not what they have been told about how they work.

Is this dishonesty, rhetorical manipulation, or ignorance?  And what should we conclude about contraception from this controversy? [Read more…]

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It’s looking bad for Obama’s war vote

September 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Pretty much what I predicted is unfolding in Congress.  The growing consensus among both conservatives and liberals that attacking Syria is a bad idea should be celebrated as an instance of bi-partisanship, of once polarized factions coming together over foreign policy, a sign of national unity.  Too bad the President and the Democratic and Republican leadership aren’t part of it. [Read more…]

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