at AmCon–on race, power, being a good neighbor & being a good newcomer: But nuisance and an easy remedy are not enough to justify dialing 911 in an age of police brutality. Calling the cops is not guaranteed to be best for our block. After all, is the very real risk of undue escalation—even violence—worth it to turn off music? To catch the originator of that weed smell? To address a housing code violation, like unshoveled sidewalks or trash strewn... Read more
A while ago I wrote this ironically-distanced post about how one might defend the all-male priesthood on feminist grounds: I think a feminist Catholic could legitimately say that women are already treated as available, as disposible, even as Kleenex. A woman priest, therefore, would just be a cliche. Of course a chick is here to serve you! That’s not radical at all. A male priest is new and different and needed–a radically disposible male, not a female. A man-Mary, whose... Read more
makes an increasingly-important point: “If you wait until puberty has got a little way along, a fair proportion of the children change the clinical presentation and feel more like straightforward lesbian and gay kids,” said Barrett. “They don’t seek social role change any more and will end up with no need for lifelong medical intervention, surgery and with no loss of natural fertility should they want children.” more. This article notes the limits of the studies we have about kids... Read more
this is the very first thing that has ever made me wish I had a smart phone: Many recent multimedia projects have tried to present a “then and now” look at different cities by mashing up current images of buildings and streetscapes with historical visuals like old film footage, 18th-century paintings, or classic album covers. Now, an app called Pivot wants to do the same but in real time, offering an instant time portal right as you’re walking down the... Read more
In order of when I saw them, so this will get whiplashy. Me Without You: Brutally disappointing. The bait: Two girls forge a best friendship (YES) in the late ’70s/early ’80s (YES) complete with druggie punk adventures (YES!) and talking about finding their “soulmate” while using their feet to share a cigarette (YES!!!!). One of them is even Jewish!! The switch: Joke’s on you, gen-X lesbian, their friendship is holding them back and it falls apart in the face of... Read more
I feel v. old telling you to go to MTV for hard-hitting statistical and political analysis, but this is our world: What if the core of the Black Lives Matter movement is based on a lie? What if there is no racism involved in police killings? Harvard economist Roland Fryer Jr. has come out with a headline-grabbing study about police shootings: a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that arrived with a write-up in the New York Times‘... Read more
at First Things: Coppage Did you have prayers that you were relying on? Fr. Bazi My prayer was on the chain itself. How much I hated that chain, because they tied me. I used to pray by that chain, pray the rosary. With much praying I became calm. I really became stronger, sometimes I was aggressive with them. When they asked me questions, sometimes I was laughing, I asked them, “What kind of stupid question was that?” Sometimes I felt... Read more
with five things: The first time I got drunk, I was embarrassing. I was 17 and sloppy, grabbing other people’s beers to finish the dregs, kissing randoms. I rode the subway home in the morning feeling incredible—feeling new. My ridiculous and pathetic behavior was transformed into a kind of success. Now that was a party. A decade and a half later I started to read about other people who’d had the same feeling: like falling in love, but also like... Read more
together! The third season of Bojack Horseman arrived the same day the long-awaited Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie opened here in D.C. So audiences who want to watch appetitive people careening through aimless lives have two starkly opposed portrayals of antiheroes who gobble drugs and guzzle booze, corrupt minors, and abase themselves for fame and maybe kill people. AbFab is the simpler pleasure. The movie plays like an extended episode of the TV show, in which lifelong best friends—neurotic Edina (Jennifer... Read more
your joke here! But no, this article from early July is a good basic starting point: Is it possible to be a sophisticated psychiatrist and believe that evil spirits are, however seldom, assailing humans? Most of my scientific colleagues and friends say no, because of their frequent contact with patients who are deluded about demons, their general skepticism of the supernatural, and their commitment to employ only standard, peer-reviewed treatments that do not potentially mislead (a definite risk) or harm... Read more
Eve Tushnet
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In