CATHOLIC CHARITIES VS. THE POOR. (Haven’t read yet.) Read more

OUT IN THE GREAT WIDE OPEN, REBELS WITHOUT A CLUE: Brink Lindsey has been quoting from Moby-Dick. Besides being intriguing and super-cool, this is also disturbing, because of the sunny conclusions Lindsey draws. Here, Lindsey quotes Ishmael on what Lindsey calls “life’s lack of final answers.” Ishmael writes of his belief in “that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest... Read more

IT’S A NICE DAY FOR A… WHITE MAYOR??? City Paper breaks a string of boring/annoying cover stories with this great look at David Catania’s quest to become D.C.’s first honky mayor. Read it. Read more

YOU MAY NOT BE A CONSERVATIVE ANYMORE IF… A response from Pigs and Fishes. I gotta say, many of these seem like nit-picks or point-scoring to me; my list was an attempt to get at big basic issues. For the record, I didn’t support the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore, but it’s a lot more complicated than you’d expect. I don’t know jack about deficit spending, didn’t follow the Elian Gonzalez case closely but find P&F;’s characterization willfully... Read more

READER EMAIL: WELCH RESPONDS. Welch in bold, me in plain text. He’s responding to this post. * You think free trade is fair trade. YUP * You cheer for Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld. RUMSFELD ONLY, 70% OF THE TIME * You think “caring about the poor” means welfare reform, school vouchers, and volunteering at your local homeless shelter. NO, THOUGH I THINK ALL HAVE THEIR USES [my reply] Oh, sure. I’d never suggest this is an exhaustive definition of “caring for... Read more

WHOA. Regular readers of “The Straight Dope” will realize how strange this column-ending is. It’s from the current column, on suttee. Cecil Adams points out that some Hindus, including women, argue that suttee (widow suicide) should be allowed because it’s an integral part of their tradition. He adds, “Sure, East is East and West is West and all that. (In fairness, it should be said that many Indians were appalled by the whole affair.) The odd commonality–and let’s set aside... Read more

I clambered over mounds and mounds Of polystyrene foam And fell into a swimming pool Filled with fairy snow And watched the blogs turn day-glo… A very funny page: Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About, and more. (Via E-Pression.) Ted Barlow pens a lengthier response to my “You may not be a liberal anymore if…” post. I’ll probably write about this later, and I’ll also post Matt Welch‘s reply forthwith. For now, go read Ted. Oh, and you... Read more

“Okay, Rocky, I never was one to argue with a criminal type.” –Richard Erdman to Dick Powell, “Cry Danger” Read more

MY NEW ARTICLE ON WELFARE REFORM. From the Register. Subscribe today! Read more

“GOODBYE,” SHE LIED. Despite work insanity, I will be posting quite a bit tomorrow. Reader mail, what Brink Lindsey could learn from Nietzsche’s parable of the madman (just wrote “parable of the madam”…), and some thoughts on blogging v. regular-old-journalism. And maybe more. For now, I’ll revisit my “witches for Jesus” post. I’m surprised to realize how few of the books I read as a child were recognizably Christian. Several were straight-up anti-Christian (discussed in the W4J post), but in... Read more