The excellent guest post at Simcha Fisher’s blog about the experience of being a Catholic woman in an abusive marriage provoked a heated discussion among several of my online friends. What is the good solution to this problem? Sometimes there is not a good solution. I’m as prone to, “If we just did ___” thinking as anyone else. Because I’m from Gunlandia, when I read about a domestic abuse victim shot at a school, my instant reaction is: What an injustice... Read more
Here is what I find most amusing about the reactions to the Pence Anti-Adultery plan: It turns out the people who ordinarily believe that it is both impossible and undesirable to refrain from intercourse out of wedlock are, in the case of the sitting Vice President, certain he must be an exception to that rule. Ordinary mortals have no such capacity for self control! They’d be harmed by trying, and anyway it wouldn’t work! But either they know Mr. Pence... Read more
In reaction to the proposed Republican repeal of the Affordable Care Act, some have asserted that the only way to provide health care coverage to the poor is via an insurance mandate and a single-payer system. I don’t believe that’s true. There are no doubt other good solutions, but I’ll toss out an idea for a system that conservatives could love. #1 Cut the cord between employment and insurance. Employer-provided health insurance stifles the labor market. It leads to underemployment... Read more
In discussion online recently, the topic of child welfare came up. Question of the day was, “How do we provide adequate state supervision in order to ensure parents aren’t using homeschooling to cover up abuse or neglect?” My answer: State supervision doesn’t work. It does not work in foster care. Here we are speaking of the most extensively state-supervised family population in the nation: Sally Schofield, the foster mother of Logan Marr, was found guilty June 25 of wrapping the... Read more
This article from The State newspaper came to my attention this morning. It concerns a proposed law that would, its opponents say, make it easier for developers to build on wetlands and other protected areas. I haven’t researched the law, so I’m not writing on the particulars of it. Like many conservatives, I’m generally in favor of less bureaucracy rather than more. Like many conservative conservationists, I don’t automatically fall in with every single “green” idea heaped on the environmentalist... Read more
If you want to understand where America stands, pay attention to the Super Bowl half-time show. I mean this from a purely sociological standpoint. My reasoning: The Super Bowl is the single event that unites the entire country. It transcends race, gender, social class, politics, religion and every other divide. The Super Bowl is considered family viewing. The people who put on the Super Bowl have a vested interest in maintaining this peak spot on the cultural mountain as the one... Read more
. . . consider calling Sean O’Halloran. I rarely blog about it, but a few readers know that I sometimes take on private writing or editing projects. Most recently I got to work with Sean O’Halloran from SO’ Creative on a film project for a small parish group. We were both working pro-bono — he did the filming, I was the primary author on the script. Lesson learned: This is a guy you want on your short list. He doesn’t monkey... Read more
The other week a friend was sharing in a private discussion group about how her child was being bullied over at the local public school. She asked for advice and prayers, then added, “I’m hoping we can get financial aid for Catholic school for next year.” That comment caused another member of the group to say, “You know, it was at Catholic school that I was bullied all those years. I begged my parents to take me out, but they... Read more
Here’s the difference between President Trump and the March for Women: Trump has asserted that a man should freely gratify his lust. If you’re interested, just step on up and get something going. The March for Women takes it one further: If necessary, a woman ought to be free to kill for that same right. Neither of these are going to make America great. Trump’s personal modus operandi — infidelity, serial marriage, promiscuity — is the root causes of American societal... Read more
Monday morning, MLK day, I was loading the car in a hotel parking lot when gunfire erupted in the distance. The shots were irregular – one, and then two, and then a pause and another one . . . perhaps seven shots in total. The hotel was more like a set of small apartment houses clustered around the pool; sound bounces off houses deceptively, so that all I could know is that the shots came from ahead or beside... Read more
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