Same 2-to-1 split. Not the same response. When the one-third minority favors patriarchy, its views are accorded a disproportionate respect -- treated as equivalent to the two-thirds majority. When the one-third minority challenges patriarchy, its views are disproportionately disrespected -- treated as non-existent. Read more
This is not an unusual story. The Indian River district is not unique. So why is it that so many American Christians have become so vehemently disdainful of both the Constitution and the Sermon on the Mount? Why is it that these Very Nice People see their determined embrace of an un-Christian, un-American position as evidence that they are good Christians and good Americans? And how is it that the CHINO majority can bully a single Jewish family into leaving town while simultaneously pointing to that as evidence that they, the majority, are "persecuted"? Read more
"The sun will still rise tomorrow. ... Your mortgage will not grow. You will not have skin diseases or rashes, or toads in your beard, sir. The world will just carry on. So don't make this into a big deal. This is fantastic for the people it affects, but for the rest of us, life will go on." Read more
World-class athletes from all over the globe had gathered in a great American city for a storied competition steeped in tradition, harmony and international good will. And then a madman set off a bomb, killing two people and injuring more than a hundred others. That was in 1996. Read more
The Bennetts, Borks and Bauers define virtue almost entirely as the avoidance of vice. And their conception of vice consists of a rather arbitrary list of no-nos. It is not possible, in their view, for the landlady's lodgers to be "good boys" if they also "gamble, curse, drink, drive to endanger and consort with loose women." For these moralists, good people are, by definition, those who do not do these things. Read more
Regardless of who "you" are, you are responsible. But the nature of your responsibility — particularly in the longer term — differs according to the differentiated responsibilities of the various examples above. These differing responsibilities are complementary. They are not — despite the popular American confusion — exclusive. Read more
Two explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. I'm keeping track of events via CNN, which is reporting two killed and as many as 100 people injured in the initial blasts. They're also saying two unexploded devices have been discovered elsewhere in Boston. Read more
"A Scout is kind" and other, less-heartening, scenes from our ongoing moral panic, including: Bible-thumping; "gay sex makes people explode;" mandatory hiring of Satan-worshipers; legislator surprised to learn "religious" and "Christian" are not synonyms; and a response to David Barton's argument for "just" genocide. Read more
Business reporters and politicians use "tax" and "income tax" interchangeably. Thus today is "tax day." This is a reflection of the economic status of most politicians and of big name reporters and their editors. They make enough money to be a part of the top 3/10 of American taxpayers for whom income taxes are a bigger share than payroll taxes, which take a much bigger bite out of the earnings of seven out of 10 of us. Read more
Jeremiah 22:3 -- "Thus says the Lord: Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor anyone who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the orphan, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. " Read more
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