This is slander, and bad journalism. I suppose this arises, though, from the same febrile imagination in which Pope Francis is a liberal (news flash, folks: liberalism is about individualism, not "big government"), and in which Catholics have always known "where the boundaries were, and "respected the rules of the game" (dude, read some history! Or at least some Rabelais). Read more
The horror of tyranny is not that it makes everything political, but that it strips us of our freedom to be political in a healthy way. Read more
We don't have Mary. The men have her, neatly fossilized in pink-and-white statues, silent, subdued. Read more
But these are only dreams. They are good dreams to have, because they should leave us perpetually discontented with misrule and violence, looking askance at the rulers we actually have, eyeing their frailties with a laugh. Political caricature is the flip side to the dream of the just ruler: none of the actual leaders we have, even the best, can measure up to our longing. Read more
I am not going to use this space to debate questions about hierarchies of rights, personhood or lack thereof, or whether "equality" is even possible. I am just going to hold these two beliefs here, together, and notice that neither of the existing mainstream movements that address abortion does sufficient justice to both. Read more
Do you get this? Sexual assault is just being "mean and bullying." Objecting to it is just being "sissified." We really ought to control our feelings more, when men come up and grope us. Let's see that feminine genius for submission, ladies! Read more
You think a few Supreme Court appointments will result in overturning Roe v. Wade, or Citizens United (free political speech for incorporated groups), or Obergefell v. Hodges (right to same-sex marriage), or Heller v. District of Columbia (individual right to own guns)? That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works. Read more
But do women deserve to be forcibly groped because they read a book about sexual abuse? Do you honestly think people enjoy stories because they want to experience, in reality, what the stories portray? I guess all the men who got their macho tingles from watching "Braveheart" are just longing to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. Read more
Here’s my issue with Trump; he’s actually proposed banning a religion. He incoherently implied he might like to database them, survey them, and keep a close eye on their mosques. Read more
Look, if your only two categories are "saint" and "non-saint" - and if everyone who isn't a saint can just be lumped together in one group (kids who cheat on tests, moms who hit wine-thirty an hour early, hired assassins, convicted pedophiles) - then your moral framework is just plain laughable. Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas are rolling their eyes in paradise. Read more
suspended in her jar
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