A pet peeve of mine in discussions which attempt to “weigh” various life issues for their relative importance is when people use quotes from authoritative ecclesial sources which state that “the right to life comes first” in order to argue that abortion is “the most important” moral-political issue for Catholics. One often cited example is a quote from Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, archbishop of Denver, a quote which summarizes very well the Catholic view on the right to life,... Read more
Actually no, but the equivalent: Dick Cheney to speak at the Republican convention. Read more
Today, the National Right to Life Committee released some distressing information about the abortion voting record of Senator Obama. Its summary: Newly obtained documents prove that in 2003, Barack Obama, as chairman of an Illinois state Senate committee, voted down a bill to protect live-born survivors of abortion — even after the panel had amended the bill to contain verbatim language, copied from a federal bill passed by Congress without objection in 2002, explicitly foreclosing any impact on abortion. Obama’s... Read more
Former Senator and 1972 Democratic Presidential nominee, George McGovern, has in recent years become something of a liberty loving fellow. In his most recent column, he writes about the so-called “card check” legislation currently pending in Congress that would do away with secret ballots for union elections: As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending legislation I see as a disturbing and undemocratic overreach not in the interest of either management or labor. The... Read more
Human beings are animals—but is it true? Are human beings really animals, grouped within a specific genus and delineated as a particular species? If we accept the commonly held distinction between “inanimate” and “animate” organisms, then we have no choice but to affirm that human beings belong to the latter. But this classification is not without its problems. Above all, this seeming truism is misleading, not due to its immediate and veracious content, but due to its impoverishment. It simply... Read more
From USA Today: Q: Could hostilities here affect U.S. military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan? A: Georgia’s president said Friday he is bringing home the 2,000 troops it had stationed in Iraq. That is a significant blow to coalition forces because Georgia was the third-largest contributor of troops behind Britain and the U.S. Read more
Nate was one of the founding contributors of Vox Nova; here, in an informal conversation, he offers some insightful comments on issues which continue to be discussed on our blog. Part I (more…) Read more
As we noted back in May, Bolivian president Evo Morales faces a country-wide referendum that will decided if he should remain in power. Political rhetoric is extremely acrid in Bolivia right now, though early indications seem to suggest that Morales will win today. NPR has a good write-up. BBC highlights the rich-poor divide. I’ll have updates later in the day. UPDATE (6:30pm CST): Polls are closed in Bolivia (not Peru), and we are awaiting the results. UPDATE (8:00pm CST): The... Read more
The passing of Alexander Solzhenitsyn affords opportunity to reflect on one of the greatest lives of the bloodiest of centuries. The Independent, which conducted his last print interview, is right in its characterization: rebel, prisoner, poet and hero. The heartbreaking accounts of Stalin’s labor camps will be remembered as among the most profound works of modern literature. Robert Conquest, a poet and historian of communism, places him in the company of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Tolstoy. He made history through... Read more
Politicians and politicians’ advisers…just as susceptible to the sins of lust as the rest of us. Perhaps more so. The question that Jack Cafferty poses is: Is John Edwards’ political career over? Well, we certainly have a range of precedents by which to judge. (more…) Read more
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