The Neoconservative Case for Porn
Boonton tells me that I have misread Bret Stephens: Matthew opens his attack on Stephens by making a red herring out of his argument. His argument is that America’s committment to freedom includes both...
Monthly Archive: April 2010
Porn, again
A quick follow-up to the surprisingly popular mini-post on porn. Granted, apocalyptic predictions of pornographically-inspired sexual violence aren’t very accurate (hat tip to commenter Plinko for the second link), and I also think that...
Pornography & Liberty
After several detours of bad logic around the most unmissable facts, Bret Stephens reaches this conclusion: If America wants to tilt the balance of Muslim sentiment in its favor, it needs to stand up...
“Of all the people in human history who ever reached the age of 65, half are alive now.”
Read more here, via Marginal Revolution.
Why porn is bad for you
Two recent articles on the downsides of pornography – including one from a wronged spouse – are worth reading.
Think of the (non-existent) children!!!
Via the Economist, The Tokyo municipal government is now considering extending their child pornography laws to protect “non-existent minors” in order to fight child porn in manga, anime, and video games, following a precedent...
Pope Benedict and the Legion of Christ
Over at True/Slant I begin to lay out what I see as an emerging narrative of Pope Benedict (both as pope and as Cardinal Ratzinger) as the reformist waging an unseen war against an...
For Paternalistic Libertarianism
Jason has already mentioned the excellent Cato Unbound discussion on libertarian paternalism, but here’s another provocative question on the subject: Why not use “nudges” to reduce government intervention?
When Parmenides met Socrates
Parmenides clearly had an influence on Plato. The assertion that we live in a world of appearances, which gives the illusion of change and difference that Parmenides thinks are impossible, makes its way into...
In Praise of Finger-Wagging
Does Tiger Woods matter? Robert Wright, who is no social conservative, has a piece at the New York Times suggesting why the Tiger Woods story matters, and why moral rebukes of Woods (like this...
The Costs of Paternalism
Glen Whitman is the lead essayist for this month’s Cato Unbound, and he offers some challenges to the “new” or “soft” paternalism. This isn’t the paternalism that forbids you from doing what you want...
What will it take for people to get worried about our civil liberties?
“[George W.] Bush merely imprisoned Padilla for years without a trial. If that’s a vicious, tyrannical assault on the Constitution — and it was — what should they be saying about the Nobel Peace...
Bookless Libraries
Allow me to disagree with those who agree that the disagreement between Jason and me, which was more an agreement, was not useful or instructive. Ahem! (Note: I can’t promise this will be interesting…)...
Which one is it?
I’m afraid I’m intruding on Daniel Larison’s beat here, but the latest from National Review really highlights the disconnect between two competing critiques of Obama’s foreign policy. First, here’s Rudy Giuliani’s unhinged take on...
New Blog Announcement
Today is the Launch Day for a new website Scott and I (Chris) are working on. Have no fear, we are not leaving the beloved League. The name of the site is Beams &...
The Surge – it worked!
A pretty fair-minded assessment from Abu Muqawama: If you want to argue that getting involved in Iraq in the first place was a stupid decision, fine. I agree with you. But trying to argue...
The Other Tournament
Unsatisfied by First Things’ Tournament of Novels? The Morning News put on a similar tournament of books published last year. The only entrant I’ve read happens to be the winner, but Wolf Hall was...
Not too late!
My belated entry in the influential books game: Christopher Alexander, A Pattern Language – There are people for whom this book is a Bible. Alexander’s “patterns” — normative statements about how we should build...
