Friday Night Jukebox
True confession: While everyone else seems to love them, I just don’t get The National. They sound like R.E.M., but mopier. Does R.E.M. really need to be mopier? But then, they’re not really my...
Daily Archive: September 17, 2010
The Scapegoat Principle
I’d like to expand on a comment I made below, which is likely to get lost as such comments often do. Will floats a precautionary argument against same-sex marriage. If we grant same-sex marriage,...
The Precautionary Marriage Principle
My views on marriage are pretty unformed, but – given the recent Sullivan-Douthat exchange – I thought I’d try my hand at explaining the type of secular, prudential argument against gay marriage that makes...
Compassion & Knowledge
Good grief, but this is some extraordinary writing from Ta-Nehisi Coates: For an African-American like me, the upshot of all this gorgeous writing is bracing–one is forced to behold beauty in those who saw...
Douthat Responds to Sullivan on Gay Marriage
Pretty powerful stuff, even if you don’t agree with his conclusion, and by far the most persuasive prudential case against gay marriage I’ve encountered. Read the whole thing.
Subsidiarity Requires International Institutions
If you’re Catholic or interested in subsidiarity, the idea that social problems should be addressed at the most local or immediate level possible, you might find Mark Shea’s recent article on why it’s only part...
