Cantankerous Anti-Birthers

My sainted mother (1911-2003), a woman of old-timey Southern graces, was wont to smooth down the edges of her expostulations; e.g., “If it’s not one ‘d’ thing, it’s another!” With embedded “d” or not, I never have diverged much from that magisterial judgment on the human race’s...
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Dobbs v. Jackson: Folly—and Furor

Every day, the beneficence and wisdom of our public “expert” class look less beneficent, and certainly less wise. There’s Covid; there’s public schooling and job opportunity; there’s race relations; there’s government spending. To which well-known topics, let’s join abortion and...
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Photo 122977863 / Chinese Countryside © Michel Arnault | Dreamstime.com

The Wages of Population Meddling

“When will they evvvvv-er learn?,” as Peter, Paul, and Mary used emotionally to warble, to the accompaniment of guitars. Probably never. Meddling seems woven into the human character. But watching the meddlers squirm and slap their foreheads, as in China and elsewhere, can be fun...
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How to Assess the 2020 Election

  I’m just coming off a long Andrew Sullivan blog post, and I beg my gentle readers not to think less of me for poking into the thought processes of a writer who is not, by general definition—or for that matter his own—the hottest new pledge bro for Knights of Columbus. I...
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HOT TOPIC: THE CITIZENS JUST GET ON WITH IT

      You can tell we’re getting restless — twitching and twisting and otherwise maneuvering ourselves into the familiar postures that characterized life, say, last January.  We’re homesick: sick of being at home and making allowances for spouses, children, boarders, ...
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HOT TOPIC: WILLIAM MURCHISON “BY THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH”

        I am finding people, in their common befuddlement, being just people; carrying on friendly conversations with strangers in the check-out line — while observing a prim and proper 6-foot distance;  entering or re-entering relationships based on the common peril (or...
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SYMPOSIUM: Could Abortion Ever Be “Unthinkable” Again?

INTRODUCTION Needless to say, we are at an intense moment in the history of the pro-life movement. Although there is fervent new reaction and commentary every day in the press, we think it is also a moment to take a deep breath and reflect on some fundamental questions:  Why is...
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Respect for Abortion Victims in Texas

Great is the fury of the pro-choice community. And wouldn’t you be riled, too, if the State of Texas (or any other governmental entity, for that matter) had undertaken to train an unflattering spotlight on your philosophical premises? That’s what Texas’ new requirement for...
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Sorry, Mrs. Clinton

  Yeah, of course I’d visit with Annemarie. I didn’t know her, but I knew her parents. We’ve long been members of the same Episcopal parish. She was interested in journalism as a career. She hoped to ask me some questions (as if an old warhorse from the...
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As in Britain, So Over Here

The president of the “Texas Nationalist Movement,” picking up on the precedent set by British voters, desires that the Southwestern empire where I make my home hold its own vote on seceding from the top-heavy politburo that seems to run America. Good luck on persuading the U.S....
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