In that uniquely American comedy Ghostbusters, the womanizing, semi-serious scientist played by Bill Murray tries to get his mind around the moral magnitude of his crew’s city-saving mission. “I’m fuzzy on the whole good-bad thing. What do you mean ‘bad’?” he asks his nerdy... Read More →

What if we could know—perhaps through a prophetic vision or an exquisitely refined predictive algorithm—that a particular human fetus developing in the womb of a particular abortion-seeking woman would, if rescued from prenatal death, grow up to be a source of human misery on a... Read More →

  When he was in high school, my eldest son was assigned Jonathan Edwards’s famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He was to compare it with a sermon of his own choosing—one his deeply Calvinist teacher might expect him... Read More →

Psalm 83 For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant (83:5).    “Conspiracy theorist” is a term thrown about much these days, usually to belittle those who believe that sometimes people engage in, well, conspiracies.... Read More →

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! This day brings fond memories of many happy celebrations at the McFadden’s New York City apartment, which was next to the parade route. My parents welcomed family and friends for what was truly a multi-cultural event: German food, because my Dad’s mom was... Read More →

Welcome to Insisting on Life, where I will be greeting you weekly with news, commentary, great links and special guests. The name is the title we gave to our collection of essays by the late, great journalist and Review contributor Nat Hentoff, whom we honored in 2005 as our... Read More →