Paul Berman Should Not Fear Tariq Ramadan.
Paul Berman’s enormous 28,000-word essay about Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan is a must-read. Berman’s intellectual goals are most laudable – against terrorism and for universal human rights. Unfortunately, I fear his essay is incomplete where it is not unfair, unfair where it is not dishonest, dishonest where it is not incomplete.
...read moreThe John McCain Campaign Death Watch Begins.
Politico won’t quite come out and say it, but the McCain campaign is beset and a Campaign Death Watch is in order. The linked Politico mention goes to comments that his immigration bill, which just met its current demise in the Senate, was antagonizing Republican primary voters. But his problem is much bigger than his [...]
...read moreThe Rejection: The Magic Kingdom’s Carousel of Progress.
It hurts me to say this because Walt Disney World holds a landmark place in my heart. But the Carousel of Progress, in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World, is watchable only as an artifact of an American narrative we no longer want to tell. Queue up and watch the 21 minutes [...]
...read moreThe Endorsement: Starbucks’ Madeleines.
Sublime little sponges of mass production baking genius from Starbucks are giving me the mens rea for gluttony. The mug shots are below:
...read moreRenewing the Craig v. Boren Strategy for Hate Crimes, or Why Tucker Carlson’s Stupidity Must Be Confronted Head On.
On May 14th, Joe Solomonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign, paid a visit to Tucker Carlson’s MSNBC show to talk about HR 1592, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007. Here is the transcript of the show. In it, Carlson makes the conservative case against hate crimes laws generally. Solomonese (and [...]
...read moreThe Teacher as Advocate.
A recent return to my old high school yielded the belief that public school teachers, already burdened with unforgiving hours, pressures, and low salaries, might also be an untapped resource of effective social advocacy.
...read moreResponding to Raising Children in Our Way-Past-Gender Society.
In this post I respond to the comments to Raising Children in Our Way-Past-Gender Society. I found them to be better building blocks in the conversation than my own first guest post.
...read moreRaising Children in Our Way-Past-Gender Society.
I consider traditional concepts of gender to be destroyed, social constructions that, if imposed, limit human freedom. And yet, when I think about raising children (Mikey wants to be a daddy someday), I am hopeful for a wife fluent in the language and practice of traditional gendered womanhood (just as I think I am fluent [...]
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In Which He, Fatefully, Returns to Gender.
My first two notes about the intsersection of parenting and gender revealed that I was typing out of my depth. I would like to try one more time, having read all of the comments and thought some more about it, if only to try, try again. After my first post, there was a commenting consensus [...]
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