Monthly Archives: February 2010

Angie Jackson tells us that “You, too, can have an abortion if you want one”. And she ends with “Have a great and godless day”. Her motivation was not to inform people about anything. Rather, she used the pretext of being informative for no other reason than to flaunt the fact that she is going through an RU486 abortion. Whatever else is true, Angie Jackson should not be the spokeswoman for the pro-choice movement. Why, Angie Jackson does not have enough intellectual horsepower to be the spokesperson for herself, let alone a social movement. Continue reading →

So we have Charles Rangel using his position as Chairman of the powerful House tax writing committee using in his position in obviously inappropriate ways. And then we have Nancy Pelosi showing him unequivocal support. This is a brazen show of indifference to moral appearances. In particular, what is made manifestly clear is that individuals are much more committed to maintaining power than doing what is morally right. I hold the following very simple principle: It is impossible to be a morally decent person and, at the very same time, be indifferent to how things appear. And so the utter indifference to appearances that we are seeing on the part of politicians reveals the depth of moral corruption that exists among them. Continue reading →

One does not have to believe that women should be kept barefoot and pregnant in order to grasp that there is an extraordinary majesty to motherhood. I believe no such thing. I have never believed such a thing. Yet, I regard motherhood as a tremendous gift. Likewise, I have enormous respect for women who have excelled in roles that do not pertain to mothering. Indeed, I am entirely at-ease the mother and the brilliant female research scientists. Just so, my enormous respect for each woman flows from two very different sources, just as my enormous respect for a male fire fighter and a male professor flows from two very different sources. I can see marvelous moral equality in all of these. It is such a pity that Professor Elisabeth Badinter cannot. Continue reading →

Once upon a time, the idea was that adults were models for maturity of judgment and measured behavior—especially teachers. The very idea was that children growing up learnt how to behave not simply by what they were told to do but also by the kind of behavior that they witnessed on the part of adults. Adults were the standard-bearer of reasonable behavior. And certainly there was the idea that teachers were. Clearly things have changed. And this change does not bode well for our society Continue reading →

The bigot is bad. But we know in the first place not to put our trust in a bigot. A friend who betrays us, by contrast, has exploited the vulnerabilities that are part and parcel of being the object of another’s affection. The appearance of good has been the platform for the so-called friend doing harm to us. This scars us in a way that a racial epithet from a known bigot cannot possibly scar us. Continue reading →