Yes well, as I said "evolution is a one way street." A telos, as you put it. So yes, it makes sense that the this most recent upsurge in tribal thinking would be tenuous. I also agree that the "cracks in the clouds," if you will, showing up so soon is an interesting twist. To [...]

It’s interesting to see you say that “The fight over the Bolton nomination has broken down along party lines.” George Voinovich of Ohio is a Republican. So is Lisa Markowski (AL). Voinovich broke with his party to demur on a vote for Bolton. In the aftermath, other Republican committee members took pains to soften their [...]

This week has been a week of tribalism. The fight over the Bolton nomination has broken down along party lines; the schism over judicial appointments deepened as Vice President Cheney threatened to make maximum use (some would say abuse) of his powers as President of the Senate; the Catholic Church, with eyes wide open, chose [...]

That’s right. We’re going to try something new this Sunday, April 24th, 2005. While George Stephanopolis, Tim Russert and other pundits weigh in on the Sunday talk shows, Michael and I are going to produce and publish M4L’s Sunday Talk Blog. Topics have yet to be decided, but will probably cover the recent rise in [...]

Thank you once again, Molly Ivins. For those of you who don’t know of or haven’t read Ms. Ivins’ political op-ed columns from the heart of Texas, you are missing a treat. She’s intelligent, erudite, witty, astute, and a lot of other things I’d like to be as I grow older. She’s also got a [...]

The story I’m about to tell will cause most of you to shake your heads in disbelief. Some of you will laugh, and wonder. A select few will understand, because your lives are all about this kind of faith-based weirdness. It all started in March, when I found I needed to walk away from the [...]

I’ve had 24 hours to ponder the new papal appointment. And I’ve got some fresh (I hope) insights. As I indicated yesterday, I’m not overly dismayed by Pope Benedict XVI (hereafter known as B16). I do find it entirely possible that he’ll usher in the inevitable backlash against conservatism that much more quickly. I realized [...]

Well, it’s official — and I’ve been trying to get in to post something new here at Blogspot for hours now, so I’m not the only one who cares — the Catholics have a new Pope. The Princes of the Catholic church, in their infinite wisdom, elected a Vatican hard-liner and archconservative to lead the [...]

I spent an hour or so this morning contemplating the relationship between A and B. As in IF A THEN B. IF I save a certain amount of money for the next twenty years of my working life (A) THEN in twenty years I will have enough money in my IRA (or whatever) to retire [...]

I had to read these words three times to make sure I wasn’t missing something: “I happen to believe that the death penalty, when properly applied, saves lives of others. And so I’m comfortable with my beliefs that there’s no contradiction between the two.” — George W. Bush After the 3rd read-through, I realized I [...]