The Narthex
On California’s Prop 1
An open letter to a public servant regarding a grave injustice
By James Hanink | October 10th 2022 8:31 PMPeople matter first, and that’s always and everywhere true. So I begin with a thumbnail sketch of my neighbor, Alex Padilla. He’s an affable fellow. Gregarious. Even avuncular. Alex is a family man with three adult children. Padilla also holds a key post as a Special Investigator with the Los…
READ FULL BLOG POSTStatesman in the Making
A true statesman cannot allow truth to be the casualty of power politics
By James Hanink | August 17th 2022 1:35 PMUntil a couple years ago, Dan Lipinski settled for being a decent politician. Lipinski, a Democrat, was an eight-term congressman from Illinois’ 3rd district. Plus, he was a political scientist with a doctorate from Duke. Then a pro-abortion candidate defeated him in the Democrat 2020 primary. Money mattered and Lipinski’s…
READ FULL BLOG POSTSchool Choice in Arizona
A new state law gives parents $7,000 per child per year to spend at their school of choice
By Barbara Rose | August 16th 2022 8:48 PMToday Arizona governor Doug Ducey is signing a universal school-choice law that gives parents $7,000 per child per year to spend at any educational institution of their choice, including private schools and religious schools. Catholic schools in Arizona will be among the many beneficiaries of this innovation. In City Journal…
READ FULL BLOG POSTFlaw in Our Law
Our legal system is flawed to the extent that it can't recognize that all human beings are persons
By James Hanink | July 20th 2022 2:43 PMPerhaps you heard the Church of England is mulling its definition of woman. A leading figure in the C of E, Rt. Rev. Robert Innes, reports that “There is no official definition, which reflects the fact that until fairly recently definitions of this kind were thought to be self-evident, as…
READ FULL BLOG POSTNow It's Dutch Farmers
As with Canada's truckers, technocrats in the EU have pushed too far
By Barbara Rose | July 12th 2022 7:15 PMThe latest group to protest faceless and heartless technocratic control is Dutch farmers. According to Joe Barnes at The Age (July 10), huge protests are sweeping the Netherlands "triggered by the introduction of laws designed to cut nitrogen and ammonia emissions by up to 95 percent" in the agricultural sector.…
READ FULL BLOG POSTWhat Dobbs Does & Doesn’t Mean
It's a decent first step, but its reasoning doesn’t allow for the next step
By James Hanink | July 6th 2022 3:32 PMOpinions abound about the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling. Here in California, highly publicized protests feature women carrying signs that read, “Abortion on Demand, without Apology.” Nothing new, only more frantic and furious. On my view, Dobbs is a decent first step. But its own reasoning doesn’t allow for the next…
READ FULL BLOG POSTGiving the Homeless a Hand
'The future will be different if we make the present different'
By James Hanink | May 17th 2022 3:14 PMLast week I visited a homeless encampment. Ted Hayes, a veteran advocate for the homeless in Los Angeles, gave me a friendly walk-through tour. Located close to Venice Beach, the camp was clean and orderly. Ted had invited candidates in California’s upcoming primary election to speak briefly to the question…
READ FULL BLOG POSTQualifications to Lead
Without a vision the people perish
By James Hanink | May 3rd 2022 11:48 AMThe widely read internet outlet CalMatters presents itself as a nonprofit and independent news source. Its mission, supposedly, is to explain California policy and politics. To that end, it offers a “compare and contrast” lesson on the gubernatorial candidates in the June 7th California Primary election. Several candidates have their…
READ FULL BLOG POSTGood News in Yemen
A serious cease-fire after six years and 400,000 dead
By Barbara Rose | April 20th 2022 7:38 PMThe first serious truce between warring parties in Yemen took effect earlier this month. The Yemen conflict has continued for six years and killed 400,000 people, has led to the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and involved the U.S., but American media gave it scant coverage compared to the invasion of…
READ FULL BLOG POSTMiddleton’s Rouseabout
Would we be better off expressing no views at all?
By David Daintree | April 9th 2022 4:10 PMAnybody who writes the odd opinion piece, whether spurred on by momentary outrage at some public or private folly, or just obligated to do so in going about his lawful occasions, runs dry from time to time. Or rather wonders whether there is any point in expressing views at all,…
READ FULL BLOG POSTSacrifice in History
In the affairs of men, little changes unless great masses of us have a change of heart
By Richard DellOrfano | March 28th 2022 2:30 PMThe practice of bloody sacrifice reaches far back in human history. For instance, archeologists recently dug up the bones of defective infants killed in Denmark 5,000 years ago. Perhaps the sacrifice was a primitive stab at eugenics; perhaps there is more to the story. To keep its vast empire intact,…
READ FULL BLOG POSTChristianity & Slavery
Pope Paul III's bull 'Sublimis Deus' was ignored by self-interested men
By David Daintree | March 7th 2022 3:18 PMHypocrisy is the offence that Christians are most often charged with. It is a powerful and effective cudgel to beat them over the head because it appears to be self-evidently true: everyone can give you examples of Christians behaving badly, now and throughout history. The charge is immediately persuasive to…
READ FULL BLOG POSTCordelia and the Animals
The view that animals have as much right to life as humans has deformed our priorities
By David Daintree | February 25th 2022 4:13 PMIn the last scene of one of Shakespeare’s grimmest tragedies, King Lear, by now an old and broken man, weeps for his dead daughter Cordelia:
No, no, no life? Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, And thou no breath at all? Oh, thou'lt come…
READ FULL BLOG POSTTaking Stock
On truth, patriotism, and standing up for freedom
By David Daintree | February 7th 2022 4:34 PMAs we enter the third year of pandemic-driven fear, we need to take stock of the whole range of its consequences: deaths and hospitalizations certainly, but also lives broken by business failures, the cruelty of forcing isolation on dying people, abuse of authority, absurd and scientifically unfounded regulations, the craven…
READ FULL BLOG POSTTwo-facedness
The Australian Open is sponsored by Emirates airline of Dubai, where homosexuality is illegal
By David Daintree | February 1st 2022 1:41 PMTennis Australia celebrated January 24th this year as Gay Pride Day. Australia has changed a lot in the past couple of generations; few now challenge the freedom of LBGT people to celebrate their diversity, and many warmly applaud them and defend their right to do so. But the official sponsor…
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