The New Republic

What more is there to say in the Great Gay Marriage Debate? (Start here for my first post. Then go here and here for Rod's responses. READ MORE >>

I don't expect very much from movies. Most are mediocre, falling far short of quality entertainment, let alone art. For the most part, the mediocrity doesn't disappointment me because great art is always rare, and it makes no sense to hope for more from movies, especially when commercial considerations exert so much pressure on those artists who work in the (extraordinarily expensive and technically complicated) medium of film. (Not that READ MORE >>

Those of you who spend all of your time on the left side of the blogosphere have missed the right's recent and ongoing display of indignation at the decision of the University of Notre Dame to invite the President of the United States to deliver its commencement address this spring. READ MORE >>

Rod Dreher has now written two responses to this post of mine, on what I called his (and, more broadly, the social conservative right's) "fixation" with homosexuality -- and in particular with the possibility that being gay may come to be widely READ MORE >>

I like and respect Rod Dreher. We've known each other for a long time and gone through some spiritual trials together. And for the past few years I've read his Crunchy Con blog nearly every day, appreciating his honesty and learning from his fresh take on a wide range of social, cultural, and economic issues. READ MORE >>

Charles Murray's recent Irving Kristol lecture at the American Enterprise Institute, titled "The Europe Syndrome and the Challenge to American Exceptionalism," has been extravagantly praised by conservatives. READ MORE >>

You know that proposal in Connecticut, now tabled, that would have forced the Roman Catholic Church to turn over its governance in the state to boards of Catholic laypeople? As Walter Olson points out, some theocons have (surprise surprise!) been using the controversy over the bill to rally the troops:  READ MORE >>

Allow me to echo the sentiments of my TNR colleagues Christopher Orr and Isaac Chotiner in praising the New York Times's choice for its new conservative op-ed columnist, Ross Douthat, who will take over the READ MORE >>

Right-wing Catholic intellectuals like to claim that the Vatican's absolute opposition to abortion (and homosexuality, and contraception) is grounded in something called "natural law," a body of moral principles that are accessible to all human beings through both reason and conscience. Because these principles can be known by all of us, regardless of our theological convictions, they are supposed to be binding on all of us. READ MORE >>

Roger Kimball has been a strident, highly polemical right-winger for a long time. But he's also very smart and highly literate. He writes with authority about art and philosophy, literature and politics. He knows a lot about history. And the quarterly he co-edits with Hilton Kramer (The New Criterion) has published erudite commentary and criticism on culture and the arts for more than a quarter century. READ MORE >>