THOMAS F. BERTONNEAU writes:

Peter S. approvingly quotes Carl Ernst on the urgent “task” of contemporary Islamic studies, which is none other than “to humanize Muslims in the eyes of non-Muslims.” Ernst – and, as we may assume, Peter S. – can only be of the opinion that Westerners chronically and habitually dehumanize Muslims, but this is an absurdity. On the contrary, Westerners have romanticized Muslims since the eighteenth century, and Western elites are even more prone to such romanticism today than their bien pensant precursors were three hundred years ago. In evidence I cite the never-ending palaver about “the religion of peace” that President Bush II inaugurated within days of 9/11. (more…)

ALAN ROEBUCK writes:

Peter S. desires to counter the demonization of Muslims and Islam. But this demonization is at most a peripheral point. The basic problem with Peter S.’s essay is that he fails to acknowledge that Islam is both a false religion and a comprehensive sociopolitical threat. That being so, he is most concerned that we treat Muslims fairly, even if it means that we lower our guard against their manifest threat.  (more…)

  MUCH OF the inspiration for this website comes from my own happy childhood. Here is a photo of me from my days as a scheming, plundering, lawless barbarian. Not long after I became a mother 22 years ago, I made an unsettling discovery. Childhood is fast disappearing. It is not the same cultural institution it was when I was young. For one, it is not conducive to the sort of reckless abandon, the freedom from constraints within the confines of unwavering structure, that I knew. Travel along the streets near my home, and you will see. There are no children outside playing. I spent hours outside, a suburban anarchist plotting for the overthrow of boredom, reveling in the scent of boxwood and rotting crab apples, making little puddings and stews from mud and berries. I spent hours playing inside too, endless idle, exhilarating hours as a strict mother forcing vegetables on her dolls or a debutante attending balls or Anne Frank in her bedroom. I even pretended to be a cashier at a grocery store, such was the variety of interesting roles to play. Whatever I did, there were always other children to play with and to be annoyed by, with mothers nearby to disobey or subvert. Childhood has changed for many reasons, and there are far more serious issues than the lack of time or opportunity for children to play in an unorganized and unregimented fashion. Some of the change has been brought on, as Neil Postman argued, by the sheer…

    IN 2007, all Boy Scout groups in Britain were ordered to accept girls. The result? The boy scouts are now becoming the girl scouts. A majority of new recruits are girls. When a traditionally male activity is opened to girls, it instantly becomes less appealing to boys, no matter how much pretense there is of preserving its masculine nature. That is a law of life. That law will never change unless science turns us into androgynous robots. In order for masculinity to survive in any meaningful cultural sense, there must be groups that are strictly all-male.

  WHEN AN atheist law professor in Australia burned the Koran last year, it did not make for an international sensation. Alex Stewart was, however, suspended from his job and expected to lose his position. At that time, Catholic Bishop Michael Putney, who chairs the Australian committee for ecumenism, said: "[Mr Stewart] has caused pain in people and may incite anger in people and I don't think that's ever acceptable. That reminds me. What is an ecumenist? An ecumenist is a deist in religious garb. He's someone too lazy or too fearful to take his own professed beliefs seriously.

VAN WIJK writes:

Peter S. wrote: “The God of Deuteronomy is, of course, none other than God the Father, the first Person of the Triune Godhead. Although this same God is – on the basis of repeated Koranic insistence – the God Muslims understand themselves to worship, nothing of this severity appears in the Koran, which, on the contrary, bears injunctions against aggression in war and towards the cessation of conflict.” (more…)

D. FROM SEATTLE writes:

Peter S. wrote a long essay, but salvation is not necessarily found in so many words. I will pick just a couple of paragraphs to which to respond. 

Peter: “As for the meaning of such an act of desecration to Muslims, the burning of the Koran is not equivalent, in a Christian context, to the burning of the Bible, but rather to the immolation of Christ himself. (more…)

PETER S. writes:

In the preface to the Islamic scholar Carl Ernst’s valuable book, Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World, he makes an astonishing statement:

 [T]he task of Islamic studies could.be described as minimal.  In 1992 I participated in a workshop discussing images of Islam in America.  The educational goal that we finally settled on in the workshop was very basic: to convince Americans that Muslims are human beings.  This might sound like an absurdly simple point, but the Islamic religion is perhaps the one remaining subject about which educated people are content to demonstrate outright prejudice and bias.  Ten years later a workshop on critical issues in Islamic studies came to the same conclusion, but more forcefully: the real issue is to humanize Muslims in the eyes of non-Muslims.  [p.xvii]

In this, as might be judged by many of the recent statements on this blog, he would appear to be entirely correct.  (more…)

THE MOTHER of the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams was a niece of Charles Darwin. Vaughan Williams was seven years old when Darwin’s Origin of Species was published. One day the child asked his mother what the famous book was about. According to an anecdote I heard on the radio yesterday, his mother replied: “The Bible says the world was created in seven days. Uncle Charles thinks it took a lot longer. Either way, the world is wonderful.”

If you have never listened to Vaughan William’s beautiful meditation on a bird rising to the skies, “A Lark Ascending,” you can listen to it here.  Vaughan Williams was said to have been inspired by George Meredith’s poem To A Skylark:

O skylark! I see thee and call thee joy!
Thy wings bear thee up to the breast of the dawn;
I see thee no more, but thy song is still
The tongue of the heavens to me!

Thus are the days when I was a boy;
Sweet while I lived in them, dear now they’re gone:
I feel them no longer, but still, O still
They tell of the heavens to me.

(more…)

JANE writes:

This is a sad story! I’m sending it to you because of the “perfect girl” angle – plasma physics, mentoring other girls, sax player, in the marching band no less – almost a caricature of what I imagine the typical elite college resumé to be – and yet, somehow, someone with long hair allowed near a lathe! Sad. (more…)

IN SOME segments of the economy, women are earning significantly more than men. What will feminists do now? Rest assured, it won’t involve advocating for men. From an editorial in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal by Carrie Lukas of the Independent Women’s Forum:

Tuesday is Equal Pay Day—so dubbed by the National Committee for Pay Equity, which represents feminist groups including the National Organization for Women, Feminist Majority, the National Council of Women’s Organizations and others. The day falls on April 12 because, according to feminist logic, women have to work that far into a calendar year before they earn what men already earned the year before. (more…)

RESPONDING to this post on cultural attitudes toward pregnancy, Sarah writes:

I agree with Mr. McNeill that pregnancy ought to be accorded honor. However, I do not think that maternity bikinis are the way to recapture its lost honor.

In the 1950s, pregnant women wouldn’t dream of baring their midriffs or conducting nude photo shoots. They wore modest clothing, and generally eschewed the word “pregnant” in favor of the more ambiguous “expecting.” And yet, the world treated them with great deference and respect.

Today, on the other hand, one sees pregnant women exposing themselves on magazine covers, talk shows, or Facebook. And now the world treats them with absolute wretchedness. (more…)

CONTINUING the posts on my Easter menu, I offer this excellent recipe for French rolls by Fine Cooking magazine. It is the best recipe for rolls I have made (and I have made quite a few.)

First a few words about the all-important, pressing subjects of cookbooks, cooking magazines and culinary knowledge. As I say below:

 My own personal philosophy of cooking is that the purpose of any given culinary effort is not the immediate meal. It is the knowledge and closeness gained. Regardless of the outcome of cooking efforts, every experience in the kitchen results in knowledge – knowledge of our materials – and an intimacy with these materials, which are the intriguing and unassuming products of nature and human artifice. The cook is scientist, craftsman and lover of woods, fields and factory. Also, a cooking experience is a thinking experience. Though Plato had insulting things to say about cooks, contending they could never attain philosophical excellence, we do in our own way possess the philosopher’s gift of time for meditation. The hands work in concert with the mind.

(more…)

GEORGE S. writes:

Economist Bryan Caplan has written a book called Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids. This is pro fertility by a college professor.  Actually one of his reasons for more kids is to produce a libertarian baby juggernaut. He says he wants to,

3. Increase the frequency of libertarian genes – and the long-run prospects for liberty.  Genes have a strong effect on political views.  So assuming libertarians are right about policy, increasing the frequency of libertarian genes is good for the world.  It will take a few centuries, but libertarian natalism is one of the least unrealistic paths to liberty we’ve got.

Laura writes:

Libertarians will not create any baby boom. They lack the philosophical premises, Caplan’s arguments aside. (more…)

IN 2007, the Welsh singer Cerys Matthews performed this lovely version to harp accompaniment of the traditional Welsh hymn Calon Lân. Here is an English translation:

I don’t ask for a luxurious life,
the world’s gold or its fine pearls,
I ask for a happy heart,
an honest heart, a pure heart. (more…)