TWE

"In Rockport, Mass., a chaired professor of economics at Harvard, Martin Weitzman, was charged with larceny after a farmer said Weitzman has long been trespassing and hauling away manure for his own nearby farm, thus denying the farmer his market price of $35 per truckload." Couldn't

The San Francisco Chronicle has a favorable review of Bob Avakian's From Ike to Mao and Beyond, the memoir of a recalcitrant Marxist. According to the Chronicle, the book "leaves a breathtaking impression. Having deepened and purified his convictions over 40 years of personal and political struggle,

Regular readers have no doubt picked up on the general subject matter of this blog: things religious and cultural first, things political where the religious and cultural bleed into politics second (maybe even third or fourth). Thus, readers rarely see straight-out political commentary, like the Bolton nomination issue and the

Let's hope fundamentalist Mormon missionaries don't make progress in this place: > [Marital] abductions are common here. More than half of Kyrgyzstan's married women were snatched from the street by their husbands in a custom known as "ala kachuu," which translates roughly

> One of the most populous Catholic countries in the world is set to significantly liberalize its laws on family planning and "reproductive health" services, stopping just short of outright legalization of abortion. > The proposed legislation, which is likely to pass within months, sets in place a

South Park slayed us last night. We realize that describing a TV show loses a lot in the translation ("I guess you had to be there"), but we'll give it a shot: The theme revolved around surgical alterations: a white boy who likes basketball wants to

> Five men, ranging from an atheist in the pornography trade to a former Protestant paramilitary, have found their lives unexpectedly transformed in the latest incarnation of reality television - the monastery. > [T]he five underwent a spiritual makeover by spending 40 days and 40 nights living with Roman

> On Sunday, more than 1,000 people are expected to gather for a “family picnic and protest” outside Focus on the Family. On Monday, they'll return to “take the truth about our families directly to Focus on the Family, holding hands as we walk through their building

"If you do not wish to become angry, do not be curious. If you ask what is being said about yourself and uncover unpleasant words (even though these words were said privately), you only make yourself unhappy. "Those who are wise overlook many wrongs and often do not

The May 23, 2005 issue of The American Conservative has an extensive cover story by Matthew Scully about cruelty to animals. It's a compelling philosophical analysis of how we should look at animals from a conservative perspective. We'd provide excerpts, but the software version of TAC