Dead

Joseph Bottum on the historical collapse of mainline protestantism in the USA. The most interesting parts is how a dying religion turns into politics, and how politics becomes the substitute religion.

Foggy Bottom

Some people say the U.S. State Department is about to make yet another major blunder. Same conclusions here.

All forgotten

A piece on Catholicism in Australia. At least the writer goes beyond the usual liberal cliches by recognizing that there is a deeper problem. Except it gives it the wrong name: he says the question is Catholic "identity" while the problem seems to be, quite simply, Faith.

Back to reality

Today Tom Friedman is disgusted. The only good thing can come out of Zimbabwe is putting an end to some of the lingering fantasies of the 1960's (the neat division of the world between evil colonialists and good anti-imperialist fighters).

Interesting data

Some say that McCain could make inroads with hispanic voters by supporting school choice.

Apparatchik class

What Dalrymple writes about the psychiatric system in the UK,applies very well to many state universities in the US, where the administration is dominated by highly political PhD's in education who are interested in many things but certainly not in education....

Lowest of the low

The NYTimes magazine" has a long piece on demographics.

New elites

Goldman Sachs is taking over the country (says David Brooks).