Book Review By Paul Tuns The Wit and Wisdom of Father George Rutler, edited by Edward Short (Sophia Institute Press, $19.95 USD, 352 pages). I have long been a fan of Fr. George Rutler’s writings, being most familiar with his work in Crisis magazine. Fr. Rutler radiates both erudition and spirituality, so it is hardly surprising that he is both Ivy League [...]
What is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense Sherif Gergis, Ryan T. Anderson and Robert P. George (Encounter, $24, 136 pages) In 2013, Sherif Girgis, Ryan T. Anderson, and Robert P. George co-wrote a brief book, What is Marriage. Last year, the book was re-released and rightly so. Although the book was originally released during the height of the same-sex "marriage" debate [...]
From the editor's desk I’ve often said that when it comes to euthanasia, in our current legal and political climate, “safeguards” is just another name for discrimination. If the state tries to protect minors or people suffering from mental illness or non-terminally ill individuals by outlawing a lethal procedure that might be imposed upon a highly impressionable person or to [...]
Canada CTV News reported that Nancy Russell, a 90-year-old nursing home resident in British Columbia, was killed by euthanasia because she did not want to go through another COVID-19 lockdown. It was the second known Canadian case this year. Russell was not chronically ill nor dying. CTV’s medical correspondent Avis Favaro reported that during lockdowns, long-term care residents “eat in their rooms, [...]
Interim writer, Josie Luetke , Talk Turkey By Josie Luetke Being somewhat of a political nomad, I was eager to read James Mumford’s Vexed: Ethics Beyond Political Tribes, published just this year, precisely because it seemed it would affirm my choice of wandering in the (metaphorical) wilderness rather than buying into one of the flawed “package deals” on offer by [...]
Interim writer, Rick McGinnis, Amusements By Rick McGinnis The term “social media” wasn’t in widespread use over 10 years ago, when I started writing this column. Back then we still worried about television and the general amount of “screen time” our children were spending on increasingly smaller and less expensive devices. Re-reading my old columns, like almost every exercise in [...]
By Paul Tuns Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World by Tara Isabella Burton (PublicAffairs, $35, 320 pages). We are told, by pundits and polling data, that fewer people are practicing any religion in the West, and the secularization of America is happening at an ever-quickening pace. Recent surveys show that “religious Nones” — those who do not adhere to any [...]
By Paul Tuns One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger by Matthew Yglesias (Portfolio, $37, 267 pages) Matthew Yglesias is a policy wonk and political commentator for the left-wing Vox website. His new book, One Billion Americans, could have been a good and important contribution to American discourse, adding to the dearth of serious, or at least ambitious, ideas. Yglesias makes [...]
By Paul Tuns The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties by Christopher Caldwell (Simon & Schuster, 2020, $37, 342 pages) Christopher Caldwell should not be anyone’s idea of a right-wing extremist. He is a columnist for the centrist Financial Times and has contributed to the right-of-center Wall Street Journal and increasing left-wing New York Times. His c.v. includes titled positions at [...]
The U.S. election is about many issues including the fitness of the two major candidates to lead and the president’s handling of the pandemic and the economy. A major difference between the parties and presidential candidates is their approach to abortion, which would have been important to many voters but will have a higher profile and could become the issue of the [...]
The annual Fr. Ted Colleton Scholarship and essay contest, sponsored by Niagara Region Right to Life and promoted by The Interim newspaper is being offered once again. The essay component for the 2020-2021 edition of the contest reads as follows: Why has the womb, traditionally the safest place in the world, become the most dangerous, unprotected place in the world? Niagara Region [...]
The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite by Michael Lind (Portfolio, $34, 203 pages) In 1941, James Burnham wrote an international bestseller, The Managerial Revolution: What is Happening in the World. Even then, Burnham found that the age of capitalism and bureaucracy was being replaced by a group of managers. Michael Lind, a conservative (early 1990s) turned liberal (mid-1990s) [...]
Paul Tuns, Editor of The Interim Newspaper By Paul Tuns American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup by F.H. Buckley (Encounter, $31.99, 170 pages) F.H. Buckley is a Canadian-born law professor whose star has risen as a pundit since the election of Donald Trump four years ago. He is a prolific author and his latest book is American [...]
Social conservatives prove to be MacKay's albatross The two pro-life candidates, Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan, won more than a third of the points in the first ballot, more than twice the support than the two pro-life candidates—Pierre Lemieux and Brad Trost— won in 2017. Erin O’Toole defeated Peter MacKay, the presumptive front runner, on the third ballot. The leadership race for [...]
After what seemed like an eternity – both the seven-month campaign and the six-hour wait for the results to be announced on August 23 – the outcome of the Conservative leadership campaign should not have been a surprise, even if some of us were. The “natural” strengths of Peter MacKay never materialized as he did not win Quebec as expected, his victories [...]