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 [...]
Canada Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has announced new funding of $8.9 million for international abortion organizations. As outlined in this column last month, Trudeau’s core government “foreign policy” was revealed as a threefold, interconnected, abortion platform: feminism and the rights of women and girls; the right to safe and accessible abortion; and, promotion of LGBTQ rights. In addition, Canada’s deputy minister proudly [...]
Black Lives Matter supports abortion, LGBTQ+ agenda Following the death of George Floyd – he died after being arrested for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill and the arresting officer, Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck and back for nearly nine minutes – there were protests, first in Minneapolis and later across the United States and around the globe, organized by Black [...]
The pandemic lockdowns had not been lifted before riots broke out across America, unrest which then spread throughout the Western world. Sparked by the stomach-churning video of a black man being suffocated by a white cop, the fires of outrage which led to these riots have since cooled, and have now become smoldering piles of suspicion. In corporate, academic, political, and celebrity [...]