Jane Haddam

A little something for the fourth of July: http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1945/article_detail.asp

Sometimes, no matter what I do, the writing of fiction just does not happen.  Or it happens, but then I throw it all out. It was that kind of day today, and that brings me back to the Puritans. Actually, it also brings me back to the High Middle Ages, but we’ll get to that…

Okay. None of you gets to tell me I’m the only  one who heard that Roberts was writing the majority opinion and thought:  oh, God, they struck down the whole damned thing. I hope I spelled “flummoxed” correctly, because that’s what I am–not over the decision itself, because I never really had any inner sense…

So, I’ve been a little backed up over the last few days.  I’m still reading the Perry Miller, and I’ve run across a reference to something I find completely–I don’t know. Consider Petrus Ramus, which is the Latinized named of a French scholar who lived and worked throughout Europe in the sixteenth century. His first…

Some time back, I was trying to explain something about the relationship between Puritanism, the Enlightenment, and what we now think of as “countercultural” or “progressive” social thought, and I made a mess of it and seemed to be saying that the Enlightenment bred the Puritans. A number of people jumped in with comments that…

Today, work went a little late, and I’m frazzled. So, instead of doing a regular blog post, I give you thing: http://nplusonemag.com/death-by-degrees A link to an article on credentialism from the left instead of the right-ish for once. I’ll admit its conclusion is rather disappointing.  Complicated and sclerotic credentialism systems have risen and fallen several…

Okay, I’ll admit. I was astonished. My fear of writing about abortion has always been a fear of starting a comments war, and instead I got no comments at all. Almost. I assume that means you all think I’m crazy.  But I do want to point out something important–I was being very specific when I…

Every once in a while, I get the idea that I should outline my position on abortion. Up to now, I’ve successfully resisted the temptation. The reason for this is simple–most people, on BOTH sides of the debate, are incapable of discussing the subject, or even considering it, rationally. Positions on abortion are, for most…

So.  I’ve looked over the comments, and they’re interesting in being largely beside the point. But let me get to them. First, Michael gives a disquisition not on the fact that we now live in a world with  no moral consensus but on the idea that somebody wants to do away with all laws and…

So, I’ve been thinking about Mike’s rather cryptic comment yesterday–all abstractions and no particularities. And I have come back, again, to my conviction that what we’re witnessing in today’s society is not an argument over policy, but a breakdown on moral consensus leading to at least two factions attempting to establish THEIR OWN moral sense…