Free Republic

When is it right to go to war? How should war be waged? The Church in the Middle Ages developed a complex doctrine of the Just War, which is still of philosophical interest today. The source of many of these ideas was St Augustine, but his ideas were refined and extended by mediaeval philosophers and theologians, most famously in Thomas Aquinas' essay De Bello. According to the Just War doctrine, waging war was justified if and only various conditions were met. The exact number and nature of those conditions varies from writer to writer although there is a great deal...

Tout se complique. The strident obstructionism of France and Germany, and their attempt to lead an insurrection within NATO against the use of Western force against Saddam Hussein, even to the point of violating the treaty commitments of the alliance to the security of its own members (in this case, Turkey)--this is a genuinely momentous turn of events that should not be understood merely as a comedy of national character. The petulance of these European states seems farcical, but in fact it is the expression of a profound historical transformation. It is not clear that the Europeans are entirely cognizant...

If I were Blair, I would be feeling really rather grateful to the French. Until this week, he has faced a British press that has been exceedingly liverish about the war in Iraq. The Daily Mirror is against; the Independent faint-hearted; The Times uncertain; the BBC riddled with doubt. General after general has stood up to warn against the rashness of the enterprise. The bishops are leery in the extreme. Women are said to be against any belligerence, and upwards of half a million people, including some of my closest friends, will join the march on Saturday to hear Tony...

Maybe invoking the name "Christopher Reeve," or some other sick or injured celebrity, doesn't always end a debate, after all. The New Jersey state assembly was all set to pass an unprecedented cloning bill on Monday (more details here). Masked as a cloning prohibition bill, the legislation would in fact have made it legal to clone a human embryo, implant an embryo in a womb, and let a baby be born (though they would not use those words) — so long as the clone would be killed sometime during the newborn stage, its parts used in the pursuit of medical...

his column won't be about stem cells, but if stem cells are what you're looking for, check out the rest of NRO. We have more stuff, from more impressive people, than anyplace else on the web or on paper. You can even find, if you're interested, my own meager contribution to our NRO stem-cell symposium. And if that moral dilemma isn't your cup of tea, there's still the ongoing brouhaha between Stanley Kurtz, Jonathan Rauch, and others on gay marriage. But I'm here to tackle another vexing moral question. And, no, it's not "How can Jonah look at himself in...

"Not one nation," he began, as if reciting line by line, and at the same time still looking menacingly at Stavrogin, "not one nation has ever set itself up on the principles of science and reason; there has never been an example of it, unless perhaps only for a moment, out of foolishness. Socialism by its very essence must be atheism, because it has precisely declared, from the very first line, that it is an atheistic order, and intends to set itself up on the principles of science and reason exclusively. Reason and science always, now, and from the beginning...

In 1987, a movie about a psycho-slut played by Glenn Close caused married men across America to think twice about unzipping their pants around strange women. Nobody in his right mind wanted to end up like the Michael Douglas character in "Fatal Attraction." His sins, indeed, found him out. In a strange and twisted way, this film was redemptive – though I don't think it was intended to be. It caused men to appreciate their wives again. It made them think twice about cheating. It reminded them there are always uncalculated costs to such affairs – however fleeting and consensual...

A marriage crisis is hitting thousands of men in parts of rural India which are running out of potential brides. The traditional preference for boys instead of girls has led to widespread abuse of modern pre-natal scans. The technology should protect the health of mother and baby. But, wrongly used, it is a death sentence for unwanted girls. The practice of determining the sex of a foetus and aborting girls is illegal, but widespread. The worst affected states, such as Haryana and Punjab, now have some of the most skewed sex ratios in the world - and the proportion of...

More on Illegal Abortion Myths By Dr. Frank Beckwith Anyone who keeps up with the many pro-choice demonstrations in the United States cannot help but see on pro-choice placards and buttons a drawing of the infamous coat hanger. This symbol of the pro-choice movement represents the many women who were harmed or killed because they either performed illegal abortions on themselves (i.e., the surgery was performed with a "coat hanger") or went to unscrupulous physicians (or "back-alley butchers"). Hence, as the argument goes, if abortion is made illegal, then women will once again be harmed. Needless to say, this argument...

Overseas tourists are trying to book trips to Middle Earth without realising the destination is fictional, a holiday website has found. Places featured in the Lord of the Rings book trilogy and two films directed by New Zealand's Peter Jackson, such as Mordor and Rivendell, have become popular holiday search terms on internet search site Yahoo Travel, staff at the site say. Mordor is the stronghold of the forces of darkness and Rivendell is the elves' picturesque refuge in a deep valley near the Misty Mountains. Yahoo.co.uk travel producer Morgan Williams said it was interesting to see the effect certain...

Something is missing from Human Cloning and Human Dignity, the report of the President's Council on Bioethics: recognition of the harm reproductive cloning would do to the structure of the American family. The omission is remarkable because this is surely one of the strongest arguments against cloning. Human Cloning and Human Dignity has been widely lauded for its fair and thorough coverage of the arguments on both sides of the cloning issue. The report even says that, when it comes to presenting these arguments, the council has decided to err on the side of inclusion. Nonetheless, the report falls almost...

What is the problem for which gun control is the solution? Not the total number of gun deaths in America. Most deaths from guns occur in suicides, rather than accidents or homicides. In 1999, for example, there were 17,400 firearm suicides but only 9,000 firearm homicides. Year after year, firearm suicides outnumber firearm homicides and fatal accidents combined. But while most gun suicides are tragic, they aren't obviously a failure of gun control. If access to guns were behind the suicide rate, we would expect the United States to be among the leaders in suicide. In fact, the American suicide...

It is just one short stretch of road - 220 yards long - and until recently a little-known stretch too. It has turned into a battleground over two of Americans' most cherished rights: freedom of speech and freedom of religion, both enshrined in the first amendment to the constitution. Unfortunately, they are not necessarily compatible. This is Main Street in Salt Lake City, capital of Utah, the heartland and headquarters of the Mormons, or as they prefer to be called, the Latter-day Saints (LDS). The Mormons founded Utah, and dominate the state. Opponents say the row over Main Street is...

Freezing temperatures have killed another three people in Moscow, bringing the number of deaths in the capital from severe winter cold to 242 since October. Another 35 people suffering from frostbite and hypothermia have also been hospitalised. Most of those who have died are the homeless, but the authorities are now also warning citizens of the dangers of drinking too much to try to keep warm outside. It is the coldest January in Russia for at least 15 years. January is harsh even by Russian standards, so cold that when you step outdoors, the inside of your nostrils freezes almost...

The baby possums are easier to put up with in your brassiere than the baby squirrels, says Allison Adams of Round Rock. "The hardest to deal with in my bra are the squirrels," said Allison, 23. "The possums are actually the easiest. They're adorable, beautiful little animals, and since they're used to being in a pouch with their mom, they're used to the feeling. The squirrels, they're not used to it. They're moving around, and every once in a while you hear them squeaking." Seriously, the animal rescue worker really does load baby animals into her bra to warm them...

Jesus was almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month. The study suggests that Jesus and his disciples used the drug to carry out miraculous healings. The anointing oil used by Jesus and his disciples contained an ingredient called kaneh-bosem which has since been identified as cannabis extract, according to an article by Chris Bennett in the drugs magazine, High Times, entitled Was Jesus a Stoner? The incense used by Jesus in ceremonies also contained a cannabis extract, suggests Mr Bennett, who...

Russell Kirk, who may have been the only conservative in the post-war American conservative movement, forbad the importation of television sets into his ancestral manse, Piety Hill. One day, in his absence, his wife and daughters smuggled one in. Dr. Kirk discovered it, and they in turn soon discovered him, high in the tower with television in hand, pitching it off the roof. Television, like all virtual realities, comes from Hell. (The author of this piece, having hosted several television programs, knows how difficult it is to use the medium for good; in effect, one has to do bad television.)...

We've heard a lot at this point about the threat posed to the West, and partucularly us, the United States, by Saddam Hussein's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. The Bush Administration makes the pragmatist's case: these weapons must be neutralized because of the objective threat they pose to the United States and its allies. The opposition, when coherent, takes two different tacks in opposing military action in Iraq: (a) the "Buchananite" deterrence argument, and (b) the "Chomskyite" pacifist/humanist argument. I'll leave the Buchananite argument alone for a second and deal with the humanist/pacifist argument. The humanist argument wilts before...

Where did the pro–life movement go? A half–dozen years ago movement activists were everywhere, drafting statements, holding press conferences, staring fixedly into the blind lens of a remote–studio TV camera. But a tide of silence has gradually come in. Abortion, which had defined "hot issue" for our time, mysteriously cooled off. Magazine cover stories have moved on to other topics; college students no longer crowd into abortion debates. What happened? Did we all just decide to forget our differences and get along? No, it’s more like we got bored. Not pro–life activists, who are as hardworking as ever, but the...

It is has become commonplace to regard Ivan Karamazov’s "Legend of the Grand Inquisitor" as a prescient parable glorifying human freedom and defending it against the kind of totalitarian threats it would face in the twentieth century. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s angry atheist delivers an uncanny prophecy of the omnicompetent, freedom–denying state that would arise in his own native Russia. But concerning the liberty that is the only cure for state–sponsored oppression, Ivan is terribly wrong. The Christ of the Grand Inquisitor advocates an idea of freedom that Dostoevsky considered an abomination. It is linked to Ivan’s critique of God for allowing...