Ross Douthat Is Freakishly Interesting

Timesman Ross Douthat is more interesting than the rest of the Times columnists put together. The obvious explanation - as a righty writing for a lefty publication, he actually has to appeal to a wider range of intellectual viewpoints. Today's column on the pope is fascinating:

IN Pope Francis’ sprawling new encyclical, “Laudato Si’,” there are many mansions: A meditation on biblical ecology, a discussion of environmental policy, a critique of consumerism, even a reflection on the perils of social media.

What everyone wants to know, of course, is whether the pope takes sides in our most polarizing debate. And he clearly does. After this document, there’s no doubting where Francis stands in the great argument of our time.

But I don’t mean the argument between liberalism and conservatism. I mean the argument between dynamists and catastrophists.

OK, huh? But press on!

Comments

[Jack The Trans-Former]

Primo, encora.

10:30 Italian Mass at St. Leonard's in Boston's North End. Bellissimo!

[MarkO]

Nearly anything is more interesting that the Times' columnists put together. A low bar, indeed.

[Steve]

Happy Fathers Day - and why Dads are critical to your child's life!

http://commoncts.blogspot.com/2015/06/happy-fathers-day-and-why-fathers-dads.html

[narciso]

Happy fathers day all, just pure category error on sour hats part

[Cecil Turner]

Hey, I'm all for stewardship, and recognize the Holy Father as a particularly powerful spokesperson with undeniable moral authority, but . . .

The idea of a fixed bowl of goodies from which we all consume, and the ramifications that some are taking more than their fair share, leaving less for the poor; is fundamentally inapt when applied to humanity as a whole. Africa, for example, has more natural resources than any other continent, and the collection of humanity is the poorest. That's not because of colonialism and exploitation, it's because of societal and political dysfunction.

The only realistic conclusion one could draw from the encyclical is to reinforce those failed systems, and try to become more like them. And sorry, but that's exactly the wrong answer.

[daddy]

Sounds to me like the conversation I transcribed last night between Larry Kudlow and WSJ Columnist Bill McGurn was pretty much on the money.

[Cispigmented Heteronormative Microagressive Ignatz]

To paraphrase MM, the pope is a dope.

[lyle]

I know "O'Sullivan's Law" applies to non- profits but now it applies to Roman Catholic liturgy as well? Huh.

[Extraneus]

French doubter banned from Pope's "science" conference

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis was about to take a major step backing the science behind ­human-driven global warming, and Philippe de Larminat was determined to change his mind.

A French doubter who authored a book arguing that solar activity — not greenhouse gases — was driving global warming, de Larminat sought a spot at a climate summit in April sponsored by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Nobel laureates would be there. So would U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs and others calling for dramatic steps to curb carbon emissions.

After securing a high-level meeting at the Vatican, he was told that, space permitting, he could join. He bought a plane ticket from Paris to Rome. But five days before the April 28 summit, de Larminat said, he received an e-mail saying there was no space left. It came after other scientists — as well as the powerful Vatican bureaucrat in charge of the academy — insisted he had no business being there.

[Gentlejim]

Nice to see the Vatican and Left are the same. Muzzle debate. The "science" is settled.

[I hope that fat lady standing up isn't about to direct the overture.]

It's amazing and terrifying. Grand opera.

[squaredance]

It is like the Church propping up the Acient Regime in France in the !9th Century in the last gasps of the Counter Reformation--this is when they banned Mozart. This time though the current aristocracy, they are protecting where are the decedents oof those the proscribed before.

This is beyond surreal and will wound the Church. Shame on the Jesuits, Shame on the Curia, and shame on this Pope.

What a calamity. They will get there way with their bizarre lie, and destroy what is left of a free middle class in the West.

Serfdom, here we come. It is positively Medieval.