Can you control your own evil impulses? Can you decide when to feel happy, angry, afraid? It sure doesn’t feel that way to me. Yet the premise of cognitive therapy, which a lot of people swear by, is that by thinking about your thoughts in a different way, you can change them. Interestingly, I came…

It always breaks my heart to see how simplemindedly the Hebrew Bible is discussed in the media. David Plotz, editor of Slate, has a new book out about the experience of trying to read the Bible straight through — apparently with no serious Jewish commentary, an impossibility for adults, I would think. Without the oral tradition…

A reader challenges me on my criticism of Christopher Buckley and his uncharitable published memories of his father and mother: “You wrote a memoir, and if memory serves painted a portrait of your adopted parents’ religiosity that some readers might have found uncomfortable or inappropriate.” It’s an interesting point. Where do legitimate public recollections about your…

Andrew Sullivan now seeks to invest his hyperventilating stance on torture with the dignity of a papal encyclical. He complains: “The point of torture is to violate the integrity of the human person and to coerce the will itself.” As I’ve already told you, I have the impression that much of the prosecutorial fervor on this…

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