A Few Good Links (vol. 2)

Another round of tab-clearing:

1. Via the American Catholic, this article on what it means (or doesn't mean) to be a "gifted" child--or a rotten parent.
2. Via Mark Shea, more about fake dudgeon and child abuse.
3. From the Imaginative Conservative, Julie Robison argues that we need not only "protect our progress" (as the liberals says), but also our Constitution.
4. Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about the increasing militarization of our police forces (and, for that matter, other enforcement agencies).
5. "A disordered sexuality is so powerful that it can unseat our reason entirely. Thus, sexual virtue (chastity) is a necessary condition of a rational life." The source of that quote is my friend Dr Rob Koons.
6. "But it seems fair to assume that there are still a lot of people who would prefer to meet their future spouse the old fashioned way — through initial flesh-and-blood encounters embedded in a larger pre-existing social network. If that’s your preference, the university campus is one of the few flesh-and-blood arenas that seems to be holding its own as a place to form lasting attachments." Two comments on this article. First, this seems to me to be a implicit argument in favor of meeting a spouse when young--which is also an argument of sorts for getting married younger. If so, then bravo! Second,  should add that the one place which should (but doesn't) trump the university as a place to meet one's future spouse is the church (which is not to say that every man should meet his future wife at either the church or the university). I should add here that I met my wife at the Catholic center of our university, so mine is a both/and.
7. The Nicene Guys have a post up about marriage and catechesis. "Marriage lived out faithfully and joyfully thus becomes a sign of contradiction, a statement that we do not have to settle for the empty promises of hedonism, that we do not have to be ruled by the passions of the moment. It is a rejection of the allure of the evil one, and better it is evidence that we are left happier having done so."

That's it for now.