Coming Out of the Pew
by James Ahlers on April 20, 2008 in Opinion
Pope Benedict XVI is on a mission to shut down the U.S. Catholic Church’s buffet and discipline the spiritually flabby, and I am inspired.
You know buffet Catholics – they can’t swallow the whole doctrine so they fill their spiritual plates with a little of this, a little of that. I used to be one myself, until I decided that what I liked from the buffet was not enough to fill me up and I abandoned my Catholicism altogether. The problem was, I never knew what I was leaving it for. The Pope’s effort to restore traditional Catholic doctrine has inspired me to reexamine why I left the Church and what I believe in.
Let Me Give You a Little Piece of Advice. Ignore It.
by James Ahlers on February 12, 2008 in Opinion
As I near the end of four intense years of graduate education, I find myself in a reflective mood. Like many of you, I am about to start a new career. These transition times offer the rare blessing of a few quiet moments to contemplate where we are and where we want to be.
HKS vs. HLS: The Grass Is Always Greener
by James Ahlers on October 31, 2007 in Features
Being a joint-degree student inevitably requires me to answer the question, “What is it really like over there?” The question is tricky, because comparing the schools requires me to make generalizations about the students that some of you might not appreciate. My sound-bite response has always been something like, “HLS is more intellectually rigorous and KSG is more fun.”
I know that this answer is grossly subjective if not just plain silly. Yet when asked, I feel compelled to give an answer, perhaps because the HLS part of me wants to appear smart and the KSG part of me wants to be popular. Read more
Me Me Me and My Support Staff
by James Ahlers on October 17, 2007 in Opinion
I write today to convey my enthusiastic support for a social group too long maligned and neglected. This is a group whose members, while undoubtedly endowed with the eloquence to plead their own case, are far too valuable a national resource to waste their time on such things.
I speak, of course, of young narcissists.
