I would like to know whether Podhoretz’s claims to intellectual modesty (i.e., not presuming to judge other people’s decisions) extends to issues like abortion and homosexuality. If they do, he should just say so and we will know where things stand. If they don’t, he should say why. If, as he appears to suggest, it is out of some kind of adherence to tradition then he would have to extend the same license to others (such as Rod) who also claim recourse to tradition as the source of their immodest intellectual judgments. And if he claims that “tradition” opposes abortion or homosexual marriage yet has nothing to say about strip malls and sprawl (all of which have gained widespread purchase on the American soul only in the past forty years), we will know he is not serious about this discussion in the least.