O Summer!  O Saturday!  O Barbequed Chicken! I kick her out of doors with an amorous foot applied to a splendid bottom. What a lucky foot! Read the entire entry »
Americans do not need a Messiah because this nation is not Heaven on Earth.
Here are the local puzzle pieces that we somehow need to fit together: great farms; committed, hard working farmers; a university of world class researchers; a highly participatory local political system; obesity; unemployment; lack of food processing capacity; plentiful fresh food that doesn't reach our plates; farmers going out of business; and fundraisers to buy farmland that people can't farm.
Why is it taking so long for Americans to become “real” grown-ups?

Region & Place »

Pedestrian Diarist: Life without Car(s) I know what Jesus would do: hate the car, love the car driver. Read the entire entry »

Economics & Empire, Politics & Power, Writers & Poets »

Neo-Feudalism and the Invisible Fist So how did we get to a situation where the “freedom of markets” has come to mean “servility” and corporate control? Read the entire entry »

Region & Place »

Community & Language Their language is hopeful and would be recognizable to any tobacco farmer of the last hundred years. But now they are talking about food. Read the entire entry »

Economics & Empire, Politics & Power, education »

Peak Oil and Ivory-Tower Pigheadedness Are not the most educated people in America the fastest squanderers of ancient sunlight? Read the entire entry »

Culture, High & Low, Economics & Empire, Politics & Power »

Your Huddled Masses, Yearning To Make Par I people really want to see the current state of the union, they need to take a look at my favorite part of Liberty State Park, which is the fact that it recently has been bisected – rent in two – by the Liberty National Golf Course. Read the entire entry »

Uncategorized »

Why Australia Needs a Renewed Culture of Natural Marriage Human nature, innate human longings, human biology, and human history are all on your side. Read the entire entry »

Politics & Power »

No Flipping But not to be missed in this story is the recognition that no matter how much the government wants to empower and affirm everyone equally, you cannot fool the American sports fan. Read the entire entry »

Culture, High & Low, Region & Place »

The Orphans of Success (Reprise) Maybe the real question is whether we careerists are content to put our own personal “gains” ahead of the losses of many others, including our children’s. Read the entire entry »

Politics & Power »

Islam and America: The President’s Fictitious History It is characteristic of the tyrant, however, that he thinks he can get away with lies in the sense that no one will contradict them even when his statements are transparently untrue. Read the entire entry »

Culture, High & Low, Region & Place »

A River Runs Through Me Do you ever long for the place of your childhood? Does it still exist? Read the entire entry »

Culture, High & Low, Region & Place, Uncategorized »

In Praise of Gossip Gossip, under the right circumstances, acts as a virtue which demonstrates concern and thickens social ties. Read the entire entry »

Culture, High & Low, Region & Place »

The Orphans of Success It is a great loss that so many people—and they are usually considered very “successful”—raise their children in the absence of their extended families. Read the entire entry »

Philosophers & Saints, Politics & Power, Writers & Poets »

Civilization & The Sacred Civilization rests upon the sacred. Thus it is as grimly appropriate that the first atom bomb test was sacrilegiously codenamed “Trinity” – as in *the* Trinity – as it is that the Fat Man made an almost direct hit upon Urakami Cathedral, the most sacred spot in Nagasaki. Read the entire entry »

Culture, High & Low »

How I Ended my 6-Year Relationship with my Blackberry Going to the gym? Call a friend. Running an errand? Send a text. Eating something interesting? Take a picture and show the world on Facebook. Read the entire entry »

Politics & Power »

The Games They Play This year the House has come together to support national pollinator week, national dairy month, and national train day. Read the entire entry »

Economics & Empire, Philosophers & Saints, Region & Place, Writers & Poets »

Wendell Berry and the Great Economy Economics has become a totalizing system claiming the power to explain all things. It is as much a religious system—by another name—as is Berry's Great Economy. Read the entire entry »

Culture, High & Low, Region & Place »

And Now, After Dinner, The Cigar It is generally the case, near as I can tell, that women were created mainly to keep men from enjoying themselves too much over the cigars. Read the entire entry »

Politics & Power »

The City of Bell and the Problem of Local Control “It enabled us to create our own vision for the future. That was the way I look at it then and now.” I guess part of that “vision” was Tammany Hall. Read the entire entry »