March 2011

Porchers who love of place and tradition will find solidarity with a new country-rock band from the land of Charlottesville, Virginia. The band’s name, SONS OF BILL, derives from the love that three-band Brothers Wilson have for their father who

dontwalk-hand-400x

What would Sam Adams, Patrick Henry, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson say if they were transported to our day?

farmer

Those who benefit most from collective bargaining limits in Wisconsin can’t speak as loudly as those who oppose such legislation.

JL Strickland, former Alabama mill worker and self-proclaimed “Linthead Emeritus,” on a boy and a town: two more casualties of the deeply anti-American American Empire: www.ComeHomeAmerica.us.…

Bernini

Tucson, AZ.… One of the pleasing genres of contemporary journalism is the coverage of bizarre happenings in academe that shock the sensibility of the middle classes.  You know the types: there’s the frivolous: a professor specializes in research on Frank

As I predicted last October, the Supreme Court has made short work of the argument that the odious, bigoted, hateful, ridiculous Westboro Baptist Church ought to be subject to lawsuits for the emotional distress which their ugly protests cause. No,…

FPR Conference

by Mark T. Mitchell on March 3, 2011 · 1 comment

in Short

FPR, in conjunction with Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, MD, will be hosting a conference titled “Human Scale and the Human Good: Creating Healthy Communities in a Global Age.”  The conference will be held on Sept. 24, 2011 at…

223230_rolling_kansas_prairie

Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson would like you to think of the Farm Bill as an Eating Bill.

On March 1, Wendell Berry was awarded one of the nation’s Humanities Medals in a ceremony at the White House. This article relates his charming and ever-humble response to the attention. The President and/or attentive members of his administration deserve…

manners

Alexandria, VA… In the wake of the tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona, a chorus of voices – mainly, if not exclusively on the political Left – arose in denunciation of the decline of “civility” in contemporary political life. Somewhat incredibly,

FPR Turns Two

by Mark T. Mitchell on March 2, 2011 · 7 comments

in Short

On March 2, 2009, FPR was born. We’ve been going for two years now and our mission remains clear: to advance human flourishing through the promotion of political decentralism, economic localism, and cultural regionalism. The need is great and there…

end_of_world

We are borrowing well over a billion dollars a day to import oil.

California, we are told, will have a $25 billion budget deficit over the next 20 months. However, they seem to be caught in a trap. If they were to actually “balance” their budget, that is, actually cut $25 billion dollars…

Live Where We Are

by Bill Kauffman on March 1, 2011 · 3 comments

in Short

Welcome, March! William Cullen Bryant saw through your bluster:
For thou, to northern lands again,
The glad and glorious sun dost bring,
And thou hast joined the gentle train
And wear’st the gentle name of Spring.
Ring in the month…

There are plenty of reasons to lament, but here is a reason to hope. A school in Texas reaches out to some unlikely opponents and shows how a community can make a difference. Get a hanky.
 …

old cowboy

An actual cowboy’s life was a far cry from a John Wayne Western.