Front Porch Republic » Culture, High & Low

Surviving Five O’Clock

Jason Peters — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:20:07 +0000

There’s nothing the smell of this can’t solve.

Breakfast with the Bar Jester (Part 2) Ladies, get your eggs ready!...
The Pickup and the Pasta; or, How I Satisfied Two Women in One Afternoon Well I’ve satisfied one woman; by God, I’ll satisfy the...
The Teleology of Vodka Millions were waiting for "Breakfast with the Bar Jester, Part...

The Closing of the Republican Mind (A Séance)

Elias Crim — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:30:58 +0000

Lucky me, to be invited to try the beta version of Google’s newest and coolest app — Séance! After a quick download and install, I wasted no time in launching my first “collaboration,” picking three figures from the spirit world:…

Read Full Article...

The Closing of the Conservative Mind? No fan of Frum am I, but this is disturbing....
Closing the Circle: An Economy of Values, and Where to Look for It It is no surprise that many of us connected with...
And the Jays Have it (Republican Bunning Hazards the Impolitic) As one of literary bent and so frequently guilty of...

Tradition and Critique: On Wanting to Know

R. J. Snell — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:30:27 +0000

I think Walker Percy uses the following to illustrate contemporary life,… although I don’t remember where. But it goes something like this: When his grandfather walked down the street, everyone knew who he was, and he knew who he was;

Read Full Article...

The Alternative Tradition in America Alexandria, VA …Since Caleb has posted his lecture from a...
Is There a Conservative Tradition in America? The answer is hardly obvious....
A Fertile Christmas Tradition While Peters is peddling his technophiliac vision below, I commend...

Homesick Nation

Susan Matt — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:10:02 +0000

In 1852, the first piano arrived in Stockton, California. Imported from Cincinnati, it was a gift to Mary Kroh from her father, a minister who had traveled west to preach to the thousands of gold miners in California. Shortly after…

Read Full Article...

Don’t It Make You Wanna Go Home Now? Mobility is the great undiagnosed sickness afflicting America. All of...
Fat Nation Kearneysville, WV.… Tis the season to be jolly. And the...
Nation at the Crossroads RINGOES, NJ.… The world is hunkered down. For some months...

Bar Jester Chronicles 16: The Company of Men

Jason Peters — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:09:08 +0000

I’ll tell you what’s going on. There’s a conspiracy.

Read Full Article...

The Bar Jester Chronicles 3: On Cutting the Mustard “No one puts ketchup on a hotdog” —Clint Eastwood ROCK...
The Bar Jester Chronicles 2 Jeremy Beer (with flaccid cigar and look of bewilderment, left)...
The Bar Jester Chronicles 10: A Miscellany It’s been pretty serious around here lately. Some days you...

Democracy and Coercion

Mark A. Signorelli — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:30:43 +0000

Like other readers here at FPR, and across the web, I have been following the Great Salyer/Carter Debate of 2012 with much interest. I thought Mr. Salyer’s original article was outstanding, and in reply, Mr. Carter voiced a number of…

Read Full Article...

How the Bar Jester Would Fix America (Warning: It Involves Coercion) The underpopulated farm and the crowded casino remain for me...
Civility and Democracy Alexandria, VA… In the wake of the tragic shooting in...
The Future of Democracy in America This week I have been lecturing at the Ignatianum Academy...

In Beauty We Should Damn Well Trust

D. W. Sabin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 19:34:37 +0000

Washington, Ct.… The recent contretemps between the blessedly described “liberal conservatives” at the First Things web site and our own clutch of barking mongrels here at the homespun Porch revealed that the First Things folks might consider the important arena

Read Full Article...

Beauty and Other Transcendentals Devon, PA.… The penultimate installment of “Art and Beauty against...
Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic Devon, PA. …During the next few months, I shall...
The Recovery of American Beauty Holland, MI… The present age remains haunted by the...

Free Website Staffed by Volunteers Fails to Meet Internet Reader’s Expectations

Walter Krankheit — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:58:55 +0000

Local man Jim Wheeler has finally had enough of the free website Front Porch Republic, which boasts an annual budget of less than $500. Although Wheeler contributes neither money nor content to the site, and has no connection with it…

Read Full Article...

Meet a Folksinger I recently received a song from Front Porch Republic reader...
Return to Princeton I’ll be lecturing this Thursday, March 10, on the campus...
The Gain is Gloss: Thanks to FPR and Its Readers Devon, PA. …Much like Jeremy Beer, I have found that FPR...

Agrarian Hypocrisy and the Evils of Distributism

Mark T. Mitchell — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:52:01 +0000

One thing that has amused me in these first three years of FPR’s existence is the tendency of some readers to single out one or two articles and lament that FPR was once a promising venture but has now taken…

Read Full Article...

Wendell Berry and the New Urbanism: Agrarian Remedies, Urban Prospects The problem is a result of the underlying specialization—not of...
Agrarian Politics: Why I Care Interest in agrarian politics can start in childhood. As feminists...
On Feeling “Forgotten”: Agrarian Aspirations in the Andes “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” ...

Who Gets To Be The Czar of Human Evolution?

Jerry Salyer — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:08:28 +0000

A response to Joe Carter from flyover country.

Read Full Article...

Eat like a human, feel like a human Virginia schools are opting for local produce and ingredients over...
The Human Meaning of Property MT. AIRY, PHILADELPHIA.… Before I say something rather abstract about...
Thanksgiving, All Too Un-Human Thanksgiving, which may initially seem like a practice that is...

O Clemens, O Pia

Jason Peters — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:59:43 +0000

The answers we give may prove to be fatal rather than whimsical.

Read Full Article...

Freedom Among Themselves CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.… E.D. Kain had a fine quote from Wendell...
Does the Way of Improvement Lead Home? First, let me extend my greetings to the readers of...
Saturday In the Park (I Think it Was the 3rd of July); Or … We do love our abstractions. That much is sure. They...

Dear Friends . . . or Maybe Not!

Mary Vander Goot — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:27:10 +0000

Several times lately I’ve opened my email and found notices about people who want to friend me, but I don’t think that means they want to befriend me. Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and his buddies, what used to be a…

Read Full Article...

Facebook and Friendship Whatever else you make of Facebook friendship, it underscores the...
The Social Network Fantasy In today’s Los Angeles Times, Neil Gabler has an insightful...
On Friendship Most of us require an extended social network to keep...

Gifting Children

R. J. Snell — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 05:26:54 +0000

Some friends and I are celebrating the good news… that one of our company was expecting another child. None of us are the Duggars, and the offspring of the three families combined wouldn’t add up to their number, yet all

Read Full Article...

The Immoral Life of Children A few weeks ago a friend’s ten-year-old daughter came home...
Update to Sharing the Children Equally One of America’s more interesting and less predictable feminist public...
Some Children Must Be Left Behind Will raising the legal dropout age teach troubled kids anything?...

Bar Jester Chronicles 16: An FPR Christmas Exposé

Jason Peters — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:05:34 +0000

Santa? Are you still there?

Read Full Article...

I’m Dreaming of a Tight Christmas I would not have us die of consumption....
Bar Jester, Inc. Sample Christmas Letter: Disaffected Housewife (Semi-Bitter Version) Thank God Dad had that massive heart attack four years...
A Little Krustmas Eve Meditation Has it really been two years since the Bar Jester...

Farewell To an Absolut Localist

Jason Peters — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:56:40 +0000

He was local when local wasn't cool.

Read Full Article...

The Localist Impulse and the Operation of Grace Rock Island, IL… Alexander Pope, who was right more often...
A Partially Localist Defense of Public Schooling Wichita, KS… President Obama’s speech last week on the various...
Flannery O’Connor, Localist (& Patron Saint of Cut Fingers) ROCK ISLAND, IL … It wasn’t in accord with the...

The Founding Gardeners

D. W. Sabin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:09:58 +0000

I’ve just finished Andrea Wulf’s beguiling book entitled “ Founding Gardeners, The Revolutionary Generation, Nature and the Shaping of the American Nation”. Published this year by Knopf, it delves into already well-known territory but does so in a manner highly…

Read Full Article...

Rebel Gardeners Wage Veggie War In Buenos Aires guerrilla gardeners scatter seed bombs throughout the...
Return to Princeton I’ll be lecturing this Thursday, March 10, on the campus...
From Confucians to Consumers? In case you missed the story on NPR…, the Chinese...