Articles Archive
What You Need to Know About Yvor Winters
This is the first entry in FPR’s One Thousand Words series. Over the next few months, perhaps longer, several dozen contributors will tell us what we need to know about…
Thoughts on Elshtain
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Jean Bethke Elshtain, a profound and important political theorist and ethicist, died yesterday I was lucky enough to have met her perhaps a handful of…
Saying “No” to the NSA
Here's a piece encouraging people and companies to resist encroachments by the NSA. Consider these examples: Already companies are taking their data and communications out of the US. The extreme…
In Search of the Real Coolidge
Our interest in historical subjects says as much about our society as about the subjects themselves. The growing interest in the life, thought and presidency of Calvin Coolidge issues from…
The Violent and the Fallen
I am pleased to announce that The Violent and the Fallen, the second book of poems by James Matthew Wilson, is now available for advance sale. You can order simply…
“Monogamish”: Marriage in the Age of Caucus Races
Berwyn, PA. While the American President is appearing on late-night television to tell the world -- and the Russians -- that a permissive attitude toward homosexual behavior is a matter…
Living Together at the Office
Wendell Berry has written about the salutary effects of living and working in the same place, but I'm not sure this is what he had in mind.... The Wall Street…
How To Talk About Race
Hillsdale, Michigan. After the George Zimmerman verdict, President Obama talked about the need for a conversation on race in the United States. He also made the sensible observation that such…
Money Grab
Three principles. The first is Stein's Law: if something can't go on forever, it won't. The second is that governing is ruled by the law of unintended consequences. The third…
Holy Days, Holidays and the Weekend, or: Are we all Proletarians Now?
Archduchess Maria Theresa, wife of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Franz Stephan of Habsburg-Lothringen, is on the way to her desk. She is about to enact another of…
Rent a Goat
I recently heard of a guy who was getting nasty letters from his HOA because he was, shall we say, less than dutiful in keeping his large lawn mowed. Rather…
Farewell to Port Clinton
Apropos this year's FPR Conference comes this Times story from Robert Putnam, who laments the decline of his hometown of Port Clinton, OH. The weakening of unions, vacating of the manufacturing…
Frankenmeat Coming Soon
Now scientists are working to create meat in a laboratory. To produce the patty, researchers will mix lab-grown beef muscle cells with salt, egg powder and bread crumbs. Beet juice…
Veritatis Splendor at 20—Lessons for Localists
Veritatis Splendor, John Paul II’s encyclical letter, The Splendor of Truth, is now twenty years old. Promulgated August 6, 1993, the letter addressed fundamental issues in moral theology, responding particularly…
Death by Democracy
George Will argues that Detriot was killed by democracy. Detroit, which boomed during World War II when industrial America was “the arsenal of democracy,” died of democracy. Today, among the…
Pippin the Porcher: Front Porch Themes Take Center Stage on Broadway
“They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway.” And indeed, what they say is true. Outside of Nevada, there is no flashier street running through these United States than…
I Would Not, Could Not, With a Cat
I've recently written about the travails of the UCC in Canada. From Rod Dreher's blog comes this video of a service down the street from Kilsyth in the city of…
Everywhere at Once, Nowhere at All
“Right now, the main thing I’m taking from this conference is that PowerPoint is destroying the educational process.” The conference, organized around the theme of “Technology and Human Flourishing,” was…
Chicken Palace and Too Many Roosters
Hidden Springs Lane. This spring we got chickens. In preparation for the arrival of the chicks, a coop needed to be built. Being the frugal sort (some mistake that virtue…
The Onion Weighs in on the Virtues of Rootedness
The inimitable Onion once again shows how satire should be done. Title: "Unambitious Loser with Happy, Fulfilling Life Still Lives in Hometown." There is much to pity. Longtime acquaintances confirmed…
The New Warrior Cop
Here's a piece in the WSJ describing the evolution of police tactics and equipment that has resulted in a blurring of lines between policeman and soldier. Excerpt: On Jan. 4…
The Big Firm
My oldest daughter recently graduated from college, where she has long considered a career in law. I have (at least) two persons I know well who have pursued legal careers:…
The Fate of the Rural Church?
Kilsyth, Ontario Darryl Hart wrote some time ago about the unwillingness of mainline Protestants to serve in rural churches. Employing Wendell Berry, Hart wrote: In his essay, “God and Country,”…
Commons Sense
Jay Walljasper--citizen of Minneapolis, former editor of Utne Reader, and among America's most insightful and humane observers of urban places--is sharing via free e-book his latest, How to Design Our…
