Articles Archive
Caped Crusaders and the Flight From Society
The American appetite for cinematic adaptations of children’s stories about grown men who dress as rodents to save the world from grown men dressed as reptiles is bottomless. The Avengers is already…
Prisoners Pedal to Produce Power
Meanwhile, an article from Tree Hugger: Brazil's Santa Rita do Sapucaí prison, following the suggestion of a local judge, recently installed electricity-generating stationary bikes as part of a plan to…
Bringing it all Back Home
Reason's Jesse Walker on Benjamin Looker's account of Karl Hess, Milton Kotler, and the power-to-the-neighborhoods movement of the late '60s and early '70s: http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/10/all-power-to-the-neighborhoods.
The View From Your Front Porch
Anaheim, Calif. - Nestled between busy thoroughfares dotted with low-slung motels, palm readers, and bail bondsmen, around the corner from the Taqueria and the Clinica Medica del Sagrado Corazon, one…
Clang, Clang Go the Jail Guitar Doors
Today from The American Conservative: www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/rockys-drug-war/
The 10,000 Mile Diet vs. the Locavores
The Atlantic has an on-line piece debating the virtues of the locavore movement. An economist named Pierre Desrochers is promoting his book titled The Locavore's Dilemma: In Praise of the…
On Recent Supreme Court Rulings
As July Fourth approaches and we all pat ourselves on the back for being so free, the folks at Chronicles have had a field day with recent SCOTUS decisions, focusing especially on Bush II-appointee…
Firm Identities and Loose Borders
Hillsdale, Michigan. A drive back from New England to the upper mid-West on Tuesday gave me ample time to hear the journalistic accounts of the Supreme Court's decision on Arizona's…
Freedom Is Not The Good
As vice-president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Louisville’s own Archbishop Kurtz has led the way in expressing Church disapproval of the Obama administration's health care plan. According…
Gays Acting Badly in the White House: A Comparative Study
Recently I read Up From Slavery, the autobiography of Booker T. Washington. It is an inspiring story of hard work, perseverance, and clear vision. Washington fought an up hill battle…
An Alternative to Sprawl
According to an article in The New York Times, many Americans are tiring of the lifestyle associated with sprawl and, finally, developers are responding. The age of the McMansion may…
Long Live the Sovereign Republic of West Florida
Porchers will delight in this wonderful story and video featuring our own Rod Dreher.
The Unmaking and Making of Community
The following is a talk given at the annual conference of The Academy of Philosophy and Letters on June 16, 2012 in Baltimore, MD. In her book The Need for…
American Cicero
Michael Federici of Mercyhurst College has posted on this site before, and is certainly a fellow-traveler. Some of you may be wondering why he hasn't posted in a while, and…
A Footloose Spring Day
On a gorgeous April Wednesday I am filling in as substitute homeschool teacher. We do arithmetic; we do a language lesson about adverbs and Emily Dickinson. Then—did I mention the…
Timothy Steele: A Critical Introduction — An Update
Devon, PA. I was delighted to announce, this last week, the publication of my second book, Timothy Steele: A Critical Introduction. A few copies of the book remain available for…
The Flaw in Jefferson’s Idea of Ward Republics
Thomas Jefferson’s agrarianism has long been vulnerable to attack by unsympathetic critics. Given that Jefferson ultimately banks on virtue rather than folly, this is of course to be expected; but…
Buffy Slays the Academy
Devon, PA. Insiderhighered.com reports: Slate published an analysis of the relative popularity (as topics to academics) of various pop culture topics. Judging popularity by the total papers, books and essays…
What Was High School For Anyway?
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Twenty-five years ago today (I think; my memory is far from perfect) I graduated from Central Valley High School in Spokane Valley (then "Veradale"), WA.…
You Have Thought Up the Wrong World
In the spring of 1994 my grandmother chose to go off dialysis. Four days later, she was dead. I still remember my parents waking me up in the middle of…
My Second Book, Published Already
Last night, at the West Chester University Poetry Conference, my second book, Timothy Steele: A Critical Introduction, was released. As its title indicates, it is a monograph on the great…
Democracy Follies
David Rieff has a nice piece over at Democracy Journal where he takes aim at those who stubbornly insist that exporting American-style democracy is a sound foreign policy. Rieff effectively…
Ray of Light
Ray Bradbury may be at peace, but I doubt he's resting. Herewith an old essay of mine on the boy from Waukegan as a Midwestern regionalist.