Articles Archive
Impiety and Enforced Forgetfulness
I’m struck at the vanity of those impious folks infatuated with their ability to improve the situation without having first served a long apprenticeship under the tutelage of the old.…
Carbuncles, Bedbugs, Boils and Politics
To paraphrase an observation of Chesterton on the subjects of poets, silence and cheese: Political scientists have been mysteriously silent on the subject of soap, or at least until now.[1 ]…
Mitchell at the National Cathedral
For those in the D.C. area, I will be speaking at the National Cathedral on Sunday morning at 10:10. The topic is "The State of Political Geography: Where Do We…
Birzer Against the Machine
Don't miss Brad Birzer's superbly thoughtful essay "Christian Humanists Challenge the Machine." He provides a lucid historical and philosophical roadmap tracing the anti-humanism of the modern impulse of mastery, beginning…
The Music of The Spheres and The Terminally Tone-Deaf
I was watching a film called Chartres Cathedral and the Geometry of the Sacred the other day. For some reason, the Gothic gargoyles put me in mind of the Republican…
Interview with Edward Abbey
If you were intrigued by the song about Edward Abbey posted by Bill Kauffman, this three part interview with Abbey might be of interest. There is plenty of food for thought…
Sonnets of Deracination
Devon, PA. Measure: A Review of Formal Poetry has been one of the few consistently good poetry journals since it began publication in 2006, and is one of the great…
Patriotism vs. American Exceptionalism
Do you love America? If so, how much? Do you wear an American flag on your lapel (and look askance on those who don’t)? Do you drive only American cars?…
The Ballad of Edward Abbey
Tom Russell, true son of the American Southwest, sings about the Man from Home. Thanks to Brian Frizzell for the link.
Ciceronian Society Conference at UVA, March 29-31
FPR readers are invited to attend the coming Ciceronian Society Conference at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, March 29-31. All attendance to observe the panels is free of charge.…
A Burke for Our Times
In a wonderful article published here at FPR a few weeks ago, Jason Peters argued that a proper education ought to provoke a kind of spiritual or intellectual crisis among…
For Lack of a Hardier Knickerbocker, the Republic Goes Tilt
Washington, Ct. Classics are called such for a reason. They endure. Quite by accident frequently, for as any condemned intellectual knows, the most marketable idea prevails within the lifetime of the…
The Government Can (Corrected)
It just makes me laugh: Government Can NOTE: MY APOLOGIES. Somehow or other the wrong link showed up on that. Thank you anymouse for correcting me. I deeply apologize to…
In the National Cathedral
On Sunday I was the invited speaker at the magnificent National Cathedral in a series devoted to the exploration of political themes. The subject was "The State of Political Language."…
A Burke for Our Times
Several weeks ago, at the web journal Humane Pursuits, James Banks published an article entitled “Community as We Know It, Not as We Wish It,” which was largely a response…
Egalitarian Elites and the Academic Dilemma
It doesn't take an acquaintance with Tocqueville to spot the flaws in many American claims about equality. Just go to school. You soon learn that an A paper is not…
Wes Jackson, Localism, and the Carbon-Based Community
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] A couple of days ago, I had the lucky opportunity to listen up close to Wes Jackson, founder of The Land Institute here in Kansas,…
Rob Koons: Attacking Iran Would Be Unjust
Since the first Gulf War, it has been popular among many Christian (especially but not exclusively Catholic) conservatives to justify American military interventions via just-war theory -- which conveniently always…
Traditionalist Critique of Marx and An Analysis of Hawthorne in ANAMNESIS
FPR readers will be interested in both (1) K.R. Bolton's traditionalist Conservative critique of Marx and Ideological-Capitalism and (2) Lee Trepanier's examination of the use of history in Hawthorne.
“You Ever Get Back There Any More?”
Down on the Square (as we East Texas natives refer to the downtown in Henderson, pop. 11,000), I make a visit to the backroom of the Strong-Hurt Pharmacy, site for…
“Get” Out of Here
Rabbi Herzfeld of the National Synagogue has petitioned the House Ethics Committee to discipline a House staffer who appears to be recalcitrant as to one of the finer points of…
A Scar on the Soul
This is a powerful piece describing the consequences of some fertility techniques that involve selective reduction of embryos. I will never fully recover from what I've seen, and done. For…
“Freedom or Virtue?” Revisited
About this time last year, Mitch Daniels, the Republican Governor of Indiana, stirred some controversy by calling on conservatives to declare a truce on so-called “social issues” so that they…
The Insidious Logic of Liberalism
Tucson, AZ. This Arizona Daily Star paragraph greeted me as I began the annual family vacation in Tucson. Rather than offering full commentary, I shall just provide the offending remark along…