Articles Archive
This Is My Son: Two Years Later
Devon, PA. Two years ago this week, President Obama delivered the commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame. Great numbers of students, faculty, alumni, and American Catholics protested the…
Never Mind the Umpire; Kill the Sound Effects Guy!
Alan Pell Crawford on trying to find a baseball game amidst the FUNN in Richmond. Things are better in Batavia, though my friend Tom Williams and I annually threaten to…
“Southern Conservatism”: The View from Brooklyn
The James Madison Program at Princeton often provides an unexpected breath of common-sensical fresh air in the academic fever-swamps. Last March it held a conference on the work of the…
Poetry and the Common Language
This piece was originally posted at the University Bookman. Check out their site for other similar articles! --- If there is one principle which is nearly axiomatic among our contemporaries…
Blogs to keep an eye on
At the Davenport Institute for Civic Engagement and Public Leadership at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy, we've launched three blog sites relating to public participation in governance. "Gov…
Farmers Ditch Tractors for….Oxen?
A New York Times piece, describes the renewed interest in animal power among some small farmers. Mind you, these are not quaint Pa Ingalls actors demonstrating out-dated farming techniques to…
Abortion and American Federalism
Devon, PA. Joe Carter, over at the First Things web page, offers a reflection on Ron Paul's pro-life credentials and how they square -- or rather, in Carter's opinion, how…
Regret Minimization
Jeremy Grantham is paid to make people money. Among his clients is Dick Cheney, who, based on Grantham's advice, was well-positioned before the economic collapse (as I noted at the…
Wendell Berry,Wes Jackson, and some Guy named Charles at Georgetown
Late last week I received notice that jolly Prince Charles will be speaking at Georgetown on the future of food, fresh from his oldest son's nuptials. While that news was…
The Death of bin Laden: On Violence and Civil Religion
Holland, MI. Around 11:00 Sunday night I received a text from a friend informing me that Osama bin Laden had been killed by US military and intelligence units. I confess…
City of Dreams
Imagine designing a city for people rather than cars: Curitiba, Brazil
He Deserved It
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS That's a terribly unChristian thing to say, I know. To speak in moral terms--to speak of "desert"--in matters of war is to invariably…
Georgics on My Mind
With avidity and pleasure I’ve been reading American Georgics: Writings on Farming, Culture, and the Land, a collection of excerpts in the American agrarian tradition edited by Edwin C. Hagenstein,…
Just in Time for a Royal Wedding
Noble marriages have a certain appeal to even staunch republicans like ourselves. Could it be for something other than celebrity and The Dress?
Boredom and the “App” for Self-Control
The future is grim, my friends.
The Moral Implications of Dictionaries
I suppose we all grow unduly annoyed at times with certain cultural foibles which are really quite trivial in comparison with the dire and momentous crises which are rapidly…
Counselling in Pornland
Devon, PA. Mark T. Mitchell's powerful essay on Jane Austen in the age of porn coincides with an interesting news item on Inside Higher Ed. A group called the Young…
Pride and Prejudice and Porn
If we are witnessing the passing of the gentlemen, there is much to lament. Perhaps it’s time for the gentleman to make a comeback.
Deracinated Meritocrats and the Marriage “Debate”
Devon, PA. I just received a link to a video that records the encounter of members of the TFP (The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property)…
Personal Mobility Concept
No, not legs. They're so 20th Century. The good people at Honda, responding to the crisis of people having to move their feet or stand on them, have developed a…
How Bonds Really Did It
With the Barry Bonds’s trial ending with a slap on the wrist for the lesser charge against him and a mistrial on the greater charges, it is time to divulge…
The Mosh-Pit of Philosophy, the Pedestal of Science, and a Plate of Green Beans
Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of addressing the ISI Conference at Taylor University, “Whose Capitalism? Which Free Market? Exploring the Moral Dimensions of the Market.” My message to the…
Going Home
The South, repatriated ex-slave Ned Douglass lectured his Louisiana neighbors in Ernest J. Gaines’s novel The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, is “yours because your people’s bones lays in it;…
Spring Spheres and the Vernal Equinox Bunny
Our return to a distinctively modern form of paganism is nearly complete - a teacher at a Seattle school approved a "hunt" for round object containing sweets and surprises on…