Articles Archive

We need not rely with some desperation on the Hope that is a gift, if we can gin up optimism of our own sort.

What if we had more states?

Obama is suffering because whether or not it is true, he seems not to understand what is going on around the country. Whether or not it is true, he seems…

A stay-at-home congress may serve constituents better.

This will not last. Greed consumes everything, until it finally consumes itself.

In 1973, the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton abortion decisions. Together, they represented a serious defeat for the unalienable right to life, the…

A friend of mine with a penchant for self-effacement said “There’s just not enough time to get the work done and procrastinate.” It is not that he only works well…

But as a profound poet trying to make a comfortable living I can’t really trouble myself about that fit audience though few. . . . Were I to start thinking…

Here is the great secret of my generation: What our parents gave us as a gift we have received as an entitlement. No one is not grateful for an entitlement.…

I tend to think that slippery sidewalks are a sign of a broader pattern, in which people are less prepared to take responsibility for the inconvenience of ‘gray areas.’

He is resigned to the inertia of the old Spanish cult, and willing to just let it fade away. The voluptuousness of European culture had no way to gain traction…

It is only our own town or neighborhood that is specific enough, and someday knowable enough, to enable a capable writer's imagination to imagine it clear and whole.

Devon, PA. My old friend and classmate, Jeremiah Chamberlin, writes in to the FPR ombudsman of a new venture he has undertaken to help support, save, or at least treasure,…

Here are some portions of my analysis of Sarah Palin and populism that are not included in my book review essay that appears in The American Conservative.

The listlessness of modern death is that you might not even get a chance to show courage before you forget who you are.

Claremont, CA. They call it the “Superman Syndrome.” People who use methamphetamine often believe that they are capable of doing impossible things. Like flying. Or walking through walls. Or earning…

Hamilton, Ontario. When remembering a family-owned grocery store in rural Virginia, a first image comes to mind, even though I did not actually witness it. This is my boss, a…

Alexandria, VA My last post has led some to conclude that I am a pessimist. Even Ross Douthat, among the most perceptive commentators in print and on internet, suggested that…

Devon, PA.  The penultimate installment of "Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic" has now appeared at First Principles.  In Part V, I had treated of Jacques Maritain's theory of…

Kearneysville, WV. The health care bill has passed the Senate, but it is yet to be seen if the House and the Senate can agree on a bill to send…

Washington, CT. Puckish ad infinitum, I take it as my heathenish duty during this special time of year to preach at the choir boys and girls of ye Front Porch…

Events of the past several years up close could be compared to individuated and discrete dots, each circumscribed by itself alone, each self-contained and even comprehensible. The housing bubble. The…

Here are some interesting numbers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in October of 1999 there were 109,487,000 non-farm, private-sector jobs in the United States. 10 years later, there…

An article from last August's New Yorker which details the difficulty of maintaining teacher accountability in the New York Public schools. To wit, the combination of teacher's unions, massive bureaucracies,…