Articles Archive
Fifty Dollar Tomato
Hillsdale, MI. When I first thought about writing this it was the “Ten Dollar Tomato.” But historians are more or less required to tell the truth, and it now costs…
Defending Local Prohibitions
Since Caleb wants to argue about it, I will comply. This is a post that I wrote back in November; nice to see it get some attention now... Jacob Weisberg…
When Left is Right
Some thinkers on the Left have sniffed the smelling salts and are emerging from their love-fest to notice that the New Boss is increasingly indistinguishable from the Old Boss. As…
Kill Your Kindle
Claremont, CA. When my mother came to visit last week, she brought a copy of The Yiddish Policeman’s Union with her. Before she departed for the airport this morning, she…
Our Lady Catches a Weasel.
I have long thought there was no more corrupt person in college football than Jim Tressel, but I am conceding the honor to Brian Kelly, the new head football coach…
“There is No Peace on Earth,” I Said
The Prince of Peace---rather a seditious title in our age of Homeland Security and endless war, eh? "Love thy neighbor" and "Thou Shalt Not Kill" were no less subversive 95 years ago, when…
President Obama’s Afghanistan Speech
Erie, PA. Presidential speeches are evaluated in two basic areas, style/delivery and substance. President Obama’s Afghanistan speech was well delivered. The president appeared serious, determined, candid, and was articulate. Coming…
Crass Christmas
The celebration of Jesus Christ's birth gives us an opportunity not only to act upon the principles of peace, sharing, and selflessness, but also to pass them onto our children…
Health Subsidiarity, or Solidarity, or Socialism (Take Your Pick)
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS The debate over health care reform in the Senate has moved into overdrive, with one possible compromise following another in rapid succession. The…
Burn the Vineyard
I have just returned from one of the most remarkable journeys of my life, a ten day tour of Romania to promote an anthology of distributist and localist essays, Economic…
Homewreckers
County Kildare, Ireland. A couple I know – we’ll call them Bob and Nancy -- lived in a century-old house in the middle of their town, a few miles from…
Foreign Policy and the Gift of the World
Devon, PA. In February 2007, as the Iraq war crept to the end of its fourth year, I published this short essay, proposing a few notions on foreign policy that…
Packing for Montana
As reported in today's Washington Post, in an article entitled "In Debate Over Nation's Growing Debt, a Surplus of Worry." Leonard Burman, [a Syracuse University ] economist, says he has…
Chesterton on a Desert Island
In Greenwich at Rush Hour and thinking Kauffman's suggestion to go see Father Boyd speak his wisdom on Chesterton a good one, I reluctantly headed further into the maw of…
Words, Meaning, and Power
Kearneysville, WV. The publication of Sarah Palin’s autobiography, Going Rogue, provides an opportunity to discuss contemporary political rhetoric, especially the use of certain words that have the effect of shutting…
We Interrupt This Broadcast for a Moment of Rank Cynicism
Patrick just posted that the great man himself was heard describing Michelle ma' Belle's kitchen garden as the "most important plot of land in America." Patrick tells me that in…
My Favorite Marsden
In today's Wall Street Journal I review Elyssa East's Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703939404574566772944605580.html. Among her subjects is the New England painter Marsden Hartley,…
Obama the Pragmatist
From today's edition of Inside Higher Education: In remarks kicking off a White House forum on job creation and the economy, President Obama repeatedly stressed the role of higher education.…
Imitation and the Art of Flattery: the Cold War of the Imagination
Washington, Connecticut. At the end of his introduction to a re-publication of the Marquis de Custine’s "Empire of the Czar, A Journey Through Eternal Russia," George F. Kennan recalls a…
Sewers and Leashes: A Local Story
Hillsdale, MI. This is a true story. It happened once upon a time in a place I do not now live. After an arduous campaign I was elected to the…
The Grinch Who Moved Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving---or pre-Christmas, as it is known in marketing circles---is upon us, and between reading Truman Capote ("A Thanksgiving Visitor") and Lydia Maria Child ("Thanksgiving Day") and tossing around the football…
The Decline of David Brooksian Civilization
Claremont, CA. Men of Western civilization, take note: David Brooks thinks that you – and he – are done for. In a recent exchange with Gail Collins, published on The…
Independent Populists?
Michael Lind over at Salon suggests a disparity between populism and the "liberal left." Given Sarah Plain's new book, in which she continues to posture as a populist (see Rod…
Wendell Berry on the Old Victrola
Wendell Berry will appear on this morning's Diane Rehm Show. He is scheduled for the second hour of the show, beginning at 11 a.m. If you don't receive the show…