Articles Archive
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…
Localist Principles, Populist Words (or, The Problem Defined)
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] I suppose Front Porch Republic is experiencing growing pains, because all the talk lately is about "what's next?"--what cause, what platform, what principles or agenda…
Hey All You in the Southside Johnny State
Father Ian Boyd, C.S.B., great Chestertonian and Saskatchewan patriot, will speak on "Chesterton and America" at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, December 2, in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at Seton…
Nuts
"What a good country or a good squirrel should be doing is stashing away nuts for the winter. The United States is not only not saving nuts, it’s eating the…
Is America Ungovernable?
Otto von Bismark, the 19th century Iron Chancellor and architect of modern Germany, once remarked that “If you like law and sausages, you shouldn't watch either being made.” One could…
Raw Milk Clubs
Apparently, agrarianism is the new urbanism for a growing number of twenty-somethings. Maybe the desire for a plot of one's own is neither so quaint nor so rural as some…
Education as Moral Formation: A Localist Proposal
Holland, MI. I heard many fine presentations at Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Ethics and Culture from November 12-14, and one in particular that piqued my interest was…
The Control of Nature
As reported in today's New York Times, New Orleans plaintiffs in a civil suit against the U.S. Government are elated at a ruling that has held the Government liable for…