Articles Archive
Sniped
The boys at Taki's Mag are sniping and griping about FPR (how could they have missed our passing case of feminism!?). That's fine, I suppose, and many of the critiques…
Swine Flu’s Real Exposure
Claremont, CA. The most haunting, awful scenes in Thucydides’s history of the Pelopponesian war are those describing the Athenian plague. The plague emerged in the second year of the war,…
John Gardner’s October Night
"I think a writer who leaves his roots leaves any hope of writing importantly"---John Gardner Those so favored by the Good Lord as to be within listening distance of Batavia,…
Basque in It
BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY. I have never really given a damn about my own mongrel ethnicity—I care about place, not race—and besides, there are many mysteries to which I don’t particularly…
Subsidizing Localism?
A great post over at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen by "Will." Beyond his reliance on a clearly excellent source (ahem), I strongly endorse his closing reflection: Given the inter-connectedness…
The Booth Tarkington Appreciation Society
Hillsdale, MI. I propose the creation of TBTAS, “The Booth Tarkington Appreciation Society.” If we take the liberties some have with the Tetragrammaton (Y*H*W*H) and pronounce it “yahway,” we could…
Where Have all the Iowans Gone?
In today's Wall Street Journal, I review Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What it Means for America by Patrick J. Carr and Maria J. Kefalas: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704322004574480250107329602-lMyQjAxMDA5MDEwOTExNDkyWj.html
It’s Really Come To This.
Claremont, CA. This is just too good. Driving near Universal City last weekend, I saw a sign for what is possibly the most mind-blowing business concept I have ever encountered…
My Hair, My Self?
Cincinnati, OH. Standing before the dripping bathroom mirror while the shower haze slowly melts, I’m startled once again that my beard’s gone missing. It lasted seven years – longer than any…
Sharing the Kids Equally
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS So, Melissa has flown the coop, escaping to Washington D.C. for the next four days to hang out with friends old and new,…
Update to Sharing the Children Equally
One of America's more interesting and less predictable feminist public intellectual voices, Arlie Hochschild, has a few things to say about the general topic of family life and child care…
Ivy Guilt and Heartland Vice
Finally, a reckoning: Drew Gilpin Faust, President of Harvard, fesses up: At this moment in our history, universities might well ask if they have in fact done enough to raise…
Academic Porn
The latest from the University of Maryland is a brohaha over the effort by a state legislator to discourage (through the threat of withholding funding) the showing of pornographic films…
Frank Rich Slams Harvard
Frank Rich goes after the "go-go" ethos that has been deeply etched in our elite institutions and advanced by the cultural elite - regardless of Party - over the past…
Dirt, Dollars, and Devices
Holland, MI. I confess: I hate farms. I hate everything about them. I hate the malodorous smells that take days to wash off. I hate the all-pervasive dirt which invades…
Jib Jab on Big Box Mart
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The Bar Jester Chronicles 7: Morning Cyanide
Rock Island, IL “Morning Cyanide” is a fun game for the whole family. The best thing about it is this: not everyone has to be awake at the same time…
Theonomist Doesn’t Even Rhyme with Terrorist
A while back the History News Network featured part of a Harper’s interview with Max Blumenthal, the author of the new book, Republican Gomorrah (published by Nation Books). This snippet…
Conservatism as Literary Movement
Devon, PA. Last month, I alerted FPR readers to the appearance of the first part of my essay, "Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic," in First Principles. The primary…
The Old College Try
Claremont, CA. The New York Times has joined a host of other publications asking the question: Is college worth it? And again, just like every time I read an article…
Is Economics a Science?
One salient fact about this recession is that 90% of the working economists missed the warning signs, and those who predicted a disaster were marginalized and ridiculed. This, however, is…
Defending Lasch, Left and/or Right
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS. No one, I think, has ever summed up the longing for a life with front porches--the localist longing which is this blog's raison…
Making Progress?
Writing on the occasion of Ronald Reagan's death, the NY Times columnist David Brooks articulated the roots of Reagan's success in as accurate and succinct a way as I've seen.…
Eric Miller on The Lost Cause of the Midwest
Devon, PA. If you have not encountered Eric Miller's savage indignation elsewhere, here is a fine place to start: his review of David S. Brown's Beyond the Frontier: The Midwestern…