Articles Archive
First They Came for the Horses
Jefferson County, Kansas. The following is a short excerpt from a longer essay in the forthcoming book The Humane Vision of Wendell Berry, co-edited by our own Mark Mitchell. Mark…
Thoughts on the Return of College Football
Holland, MI. The beginning of the college football season is the closest thing to a state holiday in Michigan. The release of the new auto line might have at one time…
Mobbed Up: When Turning the Other Cheek Only Gains Another Slap
Washington, Ct. In his wonderful 1974 book entitled The Roots of American Order, Russell Kirk remarks upon the British and how they are able to "muddle through" periods of social…
What’s in a Name?
A new semester begins at Georgetown and around the country, a delicious time of early Fall anticipation of possibility and the unexpected - at least until the second week of…
A Long, Long Row
“Hontar: We must work in the world, your eminence. The world is thus. Altamirano: No, Señor Hontar. Thus have we made the world. Thus have I made it.” From The…
Building the Ownership Society
This is, at last, the last chapter of my new book, Equity and Equilibrium: The Political Economy of Distributism. I post it here because so many questions have arisen on…
Canaries in a Coal Mine? (APSA Reflections)
Wichita, KS I just returned from my near-annual pilgrimage to the American Political Science Association's annual convention...this year held, ironically enough, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I didn't mind--it meant I'd…
Back to School (Two Centuries Back)
Ah, September. The enervating heat of August is less, and school starts up again with all the hopefulness and energy of a new academic year. I still feel the year…
Novel, Myth, Reality: An Anatomy of Make-Believe
For Maureen Drdak, If she will accept it as part of our good conversation. Devon, PA. I shall be returning to the following subject frequently in the next few weeks: the need…
The Reluctant Southerner: Reflections on Home and History
Moorpark, CA. In October of 1997 I attended the Southern Historical Association’s convention in Atlanta because I wanted to hear Paul Conkin’s presidential address, “Hot, Humid, and Sad.” What I…
Six Months
We set up here on the porch six months ago today. Many words later, it's still a nice place to relax and shoot the breeze. To mark the occasion, a…
You’ve Got Mail. But Not For Long.
Claremont, CA. Tomato, the main character in Erika Lopez’s terrifically kooky Flaming Iguanas, loves the post office. She says, to be precise, that she has a “profound love for the…
News From Nowhere
Alexandria, VA I'm late to this, but have been spending the last few weeks of the summer break gorging on episodes of David Simon's acclaimed HBO series "The Wire." It…
Some Good Words
This fellow has some nice things to say about what we've been up to here on the porch. So let me return the favor and thank him, first, for noticing,…
Would Natty Bumpo Have a Crisis on his Hands if his Health Insurance Didn’t Cover Catasrophic Scalp Injury?
Washington, CT. The unanimously anointed Soothsayer of the American Republic, Alexis de Tocqueville is deservedly credited with divining the essential and lasting traits of the mythological American. That he did…
Some Permanent Things
Devon, PA. Here is a poem of mine that has just appeared in the poetry journal The Dark Horse and on Ernest Hilbert's ever amusing daily dose of literature and…
Dreher, Cheney, the Law
Our fellow Porcher Rod Dreher says Dick Cheney is an outlaw. Of course he is right, after a certain manner of speaking, and I have no particular comment one way…
Our CSA
Gretel Kauffman, 15, who is gonna be ten times the writer her old man ever was, reports from the magnificent Porter Farms on thebatavian.com: http://www.thebatavian.com/tags/porter-farms.
Art and Beauty against the Politicized Aesthetic
Devon, PA. During the next few months, I shall be writing on the centrality of beauty and art to a flourishing human life in general, to a sound theology, and…
Elmer Kelton, RIP
BURNED--OVER DISTRICT, NY---Elmer Kelton, the superb Texas novelist, died Saturday. In 2006 I visited Mr. Kelton in his San Angelo home; herewith, via the late American Enterprise, the result: Elmer…
Crolier Than Thou
Almost lost among the bicentennial celebrations of Lincoln’s and Darwin’s births is the centenary of Herbert Croly’s The Promise of American Life, a child of theirs and one of the…
Thrifty Americans Threaten Recovery
Kearneysville, WV. Things are looking up. According to the “experts” the global economy appears to be stabilizing. For what it's worth, the use of phrases like “economic Armageddon” are not…
The Real Death Panels
From the indispensable Joe Bageant: "Dottie is doping out the Romney [WV] medical establishment for me: 'These Indians or Pakis or whatever they are run the hospital like it was…
Beewilderment
Henry County, Kentucky. When the massive dieoffs of commercial bees first became evident a little less than three years ago, what is now called Colony Collapse Disorder was national news. …