Articles Archive
A Patched Fool
Jody Bottum says the problem with localists is that they're all raving racists. O goody, let's get down to brass tacks. It's bizzare how Bottom's problem with localism is traceable once again to…
The Old School
My review of Jonathan Zimmerman's Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory appears in today's Wall Street Journal ("In One Room, Many Advantages"). The book is well worth…
Southern Adulteration
Devon, PA. I have had only a few hours to appreciate the spectacle of talking-heads devouring the carrion of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's political career, but have heard thrice…
Let’s Get Rid of the Economy of Growth
Cold Spring, NY--It's getting worse and worse, and the wizards don't have a clue. They don't even know the economy is broken-and can't be fixed. That's why they keep doing…
Talking Chicken
New Castle, Kentucky. "Simplify, simplify," said Henry David Thoreau in one of his more peaceable moments, and I repeat it through gritted teeth as I watch the layered complexity that is Mr. Obama's solution…
You might be a pomocon if you watch Baywatch reruns because of the “virtuous” lifeguards.
Hey, JP opened the door.
Capitalism as an Unnatural System
Ever since capitalism made its appearance in the late Middle Ages and came to dominate both production and politics in the late 18th century, there has been a vigorous debate…
Michael Jackson’s Front Porch Moment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmXP9Y1HdWE Okay, so he never did go back to Indiana, back to where he started from. And it's too bad the Jackson 5 didn't cover Meredith Willson's Gary, Indiana.
Teenagers, Gratitude, and a Culture of Affluence
Holland, MI. Like many readers, or perhaps more accurately, like many readers with children, I read with great interest Mark Mitchell’s piece on “Cultivating Gratitude.” As the father of three…
Robert Nisbet’s Quest
Seattle, WA Robert Nisbet's 1953 book The Quest for Community has rightfully achieved that rare and estimable status of "classic." What Nisbet saw more clearly than most of his contemporaries …
Searching for a Usable Past
JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. My review of Richard Quinney's Of Time and Place, originally published in the University Bookman: The American experience has always existed in tension with, if not outright…
Brave New Techno Ignorance
I just deleted the following spam from our comment cache. "We have just added your latest post 'Teenagers, Gratitude, and a Culture of Affluence' to our Directory of Car Insurance. [blah…
An Actually Interesting Debate
Most of the debates within the "conservative" wing today are yawners. They pit one brand of worn-out "conservatism" against another (often with the assistance of screeds on talk radio), with…
Descartes, Algebra, and Alienation
Democratizing eighth-grade algebra promotes social justice. (Brookings Institution) Money, mechanization, algebra. The three monsters of contemporary civilization. Complete analogy. (Simone Weil) Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. There are a lot of conspiracy…
Play Ball! Tell Stories!
BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY---The Muckdogs open tonight against the cursed Auburn Doubledays. It's seventy years now that we've had a professional baseball team in Batavia, and no one knows more about…
Front Porch Politics and Putting a Voice with the Black Hat
An interesting case of local activism. And bonus, hear me discuss the issue on the local KC talk show.
Is the Devil From Paris?
Irving, Texas. Is the devil from Paris? Many people seem to think so. And if not the devil himself, then at least a particular demon, one whose name is not…
So: Are We Hypocrites?
Claremont, CA. A student has confronted me about Front Porch Republic. So now I'm writing the post that I've known I would have to write someday. "It just doesn't seem…
Cultivating Gratitude
Blairsville, GA. Recently I was with a friend whose oldest son, having just completed his junior year, is home from college. The young man has not yet found a summer…
Notes from the Congress for the New Urbanism
DENVER, COLORADO. It seems like only yesterday that the New Urbanism was really new. But this weekend, with its annual meeting here in Denver, the Congress for the New Urbanism…
Speaking of Illich
I neglected to comment on the Illich post when it was timely (funny how the internet compresses time and reduces us all to servants of what Berry called the "absolute…
Brave New World Reconsidered: A Tale of Two Gnosticisms
Many who are alarmed at the prospect of the “abolition of man” have found in Huxley’s Brave New World a dark and salutary warning – an imaginative rendering of our…
Hospitality in a World Immune to Grace
Media, PA. Ladies and gentlemen, Ivan Illich is dead. Long may he live. I don’t mean Tolstoy’s famous fictional decedent, Ivan Ilyich, although he is certainly dead, too. No, in…
Communitarianism, Conservatism, Populism and Localism: An Updated Survey
Wichita, KS [Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Michael Sandel's giving of the prestigious Reith Lectures for the BBC (hat tip: the ever-watchful Harry Brighouse at Crooked Timber) has prompted me…
