The Editors
Articles by The Editors
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…
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…
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…
The Young and the Insurance-Less
Claremont, CA. In the current conversation on health care, we often hear that the crises of costs and coverage are problems that come with an aging population. OK. Fine. What’s…
… Neither Proud Nor Lonely
C.S. Lewis noted that “If you had asked Lazamon or Chaucer ‘Why do you not make up a brand-new story of your own?’ I think they might have replied (in…
Homo Economicus
On today’s campuses, the reigning principle on most academic matters is to avoid meddling in the affairs of others. Beyond very broad curricular requirements, we are to allow respective experts…
Ethos or Movement?
Overheard last night at the American Spectator Gala. "Conservatism must remain a movement. If it ceases to be a movement, it will become nothing more than an ethos." --R. Emmett…
Noted Without Comment
"People concerned with the rights of unborn fetuses should be more concerned with the needs of children. No child could possibly get what he or she needs in a two…
Iron Mountain
Hillsdale, MI. Today the folks at NPR are having a grand old time remembering the Fall of the Wall. German rockers, Hungarian revolutionaries, Romanian artists--many stories of suffering and heroism,…
A Global Mea Culpa
I screwed up but I don’t know how to apologize to the parties involved. In this age of global communication, highspeed networks, and outsourcing, the people who I offended are…
False Economics and Malignant Growth
Patrick Deneen's excellent post this morning on populism, directly invoking Kansas, gives me the occassion to repost a short essay I wrote last year for my on again off again (more off…
What’s Not the Matter With Kansas
Tonight I happened to attend a pair of extremely interesting, and strikingly juxtaposed, events. The first was a Bradley Lecture at AEI delivered by Peter Berkowitz entited "The New Progressivism."…
Dreher Reviews Palin
Quote: Palin positions herself as a populist, but her populism is entirely cultural. She never misses an opportunity to tell us how weepy she gets when she thinks about our…
The Fall of the Wall
In my misspent youth, I was a politician. And in my role as a politician, I did all the things that politicians do. Well, not all the things; I say…
Ah, Let the Courts Do it
In the continuing argument over what should or shouldn't be the responsibility of the government--and what government, whether local or state or national, should be responsible for it--there is, I…