The Editors
Articles by The Editors
History’s Long Road to Tyranny: Tocqueville and the End of Equality
Devon, PA. I have just finished teaching Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America with my freshmen students. In a way I have not witnessed before, they were compelled by his…
Baseball: Official Sport of the Front Porch Republic?
“Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball” –Jacques Barzun Grove City, PA. Opening Day, 2011 Dutifully following the links provided by FPR’s editors, I…
Wilson at Steubenville
Devon, PA. All you who are in the Pittsburg/eastern Ohio region would be most welcome at the talking and reading I shall give this Friday at the Franciscan University of…
Preserving Local Culture
Last Sunday I sat on the church porch, smoked my pipe and listened as some of our musicians played their guitars and mandolins. One of the songs we sang…
New FPR Feature: MLB predictions that you can take to Vegas…
Spring training is over, and I find myself at loose ends. Since moving to Phoenix a few years back, this has become the saddest time of the year for me.…
Whose Capitalism? Which Free Market?
Those Front Porchers in the Indianapolis-Fort Wayne area might want to attend the ISI Conference, "Whose Capitalism? Which Free Market?: Exploring the Moral Dimensions of the Market Economy," Saturday, April…
Requiem for the Chapel on the Farm
They say that funerals are for the living, which of course they are. The deceased, now lifeless, causes us to reflect upon their life as well as our own which…
A City upon a Hill
Conservatives are awfully fond of referring to America as a “city upon a hill;” it would be a wonderful thing if they actually made some attempt to understand what that…
Egypt, Tunisia, and the Failure of Neoclassical Economic Theory
The regime changes in Egypt and Tunisia have been hailed as victories for democracy, as proof of the liberalizing power of social networking media, as testimony to the power of…
What Rebelled First: The Chicken or the Egg?
Reason magazine's Jesse Walker notes an outbreak of nullification, dairy-style, in Maine: http://reason.com/blog/2011/03/22/food-nullification
The No-Suicide Pact
You cannot slit your wrists. It says so, right here in your employment contract. And besides, we've installed suicide netting on all of our buildings. So if you manage to…
A Tip of the Hat to Courtesy
Grand Rapids, MI. Strange things happen in the checkout lane. The elderly man at the head of the line was pausing to look at something in his hand. No, not…
The welfare state is a package deal
A lawyer friend who specializes in this kind of thing alerts me to this decision, handed down earlier this week in the Washington, D.C., U.S. District Court, ruling that no…
The New Lisbon?
In the wake of a series of catastrophes in the course of recent years - the financial crisis and the Great Recession; the Gulf oil "spill" as well as a…
On Competitiveness
“Competitiveness” is the new “proactive” – the word, to paraphrase The Simpsons, that dumb people are using to sound important. Or, more precisely, it’s the word that ostensibly smart people…
Between the Neo-Cons and the Libertarians
I'm a respondent in a Cato Unbound symposium devoted to a consideration of C. Bradley Thompson's recent book, Neoconservatism: An Obituary of an Idea, summarized at the Cato site in…
Bradley Manning, and my Biggest Disappointment in Obama (Yet)
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS Let me make two things clear: first, all things considered, I still think Barack Obama has been, and remains, a pretty decent president--certainly…
California Splitter
These days I care more about the results of local sporting events than I do national or out-of-state elections, but I was pleased that Golden Staters put Jerry Brown back…
Theses on Unions, Wisconsin, and Other Things
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS So last night, the Republicans in the Wisconsin state senate passed the bill which Governor Scott Walker has made the cornerstone of his…
The Song of Taillefer
Somerset, NJ. Legend has it that on the field of Hastings, as the forces of the Conqueror ascended a hill to engage the exhausted army of Harold II, a certain…
A Tale of One City
It was the best of times; It was the worst of times. Charles Dickens begins A Tale of Two Cities with a paradox, but one that is easily resolved because…
Shout Out
Let me recommend the latest issue - as well as really all issues - of the very fine journal "Perspectives on Political Science," edited by our friendly nemesis Peter Lawler,…
Return to Princeton
I'll be lecturing this Thursday, March 10, on the campus of Princeton University. My lecture title is entirely non-controversial: "The Conservative Case Against the Constitution." All are welcome, and I…
The Signs You Don’t See
Those who benefit most from collective bargaining limits in Wisconsin can’t speak as loudly as those who oppose such legislation.
