FPR Conference: A Fine Day in Emmitsburg
For those of you who were not able to be in Emmitsburg on Saturday, you missed a wonderful day. The rain stopped sometime in...
Cars, Individualism, and the Paradox of Freedom in a Mass Society
The automobile squared perfectly with a distinctive American ideal of freedom—freedom of mobility.
Vonnegut Laid(?) to Rest
Burned-Over District, NY---I’m reading Charles J. Shields’s absorbing new biography of Kurt Vonnegut, And So It Goes, and while its morose subject deservedly never...
A Tale of Two Symbolic Systems
I am angry with my friend; he has betrayed a secret of mine perhaps, or maybe instead he has formed an intimacy with persons...
Democracy and Coercion
Like other readers here at FPR, and across the web, I have been following the Great Salyer/Carter Debate of 2012 with much interest. I...
Homesick Nation
In 1852, the first piano arrived in Stockton, California. Imported from Cincinnati, it was a gift to Mary Kroh from her father, a minister...
The Closing of the Republican Mind (A Séance)
Lucky me, to be invited to try the beta version of Google’s newest and coolest app — Séance!
After a quick download and install, I...
An Open Letter to Karen Heller
Devon, PA. Cursed with a lousy city newspaper rife with good coupons, I sat down with my coffee this morning to read Karen Heller's...
Religious Liberty?
Alexandria, VA. Vast and even incalculable quantities of ink have already been spilled over the issue of the HHS mandate that religious organizations purchase...