Articles 356
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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…
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. …
Against “American” Home Ownership
Devon, PA. Thomas J. Sugrue's new article in the Wall Street Journal proves considerably more nuanced and insightful than its headline and summary suggest. Sugrue, an University of Pennsylvania historian,…
Golf in the Modest Republic
Holland, MI. I’ve been fortunate enough to golf a number of courses that have been consistently ranked in “Top 100” lists, and recently I had an opportunity to play Crystal…
Road Rage
For readers tuning into the comments sections of FPR (where some of our best material lies), there was an extremely interesting and instructive discussion of the cost, and more generally…
The Right Way to Kick a Football
My father played for the Philadelphia Eagles. He didn’t particularly want to: In 1933, 1934, and 1935 the Eagles were a new “franchise” in the National Football League and not…
The Fear Monger’s Shop
One of the more interesting “advertisers” on A Prairie Home Companion is the “Fear-Monger's Shop,” catering to all your phobia needs. Garrison Keillor is of course satirizing what commercial advertisers…
Closing the Circle: An Economy of Values, and Where to Look for It
It is no surprise that many of us connected with FPR welcomed the release in mid July of Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate. As John Médaille and…
Making (a Virtue of) Vice
Yet more news from the hustings: a growing number of people are growing their own tobacco for their own consumption. Bully for them - depriving the beast of "sin taxes"…
Warren Oates, Constitutional Anarchist
From The American Conservative---you really should subscribe, you know---my piece (www.amconmag.com/article/2009/sep/01/00050/) on the great Kentucky actor Warren Oates.