Articles 355
Nation at the Crossroads
RINGOES, NJ. The world is hunkered down. For some months now we have been holding our collective breath, waiting to see if the financial meltdown is going to stabilize or…
Life in Circle Six
Irving, Texas. G. K. Chesterton begins his Utopia of Usurers with a description of a world in which all art has become commercial art. He does not find it out…
Ohio’s Backyard Scientist
"Would that thou couldst last for aye, Merry, ever-merry May!" William D. Gallagher (the forgotten Ohio poet) BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY--The clouds of April have scattered, so look skyward (while keeping…
Farm Stories: The Flag of Rough Branch
Drilling with the Pitchfork (photo by AMS) JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. The call came from the neighbor yesterday at about four in the afternoon. Your cows are out. Damn! I was…
Why we do not own a Television
April was "Media Awareness Month" at our sons' school. I took a couple weeks off from the Porch, and I also published a first draft of this piece in the…
Canon Fodder I: Uncle Remus
New Castle, Kentucky. We can't talk about the economy all the time, or anyway I can't. Today instead I want to sing a song of the literature of place--and my refrain is,…
Taking Secession Seriously–At Last
Mt. Pleasant, SC--As little as I wished to make my first post for FPR an overtly political essay on contemporary affairs--I had meant to rumination growing up in a small…
By the Book
My piece, titled as above, on the future of publishing, and particularly "conservative" publishing, is up now for subscribers at the American Conservative. You should subscribe. It's worth it --…
I Love Rock and Roll
Claremont, CA - The first thing you see, when you enter the Memphis Rock N Soul Museum, is a front porch. This front porch is a dilapidated thing, decorated with…
Causes and Lessons of the Current Economic Crisis
ERIE, PA. As a new contributor to the Front Porch Republic, I would like to thank Mark Mitchell for his invitation to participate in what is shaping up to be…
Walking to School, Slackerdom, and Other Revolutionary Acts
Wichita, KS I was born in 1968, and my childhood was the 1970s. My family lived, during those years, in five different homes (all in the same county, though, so…
A Call to Arms
JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. The review below was first published in the Intercollegiate Review in the fall of 2006. Look Homeward, America was my first introduction to the work of the…
Obama’s Small Town Values – Not
I posted this piece at What I Saw In America on Friday last; for any readers of both these sites, I apologize for the redundancy. However, I think this posting…
I Want to Be a Consumer
A bit of doggerel from Punch Magazine (25 April 1934). I Want to Be a Consumer “And what do you mean to be?” The kind old Bishop said As he…
Abraham Lincoln and the Destruction of Place
In case you missed it, 2009 is the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Earlier this week I participated in a roundtable discussion on Lincoln’s legacy sponsored by Messiah College and…
Walkaway
In addition to frequent searches that lead people to an earlier posting on "monoculture" on my site "What I Saw in America," among the most frequently searched words that bring…
Letter from a Traditional Conservative
Devon, PA. Upon reading an essay of Patrick Deneen's, a close and dear relative recently wrote me, protesting the uselessness of the terms "liberal" and "conservative." They are simplifying terms, and inadequate…
Home-Making for Home-Coming
RINGOES, NJ. You’ve seen the commercials.A middle-aged couple drops their son off at college. As they drive away, nest now empty, they feign sorrow. Quickly, though, their mournful countenances are…
Modernity, Fecundity, and Being a Competent Geek
Wichita, KS. Not too long ago, I asked my readers at my main blog just what sort of geek I should be. (The answer, in case it wasn't apparent at…
Tea Party
Last week's motley collection of protests against taxation, centralization and the Government are now old news, but their spirit remains perennially relevant. Invoked in the name of the original "Boston…
Price, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS.* In 1947, two titans of 20th-century economic theory, Ludwig von Mises and Wilhelm Röpke, met in Röpke's home of Geneva, Switzerland. During the war, the Genevan fathers coped…
To Hell with Earth Day; Long Live Arbor Day!
Once upon a time in America, schoolchildren celebrated a lovely little holiday called Arbor Day. The young scholars would sing songs about Johnny Appleseed, recite Joyce Kilmer into the ground,…
Feed Fish to the Leviathan
Devon, PA. Stanley Fish has taken up a lot of public space during his career, but never has he darkened the depths in such monstrous fashion as he does in…
Money Talks, But It Can’t Sing and Dance and It Can’t Walk
George Will, who once upon a time long ago was capable of making truly thoughtful and important contributions to discussions over liberalism and conservatism in America, but who has, unfortunately,…