Articles 356
The Polls of Nowhere
Nowhere, America Today, the subjects of the Assimilated Provinces of Megalomerica will go to the polls to vote. It's mostly a formality, since the polls have already come to them,…
The Monday Morning Brass Spittoon: Roundtable on the Elections
While most of our writers are self-described conservatives, FPR has been, for the most part, a non-partisan enterprise. This is in no small part due to our shared conviction that…
Conservatism, Localism, and the Mittelpolitan Problem
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] This morning, I completed a series of lectures and discussions with a local civic group here in Wichita. The topic for this morning was the…
What Will $100 Million Buy You?
When $100 million is being spent on the governor and senate campaigns in their state, Michiganders might want to sit up and take notice.
The Monday Morning Brass Spittoon: Roundtable on The Synod on the Family
The idea of the family has, since our inception, been one Porchers are particularly keen to defend. The family is a natural, integral, and inviolable unit whose very existence…
Patriotism in Little
Louisville, Kentucky. One of the things I found on moving home to Kentucky 22 years ago is that our love of country is a very little and very local thing.…
Smitten With The Mitten: Beer in SW Michigan
Holland, MI Most “beer ranking lists” have Michigan somewhere in the top 5 of best beer states. I don’t need a list to tell me that I already know Michigan…
News from Nowhere
Providence, RI There are in these recent days at least three matters of great importance confronting my beloved land, The Assimilated Provinces of Megalomerica. They are related to one another.…
The Little Way of Raymond Chandler
Or, "Shaken and Stirred: The Cosmopolitan, the City, and the Regime of God" Queens, NY The following essay was presented at FPR's annual conference in Louisville on September 27. What…
The Loss of a Culture of Personhood and the End of Limited Government
Philadelphia, PA The idea and practice of limited government begins with Christianity. Pagan antiquity could not imagine such a thing, because there was no distinction between religion and governance. …
City Liberty, Country Liberty
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] It's clear to me that one of the primary things people (in the United States, certainly, but also elsewhere) think about when trying to understand…
Texting: Why I Resolve to Avoid It
Recently I travelled to Louisville to attend the Front Porch Republic conference. The experience was memorable in several ways—not least of all in the outstanding presentations and remarkable fellowship. It…
Seeing Our (Non-Cosmopolitan) Selves
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Some years ago, some of the folks behind F5, an alternative weekly newspaper here in Wichita, started a different (and, as it turned out, short-lived)…
Archimedean Points, Above and Below
“To the famous Archimedean boast: ‘Give me whereon to stand and I will move the world.’. Rabelais answers: ‘I move with my ship; and the waves of the world give…
Life in the Kolache Belt: Reflections from the Intersection of Food, Faith, Farming, and Fracking
In some ways, the little farming community of Hallettsville where I have spent a writing sabbatical still resides in a simpler time. Czechs and Germans came in the 1800s and…
What Would the Father of Nationalism Say About Scottish Independence?
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] On Thursday, voters in Scotland will go to the polls and either choose "Yes," meaning that they want Scotland to become an independent state, or…
Please Block the Way: Campaigning Against Courtesy
Japanese rail commuters ride train station escalators the way you might expect: those who are in no hurry stand to the right, leaving a ‘passing lane’ for those who walk…
Why I Won’t Participate in the Ice-Bucket Challenge
Holland, MI I can’t say I’m overly conversant with the history of charitable giving in America, but I can’t recall something taking off quite like this “ice bucket challenge.” In…
The Demise of Virtue in Virtual America (Front Porch Republic Books)
Entrance:Virtual America’s Convention Hall Demise—1) the conveyance of an estate 2) transfer of the sovereignty to a successor 3) a: death b: cessation of existence or…
The Limits of the Language of Limits
Holland, MI Over at the Postmodern Conservative, Peter Lawler has been writing quite a bit about Robin Williams, and specifically the movie Dead Poets Society (which, Peter and I agree, isn’t…
Are Evangelical Colleges Parochial?
Hillsdale, Michigan. Readers may recall the dustup earlier in the summer when Peter Conn prompted pious gasps for suggesting that institutions like Wheaton College (the evangelical one) should not be…
From the Fire back into the Pan
Hillsdale, Michigan. Three years ago or so when the missus and I moved to Michigan from Philadelphia, we wondered how we would manage. Not only is the state's economy at…
Libertarianism, Paternalism, and Pot
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] From 2003 to 2005, we lived in Craighead County, Arkansas, while I taught at Arkansas State University. Craighead was a dry county, having voted many…
Travel in the Magic City
This summer I moved to a new neighborhood that happens to be much nearer the freeway that divides my city. My house is less than a mile from an on-ramp,…
