Articles 356

The Euro is in trouble, and the news just keeps getting worse. There is now open talk of a post-Euro Europe, and such a turn would be a serious strike…

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 won Father or Husband of the…

Queens, NY -- The idea was to design an English village from scratch, within railroad-commuting distance of Manhattan.  It was meant to include homes for families of different income levels,…

One pernicious aspect of our age is its commitment to techne, the quasi-religious belief that all manner of things shall be made well with the right tool, expertise, specialist, or…

The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth was a civil rights legend and American hero. Born deep in the Jim Crow south during the 1920s, he grew from the humble, but durable roots…

The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has proved to be significant in its appeal – a majority of Americans support the movement, even though it has been less than articulate in…

Nashville, Tennessee -- This is a tale of two neighborhoods, a move from one to the other, and the inherent contradictions of gentrification. Our old neighborhood, close to downtown, was…

If we expect others to rely on our fairness and justice we must show that we rely on their fairness and justice. —Calvin Coolidge My wife and I recently vacationed…

We lived now in a wrecked forest, but this is only the beginning.

The Spring 2011 issue of The City includes an insightful piece by Wilfred McClay on “The Illusion of Mastery” in public policy. When the “will of God” no longer suffices…

Mayville, North Dakota -- You're looking northwest from our front porch in Mayville, North Dakota.  The picture, taken Sunday afternoon, November 13, casts doubt on what everyone knows about the…

Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess. — Ralph Waldo Emerson It is appropriate that Robin Rogers begins her informative essay on the state of philanthrocapitalism with a…

Lincoln, Nebraska -- When I first read about FPR's View from Your Porch series, I immediately decided to submit something. Then I thought about the view from my front porch.…

Late last week, The New Inquiry published an email exchange between Daniel Larison of The American Conservative and political theorist Corey Robin. Larison had taken issue with Robin's argument that…

Phoenix, Arizona -- Looking east from our front porch in Willo, you see the results of one of Phoenix's bigger Big Mistakes: the distant office towers on Central Avenue. Those…

Devon, PA.  Last week, Villanova University's Office of Mission and Ministry invited several faculty members to speak about the contributions of their religious faith traditions to the life and mission…

I want to see films for all ages, devoid of hip countercultural irony. I want to see low-budget teleplays in which today’s equivalent of Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland put…

Unnatural deeds do breed unnatural troubles.

In 2010, for the first time in our nation’s history, men constituted a minority of the nation’s workforce. Colleges typically boast a 60-40 female-male ratio. Women make up an ever-larger…

I am loathe to dissent from Mark Mitchell's thoughtful piece on American exceptionalism, true FroPo that I am. And I could simply add a comment to the post along with…

Like so many others, I spent too much time hoodwinked by the story of liberation, emancipation, and autonomy. What it meant to be free, I supposed, was to be free…

“I don’t care if you bring the president of Peru and a thousand police—we’ll be carried out dead before you dig here!”  Thus was the position of the twenty or…

I would submit that the new conception of rationality we need is really the old one, the humanist one.

If you are planning to run for president, here’s a word of advice: you must assert regularly and with great conviction your belief in American Exceptionalism. This seems especially true…