Uncategorized 1269

Of all the downsides attendant to turning fifty, none annoys quite so much as receiving membership offers from the AARP. The junk mail invites a response to the effect that…

On Monday, June 11, I will be lecturing as part of the marvelous "Monteagle Sunday School Assembly," a longstanding summer community based in Chattanooga, TN. Originally inspired by the Chautauqua…

Last November, FPR readers may recall, some of our writers held a panel discussion on The Place of Education at the University of Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture's…

Harvey Rosenblum, Director of Research for the Dallas Fed, has written an interesting if flawed report on the status of "Too Big to Fail" and the early results of the…

Erstwhile Porcher Caleb Stegall has a fine piece in The Humane Vision of Wendell Berry where he discusses the difference between convivial and instrumental uses of technology, the former where technology…

Devon, PA.  Outside of a few magazines and other fora on the conservative and collectivist fringe, one seldom hears the opinion that the banking crisis of 2008 was brought about…

See Rod Dreher's interview of Congressman Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), one of the few Congressmen who would feel right at home on the porch. Here's a snippet, but read it all.…

Published recently in The American Conservative. The book contains essays by such writers as Allan Carlson, Patrick Deneen, Jason Peters, Caleb Stegall, Rod Dreher, and D. G. Hart. Readers of…

Stephen Marche has written an interesting piece in the May Atlantic on how facebook is making us lonely. There is a good deal to comment on here, and I'm not particularly inclined…

On Sunday, Wendell Berry spoke at The National Cathedral. You can see that event here. On Monday, he delivered the Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities. The…

Devon, PA.  In the first months of FPR's existence, I wrote a short essay on George Herbert, secularization, and devotion.  I return to that subject by a different avenue in…

The Academy of Philosophy and Letters will be holding its annual meeting in Baltimore  from June 15-17. The theme this year is "Globalization and the Fragmenting of America: The Problem…

A mysterious author by the name of "J," a writer at the suspiciously derivatively-titled website "Back Porch Republic," has posted a thoughtful and provocative examination of "The Hunger Games" as…

Nowhere is this more true than in the Catholic Church, as argued in today's WSJ by Anne Hendershott and Christopher White. Renewal requires holiness, not accommodation.

The place and date of Front Porch Republic's second annual conference have been set. We'll get together on Saturday, September 15, at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. We will once…

“If you’ve never worked a tradeshow booth,” a business pal once remarked to me, “you’re not a real American.” True dat. At the Good Food Festival and Conference in Chicago…

Devon, PA.  My talk from the annual Ciceronian Society Conference, held in joy and good company last weekend at the University of Virginia, has now been published on the Anamnesis website.  The…

I’m delighted to note the publication of Surpassing Pleasure (Porcupine’s Quill: http://porcupinesquill.ca), a collection of poetry by John Slater, a Cistercian who is known within his order as Brother Isaac.…

Putting Sam Peckinpah in his place: "Peckinpah Country" (from The American Conservative).

Ron Paul should go to Wisconsin and make a splash.

The dual fan debate.

For those in the D.C. area, I will be speaking at the National Cathedral on Sunday morning at 10:10. The topic is "The State of Political Geography: Where Do We…

Don't miss Brad Birzer's superbly thoughtful essay "Christian Humanists Challenge the Machine." He provides a lucid historical and philosophical roadmap tracing the anti-humanism of the modern impulse of mastery, beginning…

If you were intrigued by the song about Edward Abbey posted by Bill Kauffman, this three part interview with Abbey might be of interest. There is plenty of food for thought…