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American Pilgrimage
We began just after daybreak. One by one, the brigades filed out of the parking lot, each singing a different hymn. Turning away from the water, the lengthening line...
Catholic America
Continental Ambitions: Roman Catholics in North Americaby kevin starrignatius, 675 pages, $34.95 In The Good Shepherd, the 2006 spy film, mobster Joseph Palmi asks CIA agent (and stereotypical WASP)...
Gaul Divided
The January 7, 2015 terrorist attacks provoked the largest demonstrations in France since the liberation of Paris. The impressive spectacle of many thousands calling themselves “Charlie” suggests that the...
Sunset
sunset across bare hills lights the treetops on the far side of the road
American Cicero by Bradley J. Birzer
American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll by bradley j. birzer isi, 230 pages, $25 Bradley Birzer’s new book, American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll, suggests that Hillsdale...
Review of The Devil Reads Derrida
The Devil Reads Derrida: And Other Essays on the University, the Church, Politics, and the Arts by James K.A. Smith Eerdmans, 160 pages, $18 n Some may dismiss James...
Review of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties by Jonathan Leaf Regnery, 247 pages, $19.95 n “What a shrill, pointless decade,” said The Simpson’ s fictional news anchor Kent Brockman...
Reverence for Words: A Case Against Blogging
Someone recently encouraged me to write more, because “words aren’t lifeblood. Words are cheap.” Words are certainly held cheap, and the blogosphere has drastically lowered the going rate. This...
Re: First Thoughts on Caritas in Veritate, #6
Unlike Joseph , I think social conservatism and economic leftism (if “leftism” means willingness to significantly restrict trade) are very easy to reconcile on the level of philosophy and,...
Polite Showdown at National Press Club
“Real disagreement is a rare achievement, because so much of what passes for disagreement is really just confusion.” So said moderator Mary Ann Glendon (quoting John Courtney Murray) at...
Re: Against Abortion, Not Just Abortion Rights
You make some good points , Nick, but I still support the current journalistic usage of describing pro-lifers as “opponents of abortion rights.” Of course, it is probably true...
Real Neo-Paganism?
A friend sent me this piece by Alain de Botton celebrating pessimism, describing it as “your kind of article.” Leaving aside what this is meant to imply about me,...
Ground Rules for Civil Discourse
Diogenes proposes an apt analogy : I see nothing wrong with swatting flies. Let’s say that you have a different opinion. You think the lives of flies are sacred,...
A Divided Will
It’s a very odd thing (and many have remarked on its oddness) that in America today “conservatism” suggests both support for families and hostility to the claims of community,...
Schumer Speaks at Fordham Commencement
In her open letter declining the Laetare Medal, Prof. Mary Ann Glendon worried that Notre Dame’s decision to honor a strongly pro-abortion public figure would create a “trickle-down” effect...