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Pro-Taliban Feminists?

They’re back. The New York Times headline reads, ” American Antiwar Movement Plans an Autumn Campaign Against Policies on Afghanistan .” “A restive antiwar movement, largely dormant since the election of Barack Obama,” we are told, “is preparing a nationwide campaign . . . . Continue Reading »

Can Haiku Be Written in English?

Maybe not: It’s commonly said among English writers that a haiku is a syllabic poem with lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively. This is not, in fact, true, and thinking through why it is not raises some interesting questions about language and poem forms. . . . . Continue Reading »

Final August Aphorism

The languid month has run its course, and I’ve pretty much run out of worthwhile aphorisms.  Maybe I ran out awhile ago.  In any event, I have a final bon mot that Russ Saltzman sent me a couple of weeks ago. Never become so cynical as to believe that things can’t get worse. . . . . Continue Reading »

Conservatives and Cultural Anxiety

Conservative anxieties about embracing and entering culture—by which we mostly mean Hollywood—seem to have subsided in recent years. Emboldened by film successes like The Passion of the Christ, conservatives seem to be waking up to the possibility of a Tinsletown that is more amenable to . . . . Continue Reading »

The Soul of Self-Government

Charles Kesler has recently provided another of his brilliant and bracing synopses of the American political scene , with a view to summoning conservatives to “another epic struggle, a battle for America’s soul, a battle that will determine whether free government will survive.” I am . . . . Continue Reading »

Fr. Neuhaus on IRD and America

The Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD) recently made available an address Fr. Richard John Neuhaus first delivered in 1995 . In reflecting on the role of IRD, Fr. Neuhaus provides some particularly intriguing and provocative thoughts on the role of religion in America: If you go back and . . . . Continue Reading »

Roger Scruton on Neurononsense

Philosopher Roger Scruton laments the reductionism that often accompanies new developments in neuroscience: I read this stuff with mounting scepticism, especially now, when the overblown celebrations of Darwin’s anniversary have begun to stick in the throat. I am reminded of the street . . . . Continue Reading »

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