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Why Dictators Fear Artists

Although it has become a somewhat sappy and romanticized notion, the individual artist really does pose a threat to all totalitarian regimes. The romance should not take away from the reality of the artist’s power. Yosif Feyginberg’s 2002 documentary Glenn Gould: The Russian Journey . . . . Continue Reading »

Culture Matters

Having accepted Thomas Sowell’s great thesis that differences among peoples commonly attributed to race really reflect culture, I was struck by two CDs that have recently appeared. Both contain American vernacular music sung by men trained in the classical operatic tradition.One is Thomas . . . . Continue Reading »

The First Openly Muslim Priest

The day before the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops voted to confirm the church’s first openly gay bishop in the late summer of 2003, conservative humor website ScrappleFace satirized the move with a piece entitled " Episcopal Church Appoints First Openly-Muslim Bishop ." It . . . . Continue Reading »

Romney’s Pornography Dilemma

The headline in the New York Times reads " Romney Criticized for Hotel Pornography ," which makes it sound as though the Republican presidential candidate had been caught watching dirty movies in his hotel room.The reality is that, from 1992 to 2001, Romney was a director of Marriott . . . . Continue Reading »

The Jewishness of the Roman Rite

Summorum Pontificum , the motu proprio whereby the pope grants a universal indult for the celebration of Mass according to the 1962 missal, was promulgated on Saturday in Latin without, at least yet, being accompanied by official translations into modern languages. That fact, like the very . . . . Continue Reading »

Illegal Immigration and Our Corruption

With the failure of the immigration bill still causing murmurs across the nation, the topic of immigration, legal and illegal, has finally moved to the front burner of American politics. And while most frequently thought a problem in the big cities of such states as California, Arizona, and Texas, . . . . Continue Reading »

A Hatchet Job

We have come to rely on Alan Wolfe as just the sort of "expert" on religion who can be trusted to keep America safe from the kinds of people who read First Things . Now he is branching out. A recent issue of the New Republic features his review of The Essential Russell Kirk: Selected . . . . Continue Reading »

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