Ross Douthat of the Atlantic has been filling in as a guest editor on Andrew Sullivan’s blog. Here are wise words on confronting the lacrimae rerum that attend our journey through this shadowed vale: In a year of war, tsunami and hurricane, what just happened in the West Virginia mine might . . . . Continue Reading »
The "Christmas wars" of the last several months—When does the season, whatever it is called, begin?—occasioned commentaries beyond numbering. Some wise things were said, but among the dumbest of the dumb things said, and said repeatedly, was that the whole thing was made up by . . . . Continue Reading »
Milton Himmelfarb passed away this week in his eighty-eighth year. A contributor to F IRST T HINGS and many other magazines, particularly Commentary , he was a longtime veteran of the American Jewish Committee. An editor of Jewish yearbooks, author of The Jews of Modernity (1973), a Reagan . . . . Continue Reading »
This weekend, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting story about Joshua Hochschild, an assistant professor of medieval philosophy, who was recently fired from the evangelical Wheaton College for his conversion to Catholicism. It’s well known among journalists that one of the most strictly . . . . Continue Reading »
( The following was delivered upon the occasion of Prof. George’s acceptance of the Philip Merrill Award bestowed by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. ) So tonight we celebrate ACTA and the great cause of higher education reform for which it fights. Buy why does it fight? Why do we . . . . Continue Reading »
“The Christ-haunted South.” Flannery O’Connor’s phrase came to mind, said a friend, upon reading this report from UPI: “Unconsecrated communion wafers are growing in popularity as a snack food throughout Quebec, alongside potato chips and popcorn on supermarket . . . . Continue Reading »
The Chronicle of Higher Education, being the trade journal of higher education, is one of those publications one reads, not because one wants to, but because one he has to. It is, in its own way, a faithful register of all that is trendy and profitable in the field, and an influential arbiter of . . . . Continue Reading »
I’m not sure we’re giving Jeffrey Hart his due. The book chapter he published in the Wall Street Journal , in which he advised conservatives to surrender to the irreversible fact of Roe v. Wade , has received a number of powerful corrections on the blog of the New Criterion , together . . . . Continue Reading »
In a December 30 posting in this space, I commented on some intemperate and inaccurate remarks by Jeffrey Hart of Dartmouth. Referring to the F IRST T HINGS symposium, “The End of Democracy?”, he described me as a “Jacobinical priest” and “easy chair . . . . Continue Reading »
One more word on that long searched-for Chesterton quote. And since Dale Ahlquist is, after all, the president of the American Chesterton Society, perhaps this can be the last word. Unless, of course, somebody comes up with a find that has eluded so many others. Mr. Ahlquist writes: Dear Fr. . . . . Continue Reading »