January 2023
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That Haunting Nihilism
I’m becoming an N. S. Lyons fan. “A Prophecy of Evil: Tolkien, Lewis, and Technocratic Nihilism” is…
Why China Loves Conservatives
Conservatives in the West see in the People’s Republic of China a daunting nemesis: an oppressive tech…
Anatomy of a Cancellation
It all began at the National Conservatism conference in Orlando on Halloween 2021. I spoke on family…
Repeal Title IX
June 23 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. A product…
My Madness
My brother Peter was a wondrous boy, the youngest, brightest, and bounciest of three kids: IQ 165,…
Letters
Bill Gates and Work Sam Kriss’s takedown of Bill Gates, and of money generally, is a provocative…
From Mecca to Rome
Joseph Fadelle was born in Iraq in the 1960s. During his mandatory service in the Iraqi army,…
The Progressive Scarlett O’Hara
In the summer of 2020, HBO removed Gone with the Wind (1939) from its streaming service. The…
Grace and Serendipity
When you’re a linguist, you get used to being asked how many languages you speak. But a…
Slippery Slopes
The Canadian government, with its leaders, functionaries, and even its medical acolytes, may well deserve to be…
Fun Trumps Fear
What to make of the midterm elections? You may, if you wish, lend your ear to the…
Political Religion
Bonhoeffer’s America: A Land Without Reformationby joel looperbaylor university, 272 pages, $54.99 There is no theology here,” Dietrich…
MacIntyre in Retreat
Alasdair MacIntyre: An Intellectual Biographyby émile perreau-saussine, translated by nathan j. pinkoskiuniversity of notre dame, 216 pages, $40…
Old Possum Ain’t Dead
Eliot After ‘The Waste Land’by robert crawfordfarrar, straus and giroux, 624 pages, $40 When T. S. Eliot…
Get Real
Nature as Guide: Wittgenstein and the Renewal of Moral Theologyby david goodill catholic university of america, 304 pages,…
Mystic Alcohology
Distilled: A Natural History of Spiritsby rob desalle and ian tattersallyale university, 328 pages, $30 Distilled is…
Briefly Noted
The Future of Orthodox Anglicanismedited by gerald mcdermottcrossway, 288 pages, $23 If you are even a little…
Evening, Washington Metro
Entrained, en masse, an ebb as from a beach:the tide drawn by the Capitol (the domeour moon)…
The Mortal Longing After Loveliness
When Xerxes, king of Persia, was on the march,He met a beauty, marvelous and fair,And hung her…
Mystery
You could, for mental exercise, do worseThan work the puzzle of a universeThat kindly took the trouble…