Most of the talk about the Robert Gates memoir has been about his criticism of Obama and Clinton. Fair enough, but it is striking that Gates is much more harshly critical of Congress and yet these attacks on Congress have not produced much surprise, outrage, or even pushback. Our political culture seems to expect a modicum of public spiritedness from our presidents and prospective presidents, but also seems comfortable with (or resigned to) the idea that the members of Congress are, as a group, only a step or two up from a criminal class.
Wassailing at Christmas
Every year on January 17, revelers gather in an orchard near the Butcher’s Arms in the Somerset…
Rome and the Church in the United States
Archbishop Michael J. Curley of Baltimore, who confirmed my father, was a pugnacious Irishman with a taste…
Marriage Annulment and False Mercy
Pope Leo XIV recently told participants in a juridical-pastoral formation course of the Roman Rota that the…