Conservatism
First a statement of something that I would have hoped has been clear: I believe I speak for all of the contributors to Anchor Rising when I say that we are not doing this to build readership for the sake of building readership. We’re writing to explain our opinions and advocate for what we believe…
For some Sunday reading, you indubitably would profit from a visit to the Portsmouth Institute’s Web site, where the diligent administrators have been posting transcripts of the talks given by the various speakers. For anybody with an interest in a particular speaker, Mr. Buckley, Catholicism, or conservatism, the offerings amount to a literary collection. My…
Peter Berkowitz reviews Patrick Allitt’s The Conservatives: Ideas and Personalities Throughout American History in the latest Policy Review. Berkowitz explains that Allitt helps explain the “paradoxes that constitute conservatism in America.” The questions that guide his study are straightforward: “Where did conservatism come from, what are its intellectual sources, and why is it internally divided?”…
National Review Online has published the short speech that Neal Freeman gave on short notice at the Portsmouth Institute‘s conference on William F. Buckley, Jr.: I was introduced to the woman who would become my Catholic wife, of course, by Bill Buckley. It was part of his indefatigable campaign to enlist me in the legions…
Conservative. Conservation. Fish Ladders. For years, a consortium of government agencies and advocacy groups has struggled for funding to knock down dams and build fish ladders to help restore local fish migrations. That work was jump-started on Tuesday when the federal government came forward with $3 million in stimulus money for six projects on the…
The final session of the Portsmouth Institute’s conference on “The Catholic William F. Buckley, Jr.” could be considered fated in the fashion of those humorous suspicions that something is cursed. First slated to be filled by the subject’s son, Christopher, the slot was handed within the past few weeks to Reagan speechwriter Anthony Dolan. A…
In summarizing the first three speakers at the Portsmouth Institute’s WFB conference, I observed their different styles. Among subsequent speakers, I’d say that, truly, E.J. Dionne and K.J. Lopez spoke much as columnists. They offered facts and quotations, giving their own opinions, and building overall arguments. None who’ve read their work would be very surprised…
The first thing to note about Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne’s after-dinner speech at the Portsmouth Institute’s conference on William F. Buckley’s conservatism is his mention of something that struck me for the duration of the event: namely, that religious life does not preclude real life, much less intellectual life. Stream, download (52 sec). Experience…
A second conversation in which sufficient articulation proved difficult on Friday night’s all–Anchor Rising Violent Roundtable on the Matt Allen Show related to Matt’s statement that the Catholic Church is in some respects an anti-American institution. Having such a strong statement catch one off guard doesn’t make measured extemporaneous response an easy accomplishment, but upon…
Last night’s Violent Roundtable on the Matt Allen Show was the most difficult public appearance/talk show that I’ve done yet. Probably because Matt correctly assessed that an hour of harmony wouldn’t have been very interesting, his questions touched on a number of weighty subjects on which expressing comprehensive thoughts on the spot is not easy.…