Culture
As a moral — and especially religious — matter, even the reporter’s flowery language about “a poignant coda to… an illustrious musical career” doesn’t persuade me of the decision made. But I will admit that, as a secular, civil matter, a strong case could be put forward for laws permitting this sort of thing: He…
By way of manufacturing disagreement over my post on the smoothing of life’s barbs and its disparate effects, David comments as follows: Why is it now that you come to these conclusions? There has always been an aristocracy in our political world. Can you explain Carcieri? It seems only when the political tide runs against…
I’ve yet to trace the history sufficiently to form a strong opinion about the Robert McNamara, although I do generally distasteful to snarl at the dead on the occasion of death. The remarkable chill, though, emanates from the comments to the post at that link, beginning with the following unobjectionable suggestion from Lee Rosten: I…
As a threatening cudgel to wave during negotiations and town meetings — allowing school committees to declare that they’ll just take what they “need” and unions contriving to force them to do so — the Caruolo Act is still an insidious force in Rhode Island politics. But with the move being denied in West Warwick,…
Sometimes, it seems as if the Left and Right agree on much more than their adherents perceive, the difference being mainly semantic… and concerning whether the sociological item on the table is positive or negative. Of course, in most contexts, that either/or judgment is the core determinant of whether we would characterize two parties as…
Among the more foolish slams against traditionalists is that our views are arbitrary religious dictates disconnected from realms of clear reality like science. Folks who believe that trope would likely find Faye Flam’s mention of homosexuality in her recent op-ed on male behavior to count as evidence: I also learned there’s abundant homosexual behavior in…
None of Michael Jackson’s albums ever made it into my collection, although I did have the “Beat It” jacket — red leather with zippers everywhere. Soon, the “Thriller” jacket was the height of coolness, but most of our parents weren’t willing to establish the precedent of buying an expensive new fashion item every time Jackson…
Kathryn Jean Lopez, of National Review Online, began her speech — beginning day three of the Portsmouth Institute’s conference on William F. Buckley, Jr. — by stating that she would not have described WFB as a “Catholic journalist,” because both descriptors were so thoroughly integrated into his persona, and she seemed genuinely awed that he…
Friday’s pre-dinner musical interlude consisted of three soloists with piano accompaniment by Dom Ambrose, one of the abbey’s monks, a graduate of Harvard and attendee at Julliard who now teaches music theory and English. First came trumpeter Nathaniel Hepler, a professional with that instrument. Mr. Hepler played Bruce Broughton’s “Oliver’s Birthday” and a Sonata by…
The thought that rushed to mind as soon as First Things Editor Joseph Bottum began his speech had to do with the striking differences in style between the speakers at the Portsmouth Institute’s conference on William F. Buckley, Jr. Fr. Rutler spoke from a prepared text as a transcendent intellectual with years of experience speaking…
