Culture
I recently read Michael Barone’s book entitled Hard America, Soft America: Competition vs. Coddling and the Battle for the Nation’s Future. It is well worth reading. Here is an excerpt from the Introduction to the book: For many years I have thought it one of the peculiar features of our country that we seem to…
I rarely agree with Froma Harrop’s politics but she has a very perceptive editorial on what makes long-term marriages happen: You know the quip: A wife is asked on her silver anniversary whether she has ever contemplated divorce. “Divorce, never,” she replies. “Murder, frequently.” That sums up the truth about long-term marriages. Their success doesn’t…
I am hosting History Carnival #10 at Spinning Clio this week. The History Carnival is a bi-weekly roundup of blog posts that deal with history with the goal of giving the general public an idea of what historians and others are thinking about history and how they are applying it to contemporary matters. There is…
After the twelfth of the twenty-four episodes of Lost’s first season, religious viewers thought they’d taken another step toward inclusion in mainstream culture, as represented by television and film. (Or at least one religious viewer did.) Lost treated religion seriously — acknowledging it as part of the society in which we live. Without a tone…
This report is simply over-the-top and contributes to the ongoing destruction of civil society in America: Hollywood once again jumps into bitter DC politics when an episode of NBC’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent suggests a judge killer would wear a ‘Tom DeLay’ T-Shirt! The House Majority Leader plans a letter of protest later this…
Mark Steyn writes the following in a piece that touches on the Terri Schiavo case: You can read similar stories in almost any corner of the developed world, except perhaps the Netherlands, where discretionary euthanasia is so advanced it’s news if the kid makes it out of the maternity ward. As the New York Times…
For a guest column on TheFactIs.org, a news and commentary site sponsored by the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute and the Culture of Life Foundation, I’ve expanded on my thoughts related to Stanley Kurtz’s Policy Review piece about population decline and the possible social strategies for dealing with it. The bottom line is that…
The March 14, 2005 edition of the Weekly Standard includes an article entitled “The Sage of Fresno: Victor Davis Hanson, down on the farm.” Here is an excerpt: Hanson places much of the blame for this decay on America’s elites, who he says have fostered a cult of post-modernism, identity politics, and affirmative action –…
My wife heard last night the sad and horrible news of the death of one of her dearest friend’s daughter. We grieve for that wonderful family, whose kindness to others – including my wife – has never known any limits. Having been fortunate enough to be present at the birth of our three children, I…
Only seventeen years old, and one Charlestown, Rhode Island, high school student already has the contemporary “no thought required” art world all figured out: Jeffrey Eden devised his award-winning project less than 30 minutes after his high school art teacher asked him to express a thought or two in a three-dimensional way. … The student’s…