Making Progress?
Writing on the occasion of Ronald Reagan's death, the NY Times columnist David Brooks articulated the roots of Reagan's success in as accurate and...
Eric Miller on The Lost Cause of the Midwest
Devon, PA. If you have not encountered Eric Miller's savage indignation elsewhere, here is a fine place to start: his review of David S....
Happy Uniform Holiday Number 3!
“When a nation’s Holy-days are treated with indifference and neglect, it should be considered a sign of national degeneracy and decay.”
--Walt Whitman
Burned-Over District,...
Liberal Education, Stewardship, and the Cosmopolitan Temptation
Kearneysville, WV. When speaking of the proper care for the natural world, the word that best describes our efforts is stewardship. Stewards are care-takers....
Waiting for the Americans…
In the late 1970s, my grandfather’s older brother, already in his nineties, was pressing his almost deaf ears to a little portable radio still...
Last Call at Descartes’ Bar and Grill
Washington, Connecticut. The urge, some might say mania with which our species has attempted to distance itself from Nature is a defining occupation and...
Table Games and the Politics of Corruption
Jefferson County, WV. In December my county will hold a referendum to decide whether or not table games will be permitted at the...
Who Was Richard Blaine? Myth, History, and the Great American...
Moorpark, CA. The first time is not always the best, but it is often the most revealing. The first time I saw Casablanca I...
A Lost Job and a New Life
Kearneysville, WV. At 10:00pm on New Year’s Eve 2008, just as his shift was ending, Patrick McCarron was asked to turn in his badge...
Electrifying
This article caught my attention yesterday - our hunger for electricity to power our "personal electronics" has grown so insatiable that very soon the...