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“For right and wrong change places; everywhere So many wars, so many shapes of crime Confront us; no honor attends the plow, The fields, bereft of tillers, are all unkempt…”…

“He who intends to practice economy aright ought to be fully acquainted with the places in which his labor lies…” Aristotle, Economics Aristotle often provides us with simple, practical insights.…

I'm over at the Guardian, making the case.

The new encyclical "on care for our common home" can be read here.

A Father's Day song, courtesy of the pride of the Twin Cities. Yeah, it's a couple of days early, but then as Senator Henry Moore Teller (D-CO) said during the…

Today, The New Yorker ran an article called "A New Theory of Distraction." In the piece, the author--Joshua Rothman--speculates as to the nature of distraction in modern times: Like typing,…

At least we can still do this: http://abcnews.go.com/Weird/wireStory/iowa-supreme-court-affirms-drunk-front-porch-31721986

The fact that the chattering classes outraged by ISIS’s atrocities would unleash the latter-day centurions of the air so eagerly, while leashing ordinary people so cavalierly, should give pause to…

Why Evelyn Waugh stopped voting Parochial plug for the best state, from Nathaniel Beverley Tucker: The Virginian is a Virginian every where. In the wilds of the west, on the…

Damon Linker had a piece at The Week yesterday, explaining "How to save liberal arts education." From the article: The structural trends working against the humanities are just too strong. There…

Yesterday, The Atlantic ran a piece called, "'I've Never Thanked My Parents for Anything.'" The author--Deepak Singh--explains the differences between "thank you"s  in the States, and expressions of gratitude from his…

Adam Gurri on persuasion and economics Henry George vs. Jane Jacobs The Upper East Side housewife: a pop-anthropological study With friends like these, the humanities don't need enemies: Enrollment in…

There's a piece at Vox by Edward Schlosser (a pseudonym) entitled "I'm a liberal professor, and my liberal students terrify me." In the piece, the author confesses his own terror of…

Somewhere between three and seven readers of FPR will be pleased to hear that I have launched a new website that serves to archive publications from various magazines and journals,…

Founding editor Jeremy Beer has just had his very important The Philanthropic Revolution: An Alternative History of American Charity published by UPenn Press. Walter McDougall called it "a synthetic masterpiece,"…

Two articles caught the attention of my Porcher sensibilities today. The first was a piece in the New York Times on urban gardening: Kerry Trueman and Matt Rosenberg began by growing tomatoes…

“Some have affirmed that bees possess a share Of the divine mind and drink ethereal draughts; For God, they say, pervades the whole of creation."          …

The Atlantic ran a piece this morning on how a California-based company called HopeLab is trying to make layoffs and firings more enlivening: Chris Murchison, the company’s vice president of…

From "Homeschooling and Christian Duty," by Sally Thomas, in First Things: The idea of sending a child daily into a hostile environment—if not actively hostile, as in bullying, then certainly philosophically…

Though far, in its main argument, from the central concerns of the Porch, some readers may be interested in my account of mythos and the nature of culture as an…

I read a piece in The Week today, provocatively entitled "Pay politicians like movie stars!" The author, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, has taken aim against cronyism: But much of it, as you already…

Writes Pat Buchanan of his work these last ten years: Our agenda in that decade was—stay out of wars that are not our business, economic patriotism, secure borders, and America…

Patrick Deneen in First Things, on Indiana's RFRA fight: This past spring, we saw something quite different and revealing and worrying. With the imprimatur of American elites, which was clearly given…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] A few weeks ago I was able to, once again, do something that I enjoy doing immensely--take a group of students out on a local…