When I took students to Saratoga, one of the greatest military victories in American history, I would ask them to find a monument with a boot and no name. Nobody ever failed to find it. Here it is with an inscription that reads: “In memory of the “most brilliant soldier” of the Continental Army who was desperately wounded on this spot the sally port of BORGOYNES GREAT WESTERN REDOUBT 7th October, 1777 winning for his countrymen the decisive battle of the... Read more
As a little boy, I saw images in a textbook of French Revolutionaries delighting over the heads of their foes . . . including the head of their Queen, Marie-Antoinette, and a truth pierced my heart: Any cause that has to murder women and children in cold blood, as public policy, and revels in death to gain and keep power is foul and unworthy. When atheism began to butcher women, children, priests, and nuns as political policy, the evil of the regime... Read more
If I am very sad, I turn to the complete Sherlock Holmes for soothing reading. If I need to laugh, I read PG Wodehouse. If you do not know him, get any book he wrote, especially any book on the genial Wooster and his butler Jeeves. These are not stories of great meaning, but of great wit. Shakespeare creates new English and bathes a listener in beautiful sounds, Wodehouse uses as much of English as he has been given and... Read more
Today one world that endured for centuries died and a new possibility for England came into being. Harold, last King of Saxon England, died in battle and William, Duke of Normandy, became King of England. The good king Edward the Confessor died with no heir. His tomb at Westminster remains worth a pilgrimage for prayer and reflection. Edward left England an immortal gift of sanctity, but sinful men destroyed her stability. The invaders who had ended Roman and Celtic Britain now... Read more
At any point when I engage with village atheists (not professional philosophers) my students will often respond: what is wrong with these people? A simple way to get philosophy students who are religious to relax about “all powerful” atheists is to have them attempt dialogue with Internet (or village) atheists. It goes about as well as if philosophically acute atheists tried to go to a fringe church and talk to laypeople. Students if they are not careful will dismiss atheism... Read more
A basic mistake is that if something is like something else, then we should treat both things the same way. And yet some things are very much alike, while some small difference makes all the difference in how they should be treated. This is overlearning some lesson of history. Conservatives (including me!) sometimes make this mistake when we think failing to act against a local tyrant is exactly like failing to act against Hitler. The lessons of Munich, the mistakes Britain made... Read more
When I was younger, I loved playing “simulation” games. You could pretend to build an empire, a city, or an entire civilization. A Saturday could vanish before my screen as I raised my civilization “New Byzantium” to prominence. If you wished to build a new entertainment center for your amusement starved citizens, you simply used a tool function to get rid of slums that had started to surround the houses. Sometimes I wonder if those enamored with socialism or unfettered... Read more
We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Hit a hollow man hard enough and you discover that unlike a piñata, there is nothing inside. This image has never been more needed than online where an entire industry of consultants and experts offering to help me build my personal brand. Somebody must be buying, because I visit more sites, feeds, and Facebook pages where the content consists of branding nothing but the brand... Read more
Evidently the House is in chaos, because the GOP cannot, yet, pick a speaker. There may be people worried about this possibility, but I have yet to meet one. Christians are being martyred in Syria. We are aborting our future and have proclaimed vice virtue. Our elites oppress the poor while pretending to love them and politicians in both parties live in decadence on the debt foisted on our grandchildren. I can live with no Speaker of the House. In... Read more
Jeb Bush is a decent man, a conservative man, and the wrong man. Mr. Bush is taking up money, attention, and time that should go to a candidate who is a better fit for the times and the party. The Bush family has served the Republican Party in many roles and will keep doing so as George P. Bush begins his career in Texas, but for this generation the Bush family should step back. Jeb Bush does not have to... Read more
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