The World Does Not Run on Magic
Many a boy languishes in school because he finds no arrow there.
The Great and Unreliable Informant
Social media is not conducive to the clear-headed and dispassionate evaluation of alternatives that must characterize every prudential decision.
The Habit of Cultivating Mediocre Judgment
Far be it from us to forbid people to derive comfort from tacky but innocent art. But far be it also to hold persons and their works above criticism because we like their politics.
Chivalry Is Dead? No Kidding
Sexual indifference inevitably leads to a toxic ingratitude and a severance of the sexes, a celebration of women as apart from and against their brothers.
Who Will Be America’s Teachers?
You catch the fire of love from someone else on fire. So do you also catch smallpox—the smallpox of reducing everything to a political aim.
Rejecting ‘America’ for the Sake of America
I want America to remember that realism that sometimes goes by the name of humility, promise keeping, diligence, and gratitude.
Longing for Home
Perhaps “Letter from Home” is a letter to us, who have wandered into a far country, not to fight but to give ourselves up to vanity.
The Death of Muscular American Social Life
Will we be left with the worst of all worlds: moralism without morality, socialism without sociality, children without childhood, and humor without humor?
The Judgments of Time
Because of our technology, the shallowness of the cast of “The View” will be on display for anyone to see, for 1,000 years. But they do not tremble. I would, in their shoes.
Unthinking Tools of Unreason Itself
The licensers in Milton’s time feared the bad examples that the untrained mind might derive from bad books. But they were veritable champions of a free press compared to what we have now.
Children Outdoors, Living Adventures
The devil-may-care liveliness of American youth is gone. What have we done to make such a child-poor and child-unfriendly world?
A Christmas Meditation on the Words of the Gospel
The story of Jesus is not like the story of man. It is instead the key that opens the story of man.
Our Enemies Wait As We Destroy Ourselves
Russia waits, no longer ideological, but moving slowly and gingerly toward the Christian heritage that once made her a nation, even as we stupidly toss our own culture away.
Dreams of the Underlings
When will we “underlings” stand up to the corporate giants and act like Americans again?
Sin City Delights in Sins Distracting From Its Own
All things hidden will come to light, and with what measure we measure, so shall it be measured out to us.
Rising Above Sentimentality
Clues in America’s art of the past give us unsentimental insights into the unsentimental people we used to be.
Remedial Constitutionalism?
Congress cannot do the work of a real Congress, for a variety of reasons, none of which is remediable.
The Black Mark of a Bachelor’s Degree
The dream is that someday employers will say, “Let's hire anybody but a college graduate.
Asking the Questions We Can’t Ask
You can tell you are being ruled by that special kind of madman called an ideologue when there are questions you are not allowed to ask.
Egalitarianism, the Elephant
Ordinary people, in their folkways and their local rule, are competent to pursue ordinary features of the common good in a sane and fair manner.