Archive for April, 2009
A Republic, If You Can Restore It
The May 2009 issue of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture: “A Republic, If You Can Restore It.”
The Ponderous and the Fleet
The title of Alan Moore’s 1986 comic-book series Watchmen alludes to the Roman satirist Juvenal, who asked, “Who watches the watchmen?” He was cynically warning that there was no way to control an inconstant wife since she would easily beguile any guard put in charge of her. Juvenal’s question has often been invoked in purely political discussions ever since.
Gay “Marriage” Fantasy
You really can’t have “gay marriage,” you know, irrespective of what a court or a legislature may say. You can have something some people call gay marriage because to them the idea sounds worthy and necessary, but to say a thing is other than it is, is to stand reality on its head, hoping to shake out its pockets.
American Contributions to World Civilisation
Many of the prominent characteristics of our culture—venal politicians, callous and stupid bureaucrats and police, promiscuous and perverted clergymen, debased currency—were inherited from the Old World, where they have a long history. However, we Americans are proverbially an inventive people and we have made many innovative cultural contributions of our own to the world. Like . . . Hip-hop (at least in its present form). A Constitution that “evolves.” “Subprime” mortgages. Televangelists.
Return to Rome
Paul Theroux laments that the world is aging badly, that the world he knew as a young man has nearly vanished, that the decline and decay of precious things is everywhere apparent. Theroux should know; he travels more than I do. Also my own ventures at home and abroad depressingly confirm his impressions. Except when Rome is my destination.
Is Torture Ever Moral?
After opening the door to a truth commission to investigate torture by the CIA of al-Qaida subjects, and leaving the door open to prosecution of higher-ups, President Obama walked the cat back. He is now opposed to a truth commission. That means it is dead. He is no longer interested in prosecutions. That means no independent counsel—for now.
Cold Gospel
Just as the New York Times was front-paging a supposed upsurge in atheism came complementary tidings from the Pew Research Center. It’s not church spats over “gay marriage” or pedophilia that seem to be driving explicit Christians out the door. A complex of concerns causes their switch to another religion or none at all: namely, disgust with perceived churchly hypocrisies, the rejection of teachings perceived as false, failure to meet personal spiritual needs, and so on.
What Is History? Part 28
To be steeped in Belloc, is to cease to be a pompous ass. —Cardinal Newman (with thanks to Robert)
Now He Knows the Rest of the Story
“Hello, Americans. This is Paul Harvey. Stand by for . . . news!” His voice was arguably the most recognized in the history of radio. His broadcasting career lasted over three quarters of a century, from his days as a high-school intern at KVOO in his native Tulsa, Oklahoma, until 2009. Yet few of the scores of millions who listened to him for decades ever heard his real voice.
Not Your Father’s National Review
What held National Review together during its heyday was anticommunism. The kiddies who post at NRO either don’t know this, or are embarrassed by it.
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