As we continue this series on race, nationalism, and patriotism, I’d like to note that the discussion on Part I: Race has been more subdued and thoughtful than similar discussions, and I’d like to thank those who have taken part in it. In this second part, I rely quite heavily on the writings of the Hungarian-American (and Catholic) historian John Lukacs, … [Read More]

Andrew Sullivan avers that “a McCain nomination means one thing for sure. The era of legal, authorized torture in America is coming to a close.” So they’re going to stop torturing those guys in Guantanamo, and start torturing the rest of us.  [Read More]

Arriving in Rome, I didn’t suffer from culture but sticker shock. Streets jammed with pedestrians menaced by whizzing cars and importuned by panhandlers, where dogs are more common than kids, and most people aren’t speaking English… to a native of New York, this is all familiar stuff.  Much less alien than the atmosphere at a Dallas shopping mall. While the walkable … [Read More]

Professor Rodney Stark has written about “the unique Christian conviction that progress was a God-given obligation”—which may strike some as odd, given that the Catholic Church condemned Galileo Galilei, the “father of science” himself, as a heretic for saying that the Earth moved around the sun. Galileo and the Scopes “monkey trial” generally form the Catholic and Protestant bookends of the … [Read More]

In response to Ron Paul’s showing of 3 percent in Florida, one can only propose that we give the place back to its rightful owner: Spain. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, first Spanish governor of Florida, founder of St. Augustine. [Read More]

While driving on the Beltway the other day, I got behind a SUV with a rather fascinating collection of bumper stickers: “9/11≠Iraq” and “War is Not the Answer!” were joined by “McCain 2008.” Add “No Amnesty for Illegals” and “I ♥ the Bridge to Nowhere” and the contradictions would begin to multiply.  But then this rather confused soul behind the wheel … [Read More]

“Dr. Paul is the only candidate I know of who would have signed the Constitution of the United States had he been there.I’m with him because he seems to be the only candidate who actually believes it has as much relevance today as it did a couple of hundred years ago.” —Arlo Guthrie This Guthrie song comes to mind: “Living now … [Read More]

In the last few months, it was common enough to see people invoking the apocryphal quote attributed to Martin Luther, “It is better to be ruled by a wise Turk than a foolish Christian.” It would take something like a foolish Christian, knowing what someone in the early 16th century could have learned about the status of Christians under the sovereignty … [Read More]

At many other points over the past seven years, a strong rebuke was in order when in a major televised speech, Bush uttered phrases like “advancing liberty,” “given the chance, all people will choose freedom and peace,” “armies of compassion,” and “a freer, more hopeful, and compassionate world.” Such language once amounted to more than tripe and actually adumbrated the aggressive, … [Read More]

The furor raised over John Zmirak’s eminently sensible posts “The VDare Monologues” (84 comments, as I write this) and “Rejecting Racialism” (57 comments) has convinced me that the time has come to do something that the former editor of this site, F.J. Sarto, frequently asked me to do, and that is to weigh in on these questions from a Catholic standpoint.  … [Read More]