So now it seems that the critical Pennsylvania Democratic primary hinges on, of all things, the Catholic vote. As the AP reports: Understanding Pennsylvania’s rich Catholic tradition and responding to it is an article of faith for Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama as the April 22 ...
Looking over my posts for the past three months, I can see I’ve been something of a downer, even for a paleocon. Indeed, re-reading them myself tempts to take to my bed with a couple of warm beagles, a CD of Hildegard von Bingen, and a stiff drink. But in the Easter spirit, I’d like ...
Will Western civilization survive the disappearance of Westerners? That’s what the secularized elites of the EU and the US are betting, and it’s the unacknowledged premise of the latest thick volume of Whig history, Worlds at War, by Anthony Pagden. In a learned review, Adam Kirsch of ...
There was tension behind the scenes here in Rome throughout Holy Week, as Vatican security and Italian police tried to preempt a possible attack on Pope Benedict"and thousands of Christian pilgrims"a threat implied in the latest message attributed to Osama Bin Laden. The terrorist leader ...
This day, the most solemn in the Christian calendar, is an occasion to avoid any kind of frivolity or mirth. Which makes it a hard day for me to write about. The feast is especially important to wretched, lukewarm sinners like me who spend the whole year trying to wriggle out from under the Cross. ...
It’s hard to know how to feel about the fact that Sen. Obama’s, er, “racialist” background has finally emerged above the waterline—suggesting that his campaign may have “jumped the shark.” If it does lead the Democratic party’s grand panjandrums to ...
It’s always dangerous to let your view of history get stuck in a single moment. For the neocons, it’s always September 1938, with a weak Hitler bluffing his way into bloodless conquests while building up his army. The English and French let him get away with this because they were still ...
I spent much of winter 2006 butting heads with a cantankerous nun. Thankfully, it happened via email, and in no way resembled the battles with hirsute radical feminists in stretch jeans that ate up most of my high school years. No, I contended with a solidly orthodox battle-ax who is still a ...
As a hard-core paleocon who opposed virtually every U.S. intervention outside her borders since the end of the Cold War, I’ve often found myself conflicted when looking back at history. I abhor the demonization of “isolationists” practiced by neocon chickenhawks, but I can’t ...
The racial reference that forced Geraldine Ferraro to leave the Clinton campaign and fly off on her broom brings back for me bittersweet memories of teenage years and Queens. I’d grown up in the congressional district of benevolent, pro-life Mafia-connected Democrat Mario Biaggi. He’d ...
