Helen Rittelmeyer

Helen Rittelmeyer


The Practical and the Watered-down

Before the site is glutted with debate commentary, a word on Rod Dreher’s latest C11 column. Its title, and much of its substance, is taken from the last page of After Virtue, but a couple of Dreher’s comments on Benedictine monasticism ...

Does Veneration Really Wither on the Pavements?

“All country people hate each other,” wrote William Hazlitt. “There is nothing good to be had in the country, or, if there is, they will not give it to you.” I wonder what Hazlitt would have made of last week’s ...

The ICC should leave Georgia alone

Early yesterday morning, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo announced his decision to begin looking into war crimes allegedly committed by Russian and Georgian troops in South Ossetia.  The announcement, though ...

New higher ed bill sure to make matters worse; Congress delighted

One provision of Congress’s newest higher education bill requires that colleges and universities report their reasons for tuition hikes to the Department of Education.  It will be interesting to see how many ways they can come up with to ...

Why I don”€™t believe in Harvey Dent

Halfway through my sophomore year of high school I was overwhelmed by an impulse to become more traditionally feminine, which I satisfied by getting a job in the children’s section of the public library.  I remember presiding over a ...

Freedom from shame?

My Southern suspicion that New England is full of crazy people gained another exhibit for the prosecution last week.  The “Parade of Horribles” in Beverly, Mass., a Fourth of July tradition of grotesquerie that is exactly what it ...

Immigration, Localism, and Next Best Things

Whether due to the dramatic failure of last year’s attempt at comprehensive reform or to the essential similarity of the two candidates’ positions, the issue of illegal immigration has so far kept a fairly low profile in the presidential ...

It’s All About Her

The question of whether or not to see "€œSex and the City"€ is easy to answer: if you are a man, no. There is nothing here for you. If you are a woman, still no. The sugary cocktail of glamour and sentimentality may prove addictive; those DVD ...


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