Peter Lawler

1. Dr. Pat Deneen regards David Brooks’ repudiation of the suburbs as a Porcher victory, as Mr. Pomocon reports below. 2. But every pomocon must know that I repudiated David’s (my sort-of friend’s) account of the suburbs in his fairly bizarre flop PARADISE DRIVE. He tried to give . . . . Continue Reading »

Well, I finally saw two of the upscale movies of the summer. Neither was that great. Michael Douglas is the star of A SOLITARY MAN, which is nowhere near as good as A SINGLE MAN or A SERIOUS MAN. Douglas basically plays the same guy he played in WALL STREET and WONDER BOYS—a glib and . . . . Continue Reading »

Again, these are very rough and meant to provoke. Carl is right that there are limitations to the point-by-point method, although I think it fits the blog well. 1. So the American understanding of science as technology—the modern understanding that flows from Bacon, Descartes, and that . . . . Continue Reading »

So I’m supposed to give a talk on the idea of the university or something along those line soon. I’m trying to get the facts in order. Here’s the first batch of several. Keep in mind this is a very rough, quick, and random draft: 1.There really is a massive contradiction between . . . . Continue Reading »

So I heard that Lee Greenwood country classic blaring at the Fourth of July parade in Cave Springs, GA. I believe I wrote that parade up last year, so I won’t do it again—except to say it combines genuine patriotism, high technology, solid prosperity, quirky localism, and evangelical . . . . Continue Reading »

Peter Lawler and Marc Guerra are pleased to announce the first of three conferences on TOWARD A TRUE SCIENCE OF BEING STUCK WITH VIRTUE. These conferences and associated activities are funded by the Science of Virtues Project at the University of Chicago The first conference, held at Berry College . . . . Continue Reading »

. . . is endlessly fascinating. And so I enjoyed Mr. Pomocon’s post below and the responses to it. Here are some random comments that are meant to be provocative in the armchair speculation kind of way: 1. Lincoln could have avoided the war had that been his highest objective. 2. The war was . . . . Continue Reading »

Jennifer Rubin has performed the valuable service of explaining how Republicans should focus their attack on ObamaCare. It’ll be easy as heck for your employer to be “de-grandfathered” as your health care provider. To begin with, said employer will no longer be able to shop around . . . . Continue Reading »

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not being critical of Rawls. I’m just using Rawlsians to clarify why sophisticated people think about being personal these days: One scenario is that genetic enhancement might be regarded as no different from the way we now view elective cosmetic . . . . Continue Reading »

Jeb is clearly the smartest guy in the family Bush. He even looks different from the others. Our poor current president is tanking across the board. Of course he has to fire the disrespectful rogue general-hero, but the dissing is hurting him nonetheless. It’s not like the leaders of other . . . . Continue Reading »