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“Eyelashes Like a Cow”

From First Thoughts

Nepal’s latest goddess is a six-year-old named Shreeya. She has “eyelashes like a cow” and “a voice as soft and clear as a duck.” Her aides add that she is “fond of biscuits and rice.” She will be isolated in a house and worshiped “until the onset of . . . . Continue Reading »

Cold Comfort

From First Thoughts

It is my privilege to share workspace with a soon-to-be-distinguished student of history , Ryan Sayre “Prayers” Patrico. Like other advocates of civilization, Ryan is shocked and dismayed by the almost total ignorance of history among young Americans. The only consolation I can offer . . . . Continue Reading »

Reno On Kerouac

From First Thoughts

I hated Jack Kerouac’s On The Road when I read it in my early teens. I expected a carefree romp that would glamorize and endorse antinomian adventures such as I hoped to have. Instead I found a disorienting and melancholy book—all hangover and no high. In ” The End of the Road . . . . Continue Reading »

A Pontiff for All Seasons

From First Thoughts

No one should trivialize the current economic crisis, which poses a real threat to the well-being of people around the world. But “crisis” quickly moves from being an unpleasant fact that we must face to a poisonous climate of anxiety that we breathe. In order to maintain perspective, . . . . Continue Reading »

Culture War Skirmish at The Citadel

From First Thoughts

As hot as the culture war can burn, things rarely threaten to get physical. But this past Saturday, South Carolina experienced a brief but violent tremor along a national fault-line when cadets at the Citadel (a military academy in South Carolina) attacked the Princeton University Band before a . . . . Continue Reading »

The Intellectual War on Terrorism

From First Thoughts

Many Baby Boomers have noted that, from an intellectual point of view, the American national response to Islamic radicalism has been shockingly sluggish and uninspired, especially as compared with the vast mobilization of the Cold War. After the Sputnik embarrassment, for instance, the entire math . . . . Continue Reading »

Extreme Neutrality

From First Thoughts

I’m reading A Brief History of the Normans by François Neveux. So far it’s quite informative and readable, but the author, apparently following current scholarly fashion, insists on referring to the medieval expeditions of the Northmen as “migrations.” For, you . . . . Continue Reading »

Luxury on Overdrive

From First Thoughts

In theory this Thames Flyer thing is pretty appealing. What red-blooded male doesn’t want the “James Bond” experience of going wicked fast up the Thames while sipping elegantly on expensive champagne? But then, in a lame attempt to justify the ridiculous fee of six hundred pounds . . . . Continue Reading »