It’s a Madoff World

Stephen Greenspan is a psychologist who specializes in gullibility at the University of Connecticut, wrote an article this week using his expertise to understand why so many people—himself included—fell for Bernie Madoff’s chicanery. After a fascinating historical and psychological . . . . Continue Reading »

Stuck-with-Virtue Conservatism

The debate below between Pat Deneen and Peter Berkowitz is interesting and perhaps exceedingly relevant, given the coming "regime change."  I’m going to open my course for seniors with it. I agree that Peter distorts virtue by understanding it primarily as useful for . . . . Continue Reading »

Burke, Theologically Speaking

In reference to Will’s particularity-and-truth thread, Helen offers some reflections on Burke that lend themselves so well to speaking theologically that, well, here we go. My familiarity with Burke nowadays is a lot narrower, if deeper, than it was a decade ago, but I can’t really . . . . Continue Reading »

Special Ops

The op-ed page of the Washington Post is like Forest Gump’s box of chocolates—you never know what you’re gonna get—and the final day of 2008 was no exception. In ” Darkness in Qassam-Land ,” by Julia Chaitin, a senior lecturer in the Department of Social Work at . . . . Continue Reading »

Good Old Doug Kmiec

Ah, our friend Doug Kmiec has recently been revealed to have given yet more examples of the pattern that made him famous during the Obama campaign. The law professor David Kopel points out that, in the Heller gun-control case, Kmiec signed the February 2008 amicus brief by “Former Senior . . . . Continue Reading »

Immanent, Meet Transcendent

Very interestingly, over at Text Patterns Alan Jacobs evokes the depth of interdependence between the experience of material conditions and the experience of the imagination. This of course is different from the interdependence of truth and particularity but also similar. . . . . Continue Reading »