La langue de bois , “the wooden tongue,” is a very useful French term for platitudinous windbaggery that combines the worst qualities of politician-speak and bureaucratese. This non-language is generally used when functionaries — up to and including heads of state — have . . . . Continue Reading »
In the latest On the Square feature, Thomas Haine argues that while Tim Tebow’s vocation may not ours, we should cheer anyway : Why, we ask, should Tebow be so vocal? Such questions fail to recognize the nature of personal vocations and of belief in a God who has a unique plan for each of us. . . . . Continue Reading »
Tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day of obligation for Catholics. Here, for those who might find it helpful, is something I wrote last year giving a hit-and-run introduction to the dogma: Delivered From All Stain . . . . . Continue Reading »
How do I put this delicately? As men—-age—they may find that their—prowess—can’t be as frequently—expressed—as when they were young bucks. But we live in an age in which a certain demographic—mine, actually—is targeted for drugs and . . . . Continue Reading »
Why is art so expensive? Blake Gopnik has an superb article outlining five reasons why art defies economics : I asked the great New York collector Agnes Gund how she would feel about her artworks if their value suddenly halved. “I wouldn’t feel they would have changed,” she said, . . . . Continue Reading »
Let’s begin by stating the positive point for Newt Gingrich. He might not, as Pete Spiliakos says, prove ten foot tall in debate, though he is approaching ten foot wide. But he is quite effective in expressing whatever idea he happens to be developing at the moment. He talks in terms that . . . . Continue Reading »
In the latest issue of The American Spectator , Jonathan Witt issues a reminder that business, justice, and the Gospel are already “social” : The adjective that economist Friedrich Hayek famously called a “weasel word” is alive and well in the feel-good phrases social . . . . Continue Reading »
In putting the finishing touches on my manuscript on authority, office and the image of God, I came across this wonderful passage in Thomas Molnar, Authority and Its Enemies (p. 112):There have always been people like Dr. Ronald Fletcher, who writes: “Never accept authority; whether that of a . . . . Continue Reading »
Here’s MY view of manliness and SOUTHERN STOICISM, a crucial supplement to the MIDWESTERN Mansfield. Newt, for what it’s worth, has the repulsive side of manliness. He overrates his significance, and he praises his own greatness (for little good reason) in words that would be better . . . . Continue Reading »
Media creates myths that revise history. Example: ”Terri’s Law,” by which Congress sought to save Terri Schiavo’s life is now called a “Republican” intrusion into a private situation. But guess how many Democrats in the U.S. Senate opposed the . . . . Continue Reading »
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