thoughts in and out of season
James Kalb The accepted wisdom about Islam is that it has to accept pluralism to become a good citizen of the modern world. “Pluralism,” as a practical matter, is the view that the only public truth about religion is that no religion is better than any other and all religion ought to be kept private. Christianity, it … More ...
Conservatives are always expecting a wakeup call that will rouse the American people so they will rise up, recapture the citadel, and restore sanity and good government. None ever comes. The most recent failed wakeup call was September 11. For a while it seemed significant that people were putting up “God Bless America” stickers, and … More ...
American conservatives long admired England as the homeland of Civilized Standards. Russell Kirk wrote a whole book on America’s British Culture because he wanted to refute multiculturalism. It’s worth noting though how their ideas of civilized standards now operate:
Another priority for paleo (or traditionalist) conservatives should be making connection with other tendencies of thought that are based on some of the same concerns and understandings. If trads and paleos are on to something real about modern life, they won’t be the only ones to notice it.
One connectable tendency is the New Urbanism… More ...
A correspondent asks:
What should the mainstream conservative movement be doing (that it’s currently not) that would help society? How might Buchanan and paleocons become formidable?
My reply:
… More ...I don’t have any magical solutions. It seems to me the most important battle the paleocons and people like Buchanan should carry on is at the level
A way to respond to the new Bush immigration plan: Stop Amnesty for Illegal Aliens!
The recent performance of the Supreme Court may not create confidence in those who like to think of law as a principled bulwark of republican government, but compared with some influential legal scholarship of the past 20 years it’s downright inspirational. If you don’t believe that, take a look at The Top Ten Politically Correct … More ...
Keeping track of stories the press won’t cover helps maintain one’s grip on reality, but people who complain about spiked stories don’t always have the firmest grip themselves. Here though are some items that seem believable:
To interrupt the doom-and-gloom for a moment, here’s an interview with Catholic Hollywoodist Barbara Nicolosi that’s a good read and actually rather inspirational. It seems she’s managing to close the gap between uncultured Evangelical intensity and accommodationist post-Catholic worldliness among Christians associated with the entertainment biz.
I got the link from Kathy Shaidle’s Relapsed Catholic… More ...
One great gift we’ve received from the Blair government is a series of sure-fire cures for Anglophilic snobbishness. Did you know, for example, that anti-Christian children’s writer Philip Pullman just got a CBE, and the chairman of the Gay Police Association got an MBE for helping “modernize attitudes” within the force?
Various eminent rugby … More ...