Marriage, functional patterns, and stuff
Rod Dreher sent a note asking how trads should argue with “gay marriage” proponents, and posted my reply at Beliefnet.
Rod’s on my staff
And that comforts me. (The title of this entry isn’t literally true, but Rod Dreher does say my book is “a blockbuster that belongs on the shelves of any thinking conservative who wants to understand where we are today, and where we are going.”)
Smiting the Philistines
I just finished reading Edward Feser’s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism. In spite of its title, the book is less a discussion of the “New Atheism” (Dawkins, Dennett, et. al.) than a wonderfully clear overview of Thomism. As such, it emphasises its response to the insights and inadequacies of … More ...
Reaching the zenith
Zenit, the international Catholic news agency, just published an interview with me about the topics I cover in my book.
Remembrance of Third Ways past
I just finished reading Allan Carlson’s Third Ways: How Bulgarian Greens, Swedish Housewives, and Beer-Swilling Englishmen Created Family-Centered Economies – And Why They Disappeared. It’s a really excellent collection of short case studies of 20th century attempts to create, recreate or maintain local, familial, distributist or agrarian economic forms in the face of commies, … More ...
Through the looking glass
Commenter Alice, with whom I’ve had a couple of exchanges at her husband’s weblog, carries her battle into the opposition’s territory. The pile of arguments is getting unmanageably high, so I’ll set up my response as a new entry:
… More ...Dear Alice,
I agree that not all ways of viewing the world are equal.
Enjoyed “The Tyranny of Liberalism” very much
Hi Mr. Kalb,
I bought and recently read your book, and enjoyed it very much, depressing as the subject matter itself is. I found your ideas and general argument well-developed, and well-argued.
But I have difficulty, personally, feeling optimistic, even though I agree with your reasons for optimism that eventually, the truth must out, and … More ...
Religion, secularity, totalities, totalitarians, etc.
I’ve added arguments and responses made in a discussion of the issue elsewhere to my recent entry on faith and reason. For convenience’s sake I’ve added them in the form of comments.
The discussion has clarified for me why modern secularists and antimodern traditionalists view each other as crazed tyrants. Each inhabits in thought a … More ...
Secularity, objectivity, and reason
Razib Khan, a.k.a. “David Hume,” responds to my comments on the mission statement of the weblog Secular Right. His basic rejoinder is that a “morality grounded in the reality of God” may indeed have more consistency and power than one based wholly on this-worldly human inclinations, but only if it’s already admitted that … More ...