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Eric Miller, a historian and contributor to the New Pantagruel, reviews Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Cons in Books and Culture. While sympathetic to many of Dreher’s conerns, Miller thinks that both liberalism and conservatism have reached their limits and that we need a politics that can speak the language of sacrifice. He looks to the tradition Read more

Mock me if you must, but I still enjoy the occasional George Will column a great deal. Case in point: this very good piece from last month on the rhetoric of “values voters.” Via. Read more

Interesting article in Sunday’s Boston Globe about the relationship between the Bush administration’s view of executive power during wartime and an “originalist” approach to interpreting the Constitution. Some legal scholars, including the conservative-libertarian Richard Epstein, say that in making its case the administration is neglecting Federalist 69, a crucial document for understanding the framers’ intentions Read more

Coca-Cola BlaK (the inexplicable spelling and capitalization are apparently on purpose) – that is, Coke “infused” with coffee extract – is about as gross as it sounds. Read more

Partly in order to see a little bit of historic Boston we decided to make our first church visit in the Beacon Hill area yesterday. Specifically, we attended a 9:00 service at The Church of the Advent (Episcopal), a venerable Anglo-Catholic parish. We figured our Protestant sensibilities would take to the 9 o’clock Sung Mass Read more

With all the fear-mongering on the Left about an imminent “Christo-nationialist” takeover, it’s nice to read an article like this at The American Prospect. Evangelicalism, much less Christianity as a whole, is not nearly as monolithic as some liberals fear (and conservatives might like!). Not that I’m necessarily on board with the whole “progressive” evangelical/Jim Read more

One of Ireland’s three patron saints, Columba (c. 521-597) preached the Gospel among the Irish and Picts, had some dust-ups with the local Druids, and was one of the architects of the Irish monasticism which helped preserve reading and culture during the early Middle Ages. (See here for more.) Read more

Next Tuesday the National Religious Coalition against Torture will run an ad in the New York Times calling for “the elimination of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment as part of U.S. policy.” The ad is endorsed by folks like former President Jimmy Carter, Stanley Hauerwas, Bob Edgar of the National Council of Churches, Read more

My updated map of U.S. states I’ve been to after some recent trips: create your own personalized map of the USA I’d say there’s a pretty good chance I’ll visit Vermont before too long. I don’t know about Rhode Island, though. Are there good reasons to go to Rhode Island? Read more

Noam Chomsky is, to put it mildly, a polarizing figure. For a particular species of left-wing campus activist he’s a kind of guru, someone who has penetrated the veil of illusion and seen reality as it really is. For certain conservatives and “serious” liberals he’s an ayatollah of anti-Americanism, a kind of ritual hate figure. Read more