Commonweal has published a symposium of sorts on the upcoming election. Thomas Higgins on why he’s supporting Kerry. Robert Royal on voting Republican. Paul J. Griffiths on opting for “none of the above.”

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury,pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seekto be consoled as…

There’s a place I know where the train goes slow Where the sinner can be washed in the blood of the Lamb There’s a river by the trestle down by sinner’s grove Down where the willow and the dogwood grow You can hear the whistle, you can hear the bell From the halls of heaven…

Political analysis is not our strong suit here at VI, but what’s a blog for if not for offering amateurish, half-baked opinions? Tally ho, then! I didn’t see the debate last night (my wife and I watched the truly wonderful Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind instead), but I perused the transcript this morning as…

From Virginia Postrel: Weirdest Line of the Night “I’m going to get it right for those soldiers, because it’s important to Israel, it’s important to America, it’s important to the world, it’s important to the fight on terror.” I actually replayed this on Tivo to make sure I heard right. Because it’s important to Israel?????…

Huzzah! The father of our country turned his prodigious talents to, among other things, whiskey-making after his retirement: When Washington left the presidency and returned to Mount Vernon in 1797, his plantation manager, a Scotsman named James Anderson, suggested that his boss use the farm’s excess grain to make whiskey for the local market. Washington…

From Terry Mattingly: 1 – Have only one television set in the home. Media critic Neil Postman has said that people have always had castles in the air and imaginary lives, but that it was not until television that people actually tried (perhaps statistically speaking) to live in them. … 3 – Children should never…

This is just wrong. (via Eve Tushnet)

…maybe all this hand-wringing is pointless since your vote won’t count anyway.

Two blogs of note added to the ol’ blogroll: Mere Comments is the blog associated with Touchstone Magazine: A Journal of Mere Christianity. One of the editors of the New Pantagruel, another fine publication, blogs at The Japery.