Or, Newt Gingrich call your office. Anne Applebaum: Seen from the perspective of the 108th Congress, which is stumbling to the end of its ignominious session this week, Newt Gingrich is a towering historical figure. By that I don’t mean Gingrich was a paragon of virtue, or that Gingrich was a great unifier of men.…

From Pontifications: It is popular today, as perhaps it always has been, to assert that God reveals himself in many ways. This is of course true. But the creedal claim is more than just an assertion of divine revelation. It is a claim that Jesus of Nazareth reveals God because Jesus is God. In each…

Reading the pieces from the Commonweal symposium on the election that I linked to yesterday, I was struck more than anything by the fact that partisans on each side can disagree so sharply not just about values or policies, but about the facts themselves. Here’s how Thomas Higgins, who’s voting for Kerry, describes the Iraq…

This may be the residual libertarian in me, but if there’s one idea that repulses me, it’s “the politics of national greatness.” This was brought to mind by a recent article by former McCain adviser Marshall Wittmann explaining his support for the Kerry-Edwards ticket: I am an independent McCainiac who hopes to revive the Bull…

Johny Ray makes an often neglected point: One of the commonest Leftist arguments in defence of big government (a sophisticated example here) is to say that the individual could accomplish nothing and would earn nothing without the community of which he forms part — and that therefore he “owes” the community something. That is of…

It’s coming says Radley Balko. They’ll have to pry the mug from my cold dead hands I tell ya…

An interesting essay by Roberto Rivera y Carlo: There aren’t a lot of people like me — not as many as you might think, anyway. Oh, you hear political commentators talk about “single-issue voters,” by which they (almost always) mean voters for whom a candidate’s position on abortion is the decisive or most important factor…

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…