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THE FINAL BATTLE:  FAITH, REASON & MILITANCY. 

CHRISTIANS OF THE WORLD ARE ABANDONED:  PERSECUTION CONTINUES & HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

3/14/2021

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Nonie Darwish on Muslim Converts to Christianity: "I Could Be Killed"  by Marilyn Stern
Middle East Forum Webinar
March 26, 2021

https://www.meforum.org/62164/darwish-on-muslim-converts-to-christianity
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"Nowhere to Turn for Safety": The Persecution of Christians, February 2021
by Raymond Ibrahim 
The Game that Left Iran in Historic Impasse  by Amir Taheri 
President Biden’s Decision Points
​Hosts Tom Joscelyn and Bill Roggio explain why President Biden should be clear-eyed when it comes to making decisions about the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some argue the U.S. should stay in Afghanistan to further the “peace process,” but there is no evidence that such a “process” even exists. Powered by RedCircle […]
Human Rights in the Middle East and American Foreign Policy
Via The Caravan no. 2130This new issue of The Caravan covers how human rights advocacy should factor in US decision making in the Middle East. Charles Hill explores the historical definitions of the term “human rights”; Russell Berman explains the dilemma of applying an advocacy approach to US foreign policy; and other scholars assess how America can embed its values into issues such as the Iran nuclear deal, historical alliances with Saudi Arabia and Egypt, and brokering peace between Kurdish factions in Syria.
Deterrence in Foreign Policy: Lessons from World War II
Featuring Victor Davis Hanson via PolicyEdLessons from history have clearly shown what happens when powerful nations do not show their might. During World War II, the Allied nations were far more powerful than the Axis powers, but their hesitancy in joining the war effort resulted in millions of deaths. Deterrence is about not just military might but also a mindset. For it to work, nations must show their capability to exert force and their clear willingness to use it when needed.
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GENE THERAPY & MORAL NORMS

3/7/2021

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Statement from Pro-Life Catholic Scholars on the
Moral Acceptability of Receiving COVID-19 Vaccines

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The past year of suffering under the onslaught of COVID-19 has brought with it numerous ethical questions, and the advent of effective vaccines for COVID is no different. Foremost among the questions for those of us who are committed to defending the intrinsic equal dignity of all human beings from conception to natural death are these: in accepting any of the vaccines on offer, is one in any way endorsing or contributing to the practice of abortion, or is one in any way showing disrespect for the remains of an unborn human being? As to the vaccines currently or soon available in the United States, we agree with Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, that the answer is no. While there is a technical causal linkage between each of the current vaccines and prior abortions of human persons, we are all agreed, that connection does not mean that vaccine use contributes to the evil of abortion or shows disrespect for the remains of unborn human beings. Accordingly, Catholics, and indeed, all persons of good will who embrace a culture of life for the whole human family, born and unborn, can use these vaccines without fear of moral culpability.
 
Common to the four major vaccines, produced by Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca is some use of “immortalized” human cell lines. Ordinarily, cells taken from a body have a limited life span, undergoing only a fixed number of cell divisions before they arrest and die. For ongoing research, scientists prefer to use a “cell line,” or a population of cells derived from a single source that has been modified (typically by some form of genetic mutation) to divide indefinitely in culture. Such “immortalized” cell lines allow scientists to conduct many experiments on cells that are both genetically identical and routinely available in the laboratory.
 
HEK293 is one such commonly used line.[1] The name “HEK” stands for “human embryonic kidney,” and “293” refers to the 293rd experiment conducted by the scientist who produced the cell line. The embryonic kidney cells were originally obtained from the remains of a deceased unborn child following what appears to be an elective abortion that took place in the Netherlands during the early 1970s. The exact circumstances of the abortion are not known, but the scientists producing the cell line were not directly involved and, crucially, the abortion was not performed for the sake of providing biological materials to researchers.
 
HEK293 cells are particularly susceptible to the introduction of foreign DNA, and they rapidly became a standard scientific workhorse, that is widely used by both basic scientists and by industry. Although there are currently many modified versions of HEK293s that optimize these cells for specific purposes, all of the HEK293 cells available around the world today were derived from the remains of a single unborn child that was aborted a half a century ago. Importantly, there is no ongoing use of aborted tissue to generate HEK293 cells, to modify these cells, or to maintain them in the laboratory. Thus, the use of HEK293 (and similar immortalized lines) does not create future incentives for more abortions.
 
How widely used are HEK293 cells? They are commonly used for testing processed foods produced by companies such as Kraft, Nestlé, Cadbury and others. Indeed, the great majority of processed/packaged food products available for sale in the United States are likely to contain ingredients produced or tested in HEK293 cells.
 
They are also used as an alternative to animal testing in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry. And their use in biomedical research is ubiquitous and has contributed to an enormous number of new medications and medical procedures developed over the last several decades. It thus seems fair to say that in addition to the use of HEK293 cells by the scientific community, nearly every person in the modern world has consumed food products, taken medications or used cosmetics/personal care products that were developed through the use of HEK293 cells in the food, biomedical and cosmetic industries.
 
The various vaccines have made different uses of the HEK293 cell line, with Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca using them for manufacture, Pfizer and Moderna for testing only. But these differences are irrelevant to the following questions:
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  • Do any of the vaccines make more use than others of the mortal remains of unborn children from whom the cell lines were derived? The answer is no; as a matter of scientific fact, no fetal “body parts” are present in these immortal cell lines. The immortal cell lines are artifacts—biological products that have been modified and reproduced many times over, and they do not retain the natural function of the tissue from which they were derived. They are not “body parts” in any meaningful or morally relevant sense.
  • Does the production and use of any of the vaccines contribute to, cooperate with, or promote any abortion? Again, the answer is no, for the abortions from which cell lines such as HEK293 were derived happened decades ago, and no further fetal tissue is used or needed for the maintenance of these lines.
 
Common to all pro-life witness is recognition that the apparent elective abortion that led to the derivation of the HEK293 cell line was morally impermissible and involved the unjust taking of a human life. But to repeat, the HEK293 cell line currently used around the globe in scientific research and those like it do not contain the remains of any human being and so its use does not show disrespect for human remains, any more than the contemporary use of products, such as roads or train lines, that were constructed by unjustly enslaved human beings, or use of land unjustly taken, shows disrespect for those victims in the distant past.
 
As a descriptive matter, some pro-life advocates may prefer to use one vaccine rather than another in order to witness against the evil of abortion, or to signal special respect for the unborn babies whose lives were lost. Again, we agree with Bishop Rhoades that such a choice is a matter for their conscience. But we think it a mistake to say both that these vaccines are morally permissible to use and yet that some ought to be preferred to others. There appears to us to be no real distinction between the vaccines in terms of their connection to an abortion many decades ago, and thus the moral starting point is one of equivalence.
 
Moreover, there might be good reasons for some persons to prefer or to promote the vaccines, such as Johnson & Johnson, that use HEK293 (and PER.C6) for manufacture rather than testing, namely, that the J&J vaccine requires only one dose, does not require storage at extremely low temperature, and thus may be more useful in reaching remote or otherwise underserved populations. Those who have special reasons to take the J&J vaccine should not, we believe, be led to think that they are choosing something that in other ways is more morally tainted than the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
 
Persons with access to these vaccines have strong moral reasons to take them: in doing so, they build up the herd immunity that will provide the greatest possible protection for the most vulnerable among us, including the elderly, those with pre-existing conditions, some minority populations, and the many other seemingly random victims of severe COVD-19. To be perfectly clear, we are not saying that people are justified in using and promoting these vaccines because the great goods they provide offset the evil of appropriating a prior wicked action. Rather, we believe that there is no such impermissible cooperation or appropriation here. The attenuated and remote connection to abortions performed decades ago and the absence of any incentive for future abortions offer little if any moral reasons against accepting this welcome advance of science.
 
 
Signed:
 
Ryan T. Anderson, Ph.D., President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center
 
Father Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., Ph.D., S.T.D., Professor of Biology and of Theology, Providence College
 
Maureen Condic, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurobiology, University of Utah
 
Father Kevin Flannery, S.J., Ph.D, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Pontifical Gregorian University
 
Robert P. George, J.D., D.Phil, D.C.L., D.Litt., McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University
 
O. Carter Snead, J.D., Professor of Law and Director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, University of Notre Dame
 
Christopher Tollefsen, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of South Carolina
 
Father Thomas Joseph White, O.P., D.Phil., Professor of Systematic Theology, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas - Angelicum
 
Affiliations provided for identification purposes only.

[1] We believe that the same analysis applies to the use of the immortalized cell line “PER.C6”, used in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, derived thirty-one years ago using the remains of an unborn baby following an elective abortion obtained for reasons entirely disconnected to the creation of the line.
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WHY GRAHAM GREENE MATTERS

3/7/2021

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EDWARD SHORT
A Definitive Dig in the Graham Greene Quarry
In brisk, cinematic prose reminiscent of the author’s own, Richard Greene shows his subject both fair criticism and sympathy.
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WHY BERNARD BAILYN MATTERS

2/12/2021

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Bernard Bailyn at Last: Illuminating History
By Jacob Bruggeman on Feb 10, 2021 04:00 pm
Bernard Bailyn challenges card-carrying historians and interested citizens alike to embrace intellectual humility and amiability at a time when public discourse has taken a decisive turn away from such virtues. This challenge is evident in Bailyn’s final work, “Illuminating History.” Bernard Bailyn The American historian Bernard Bailyn, who died of heart failure at ...
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From transgender to transhuman: The expanding culture of death
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By Anne Hendershott on Feb 12, 2021 07:44 pm
Most faithful Catholics have viewed the burgeoning transgender industry as encouraging a misguided belief that individuals—including even pre-school children—can change their God-given identity. However, the truth is that this rejection of human nature and natural [...]
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JOHN S. ROSENBERG
An Ominous Trend
Cancel culture and the ghost of Eugene Debs
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WHY ST. THOMAS BECKETT MATTERS & BURKE'S MORAL ECONOMY

1/19/2021

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Becket’s life shows that self-government requires the governing of one's self. The freedom of institutions to form individuals is crucial to that end.
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To defend itself morally, liberalism depends on a conception of natural rights, but it also needs natural law.
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Before the Fall
by theodore dalrymple
A history of French aristocrats before 1789 offers some eerie echoes of our own decadence.

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"Edmund Burke discerned poetry in the elusive motions of Britain's internal grain trade.
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MOHAMMED'S DAUGHTER:  THE FILM

1/12/2021

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Islamic scholars, activists call for ban on British film about prophet’s daughter
 
The film about Fatima al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, has already been banned in Pakistan.
The Battle for the Soul of Islam
By Dr. James M. Dorsey, January 17, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The battle for the soul of Islam pits rival Middle Eastern and Asian powers against one another: Turkey, seat of the Islamic world’s last true caliphate; Saudi Arabia, home to the faith’s holy cities; the United Arab Emirates (UAE), propagator of a militantly statist interpretation of Islam; Qatar, with its less strict version of Wahhabism and penchant for political Islam; Indonesia, promoting a humanitarian, pluralistic notion of Islam that reaches out to other faiths as well as non-Muslim center-right forces across the globe; Morocco, which uses religion as a way to position itself as the face of moderate Islam; and Shiite Iran, with its derailed revolution.

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WHY IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES:  RICHARD WEAVER ON THE MOTHER OF RELATIVISM:  NOMINALISM

12/19/2020

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Ideas Still Have Consequences: Richard Weaver on Nominalism & Relativism
by Darrell FalconburgRichard Weaver’s book Ideas Have Consequences presents the harmful effects of nominalism on Western civilization since it gained prominence in the Late Middle Ages. This philosophical revolution toward nominalism was not only a pivotal event in Western history. It was, in fact, the pivotal event. Many of our modern woes stem from the acceptance of nominalism and the rejection of philosophical realism back in the fourteenth century... [MORE]
The Best Book of 2020
Rome Without Greatness
Rome and Caesar are unknown to modern elites who refuse to believe in the existence of great men.READ MORE ›
Melville’s Rejection of Utopia
by micah mattix
That Herman Melville became a writer in the first place—and later the author of the Great American Novel, as some people think of Moby-Dick—would have surprised his father, Allan, who said (when Melville was seven) that he was “very backward in speech & somewhat slow in comprehension.” His older brother, Gansevoort, was the one destined […]
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How Liberals Turned Freedom Into Tyranny
By John Horvat on Jan 17, 2021 04:00 pm
Ryszard Legutko’s “The Cunning of Freedom” pierces through the darkness of today’s shallow notions of freedom and exposes the dangers of continuing on the present course. The author indicates a metaphysical path whereby postmodern man might find that truth that will set him free. The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age ...
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The Crisis of Liberalism
Trump’s Rage, Washington’s Prudence
by tillman w. nechtman & natalie taylor
Washington understood that martial strength secured independence, but republican government would require moral fortitude.
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STATESMANSHIP & THE PROBLEM OF CIVIC VIRTUE

12/12/2020

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James Madison and republican statesmanship, part VI: The problem of civic virtue  
Jay Cost | American Enterprise Institute
Rousseau’s and Kant’s Competing Interpretations of the Enlightenment
The ‘Dictatorship of Relativism’ Has Arrived
Casey Chalk
 At the beginning of the 2005 conclave, Pope Benedict XVI preached a now-famous homily condemning what he called the “dictatorship of relativism.” The newly-elected pontiff warned: “We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.” Benedict’s words elicited […]
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EVIL IN OUR TIME

12/12/2020

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Demonic Foes a thorough, scholarly analysis of the phenomenon of diabolic attacks
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By Father Seán Connolly on Dec 07, 2020 01:19 am
Dr. Richard Gallagher is not just some psychiatrist on the fringes of his field. He is a magna cum laude graduate from Princeton University and trained as a resident in psychiatry at Yale University School [...]
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The Suicide of a Civilization
Covid Vaccines: ‘The Ends Cannot Justify the Means’
Bishop Athanasius Schneider
On the moral illicitness of the use of vaccines made from cells derived from aborted human fetuses In recent weeks, news agencies and various information sources have reported that, in response to the Covid-19 emergency, some countries have produced vaccines using cell lines from aborted human fetuses. In other countries, such vaccines are being planned. […]Read More
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THE MYSTERY OF HOBBITS

11/21/2020

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http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/04/scienceshot-shrinking-hobbits-brain
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WHY THERE'S SOMETHING, RATHER THAN NOTHING

11/21/2020

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AMAZON
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THE VICTORIANS & SEX

11/20/2020

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WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CRISIS OF ISLAM

10/19/2020

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Algeria's Referendum: Stirrings of Democracy and the Decline of Islamism
By Prof. Hillel Frisch, November 22, 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The events surrounding the recent constitutional referendum in Algeria reflect broader trends in the region and the prospect that Algeria might eventually join the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan in normalizing relations with Israel.

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The Danger of Dawat-e-Islami  by J.M. Phelps
American Spectator
November 18, 2020

https://www.meforum.org/islamist-watch/61785/the-danger-of-dawat-e-islami
Report Warns of Islamic Radicalization in France  by Judith Bergman  
Turkish Islamism and Pedophilia  by Burak Bekdil
The Gatestone Institute
October 20, 2020

https://www.meforum.org/61675/turkish-islamism-and-child-sexual-abuse
Who Is Responsible for the 'Crisis' in Islam?  by Khaled Abu Toameh 
ISLAMIC AESTHETICS:  ARCHITECTURE
On October 20, 2020, French-Tunisian Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, the President of the Conference of Imams of France, gave an interview to the press, including CNEWS (France), in response to the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty in a recent terror attack. Imam Chalghoumi strongly denounced Paty’s murder, saying that he is a “martyr of freedom” and that the murderer was a criminal terrorist. – Middle East Media Research Institute
France's Showdown with the Islamic World
By Col (Res.) Dr. Raphael G. Bouchnik-Chen, October 30, 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The beheading of schoolteacher Samuel Paty, which occurred two weeks after a momentous speech by President Emmanuel Macron in which he unveiled a plan to defend French secular values against “Islamist radicalism,” marked the start of what might turn out to be an all-out war between France and the Islamic world, with Turkey’s Erdoğan leading the Muslim charge. By taking a stand against Muslim extremist violence and suppression of freedom of speech, Macron might find himself facing a new wave of Islamic terror.

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The forgotten history of Christian slavery under Islam
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By Father Seán Connolly on Dec 16, 2020 06:16 pm
While celebrating his first Mass, St. John of Matha (1160-1213)—whose Feast is celebrated on December 17th—was granted the signal favor of having God’s Will for his priesthood revealed clearly to him. At the elevation of [...]
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REBUILDING THE U.S.:  THE POST COVID RECOVERY BEGINS WITH GOVERNING

10/18/2020

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AEI
Geography of Being
The Last Victorian
Michael Warren Davis
I once had the unenviable task of explaining to Thomas Howard what the alt-right is. “They’re white nationalists,” I said, “but they also oppose the ascent of libertarians in the Republican Party.” “I see.” He nodded. “And what’s a libertarian?” That one I couldn’t bring myself to explain. It would be an honor to say […]Read More
In the coming years, the president of the United States will face five significant national security challenges: pandemic recovery, debt planning, rebalancing our over-militarized approach to the world, handling China, and harnessing allies. In a chapter for AEI’s new book, “Governing Priorities,” Kori Schake notes that, while these are major challenges, our country is more than powerful enough to meet them. With enduring structural advantages in place, the US is only a few good choices from dramatically strengthening itself, both domestically and internationally. Read the chapter here. See the whole book here.
​Hiring government leaders: Lessons from the private sector
 Geoff Smart, Maria Blair, and Jeff McLean | November 2020
  • The process of appointing cabinet leaders and hiring senior administration staff is a president’s first and most important management challenge.

  • Insights about executive selection methods from a half century of research from the disparate fields of political science and industrial psychology offer some clues about how to improve cabinet and senior staff selection.

  • Many structural challenges exist in the cabinet appointment process as a whole, but significant improvements can be made in the selection and “interviewing” steps that do not require statutory amendments or congressional action.

  • Adopting proven selection methods would improve the executive branch’s performance.
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Governing priorities
A look into our fiscal future
​Reviving the Congress
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THE VATICAN & MONEY AFTER CARDINAL BELL

10/16/2020

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Analysis: What does Cardinal Farrell’s promotion say about the McCarrick report?
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By Catholic News Agency on Oct 13, 2020 08:03 pm
Denver Newsroom, Oct 13, 2020 / 02:55 pm (CNA).- Cardinal Kevin Farrell was appointed last week to lead a small committee charged with scrutinizing high-level Vatican financial decisions not governed by ordinary Vatican oversight norms. [...]
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Hard lessons of the McCarrick Affair
​
By George Weigel on Nov 18, 2020 03:01 am
From the day it was announced that the Vatican would conduct an investigation into the career of former Washington cardinal-archbishop Theodore McCarrick (compelled to renounce his cardinalate and subsequently laicized for sexual abuse and the [...]
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Cardinal Pell, the Living Martyr
Fr. Mark Withoos
 “Thank you for your testimony.” With these words, Pope Francis greeted Cardinal George Pell who, on coming out of Covid-19 quarantine, went to meet the Pope in audience. Martyr in the Greek language means “witness” or “testimony.” In essence it is the basic call of every Christian, every follower of Jesus Christ, to give testimony […]Read More
The Gipper and JPII: an Alliance for Good
Monika Jablonska
Pope John Paul II once said that, “In the designs of Providence, there are no more coincidences.” That is one way to explain why a Polish pope, dedicated above all to defending the dignity of the human person, would step onto the world stage just as the most powerful country on earth was about to […]Read More
Cracks of faith in the secular self
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By Joshua Hren on Oct 14, 2020 05:04 pm
Harper’s editor Christopher Beha’s new novel, The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, pushes against not a few cracks in the ceiling of our age—our love-hatred of celebrities, the fabrications of our failed financial industry, our overreliance [...]
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The Deep Church: From the Borgias to Becciu
Michael Warren Davis
The Australian government is now beginning to confirm what most of us have suspected for years. In a display of ruthlessness and corruption that would thrill the Borgias, Vatican bureaucrats wired a small fortune to unknown parties in Australia to initiate the fraudulent sex-abuse charges against George Cardinal Pell. According to local media reports, officials […]Read More
Francis Is Wrong on Civil Unions
Crisis Magazine   Read More
Xi’s Pope
Declan Leary
As expected, the Holy See has announced an extension of its provisional agreement with the People’s Republic of China, concerning the appointment of bishops. Under the controversial agreement, episcopal candidates will be recommended to the Holy See by the Chinese Communist Party, then approved and appointed by the Holy Father. The plan’s experimental phase will […]Read More
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A REDEMPTION:  SOLZHENITSYN

10/2/2020

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How to Resist Marxism According to Solzhenitsyn
Jane Stannus
 Time for our five-minute “When Marxism Comes Knocking, Be a Doormat” team-building session! Today’s wisdom comes from Coca Cola’s Better Together global training materials, reported by a whistleblower on February 19, 2021. All together now: “To be less white is to be less oppressive, be less arrogant, be less certain, be less defensive, be less […]
Solzhenitsyn's Journey From Oppression To Independence
mentioning Hoover Institution via The Wall Street Journal
The Soviet Umbrella And The Volcker Shock By Michael De Groot
via Hoover Daily Report
A History Working Group seminar with Michael De Groot.
Michael Beckley explains that in the coming decades, rapid population aging and the rise of automation will dampen faith in democratic capitalism and fracture the so-called free world at its core.
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TOLKIN BEGINS HIS MASTERPIECE & WHY JOSEPH CONRAD MATTERS

9/27/2020

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Tolkien’s “The Return of the Shadow,” 1937-1939
By Bradley J. Birzer on Sep 26, 2020 04:00 pm
Christopher Tolkien, in “The Return of the Shadow,” breaks down J.R.R. Tolkien’s drafts of the sequel to “The Hobbit” into three phases. In the third phase, the situations around them do grow tellingly darker, with drastic implications for the story that could shake the foundations even of the Blessed Realm, the land of the ...
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Tolkien Begins the Sequel to “The Hobbit”
Understanding William Faulkner
Five Defenses of Classical Education in a Time of Civil Unrest
The Abiding Relevance of ‘Heart of Darkness’ for Those Who Wage War by William Bray
  • Talking about a Constitutional Restoration
  • Lennonist Revolution
Habit and Grace
by Glenn ArberyIt should be too obvious to need saying, but thoughtfully reading the great works informs practical judgment in everyday circumstances—the sphere of the moral virtues. The Iliad, for example, shows us human nature under extreme duress. Understanding Agamemnon and the consequences of his actions gives us a complex gauge of character. We come to recognize how often in daily life surprises come and how much they reveal that we stand in need of grace... [MORE]
Aristotle Contra Mundum: The Woke Come for the Philosopher
by Anthony YetzerA voice of reason from the liberal bloc of our society which is otherwise teeming with madness, Professor Agnes Callard is admirable in her unwillingness to cancel Aristotle. In light of recent events, she might find his views are not so much prejudiced as they are realistic, and, on that note, timeless, unlike the egalitarian utopias which liberals are always chasing. The philosopher had a disposition toward the world around him which allowed him to see it in an exceptionally clear way... [MORE]
Arguing With Lincoln: The Views of M.E. Bradford & Richard Weaver
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COMMERCE, MANNERS & EQUALITY:  TOCQUEVILLE & BURKE

9/2/2020

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October for Russell Kirk
Burke on Monstrous Revolution and Regicide Peace
By Bradley J. Birzer on Oct 15, 2020 04:00 pm
Far from creating peace, Edmund Burke contended, the French Revolution had generated the greatest despotism the world had yet seen, politicizing all things and enslaving the vast majority of the population. The Revolution itself was monstrous and had created only monstrous things. Of Edmund Burke’s (1729-1797) four Letters on a Regicide Peace—his final work, ...
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John Calvin and the American Republic
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Reflections on Tocqueville: The Pervasiveness of Equality
By Bradley J. Birzer on Sep 01, 2020 04:00 pm
To this day, though America has changed in size, shape, demographics, and technology, “Democracy in America” remains the single finest description of the American experiment. Introducing his work to the world, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that nothing struck him more than the pervasiveness of the idea of equality in the United States. Alexis de ...
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The Administrative Revolution & the End of Democracy  
​By Paul Krause on Oct 07, 2020 04:00 pm
If Alexis de Tocqueville were alive today and observing the situation of America, he would probably not be surprised that the democratic ethos of civil society, the township, and the autonomous local county have been crushed by the royal prerogatives of the executive and the administrative bureaucracy built around it. Most Americans are somewhat ...
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Manzoni’s Political Economy
The Administrative Revolution & the End of Democracy
Is America Tumbling Toward 1917 Russia?
Revisiting Robert Nisbet’s Conservative Classic
Burke’s First Letter of a Regicide Peace
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HOLLYWOOD TRIES FATIMA; A GUIDE TO THE SATANIC WILES OF KARL MARX; CHANGING ARAB CIVILIZATION & THE SLAUGHTER OF CHRISTIANS IN AFRICA

8/22/2020

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Will the Cultural Revolution Be Canceled?
The challenge to our civilization is real, but most Americans aren’t sympathetic to social radicalism.
Is America Tumbling Toward 1917 Russia?
Revolutionary violence is always an indictment of a political system’s democratic legitimacy. 
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Delayed because of pandemic, new Fatima movie to open on August 28th
By Jim Graves on Aug 18, 2020 01:47 pm
Picturehouse will release its new film Fatima, in theaters and on demand on Friday, August 28. It is a re-telling of the story of the Blessed Mother’s appearances to three children in Fatima, Portugal in [...]
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A disturbing guide to the devilish Karl Marx
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By Anne Hendershott on Aug 17, 2020 07:53 pm
Winston Churchill, in a speech before the House of Commons on October 22, 1945, said that “the inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings, the inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal [...]
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Stephen Williams’ Recovery of a Forgotten Russian Liberal
by Aurelian Craiutu
Stephen Williams wrote about a man who lived in dark times and tried to build the institutions of liberal democracy on the ruins of an autocratic regime. Read More »
"China Buys Turkey’s Silence on Uyghur Oppression," 
Aykan Erdemir and Philip Kowalski, 
The Diplomat
"We Have No Mercy on You People": Persecution of Christians, July 2020
by Raymond Ibrahim
We Need This Change in the Arab World  by Sara Al Nuaimi 
A Slippery Patch in World Affairs  by Amir Taheri  •
New book ponders the continuity (and conservatism) of today’s conservative movement
By Jerry Salyer on Aug 27, 2020 10:09 pm
“A society that accepts the killing of a third of its babies as women’s ’emancipation,’ that considers homosexual marriage to be social progress, that hands out contraceptives to 13-year- old girls at junior high school [...]
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Saint Augustine on true worship and the ecclesial heart
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By Dr. Jared Ortiz on Aug 27, 2020 09:00 pm
As I was reading Augustine’s discussion of true worship in the City of God this past week, I was struck by how naturally Augustine holds together things that contemporary Catholic culture has divided. Let me [...]
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As marriage rates plummet, polyamory rises
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By Russell Shaw on Aug 27, 2020 12:50 pm
Under the heading “A fair chance for children” the New York Times editorial board recommends four measures to help low-income kids: create government-funded savings accounts for newborns, provide universal pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds, “spend more” on [...]
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The Next Pope is an evangelical call to ressourcement
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By Eduardo Echeverria on Aug 25, 2020 10:44 pm
George Weigel’s new book The Next Pope is a call to ressourcement. This means that the Church must engage in a retrieval of her teaching by looking back to the authoritative sources of the faith—Scripture [...]
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Turkey: Islamism's Corrupted Symbolism  By Burak Bekdil, August 30, 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque and the desire to “Turkify” place names reflect the Islamist “conquest fetish.”Modern Islamists in Turkey have created a new version of Islam for themselves that differs from the religion’s origins.

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EGYPT'S AL-SISI'S NEW CHALLENGE:  MANAGING MILITANT ISLAM & WHAT ORIGINALISM CONSERVES

7/27/2020

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Can Terrorists be Deradicalized? - Part II  by Denis MacEoin
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/07/turkeys-new-mosque-monument-western-decline-bruce-thornton/?utm_source=Hoover+Daily+Report&utm_campaign=7e65066775-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_13_06_37&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_21b1edff3c-7e65066775-72527561
Egypt's Al-Azhar in dispute with government over fatwa authority
 Tensions are escalating between Al-Azhar and legislative and executive authorities over proposed legislation that would render Dar al-Ifta an "independent" institution, ending Al-Azhar's long-standing patronage of the Islamic legal body — and replacing it with state dominance and possibly tighter government control over the religious narrative.
Istanbul's Hagia Sophia holds first Friday prayers since reconversion to mosque
 Is Turkey's reconversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque a politically expedient decision or part of Turkey’s growing global assertiveness?
What Originalism Conserves  by Ilan Wurman
The Framers, very cognizant of history, sought to frame a constitution that successfully balanced self-government and liberty. Read More »
Irving Kristol’s Rules for Nihilists  by Richard M. Reinsch II
What if the “self” that is “realized” under the conditions of liberal capitalism is a self that despises liberal capitalism? Read More »
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DNA, THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS & russell kirk on the american imperium

6/9/2020

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What Holds America Together? Russell Kirk's Roots of American Order
by Robert SpeaightRussell Kirk shows that the United States was a new thing built upon a number of very old things, and these are the roots which give it life today: the English common law, the English language, the English Reformation, the English Parliament; the Roman order and the Greek intellect, Montesquieu’s “depositary” of justice secured by the Supreme Court, and Edmund Burke’s gospel of continuity... [MORE]
Stand, Men of the West!
by Stephen KlugewiczWestern Civilization is undeniably in decline and indeed its very existence is in doubt. Yet these thoughts ought not to drag conservatives down into a morass of defeatism. Though the hour is late, a remnant must run to the barricades and shield itself and whatever is left of Western Civilization from the barbarians at the gates. I call on conservatives to refuse to cede the current hour to darkness... [MORE]
The Decadent Society & the Summer of Our Discontent
A Philosophy for Our Age: Historicist Humanism
Freedom, Responsibility, and the Liberal Arts
By Stringfellow Barr on Jun 11, 2020 12:30 pm
Pericles was proud of Athenian freedom and insisted it was worth dying for. Our ancestors shared that pride and that insistence. But they and he were proud, not of the absence of discipline or authority, but of the fact that in a society of free citizens discipline and authority are self-imposed. The other day ...
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The Odd History of the Whig Party
Thomas Jefferson, Whig Historian
by Bradley J. BirzerGiven how vital a role history placed in the English-speaking world of the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson’s own love of history should not be too shocking. Further, it should not be surprising that Jefferson embraced a rather Whiggish view of history, one that pervaded much of American political, social, cultural, and religious thought. Thus, when Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he was not merely writing yet another legal document... [MORE]
An Ennobling Innocence: The Founding of Socrates' Republic
by David Lawrence LevineIt is the task of the wise ruler to seek to transform the city based on force into one based on speech (if only on myths and noble lies). This is no different for a founder of a community of discourse than for a founder of cities. The primary task of The Republic, then, is the foundation of a human mutuality based on an openness to speeches. Socrates’ efforts toward this end, however, are complex and, on the surface, quite puzzling... [MORE]
The Benedict Option and the Case for Spiritual Secession
Edmund Burke on Rights: Inherited, Not Inherent
The Swan Song of Roger Scruton: Wagner’s Parsifal: The Music of Redemption
Patrick Deneen and the Conservative Understanding of Time
A Master Historian at Work
by George H. Nash
Using the chapters in this new book as lamps and signposts, Bailyn has created an elegant roadmap of his intellectual journey. Read More »
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PHYSICS, NOMINALISM & THE CONSEQUENCES OF BRIAN GREENE

6/5/2020

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“Until the End of Time”: God and Brian Greene
By James Como on Jun 04, 2020 03:59 pm
Brian Greene is the latest in a long line of thinkers who assert that there is no God, and no free will, no independent consciousness, no transcendent reality whatsoever. Though we learn much science from Dr. Greene, none of it dull and much of it fascinating, he leaves us perplexed in the end. The ...
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“Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight”
By Nicholas Vachel Lindsay on Jun 04, 2020 06:15 pm
It is portentous, and a thing of state That here at midnight, in our little town A mourning figure walks, and will not rest, Near the old court-house pacing up and down, Or by his homestead, or in shadowed yards He lingers where his children used to play, Or through the market, on the well-worn stones ...
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Cry, the Beloved Country
By Alan Paton on Jun 04, 2020 10:56 am
Some of us think when we have power, we shall revenge ourselves on the white man who has had power, and because our desire is corrupt, we are corrupted, and the power has no heart in it. But most white men do not know this truth about power, and they are afraid lest we get ...
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John Paul II & the Spiritual Victory Over Communism
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DIVISIONS AND TRADE WARS = THE MONROE DOCTRINE; DAVID PRYCE JONES AND CHRISTIAN CULTURE WARS CONTINUE UNABATED

5/22/2020

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Geography’s Revenge: Space & Human Action in German History
American Foreign Policy and the Failure of Reason
The Battle of Jumonville Glen: The French & Indian War Begins
The Divisions & Trade Wars Leading Up to the Monroe Doctrine
By Bradley J. Birzer on May 21, 2020 04:00 pm
Even though President James Monroe could not fix the economy or dismiss the Missouri question, he could certainly distract the nation from its problems. In his second inaugural address, he gleefully announced a new target for American anger: The British were not allowing free trade between the United States and the English-occupied West Indies. ...
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Turning the Whole Soul: The Moral Journey of the Philosophic Nature in Plato’s “Republic”
By Andrew Seeley on May 21, 2020 04:00 pm
According to Socrates, to save Philosophy, to save young souls destined for greatness, to save human society itself, the true, philosophic nature must be freed from the corruptive influences that have formed him and receive the best education. The soul must be turned around. I forgot that we were playing and spoke rather intensely. ...
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Understanding Genes, Decadence, and the Decline of Empires
By Donald Devine on Jun 01, 2020 04:00 pm
We have become victims of our very success in producing a comfortable life so that nothing new seems worth much further effort. The United States and the West might even be as decadent as was ancient Rome, which managed decline for centuries. Why not the United States too? Everyone on the right seems to ...
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The Richard Weaver-Abraham Lincoln Debate
By Thomas Hubert on Jun 01, 2020 03:30 pm
For some time I had puzzled over a discrepancy or inconsistency between two of Richard Weaver’s essays which treat of Lincoln to one degree or another. In his “Abraham Lincoln and the Argument from Definition” (1953), Weaver praises Lincoln as a “conservative” by virtue of his employment of the argument from definition on such ...
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A Protestant Integralism?  by Greg Forster
If all political history is simply a contest between Christian and anti-Christian ideas, everything is a battleground. Read More »
Portrait of a Cold War Intellectual  by James Matthew Wilson
David Pryce-Jones's Signatures reminds us of a more dire and serious age but also of one in some ways more genuinely human than our own. Read More »
Christopher Dawson and the Religious Impulse
Charles De Gaulle as Catholic Military Exemplar
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RAPE AS JIHAD

5/21/2020

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Rape as Jihad by Raymond Ibrahim
American Thinker
May 15, 2020

https://www.meforum.org/60957/rape-as-jihad
John Paul II, globalist (revisited)  
James C. Capretta | AEIdeas
​INTERVIEW: GEORGE WEIGEL ON POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Religious Freedom Institute blog

Among his vast contributions as a philosopher, theologian, and leader in the Catholic Church, John Paul II was a vigorous defender of religious freedom throughout his life. Read More

(See here for a roundup of George Weigel’s commentary and appearances related to St. John Paul II’s centenary.) 
GAMES INTELLECTUALS PLAY
By EPPC Distinguished Senior Fellow George Weigel
Syndicated Column

The proponents of a confessionally Catholic state as the optimum form of government are small in number. But they’ve demonstrated an impressive ability to rile up the debate about the current American political situation, and about Catholic social doctrine generally, so a few questions are in order. Read More
Slavery Rampant In Africa, Middle East; The West Wrongly Accuses Itself
quoting Ayaan Hirsi Ali via Gatestone Institute
For the intersectional activists, the US is the world's biggest oppressor -- not China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, or Iran.
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THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNITY:  RECONCILING LIBERTY TO EQUALITY & WHY TOCQUEVILLE MATTERS TODAY

4/13/2020

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Benedict XVI, Vatican II, and the “hermeneutic of reform”
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By Mark Brumley on Jun 29, 2020 09:40 pm
Recently, Second Vatican Council’s legitimacy and value have again been challenged. Some observers behave as if Benedict XVI saw Vatican II as a problem and proposed a “hermeneutic of continuity” to overcome the problem. Some [...]
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  • Plagues, Ancient and Modern
  • Lincoln’s Journeys
  • Contra Natura
On John Paul II’s centenary
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By George Weigel on May 13, 2020 03:01 am
As the world and the Church mark the centenary of the birth of Pope St. John Paul II on May 18, a kaleidoscope of memories will shape my prayer and reflection that day. John Paul [...]
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Natural Law, Positive Law, and Liberty
The Dignity of Work
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Freedom from Reality: The Diabolical Character of Modern Liberty
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By Thaddeus Kozinski on Apr 12, 2020 04:01 pm
As our physical and political freedoms are increasingly curtailed by Leviathan due to the Coronavirus pandemic, we are hopefully becoming more aware of the value of what we are losing. Hopefully, it will be the occasion for a more urgent and honest reflection on the true meaning of freedom. Freedom from Reality: The Diabolical ...
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Thoughts From Isolation: On Descartes & the Intellectual Roots of Our Cultural Woes
By Siobhan Nash-Marshall on Apr 13, 2020 04:00 pm
So what do I believe? What do I really believe? I presently believe that I feel the sun warming my skin, that I see light streaming through my windows, that I am sitting at my desk, that I am holding a pen in my hand. I believe that it is Wednesday and that I ...
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Proxy wars over religious liberty
Ryan T. Anderson | National Affairs
Religious liberty is a prerequisite for a moral life, but it is not the substance of it. A proxy war is not a substitute for the hard work of moral argument and moral formation.
A Restless Tocqueville
By Bruce Frohnen on Apr 15, 2020 04:00 pm
Alexis de Tocqueville distanced himself from the liberal view that men by nature spontaneously would form lives of blissful contentment, were they not “corrupted” by political society. Nonetheless, at the heart of this liberal Tocqueville lies the “restless mind”—a mind that sees the essence of humanity in the realization that each of us “dies ...

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“On the Burning of Notre Dame”
By David Russell Mosley on Apr 15, 2020 10:30 am
From arches old, the fire enfolds the spire. The holy relics, art, and host were saved. The stellar ceiling now reveals the graven Sky. The circling stars shine through the fire. Parisians gather to pray and vent their ire, Grieving loss of culture, loss of faith. The beads all clinking as they pray Ave ...
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The Notre Dame Fire: A Sign of the Times
By Brendan Fowler on Apr 15, 2020 02:45 pm
Our Western culture is on fire and not in a good way. In the midst of a pandemic, economic chaos, and continuous social deconstruction, the burning of Notre Dame paints a startlingly fitting image of the West. The Memory of the Ideal Architecture is the structured form of the Ideal; it is the culmination ...
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Modernism vs. Traditionalism in the Art of Female Nudes
By David Breitenbeck on Apr 21, 2020 03:59 pm
In two famous paintings of female nudes, we see more than just two differing depictions of the same subject. We see the essential differences between the Traditionalist and Modernist artist: The former looks outward, seeking something higher than himself to contemplate, while the latter looks inward, seeking to assert his own will upon the world. ...
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Property and the Pursuit of Virtue
by Edward J. Erler
The American Founding contained Aristotelian elements of natural right—especially concerning property—that insulated it from modernity's corrosive effects. Read More »
After Republican Virtue
Is Conservatism an Ideology?
by Bradley BirzerIn his excellent, short book, Conservatism: Dream and Reality, Robert Nisbet had no problem in identifying conservatism as an ideology, proclaiming it one of three ideologies to have emerged since the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, the other two being radicalism and liberalism. In his definition of the ideology, conservatism, Nisbet provided six “dogmas” that every conservative—to one extent or another—accepts... [MORE]
The Plight of the Conservative Artist in a Liberal World
by Kay ClarityThe left has long understood the power of the arts in furthering radical ideas, in a way conservatives have largely failed to grasp in defending theirs. Conservatives with the financial means must increase their support of conservative artists for the sake of a culture in immediate need of the wisdom that a long intellectual, cultural, educational, and political conservative tradition has produced... [MORE]
The Religious Roots of the Socialist Fantasy  by James Poulos
Today’s “socialist” turn reflects a desperate desire to stop the clock—and a wounded recognition that the hands will keep on spinning. Read More »
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