Category: Political Philosophy

Thanksgiving 2023: The Saga Continues

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving.

This year, I am simply re-upping what I wrote in 2021 about America’s greatest blessing.  It will never grow old.

No matter how far the overstructure of our organizations strays from it, it isn’t and doesn’t have to be far from our hearts.  Our hearts are what matter.  The mainstream media present one picture of Americans as a people, but our hearts present another.  All is not lost.  Never forget that.  Never lose heart.  Millions of hearts beat in silence to the liberty and grace we believe in. Continue reading “Thanksgiving 2023: The Saga Continues”

Needful things: U.S. policy on the current Hamas-Israel war; The Bully Pulpit

In the Hamas-Israel war, step up to the most important aspect of moral leadership.

This passage was originally to be part of a larger article on a core set of measures the U.S. needs to undertake, to facilitate a “better peace” from this war – the “better peace” being the desired goal of Western warfare as conceived by British author B.H. Liddell Hart in his canonical 1954 book Strategy.

That article addresses Iran, Iran’s proxies, containment in the Middle East, and other topics related to the progress and predictable aftermath of the war.  It will come out soon as a separate piece.

But recent developments have clarified how essential it is to strengthen America and make her a credible, persuasive voice from the bully pulpit, on the central concern for which the world is increasingly ready to hear that voice.  The concern is antisemitism (some prefer the expression Jew-hatred).

In the last few weeks we have seen – in America – an appalling outbreak of bloodthirsty fury directed at Jews. Continue reading “Needful things: U.S. policy on the current Hamas-Israel war; The Bully Pulpit”

These are the times that try men’s souls

It seems to be a perennial condition for the United States, with our experiment in liberty, limited government, and equality before the law.  Times that try men’s souls, so evocatively described by Thomas Paine in 1776, recur with us.

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

I submit that this is not because America is worse than other countries, as the modern Left’s agenda would too often have it, but because our experiment is better.  When we say “liberty,” we really mean liberty. Continue reading “These are the times that try men’s souls”

One guitar announces itself to the world

And the whole world changed?

OK, OK, I’ll write about the criticism of Oliver Anthony from National Review.

I imagine readers all know who Oliver Anthony is. Continue reading “One guitar announces itself to the world”

Independence Day 2023

Our lives, fortunes, and sacred honor.

For some reason, as July rolls in on us, I am reminded of an anniversary unrelated to our Declaration of Independence.

People are crowding social media to post images of the U.S. flag and offer July as America’s real Pride Month.  There’s something to that, though I’d rather think of it as Liberty Month.  The very word “Pride” rings wrong, for a nation whose primary cultural heritage is anchored by the two great faiths that eschew pride as an evil, if one bases a way of life on it, and obtrudes it on one’s relations to God and men.  Liberty, on the other hand, is a blessing precious and rare, one to celebrate with humility and commitment, remembering its costs paid by our forebears and its benefits for our children and their children after them.

But there’s also something to simply recalling that July is a whole month, Continue reading “Independence Day 2023”