“Set amid the foothills of historic Bull Run Mountain in Haymarket, Virginia, Bull Run Golf Club is surpassed only by the beauty that surrounds the course.” GolfGuideInc.com Enjoy a day of golf at the award-winning Bull Run Golf Club… and help support InsideCatholic.com at the same time! On Monday, June 1, … Read more
My wife and I have become eager viewers of old movies. In particular we have grown to love the films directed by John Ford, not only those recognized as masterpieces, such as Stagecoach, Rio Grande, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance — we have enjoyed all the rest, too. We loved Drums … Read more
White Guard Mikhail Bulgakov, Yale University Press, 310 pages, $18 “Great was the year and terrible the Year of Our Lord 1918, the second since the Revolution had begun.” So opens White Guard, the new and utterly admirable translation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s first novel, written some 83 years ago when the author was just 22. … Read more
And try not to speed, okay? That’s all I’m saying here, people. If I could have your attention, please — yes, that includes you two in the back. You there! Sit up, take off those caps, button your shirts, and place your hands on your desks. Keep them there until I’m finished. Or do you … Read more
Last month, I was celebrating the Naxos American Classics release of Vittorio Giannini’s Piano Concerto and his Symphony No. 4. When I pleaded that Naxos consider recording the other six symphonies, I had forgotten that Naxos has already released Giannini’s Symphony No. 3 (1958), so it has only five to go. The Third Symphony is … Read more
Science is a wonderful hobby, but a dangerous god. This year — the occasion of commemorative scientific events, hoped-for scientific breakthroughs, and major changes in political scientific policy — is a good year to remember this truth. To label science a mere “hobby,” though, may require some defense. There are those who find their … Read more
In spite of the media hype surrounding Pope Benedict XVI’s statement regarding the AIDS crisis in Africa, there is ample evidence to suggest the pope has a point. To judge whether this is true, one need only look at the facts — first with respect to the effectiveness of condoms in preventing the spread of … Read more
If you think the pro-life movement has run out of energy and new ideas, you should meet Lila Rose. You may not know her name, but you very likely have seen the media coverage of her various sting operations at Planned Parenthood clinics around the country. Rose is 20 years old, but she is already … Read more
By now it should be apparent to anyone who follows Washington politics that the new administration is ideologically the most anti-life administration in the history of our nation. During the recent presidential race, President Obama’s campaign was able to divide Catholics and forge a majority (54 percent) who voted against the teachings of the Church. … Read more
Reflective readers sometimes refer to the critical books that shaped their lives as if they were old friends whom they revisit from time to time, discovering in them always some new insight or nuance of meaning, some unheard strains of verbal music for which their reading ear was, at last, now ready. Another reading of … Read more
Most Americans are familiar with the young Abraham Lincoln. Stories abound of his truth telling, rail splitting, candlelight reading, soil tilling, store keeping, and flatboat driving. Amazingly enough, James M. McPherson has managed to touch on all of them — and a few more besides — in this brief biographical essay written to coincide with … Read more
The month of March brings with it many things, usually including the first spring-like days, Lent, baseball spring training — and, for college basketball fans, the NCAA tournament. Sixty-four teams from around the nation are invited to participate. For many programs (including the one at the university where I teach), a major goal of each … Read more
In this much-debated Crisis Magazine classic, historian James Hitchcock explains why he doesn’t much care for Chesterton, Belloc or Lewis. At an ecumenical conference, a Greek Orthodox bishop went around the breakfast table asking half a dozen people their favorite work of C. S. Lewis. There was animated discussion until my turn came, … Read more
In his powerful novel Serena, Ron Rash offers a haunting depiction of greed, inhumanity, and single-minded ambition. Put in more stark terms, he writes about the force of evil. Set in the Appalachians of Western North Carolina during the Great Depression, the book tells the story of a logging company owner named Pemberton and … Read more
I have just been re-reading an old book. Not old in the sense of its being 18th century — it is Dacre Balsdon’s Oxford Life, which came out in the early 1950s. One does not have to have been a scholar or a commoner at one of the colleges in Oxford in order to find … Read more
President Barack Obama has selected a pro-abortion Catholic governor, who has been told by her bishop not to present herself for communion, to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Writing last year in his diocesan newspaper, Bishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, discussed a meeting with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius where he told … Read more
Science may be a refined form of common sense, but at times all-too refined. Some basic laws of science can, of course, be fully rendered in commonsense terms. One gives the full truth of the three laws of thermodynamics by saying that, first, you cannot win; second, you cannot break even; third, you cannot even … Read more
Ever since Candidate Obama remarked that he’d like to “spread the wealth around,” most conservative commenters have concluded that the infiltration of Marxism into our university system has now achieved its long hoped-for effect on American society. “Obama Affinity to Marxists Dates Back to College Days,” read one FoxNews headline. Any number of blogs — … Read more
Before starting any reviews this month, I must exercise (or is it exorcise?) my ire. The Economist magazine offered a December cover story, "Why Music?" that requires comment. The piece asks, "What exactly is it for?" Given the article’s art work — drawings of half-naked women emanating from the brain of a rock … Read more
Recently I had the chance to speak with Jeffrey J. Karls, president of Magdalen College in Warner, New Hampshire. Like many people, I had a few misconceptions about the school. After speaking with him and getting the facts, I thought it would be nice to turn our conversation into an informal interview. With so many … Read more
