As 2009 expires, music journalists and magazines rush to anoint their recordings of the year. I have no such list, but I did take note of the British Gramophone’s December selection of the Quatuor Ébène’s CD of the Ravel, Debussy, and Fauré String Quartets on Virgin Classics (519045-2) as the recording of the year. I … Read more
I have had a subscription to the weekly English edition of L’Osservatore Romano ever since it began. It is a most valuable printed source: While many papal statements can now be found online at the Vatican Web site, having these at hand, in print, made the journal worthwhile. Pope Benedict XVI, a man of … Read more
It happens to most of us who like classic art: You’re reading an article about some contemporary artist who’s making millions selling “art” made from rumpled beds, carved-up corpses, or human waste, and you ask yourself, why? Why can’t art be heroic and life-inspiring? Why does art have to degrade and shock? And what is … Read more
As my dogged readers know, this year I’ve been fitfully trying to work on a book about the vices and virtues. It has morphed a few times, as projects will, but took its final form as The Bad Catholic’s Guide to the Seven Deadly Sins. I meet with my publishers today to design a cover–which … Read more
It is customary this time of year for the Human Toothache Brigade to break out the ol’ secular-humanist signs and try to dampen Christmas spirit, while oversensitive culture warriors overreact with “War on Christmas!!” hyperventilation. It’s all good fun, but I find myself less and less moved by either side of it. If uptight, … Read more
Islam at the Gates: How Christendom Defeated the Ottoman Turks Diane Moczar, Sophia Institute Press, $17.95, 256 pages Once upon a time in the West, our ancestors clashed with peoples from the East. Europe was born at Marathon in 491 B.C., when Athenian hoplites defeated an invading Persian army. The defeat of Darius and his … Read more
Taken into Custody: The War against Fatherhood, Marriage, and the Family Stephen Baskerville, Cumberland House, 352 pages, $24.95 For whatever reason, social conservatives focus considerable political effort on abortion, gay rights, and obscenity, but pay scant attention to divorce. Perhaps they think that ship has sailed for good, whereas other battles still offer winnable stakes. … Read more
His Quaker parents had gone to Baoding, then Paotingfu, some 80 miles from Beijing, to teach English for the Chinese government, following the Boxer Rebellion. Richmond Lattimore was born there in 1906 and was taught by his parents. A sister, Eleanor, later wrote children’s novels about China, and brother Owen became one of the century’s … Read more
In early August 2006, the Global War on Terror reached a new and disturbing phase, when it was discovered that Terror has now recruited certain liquids as deadly new allies in its bloodthirsty campaign to wipe out our freedom. As this dramatically heightened threat shows, Terror knows no bounds in its resourceful ability to find … Read more
In his excellent new book, 33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask, Thomas E. Woods Jr. explodes the common myths that surround the short life of our nation. Brian Saint-Paul spoke with him about two of those errors, which have appeared frequently in the media and popular opinion. ♦ ♦ ♦ Brian … Read more
People with limited horizons tend to go for small and utterly implausible conspiracy theories. Blokes with some theory about the assassination of JFK are a dime a dozen. And for just that reason, they tend eventually to cancel each other out, leaving me simplistically thinking Lee Harvey Oswald was a trained marksman and a jerk … Read more
A tip to travelers: Avoid Zekistan. It has crummy tourist amenities and lethal concentrations of lead. I found this out back in June, patrolling one side of a city street in the country’s capital. I was hunting for fedayeen with Alpha Team, a stick of four light infantry troopers. Across the street, Bravo Team … Read more
It’s hard to watch Francis Bok remember. He speaks softly, haltingly. His piercing eyes stare out, sometimes at you, sometimes into space, but always to that morning 15 years ago in Sudan. He was seven years old and living with his family in a small southern village. His mother had sent him to the local … Read more