Living big

People from New York will recognize something familiar in Mr. Melvyn Kohn (I mean, Mr. William Milliken Vanderbilt Kingsland).

Perpetual adolescents

Beside the silly slogan about "saving the males," Kathleen Parker has a few good points. What she misses is that our culture does not value fathers because it does not value (in fact, it rejects) the authoritative side of love. In this respect, we are the living proof of the fact that without authority there is no growing up to adulthood.

The opposite of "universitas"

Given that our society regards as the colleges' main task the training of the workforce (and this is what most students expect: to be prepared for a job), Charles Murray's proposal is not without merit. As long as one remembers that there are some things that cannot be certified by a CPA-type exam, and that without them there is no education of a human person, and thus no civilization. But does anyone care?

Dead

Joseph Bottum on the historical collapse of mainline protestantism in the USA. The most interesting parts is how a dying religion turns into politics, and how politics becomes the substitute religion.

Foggy Bottom

Some people say the U.S. State Department is about to make yet another major blunder. Same conclusions here.

All forgotten

A piece on Catholicism in Australia. At least the writer goes beyond the usual liberal cliches by recognizing that there is a deeper problem. Except it gives it the wrong name: he says the question is Catholic "identity" while the problem seems to be, quite simply, Faith.

Back to reality

Today Tom Friedman is disgusted. The only good thing can come out of Zimbabwe is putting an end to some of the lingering fantasies of the 1960's (the neat division of the world between evil colonialists and good anti-imperialist fighters).

Interesting data

Some say that McCain could make inroads with hispanic voters by supporting school choice.

Apparatchik class

What Dalrymple writes about the psychiatric system in the UK,applies very well to many state universities in the US, where the administration is dominated by highly political PhD's in education who are interested in many things but certainly not in education....

Lowest of the low

The NYTimes magazine" has a long piece on demographics.

New elites

Goldman Sachs is taking over the country (says David Brooks).

The great switch

The talk of the day is the new book by Douthat and Salam. There are at least two reasons why it is getting attention: first because the political right-wing is desperate for new ideas. More importantly because the book reflects the big, dramatic, unimaginable (only a generation ago) 'change of seats' that has been taking place in American politics. The Democratic party, which used to represent the (largely "ethnic" and Catholic) working classes, has become the party of the more ideological, affluent liberal bourgeoisie. Conversely, the authors argue, the Republican party (traditionally regarded as the party of the moneyed elites) is bound to become the party of the "socially conservative" working classes, while keeping its allegiance to the principles of limited state intervention in society and in the economy. Obviously, this shift is extremely relevant to the Catholic presence in the US, which for many decades identified itself politically with the Democratic party. It is not by chance that several of the young new writers mentioned by David Brooks are Catholic (e.g. Douthat and Ponnuru).

Pyramid scheme

The paradox is that by abolishing vocational training and forcing everybody to go to college, "educational ideologues" have also made it hard to get a higher education, since most affordable colleges are now run like, well... vocational schools!

Who is this man?

This points to a larger concern that many people "feel" about Barak Obama and that may still keep him from the presidency. That deep down he is completely shaped by the mainstream liberal post-marxist ideology of the academic and media elites. Which many people in the US perceive, perhaps unconsciously, as a threat to their way of life.

True to what?

Peggy Noonan also grasps well what Tim Russert represented, and how different US culture has become.