"…and the truth will set you free"
Imagine you’re raising a family in a little suburban home, with a well-to-do neighbor on either side. (Some of you may not have to imagine, but you can still play along.) The neighbor on the left is sophisticated and amiable and smiles a lot. He often talks about having you over for dinner, and he … Continue reading Like a Good Neighbor
Last year, everyone was celebrating to see the end of 2020. Surely 2021 couldn’t be as bad, they said… and on some level it wasn’t. But there are other metrics by which it was certainly worse. All that said, I never cared much for the running joke that 2020 was such an awful year … Continue reading Real Resolution
I had a bad day. There were no tragedies. Nothing serious happened. It just didn’t go well, and it left me in a mood that will probably affect the next few days. Even worse, I’ve got things weighing on my mind that have been bothering me for months or years – and at least one … Continue reading In All Things…
On the last day of February in 1983, two men entered the basement of an abandoned Victorian home in St. Louis, Missouri. One lit a cigarette in the dark, perhaps to make their search for scrap metal easier, but the glow revealed something else. Lying on the floor was the body of a headless female, … Continue reading Just Like Us
I remember that morning. I was doing schoolwork in the kitchen, with the rest of my family going about their daily business as usual. My dad came into the room to ask my mom if she knew that the country was on high alert; she did not, of course, but he had just been on … Continue reading When the World Stopped Turning
In my last post, I tried to explain my fundamental problem with the “conservatism” of the Republican Party. This time, I would like to finish up by laying out the specific problems I have with their actual practice (or lack thereof). First, Republicans refuse to encourage virtue. Instead of promoting an idea on its own … Continue reading What’s Wrong with the Right?
In previous posts, I gave my general opinion on American politics – and on the left in particular. But I didn’t specifically address conservatism, so I would like to round out the conversation by doing that. To begin with, I’m not going to pretend that anyone would be wrong to associate me with conservatives; but … Continue reading The Right Reason
In my previous post, I spoke of politics in terms of liberal and conservative, rather than Democrat and Republican. That’s because my chief focus was on philosophy, not on party. But since left and right in our society are virtually synonymous with the two major parties, I may as well address the elephant in the … Continue reading No Good Reason
The terms “liberal” and “conservative” are obviously relative; what’s liberal in one century might be conservative in the next. But one thing remains essentially the same: conservatives fight change and liberals fight for it. How we judge the liberalism or conservatism of any time or place ultimately depends on what’s being changed. If it’s good, … Continue reading Conserving Liberalism
Think Truth 