Elaina Pott and Danny Hakim of The New York Times explore the rise of Josh Hawley, the first senator to announce he would oppose the 2020 election certification. Here is a taste: Mr. Hawley sharpened his thinking in conversations with...
ambition
George Will: Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, et al. “are the Constitution’s most dangerous domestic enemies”
Yesterday conservative columnist George Will blasted the GOP senators who will object to the vote of the Electoral College on January 6 (tomorrow). My favorite line from the piece: “Hawley–has there ever been such a high ratio of ambition to...
“My Folly makes me ashamd and I beg you’ll Conceal it”
I love teaching this letter. In his first extant piece of writing, Alexander Hamilton writes from St. Croix to his childhood friend Edward Stevens in New York City. He reveals his ambitions, but is ashamed that he has them. There...
Maybe Bruce Springsteen Was Born to Run Home
Religion News Service is running my piece on Catholicism and “home” in “Springsteen on Broadway.” Needless to say, I had fun with this one. Here is a taste: Yet, as Springsteen knows all too well, escaping a Catholic past in the...
Something for Sarah Huckabee Sanders to Think About
Sarah Huckabee Sanders has replaced Sean Spicer as Donald Trump’s Press Secretary. Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, is an evangelical Christian. Most American evangelicals are fond of C.S. Lewis. Perhaps Sanders has read “The...
The Democratic Malaise
This morning I picked up my copy of Christopher Lasch’s 1995 book The Revolt and the Elite and the Betrayal of Democracy and started reading it again. I am still trying to process it all from the perspective of the so-called age...
Webb: Soccer Is Too Tragic for Americans
Why hasn’t professional soccer caught on in the United States? Stephen W. Webb, a writer and philosopher, attempts to answer this question in a recent article at Politico entitled “Why Soccer is Un-American.” Webb argues that soccer is a “tragic” sport...
Brooks: Religion and Professional Sports Are Not Reconcilable
David Brooks has joined the chorus of pundits who are writing about the phenomenon that is Jeremy Lin. He argues that the competitive and ambitious nature of professional sports is incompatible with the great Abrahamic religions. Here is a taste: […]
Brooks vs. Jobs: Who Gave Graduates the Best Advice?
Richard Mouw wonders who gave the best advice to college graduates: Steve Jobs or David Brooks. Steve Jobs told students at Stanford University: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” David Brooks, the New York...
“Upper Blowhardia”
David Brooks insists that Donald Trump is no joke. In fact, he is representative of the “most subversive ideology in America today. Donald Trump is the living, walking personification of the Gospel of Success.” Now only if he would declare […]
We’re #12! We’re #12!
Patrick Deneen has a great post at Front Porch Republic about America’s constant quest to be “Number One.” Deneen responds to a recent New York Times column by Thomas Friedman lamenting the fact that America has fallen behind the Indians […]
Quote of the Day
From Andrew Bacevich: Worldly ambition inhibits true learning. Ask me. I know. A young man in a hurry is nearly uneducable: He knows what he wants and where he’s headed; when it comes to looking back or entertaining heretical thoughts, […]
Is Institutional Loyalty an Unnatural Act?
I have been thinking a lot lately about institutional loyalty for a lecture I need to give this fall. Are college professors individual agents who are loyal first and foremost to careers, ambition, and academic disciplines? If so, where does...
Why Denmark Sounds Like A Nice Place to Live
Alyce Mckenzie, a professor of homiletics at Perkins School of Theology (Southern Methodist University), shares with us (at the Faith Forward blog) the story of her son’s return to suburban Dallas after spending a semester in Copenhagen. McKenzie wonders how […]
Barack Obama at Kalamazoo Central High School
On June 7, 2010: You all were raised with cell phones and iPods; texting and email; able to call up a fact, a song, a friend with the click of a button – so you’re used to instant gratification. But...
Garrison Keillor on Stephen Ambrose’s Plagiarism
We blogged about this sad story last weeks. You may recall that an article in The New Yorker revealed that the late historian Stephen Ambrose had lied about his working relationship with Dwight D. Eisenhower. Now Garrison Keillor weighs in […]
More on Ambrose
Yesterday we reported on the way Stephen Ambrose apparently lied about the number of interviews he conducted with Dwight D. Eisenhower. But, as many of my readers know, this is not the first time that the late historian was accused […]
Did Stephen Ambrose Actually Interview Eisenhower?
Yes, but they were not extensive as Ambrose has led us to believe in his many books on the president. In a New Yorker essay titled “Channelling Ike,” Richard Rayner explains how Ambrose only met with Eisenhower three times. Ambrose...
Victor Davis Hanson on What Ails Us
Whatever you think about Victor Davis Hanson, he is certainly provocative and often right. His recent column is a scathing critique on American culture and I think he is right about much of what he says: We want all the […]
Andy Catlett, Philip Vickers Fithian, and Place
This morning I finished Wendell Berry’s Andy Catlett: Early Travels. (You can read my previous post on this novel here). It is a short, moving and simple story of a nine-year old boy developing an affection for a place that...