Posted on August 25th, 2010 by Daniel McCarthy
About two years ago I was asked to contribute to a volume of essays on seminal 20th-century American conservative thinkers. My assignment was Willmoore Kendall, the “wild Yale don” (as Dwight Macdonald called him) known, among other things, for his defiantly populist commitment to majority rule. When Bill Buckley quipped that he’d rather be ruled [...]
Filed under: Books, Conservatism, Liberty, Philosophy
Posted on August 16th, 2010 by Daniel McCarthy
My piece on the subject for Shalom, the newsletter of the Jewish Peace Fellowship, is now online here. (Scroll to p. 9.)
Filed under: Conservatism
Posted on August 8th, 2010 by Daniel McCarthy
The Guardian has a very interesting piece by Francis Spufford (from his book Red Plenty) on the now-unimaginable time when the Soviet Union seemed poised to overtake the prosperity of the West. Here’s a bite: Give your imagination permission to engage with some unlikely facts: in the 1950s, the USSR was one of the growth [...]
Filed under: Books, economics, World
Posted on August 5th, 2010 by Daniel McCarthy
A federal court’s decision to enjoin enforcement of California’s Proposition 8 (the ban on gay marriage) is a clear-cut example of the central government trampling on the states, as well as of courts making a mockery of popular government at any level. On the other hand, supporters of the verdict see it, plausibly enough, as [...]
Filed under: Culture, Politics
Posted on August 1st, 2010 by Daniel McCarthy
The great Catholic reactionary thinker Thomas Molnar passed away July 20. I had occasion to write about Molnar and his differences with Tocquevillian conservatives in February. An excellent obituary for Dr. Molnar can be found here.
Filed under: the dead
