Listening to a Federalist Society speaker recently explain that, while he favors teaching children about intelligent design, he wishes there was no religion at all in our government (i.e., removing it from our coinage, our pledge, and our legislative meetings), it struck me how this could be quite ironic. There are not a few of [...]

Tags: Epistemology, Political Philosophy, Religion

David Brooks’ sensitivity to how our culture and economics integrate is a vital point for any renewed American conservatism.  The conservatives of the post World War 2 era were dedicated to the proposition that the republican (small ‘r’) commercial society of the United States needed conservation against the collectivizing tendencies of the administrative/redistributivist state of [...]

Tags: Conservatism, Culture, David Brooks, Economics

Take Allan Bloom’s analysis of modern music, dip it in Christianity, and enjoy: We can recall the Dionysiac type of religion and its music, which Plato discussed on the basis of his religious and philosophical views. In many forms of religion, music is associated with frenzy and ecstasy. The free expansion of human existence, toward [...]

Tags: Christianity, Music, Philosophy, Theology

I just read the Social Contract for the second time, and I came away with several new observations. 1) Rousseau is not a liberal, 2) is more advanced than Locke or Hobbes, 3) is struggling with the problems of Madison in Federalist #10, and 4) has an impossible name to spell after 1:00 am. Rousseau’s [...]

Tags: Hobbes, Locke, Political Philosophy, Rousseau

Some good ol’ fashioned advice for our new fangled President.  From a great old fashioned show. On another note, I love how close Mad Men gets to vintage dress and period-era feel.

Tags: Barack Obama, Dragnet, Video