2021 was a real shitshow. It started with the January 6th riot at the Capitol, an ill-conceived protest over the highly irregular 2020 election in which at least two Trump-supporters were killed by police (Ashli Babbit and Roseanne Boyland). We still don’t know the extent of federal foreknowledge or involvement in the event, nor have … Continue reading A 2021 Retrospective: The Bad, the Worse, and the Good
There’s a certain kind of adversity that bonds people together, a brand of struggle that brings out the “better angels” of our nature. We experienced just such adversity after the September 11th attacks: a unifying moment when strangers comforted each other and American flags seemed to wave from every home. It’s hard to imagine that … Continue reading 2020: The Year that Broke Us
Is it possible that almost every disturbing trend in American society shares a common theme – one that is both obvious in its harm, and yet politically unspeakable? If so, then Mary Eberstadt has named it for us in this brilliant essay just published in First Things. The culprit: a veritable epidemic of fatherlessness. A … Continue reading The Loss of Fatherhood and the Rise of the Nanny State
This is the question Americans should be asking themselves right now; that is, aside from the fifty million who have already voted. Which of these two men – both in their seventies, both unafraid to go on the attack, and yet with two very different visions for America – do you want flying the plane … Continue reading Trump vs. Biden: Who Do You Want Flying the Plane?
October is paradoxically both a favorite month for many and also a time typically associated with fear and death. Leaves turn orange, gold, and crimson before falling to the ground to shrivel and decay. The faint chill lacing the morning and evening air is a clear warning that summer, with all its easy lethargy, is … Continue reading Memento Mori and Be Not Afraid
I recently read Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s four-book Incerto collection. In the first book, Fooled by Randomness, Taleb posits that we know much less about the world than we think. Published just months before 9/11, he infamously floated the scenario of terrorists flying planes into the Twin Towers. In the second book, The Black Swan, Taleb … Continue reading Viewing the COVID-19 Pandemic through the Lens of Fragility
The Front Porch Philosopher 