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Profundity: Chesterton on Philosophy

From G.K. Chesterton's St. Thomas Aquinas (1933):

Since the modern world began in the sixteenth century, nobody’s system of philosophy has really corresponded to everybody’s sense of reality; to what, if left to themselves, common men would call common sense. Each started with a paradox; a peculiar point of view demanding the sacrifice of what they would call a sane point of view. That is the one thing common to Hobbes and Hegel, to Kant and Bergson, to Berkeley and William James. A man had to believe something that no normal man would believe, if it were suddenly propounded to his simplicity; as that law is above right, or right is outside reason, or things are only as we think them, or everything is relative to a reality that is not there. The modern philosopher claims, like a sort of confidence man, that if once we will grant him this, the rest will be easy; he will straighten out the world, if once he is allowed to give this one twist to the mind.

Guest Commentary: And That’s The Way it Wasn’t – Walter Cronkite

By Bruce Walker

By all accounts, Walter Cronkite was a kindly, almost avuncular figure.  Many members of the journalist community have written eulogies of his decency and humility.  He had a long, happy marriage.  These things should count to us conservatives, who yearn for human life to be more about how it is lived than in the personal politics of each individual. We ought to respect, for example, the genuine marital love that Barack has for Michelle or, for that matter, the love that Jimmy Carter has for Roselyn.  If we fail to honor those good aspects of our political opponents, then we run the grave risk of becoming that hideous creation of the Left, homo politicus.

Guest Commentary: Who Should Build America's Rail System?

By Marilyn Barnewall

Why is high speed rail important to economic recovery? Why should you care about it? There is one primary reason and a large number of secondary ones.

Guest Piece: The Murder of Civil Life

By Bruce Walker

The putrid comments by Letterman about Sarah Palin and her daughter, and the dethronement of Carrie Prejean for the vice of honesty bring home just how savagely civil life has been murdered by the Left.  We no longer have a civil public life.  It has been crushed between pinchers of enraged nihilism and fantasy causes.  “Feminists” or the Ladies Auxiliary of Marxist Enmity (LAME) should be threatening boycotts of the CBS or demanding the de-politicization of beauty contests, but that presumes LAME cares about women:  its disciples care only about venting their private fury towards an empty life.

Guest Piece: The Biggest Problem of the Mainstream Media

By Bruce Walker

The media – newspapers, magazines, book publishing, radio, television, and film – have never at any point in the history of our nation been impartial.  Newspapers were once the whole heart and substance of our media.  They provided news, opinion, entertainment, advice, humor, advertisements and information.  Newspapers were often unabashed partisans.

Guest Piece: Pondering Reagan-Kemp in 1980

By Bruce Walker

1980 is yesterday for some of us, a long time ago for others of us, and the misty realm of medieval history for others of us.  But history and the list of decision that history represents is our future.  In 1980, Congressman Jack Kemp was one of the major front-runners to be Ronald Reagan’s running mate.   James Roberts, President of Radio America and Executive Director of the American Conservative Union from 1974 to 1977, has written a wonderful “insider” article in the May 20 issue of Human Events which explains why Jack Kemp was not Ronald Reagan’s running mate.  As luck would have it, I had just finished this article on the impact of Jack Kemp as Ronald Reagan’s running mate in 1980.

Guest Commentary: War is Hell

By Bruce Walker

Sherman was right:  War is Hell.  The current war against the Judeo-Christian world waged by al-Qaida and other radical Moslems is no different.  War is Hell and Hell is full of torments.  Our role, as children of a Loving God, is to make that Hell and those torments as quick, as slight, and as limited as possible.  But it is not our power to end pain, to make peace, or to stop torture. 

Guest Piece: Paradigms and Tea Parties... and Dreams

By Marilyn Barnewall

People are worried about our government, our currency, our indebtedness. They are worried about losing their jobs and paying their bills. Most of all, they are worried about the direction in which they see America moving. It does not reflect their values or their dreams.

Guest Piece: Finance Capitalists and Scapegoats

By Bruce Walker

The doctored outrage at AIG executives raises one of the ugliest specters in modern political history:  mindless fury directed at “Finance Capitalism.”  The profits of men who create goods and services is easy to defend.  Bill Gates gave us Windows.  T. Boone Pickens and Ross Perot drilled for oil.  Sam Walton retailed consumer goods at very low prices.  People grasp the value to society which these men produce.

Barnewall: Where's the Beef at AIG?

By Marilyn Barnewall

If the way Congress has mismanaged "The AIG Affair" doesn't tell you what a bunch of clowns represent you, nothing will. If you believe Congress is really trying to solve the AIG problem (which, to be totally truthful, Congress created) you should not read the rest of this article. It will make you angry.

Yes. To answer a popular question, Timothy Geithner, our inept Treasury Secretary, had to know about the employee bonuses being paid to AIG. If he did not know about the bonuses, he wasn't doing his job as the head of the New York Federal Reserve Bank (which he was, at the time the bonus agreement occurred). It's this simple: If he is so naïve or dumb that he did not know what was happening, he has no business being Secretary of the Treasury for the United States of America. And, these appear to be the only two possibilities: Either he lied, or he is dumb and naïve.

Read the rest here.