Must-read books from 2009

Every year I keep track of what I read.  It’s a bit nerdy, for sure, but it helps to keep me motivated.  This year’s reading was so interesting that I decided to put off writing this post until the year was, for all intents and purposes, over.  Last year I managed to get the list [...]

A Monk of Ideas Makes His Profession

A few years ago, I was paying a visit to S. Clement’s Church here in Philadelphia for the Feast of the Ascension when a friend approached me to say that one of my readers (this was in the days when I was contributing to another blog) was across the street and wanted to meet me. [...]

Fragmented Christmas Obsessions

The snow is very deep here, thanks to a monstrous storm that hit last weekend, in addition to abnormally low temperatures since the Nor’easter moved through.  Nevertheless, I did manage to get out for one jog/skate on the ice on Tuesday, and I had some time then to think about Christmas. The War on Christmas: [...]

A review of Thomas Woods’ “Meltdown”

One of the marks of great writing is that, no matter how abstract a subject might be, the author’s text remains lucid and understandable.  It is not crowded with irrelevant information, unduly antiquated language, or a dense texture.  H.L. Mencken, Joseph Ratzinger, and Murray Rothbard all have this gift.  So does Tom Woods, whose recent [...]