But we have customs that train us in how to behave, curbing our emotions and memories. Every conservative writes about them: Don’t tear down the great English oak unless you know why it was built, etc. etc.
Sometimes the customs go wrong, sometimes very wrong. Then people stir, wise men think, demagogues shout “Drain the swamp!” But often customs help us do and think the right thing.
Richard Brookhiser
So the 95 year old man was hoisted out of his wheelchair, flicked away the hand supporting his usable left arm, and raised its fingers in a salute to the casket of the 94 year old man.
At ease.
Post Category → Views
Opening paragraph of the year candidate
What a brilliant start to this Kevin Williamson post in The Corner at NRO:
Eric Levitz of New York magazine has written a long-ish post that is mostly about my political views, which he gets mostly wrong. This is not entirely his fault. Levitz operates under two heavy disabilities: The first is that he’s stupid, and the second is that he’s dishonest. Paul Krugman seems to have put in a lot of work in his transition from respected economist to trifling partisan rage-monkey, but Levitz seems to have been born dumber than a catfish. So it’s only his dishonesty I’ll fault him for.
Devastating. And beautiful somehow …
Being Busy can be likened to tumbling down an existential staircase: stimulus, reaction, stimulus, reaction. This frenetic cycle of reactivity holds our attention hostage, limiting our ability to recognize opportunities for love, growth, and purpose. These are the things that add value to our lives, yet they’re easily obscured by the rush of our busy lives.
The Bullet Journal Method, Ryder Carroll
“I suggest that if you must choose, it is better to be poor and free than to be snug and a slave. I suggest that if you must choose, it is better to live in peril, but with justice, than to live on a summit of material power, but unjustly. I suggest that if you must choose, it is better to stand up as a suffering man than to lie down as a satisfied animal.”
Barry Goldwater (in a speech written by Russell Kirk), via Russell Kirk: American Conservative by Bradley J. Birzer
The Depressing Consistency of the New England Patriots
The depressing thing is that this is just what Tom Brady and the Patriots are and what they do. They relentlessly come at you until you crack under the pressure.
Continue readingBlogging, Instant Gratification and Perserverance
Perseverance plays an important role in successful blogging. There will be days you don’t feel like writing or don’t feel like you have anything to say. But writing is a discipline and requires pushing through and writing anyway. Excellence requires commitment.
Continue readingThe Bittersweet Nature of Being a Pittsburgh Steelers Fan
Today felt like a chance for the Steelers to reassert themselves as the team to challenge the Patriots. Ben Roethlisberger’s career is coming to a close and he won’t have this much talent around him forever. But instead of setting up the rematch everyone wanted and was expecting, they will be spending the offseason thinking about what might have been.
Continue readingTo blog or not to blog?
So the question I have been mulling for the last couple of months (but not for the first time) is whether to keep blogging or call it quits after 14 years. I think I want to give at least one more try at making it work. Let me give you some insight into why.
Continue readingIf you are like me you probably feel that watching election coverage probably killed a few brain cells. So I am offering a way for you to cleanse your palate and gain some wisdom and knowledge: watch the brilliant Victoria Coates discuss her book David’s Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art at the Acton Institute.