The Nativity is one of three small predella panels for Gentile’s monumental Adoration of the Magi painted in Renaissance Florence for the wealthy banker Palla Strozzi. While the main panel of the altarpiece is a brilliant, sumptuous and somewhat hectic depiction of the royal procession arriving to adore the child, the smaller predella panel below tells a far more intimate story. Gentile selects the moment | Read More »
So it’s not a great night to be a Phillies fan. The heavily favored club has come off a three-game sweep of the Reds to stumble to the Giants, a team they handled with ease in the regular season. The vaunted aces have faltered and the bats fallen silent. Odds are fourth-string pitcher and well known layabout Joe Blanton will get plastered tonight by the | Read More »
I was honored to be asked to be the lay preacher at our church this morning. Here are my remarks as prepared for delivery. St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh July 4, 2010 On a sweltering July day eleven score and fourteen years ago, a group of men “mutually pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor” as they declared their freedom from Great Britain. It happened | Read More »
I understand that aspects of the new Arizona immigration law are contraversial. I also understand that as a non-minority I might not fully appreciate how threatening some of the provisions in the law might seem. But it is also a fact that illegal immigration is threatening our national security, and Arizona is on the front line. From where I sit at least Governor Jan Brewer | Read More »
Claire Berlinski has an intriguing piece in this issue of The City titled “A Hidden History of Evil: Why doesn’t anyone care about the unread Soviet archives?” Part research paper and part detective story, Berlinski traces the fate of the damning records of Soviet totalitarianism–an unappetising tale that does not turn rosy even with the advent of perestroika in the 1980s. A number of these | Read More »
During a speech in Illinois on April 28, the President went “off the teleprompter” as it were and opined, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” He did allow that if you had a successful business model you could go on making money, this being America and all, but the implication–and the disdain–were clear. “Good” people wouldn’t go on pursuing Mammon | Read More »
From the give credit where credit is due file: The Washington Post editorializes today on the damning Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report on Venezuela that was issued last week. The evisceration of Venezuela’s democracy is laid out in dispassionate detail–the judicial and media crackdowns, the elimination of the private sector and the targeted use of violence against any and all opposition. Our tendency has | Read More »
Thank you all very much. It’s a pleasure to be here, and especially to receive the Keeper of the Flame Award in the company of so many good friends. I’m told that among those you’ve recognized before me was my friend Don Rumsfeld. I don’t mind that a bit. It fits something of a pattern. In a career that includes being chief of staff, congressman, | Read More »
Bill Safire died today. As self-styled wordsmiths, opinionators and pundits we are all the poorer for his passing. Safire could be a maddening soul–he was not a party man but rather the creature of his own principles, civil liberties first and foremost among them. As such, he could not be depended upon by left or right to deploy his elegant prose on demand. He followed | Read More »
As part of part of Hillsdale College’s DC-based Kirby Center for the Constitution and Citizenship “First Principles on First Fridays” lecture series, John Bolton spoke at the Heritage Foundation today. 9/11 is of course a somber anniversary for our country, and a fitting moment to reflect on how how American foreign policy is being shaped in the post-George W. Bush era. In Ambassador Bolton’s view, it is not | Read More »
I had the pleasure of speaking recently with Paul Rahe, who is the author of Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocquville and the Modern Prospect (Yale University Press: 2009). Professor Rahe’s book is the first of three that I will be recommending for summer reading in preparation for the RedState get-together in Atlanta on August 1st. Judging from the covers, this trio might not seem | Read More »
Caption this.
I know it’s not a “scientific” poll but the numbers at the poll regarding the recent award to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) by outgoing Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter earlier this month are nothing short of gobsmacking. Vote now to see for yourself. And if that feels pretty good, there’s a petition you can sign, too.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a Hudson Institute/RedState sponsored “New Media Forum” with John Walters, who served as President Bush’s “drug czar” from 2001-09. As we all know, the escalating drug war in Mexico threatens to violently destabilize the nation and so create a serious problem for the neighboring United States. The crisis appears intractable–indeed there are some in the US who | Read More »
Earlier this year, Redstate lost Mark Kilmer to cancer. Our community is not alone–cancer touches almost all of us either directly or through one that we love. And while treatments have certainly been progressing, the battle seems an uphill one. Today, however, there is some good news. “Big Pharm” poster child Pfizer announced it is halting the phase three trial of its new pancreatic drug | Read More »
When I read about the airstrike in Pakistan that killed 18 (including “five foreign militants,” AKA “terrorists”, and I suppose 13 “others”), I thought oh no, something is wrong. With Obama as our President no “others” are supposed to be killed in these episodes. How could this happen? Then I had another thought, which is that with the successful airstrikes over the past few months, | Read More »
Eight years ago, on inauguration day, I watched the festivities in my office as I tried out a new exercise bike. We had considered going to Washington for the ceremony as I had worked on the campaign, but my husband had a business trip to Chile and I didn’t want to go alone. So there I was riding that bike. I wasn’t in great shape | Read More »
No, not David Vetter–Barack Obama. Apparently the President Elect is chafing at the bonds of his new position that brings with it, among other things like the awesome responsibility of leading the free world, 24/7 security and press coverage. The press, in particular, rankles as they note down mundane details like what he eats for lunch and snap innumerable pictures of him at work and play. Now | Read More »
I hate to go all Grinchy the day after Christmas, but can anyone tell me why is it okay for Barack Obama to spend Christmas during the worst economic downturn in decades in the course of which thousands of Americans face losing their homes in Hawaii in a 9 million dollar house body surfing and playing golf when it is not okay for the leader of the | Read More »
Actor Gary Sinise received the Presidential Citizens Medal last week. It was a well-deserved honor as Mr. Sinise has done more than any other celebrity in recent memory to support our men and women in uniform. In a quiet, persistent campaign that could do him significant professional harm, he doesn’t just pay lip service to “supporting the troops” (while denigrating their missions)–he does what he | Read More »
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