For a variety of reasons, religious issues were dominant in my books of the summer just passed, possibly because our religious heritage informs so much of our thinking about the conflicting issues of the day. I was drawn to Against the World for the World: The Hartford Appeal and the Future of American Religion, […]
Archives for September 2006
The Lamont Democrats
Michael Barone is my pick as the most perceptive national political analyst on the scene today. Here is his take on the Ned Lamont primary win over Joe Lieberman in Connecticut: “The center of gravity in the Democratic Party has moved from the lunch bucket working class that was the dominant constituency up through the […]
Tyranny of the Grandmothers?
Kevin Hassett has an interesting take on U. S. consumption data compiled by professors at the Universities of California and Hawaii. It seems that total consumption increases dramatically with age, so that a 25-year old spends about $26K per annum and an 80-year old $40K. Why the big difference? Mostly because of government spending on […]
Labor Day Reflections
Two divergent quotes from a Labor Day report card for American workers, as reported by the Wall Street Journal:“There’s no doubt that relative to the growth rate of the economy over the last five years, the state of the American worker is in pretty sorry shape.”—Lawrence Katz, Harvard University and chief economist during the Clinton […]
By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them
In recent weeks, we have been treated to an intellectual discussion on the nature of our enemy that, frankly, is long overdue. More often in his public appearances, President Bush has referred to them as “Islamic fascists”, setting aside at least momentarily the characterization of our conflict as a “war on terror”, a term which […]