Our War Party has been temporarily diverted from its clamor for war on Iran by the insurrection against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. Estimates of the dead since the Syrian uprising began a year ago approach 6,000. And responsibility for the carnage is being laid at the feet of the president who succeeded his [...]

  Returning from Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta dropped some jolting news. Asked by CBS's Scott Pelley if Iran could have a nuclear weapon in 2012, Panetta replied: "It would probably be about a year before they could do it. Perhaps a little less. But one proviso, Scott, is that if they [...]

  One December day in 1984, a man named Bernard Goetz boarded a subway train in Manhattan. Shortly after, he was approached by four young men, all black, who requested money in a manner he took as threatening. Goetz, who had been mugged before, pulled out a pistol and opened fire, wounding all four. Among [...]

In economics, the first lesson I teach my pupils is the lesson of things that are seen and things that are not seen. Actions have some effects that are readily apparent and others are overlooked or not perceived. It’s the same with our military veterans. We see the obvious price they’ve paid—the time they spent [...]

“Just existing became what was important,” says 87-year-old Frank Kravetz of Pittsburgh, captive of the “hell-hole” that was Nuremberg Prison Camp. “Yet even as I struggled with the day-to-day sadness and despair, I never once had any regrets that I signed up to serve.” An extended tour of Nazi camps as a wounded POW scratching [...]

When historians sit down decades from now to address the events of the early 21st century, they will have no trouble explaining why Americans elected Barack Obama president. They elected him out of a firm conviction that the United States was not involved in enough wars. Problem solved. Today, American forces are fighting in four [...]

War criminal Ratko Mladic, the Serbian general accused of genocide during the 1990s Bosnian war, was arrested last week. This week he will be extradited to The Hague, a decade after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest. Despite western media portrayals, many Serbians consider Mladic a hero and defender of [...]

Sargent Shriver, brother-in-law of John, Bobby, and Ted Kennedy, founding director of the Peace Corps, and one-time Democratic vice-presidential nominee (among numerous other accomplishments), passed away this week. I only met him once in person, but we exchanged phone calls and a series of letters regarding our shared interest in Catholic history, and I came to [...]

God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth. This mission was confided to them, not to let it become stale but to make it bear fruit. They were called to take care of it, to tend it, and to develop it. Nature was the material, and man was to foster its development and to [...]

The Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) is holding its annual conference right now in Washington, D.C. and these comments by Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict caught my eye today: I'm sure we'll hear an awful lot about "limited government" from the mouths of CPAC politicians over the next few days. If I had a [...]

  If you've lived in our nation's capital as long as I have, which is all my life, you get used to bigness, as a fact and also as a cherished ideal. Big office buildings like the Pentagon and the grotesque Rayburn Building, where many members of the House of Representatives hang out in style. [...]

Erin Manning has some interesting reflections over at Rod Dreher's blog on Christmas and "the struggle to live as a serious Christian in modern America." Terry Mattingly's review of the book Tinsel reminded her that, annual stories about the "War on Christmas" aside, the real battle against Christmas is waged within each of us: What [...]

Erin Manning has some interesting reflections over at Rod Dreher's blog on Christmas and "the struggle to live as a serious Christian in modern America." Terry Mattingly's review of the book Tinsel reminded her that, annual stories about the "War on Christmas" aside, the real battle against Christmas is waged within each of us: What [...]

As 2009 expires, music journalists and magazines rush to anoint their recordings of the year. I have no such list, but I did take note of the British Gramophone's December selection of the Quatuor Ébène's CD of the Ravel, Debussy, and Fauré String Quartets on Virgin Classics (519045-2) as the recording of the year. I [...]

I have had a subscription to the weekly English edition of L'Osservatore Romano ever since it began. It is a most valuable printed source: While many papal statements can now be found online at the Vatican Web site, having these at hand, in print, made the journal worthwhile.   Pope Benedict XVI, a man of [...]

It happens to most of us who like classic art: You're reading an article about some contemporary artist who's making millions selling "art" made from rumpled beds, carved-up corpses, or human waste, and you ask yourself, why? Why can't art be heroic and life-inspiring? Why does art have to degrade and shock? And what is [...]

  As my dogged readers know, this year I've been fitfully trying to work on a book about the vices and virtues. It has morphed a few times, as projects will, but took its final form as The Bad Catholic's Guide to the Seven Deadly Sins. I meet with my publishers today to design a [...]

  It is customary this time of year for the Human Toothache Brigade to break out the ol' secular-humanist signs and try to dampen Christmas spirit, while oversensitive culture warriors overreact with "War on Christmas!!" hyperventilation. It's all good fun, but I find myself less and less moved by either side of it.   If [...]

Islam at the Gates: How Christendom Defeated the Ottoman Turks Diane Moczar, Sophia Institute Press, $17.95, 256 pages Once upon a time in the West, our ancestors clashed with peoples from the East. Europe was born at Marathon in 491 B.C., when Athenian hoplites defeated an invading Persian army. The defeat of Darius and his [...]