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Founding Fathers-Lives of the Framers: Featured Book

February 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Founding Fathers: Brief Lives of the Framers of the United States Constitutionfounding fathers

M.E. Bradford’s brief lives of the Founding Fathers, free of ideological prejudices, tell us the sort of delegates those fifty-five were: gentlemen, with few exceptions, attached to precedent and custom, prescription and “ancient constitutions.” Those colonial gentlemen, so very British, were not in the least inclined to destroy the prevailing pattern of American society. More fully than most commentators upon those Framers, Bradford has carefully examined their several religious persuasions or affiliations, discovering few Deists or unchurched… [from Dr. Kirk's introduction to Founding Fathers] Find books by M.E. Bradford and Russell Kirk in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore. TIC offers essays by Dr. Kirk and Dr. Bradford. [Read more...]

Filed Under: American Founding, American Republic, Books, M. E. Bradford, Russell Kirk, TIC Featured Book Tagged With: February 20, 2013

The Department of Defense Budget Challenge

February 20, 2013 By 5 Comments
bauman defense budget

Michael Bauman

by Michael Bauman

“The department of defense is a sinecure, a massive, unfathomable, black hole for taxpayer dollars that has never been, and perhaps never can be, plumbed to its hellish depths.”

If Chuck Hagel really were qualified to be Secretary of Defense, and if he had the insight and courage necessary for the job, he’d have begun his testimony before the Senate with those words, or words very much like them.

He did not.

He did not either because he does not know the truth about the DOD or, if he does know it, he does not have the moral fortitude and common sense to speak that truth.  Both failures are disqualifying. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Government, Michael Bauman, Politics, War February 20, 2013

A Response to Garry Wills on Pope Benedict’s Resignation

February 20, 2013 By 8 Comments
JohnZmirak1 benedict wills

John Zmirak

by John Zmirak

Garry Wills has continued to serve as the “go-to” guy for secular media types who need some spleen to pour on the Catholic Church. This past week, he admitted to NY Times readers that he finally had given up hope that the pope would stop being Catholic. (One wonders if he’s still trying to talk all those bears out of dirtying up the woods.) To mark Wills’ part in the “great conversation” provoked by Pope Benedict’s resignation, here’s an excerpt dealing with Wills from The Bad Catholic’s Guide to the Catechism:

FAQs from Your Stoner Neighbor #6:

I read two books by one of the leading Catholic intellectuals in America, Garry Wills—Papal Sin and Why I Am a Catholic—where he proves that the papacy hijacked the Church and  turned it into a corrupt, worldly institution for dominating people through spiritual blackmail. What do you have to say about that? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Catholicism, John Zmirak, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II February 20, 2013