Author: David Schaengold

The Church of Sit-Up Cycling

I’m very pleased to see that the fight against fast cycling, spandex, helmets, thin seats, and other automotive-like cyclalia has taken on a religious dimension.

A Lonely Consciousness, and False

Rufus writes, commenting on Ned Resnikoff’s generational self-indictment below: What I find more interesting though is that both the left and right are expressing deep misgivings about that atomistic individualism. The right, of course, has...

A Communist Thesis

I recently watched Goodbye Lenin, which is not very good movie, but I was surprised and pleased by its moderatedly positive portrayal of life in the DDR. Without playing down the unpleasant reality of political...

Christie and Infrastructure Folly

I used to characterize the contemporary GOP as a party whose economic policy is “let’s eat the seed corn,” but perhaps that was unfair, and informed too much by my interest in infrastructure policy,...

Is O’Donnell Crazy, or Just a Republican?

I know very little about Christine O’Donnell, and I suspect I would not like her politics very much if I were familiar with them, but if this New Republic article really lists the craziest things...

In Defense of Chesterton

I read with some dismay the calumny of G.K. Chesterton recently posted on this blog. It seems to me that Austin and the criticisms he quotes have completely missed what Chesterton was up to. One...

Subsidiarity Requires International Institutions

If you’re Catholic or interested in subsidiarity, the idea that social problems should be addressed at the most local or immediate level possible, you might find Mark Shea’s recent article on why it’s only part...

Shoup Himself Responds to O’Toole

Donald Shoup has made a career out of studying the effects of government parking mandates on the way we drive and live. After a bit of a blogospheric kerfluffle about free parking, Shoup responds...

The Mosque and the Meta-Debate

When the debate over the proposed “Ground Zero Mosque” first began to engage the attention of the nation, my first reaction was to dismiss those who loudly and insistently protested its construction as demagogues...

Same-Sex Marriage and Discrimination

Philosophical confusion seems to cloud all discussions about same-sex marriage to a degree unusual even by the already very cloudy standards of mass democracies. This isn’t a feature of all culture-war issues in general....

In Which I Surprisingly Agree With Tom Coburn

The fiscal obstinacy of Tom Coburn, you might be surprised to know, is saving American lives. Due mostly to his objections, an otherwise uncontroversial bill to grant oversight of rail transit safety to the...

Reputation and the Realistic Novel

Very belatedly indeed, I’d like to offer a rejoinder to Ross Douthat and Alan Jacob‘s explanation for the absence of good George Eliot-style realistic novels in our time. Jacobs in brief: I am inclined to think...

A Penniless Aristocracy

This is why we should repeal the estate tax altogether for illiquid assets, and maybe do away with annual property taxes, too. The creation of a penniless aristocracy would benefit us all.

A Sin Prevention Machine

If you have seen I am Love, you should go read Matthew Milliner’s review, which explains what most of the critics who reviewed the film seemed to miss. Spoilers below.

Inception Nano-Review

After you get past the heavy-handed plot exposition by characters, the cutesy classical allusions and maybe-nothing-is-real philosophizing, I think the movie is actually meant to be a paean to Le Corbusier. The final, skyscraper-filled...