I’ll keep it short but I am glad to say that I’m now an officially published fiction writer. Dusty Saddle Publishing graciously published my short story in their anthology The Last Comanche. All nine writers worked off the same prompt: The warrior stood atop the rocky outcropping, blood dripping from his face and his lance. He… Read More Writing Update: Short Story Published

I don’t feel like anyone is capable of doing an adequate job summing up the immense loss. While blessedly the damage was significantly less than previously thought, the scarring is still a civilization-level tragedy. It is hard to imagine another symbol generating this much grief across the world. And yet before it is a symbol… Read More What Should Notre Dame Mean To Us?

If you live a charmed existence and are unfamiliar with social media then you will probably be blissfully unaware of l’affaire Jussie. For the rest of us living in the hell that Zuckerberg and Dorsey crafted, the merry-go-round has taken a particularly bizarre turn. It not only poignantly demonstrates the unique nature of power, grievance… Read More Hoaxes as Propaganda of the Deed

  The Mueller report is finished. The saga is over. America (or rather the America that remains obsessed with the 5 o’clock news) suffered the final la petite mort when it comes the Russia probe. Honestly very little of this was all that surprising. I always bought the Wolfean thesis of a man who was never all… Read More So Now What: Assorted Thoughts on the Mueller Report

(James Fetherolf, Desert Scene, oil on canvas) I hope you all had a wonderful Christmastide and a terrific Sunday. My contributions have decreased somewhat since I’ve increased my load over at The Hipster Conservative. Additionally, I’ve taken to writing western fiction. Fiction is something I am not used to writing so finding the right voice for it… Read More Writing Update

The 24-hour news cycle rarely gets dominated by anything of substance but the issue of family separation at the border has taken hold lately. Regrettably, many pieces are hastily written to serve whatever narrative the writer has chosen. In this void, there is misinformation on each side, which is quickly used to justify ignoring the… Read More Family Separation: Unnecessary & Unjust?

What Do I Mean By Evangelical Evangelical is a tricky word. It is used in a host of different settings, each meaning something either slightly or substantially different. In an academic context, it usually means Protestants who emphasize the Bible as the highest authority, the necessity of evangelization and the substitutionary atonement of Christ’s work… Read More Why I Am Not An Evangelical

New piece up over at The Hipster Conservative. A modest proposal: let the lads smoke their cigs. I would like to venture a modest, if only slightly ironic, defense of tobacco use. I think a reasonable vindication can be made on three grounds (note to Big Tobacco: we have yet to receive your payoff. Please deliver… Read More On Blasting Cigs

I don’t have any essays lined up soon so keeping in tradition with the day I figured I would list out some of my favorite Irish writers and books. So without further ado; Favorite Irish/Irish-American writers Thomas Kinsella Seamus Heaney (his translation of Beowulf is my favorite. Here is Part I of Heaney reading it aloud) Jonathan… Read More Favorite Irish writers and books.

Why Liberalism Failed by Patrick Deneen. Yale University Press, 2016. 198 pages. After Rod Dreher’s review in The American Conservative, I was intrigued enough to buy Dr. Deneen’s book and it was well worth the purchase. It definitely helps cement my slide from quasi-libertarianism to full-blown Toryism. It definitely strikes the correct tone though I… Read More My Review of “Why Liberalism Failed”