Europe vs. The World

Here's an interesting article by National Review's Victor Davis Hanson on Europe--its fractionalization, France and Spain's anti-U.S. bellicosity, and the general crisis point that Europe is at regarding its place in the world. I don't know enough on the subject to make an intelligent judgment on his opinions, but it's an interesting article and it seems to make sense.

On Manly Men

Just listened to an Intercollegiate Studies Institute lecture by Harvey C. Mansfield on the topic "Is Manliness A Virtue?" Mansfield is Professor of Government at Harvard, the author or editor of a number of books, including an excellent edition of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America. The lecture was an excellent treatment of the social and intellectual meanings of manliness, and its place in society. Well worth a listen. Find it, as well as other excellent ISI lectures, here.

Review: The Village

My review of M. Night Shyamalan's newest film, The Village, is up. Find it in the sidebar or here.

Summer Readings

Some of the books of which I've read all or a substantial part this summer:

Modern Times by Paul Johnson
Church and People, 1450-1660 : The Triumph of the Laity in the English Church by Claire Cross
Papists, Protestants, and Puritans, 1559-1714 by Diana Newton
Theology of the Reformers by Timothy George
Divine Sovereignty: Four Views edited by James Beilby and Paul Eddy
The Meaning of the Millenium: Four Views edited by Robert Clouse
Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper
The American Way: Religion and Family in the Shaping of the American Ideal by Allan Carlson
He Is There and He Is Not Silent by Francis Schaeffer
Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality by Andrew Sullivan
Inside Delta Force by Eric Haney

The Iliad by Homer
Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
Dune and Dune: Messiah by Frank Herbert
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
Without Remorse by Tom Clancy
Getting It Right by William F. Buckley, Jr.

Most of them are worth reading, if you have the time and inclination.

The Iraq War--update

Here's a comment by a friend on one of my earlier posts. I appreciate his concerns, and share some of them, but I also think some of them are mis-founded. Here's my response.