The economic ignorance makes me want to gouge my eyes out. With the coronavirus pandemic upon us, and the topic of 24/7 media coverage, attention has been given to so-called “price gouging.” Webster’s dictionary defines the term simply as “charging customers too much money.” In the context of the current coronavirus panic, the term most [...]
Well, for the sake of argument, let’s say this is The End. It wasn’t nuclear war or an asteroid or a rogue planet or even some mystical force. But, merely—in a whimper—a cursed bug. Would it really matter? “An apocalypse is a work of literature dealing with the end of human history. For millennia apocalypses [...]
As coronavirus fatalities multiply these days—as COVID-19 leaves our bodies sick and makes our spirits sick at heart—I find myself asking how similar the mood today is to that of the West during the 1889-1890 flu pandemic. One of the world’s worst plagues occurred in 1889-1890. The so-called Russian flu is of particular interest to [...]
Reports of folks in this heavily armed nation stocking up on guns and ammunition suggest a widespread apprehension of what may be coming. If the medical crisis is allowed to induce an economic crisis that leads to a social crisis, the American political system, our democratic system, may itself be severely tested. "We cannot let [...]
We were all riding high only recently, and suddenly, there’s not enough on the shelves of the grocery stores. How should we think about it all? The virtue of a curriculum like that at our college is that the sweep of it encompasses the memory of the most extraordinary challenges to human nature. Pandemics or [...]
A prediction: The longer the orders to shelter in place and self-isolate remain in force, the greater the probability they will begin to be ignored and people will take the risks to end their isolation and be with friends. “It’s a war,” says President Donald Trump of his efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic, and [...]
Do we really have to shut down our entire country because of the danger of the coronavirus? I confess I’m still not sure exactly about the wisdom of it. I have more thoughts about that, but I’ll save them for a future essay. Right now, the reality is that #canceleverything is winning the day and [...]
If we make the most of the coronavirus lockdown, we will take time to assess our whole lives. The crisis could awaken all of us and be the tipping point for a major reversal in the world’s moral and spiritual decadence. I was first introduced to the riches of Benedictine spirituality when a kind Catholic [...]
The mantra of the globalists has always been that nations are bad and that the “global community” is good. And then the coronavirus reared its ugly head. There are few things worse than pride and prejudice, the arrogance of the former resulting in the ignorance of the latter. And there are few people more afflicted [...]
Closing borders is a grievous offense against liberalism that is supposedly rooted in the sin of xenophobia. But what governments in Europe are saying by closing their borders, what Americans are saying by banning travel from Europe, is that while all men may be created equal, we will always put our own people first, ahead [...]
Some years ago I had what one might call a life altering experience. It was not an aha! moment, a grand revelation. It was a more subtle affair, whose importance has become clearer to me through the years, and is one that should be shared as we live through these odd times. […]
Proclamation on the National Day of Prayer for all Americans Affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic and for our National Response Efforts In our times of greatest need, Americans have always turned to prayer to help guide us through trials and periods of uncertainty. As we continue to face the unique challenges posed by the coronavirus [...]
It may one day be said that the coronavirus delivered the deathblow to the New World Order, to a half-century of globalization, and to the era of interdependence of the world’s great nations. Which rings truer today? We are all part of mankind, all citizens of the world. Or that it’s time to put America [...]
What worries me about the current reaction to coronavirus, is that it seems to reflect a belief that death is an aberration, rather than a part of the natural order of things. As the human species continues to expand massively in numbers, and as it continues casually to make other species extinct, it is inevitable [...]