Eric Scheske

Excerpt It was also the anniversary date of the release of Elvis's first number one hit, "Heartbreak Hotel," so we talked about Elvis. All of us are fans. Gotta be. We were in middle school when Elvis died, and every cultural event that happens when you&

"Social changes which propel dubious characters in great numbers into ruling positions make the political environment unlivable for well-bred men with some self-respect." Eric Voegelin, Plato and Aristotle, 288-289.

Orestes Brownson's Conversion When Brownson started taking concrete steps toward Rome, it was philosophy that paved the road. His was a philosophical conversion, Rome via Athens, though he would later emphasize that no mental process can ever produce a convert unless grace is also at work (philosophy can

"The man who can wholeheartedly believe that all things are created by God and that God does not create evil, is freed from many burdens, and one of them is fear." Paul Gallico, writing about St. Francis of Assisi.

Laughter is the mind sneezing. Wyndham Lewis

Prophet McLuhan on the World Series of Poker's Popularity "Poker is a game that has often been cited as the expression of all the complex attitudes and unspoken values of a competitive society. It calls for shrewdness, aggression, trickery, and unflattering appraisals of character. . . Poker is intensely

"If I had to single out one piece of writing which was more responsible than anything else for my becoming a Catholic, it would that essay of Kierkegaard's." Walker Percy, referring to Kierkegaard's essay on "The Difference between a Genius and an Apostle.

Some Education from Henry Adams The "profoundest lessons are not the lessons of reason; they are sudden strains that permanently warp the mind." "The habit of expression leads to the search for something to express." "Friends are born, not made." "A friend in

Books I recommend to young adults James Schall, Another Sort of Learning. Read this while you're still in college. Its primary value rests in the writers Schall introduces (the lists of books in the back of each chapter are excellent). C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity. All of Lewis&

"Christians should be the salt, not the syrup, of the earth." Georges Bernanos "What matters is not what ideas do to men but what men do to their ideas; how and when they choose them, and how and why they accommodate them to their own wishes, interests,