Trying to consolidate OT posts here.
Had an incident with my chickens on Saturday afternoon. I have part of my front yard fenced in as a chicken run. I was working in the backyard with the family when I hear the chickens start wigging out. A damned dog had jumped the fence and was chasing them- by the time I got there, there were feathers everywhere, including the mouthful the mutt had. I gave chase to the dog, who escaped anyway. Didn’t even manage to hit it with the shovel I threw at it. This is one reason I oppose gun control: Much as I love dogs, the next one harassing my chickens is going to be dodging .22 bullets.
On to Russel Kirk. The Washington Times reviewed a biography about him, and had this to say about him:
“Kirk addressed serious questions in a serious way. He was concerned with ideas and their consequences. Although the sage of Mecosta, Mich., could unleash a polemic as well as anyone, it was “first things” that he brought to a tiny minority, a natural aristocracy that might preserve what was left of the Anglo-American tradition. Or so he hoped.”
“Kirk brooked no compromise, as the author repeatedly demonstrates. He pretty much lumped libertarian free-marketers with Benthamite utilitarians, and, by extension, modern-day liberals. In short, he did not worship at the shrine of unfettered capitalism.
If he were alive today, the Enron debacle would neither embarrass nor surprise him. He would only stop to remind us of man’s sinful nature and what is wrong with a culture that encourages individual greed over the needs of the community.”
“. . .I suspect he would be hugely displeased over the direction much of conservatism is headed these days. Like liberals, social conservatives increasingly see the federal government, especially the federal courts, as a remedy to fix the ills on their agenda.”
This Kirk guy seems like he has things straight. I know someone mentioned him here recently- can anyone recommend any of his writing?