Pike's Peak or Bust

The air is hot and faintly foul; the strong wind off the river is no better.

My Colorado trip is one step closer, as my daughter has confirmed the air reservations. I suppose I had best get the paper finished. What was I thinking, committing to an academic conference after all these years, five teaching school, ten teaching adult literacy, four in a bank? It was, I suppose, Mr. bin Laden, and Mr. Bush, and his war. His two wars. His war for Israel. His war against the United States, by which I mean against the constitutional government he was sworn to preserve, protect, and defend. I hope it is clear I am speaking of the Texan, not the Saudi. Though who is to say that they do not serve the same cause, the cause of chaos?

Thirty years ago I turned my back on the Conservative intellectual movement because it had turned into a gaggle of Nixonian whores. Now I appreciate that at its best it stood for the only ideas that can make sense of what is going on in this miserable world. So I am going out of my way to meet with a handful of scholars who still care for ideas that matter, and make a modest case for the Scholastic realism of the founder of American philosophy.

I will be going West of Chicago for the first time since 1960, when I was very young indeed, and West of the Delaware for the second time in five years and perhaps the third in a decade. My first air trip since the middle 1980s.

There's nobody more of a homebody than the New Yorker.

I will be cuttling people off my friends list as I get around to it. I won't be cutting back to 300, but maybe closer to it. I will be starting with people who post many long entries without benefit of cut tags. If I purge you, don't take it personally. I still wish you well.

But I am adding folks too. One of the latest is indianarhino, a Quaker pastor, a divinity student at my own Alma Mater, and, like so many of you, perhaps a bit of an esoterist. Drop by and say Hello if you feel inclined.

Cheers.