Here and There

• "The Thomistic Tradition" - Part I | Part II -- a brief survey of the history of Thomism from John Capreolus to John Haldane, with a summary of the main schools of thought, from Dr. Edward Feser.

• At What's Wrong with The World, Edward Feser also alerts us to two new books on contemporary conservative philosopher Roger Scruton.

• "Decline is a Choice: The New Liberalism and the end of American ascendancy" (Weekly Standard 10/19/2009, Volume 015, Issue 05) adapted from his 2009 Wriston Lecture delivered for the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research in New York on October 5. (Watch the speech).

• Paul Zummo (The Cranky Conservative) is blogging an ongoing commentary on The Federalist Papers - "I absolutely believe that an understanding of the Federalist Papers is essential for understanding the U.S. Constitution and, therefore, understanding America."

• From the Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club, an extensive roundup of discussion and commentary on Pope Benedict's encyclical Caritas in Veritate.

• In the past months I've come to greatly appreciate the news and reflections by Robert Moynihan, founder and editor in chief of Inside the Vatican magazine. Visit themoynihanreport.com to read his regular reports from Rome (or subscribe via email).

• Matt Latimer was deputy director of speechwriting for President George W. Bush during the latter part of his presidency. Before that, Matt was the principal speechwriter for Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He is also the recent author of Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor. In a guest post to Powerline, he gives a view from the inside on the implosion of the Bush Administration and its flight from principled conservatism.

• "Opposite Day" - Daniel Nichols (Caelum et Terra) on "Issue 2" in the Ohio elections.

• Net Neutrality: A Brief Primer, by Peter Suderman (Reason Magazine's "Hit & Run") October 21, 2009.

• Daniel Mitsui has posted some of his recent illustrations impressive work!

• the Kindle user after trying his first "book", by Alan Jacobs (The New Atlantis' "Text Patterns"):

  . . . Look, I'm not saying there's nothing good about it. That it's just one book, so if you lose it you're only out a few bucks, that's nice. That you don't have to worry about charging the batteries, that's very nice. And in the relatively few books that have illustrations, the difference is amazing. But overall, the technology just isn't ready for prime time.