The Narthex

General Lafayette made a second visit to Jefferson at Monticello. He arrived from Fredericksburg on August 15, 1825. On August 20 he visited Charlottesville and was feted again over dinner at the University which had opened the previous March. He left the next day for Montpelier.[1] Lafayette was…

The Human Shield Dilemma I’ve long argued that the Church, and particularly the current pontificate, are derelict in not conducting serious discussions about just war theory and contemporary warfare (including the use of human shields and urban warfare). Failure to address these issues suggests what George Weigel has highlighted: a…

Have you ever been to a Town Hall gathering? Not I. City Hall, yes, and there to fight its folly. But now, lo and behold, I’ve been invited to a Town Hall event and even asked to contribute. Here on the Left Coast, where California Dreamin’ is always in play,…

There is little record of the conversations that occurred at Monticello for the next nine days, November 6-14, 1824, either between Lafayette and Jefferson, or with the other temporary or permanent residents who included Madison, the Wright sisters (more about them below), Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Levasseur, George Washington Lafayette, Jane…

Things sometimes appear in social media seemingly out of nowhere, though one suspects they surface as “click-bait” created to generate readers’ reactions. That’s what I thought on Sunday when my X.com feed resurfaced a talk by National Public Radio chief executive Katherine Maher (her talk is linked below). The video…

World Vasectomy Day Nov 21-22 is the 12th Annual "World Vasectomy Day," an annual "celebration" during which vans prowl some neighborhoods offering male sterilization. Since 2022 the act has been designated a sign of male "ally-ship" with post-Dobbs women by "taking responsibility" for fertility. Such euphemistic claptrap has become so normalized…

With Lafayette, Jefferson, and Madison in a single carriage, the large entourage -- the Committee of Arrangements, cavalry, and “a numerous body of citizens” -- left Monticello at 10 a.m. on Friday, November 5, 1824, for Charlottesville, about five miles distant. The population of Albemarle County (which did not include…

November is the month dedicated to prayer for the faithful departed. Many Catholics visit cemeteries during November. For that reason I want to share Father Józef Tischner’s reflections on cemeteries, found in the just-released translation of one of his seminal works, The Philosophy of Drama. Tischner is most known as…

Yesterday, November 17, marked an anniversary: 35 years ago the Lord freed the Czech and Slovak peoples from Communist oppression through the Velvet Revolution. Let us not forget that great moment in human freedom in 1989. Five years ago, I walked across Charles Bridge, that famous span in Prague, going…

The principal source for what occurred on Lafayette's November 1824 visit to Jefferson is the November 10 issue of Charlottesville’s Central Gazette, later credited to Charles Downing.[1] While it has not survived, it was reprinted in whole or in part in papers of Richmond, Alexandria, Lynchburg and Fredericksburg. READ FULL BLOG POST

The Bald and the Unbeautiful Head shaving has been among the jejune reactions of some frenzied women to Kamala Harris’s implosion. Social media is full of these virtue signalers demonstrating why haircuts should only be done by trained professionals. I’m surprised Biden’s FDA has not demanded warning disclaimers on these…

Rumor has it that the annual Diocesan Priest Retreat features a lottery. The winner, and only the winner, is allowed to discuss his physical maladies. Such a limitation is not the case for late-septuagenarian bloggers. But I’ll not regale you, gentle reader, with physical maladies. Instead, I beg your indulgence…

November 11 is Veterans Day, the day we honor the sacrifices -- including their lives -- that men and women of our armed forces have made for their country. Veterans Day emerged as the day we honor soldiers because it was originally Armistice Day; on the eleventh day of the…

I now turn to Lafayette’s extended stay with Thomas Jefferson at his home in Monticello. In November 1824, Lafayette spent ten full days with Jefferson and visiting the University of Virginia and Charlottesville (where yours truly now lives), and four days with James and Dolley Madison in their home at…

Social media is beset by hysterical women and soy boys having collective hissy-fits and meltdowns that their country has “betrayed” them by electing Donald Trump. A certain Schadenfreude has led to re-postings of breakdowns, and to normal people asking whether they're real. Alas, they are real. They're real and they…