Rejecting Modern Materialism: The Rise of the Crunchy-Conservatives

Rejecting Modern Materialism: The Rise of the Crunchy-Conservatives: "Dreher's solution to this problem is simple: we must return our focus to family, our community and church. We must renounce the selfishness of lust, avarice and covetousness, and we must one again seek to be good stewards of creation over which God has given us dominion. Finally, we must pay attention to the needs of the soul and not just those of the flesh. "Politics and economics will not save us," Dreher concludes. "If we are to be saved at all, it will be through living faithfully by the Permanent Things, preserving these ancient truths in the choices we make in everyday life.'"

STLtoday - Business - Columnists

STLtoday - Business - Columnists
This is the best commentary I've read about Vista. Bottom line is that Vista has a lot more lines of code, will require hardware upgrades, and WindowsXP will be on "life support through 2010". The more code means the more that can go wrong. "That's why, until all the cricks are worked out, we're not recommending Vista to our customers," Moore said, "not until after the first service pack comes out on it, at least." America seems content with XP and isn't looking for all the bells and whistles Vista offers.

'Crunchy Cons,' by Rod Dreher - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times

'Crunchy Cons,' by Rod Dreher - The New York Times Book Review - New York Times: "Dreher calls 'Crunchy Cons' a 'handbook of the resistance' to this libertarian consumer culture. He makes the case that he and his fellow crunchy cons constitute something like a movement through an accumulation of stories about their lifestyle choices and the philosophy behind them, beginning with himself. He started out as a casual Methodist and what he calls a 'standard-issue Republican.' But the seeds of his crunchy conversion were planted soon after he graduated from college; drinking and carousing had gotten him 'into a serious hole,' and a 30-day prayer to the Virgin Mary and the discipline of the Roman Catholic Church straightened him out.
When he married, he and his wife committed to relying on the natural family planning favored by the Catholic Church, and that meant a new attention to nutrition's role in her hormonal cycles."