[Speaking of Hugh Hewitt’s idea that Ground Zero in New York is a secular sacred space] “This is the kind of political analysis that a freshman in the Eusebian School of Panegyrics might have written for his first homework assignment, late in the evening and after a couple of beers” (Empires of Dirt, p. 60).
Mojo Not Firepower
“History is littered with examples of empires, nations, and cities that fell to inferior forces when by all rights they should not have” (Empires of Dirt, p. 58).
Not a Pretty Sight
“The Muslims are coming after the values of our hollow secularism, and watching it is not like watching an actual contest—it is like watching someone take a jackhammer to a soufflé” (Empires of Dirt, p. 57).
Not the Same Thing at All
“Theocracy is necessary and inescapable. Ecclesiocracy is, among other things, quite an appalling thought” (Empires of Dirt, p. 56).
Sky Hooks Don’t Come With Bolts
“But that was before the rot of postmodernism set in, the reductio that made all our crackerjack thinkers realize (some of them reluctantly) that our great Kantian sky hook wasn’t actually bolted to anything, and one man’s guess was as good as another’s” (Empires of Dirt, p. 56).
No Moral Advantage in a Direction
“’Western values’ as an appeal works only if it is a coded reference to Christendom, and that only works if Christ is still there . . . Anything else is a couple of dogs fighting over a piece of meat” (Empires of Dirt, p. 54).
We’re Number One
“Did you know that we are just 5 percent of the world’s population, and yet we still consume 62 percent of the world’s priggishness?” (Food Catholic, p. 49).
The Wrong Kind
“There is a kind of religious duty that is of the flesh, for the flesh, and by the flesh” (Food Catholic, p. 48).
Which Throws Everything Off
“Yeast in the loaf doesn’t obey the established election cycle” (Empires of Dirt, p. 43).
Put Him On Rushmore Anyway
“John Knox was one of the great fathers of the American political arrangement, a fact that would have astonished him if you had attempted to explain it to him” (Empires of Dirt, p. 42).