Your Local Attractions

May 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We are getting ready to set forth on an epic road trip, going the length and breadth of this great land of ours.  I’ve always wanted to do that.  To get our minds ready for summer vacations and as an experiment in localism, I would like to ask you this:

If I or any other reader of this blog were to come through your neck of the woods, what should we see?  What should we do?  Where should we eat?  And if we eat there, what should we order?  Is there any historical fact, cultural curiosity, or quirky inside information that we should know about?

I realize that some places may not have all that much to them, but I have found that if you scratch the surface, interesting things are everywhere.  Other places, like big cities, have an overabundance of things to do, and what visitors need are recommendations and inside information.

I’d like to hear about natural vistas, odd museums, and local industries.  And food:  I’m a diners, drive-in, and dives kind of guy.  Particularly serious BBQ.  Chicago has deep-dish pizza and otherworldly hot dogs.  What food stands out in your city, region, or locale?  As for tourist traps, well, I’m going to be a tourist.

HT:  Jackie

UPDATE:  Everybody, these are priceless suggestions.  I will make a pilgrimage to some of these places.  Some I’ve been to already and concur about how great they are.  And some actually will be on our route this summer!   I urge all of you to refer to this as an online travel guide.

Filed Under: America, Food, History, Nature, Personal Tagged With: , , Leave a Comment

My book on George Herbert is back in print

May 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

My first book, Reformation Spirituality: The Religion of George Herbert, is back in print.  It is basically my dissertation, which I revised for publication by Bucknell University Press back in 1985.  Recently, Wipf & Stock approached me about re-issuing it.  You can see in it the research I was doing in Reformation theology and 17th century Anglicanism that would eventually lead me to Lutheranism.  As a work of literary scholarship, it was not without impact.  Previously, most scholars interpreted Herbert in terms of medieval Catholicism.  My work on Herbert, along with that of some other folks, showed that he was a poet of the Reformation and, further, explained what the Reformation entailed by way of Herbert’s poetry.  Today, the “Protestant” reading of Herbert is pretty much the scholarly consensus.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Literature, Personal, Reformation Tagged With: Leave a Comment

The Great or Not-so-great Gatsby?

May 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Words and images are two different media, so a novel and a movie are two different kinds of art forms.  Sometimes a good written story can be told visually, but if what makes the novel good is its language, that may not translate at all into motion pictures.  I don’t know if the movie version of The Great Gatsby (in 3-D, no less!) is worthy of Fitzgerald’s novel or if it might possibly be a good movie in its own right.  I haven’t seen it, so you tell me.

But I was struck with this example of a genre in its own right, the movie review, by a master of the form, Rex Reed, who eviscerates the Gatsby movie with razor-sharp words: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Art, Literature, Movies Tagged With: , , Leave a Comment

Journalists are turning on the White House

May 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

As I predicted, the news media is turning on the Obama administration.  Not just because the Justice Department, trying to trace a leak, subpoenaed phone companies for a list of calls made and received over two months by 20 reporters from the Associated Press (including both office and personal cell phones).   According to the Washington Post, tensions have been simmering between the White House and the press corp for some time. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Government, Media Tagged With: , , Leave a Comment

Rand Paul courts Christian conservatives

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Sen. Rand Paul is presenting himself as a “libertarian Republican” rather than a “libertarian,” and is courting evangelicals and other Christian conservatives.  In an apparent effort to position himself as a credible GOP presidential candidate, Paul is backing away from conventional libertarian positions, such as legalizing drugs, and is nuancing his support for gay marriage. (I believe he has always been pro-life.)

I know lots of readers of this blog have long supported the Pauls, both father and son.  Are you bothered by Rand’s attempt to appeal to the GOP establishment?  Or do you support him in trying to make himself electable?  And, for you Christian conservatives leery of libertarianism, do these efforts  make you likely to support him? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment

Should you be able to buy a car online?

May 16, 2013 By 1 Comment

It’s illegal to buy a car direct from the factory or over the internet.  You have to go through a local dealer.  The electric car company Tesla is trying to change that.  But state and local governments are resisting.  That, arguably, goes against the free market and against the trends of the new technology.  But do we really want online commerce to kill off small businesses that are the backbone of many small town economies? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture, Economics, Government, Law, technology Tagged With: , , 1 Comment

IRS harassment of pro-life groups

May 16, 2013 By 1 Comment

More increasingly alarming details are coming out about the IRS scandal.  See this, for the kind of intrusive information the IRS demanded.  See also this and this for how liberal organizations applying for the same status were routinely and quickly approved, no questions asked.  And how as many as 500 conservative organizations were targeted.  We are also learning that the IRS was harassing pro-life groups as far back in 2009!  Not just making them fill out lots of forms and delaying approval for two years and more.  But forbidding pro-life leaders from sidewalk counseling and from protesting in front of Planned Parenthood abortuaries! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Government, Life Issues Tagged With: , , 1 Comment

Court rules against German homeschoolers

May 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The German government threatened to take away the children of a couple on the grounds that they were being homeschooled.  So the family fled to the United States and applied for asylum, claiming that they faced persecution for their beliefs.  Their application was first accepted, but later overturned, leading to a series of court battles, with the Obama administration arguing for deportation.  Yesterday, an appeals court ruled against the family.

I thought the Obama administration wants amnesty for immigrants.  Why not these immigrants, who–like many of the first settlers–came here specifically in search of religious, political,  and personal liberty?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, Government, Law Tagged With: , , Leave a Comment

“A dagger at the heart” of a free press

May 15, 2013 By 1 Comment

Maybe we need to start worrying about those black helicopters after all.  The Obama administration keeps confirming the alarms over intrusive government and the violation of civil liberties.  In an effort to track down the source of leaks, the justice department has secretly subpoened and seized two months of phone records of the Associated Press.  David Schultz, lawyer for the AP, calls this crackdown on confidential sources a “dagger at the heart” of reporters’ ability to get the news.

Whether or not you are sympathetic to the plight of journalists here (and we must not let our dislike of the media distract from the First Amendment issues), this possible government overreach may have an unintended consequence:  What if it turns the press against the Obama administration?  Who knows what else they may dig up? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Government, Law, Media Tagged With: , , 1 Comment

IRS gave confidential info to left-wing journalists

May 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

More malfeasance by the IRS.  The progressive journalism site ProPublica admits that the IRS sent them confidential material from conservative groups.  ProPublica had requested information about organizations whose tax exempt status was approved, but the IRS, in addition, sent them copies of applications whose approval was pending, in direct violation of the law.

From Progressive Group: IRS Gave Us Conservative Groups’ Confidential Docs:

The progressive-leaning investigative journalism group ProPublica says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) office that targeted and harassed conservative tax-exempt groups during the 2012 election cycle gave the progressive group nine confidential applications of conservative groups whose tax-exempt status was pending.

The commendable admission lends further evidence to the lengths the IRS went during an election cycle to silence tea party and limited government voices.

ProPublica says the documents the IRS gave them were “not supposed to be made public”:

The same IRS office that deliberately targeted conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status in the run-up to the 2012 election released nine pending confidential applications of conservative groups to ProPublica late last year… In response to a request for the applications for 67 different nonprofits last November, the Cincinnati office of the IRS sent ProPublica applications or documentation for 31 groups. Nine of those applications had not yet been approved—meaning they were not supposed to be made public. (We made six of those public, after redacting their financial information, deeming that they were newsworthy.)

The group says that “no unapproved applications from liberal groups were sent to ProPublica.”

For the ProPublica account (and give them credit for coming clean), go here.

Filed Under: Government Tagged With: , Leave a Comment