A short but poignant reflection on names by my friend Maureen Mullarkey, What’s In a Name?. The most poignant part: Early on in my professional life, I was encouraged to shed my married name. My maiden name was pretty; it had a sturdy British ring to it. No popular banality attached to it. Besides, women were increasingly accustomed to keeping the name they were born with. But I had not chosen my birth name nor the male line that gave it... Read more
In the “quest to redefine our identity, in the struggle between our boundless aspirations and the limits of our condition . . . boundaries imposed by reality or tradition are frequently viewed as impediments and the very idea of freedom is pushed to a new level, from ‘doing’ to ‘being’ what we want. Yet, at the same time, we often experience a profound nostalgia to somehow recover our authentic self and to belong.” This is part of the description for Identity: In... Read more
“For the second pageant, in October,” writes Meredith Hattam in The Atlantic, I was hired to cruise around Dalian in a fake gold Mercedes golf cart with five other girls for three days, in an effort to lure potential buyers into investing in a miniature replica of Versailles. A printed guide to the event offered fictitious backstories in Chinese about each contestant, and her purpose there. We wore dresses whose colors the organizers must have thought somehow corresponded to our countries... Read more
The obscure corners of American Christianity department: A friend asked if a higher percentage of the graduates of Trinity (the Evangelical Anglican seminary in this country) or of Nashotah House (the high church one) had become Catholic. A surprisingly high number of Trinity’s graduates have become Catholics, with a handful becoming Orthodox. “I wonder if Nashotah grads stay Anglican in larger numbers, because the choice is not so obvious for catholic-leaners,” he wrote. I’d bet a small amount of money... Read more
Referring to that mysterious passage early in Genesis: “When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive.” Understandably enough, but not what God wanted. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward,... Read more
Here’s the headline from LifeNews: Wendy Davis Campaign Blames Massive Defeat on Ebola. Here’s the lede: “In one of the most bizzare explanations for losing a campaign ever, a spokesman for pro-abortion Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis blamed the massive loss to pro-life Governor-elect Greg Abbott on ebola.” And here’s the second paragraph of the story the article’s reporting: Speaking on behalf of Davis’ campaign, Communications Director Zac Petkanas told the Wall Street Journal, “The losses that you are seeing in very blue states are... Read more
Asked by the Times‘ public editor Margaret Sullivan, dealing with readers’ objections that the newspaper is publishing for the wealthy, what kind of reader he’s publishing for, executive editor Dean Baquet replies: “I think of The Times reader as very well-educated, worldly and likely affluent. But I think we have as many college professors as Wall Street bankers.” Sullivan is concerned with all the articles on $5 million apartments and high-end luxury goods and that “the tone and the emphasis and... Read more
The Atlantic says in its latest newsletter “Time for SCOTUS to Tackle Gay Marriage.” Meaning: Do it quick, before a Republican is elected president and changes the Supreme Court. The writer is, of course, upset at the decision of the sixth circuit court of appeals, apparently not because he rejects the reasoning but because he rejects the conclusion. He highlights this worrisome bit from Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey “blistering” dissent: More than 20 years ago, when I took my oath of office to... Read more
Nadin Naumann’s mother has the same type of brain cancer as Brittany Maynard. She is not choosing to die but to live as long as life is given her, and her daughter is grateful. Her experience is very like mine, bringing the same blessings, as painful as they are, which I wrote about a couple days ago in My Father and Brittany Maynard. Brittany had stated that she did not want her family and friends to see her suffer, to... Read more
Russia . . . Russian Lawmaker Proposes Mailing Putin Sperm to Impregnate Russian Women, reports the New York Observer. The lawmaker is a member of the Duma, the Russian congress or parliament. “The essence of my proposition is simple”, says the Chairwoman Of Parliamentary Commission on Women’s affairs, Children and Family, Yelena Borisovna Mizoulina. “Each female citizen of Russia will be able to receive by mail the genetic material of the President, get pregnant from him and have a baby. These... Read more
David Mills
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