“We Need a Whistleblower Prize”: Radley Balko

Last updated on: August 9, 2013 at 2:35 pm By Eve Tushnet

at HuffPo: …High-level whistleblowers know when they come forward that they’re sacrificing their national security clearance, likely their jobs, and quite possibly their freedom. Set aside for a moment what you think about the actions of Bradley Manning or Edward Snowden. Imagine you have a top-level security clearance, and you discover in the course of your work evidence of illegal government activity. Even going through the proper internal channels carries risks, and aren’t likely to change much, anyway. (Thomas Drake,... Read more

“Sometimes You Want to Go Where Nobody Knows Your Name”: Me on “Home”

Last updated on: August 8, 2013 at 8:42 pm By Eve Tushnet

a searing novel by Marilynne Robinson: You have preserved my life from the pit of destruction, when you cast behind your back all my sins. – Isaiah 38:17 Speaking to reporters on a plane back from World Youth Day in Rio, Pope Francis made headlines with his comment, “If [gay people] accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them?” But the hoopla around this comment obscured an even more radical statement in a similar vein: “I see... Read more

How To Improve Mainstream Media Coverage of Abortion?

Last updated on: August 8, 2013 at 7:33 pm By Eve Tushnet

LiveAction asks the right questions, as does GetReligion. Read more

“In Love and Struggle”: I review LaToya Ruby Frazier at the Brooklyn Museum

Last updated on: August 6, 2013 at 12:55 pm By Eve Tushnet

It’s a terrific show, closing THIS SUNDAY, so check it out if you’re in the area! It’s the kind of Mother’s Day card you might give if you come from an especially unflinching family: A mother stands tall and imposing in front of the camera, facing it squarely and glaring at it. The daughter stands behind her mother–she’s slim enough that her body fits entirely behind her mom’s, as her face looks away and down. Their two shadows merge on... Read more

Wooden Orthodox Wedding Crowns

Last updated on: August 6, 2013 at 12:51 pm By Eve Tushnet

Does what it says on the tin. Via Tristyn Bloom, for those who are–but why?–not following her on Twitter. Read more

Blogging “A Secular Age”

Last updated on: August 6, 2013 at 12:48 pm By Eve Tushnet

Camassia, whom many readers of my old blog may remember, is back! She’s blogging her impressions of Charles Taylor’s tome A Secular Age. So go over there for discussions of the porous self vs the buffered self, sacraments and/as/vs witchcraft, and more. Read more

“The Church Failed Millennials, Just Not in the Way You Think It Did”

Last updated on: August 6, 2013 at 12:44 pm By Eve Tushnet

at Christ & Pop Culture, some interesting stuff–I take no position on either of the Rachel Held Evans pieces which sparked this conversation, and obviously I’m not an evangelical Protestant so in some ways this is outside my sheepfold, but I found the critique in this paragraph quite relevant to Cat’licks as well: One thing I think the pop Evangelical church has truly dropped the ball on is talking to us about the Church. I mean, honestly, during all the Sunday School lessons,... Read more

“Monk Takes Devotion to New Heights”…

Last updated on: August 6, 2013 at 12:37 pm By Eve Tushnet

…by sitting on them. Read more

Maria Callas, “Ave Maria”

Last updated on: August 1, 2013 at 8:19 pm By Eve Tushnet

Via someone on Twitter–I’m sorry I forgot who! Read more

Thanatostalgia

Last updated on: August 1, 2013 at 2:33 pm By Eve Tushnet

I don’t actually know who Russell Brand is, except that he’s British and popular for some reason and he said this thing, which really resonated with me: A new documentary about comedian Russell Brand lays bare the lifelong grip addiction can hold on an individual—even one with long-term recovery. In Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery, BBC3 follows the 37-year-old as he goes back to visit the Focus 12 Centre in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, where he got clean in 2002.... Read more