Benedict XIV was also a snuff-taker. He is said to have once offered his snuffbox to the head of some religious order, who declined to take a pinch of snuff, saying, “Your Holiness, I do not have that vice,” to which the pope replied, “It is not a vice. If it were a vice you would have it.” —here; via Read more
delicious, delicious parables: If the stuff that is in the Bible isn’t true, if it doesn’t work today and if Jesus didn’t really mean what he said – I’m not interested in any of it. Thanks, but you can keep your rituals and your moral teaching. However, I believe what’s in the Bible is true, it does work today and Jesus really meant what he said. And I build my life on that belief. Jesus tells a story about a... Read more
NYT: Mr. Bauer, however, answered carefully when asked if he’d rather be in solitary in Iran or at Pelican Bay State Prison, the supermax facility in Crescent City, Calif., whose conditions he recently described in an investigative report for Mother Jones. Some prisoners at Pelican Bay, he noted, have been in solitary for more than 20 years. “It’s unimaginable to me, having had a glimpse of that experience,” he said. more Read more
lol science! But this is a good piece. Read more
Me on friendship and addiction, at Catholic Lane. Read more
Recently watched “Marked Woman,” an early Bette Davis/Humphrey Bogart flick in which Davis is a nightclub hostess who tries to go up against the toughest gangster in town after he kills her sister. Bogart is the crusading, by which I mean lecturing, DA. It’s actually a startlingly powerful film, largely because it takes everything about the clip-joint girls’ lives so seriously: their friendships, their families, their courage, their distinctive personalities. It’s about the compromises they made to get by or... Read more
applies to more issues than homeschooling! Thanksgiving’s around the corner, and if you’re a new homeschooler, that holiday conversations will revolve around one hot topic: Explaining Your Crazy Life to the Friends and Relatives. I’ve been at this homeschooling business for a decade now, so my Thanksgiving route is composed of people who know all my answers, and have seen the positive impact of homeschooling on our kids. But only last winter, I had a run-in on the homeschooling topic... Read more
Lists of conservatives or other right-wingers whom you should know: David Brooks, a reader of Rod Dreher (I’m mentioned in this one). I echo the praise for Megan McArdle, Tim Carney, Ross Douthat, Daniel Larison/AmCon generally (I am not being paid to tell you that!), Ramesh Ponnuru on domestic policy, and Radley Balko. You might also be interested in this piece about ‘wingers vs. mass incarceration, although I admit that I still haven’t finished it. Not sure how many names... Read more
…Patricia had been more severely injured than her husband, which may explain to some extent the differences in their responses. Because the bear bit into her face, she had repeated operations on her sinuses. Within weeks of each surgery, infection would set in again. More surgery would follow. Her head and face ached all the time. Patricia needed to experience her body healing in order to make progress, and that just wasn’t happening. Also, their experiences of the attack had... Read more
The introductory paragraph seems calculated just to annoy me, but the actual photos are amazing. Read more
Eve Tushnet
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In