And I never meant to blogwatch, all I had was the will to survive… Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. Balkinization: The only book by a Supreme Court justice you will ever need to read. Mark Oppenheimer notes that he is blogging a lot more now, so if you liked his profile of me in the NYTimes you might check him out. Yale, religion in America, and whatever other bees roost in his bonnet. Sean... Read more

POLL: 1 IN 5 AMERICANS BELIEVE OBAMA IS A CACTUS. Real posting soon, but for now, have something which made me laugh. Via PES I think. Read more

CAPTAIN’S LOG, SUPPLEMENTAL: I only wish I could make all my confessions in the captain’s-log format. Read more

“No country lives as blithely or as uneasily with the opposed ideals of orgy and restriction as America.” –David Thomson, via Wesley Hill (buy his book! which I will read soon!) Read more

“GAY MARRIAGE, STRAIGHT MARRIAGE, AND LA DIFFERENCE“: John Corvino replies to my post on marriage and sex difference. I will put up a small and partial reply later tonight, and possibly more later, but I wanted to get the link up there now. Read more

RANKLE. Nosferatu and also the Smiths. I don’t even know. Read more

HOME AND DRY: Hello and welcome, if you got here via Andrew Sullivan. You want this post. And now the promised follow-up, in which I talk about what I think the most beautiful argument is in favor of gay marriage: It gives gay people a home. Sullivan’s written about this quite a lot, of course. Both he (in Love Undetectable, I’m pretty sure) and Jonathan Rauch (in Gay Marriage) have described, briefly and without self-pity, really intense childhood exchanges with... Read more

IT’S THE FEAST OF THE EXALTATION OF THE CROSS. Go to church! Read more

UNZIP MY BODY, TAKE MY HEART OUT: I’m still thinking about that conversation on gay marriage between Ross Douthat and Andrew Sullivan, in which my Busted Halo interview played a supporting role. Specifically, I’m still thinking about this John Corvino column written in response to me and Douthat. I’m still not sure how to structure this post or its argument, so I think what I’ll do is put four ideas on the table, and see what happens. The first two... Read more

FOUR SWIFTLY TILTING PLANETS: My thoughts on the new Battlestar Galactica, over at the spoilerous blog. I mostly agree with Sean Collins’s takes on the series, which you can find here, here, and here, so this post will basically ignore anything he said with which I agreed. Makes my job easier! (I did not watch any of the supplemental stuff or extended episodes, nor did I watch the “webisodes,” nor did I watch The Plan nor any of Caprica. I... Read more