THE SILLY PUTTY CHURCH: I guess you all already know exactly what I think of Nancy Pelosi’s ardent-Catholic-abortion shtik. (more) It’s “I’m a good person,” it’s We Are Church, and you know, if I’m church, I think maybe church isn’t that great. It’s also how a nearly three-quarters majority of American Catholics (in that order, apparently) end up supporting torture. I was once privileged to hear a discourse on the nature of conscience in the Church, in which the obvious... Read more

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES: This post reminds me that back in 2000, when Bush II was the candidate of a “humble foreign policy” (not that I entirely know what that would mean), some members of the Party of the Right kicked around “COME GET BOMBED AT OUR CLINTON FAREWELL PARTY” as an election-night boozefest slogan. Read more

I TRUST YOU ARE ALL RECOVERED FROM YOUR HANGOVERS. Some things around the web about the Democratic convention, which I didn’t watch. Jesse Walker‘s Shorter Barack Obama. Some notes on applause. A libertarian video I can’t watch on this computer… but it intrigues me: Dems back away from free trade. The bits I liked from the Reactionary Epicurean‘s liveblogging: 8:16pm I’m amazed again by how perceptive Yuval Levin’s aritcle on ‘Science and the Left’ is. They don’t actually respect science,... Read more

FAIRYTALE IN TOKYO: Recently watched Tokyo Godfathers, based on Claw of the Conciliator’s 2006 recommendation. (And yes, now you know exactly how long it takes something to go from the bottom of my Netflix queue to the top.) It’s about three homeless people who find an abandoned baby on Christmas Eve. I really, really liked it, despite its sentimentality–the particular combination of sentimentality and harshness and melodrama and gentleness reminded me oddly of Sullivan’s Travels. An old-fashioned approach to moviemaking.... Read more

EROS AND EDUCATION: I know this is ridiculously late, but I’ve been distracted and all August humid-hazy in the brain. Here are some clarifying comments I made to X. Trapnel of Books Do Furnish a Room, about our brief dust-up. (Me, him, me.) 1) “I totally agree [that it’s still possible for people with radically divergent premises and even languages/definitions to pursue truth together], and I’m sorry this particular approach to meta-discussion didn’t highlight that agreement. BUT–and this is why... Read more

A LINK FOR THE CIGARETTE SMOKING BLOGGER. And, really, for the cigarette-smoking blogger in us all. Via Sean Collins. Read more

VAMP: At Virginia Postrel’s new blog “Deep Glamour: At the Intersection of Imagination and Desire,” she muses: Beyond the ordinary factors that give the Democrats an advantage this year, Barack Obama’s glamour poses a huge problem for the McCain campaign. To destroy glamour, you have to change perceptions. You can try sober realism. But that lacks emotional punch. To strike at glamour’s emotional core, horror and ridicule work better. Instead of telling the audience to ignore its desires and be... Read more

“THE NIGHTMARE WORLD OF A VIRGIN’S DREAMS”: I’ll be posting every week at Ladyblog, a group blog at the newly-launched Culture11 site. Go check it out! A couple of the Yale Mafiosi are on board as well–Helen “Cigarette Smoking” Rittelmeyer and Nicola “Iqra’i” Karras. My first post is about Repulsion. Read more

“For in the final analysis every important cultural gesture comes down to a morality, a model for human behavior concentrated into a gesture.”—The Glass Bead Game (Joseph Knecht on classical music) Read more

TEAR IT UP, PTERODACTYL: When Tim Gunn called Blayne’s creation “like some kind of pterodactyl from a gay Jurassic Park” I finally knew what I want to be if I grow up. …This isn’t the real Project Runway post. That’s about color and it will be here soonishish. Read more