HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! HERE’S A REVIEW OF “EYES WIDE SHUT”! Okay, the dumb basic response is that I’m really glad I saw this. That said (with some spoilers, so if you are like me and hate spoilers, please know that you should put this movie in your Netflix queue instanter, even though you will probably dislike it): 1. Sean Collins is obviously right that it’s a horror film. He gets at lots of the details that make it “‘Eyes Wide... Read more

HUGH HEWITT INTERVIEWS A COLONEL WHO SAYS TORTURE IS WRONG. What a shocker. Cruelty isn’t what the soldiers I know believe we should be doing. That isn’t the country they love, the country for whom they risk their lives daily. I’ve tried to write this post about fifteen times now, and keep failing; so, despite my total failure to explain why, please, please pray for all our soldiers, past and present. Every one I know is keeping his or her... Read more

FOR “THOSE WHO HAD TO ENDURE HIGH SCHOOL WITHOUT THE GRACE OF BAPTISM.” This wasn’t my story; but people who know me well will hear the symmetries. Read more

LATE HAVE I LOVED THEE, CYNARA, IN MY FASHION! Read more

DEFINITIONS AND DESIRES: Some day I’ll stop linking to every other post Disputed Mutability makes. Today is not that day. Ted Haggard, self-understanding, shifting attractions, and incompleteness. Read more

RESTORE-HABEAS.ORG: OK, three caveats: I do not know very much about this proposed act. I can’t read the text, because opening a PDF will crash this computer. (I will print it out tomorrow.) And I don’t have a senator. But a bill that “will restore Habeas Corpus protections to detainees, bar information acquired through torture from being introduced as evidence in trials, and limit presidential authority to interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions” sounds pretty good to... Read more

…The lead interrogator at the DIF had given me specific instructions: I was to deprive the detainee of sleep during my 12-hour shift by opening his cell every hour, forcing him to stand in a corner and stripping him of his clothes. Three years later the tables have turned. It is rare that I sleep through the night without a visit from this man. His memory harasses me as I once harassed him. more(via Mark Shea and Unqualified Offerings) Read more

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER: Philip Roth’s most recent novel, Everyman, is excellent. Ratty vets his books before I read them, and she singled this one out as action I should get in on. It’s… well, it’s sort of the miniature Sabbath’s Theater. That’s just not possible, really: Sabbath’s Theater is Roth’s masterwork (so far), a novel completely one-step-beyond–not a “good Roth novel,” but a great thing in the world. It’s devastating, and its length is part of how it gets its... Read more

KITCHEN ADVENTURES: PRODUCT PLACEMENT. Trader Joe’s Cuban Mojito Simmer Sauce. It’s… ooohh. It’s bright and tangy and kicky and all those fun things. So far I’ve used it on my normal spaghetti sauce (= chop up garlic, plum tomatoes, mushrooms, and sweet onions) in place of olive oil, and that was great. Throw in cayenne, though, because this isn’t really spicy. But the real fun comes when you get an avocado all up in there. Go and get yourself a... Read more

OOOHHH… IT’S EVEN KIND OF SHAPED LIKE A GIRL!: “Manolo says, for the Manolo nothing gets him through the middle of the cold winter week better than the pictures of the beautiful shoes….” So shiny and sexy and shoe-y! Read more