A GUIDE TO THE PATRIOT ACT, PART TWO: So far, very valuable and persuasive. Read more

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO HATE?: One of the things that convinces me that the temptation that I talked about in the previous post is a big deal: It still amazes me when I wake up and think, Yesterday it didn’t get to me. I still don’t really know how I got through a life so deeply controlled by an evil temptation. It’s so different now–even when it recurs, it’s so incredibly weakened–it’s so hard for me to... Read more

YOU’RE IN LOVE, BUT IT FEELS LIKE PAIN: Fantastic comments thread sparked by Amy Welborn. I have three thoughts: 1) I am so glad someone had the honesty to talk about his problems with faith here. And I’m also hugely grateful that someone responded with what I think is the essential insight: “Most people confuse strength, hope and courage with feeling strong, hopeful, and unafraid.” A lot of people will try to help you find The Answer to your struggle... Read more

IF IT WASN’T FOR DISAPPOINTMENTS, I WOULDN’T HAVE ANY APPOINTMENTS: Decent, intermittently insightful Glenn Reynolds column on self-employment and the new-new-new-new-no this time I really mean it! new-economy. My deal: I started freelancing because I was laid off. Nowadays I do think hard about which tradeoffs I’d be willing to make–how much autonomy would I cash in? The main thing that makes me want a Real Job is absolutely health care. COBRA is a poisonous snake, and self-insurance isn’t much... Read more

I woke up this morning with a bad hangover and my blogwatch was missing again… Dappled Things: In today’s only non-comics blogwatch link (WAIT! NO! READ FURTHER!), Father Tucker answers my question about when a homily is really a sermon and vice versa. Interestingly, “homily” is the most directly Scripture-linked term, while “sermon” is a more free-floating, umbrella term. I know you care! (Also, there’s an interesting point for us St. Anselm junkies.) Plus an excellent post on sex and... Read more

“I’m too weird to be a tourist and not weird enough to be an employee.” –Carla Speed McNeil, Finder: King of the Cats Read more

COMICS WORTH READING… AND ALSO SOME OTHER COMICS: In alphabetical order, to maximize randomness! Cuckoo #12: Subtitle: “One woman’s true stories of living with Multiple Personality Disorder.” Gripping story, rough scratchy intermittently lovely art, memorable images. This issue is a sampler. It begins with the narrator denying that she has multiple personalities, then opening her diary and seeing the riot of differing handwritings and voices. It ends with a ferocious, blackly funny rewriting of that therapy cliche about the hole... Read more

“THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS”: Saw the movie yesterday, per parental recommendation. It’s excellent. I can’t add to the chorus of married people who have said it is one of the best representations of real marriage that they’ve seen on the silver screen, but I will say that many, many of the moments rang exactly true to me. The kids act like real kids. There’s a subtle moment where someone says, “I love you,” and means it–and it’s exactly the... Read more

INVITATION TO A BEHEADING: Finished this last night. What a frustrating book! It begins brilliantly. Its sharp, twisty, surrealist prose style conveys a vivid sense of powerlessness and absurdity; its psychological portraits of the prisoner and his guards were harsh and accurate. The cloudier moments hinted at a description of a Fallen world. Nabokov (and/or his translator, a relative) had the same gift for choosing the exact right word that James Wood does–but Wood works that talent so hard, so... Read more

THOUGHTS ON ISAIAH 45:9-12 AND A REVIEW BY HAROLD BLOOM: The collapse of the attempt to pit ethics against God the Creator: 1) The world is malformed. It is not Fallen–it was not created good–its deformation, its wreckage, is the fault of its Maker. It is His fault. 2) In order to say that, I must know right from wrong, beauty from ugliness, acceptable from unacceptable. But I do know–you can’t deny me that!–and what God has done is unacceptable.... Read more