AGENDA BENDER on Rufus Wainwright, crystal meth, the attraction of drugs or the lack of attraction, and… opera. Read more

DEAR PRUDENCE: Unqualified Offerings wonders whether my long post about big splashy effects vs. small intricate moves toward justice is “simply demonstrating that all texts really do deconstruct themselves if you stare hard enough.” Quite possibly! I wasn’t especially trying to do anything large (or splashy!). I don’t really think all texts deconstruct themselves etc., though, so can I offer an alternate phrasing of what I was getting at? Basically I think that post was a defense of the necessity... Read more

TAKE THESE JOBS AND SHOVE ‘EM?: Ampersand pointed me to a series of posts defending a higher minimum wage. I’ve read two so far, “How Minimum Wage Increases Employment” and “Why Job Losses from Min Wage Don’t Matter.” I can’t rightly put my finger on my problems with the first one–odd that there’s so much talk of consumption but not of investment, that’s one problem, but I am pretty sure that if I were either a) less fuzzheaded or b)... Read more

In a boat (boat) (boat) you and I will go and we’ll sail straight North to where everything’s snow and the narwhal is the primary source of vitamin C on the blogwatch sea that’s where we’ll be… You know that movie, “The Stuff”? Where the killer yogurt eats the yuppies? OK, so probably you don’t know it, all the better for you–but basically, I feel like The Stuff has moved into my skull for a belated Labor Day vacation. I... Read more

“UNBREAKABLE“: Polytropos just watched this movie for the second time. I add my thoughts in his comments box. (Oh man is there a spoiler in that post! Please don’t click if you haven’t seen this excellent movie!) Read more

LITTLE JOYS: Perhaps a marginal comment on the “Thinking for Berky”/political utopianism post below. Read more

NOT FITTING IN: Good new theological FAQ from Telford Work. The question: “I keep visiting churches, but I just don’t fit. I always feel out of place. What am I supposed to do?” Part of the response: “Christian faith is not a fascistic cause to which each of us sacrifices his or her identity. Nor is it an individualistic journey in which each of us goes it alone. It refuses both the warm comfort of assimilation and the cold comfort... Read more

LITTLE TRIGGERS: So I’ve been thinking, as I mentioned a few days ago, about Unqualified Offering’s thought-provoking post on the equally thought-provoking poem “Thinking for Berky.” I talked w/UO very briefly about the poem over the weekend. I agree with him that it isn’t quietist, though it may at first come off that way. It’s cautionary. It’s a poem that urges us to turn down the volume in our heads, to be wary of ultimatums, obvious heroics, and politics as... Read more

JUDICA ME DEUS–THE FINAL COMEDOWN. OK, the rough draft of my short story, “Judica me Deus (Judge Me, O God)” is now complete. You can read the whole thing in order here, or just catch up with the last segment here. Not a work-safe link etc. etc. There are several things I don’t think I got quite right with this story, so I would very much appreciate any responses (esp. criticism) you all have. I’ve been writing fiction for a... Read more

GOOD POINT re Baghdad, blogs, gender, and detachment, at Letter from Gotham. Read more