ICONS AND THE AWFUL ANGEL: Just finished Frederica Mathewes-Green’s soon-to-be-released new book about icons. I’m reviewing it, so I won’t tell you too much about it here (gotta keep some things up my sleeve); but the review will be short and so there are some bits I won’t be able to comment on. The book is generally good, but I do want to take issue with one aspect of it: Mathewes-Green champions icons over all other forms of religious art,... Read more

THANKS VERY MUCH to everyone who wrote in about small businesses. I should have made it clearer that I’m not planning to start one of my own–it was a bleg about something I was thinking of writing, which now looks like it probably won’t happen. HOWEVER, your emails were not in vain! I’ve learned a lot and hope to incorporate some of the things you all said in a differently-conceived article in the future. (Don’t worry, I’ll email you to... Read more

“When I think of all the grey memorials erected in London to equestrian generals, the heroes of old colonial wars, and to frock-coated politicians who are even more deeply forgotten, I can find no reason to mock the modest stone that commemorates Jones on the far side of the international road which he failed to cross in a country far from home, though I am not to this day absolutely sure of where, geographically speaking, Jones’s home lay.” –Graham Greene,... Read more

IRAQIS BLOGGING ROUNDUP: You’ve almost certainly seen all these sites already, but what the hey. BuzzMachine on what it will take to get an Iraqi blog revolution (not the guns kind) off the ground; Salam Pax’s first column for the Guardian; more Pax in fierce and very, very justified response to the stupider strains of criticism/paranoid speculation he’s received. All are must-reads. Read more

Take me out to the blogwatch, Take me out to the show, Buy me some peanuts and crackerjack, I don’t care if I never come back… The Rat has several worthwhile items today. Check her out. Judith Weiss said she’d post her notes from a talk by Azar Nafisi. But then she didn’t! What do I gotta do, stand on my head over here? If I could change my template, I’d fix the link to Volokh.com and add Jeff Jarvis’s... Read more

“There is a temptation to make angels objects of fascination, because we humans persistently desire to have contact with the supernatural without having to deal with God and all His bothersome ethical requirements.” –Frederica Mathewes-Green, The Open Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer Read more

sorry folks–back for reals tomorrow (Tuesday) with much blogaciousness–stuff has intervened, everything from work to the beautiful weather to thinking the family cat had vanished, but all is sorted out now and once I’ve gotten some shut-eye I will be here on the blog as before. Read more

HAVE YOU STARTED A SMALL BUSINESS? Do you want to talk about it, and brainstorm ways to make the process easier? I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d email me at [email protected]. Thanks! Read more

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Sorry for the light blogging. Work and stuff got in the way (boo, hiss!). Tomorrow, I hope to post on: resolving the “confirmation wars” (judicial confirmations)–why it won’t happen any time soon, and why Lawrence Solum is a bit less than half right; questions about assurance of salvation; tentative, possible answers to the Hayekian anti-war argument a.k.a. “If the government can pre-emptively strike in Iraq, why can’t it provide universal health care?”; and “The Matrix: Reloaded,” Foucault, and... Read more

YET MORE INTERESTING MATRIXBLOGGING FROM THE OLIGARCH. This movie is much more interesting to think about than to watch…! Spoilers aplenty, be forewarned. Read more