JAILHOUSE ROCK: Victims protest VH1’s “Music Behind Bars” show “A VH1 show featuring rock bands behind prison bars has some local people livid that hardened criminals are being given a forum on national television. “A rock band out of Greaterford Prison, Dark Mischief, is one of the bands being featured on VH1’s ‘Music Behind Bars.’ “Dark Mischief members include convicted killers and rapists from Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester and Northampton counties. “Backup singer Chris Bissey killed Mary Orlando’s daughter at Lehigh... Read more

REGARDLESS of what you think of the state of Israel, or my take on it (see below), I do think Avineri’s “Zionism as a National Liberation Movement” brings some intriguing and hopeful possibilities to the table in discussions of whether and how America is a “Christian nation.” Father Neuhaus (more on him below too) has defended the “Christian nation” idea against critics, including Jews who are threatened by that kind of talk and Christians who see a “Christian nation” as... Read more

THE PAST IS ANOTHER COUNTRY: My friend Mike sent me a good packet with essays on different aspects of the founding of Israel. The packet didn’t say all that much that I found totally new and surprising (with two exceptions: lots of awful anecdotes about the treatment of Jews by Muslims and Christians during the long centuries in the Holy Land, unsurprising but saddening; and I definitely had no idea how many European countries have laws similar to the Law... Read more

This heat is hotter than the sun These people got no clothes on They eat in the shade of trees Because they don’t use frozen peas Will you blogwatch their fire? So that they freeze… Oxblog: Adesnik takes control with three good posts: fables of Afghan reconstruction; Putin is playing Bush; and why we needn’t fear Asian nerds. Unqualified Offerings: Excellent post on moderate Muslims of the blogosphere (go there if only for the links); and dirty Saudi money. UO... Read more

“In Kovach and Rosenstiel’s first woe-is-media tract, 1999’s Warp Speed, fellow Concerned Journalist David Halberstam set the tone in the introduction: ‘The past year has been, I think, the worst year for American journalism since I entered the profession forty-four years ago.’ It’s hard to distract men so despondent with news of such salutary post-1955 developments as female editors, 24-hour cable news, alternative weeklies, business journals, and fingertip access to 10,000 faraway newspapers.” —Matt Welch on the Chicken Littles of... Read more

POETRY POST-WEDNESDAY: I’m lame. This isn’t. From Gerald Manley Hopkins. I generally don’t like his style but it works here: Glory be to God for dappled things– For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings; Landscape plotted and pieced–fold, fallow, and plough; And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow;... Read more

I AM OBSOLETE: First Yglesias explains why Jonathan Chait is so wrong to believe that any postwar Iraq would be better than the status quo. Then, in his comments box, a reader discusses “blood for oil” in almost exactly the terms I was going to use. Except probably more succinct. Read more

FIREFIGHTERS TURN DOWN AFFIRMATIVE-ACTION PROMOTIONS. Via the Rat. Edited to, like, add the actual link. Read more

NEAT STORY BY MOTHER OF NINE KIDS, via Amy Welborn: “Not everyone wants so many, but having children early and close together not only means that one can concentrate one’s youth and energy during the time when one needs youth and energy, but also that one is left with a long span of life still to fill. It can be done, but not if you set out on the rigid, traditional career path. Above all, it requires support, and the... Read more

WHAT’S ON MY WALL?: I’m slowly, slowly making my apartment look like a human lives here. Slowly covering the vast expanses of blank white wall. Here’s what I’ve got so far: Wall I’m staring at: Drawing of two men climbing a ladder in the middle of the night. Not sure why–I just really like this picture. The men are Beckettlike, furtive and isolated. Still from “The Philadelphia Story“–Jimmy Stewart reaching out toward Katharine Hepburn, who is looking away Two illustrations... Read more