This question is open to anyone who wants to answer it, but I think the ladies will have the real insight here: What is with all the pillows on the bed? Who decided that looks good, and why? I honestly do not understand, and would like understanding. Read more
OK, I’m going to cross my fingers and hope this works. The Believer‘s new music issue is a serious experiment in the limits of retro. How serious, you might wonder. So retro that the music comes to us by way of a cassette tape. Fortunately, my silver Subaru sedan must be the last vehicle in the developed world that still has a tape player. One song in particular stuck out, which I will now attempt to use to play you... Read more
Let me draw your attention to two Jeremy Lott’s Diary media hits this week because 1) self-promotion! and 2) the articles are by journalists I both like and respect. The most recent ran today in Politix, a project of Topix, by new editor-in-chief David Mark. Mark was previously editor of a bunch of stuff including Campaigns & Elections, the Politico op-ed page and The Arena. In a riff on my Rick Warren post, Mark highlighted something that I didn’t think... Read more
A lot of ideas have been kicked around for the ingredient that changes a mere house into a home. Many of these are cliches — home is where the heart is; home is where you hang your hat; etc. — but the tranformative difference I’ve always subscribed to was: home is where you lose socks in the wash. By that criterion, even months after moving in I am sadly still not home. Read more
Don’t let Rick Warren’s diplomatic words give you the wrong idea. He didn’t cancel his planned Saddleback presidential forum — a reprisal of the of the Obama-McCain forum four years ago — because he was fed up with the “irresponsible personal attacks, mean-spirited slander, and flat-out dishonest attack ads” of both parties. No, Warren the megabestselling megachurch leader threw in his moderator towel because intends to take sides in this election. As he explained to the Orange County Register, his... Read more
I could blame work stuff for the light blogging these last few days but really it’s Tim Schumann’s fault. Here’s a picture of the guilty party, looking extra shaggy: Tim is now a colleague at Real Clear. He is an editor with Real Clear Tech and does some afternoon updates for Real Clear Religion, but before that we were a couple of guys in DC. We met at some gathering, probably the regular Sunday night thing. Tim, you need to... Read more
Your diarist was not shocked to hear Missouri senatorial candidate Todd Akin’s thoughts on rape and conception that sprang from a question on abortion. Akin, who is against legal abortion, was asked, OK, what about pregnancies that result from rape? He said that such pregnancies are “really rare.” He explained that in cases of “legitimate rape, the female body has ways of shutting that down.” Cue: feminist outrage, partisan point making, and Republican damage control. I was not shocked because,... Read more
Doing research for an article on the YouTube today, I came across this recording of “Requiem Mass in D Minor,” Mozart’s take on the Dies Irae (“Day of Wrath”). Judgment never sounded so stirring. Read more
So what do you think of the new line of theological candies called Nouwen Laters? Read more
Over on one of Patheos’s progressive blogs, Faith Forward, Franky Schaeffer has written a very highly trafficked, angry post whose point is summed up in parentheses: “(Ryan Is No Kemp).” Republicans can only pray to the gods of the Electoral College he’s right about that. Jack Kemp as vice presidential pick was an unmitigated disaster. Kemp’s debate with Al Gore — in which he responded to Gore’s charge that he was one of the few non-racists in the GOP by... Read more
Jeremy Lott's Diary
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