Comments come into this site on an irregular basis. Usually, I’m around to approve or reject them not long after they are submitted, or I can approve the one or two stand-alone comments several hours after the fact. Today, however, was different. A bunch of comments came in on the Carrie Sheffield Mormon brouhahahahahaha! I didn’t get around to approving them until just now because I managed to get myself locked out of the website and had to reset the... Read more
At some point, I am going to write a great big essay on the genius, influence and tragedy of Steve Taylor, perhaps the best thing the Contemporary Christian Music genre ever (accidentally) gave us. But this morning, I’ll settle for some old time, easy listening. Read more
In response to the last blog post, Carrie Sheffield wrote to me the following. I asked if she’d like me to reproduce it here. She said yes, so here you go: Hey Jeremy, I just saw your blog post. Would have been great if you had asked me for comment beforehand to understand some of the constraints I was dealing with. A few thoughts: -My initial draft included a link to an excellent study from Trinity College. This points out... Read more
The Dougherty Doctrine is a rhetorical trick that makes many political debates much easier to understand. It was accidentally coined by journalist and former roommate Michael Brendan Dougherty in an article for the Washington Monthly. Dougherty took in an intra-Republican debate and wrote, “the arguments all seem to boil down to something similar: If it were more like me, the Republican Party would be better off. It’s failing because it’s like you.” The Doctrine has broader application than Republicans. All... Read more
I would like to offer my fellow Patheos blogger Philip Jenkins a bit of unsolicited but highly necessary audio-visual advice: Philip, the next time you feel compelled to write a post like this one, consider appending this video to really drive the point home: Read more
Father’s Day is terribly hard for some people because they never grew up with a father, or because the one they got was not so good. Maybe he was angry and abusive or maybe he just wasn’t around much for some reason. Empathy isn’t my bag, so let me just say to readers without a good father that I wish you’d had a Dad like mine. Bob Lott is not the strongest father in the world or the tallest or... Read more
This video does a pretty good job of capturing how my day went. (And, by the way, anyone who says Adam West doesn’t have acting chops should confront the brute fact that he managed to deliver these lines without cracking up.) Read more
On Real Clear Books today, I linked to Jessa Crispin’s latest literary advice column, on the subject of envy. Jessa counsels the married friend of a jealous single woman that being there for her will be “like trying to hug a crocodile: It might need the affection, and even be desperate for it, but it’s gonna take a chunk out of you if you try.” The advice seeker professes not to “understand it” that her friend’s still single: “she’s beautiful... Read more
I’ll give you the picture, of my new niece Laney, and then my brother Andrew’s caption after the jump. Spoiler alert: I think it’s pretty good. (more…) Read more
Well, rats. The plan was to cut and paste a definition of “bigotry” from a dictionary here and to urge readers to keep that in mind in this highly politicized year. I had thought Merriam-Webster would do. However, that dictionary has decided to take a pass. “Bigotry,” according to Webster, is a) “the state of mind of a bigot” or b) “acts or beliefs characteristic of a bigot.” Great, so who’s a bigot? The dictionary is slightly more helpful there.... Read more
Jeremy Lott's Diary
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