I miss old Lang. He was a good guy. So wise. I never learned Lang’s last name. Or maybe I never learned his first. I don’t know. No one ever called him anything but Lang. (more…) Read more
I miss old Lang. He was a good guy. So wise. I never learned Lang’s last name. Or maybe I never learned his first. I don’t know. No one ever called him anything but Lang. (more…) Read more
If you missed the NRA’s response to the Sandy Hook tragedy—being the speech read last Friday by the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre—below is that speech in a nutshell; it’s the Cliff Notes version of it, if you will. The phrases are presented in the order in which they appear in the speech. I would hate to be the person arguing that LaPierre’s speech was not shamelessly inflammatory, a grossly irresponsible exercise in fear-mongering, and an unconscionable ploy to use the Sandy... Read more
It’s 6:30 in the morning. My wife Catherine’s asleep upstairs. Downstairs our Christmas tree gleams in the dim morning light. In the bracing darkness outside a pack of coyotes raises a sudden din of high-pitched yelping that sounds like the horrible hounds of hell on holiday. (more…) Read more
Today the NRA issued its official response to the Sandy Hook tragedy. As you’re likely aware the core of that response—a public, no-questions-afterward statement read by the organization’s Vice President Wayne LaPierre—was this statement: (more…) Read more
Reader Meghan Lin wrote to say, “I don’t comment much at all, but I’m a huge fan of your blog and its awesome community. I wrote this about the recent tragedy, because I process grief by writing poetry. And I just wanted to send it to you. That’s all.” Attached was Meghan’s poem Christmas Lament. Having read it I wanted to share it. (more…) Read more
Not that I’ve in the slightest way put behind me the Sandy Hook tragedy, of course: who could—ever, which appears to be the singular blessing that might grow out of this most unholy of events. As far as I know the N.R.A. is still planning to issue its Big Statement on the Newtown massacre this Friday; like all of you, I’ll be paying close attention to that statement. (more…) Read more
So here we now have on us this unthinkable Newtown tragedy. And we know the cycle of our response to such events: first shock, then grief, then anger, then a slow fade until whatever news next rivets our attention. That’s how it’s done. That’s how we all do it. Except this time it doesn’t quite feel that way, does it? This time it feels different. This time it feels like our cumulative grief and outrage might actually result in something... Read more
Whatever happened to that great tradition of wandering around in the freezing dark singing Christmas songs in the hopes that someone will eventually come out of their house and feed you? Read more
A conversation between Joseph and Mary on the big night. Read more
[READER ADVISORY ALERT: Joke. The below is a joke, with the funny and the laughing and the ho-hoing.] Don’t we Christians want the primary focus of Christmas to be Christ? And don’t all the Pagan Party People pestering us with their perniciously pervasive propaganda promoting puerile, pea-brained positivity want the primary focus of Christmas to be Santa Claus? And doesn’t that mean that Santa Claus’s true identify is Satan, the ultimate anti-Christ? Why yes, it does. (more…) Read more
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