Salmon used to come up the Twisp river in huge numbers to spawn and die. This attracted bazillions of wasps who fed on the rotting carcases. “Twisp” means “wasp”. I had a terrific time in Twisp, by the way. I very much enjoyed the drive over there and back, which took me through some of the most beautiful country in all of Washington State. It’s about four hours there and four hours back. A lovely drive both for saying the... Read more

and almost nobody seems to be covering it except Andrew Sullivan. What’s up with that? Drudge covers it a bit, but one hardly gets a sense of the dramatic shift that seems to be happening there. One sometimes gets the sense that, with American media, if we aren’t the people getting rid the loon at the helm of despotism, then it doesn’t really count. Also, at least some corners seem to radiate a sense of disappointment–as though they want Iran... Read more

One of the nice things about self-employment is “setting your own schedule”. Since I’m in the teeming metropolis of Twisp teaching all day Saturday, I decided to take tomorrow off. So tomorrow, I emerge from my Inner Chamber of Brooding here at the Dark Tower and we go with the kids on some extremely cheap homeschool co-op tickets to Wild Waves, thrash around in the sunshine and water for hours, go home, nap, and then hit the road for Twisp... Read more

Mary, Mother of the Son: Volume II: First Guardian of the Faith has gotten its first review! What? You still haven’t gotten your copy of the trilogy? I can help you with that! Read more

sends along this beautiful story of how God writes straight with crooked lines. All that Hound of Heaven stuff is true, you know. This is the second or third time in the past couple days that somebody has written me about By What Authority? It’s weird. I’ve probably gone a year without anybody mentioning that book then WHAM! I get the link above, an *incredibly* generous and personal letter from another reader and, finally, this. Odd coincidence. Read more

Tim Jones looks at the question of canonizing the Prophet Chesterton. I’m all for it, but it won’t happen in our lifetime. Why? Because Chesterton, like all saints, was imperfect, but his imperfections lay in areas which subsequently have become intensely sensitive: namely, his rather typically Edwardian attitude to Jews. He was not an “anti-semite” as the phrase goes today. Indeed his views on Jews and Judaism are remarkably complex. He is in favor of a Jewish homeland movement because... Read more

“They Invented Chess You Know!” Yeah, yeah. Muslims are on the cutting edge of the 9th century. Our ancestors were barbarians. Duly noted. But, you know, a couple of things have happened since the 9th century and it would be good if the satanic ecumenists at Wired would stopping bending over so far to kiss their own butts in order to play the tired game of saying “All religions are equally superior to Christianity and, especially, the Catholic faith. First... Read more

Indeed, I sometimes fancy our entire tradition of theological contemplation has been built up by people capable of taking a cock-eyed look at things and seeing something brand new. As the Prophet Chesterton once observed, “If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in frightful danger of seeing it for the first time.” So my reader needn’t feel intrusive when he writes: I’m... Read more

I think this is cool. It belongs to the proper exercise of human ingenuity to tend the Garden in the most efficient and natural way possible. Read more

Mark, linguists estimate that thousands of languages become extinct with every passing year. But if this thing works, does global language diversity get forcibly restored? You do sometimes get the sense that some of our cultural initiatives are especially open and brazen acts of nose-thumbing by the Dragon who knows his time is short. The shadow of that hyddeous strength sax myle and more it is of length. Between projects like this and the creation of chimeras, you get the... Read more