Was forced by the patriarchy to watch the State of the Union, even though it was far far too late and of no interest to me whatsoever. Matt thought the children should have a crucial, if jarring, civics lesson. We don’t really watch tv, and they aren’t used to seeing the astonishing visage of Mr. Trump, or hearing the dulcet tones of his winsome voice, cough. Don’t worry, they didn’t see Mr. Obama either. I am equal opportunity uninterested in... Read more
Snow is bashing its way down from the sky, of course, and so it seems like the perfect moment to head over to goop, just to see what’s going on and how better to take my money and light it on fire. Surely they have remedies for the doldrums of January. What’s on offer, goop? How can you help me? Oooo, look at this! This little tiny purse in the shape of an envelope is only one thousand three hundred... Read more
Good morning to you all. Woke up in the Ancient usual way, and did a rambling and ridiculous podcast about hideous modern architecture, bad music, bad clothes, bad culture, and what it would take to fix it. I satirically (emphasis on the satirical) suggest we get rid of Women’s suffrage and education. Let’s return to the golden “patriarchal” times of Adam, David, and the Middle Ages. It’ll be great. At least the buildings were pretty. I can’t imagine you’d want... Read more
One of the refrains Anthony Esolen returns to throughout Out of the Ashes is the elegant and desirable, “We can have that again.” When talking about academic institutions where sanity and truth reign, he says, “We can have that again.” When discussing all male associations where men aren’t crowded by political correctness and can be themselves, he says, “We can have that again.” When describing beautiful places of worship and hymns that people can actually sing, he says, that’s right,... Read more
Stacks of Books and a Beautiful House. That’s what I try to blog about on Saturday. Did I manage to read anything off the highways and byways of the internet? Or clean anything at all? Or cook anything besides chili on Tuesday, baked chicken on Wednesday, weird soup on Thursday, leftovers on Friday? Usually the answer no. So then I make something up. I fudge. I pretend. I paint a picture, for myself, of me in my house reading and... Read more
It’s Friday. Can you believe it? So that’s Takes. One Have been liking it on Facebook, which I realize now is not enough, but you should check out the Conversion series on the Ride Home with John and Kathy. My awesome and scintillating personal story is in the mix, but there are interesting ones as well–like David French and Karen Swallow Prior and Mark Galli and Fredericka Matthews Green. And then there are some very clever narrations by people whose... Read more
In Rachael Denhollander's face I am compelled to see a modern, beautiful Tamar, tearing her elegant long sleeves, pouring dust on her head, wailing and crying, relentlessly, for justice. Read more
I confess, I’ve watched the interview of Jordan Peterson by Cathy Newman a bunch of times, and have read a lot of the articles about it popping up everywhere. I really like this one, but pretty much everything I’ve read has been on point. It’s one thing to watch the sparring on twitter, and to read people in their comfortable enclaves on both the left and the right, but very telling to finally have two contenders go at it face... Read more
Sorry about not getting to a podcast yesterday. A combination of angst, being up against the quarter deadline, and not being able to wake up, turned the morning into a tragedy of there being no podcast. I’d like to say we’ll get to something during the week, but I don’t want to make any promises. And I’ve got to trot along to the doctor at a ridiculous hour this morning, for a routine justification of why I should be allowed... Read more
I finished the Life Changing Magic of Tidying up a bit ago–lots to quibble with, certainly, but plenty of good mixed in with the dubious. Taking the things you own seriously, for example, and treating them properly and respectfully is a brilliant thought. So is the habit of not acquiring stuff to soothe your shattered ego or because you have so many things you can’t find any of them and just have to go buy new ones. What’s not so... Read more
Preventing Grace
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