‘Dracula’ and the Bible

Last updated on: September 25, 2013 at 2:25 pm By Fred Clark

When Bram Stoker wrote of "Dracula" and "vampires" and "Transylvania" he did not and could not have meant all the things that I cannot help but take those words to mean, to imply, to connote. It would require enormous effort on my part -- not just willpower, but extensive research and scholarship -- to encounter Stoker's words and symbols without all that extra and extraneous meaning those words and symbols have since collected and accreted. I'm not sure that project could ever be wholly successful. Read more

7 things @ 9 o’clock (9.25)

Last updated on: September 25, 2013 at 2:28 pm By Fred Clark

Recipes from C.S. Lewis -- with bourbon. Klayman's Theme. The endless search for Who Actually Said. Bono does Bill. Are you reading the Phantom's List? (You should be.) One of the marks of a certain type of bad person. Jesus on the mainline. Read more

10 years ago: I keep a close watch on this heart of mine

Last updated on: September 17, 2013 at 6:39 pm By Fred Clark

George W. Bush declares himself a champion of unquestioned and unquestionable goodness, battling the evildoers. Johnny Cash declares himself an evil man, battling to be good. Read more

‘We’re here to sow some words’

Last updated on: September 24, 2013 at 3:06 am By Fred Clark

A lovely number from Elephant Revival, plus some Tuesday morning links, including: mapping Rocky's route; from Mongolia to MIT; the Grand Canyon of Greenland; biblical dragons; selling divine punishment as health food; theological tequila; making sausage and scripture; stop calling people "losers;" and a celebrity contestant on "Justify That War!" Read more

7 things @ 9 o’clock (9.24)

Last updated on: September 24, 2013 at 2:37 am By Fred Clark

Three good takes on a skeevy speech at Patrick Henry College. The two-fold ignorance of indiscriminate discrimination turns violent, again. Kludgeocracy. I learned a new thing. The BBC looks at America's mobile homes. Rieux's wager. And David Neiwert on what he's learned from decades of studying hate groups. Read more

6 years ago: The Question and The Column

Last updated on: September 17, 2013 at 6:38 pm By Fred Clark

The Question isn’t going away. Reporters will keep asking it, seemingly unable to grasp that the very act of asking it is, itself, all the answer they should need. Read more

Pillars of the community: Racism, rape culture and the superintendent

Last updated on: September 23, 2013 at 3:31 pm By Fred Clark

The local firestorm over this has focused on the giggling racism exchanged by Como and Donato, and that's understandable. But the misogyny and rape language is just as disturbing, and it's woven throughout their "conversations." Their standard term for female students and teachers is "piece" and they're seething with resentment that, as white men, they're denied the free use and abuse of women's bodies in the way that both seem to think is their entitlement. Read more

Destroying the ballet in the name of artistic freedom

Last updated on: September 23, 2013 at 12:53 pm By Fred Clark

The commissioners say they're friends of the ballet. They're posing as champions of artistic freedom. But their plan is a terrible idea that would, in practice, destroy the ballet and abolish artistic freedom. Here's how. Read more

7 things @ 9 o’clock (9.23)

Last updated on: September 23, 2013 at 2:10 am By Fred Clark

Five good posts on the trap of creationism. Why I don't much care for the Greek system. Louis CK and the Magic Rat. Christmas Creep doesn't even wait for the end of summer. Ye cannot serve both God and Mammon. No, I don't understand what an amplituhedron is either. Read more

2 years ago: ‘The last thing I’d do is condemn you’

Last updated on: September 17, 2013 at 6:35 pm By Fred Clark

If you mute the TV and ignore the substance of his comments, you can almost view Robertson’s reflexive blaming as a kind of “all-clear” signal showing that the worst of the storm has passed. “The wind is dying down a bit and, oh, look, there’s Pat Robertson saying this is all gay people’s fault — I think we’re out of danger.” Read more