About-Actions

August 7, 2009 By Fred Clark

For what are we without hope in our heartsThat someday we'll drink from God's blessed waters "About a Girl," Cibo Matto"About a Girl," Nirvana"About Love," The Choir"About to Walk," Throw Me the Statue"Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive," Johnny Mercer"Accidentally Kelly Street," Frente"Accidents Will Happen," Elvis Costello & The Attractions"Achin' to Be," The Replacements"Acknowledgement," John Coltrane"Acrobat," U2"Across 110th Street," Bobby Womack"Across the Border," Bruce Springsteen"Across the Great Divide," Nanci Griffith & Emmylou Harris"Across the Sea," Weezer"Across the Universe," Fiona Apple"Across the Universe," The... Read more

Still not rock bottom

August 4, 2009 By Fred Clark

The smug-junkies are lining up for the latest designer drug to hit the streets, a hot-shot of fentanyl-laced oblivion that is viewed, in the perverse logic of the addict, as the really good stuff. The Pursuit of Offendedness is never pretty, but don't avert your gaze from the horrors of what you're about to see. Look on with pity at the degradations of stupidity and dishonesty and the realization that these poor addicts in the throes of their disease are... Read more

TF: Bruce's sermon, part 3

July 31, 2009 By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 65-67 We left off with Bruce Barnes explaining that the four horsemen of the apocalypse must be taken literally. We've already seen how, for Bruce as for Tim LaHaye, this word "literally" is not meant literally. For them it means something more like "my way." It's opposite would be "mere symbolism," which means for them, roughly, "any meaning other than the meaning imposed on a passage by reading it my way." Neither Bruce nor LaHaye would admit... Read more

Zzzzzzzz

July 31, 2009 By Fred Clark

I'm Noah, and you're the rain "Zero," Smashing Pumpkins"Zero from Outer Space," Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers"Zero Zero," Texas"Ziggy Stardust," David Bowie"Zombie," The Cranberries"Zoo Station," U2"The Zookeeper's Boy," Mew"Zoom Daddy," Swirling Eddies Some repeats here, but a few more songs since the last time we did the letter Z a few years back. I believe U2 video linked above, from the Detroit stop on the Zoo TV tour, was from the night they ordered pizza for the audience. We didn't... Read more

It must be Job's fault

July 30, 2009 By Fred Clark

Ladies and gentlemen, Amanda Marcotte: Victim blamers are often also telling a story about how they personally will never be raped, or in this case, arrested unfairly for doing something totally legal. To blame Gates for being stupid is to say, "I would never get arrested for breaking into my house, because I have the sort of self-preservation instincts that this man is clearly missing." People enjoy the illusion of having more mastery of the world than they do, because... Read more

Reporting the controversy

July 29, 2009 By Fred Clark

We've been thrown a lifeline, given an unexpected and probably undeserved second chance. The newspaper business is being swept away but here is an opportunity, if we have the sense to take it, to regain our footing and step back onto solid ground. And it comes from the unlikeliest of places. The YouTube clip shows Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., taking questions from his constituents at a town hall meeting in Georgetown, Del. "This lady in red has had her hand... Read more

TF: Bruce's sermon, part 2

July 24, 2009 By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 60-65 "I am eager to tell you what God has told me," Bruce Barnes tells the new congregation of New Hope Village Church. And what better way to convince the congregation of that eagerness than to spend another two pages describing it for them? "Does God speak to me audibly? No. I wish he would. I wish he had. If he had, I probably would not be here today. But he wanted me to accept him by... Read more

You Can and You Can't

July 24, 2009 By Fred Clark

You can cover yourself like a bruise "You Can Call Me Al," Paul Simon"You Can Get It if You Really Want," Jimmy Cliff"You Can Leave Your Hat On," Randy Newman"You Can Make Him Like You," The Hold Steady"You Can Never Hold Back Spring," Tom Waits"You Can Take It With You," The Lemonheads"You Can't Always Get What You Want," The Rolling Stones"You Can't Do That," The Beatles"You Can't Lose a Broken Heart," Billie Holiday"You Can't Make Love," Don Henley That's a... Read more

Health care reform

July 23, 2009 By Fred Clark

The last few moments of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs present an astonishing twist and an unexpectedly joyful conclusion. Only later, after the euphoria of that surprise has worn off, do you realize that the happiness of this happy ending doesn't really make sense. It doesn't add up. Or, rather, this happy ending adds up, but only because the story presumes and requires that what happens next will be a bona fide miracle. In retrospect that seems like cheating, but... Read more

Stephen Carter has lost his mind

July 23, 2009 By Fred Clark

Fairness, in this case, requires us to note that Stephen Carter has often proven himself to be an intelligent and insightful commentator and also to note that it can be frighteningly easy for anyone to be caught off guard in the spontaneous give-and-take of a live interview and thus to find oneself saying something fairly stupid and ridiculous. But fairness in this case also requires us to note that what Stephen Carter says here, in this interview with a former... Read more