TF: Another award-winner

Last updated on: April 20, 2010 at 1:16 am By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 205-207 "You're sorry and I forgive you," Buck Williams told Chloe Steele, whereupon she began to cry: "What'd I do now?" "You're just being too sweet about this!" That was in the previous chapter, which concluded with Chloe's tearful description of how awesome and forgiving Buck Williams is. The problem with this effusive praise of Jenkins' wish-fulfillment surrogate is that it comes from a woman, and in the Left Behind universe, girls' opinions don't really count. Hence... Read more

Confederate History Month

Last updated on: April 16, 2010 at 5:14 pm By Fred Clark

I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative, that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion. To remove the liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation. What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with... Read more

Pay Attention to Pencil and Paper

Last updated on: April 16, 2010 at 12:09 pm By Fred Clark

Dig out half the plaster — it's a .38 for sure "Pay Attention," Kasey Chambers"Pay Me My Money Down," Bruce Springsteen"Peace," At the Foot of the Cross, Vol. 1"Peace & Hate," The Submarines"Peace Is Just a Word," Eurythmics"Peace on Earth," U2"Peace Train," 10,000 Maniacs"Peace Train," Cat Stevens"Peach," Prince"Pearl in the Shell," Howard Jones"Pearly," Radiohead"Peggy Sue," Buddy Holly"Peggy Sue Got Married," Buddy Holly"Peggy's Kitchen Wall," Bruce Cockburn"Pencil and Paper," Bourgeois Tagg In Jeffrey S. Victor's Satanic Panic: The Making of a... Read more

Walking the dog

Last updated on: April 15, 2010 at 4:51 pm By Fred Clark

Making the rounds of the neighborhood with the Yorkie-poo, I've met many of our neighbors. The odd thing about meeting in this way is that the humans don't exchange names, just the names of our respective dogs. As a result, I've come to know many people on the block only as "Gumbo's family" or "Hercules' friends." Our puppy's name is "Willow." As it happens, there are two Bichon Frise (Frises?) in our neighborhood, several blocks apart, owned by two separate,... Read more

L’affaire Waltke

Last updated on: April 2, 2013 at 11:14 pm By Fred Clark

This is a story about control. It is about, in the unintentionally candid terms of one of the main actors, “absolute authority” and the desire to wield that authority over a text so that the text, in turn, may be used to wield absolute authority over others. It is a story, in other words, about mortals who covet the authority of God and the lies they tell themselves and others when trying to usurp that authority. Our story takes place at an institution calling itself “Reformed Theological... Read more

TF: What are the odds?

Last updated on: April 13, 2010 at 2:08 am By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 192-205 Let's just get this over with. Chloe again asks Buck where he's been and what he's been doing and he again doesn't answer, telling her, "I'd rather not get into that." For the authors, this is not meant to suggest that Buck is being evasive, but that she is being unjustly suspicious. Sure, Buck kept his trip to New York hidden from Chloe and misled her about what he's been up to, but there's a perfectly... Read more

Which sect, Newt?

Last updated on: April 9, 2010 at 2:26 pm By Fred Clark

There's speculation that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is considering a run for president. Based on his recent speeches and interviews, though, it seems he has a different office in mind. Newt Gingrich wants to be pope. Gingrich's latest slogan is a condemnation of "Obama's secular socialist machine." The word "socialist" there is a deliberate lie. President Barack Obama is no socialist and Newt Gingrich knows this, but he is saying something he knows not to be true — bearing... Read more

Niot.org

Last updated on: April 8, 2010 at 3:53 pm By Fred Clark

Not in Our Town has launched a new Web site/resource that's worth exploring and bookmarking so that you can go back to it on those days when you need to be re-minded of stories like this one: "If you bite one, you bite us all." Hearing that story again 15 years later still provokes the same response: Ah, yes, of course. This is how it works. This is how. This. Read more

YNATKC, part 3,798

Last updated on: April 6, 2010 at 3:55 pm By Fred Clark

You're not allowed to kill civilians. That's not just a rule or a guideline or a rule of thumb, for God's sake, it's the law. It's U.S. law and it's international law and also, just for good measure, it's international law that has been signed and ratified and appended again onto U.S. law. You're not allowed to kill civilians. But this is also more than a law. It gets at the matter of definition. The distinction between a soldier and... Read more

TF: Who’s your daddy?

Last updated on: April 5, 2010 at 9:16 pm By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 189-192 If this were a musical, the conflict between Buck and Chloe would have been resolved already. Instead of 30+ pages of utterly pointless, circular dialogue, we'd have had a four-minute song ending in an embrace. What we have here is less a conversation than a record of the strange things these two people are saying instead of having the conversation they ought to be having: "As I told you in my note that Sunday, I was... Read more