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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
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
So two Fridays ago (July 10) was John Calvin's 500th birthday. It seems fitting then, to offer a few thoughts on the man and his legacy, both of which were considerable. There's a great deal to appreciate with Calvin, as well as a good bit I'd like to take issue with, but let's start by dispensing with one unpleasant aspect of Calvin's legacy that's not his fault. I'm referring to the insistence of some of his most vocal disciples that... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In