Talk to Tall Trees

Last updated on: June 5, 2009 at 5:19 am By Fred Clark

Let's go to the movies or somethingbefore time gets the best of us both … "Talk About the Passion," R.E.M."Talk Memphis," Pierce Pettis"Talk of the Town," Jack Johnson"Talk of the Town," The Pretenders"Talk to Me (I Can Hear You Now)," Iam Siam"Talk to the People," Johnny Clegg & Savuka"Talkin' at the Texaco," James McMurtry"Talking in Circles," Mark Heard"Talking Myself Down," The Go-Go's"Talking Old Soldiers," Bettye Lavette"Tall Trees," Crowded House My favorites out of the above are the REM and Mark... Read more

20 years ago

Last updated on: June 4, 2009 at 6:46 pm By Fred Clark

Rolling over demonstrators with tanks works, for a little while. But not forever. Some day — maybe within the next 20 years, maybe longer, but some day for sure — this picture will hang where pictures of Chairman Mao hang today. And some day, there will be a statue, life-size and bronze, on or near that very spot, and schoolchildren will line up to marvel at it and to hear again the story that they all already know by heart... Read more

No pie needed

Last updated on: June 22, 2012 at 12:07 pm By Fred Clark

This is just to say thank you for the conversation in the previous thread. I forgot to do what I usually do following a post that mentions abortion, which is to provide a second open-thread post about pie or baseball or Buffy or some other relatively safe topic as a kind of shelter for those fleeing the stridency and venom that tends to arise in conversations on the topic of abortion. But while there's no shortage of opinions expressed in... Read more

Killing in the name of

Last updated on: November 21, 2017 at 5:06 pm By Fred Clark

What I realized then, in 1994, as I watched these groups line up to condemn violence against "mass-murderers" and to renounce armed opposition to "the Holocaust," was that these folks didn't really mean any of it. They were horrified by the spectacle of someone taking their own rhetoric and arguments seriously. Read more

TF: What's the story, Mr. Exposition?

Last updated on: May 29, 2009 at 7:42 pm By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pp. 45-52 Buck drops by the New Hope Village Church to talk to Bruce, who welcomes him and says Hello. For Bruce, inevitably, "Hello" consists of a half-page rant about his own extra-special heavy burden from God and the extra-special humility with which he's facing it: "Another long feast on the Word. I'm making up for lost time, you know. … I'm trying to decide how to tell the congregation, probably within the next month, that I feel... Read more

Sally to Samson

Last updated on: May 29, 2009 at 2:32 pm By Fred Clark

Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose … "Sally," Gogol Bordello"Salty Man (Sir Psycho Salty)," WNOC"Sam Stone," Laura Cantrell"Same Direction," INXS"The Same Fire," Bishop Allen"Same Girl," Randy Newman"Same in Any Language," I-Nine"Same Kooks," The Hold Steady"Same Story," After Eleven"Samson," Regina Spektor Let me recommend Regina Spektor's wistful reimagining of the story of Samson, as told from Delilah's perspective — or from the perspective of Delilah had she truly loved the guy. Maybe she did. The story says he loved her... Read more

The Sick Bastard Rate

Last updated on: May 26, 2009 at 2:24 pm By Fred Clark

Here's a depressing bit of polling data. 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants said torture of a suspect could be often or sometimes justified. 51 percent of white, non-Hispanic Catholics said torture could be justified. 46 percent of white mainline Protestants were willing to justify torture. 40 percent of the religiously unaffiliated chimed in to agree to justify torture. This poll is particularly dismaying for those of us in that category of white evangelical Protestants. It's not like Catholics are... Read more

TF: Meta-NHVC

Last updated on: May 22, 2009 at 5:19 pm By Fred Clark

Tribulation Force, pg. 45 It's been a busy couple of weeks at New Hope Village Church: Saturday morning Buck drove to New Hope Village Church, hoping to catch Bruce Barnes in his office. The secretary told him Bruce was finishing up his sermon preparation, but that she also knew he would want to see Buck. "You're part of Bruce's inner circle, aren't you?" she said. So the church now has a secretary. That's new. NHVC seems to have reconstituted itself,... Read more

Real-Reasons

Last updated on: May 22, 2009 at 5:36 am By Fred Clark

It's just that I'm super busy right now … "Real Down Town," Vigilantes of Love"Real Girls," Daniel Amos"Real Long Distance," Josh Ritter"Real Love," Smashing Pumpkins"Real World," Matchbox Twenty"Really," Nellie McKay"Really Mystified," Elvis Costello & The Attractions"Reason to Believe," Aimee Mann & Michael Penn"Reason to Believe," Billy Bragg"Reason to Believe," Bruce Springsteen"Reason to Believe," Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band"Reason to Believe," Dashboard Confessional"Reasons," Earth, Wind & Fire Read more

Hell and the Credit-Card Lobby

Last updated on: May 20, 2009 at 7:33 pm By Fred Clark

I've mentioned before that I don't believe in the idea of "Hell" as a place of infinite, eternal torment for those beyond or outside of the grace of God. And neither, apparently, does Edward L. Yingling. Yingling is the head of the credit-card lobby. He's spent the past several months vigorously fighting against any limits on the predatory usury and capricious, fine-print larceny that his industry regularly employs to transfer billions of dollars — yes, billions — from the poor... Read more