Favorite teachers

Last updated on: August 29, 2008 at 12:03 am By Fred Clark

(I wrote the following before watching Barack Obama’s convention speech, so there aren’t any specific references to that speech here but, wow, there really probably should be.) Rick Perlstein recalls a famous anecdote about Adlai Stevenson and explains why it illustrates a dead end for Democrats: Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic presidential candidate in 1952 and ’56, famously quipped when one of his supporters, overflowing with exuberance after one of his speeches, cried, “Governor Stevenson, you’ll have the vote of every... Read more

L.B.: The Talking Dog

Last updated on: August 22, 2008 at 8:14 pm By Fred Clark

Left Behind, 459-461 “Thank you gentlemen,” Nicolae Carpathia says, after mind-whammying a room full of dignitaries into thinking that the double-homicide they all just saw him commit was actually a suicide/murder committed by one of his victims. “While Ms. Durham phones security, I will be polling you for your version of what happened here.” This doesn’t seem like a smart move on Nicolae’s part. Imagine, for example, that you have gone to see a carnival show just off the Midway... Read more

On and On

Last updated on: August 22, 2008 at 12:01 pm By Fred Clark

No, this is how it works … “On,” The Delays “On an Evening,” Martin Crane “On Hyndford Street,” Van Morrison “On My Street,” Hoodoo Gurus “On My Way,” Mavis Staples “On the Avenue,” Aztec Camera “On the Bus Mall,” The Decemberists “On the Evening Train,” Johnny Cash “On the Fritz,” Steve Taylor “On the Radio,” Regina Spektor “On the Verge,” Vigilantes of Love “On Your Side,” Pete Yorn Steve Taylor also made another video for “On the Fritz” for a... Read more

Saddleback

Last updated on: August 19, 2008 at 5:28 pm By Fred Clark

Barry Lynn doesn’t think Barack Obama should have agreed to appear at the presidential forum hosted by Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church on Saturday. Lynn argues that the evangelical megachurch was GOP home turf and thus the whole thing was a trap and a set-up the Democratic candidate should have avoided. Lynn thinks Warren’s questions for the two candidates were biased and full of Republican talking points. Alan Wolfe, on the other hand, points out that Warren’s church forum didn’t offer... Read more

Band of outlaws

Last updated on: August 19, 2008 at 3:15 pm By Fred Clark

“To abolish God!” said Gregory, opening the eyes of a fanatic. “We do not only want to upset a few despotisms and police regulations; that sort of anarchism does exist, but it is a mere branch of the Nonconformists. We dig deeper and we blow you higher. We wish to deny all those arbitrary distinctions of vice and virtue, honour and treachery, upon which mere rebels base themselves. The silly sentimentalists of the French Revolution talked of the Rights of... Read more

Not stopping for directions

Last updated on: August 19, 2008 at 7:45 am By Fred Clark

L.B.: Reliably unreliable

Last updated on: August 15, 2008 at 6:02 pm By Fred Clark

Left Behind, pp. 458-461 From the outset of this series — and many times throughout — we’ve discussed the question of whether our point-of-view protagonists should be considered unreliable narrators. Neither of them is reliable, obviously. That’s clear from the very first chapter of the book in which Rayford Steele and Buck Williams take turns congratulating themselves for things of which they ought to be ashamed. Nearly every adjective these characters apply to themselves is inaccurate. Nearly everything they say... Read more

Thursday

Last updated on: August 14, 2008 at 6:26 am By Fred Clark

When I was a kid I had a Carl Yastrzemski model bat. Always felt sorry for the guy at Louisville Slugger who had to burn that name into the barrel. I’m always reminded of that bat when I see the heavy rotation ads for this product. That’s a positive connotation — who doesn’t like Carl Yastrzemski? Guy had 3,419 hits, with 452 homers back when 400 home runs still meant something. He won baseball’s triple crown in ’67, something nobody’s... Read more

The Anarchists

Last updated on: August 13, 2008 at 8:28 pm By Fred Clark

“You’ve got that eternal idiotic idea that if anarchy came it would come from the poor. Why should it? The poor have been rebels, but they have never been anarchists; they have more interest than anyone else in there being some decent government. The poor man really has a stake in the country. The rich man hasn’t; he can go away to New Guinea in a yacht. The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always... Read more

Missed milestones

Last updated on: August 11, 2008 at 7:27 pm By Fred Clark

Due to my usual combination of forgetfulness and sloth, I failed to note the passing last week of three important milestones. 1. Negligent Irresponsibility Day Seven years ago on August 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a presidential daily briefing entitled, “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S.” The memorandum noted that al-Qaida intended “to follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Youssef and ‘bring the lightning to America.'” The memo also noted “some of the more... Read more