A noble mind o’erthrown

Last updated on: March 10, 2008 at 7:00 am By Fred Clark

The pattern is the usual one. Step 1: Someone gets his (usually “his”) username/IP address banned from an online forum for generally acting like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. Step 2: He gets a new username/IP address to sidestep the ban and his first post, always, is some variation of “I won’t be ignored, Dan!” Step 3: Lather, rinse, repeat and demonstrate four out of five of Kubler-Ross’ stages of grief in long angry-denying-depressed-bargaining screeds that demand a detailed response... Read more

L.B.: Super powers

Last updated on: March 7, 2008 at 5:01 pm By Fred Clark

Left Behind, pp. 415-417 Nicolae Carpathia has super powers. Usually, I don’t have a problem with stories involving super-powered characters. I’ve been reading and enjoying such stories my whole life. Whether it’s Peter Pevensie or Peter Parker, Harry Potter or Buffy Summers, I’m game. Just provide some kind of explanation (radioactive spider, the Chosen one, cosmic rays, the effects of our yellow sun on the last son of Krypton) and set out some basic rules and limitations so that the... Read more

America to Americans

Last updated on: March 7, 2008 at 3:43 am By Fred Clark

she will always try to guess how much but never why “America,” Prince and the Revolution “America,” Simon and Garfunkel “America,” Vigilantes of Love “America, What’s Happened to You?” Spicewood Seven “American Girl,” Tom Petty “American Idiot,” Green Day “American Love Affair,” Tonio K. “American Music,” Violent Femmes “American Roulette,” Robbie Robertson “American Tune,” Paul Simon “American Without Tears,” Elvis Costello Read more

Get Published!

Last updated on: March 5, 2008 at 10:23 pm By Fred Clark

Earlier, I linked to Adam Weinstein’s “Stop the Press Releases!” I was reminded of Weinstein’s worries yesterday when uploading the pages for one of this week’s niche publications for the paper. It included an upbeat little story about a local college freshman who has put her studies on hold to pursue her modeling career (she’ll be on the runways in L.A.’s upcoming fashion week). The story, submitted through the paper’s “Get Published!” function online, was written by her mother. As... Read more

Tony Perkins in “Psycho”

Last updated on: March 4, 2008 at 10:21 am By Fred Clark

I learned something new yesterday about the shameless little man who runs the Family Research Council: Tony Perkins does not love anyone who is suffering from mental illness. It’s possible that Perkins does not even know anyone who is suffering from mental illness or, at least, that he thinks he doesn’t know any such person. Because if he did know such a person, and if he cared about them even just a little bit, just enough to begin thinking about... Read more

Without warrant

Last updated on: March 1, 2008 at 4:38 pm By Fred Clark

I want to write today about an immensely important topic, the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the vital, inviolable rights it guarantees. The Fourth Amendment, in its entirety, reads: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons... Read more

L.B.: The Imaginary Liberal

Last updated on: June 26, 2012 at 2:36 pm By Fred Clark

Left Behind, pp. 413-415 One of the reasons I consider the Left Behind series to be the World’s Worst Books is that they achieve the precise opposite of what their authors intend. The authors sought to provide an illustration that would persuade readers of the truth of the coming events supposedly prophesied in their premillennial dispensationalist interpretation of the Bible. But their best efforts to portray such events occurring in a “real world” fictional setting have instead served only to... Read more

You Do, You Don’t

Last updated on: June 26, 2012 at 2:36 pm By Fred Clark

it’s like shedding your skin … “You Do,” Aimee Mann “You Do Something to Me,” Sinead O’Connor “You Don’t Belong Here,” Charlie Sexton “You Don’t Belong Here,” Tonio K. “You Don’t Get Much,” BoDeans “You Don’t Know Me,” After Eleven “You Don’t Know Me,” Emmylou Harris “You Don’t Know What Love Is,” Chet Baker “You Don’t Love Me,” Matthew Sweet “You Don’t Owe Me Nothing,” Steve Taylor “You Don’t Treat Me No Good,” Sonia Dada “You Don’t Know Me at... Read more

More on subsidiarity

Last updated on: June 26, 2012 at 2:37 pm By Fred Clark

The previous post was intended as red meat for a Thursday, but it prompted some good discussion in comments and I want to respond to a bit of that Specifically, I want to follow up on this comment from josh, which is thoughtful and well-stated, but hits a sour note at the end: “It’s once you recognize government as being generally inefficient, and less responsive to the needs of its constituents the further it is removed from them, that you... Read more

The barrel of a gun

Last updated on: June 26, 2012 at 2:37 pm By Fred Clark

The United States has a massive nuclear arsenal and the best-equipped, best-trained military the world has ever seen. It is an awesome, fearsome machine that can rain down inexorable death from the heavens. But that’s not why I drive on the right side of the road. I drive on the right side of the road for a whole host of reasons — practical, prudential, even moral I suppose. (Prudential and moral often overlap where safety is concerned. Plus Not Being... Read more