Any time you want

Last updated on: July 18, 2005 at 8:38 pm By Fred Clark

I failed to bookmark Sarah Vowell's New York Times op-ed column on Pat Robertson earlier this month, so I don't have a valid link to offer here. (Update: Here's a link, thanks Oolon.) Vowell offers a "Pat on the Back" — praising the often-whacky televangelist and sometime presidential candidate for participating in the Make Poverty History campaign. She doesn't overlook his more infamous contributions to American life, but she wants to commend where she can: Remember when he wanted to... Read more

The Thread of Dr. Moreau

Last updated on: July 16, 2005 at 1:34 pm By Fred Clark

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"In the name of all that's holy, you talentless hack-wife of a pandering hack-master, stop typing." That's from this delightful rant at Kung Fu Monkey, in which screenwriter John Rogers addresses the myth of "liberal Hollywood." Responding to the popular liberal-agendas-hiding-under-the-bed fears of conservative writers posing as film critics, Rogers examines the alleged political content of the top films from recent years. His capsule-summaries include things like: Revenge of the Sith — claimed by both liberals and conservatives, and both... Read more

L.B.: Opening Irene’s Bible

Last updated on: July 15, 2005 at 2:59 pm By Fred Clark

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Left Behind, pp. 121-123 Rayford Steele is grieving. He has begun what in the world of Left Behind passes for an existential crisis. Rayford Steele lay on his back, staring at the ceiling. … He didn't want to watch the news. He didn't want to read the paper, even knowing a new one had flopped up onto the porch before dawn. This much is true. The paper would still arrive. It might be a lousy paper that unquestioningly parrots official... Read more

Random Ten

Last updated on: July 15, 2005 at 2:51 pm By Fred Clark

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I'm not ready for this sort of thing. Crowded House, "Something so Strong" Bruce Springsteen, "Mary's Place" Elvis Costello, "Running out of Angels" Counting Crows, "Anna Begins" Joan Jett, "Crimson and Clover" Magnetic Fields, "All My Little Words" Liz Phair, "Fuck and Run" Matthew Sweet, "Divine Intervention" Patsy Cline, "Your Cheatin' Heart" Stevie Wonder, "For Once in My Life" Read more

War of the Worlds

Last updated on: July 14, 2005 at 12:51 pm By Fred Clark

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Saw "War of the Worlds" over the weekend, then went and checked out some of the kvetching on the right-wing blogs. The common complaint seems to be that Steven Spielberg's film is some kind of anti-American, anti-war tract. Their complaint (see, for instance, here) is not really with Spielberg, but with H.G. Wells, whose book, written more than a century ago, the film follows quite faithfully. None of them seems to realize this, as none of them seems to have... Read more

Creationism: Snapshot No. 4

Last updated on: July 12, 2005 at 11:49 am By Fred Clark

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Sunrise in Samaria Halfway back to Jerusalem from Jericho, our bus full of American students stopped at a place designed to lure busloads of Americans. The Good Samaritan Inn is not really an inn, it's a gift shop. It sells postcards, T-shirts and souvenirs such as olive-wood crosses hand carved with care by Muslim and Jewish craftsmen. The gift shop takes its name, of course, from the story of the Good Samaritan (see Luke 10:25-37). It's a clever name and... Read more

Creationism: Snapshot No. 3

Last updated on: July 11, 2005 at 12:57 pm By Fred Clark

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The walls came tumbling down A college classmate of mine had a crisis of faith during our trip to the Holy Land. A group of us spent three weeks in Jerusalem, traveling throughout the West Bank and Israel. Our jam-packed itinerary included a stop in Jericho. There we were, in Jericho. As in Joshua fit the battle of. At 260 meters below sea level, it is the lowest city on earth. It is probably also the oldest. Humans have been... Read more

Creationism: Snapshot No. 2

Last updated on: July 11, 2005 at 9:53 am By Fred Clark

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Stardust and the Glory of God I attended a small liberal arts college in the western suburbs of Philadelphia, where the night-skies are so polluted by light that not even a hint of the Milky Way can be seen. It's an odd place to find a world-class astronomy program, but that's what Eastern University has, thanks to Dr. David Bradstreet. Dr. Bradstreet knows more about binary stars than just about anyone and I'm sure he could easily land a job... Read more

Creationism: Snapshot No. 1

Last updated on: July 10, 2005 at 9:20 pm By Fred Clark

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Mr. Caruthers and Dawn Summers Mr. Caruthers was the kind of teacher any kid is lucky to have. He barked out his lectures in outline format and woe to those who didn't keep up. He taught fast and you learned fast and there was no time for the usual boredom and the creep of the clock that characterized most of our classes. You hated him at first. He had this crotchety-old-man shtick, disdainful of and disappointed by young people these... Read more

L.B.: Funny you should ask

Last updated on: July 8, 2005 at 3:53 pm By Fred Clark

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Left Behind, pp. 115-121 Chapter 7 of Left Behind does not begin with a phone call. Instead, we are treated to another detailed explanation of travel plans. In the first 100 pages of this book we've learned about a nuclear war (it's OK, no one was hurt), and the disappearance of 2/5 of the world's population. Yet these same 100 pages are strangely uneventful — the story of a man whose flight to London is detoured to Chicago, so he... Read more