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Movies with Soul

From First Thoughts

Here’s an interesting interview with Buzz McLaughlin, a Christian filmmaker trying to make movies that avoid the extremes of total secularity and didactic piety. I’m sure I’m not alone in hoping that this project becomes wildly successful. . . . . Continue Reading »

Modernity Strikes Again

From First Thoughts

What drove the men who attacked Mumbai? Guy Sorman writes that the massacre “wasn’t some desperate move to make a statement. It was a carefully planned operation, under the command of sophisticated leadership . . . in order to achieve a strategic, indeed worldwide, goal.” This . . . . Continue Reading »

Mad Youth

From First Thoughts

A recent study concludes that roughly a fifth of college-age Americans have personality disorders. It’s hard to know what to make of this. On the one hand, you shouldn’t trust a bunch of psychiatrists to decide who needs a psychiatrist. But on the other hand, my own experience suggests . . . . Continue Reading »

Say It Ain’t So

From First Thoughts

Now they’re even trying to domesticate 007 . MI6 is pushing a softer image in its new recruiting campaign. One recruitment officer insists that the agency is “not looking for . . . people jumping out of windows, running around disobeying orders, drinking dry martinis, clutching women, . . . . Continue Reading »

All About Welfare

From First Thoughts

Overheated partisan rhetoric can create the impression that the world is divided between crypto-communists and heartless capitalists, but philosopher Christopher Tollefsen urges a subtler analysis . The gist of Tollefsen’s argument is that we should acknowledge welfare rights , but it does . . . . Continue Reading »

Precocious Palate

From First Thoughts

Man, this kid is enough to throw you into a quarter-life crisis. When I was twelve my discerning tastes didn’t extend much beyond various forms of sugar and processed cheese. But, looking at young Mr. Fishman’s shoulders, I’m consoled by the thought that I totally could have . . . . Continue Reading »