A favorite joke about the Obama administration, that is, about President Obama’s penchant for running the government out of his Blackberry rather than through his cabinet, used to go as follows: “Quick, who’s the National Security Advisor?” The National Security . . . . Continue Reading »
Mexico allows visual artists to pay their taxes with artworks: That’s the deal Mexico has offered to artists since 1957, quietly amassing a modern art collection that would make most museum curators swoon. As the 2009 tax deadline approaches, tax collectors are getting ready to receive a whole . . . . Continue Reading »
So I’ve been deluged by (two) requests to post the Mad Men stuff from my Furman talk: From our view, people not so long ago lived somewhere between contemptible self-indulgence and inexplicable insanity. That’s the message, for example, of the excellent—if highly politically . . . . Continue Reading »
In the pages of his blog for World Affairs, David Reiff has been musing of late about the ways in which historical consciousness influences our political and social imaginations. His reflections on historical memory, especially the tendency for societies to carefully tend the fires of past . . . . Continue Reading »
For those who are interested in this sort of thing, here is an article of mine on the Anatomy of Conversion , attempting to discern what is happening when one moves toward something new. It describes a Catholic conversion for obvious reasons, but I’m thinking it should apply to other . . . . Continue Reading »
Dale Coulter, who contributed to Not So Easy to Identify an Evangelical , has written a related piece on The Westminster Captivity of Evangelicalism on his weblog Renewal Dynamics. He is a member of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together consultation and the co-editor of Pneuma: The Journal of the . . . . Continue Reading »
Peggy Noonan believes she has figured out how to save the Catholic Church from the effects of the recent child sexual abuse scandals. She advocates a three-part “reform” agenda to “turn the Church around.” First, Noonan reiterates her longstanding position that . . . . Continue Reading »
A stunningly good review by the British writer John Gray of A.C. Grayling’s latest atheist manifesto: Reading Grayling, it is hard to resist the impression that he believes Western civilization would be much improved if it did not include the Judeo-Christian inheritance. Absurd as it is, . . . . Continue Reading »
You’ve seen news about the British Foreign Office memo , which suggested events for the pope, on his visit to England—including opening an abortion clinic and apologizing for the Spanish Armada. The New Statesman points out People think it is a joke. That is to say, it was written as a . . . . Continue Reading »
A Brooklyn teacher’s stolen car was found during a New York police raid of a chop shop, and returned to her in its fixed-up, road-racer condition. “I’m Jewish,” the teacher, Amanda Pogany complained, “and I don’t even know how to drive a stick shift!” I . . . . Continue Reading »
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