The Martian Chronicles, 3

James Lileks—whose blog, with its calm voice recounting his day , is one of the treasures of the Web—has a column this week on the Star Tribune website about the anniversary of Skylab. Or, rather, the anniversary of the day Skylab fell from the sky, on July 11, 1979. Interestingly, even . . . . Continue Reading »

We Shall Not Weary, We Shall Not Rest

“We shall not weary, we shall not rest,” Richard John Neuhaus proclaims, “until every human being created in the image and likeness of God is protected in law and cared for in life.” Everyone has read Fr. Neuhaus’ closing address at the annual convention of the National Right to Life . . . . Continue Reading »

Great Dedications

I’ve always had a soft spot for Tom Holt, the British writer of comic fantasy novels. If you’ve never read him, give one of his books a try. Expecting Someone Taller , his recasting of the Siegfried saga, is a good place to start. I plucked a copy of his Here Comes the Sun off the shelf . . . . Continue Reading »

RE: Thomas M. Disch, 1940-2008

The Weekly Standard has posted online my obituary for the poet and science-fiction writer Tom Disch : He sent me a note on July 2, just some jokey line about politics: nothing unusual, nothing portentous, nothing worth a call to see how he was feeling. Two days later, according to the news reports, . . . . Continue Reading »

What Did Pope Benedict Say to America?

A forum of that title took place a few weeks ago at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer here in New York. Fr. Neuhaus spoke on what Benedict said to American non-Catholics. Many of his remarks will be reprinted in the forthcoming issue of First Things , but if you want to see them in full, as well as . . . . Continue Reading »

More on those tablets

Mary Rose, I think you may be jumping the gun a bit about the pre-Christian tablet recently reported on in the New York Times . You say, “All we can ascertain from this discovery is that this notion mentioned on the tablet—the notion of a suffering messiah dying and rising from the dead . . . . Continue Reading »

The Martian Chronicles

Space! Outer Space! The sooner, the better! Or so I claimed yesterday : “Space is the obvious next horizon for human beings. Want to diminish the biotech revolution to its proper role as a curer of disease? Offer a more exciting goal. Build a rocket ship, and fly it to Mars.” The recent . . . . Continue Reading »