The Gay Animals’ Publicist

“A university academic has criticised David Attenborough’s wildlife shows for not featuring enough gay animals,” reports The Independent . The academic, named Mills, who I hope is a very, very distant relative, writing in the European Journal of Cultural Studies , says ‘The . . . . Continue Reading »

First Links — 2.20.13

Tyranny on Screen Anthony Sacramone, Intercollegiate Review All This in Remembrance Folke T. Olofsson, Touchstone The Audacity of de Gaulle Henrik Bering, Policy Review How Many American Jews Are There? J. J. Goldberg, Jewish Daily Forward Direct Killing as Intentional Killing E. Christian Brugger, . . . . Continue Reading »

The Maybe Persecuted Church

“I do find it a puzzling quality of liberal Christians that they tend to get excited when something that had been a cherished belief or practice of the Church is shown to have been false,” says Rod Dreher , commenting on a new book by a Notre Dame historian who says that the early . . . . Continue Reading »

“Prison and the Poverty Trap”: John Tierney

in the New York Times: ...Eleven years after her husband went to prison, Ms. Hamilton followed his advice to divorce, but she didn’t remarry. Like other women in communities with high rates of incarceration, she faced a shortage of potential mates. Because more than 90 percent of prisoners are . . . . Continue Reading »

A Thicker Understanding of Irony

Irony has been the source of some anxiety lately, from this essay in the New York Times (critiqued  here ), to R. R. Reno’s post last week on the HBO series Girls . (Or maybe this uncertainty has been with us for a while now .) Offering a bit of a different take is this article by . . . . Continue Reading »

Benedict Ill?

Catholic World News reports that Benedict may be more seriously ill than thought . Peter Seewald, the German journalist who interviewed him, met him a few weeks ago and reports that he was exhausted, losing his hearing and sight in one eye, and had lost so much weight he needed new vestments. We . . . . Continue Reading »