Back to where our world begins, the 1960s. The English word love can refer to a number of different sorts of love that other languages, classical Greek particularly, kept more distinct in their vocabulary. The distinctions between agape, philos, and eros, for example, are fairly . . . . Continue Reading »
” So today’s would-be Lysistratas need to develop ways of stigmatizing young women who too readily say yes to sex, just as unions do to scabs and strikebreakers. What a feminist triumph that would be .” says James Taranto, discussing hook-up culture and the arguments about . . . . Continue Reading »
Whit Stillman fans know that his first three films are a loosely connected trilogy of sorts, with THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO being the film that ties them together by means of our meeting key characters from the other two in its Club. How then, does his recent DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, a rather stranger . . . . Continue Reading »
I wore black today. Black suit, black tie, and a black shroud over the Romney-Ryan sign in my yard. No, I do not think, contrary to countless heartfelt comments one sees on the conservative blogs today, that the republic died today. But make no mistake: something did die today. Obama voters, you . . . . Continue Reading »
Last week, Kimberly Hyatt of Patheos asked why Christians are mean in “Look at the Christians: See How Mean They Are” . “Perhaps it is past time for us to stop focusing on what others are doing or trying to do and start taking responsibility for our own actions and their . . . . Continue Reading »
The New York Times, maybe not unsurprisingly, recruits subscribers through college emails with the offer of limited free access. Today’s offering, from the cover of Sunday’s Book Review brought the headline, Sex and God at Yale , by Nathan Harden, from a review titled, . . . . Continue Reading »
A look at the new adultery, which is the old adultery seen through the wink and nod. You or I, if conservative, might think that such a thing undermines marriage, but, author Catherine Hakim insists not, that adultery should be retitled something like a playfair or an . . . . Continue Reading »
When I hear the harpsichord in Vivaldi or Bach, if I picture anything, it would be rococo drawing roomsGeorge Washington asking Jane Austen for the pleasure of a dance. When I hear it in pop, perhaps thanks to Peanuts and the great Vince Guaraldi , I picture green lawns and white . . . . Continue Reading »
So you havent yet arranged the dinner music for tonight? Well, never fear, postmodern conservative is here. Nothing says romance more than the crickle-crackle of an old 78, preferably from the swing era. 1.) If Dreams Come True , Ella Fitzgerald w/ the Chick Webb Orchestra. The younger Ella, . . . . Continue Reading »
The Songbook was analyzing a set of songs about Loneliness and Individualism, such as Simon and Garfunkels Sounds of Silence, before it got side-tracked into laying out my theory of modernitys sociological stages. Its time to return to the first task, which brings me . . . . Continue Reading »