A correction that the Harvard Crimson must be proud of: An earlier version of this article used the pronoun “she” to refer to Vanidy “Van” Bailey, the newly appointed director of bisexual, gay, lesbian, transgender, and queer student life. In fact, Bailey prefers not to be . . . . Continue Reading »
Retired general Wesley Clark has been in the news twice this month, first for announcing his intention to explore for coal in Kosovo—the country he midwifed with bombs back in his NATO days—and now for agreeing to co-host an NBC reality show called Stars Earn Stripes . . . . . Continue Reading »
How can you govern a country that has 246 kinds of cheese? Cheese robots . Get on their good side now, or you’ll wish you had. . . . . Continue Reading »
If Only This Announcement Had Come the Day Before Paul Fussell Died, Not the Day After
From First ThoughtsJohn Huston’s long-suppressed documentary about post-WWII PTSD will finally be made available on the web today. When the War Department banned it from civilian circulation in 1946, James Agee wrote, “I don’t know what is necessary to reverse this disgraceful decision, but if . . . . Continue Reading »
Paul Fussell: What Will Happen to the Celery Stalks In the Event of Another War Is Difficult to Determine
From First ThoughtsThis letter appeared in the winter issue of American Speech in 1948, when Paul Fussell was 24 years old and a master’s student at Harvard. . . . . Continue Reading »
The editors of The Weekly Standard slapped the title “The New Phrenology” on Andrew Ferguson’s cover article debunking liberal psychopundits who claim conservatism is a DSM-grade mental disorder. Actually, Chris Mooney et al. are technically the New New New New Phrenologists, . . . . Continue Reading »
IKEA is now the most popular restaurant in Iceland, both by visits per year and by volume of food served. The country’s most popular restaurant is not a restaurant. The Reykjavik Insider : Arnar Stefánsson, the restaurant manager, said that the most popular day of the year is . . . . Continue Reading »
The Problem with Your Kierkegaardian View of the Culture War: Not Enough Irish Fatalism
From First ThoughtsThe blogger Bad Catholic is sick and tired of the culture wars : The dominant feeling associated with fighting the Culture Wars—whether over abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, or any of those super-fantastic conversation starters—is not one of righteousness, zeal, passion, hope, or . . . . Continue Reading »
WARNING: Spoilers below, but this movie is like candy, so it doesn’t spoil easily. Damsels in Distress is a light and confectionary film that wants to be loved more than it wants to be thought about. That’s a shame, because the sort of person who is committed to Whit Stillman as a . . . . Continue Reading »
Romanian newspapers are reporting that their country’s education minister, Ion Mang, has resigned after embarrassing revelations of plagiarism—a news story that is suspiciously similar to one published last month by Hungarian newspapers. In fact, the stories are practically identical if . . . . Continue Reading »
influential
journal of
religion and
public life
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things