So I’m really getting into Breaking Bad from the start. It is the show about a brilliant chemist turned failed entrepreneur, turned high school teacher, turned drug lord. Walter White has a disabled (and sweet) son, his wife is pregnant with an unexpected baby. He turns fifty and finds . . . . Continue Reading »
George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novel Game of Thrones is the first novel in a seven book series titled The Song of Ice and Fire which has been turned into a hit HBO show. This post is confined to the first book and will not address the show’s sleaziness, but those interested in . . . . Continue Reading »
They say different things, is what they do. The knowing say Ryan failed us with facts and policy and no showmanship. They say Biden was all showmanship, but that’s what counts. The hoi polloi say Ryan was marvelous, controlled and respectful, as he battled two opponents, not . . . . Continue Reading »
Fans of the hit TV show LOST speculated after the first couple of seasons that it was secretly a presentation of Purgatory. The buzz over this thesis grew to such large proportions that the producers had to release a letter denying the rumors. Now two years after the show is finished, . . . . Continue Reading »
On the other hand, there is media kerfuffle on the Right about Chris Hayes of MSNBC saying he has a problem with using the word, “heroes” for the dead on Memorial Day because that word ennobles war and worst of all, ennobles the current war effort. What could be worse? I . . . . Continue Reading »
God so loved the world that he gave his only son. God so loved me that he has given me three sons. And last month, they discovered superheroes. Not a moment too soon, it turns out, as apparently overnight what I used to think of as our respectable middle-class home has become an alarming hive of after-school crime (or as my boys call it, “trouble”). So they fearlessly answer the call every afternoon, bounding around the house and the yard with hand-towel capes safety-pinned around their necks… . Continue Reading »
Thomas Hibbs has updated his book Shows About Nothing: Nihilism in Popular Culture in light of films and TV shows of the last decade like Christopher Nolan’s movies and AMC’s Mad Men. He says Nihilism has been the reigning philosophy in Hollywood since the 1960’s. By Nihilism, . . . . Continue Reading »
Last week Ross Douthat posted a comparison of The Sopranos and The Wire . He sees the two shows in terms of psychology v. sociology, the former being the more insightful because it presents flesh and blood human beings while the latter reduces its characters to their surrounding culture in . . . . Continue Reading »
Universalism, the belief that everyone is going to heaven, is becoming widespread. Check out the popularity of Rob Bell’s book Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person WhoEver Lived as an example. A perennial question Universalists love to ask traditional . . . . Continue Reading »
Here’s the clip from Matthew B. Crawford’s guest appearance on Colbert: . . . . Continue Reading »
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