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The Politics of Subgame Perfection

There has been a spate of editorials and columns”even a book”criticizing Republicans in Congress for being “radical,” “crazy,” “extremist,” and focused on the GOP “brand” rather than on “problem solving.” Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein’s 2012 book, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism, exemplified and encouraged much of this criticism. Mann and Ornstein”both stolid fixtures of the Washington policy establishment”make the argument that the Republican Party bears unique responsibility for what ails Washington and the nation… . Continue Reading »

Warren Zevon’s Secret

Ten years ago this month, Warren Zevon died and the world of music lost an extraordinary talent. Gifted and mercurial, Zevon’s tumultuous life often paralleled the self-destructive paths of other celebrities; and yet”in significant ways”also diverged sharply from them… . Continue Reading »

Oh Sage, Do You Have an App for That?

Truth be told, for us bibliophiles, it can be as menacing, as it is rewarding, to “manage” the books that we possess (or have access to through various libraries). Most every professor I know has stacks, and stacks, of commentaries, monographs, and reference works in his office or den, and only the best of us have any real system of organization… . Continue Reading »

A Hermeneutics of the Open Ear

I have occasionally given students a “pop culture” survey that tests their knowledge of movies, music, and TV. They do scarily well. Some of them remember advertising jingles and silly sitcoms from my childhood. Then I give them a Bible trivia quiz, asking them to identify the daughters of Zelophahad or give the weight of Goliath’s armor or identify Jeremiah’s birthplace. On that test they typically do, shall we say, less well… . Continue Reading »

Putting God in its Proper Case

In a recent Washington Post article on a medical mystery, a radiology technician is reported to have exclaimed, “Oh my God, look at that aorta.” After reading the article, I wondered about that quote. Not about its accuracy, not about whether the aorta really was something to behold, and not about what it must have felt like to be the owner of the aorta when he realized “that the man was talking about him.” I wondered about God. More specifically, I wondered about the capitalization of God… . Continue Reading »

The Yoke of Neutrality

The original lyrics of what eventually became Canada’s national anthem were composed by Sir Adolphe Basile-Routhier in 1880. Judge Routhier was a devout Catholic, of strong ultramontanist convictions, and the lyrics he wrote—retained in Quebec but much modified in English Canada”run as follows … Continue Reading »

Jenifer Estess, R.I.P.

Jenifer Estess died of A.L.S., Lou Gherig’s disease, on December 23, 2003, nearly ten years ago now, at the age of forty. Before last week I never had any reason to seek an obituary for her. But I did and I found it. Finding it came with an inexplicable sense of loss… . Continue Reading »

What’s Really Wrong with Philosophy

After the embarrassment of well-known philosopher of mind Colin McGinn for alleged inappropriate actions toward a female grad student, The Stone, a New York Times blog “for contemporary philosophers and other thinkers on issues both timely and timeless,” decided to host a series of articles on women in professional philosophy… . Continue Reading »

G.K. Chesterton, Genius

In a review quoted on the back cover of Ian Ker’s G.K. Chesterton: A Biography (Oxford), Susan Elkin suggests that Fr. Ker’s book “has the potential to establish Chesterton in what Ker regards as his rightful place as a major English author.” That’s certainly true; but one does wonder about that “Ker regards… .” business. Does Ms. Elkin not regard Chesterton as a “major English author”? I imagine she would regard George Bernard Shaw, Chesterton’s friendly antagonist, as such; and Shaw without doubt regarded Chesterton as such… . Continue Reading »

Our Pacifist Pope?

As the United States considers intervening militarily in Syria, it feels like déj vu. You have a megalomaniac in the Middle East who stands accused of biological weapons-based atrocities against his own citizens and the international community considering a response. On cue, religious leaders urge governments to negotiate a peace with the dictator”anything but war… . Continue Reading »

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