August 2006
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A lengthy and unpleasant exchange on the Caelum et Terra blog on these topics left me feeling that they had been rather more obscured than revealed. No sane Catholic can argue that warfare is anything but a terrible calamity and at very best a very difficult thing to justify, but a position of practical pacifism…
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(yes, I’m skipping a week, having gotten too far behind) Love: Forever Changes In Memoriam: Arthur Lee (1945-2006) & Bryan MacLean (1946-1998) I had a friend in college who was very taken with the first two albums by this mid-‘60s Los Angeles band. When Forever Changes came out, he came over to my apartment with…
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Patty Griffin: 1000 Kisses Although I can’t claim to have heard all the competition, I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say that Patty Griffin has one of the very best voices in pop music. She has prodigous strength and range and tone and control, with a lower register bound to…
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Poetry and Politics: Guernica with Graffiti Patti Smith (famous in the late ‘70s as a sort of beat-punk poet singing rock-and-roll) has made available a song, “Qana,” about the civilians killed by Israeli air strikes in the Lebanese city of Qana. (You can download the song here.) It’s a powerful piece, a Guernica in words…
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Why didn't somebody use "Pluto Under Attack" for the headline of this article? That would've been one to remember. Pre-TypePad http://js-kit.com/for/lightondarkwater.com/comments.js
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The Atlantic has this year-old appraisal of Israel's long-term prospects by Benjamin Schwartz. Summary: not good. I don't have any particular insight into whether the just-signed cease-fire is a good or bad deal, but unless it has some really strong and enforceable measures that will prevent Hezbollah from simply rebuilding and reloading, we will be…
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(I’m really behind on posting these—hope to catch up over the next four or five days.) Ishq: Orchid Ambient music is a guilty pleasure for me. I really can’t approve of the idea of music that isn’t meant to be listened to attentively, music that is, in Brian Eno’s words, “as ignorable as it is…
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I think Amy Welborn is spot on about the widespread sense among faithful Catholics that recent Vatican (including papal) statements on the situation in Lebanon (and other hot spots involving Islam) seem, well, not all that useful. It is decidely painful for me to say such a thing about this pope, for whom I have…
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Today is her memorial. I've always been very drawn to her and her writings, although I haven't progressed very far in the latter. I devoted this past Lent to reading her and commented on what I had read every Sunday, throughout March and part of April. If anyone is interested, here are links to the…
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Masters of War The week was saturated with news of the war in Lebanon, featuring the civilian body count and terrible photographs, and with furious argumentation, on the Internet and elsewhere, as to which side is more right or more wrong. The division emerges clearly once again between those who see Israel and the United…
Light On Dark Water 