January 2013
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…those who look to the Enlightenment as the primary source of their political views, and those who look to the entire history of Western civilization, generally with a strong emphasis on the Christian era. I think this is a better way of looking at the tension between what often gets called neo-conservatism and the various…
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I've read two of Wendell Berry's novels, The Memory of Old Jack and Hannah Coulter, and consider the first one very good and the second very very good, maybe to be ranked with the best novels of our time. I've read a fair number of his essays on cultural and political topics and think very highly…
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…maybe this is the best version of the Samson and Delilah song. Except maybe that it's too short
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Weekend Music The Blasters were active in the early to mid-1980s. There was something of a fashion then for a 1950s-style look and sound, and they were part of it, but they weren't just a novelty. "Rockabilly" would be the closest one-word description of their sound, but it was more varied than that. "Roots rock"…
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When I did those two posts about politics and the anti-Christ a few months ago (here and here), I kept asking myself if I was being overly pessimistic and paranoid. There is certainly a good deal of fear and hysteria among Christians in our time, and I didn't want to be drawn into it, or encourage it…
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It was just over a year ago that I wrote about sampling this legendary substance: see this post and this one. I ended my reflection saying "I haven't been back to the Marmite jar. I do plan to finish it, but I probably won't replace it." And I more or less forget about it until a few months…
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I've had a very pleasant three-day weekend (thanks to the Martin Luther King holiday). And I've made an effort to pay little attention to the inauguration, but of course whenever I look at the headlines online I'm reminded. And I did, out of curiosity, read Obama's address. Fine words, some of them. And mostly either…
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As one of my children used to pronounce it. I had been at the bay with my camera late one afternoon in early December. I was about to go inside, and this owl swooped silently into a tree right beside the house. Pretty unusual to see one so close and in daylight. This seems to be…
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Weekend Music This is not the kind of music I generally listen to–high-speed more-or-less-punk rock, with a ska touch–and when I do listen to it, a few songs at a time are enough. It may not be to the taste of most people who read this blog, either, but bear with me–there's an interesting story…
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The law seems to have caught up with former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Good. Ordinarily this is not something I would write about here, but the success of the effort to blame then-President Bush for everything that went wrong after (and maybe before) Hurricane Katrina was one of the most egregious recent examples of the…
Light On Dark Water 