Some financial planning company is running commercials directed at soon-to-be-retiring baby boomers. I've seen them, and they make me want to throw something at the tv: they're all about how you, the coolest people that ever were, are not about to settle for some stodgy rocking-chair retirement. Grainy clips of protest marchers and flower children…

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Homeless Conservatives: Making it Official? As often happens, I’ve changed my mind at the last minute about this week’s journal. The catalyst is this post at Crunchy Con and its associated comments, which consider the place of social conservatives in a political realignment which might follow the current troubles of the Republican Party, which is…

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Patty Loveless: Mountain Soul This aptly-title collection is pure straight-up country music, which is the kind I like. I don’t listen to all that much country music, and when I do I like for it to be the genuine article, not just pop music with twangy vocals and a fiddle. Mountain Soul could be loosely…

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For the most part I've never found the comedy classics of the silent film area to be terribly funny. Chaplin, for instance: I'm not sure I've ever laughed out loud at one of his films. So when we started the 75 minutes of Buster Keaton's The General one night last weekend I fully expected to…

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I'm checking in a software module that I checked out back in December (rcs, for any Unix folks who might happen to read this), meaning it's available to be modified by me and only me. When I check it in I'm supposed to include a log message that briefly explains the mod. I list the…

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As you may have noticed, Music of the Week has sort of run aground over the past month or so. Among other things, certain obstacles have arisen to my listening routine, making it difficult to spend enough time with one work in the space of a week to come up with anything I'd trust as…

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"Anything less is a form of theft…" Archbishop Chaput rocks. As Ben points out in the comments, this speech by Archbishop Chaput posted at First Things is terrific. A few of the best passages: Only one question really matters. Does God exist or not? If he does, that has implications for every aspect of our…

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I don't know the people involved in the controversy which kicks off this post, but Mark's ruminations on the psychology of the USA are spot on (which is to say, in almost perfect consonance with my own). And I'll add my bit on the nature of patriotism and certain peculiar notions of it which are…

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As some probably know, the person who signs herself simply "Francesca" when commenting here is Dr. Francesca Aran Murphy of King's College, University of Aberdeen. She's the author of several books in the theology-philosophy area, including Art and Intellect in the Philosophy of Etienne Gilson, which I have not read (and may not be qualified…

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For those too young to remember, back in 1976 a headline on one of the New York newspapers that's not the Times (sorry, New Yorkers, I can't keep them straight) was credited with helping Gerald Ford lose the 1976 presidential election. I forget the details, although I'm sure a couple of minutes with Google would…

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