"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
The media occasionally report on Christian evangelicalism and proselytization in the military services, particularly at the military academies. One journalist who tracks stories about non-believing and minority religion servicemembers coerced into Christian worship is Ed Brayton, who blogs about this and other issues at Dispatches from the Culture Wars. Last week he published a letter […]
Oh for Christ’s sake. Back in April, President Obama signed a law establishing September 11 as an annually recognized “National Day of Service and Remembrance.” Reaction on the right? Uh, about what you’d expect: The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 […]
“You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” — Roy Scheider, Jaws (1975) Quantum of Solace (2008) I think Daniel Craig is a great Bond, potentially better even than Sean Connery, but as other reviewers have complained, this movie is too similar to the Bourne trilogy (Bourne Identity/Bourne Supremacy/Bourne Ultimatum) to really have the feel of a […]
“A screaming comes across the sky.” – Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973) Ritual, by Mo Hayder Okay detective thriller with a written-for-TV feel, entertaining but ultimately forgettable. I was far more impressed with Mo Hayder’s The Devil of Nanking. Pig Island, by Mo Hayder Still under the influence of The Devil of Nanking, I went […]
I can’t tell you how many times friends have declared, apparently believing what they’re saying, that the times are worse than ever: the kids more insolent, the wars more horrific, the price of goods never higher, the future never more uncertain. My response has always been to ask if they’d like to trade lives with, […]
I felt the need to ride this morning, so I pointed the Goldwing toward Bisbee, Arizona, an old mining town 95 miles southeast of Tucson, down near the Mexican border. No sooner did I put the kickstand down in front of the Bisbee Coffee Co. than a friend walked up, Donna from Phoenix. She was […]
Sunday morning Donna and I went on a bash, a bicycle trail put on by a club we belong to. The bash started and ended at a friend’s house in NW Tucson, and after it was over we had a barbecue on his patio. As we were talking and grilling there was a huge POW!, […]
Digby, writing at Hullabaloo today about the anti-health care crowds that have been mobbing town hall meetings recently: This point is one that continues to amaze me. These people are coming unhinged over expanding access to health care. It’s not about taking away guns or mandating abortion or outlawing churches or some other issue about […]