So Donald Trump has announced his candidacy for president, which reminded me of a story. A guy has a flat tire and, as it happened, it was right outside the grounds of a mental hospital. He was changing the tire, and enough things went wrong in the course of the operation that a small crowd …
Woe Betide That Guy
So let us talk about the care and feeding of the abnormal, and begin with some poetry. Yeats gave us some of the best lines composed in the 20th century. Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence …
Black Is Black, I Want My Country Back
Riddle me this. The fact that there are no serious answers does not mean that there is not a serious question. Why is it that Bruce Jenner, a male passing himself off as a female, is hailed by all and sundry for his courage, while Rachel Dolezal, a white woman passing herself off as black, is …
Copping a Plea
So we need to spend some time talking about the police, about police misbehavior and brutality, and about the hard partisan line taken by some who rant against the cops on Facebook. Let’s talk policy first, and justice second. As a matter of law and policy, I believe that citizens should be absolutely free to …
The One Thing Bruce Jenner Got Right
There are two primal drives that define men and women in this fallen world. There is the thirst for forgiveness and there is the lust to start over. Outside these two groups would be those who are not really paying attention. Both groups recognize that life as it is . . . is miserable. Both …
Our Only Tribal Tattoo
So some of the discussion in the comments to the previous post about angry husbands made me think of something else that needs saying. It is not possible to say everything at once. If I write a post about angry husbands, it is not, by its very nature, a post about slothful wives. I could …
A Good Chance to Clear the Air
Because Both Sides Are in the Story
“Narrative theology is important — crucial in fact. But when it becomes apparent that it is important in this world of war, both sides will attempt to seize it, and will use it to their own ends. This is why it is as silly to assume that someone is a postmodernist because he emphasizes story …
DuPont’s Finest
If authenticity were a slab of ancient oak, burnished and polished to shine with royal splendor as it served as a magnificent table in the great hall of the mountain king, our generation would be able to point proudly to our version as a paper-thin blonde veneer on top of a rickety yard-sale table in …
So There’s That
“For example, the invention of the printing press did lead to a widespread distribution of books. The invention of the Internet has likewise lead to a widespread dissemination of cat videos” (Rules for Reformers, pp. 151-152).