Samuel Johnson famously said that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. That being the case, accusations of racism (when losing an argument) is the last refuge of the liberal scoundrel. And, as time goes by, and the argument (on health care, say) continues to be lost, the accusation moves closer and closer to …
Triangles Don’t Have Outliers
In a previous thread Jane Dunsworth asked the question when it comes to all questions of “reading culture.” How do you tell the difference between some manifestation of lowlife culture and that same thing (apparently) adopted and carried out by someone whose respectability is beyond question? Hmmm? The problem is the same regardless of how …
Receiving Grace
Our Father and God, You have established Your Church as a royal priesthood in this world, and so we intercede for the nations of men now, confessing on their behalf so that the grace of Your forgiveness will soon be extended to them all. Father and God, You are the God of all grace, and …
Night Shift at the Flying J
So let’s talk about nose rings for a minute. In our recent discussion of tattoos, the nose ring question developed into a significant sideshow, and so a few specific words should be addressed in this direction as well. The first thing to point out (and which I have pointed out elsewhere) is that nose rings …
No Relation Calm Down
When Joe Wilson shouted “you lie” to the president, we all discovered how little some folks like it when somebody speaks truth to power. And generally the folks that don’t like it are the ones who use phrases like “speaking truth to power.” Anyhow, I now read that Wilson, no relation calm down, has raised …
911
It has been eight years since the horrific attack on the World Trade Towers. If all you had to go on was our typical left/right tangled discussions of the event, you would conclude either that Obama struck the right note on his international apology tour, assuming in the background of his speech that America somehow …
Abraham Kuyper on John Calvin on the United States Congress
Here is a money quote, passed on to me by my son-in-law Luke, who got it from his dad, who is working through Kuyper’s Lectures on Calvinism. Kuyper is quoting from Calvin’s commentary on Samuel. “And ye, O peoples, to whom God gave the liberty to choose your own magistrates, see to it, that ye …
Vampires, Left Behind, Propaganda, and United We Serve Lickspittles
One of the staples of discussion about basic aesthetic principles is that art has to exist for its own self, and cannot be prostituted to advance a particular cause or point of view. Perfect nonsense, of course, but that doesn’t keep it from being repeated ad nauseam. There is a truth buried in all the …
Czars Jumping on the Couch
The Obama administration is starting to look like an old couch, the kind you see at the dump with six or seven springs sticking out. But it is not an old couch; it’s a new couch. It is not supposed to look like this just yet. Have all the czars been coming over in the …
Dumping Water in the Lake
Last night I was watching the news, as is my custom, and the story about Obama’s “Dear Leader” speech to the nation’s school children came up. And no, I am not going after Obama here, although he keeps doing one creepy thing after another. Let’s just not have any missile parades, all right? Rather, I …