“So now we have both Jesus and Muhammad at the end of their lives returning to the cities that housed the center of spiritual life for their peoples. Muhammad returned as a conqueror. As we shall see, Jesus returned as a sacrifice” (Mark Gabriel, Jesus and Muhammad, p. 62).
Can’t Have It Both Ways
“A crude culture makes a coarse people, and private refinement cannot long survive public excess. There is a Gresham’s law of culture as well as of money: the bad drives out the good, unless the good is defended.” (Theodore Dalrymple, Our Culture, What’s Left of It, p. 52).
Men and Bees
“When the bee stings, she leaves her sting behind her and never gathers honey more. Men, but by stinging one another, do not lose their stings, but they lose their honey” (Burroughs, Irenicum, p. 274).
Scraping Paint Off a Gun Turret
Well, I now have the deep privilege of being a scarecrow in local politics. There are many individuals that I would like to thank for this peculiar honor . . . But first, for those who are from out of town, here is the sitch. The Greater Moscow Alliance, a group that had gotten themselves …
I Dare Say
“While in Mecca, he had remained married to only one wife, Khadija, who died after twenty-five years of marriage. During his first year in Medina, Muhammad signed a marriage contract with the daughter of one of his most loyal followers, Abu Bakr. This would not seem unusual except that the girl was only six years …
Sign of Spiritual Election
“Until then I had assumed, along with most of my generation unacquainted with real hardship, that a scruffy appearance was a sign of spiritual election, representing a rejection of the superficiality and materialism of bourgeois life. Ever since then, however, I have not been able to witness the voluntary adoption of torn, worn-out, and tattered …
Another Surprise From Ron Paul
Ron Paul certainly has some Internet buzz going, but whenever he does surprisingly well in some straw poll or other, the talking heads of received political wisdom attribute it to dedicated spammers in the Paul campaign. But whatever you say about the capacity of spam, it does not raise money. In politics, you have to …
Important Correction
A few days ago I ran this photo below. And as much as I would like to run the “false but true” defense that Dan Rather has wielded so effectively in the past, it appears that the photo is actually from a 1994 Dutch indie film entitled The Stone. The actress in the photo is …
NSA in The New York Times Magazine
We got a nice note from Molly Worthen, who wrote an article on NSA for The New York Times Magazine. That article is available here. In her note she comments, fairly enough, that the article is critical in places, but that she is hopeful that the article does indicate her interest in and admiration for …
Unappreciated Heroism
“It was in Africa that I first discovered that bourgeois virtues are not only desirable but often heroic” (Theodore Dalrymple, Our Culture, What’s Left of It, p. 25).