“But of course, alcohol had few romantic possibilities. It wasn’t exotic, and everyone, practically, took it. To be a mere drunk was not compatible with the Romantics’ thirst for world-significant angst” (Dalrymple, Romancing Opiates, p. 83).
As Wisconsin is to Cheese
The art of understanding politics does not depend primarily on having read an exhaustive stack of investigative books. Investigative books are as full of lies as the politicians themselves are, and if we have read any we should make our decisions on which to believe on the basis of other criteria. As Dennis Miller once …
A Sermon for the President
Ascension Sunday 2009 This Lord’s Day is Ascension Sunday, the day we have set apart to commemorate the exaltation of Jesus Christ to the right hand of the Ancient of Days. This was the day upon which He was given universal and complete authority over all nations and kings, when He was given all rule …
Destruo Ergo Sum
“There is one other romantic attraction of opiates: and that is to the antinomian turn of mind. This turn of mind has become much more common with the general rise of self-importance, which is a corollary of democracy: and in an age of celebrity, everyone feels obliged to leave his mark on the world, or …
The Jitney Gods of Washington
As the Obama saga gets weirder and weirder, Christians shouldn’t forget to interpret all the news in the fundamental terms of who we want to be our god, and who wants to be the embodiment of that god. Worship is always the key to everything. And it is not the “key to everything” because we …
Which Is Where We Get Stoned Goobers
“Romantic claptrap invests intoxication by opiates with a philosophical significance beyond mere self-indulgence . . . It elevates feeling and intuition above knowledge and thought in the pantheon of human desiderata. It invests the personal pettiness of addiction with the aura of titanic and tormenting struggles against mighty forces, while at the same time implying …
Romantic Claptrap
“In modern society the main cause of drug addiction, apart from the fact that many people have nothing to live for, is a literary tradition of romantic claptrap, started by Coleridge and DiQuincey, and continued without serious interruption ever since” (Dalrymple, Romancing Opiates, p. 61).
Learning the Tune
Mark Twain’s wife was a long-suffering woman, and one day she walked up to him and calmly repeated back to him every foul word she had ever heard him use, and he had probably used them all. When she was quite done, he looked at her and said, “My dear, you know the words, but …
Why the Devil Won’t Argue Like a Gentleman
So let me ask those of you who are interested in this kind of thing to watch this clip of an interview with N.T. Wright on the subject of homosexuality, and why he hasn’t written on it. (HT: Justin Taylor, Denny Burk) Watch it a couple times, and then read on. Let me begin by …
Hate Crimes, Sex, and the Love of God
As the lunacy of hate crimes legislation wends its way through our corridors of power, more and more wise believers are hunkering down for difficult times. Soon the denunciation of real sin from the pulpit — always unpopular with Christians — will be illegal as well. We are in that part of the movie where …