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 …
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 …
Exquisite Thrill
To pick one of Calvin & Hobbes many high points, I would recall the time when Calvin was industriously pounding nails into the coffee table. His mother comes tearing up to him, screaming, “What do you think you’re doing?!” He looks and her and looks at the table and says, “Is this a trick question?” …
Vampire Guilt
Just a few more comments on the vampire deal. First, everything in this fallen created order “answers to” something unfallen, with the possible exception of hyenas. In other words, the dragon is the archtypical emblem of sly, crafty, rebellion — and this goes back to the Garden. Satan is that ancient dragon. If we read …