David Mills

“If liberal individualists had campaigned against abortion, it would,” observes John Waters in the Irish Times ,  “have become unacceptable years ago.” (Thanks to my friend Mark Barrett for the tip.) Writing after joining in the annual March for Life during a trip to . . . . Continue Reading »

Our friend and writer Alan Jacobs offers his thoughts on What editors think of writers , using as a taxonomy John Simon’s description of working with Auden (sloppy but easy-going), Trilling (willing to be convinced), and Barzun (don’t touch a thing, you inferior being). He . . . . Continue Reading »

A little late, but worth (I hope) pointing you to even so, my reflection on the old practice of a special abstinence in Lent, Just Give It Up . It begins: Our eldest, then about two years old, one day announced “I want . . . ” but did not finish the sentence. My wife and I waited for her . . . . Continue Reading »

The comments on the nature of soap operas I quoted earlier in relation to Downton Abbey reminded me of James Thurber’s series on soap operas from the early forties, which appeared first in  The New Yorker  (here’s the first of the series , though available only to subscribers) . . . . Continue Reading »

A valentine card from a child who has either not quite mastered the English language or who has: . . . . Continue Reading »

For those of you who are  Anglophiles, and I suspect that’s a good many of you, who therefore are probably spending your Sunday evenings watching  Downton Abbey , a dissenting story from Slate, What is Actually at Stake at Downton Abbey?  The answer is apparently, according to . . . . Continue Reading »

The more things change, etc. Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life reports that over the last century the number of Catholics in the Church has more than tripled, from 291 million in 1910 to about 1.1. billion today, but the Church’s percentage of the . . . . Continue Reading »

Peter Turkson is not shy about his wish to become first black Pope , declares the English magazine  The Week , unfairly, since the Ghanaian cardinal seems to have merely been answering a question, not pushing himself forward. In any case, as Anthony Esolen wrote in an email exchange, we have . . . . Continue Reading »

You knew, when Benedict announced his resignation, that everyone and his brother would comment, and that some of those comments would be really goofy. The conservative Anglican website Stand Firm  has started a series on what the writer calls “Papal Malarkey Syndrome” — my . . . . Continue Reading »

Western Pennsylvania-area friends and readers: I’ll be giving a talk at Grove City College this coming Thursday evening, with the title “Between Twitter and the  New York Times .” I’ll be taking up the challenges to speaking honesty and well when cultural, . . . . Continue Reading »