David Mills

“As our post-modern society becomes increasingly post-faith, our instincts to raise up entertainers as idols become more frequently indulged, and perhaps we manufacture more of these idols now,” writes Elizabeth Scalia in today’s “On the Square” article, An Idol Season . . . . Continue Reading »

Someone recently asked a large group of people in an informal e-mail discussion group for advice about a visit to Rome. Some people gave him advice about what to wear and where to stay, and some about what to see. Three of the latter, who seem to have been blessed to go several times, have let me . . . . Continue Reading »

A little late, but today’s “On the Square” column, The Reasons the Heart Wants , takes up the now somewhat fashionable dismissal of apologetic writing as ineffective, divisive, and the like. This seems to me a great mistake and a practical failure in charity, based on a simplified . . . . Continue Reading »

“Fifty years after the break in relations, while Cuba is still ruled by a male, white, militaristic, totalitarian gerontocracy, Barack Obama is the president of the United States and Hillary Clinton the secretary of state,” writes a Yale professor who left Cuba at 17 in Exiled by Ike, . . . . Continue Reading »

Two Saturdays ago our third (17) and I went to see The Voyage of the ‘Dawn Treader’ . It was playing at the Ambridge Family Theatre , a small theatre in a nearby town, which has about fourteen rows of eight seats each, facing a 12 x 6 screen, with an old-fashioned pressed tin ceiling. . . . . Continue Reading »

The main character was the usual tortured ex-CIA agent, already a cliché when the show aired twenty-five years ago, a man haunted by his past and trying to find peace by using his skills to help the weak being victimized by the strong. More likely to be found in real life than the lead of The Equalizer, I think, was the lead in a Schwarzenegger movie who, when his wife finds out he’s a spy and yells “You kill people!”, replies, “Yes, but dey were all verry bahd.” … Continue Reading »

For those of you interested in religion on the web, which is presumably pretty much every one of you: I’m pleased to say that my old friend Julia Duin (pronounced “dean”) is now the anchor of the Washington Post ‘s “Under God” blog. Here is her first item , a . . . . Continue Reading »

Umberto Eco is one of those agnostic or atheist writers Christians tend to like, not just for the quality of his thinking on this or that question, but because every now and then he seems to let the cat out of the bag. “Your own guy admits it!” is one of the most satisfying arguments around. Christian apologists offer it a lot… . Continue Reading »

Today, as readers may know, is the second anniversary of the death of the magazine’s founder and long-time editor, Father Richard John Neuhaus. Here are a few sources of his writing, lectures, and interviews, and the comments of others on him, including obituaries: The First Things resources . . . . Continue Reading »

Microcredit agencies that work for profit may work better for the poor than many people think. And localism may be much less useful to man than many people think. The Israeli spy agency Mossad must be far, far cleverer at plotting then you think. Romanian witches threaten to curse their government . . . . Continue Reading »