Joseph Bottum

“We regret to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control, the publication of The Astrological Magazine will cease with the December 2007 issue.” (Hat tip: The Volokh Conspiracy .) . . . . Continue Reading »

So, if you look up higher on this page, you’ll see that First Things is beginning its search for next year’s Junior Fellows .Want to apply? These are one- or two-year internships for young writers and scholars interested in religion and public life. The positions offer the opportunity to . . . . Continue Reading »

I think your metaphor , of colorizing film or tearing down buildings, will not work for Nabokov’s unpublished, unfinished work , Anthony. Even your title of “burning books” doesn’t quite catch it, for the text from Nabokov isn’t yet a book. In other words, this . . . . Continue Reading »

Over on the New York Times ’ City Room website , there’s an interesting story about a man who was forced to undergo a rectal examination back in 2003. Receiving a head injury at a Manhattan construction, he was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital and given eight stitches on his . . . . Continue Reading »

Paul Cassell, a former Federal judge who resigned from the bench to become a pro bono lawyer and advocate for victims rights, is now blogging on the Volokh Conspiracy , a (more or less) libertarian law-professors blog that has some of the most interesting legal analysis on the web. Cassell’s . . . . Continue Reading »

Yes, Ryan, you’re right that David Brooks’ column in the New York Times today was a fine one. I just wish that he had named Ward Connerly, not Ward Churchill, for his example of opponents to identity politics. Ward Connerly is the former regent for the University of California who . . . . Continue Reading »

The pseudonymous author Spengler , sends another note for posting on the First Things blog : “Anti-Semitism wasn’t getting anywhere until the Jews got behind it,” Paul Johnson quotes a nineteenth-century Viennese joke in his History of the Jews . New Left Review ‘s December . . . . Continue Reading »

A friend runs an interesting website called “Right Wing Bob”—a never-ending discussion of Bob Dylan’s work by a political and theological conservative. He’s posted today an interview with me about the influence of Dylan’s music , which may interest some of our . . . . Continue Reading »

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has written an op-ed in the Daily Telegraph announcing his support for organ donation without consent. Or, rather, “implied consent,” meaning that patients and their legal representatives will have to register their refusal to donate, via some . . . . Continue Reading »

My friend, the pseudonymous author Spengler , sends this note for posting on the First Things blog : Andrew Higgins’ January 11 report in the Wall Street Journal of the re-discovery of a Koranic manuscript archive long thought lost has prompted hundreds of blog comments. It is a momentous . . . . Continue Reading »