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Lonely Guys

Well, I finally saw two of the upscale movies of the summer. Neither was that great. Michael Douglas is the star of A SOLITARY MAN, which is nowhere near as good as A SINGLE MAN or A SERIOUS MAN. Douglas basically plays the same guy he played in WALL STREET and WONDER BOYS—a glib and . . . . Continue Reading »

Hitler defines socialism

In the past few years, Glenn Beck and Jonah Goldberg have led the charge to popularize the notion that the governing totalitarianisms of fascism – centralizing, modernist, nationalistic, and willing to cooperate with the radical, internationalist Left, most notoriously in August 1939 – . . . . Continue Reading »

Slouching Toward Secularism

When critiquing American churches, opinion writers often adopt a form of historicism even Hegel would just barely accept—a philosophic stance that no doubt drives their chiding of churches as “behind the times” or “on the wrong side of history.” The same gives them the gall . . . . Continue Reading »

Why Is Hamlet So … Hamlet-like?

“The plot is a mishmash of disparate narratives; the expository opening scene, when soldiers on the night watch recount the tensions between Denmark and Norway, is deadening; and Shakespeare’s need to get Hamlet back to Denmark after his exile to England forces the playwright to resort . . . . Continue Reading »

Fired For Being Catholic?

Here’s the latest development in the ongoing story of Dr. Kenneth Howell , the former adjunct professor at the University of Illinois, who recently lost his job for teaching his students the Catholic Church’s position on homosexual acts in an introductory course on Catholicism. First . . . . Continue Reading »

A Holiday Quiz

For those who like this kind of thing: The ultimate summer holiday quiz , provided by the Daily Telegraph . It’s actually sixteen quizes, two each in eight categories. The first three questions in “Art and Literature” are, for example: 1 Which 1851 novel was first published in . . . . Continue Reading »

Why We Need the Dark

Jesus taught that “people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). As an anthropological and ethical statement, this is unequivocally true. But do we need physical darkness?In a National Geographic article entitled “Our Vanishing . . . . Continue Reading »

Cut-Price Judaism? Puh-leeze!

Newsweek religion commentator Lisa Miller complains that the cost of synagogue affiliation is driving Jews away from their religion. Man-bites-dog has nothing on this one; when is the last time that anyone has argued that the big problem with the Jews is that they are short of money? Nonetheless, . . . . Continue Reading »

Are These the Ten Best Hymns of All Time?

We are delighted with the tremendous response to our recent post “Are These the Ten Worst Hymns of All Time?” All along, our plan was to follow the ten worst with the ten best. So now, after much consideration (and a bit of solitary suffering, here and there, among our staffers; it does hurt, . . . . Continue Reading »

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