The first century orator Dio Chrysostom narrates a conversation between the famous Cynic Diogenes and a pilgrim on his way to visit the oracle at Delphi. Delayed in his journey because of a runaway slave, the pilgrim runs into Diogenes who then engages him in a lengthy discussion that focuses on the . . . . Continue Reading »
One of my astute sons has been trying to persuade me that the current idea of progress is actually regress; we seem to moving away from civilized behavior to get back to our roots or something, forgetting the long slog of mankind away from them to gain something better and cleaner for human . . . . Continue Reading »
Musically, not that impressive, an instance of the Beatles’ rock-meets-music-hall mode, but winsome enough if you don’t listen to it often. It’s fun, and it knows it’s sing-song-y. Irony-hounds might even ask whether that hints at some kind of reversal being the true message. But, no, the . . . . Continue Reading »
Back to where our world begins, the 1960s. The English word love can refer to a number of different sorts of love that other languages, classical Greek particularly, kept more distinct in their vocabulary. The distinctions between agape, philos, and eros, for example, are fairly . . . . Continue Reading »
” So today’s would-be Lysistratas need to develop ways of stigmatizing young women who too readily say yes to sex, just as unions do to scabs and strikebreakers. What a feminist triumph that would be .” says James Taranto, discussing hook-up culture and the arguments about . . . . Continue Reading »
Whit Stillman fans know that his first three films are a loosely connected trilogy of sorts, with THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO being the film that ties them together by means of our meeting key characters from the other two in its Club. How then, does his recent DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, a rather stranger . . . . Continue Reading »
I wore black today. Black suit, black tie, and a black shroud over the Romney-Ryan sign in my yard. No, I do not think, contrary to countless heartfelt comments one sees on the conservative blogs today, that the republic died today. But make no mistake: something did die today. Obama voters, you . . . . Continue Reading »
Last week, Kimberly Hyatt of Patheos asked why Christians are mean in “Look at the Christians: See How Mean They Are” . “Perhaps it is past time for us to stop focusing on what others are doing or trying to do and start taking responsibility for our own actions and their . . . . Continue Reading »
The New York Times, maybe not unsurprisingly, recruits subscribers through college emails with the offer of limited free access. Today’s offering, from the cover of Sunday’s Book Review brought the headline, Sex and God at Yale , by Nathan Harden, from a review titled, . . . . Continue Reading »
A look at the new adultery, which is the old adultery seen through the wink and nod. You or I, if conservative, might think that such a thing undermines marriage, but, author Catherine Hakim insists not, that adultery should be retitled something like a playfair or an . . . . Continue Reading »