Vultures
After the death of a successful author, almost like clockwork, the speculation about whether or not they left behind any unpublished work begins. This may sound harsh, but such speculation almost always makes me think of vultures circling a literary corpse, and the recent death of J.D. Salinger has certainly brought out the vultures in [...]
iPad! iPad!
Apple’s big announcement finally came today and let me just say: ooh! Ooh! The iPad! Want! Want! Weirdly enough, out of all of its great features, I’m most excited by the news that the full-screen color edition of The New York Times will be available as an iPad app. How fantastic would it be to [...]
Some lovely things:
• The whole Pat Robertson affair (I wrote about it here) has inspired some fantastic pieces from some wonderful writers. Do check them out: Richard Dawkins’s “Haiti and the hypocrisy of Christian theology” (published at The Washington Post’s “On Faith” blog) is superb, powerful, and completely spot-on: Loathsome as Robertson’s views undoubtedly are, he is [...]
Analogy Fail
Remember Mark Vernon, he of The Holy Rabbit fame? Well, he’s back. Oh, goody. In today’s Comment is free, in an article titled “A third way through the Bible”, he discusses Howard Jacobson’s television documentary, The Bible: A History. Unsurprisingly, Vernon’s article is full of false analogies, pathetic attempts to rationalize his nonsensical beliefs, and [...]
One true sentence
Sometimes a little dose of Hemingway is just what I need: It was wonderful to walk down the long flight of stairs knowing that I’d had good luck working. I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be [...]
It is only we, with our capacity to love, that give meaning to the indifferent universe
Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors is quite possibly my favorite film. It’s engrossing, thoughtful, funny, smart, and achingly poignant. I’m feeling rather wistful today, and, when I’m feeling this way, I like to revisit the film’s final scene: We’re all faced throughout our lives with agonizing decisions, moral choices. Some are on a grand scale, [...]
If anyone’s a real Christian, it’s Pat Robertson
Today’s National Post contains a commentary by Rex Murphy, titled “God’s unappointed spokesman,” which discusses Pat Robertson’s disgusting comments about the situation in Haiti and how they relate to theodicy, a branch of theological study focused on the question of why the “loving” God that many Christians worship would allow for the existence of evil [...]
A few favorites
Hello! My apologies for the brief absence. I’ve been quite under the weather this past week. Also, the new semester starts tomorrow and I’ve been very busy preparing for that. I’ll be back in the swing of things soon. For now, here are a few recommendations/things I’ve recently enjoyed: My friend Paul is both an [...]
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