Our default optimism runs counter to our deepest wisdom
Archives for November 2022
Evidence of Doug Mastriano’s extremism from three Pennsylvania counties
As I watched the Pennsylvania gubernatorial race unfold last night, I was focused on three counties: Luzerne, Berks, and my home county of Cumberland. In 2020, Trump won all of these counties. Last night, GOP senatorial candidate Mehmet Oz won […]
Shapiro defeats Mastriano. Here is what Mastriano’s followers are saying
It was never really close. Let’s face it, Mastriano had no chance. It was foolish for the Pennsylvania GOP voters to pick him as his candidate. He is too extreme for Pennsylvania. His candidacy speaks volumes about the state of […]
Fearmongering 101
Trump court evangelical Jim Garlow recently wrote an election piece at Charisma magazine. He says that charismatic Christians (the readers of Charisma) should vote for Democrats if they want: HT: Kyle Mantyla This sounds a lot like what the Federalists […]
A history of the “I Voted” sticker
Are you wearing one today? Here is Rhea Nayyar at HyperAllergic: It’s unclear where the first voting sticker debuted as they’ve been regionally available through local businesses and organizations post-World War II. The Miami Herald mentions the distribution of an […]
Eric Metaxas expects Doug Mastriano will win today “by divine appointment” and it will a be “miracle”
Here is Metaxas discussing his experience at a Trump rally this weekend. He also attacks Atlanta pastor Andy Stanley, Focus on the Family’s Jim Daly, T.D. Jakes, and Creflo Dollar for not agreeing with his politics.
Former Pennsylvania governors urge Doug Mastriano and Josh Shapiro to accept the election results
Former governors Tom Ridge (R), Mark Schweiker (R), Ed Rendell (D), and Tom Corbett (R) have urged gubernatorial candidates Mastriano and Shapiro to accept the results of the 2022 election, which will be decided today. This warning probably applies more […]
A museum exhibit on Roe v. Wade
It’s at Harvard Schlesinger Library. Here is Jennifer Schuessler at The New York Times: In the corner of a ground-floor gallery at Harvard’s Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America sits a small plexiglass case, holding two cowboy […]
The best campus novels of the last century
The list includes Dorothy Sayers’s Gaudy Night (1935); Wallace Stegner’s Crossing to Safety (1987); Ishmael Reed’s Japanese by Spring (1993); Philip Roth, The Human Stain (2000); and Tobias Wolff, Old School (2003). Here is Emily Temple at LitHub: The days […]
‘Tis the Season!
Better write your Christmas letter—before the country comes crashing down!
The Author’s Corner with Philip Levy
Philip Levy is Professor of History at the University of South Florida. This interview is based on his new book, The Permanent Resident: Excavations and Explorations of George Washington’s Life (University of Virginia Press, 2022). JF: What led you to […]
Evangelical roundup for November 7, 2022
What is happening in Evangelical land: Is immigration an opportunity or a threat for evangelicals? Oxford evangelicals are not happy with their diocesan bishop’s stand on same-sex marriage. More here. Herschel Walker wants redemption without atonement. Shane receives a Beloved […]
REVIEW: Pomo Prez
Narcissism really isn’t that complicated. But its effects are.
Metaxas says Biden and Pelosi are not Catholics and anyone who believes otherwise are buying into a “lie” from the “pit of hell”
Metaxas showed-up at a Trump rally in LaTrobe this weekend. The Biden and Pelosi stuff starts at the 2:38 mark: My “favorite” part of this interview is at the 3:10 mark when the Trump-loving Metaxas says that “when somebody lies […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Why Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King paid for the birth of Julia Roberts Twice before in history, the Supreme Court has allowed itself to become an arm […]
For MAGA Christians, it doesn’t matter if the founding fathers’ quote they use is true, as long as it rallies the base
Dutch Sheets is a leader in the New Apostolic Reformation, a brand of charismatic evangelicalism that powers the Christian MAGA movement. Sheets leads pro-Trump prayer tours around the country, travels around with Lance Wallnau, Charlie Kirk and others where he […]
Sean Feucht leads 1000s of MAGA evangelicals in “striking the ground” for “victory” on Tuesday.
When ice cream mixes with horse manure is it still ice cream? When Christianity mixes with politics is it still Christianity? Here is evangelical worship leader Sean Feucht in Branson, Missouri at the latest stop on the 2022 ReAwaken America […]
Episode 105: “‘Heathenism’ in America”
According to historian Kathryn Gin Lum, Americans have long viewed the world as a realm of suffering heathens whose lands and lives needed their intervention to flourish. The term “heathen” fell out of common use by the early 1900s, but […]
Doug Mastriano’s Pickett’s Charge
Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano loves to talk about the Battle of Gettysburg. Well, last night at Legacy Faith Church in Harrisburg, before a lot of empty seats, he made his Pickett’s Charge. As some of you know, Pickett’s Charge […]
Richard Rodriguez on the 40th anniversary edition of Hunger of Memory
One of the best books I’ve ever read is out in a new edition: