In honor of Presidents’ Day, please enjoy this menu suggestion for dinner tonight and some Presidential foods trivia to go with that!
Archives for February 2024
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Jonathan RĂ©e reviews Ămile Perreau-Saussine’s Alasdair McIntyre: An Intellectual Biography. The publishing world‘s “grumpy old men” and “cantankerous codgers.” If you come after them, “you best not miss.” What holds […]
Today at USA Today: “The politics of character in American evangelicalism is over”
Happy to help USA Today’s Chris Brennan with his most recent USA Today column. Here is a taste: “John Fea, a history professor at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, explains it as ‘a contractual relationship’ between Trump and his evangelical supporters. […]
“Christian nation idea fuels US conservative causes, but historians say it misreads founders’ intent”
Happy to help Associated Press religion reporter Peter Smith with this piece. A taste: Those arguing for a Christian America are generally not historians and not really talking about history â theyâre talking politics, said John Fea, author of the […]
Social media “created ‘an alternate universe’ in which identity-based sufferingâor merely the claim to such…could be converted into social capital.”
I just finished reading Thomas Chatterton Williams’s fascinating piece at The Atlantic on Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Michael R. Jackson. Here is a taste: In the summer of 2020, the playwright Michael R. Jackson received an unusual message from a fan of A […]
Romney: âI must admit that I find sexual assault to be a line I will not cross in the people I select to be my presidentâ
Mitt Romney still believes in the politics of character. What a dinosaur! đ Watch: Compare with this: For those who are not on X, here is Graham’s full text: We need to pray for our country and where it is […]
Newly elected New York congressman Tom Suozzi echoes RFK’s 1968 campaign
Yesterday I posted a piece on Tom Suozzi’s victory in the New York 3 special election to replace George Santos. During the campaign, Suozzi praised the recent Senate bipartisan border bill, calling it “the toughest and fairest set of reforms […]
My Christianity Today review of Rob Reiner’s new film on Christian nationalism
Reiner’s “God and Country” drops today. Christianity Today asked me to review it. Here is a taste of my review: Heave an egg out a Pullman window,â social critic H. L. Mencken famously said in 1925, âand you will hit […]
Could we see a Manchin-Romney ticket in 2024?
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin may be launching a third-party bid for president in 2024 as the candidate of the bipartisan No Labels organization. And he also may be picking Mitt Romney as a running mate. Or maybe none of […]
Matt Lewis: Today’s GOP would’ve rooted for Ivan Drago
Here is Matt Lewis at The Daily Beast: At some point in my lifetime, the Republican Party went from saying, âMr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!â to effectively telling Russiaâs current leader, âMr. Putin, invade our NATO allies.â Iâm left wondering how […]
What is popular this week at Current?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Arena blog:
Alexi Navalny dies in a Russian prison. He was 47.
Here is NBC News: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in prison, the country’s state media reported Friday, ending a yearslong fight against corruption and the Kremlin that saw him survive several poisoning attempts. He was 47. A prominent critic of […]
REVIEW: The Interpretation of Dreams
Reconsidering a defining concept of national Identity
A Blessing of Unicorns (02/16/2024)
This weekâs blessing of unicorns includes Andrey Kurkov, Cesar Chavez, Evagrius of Pontus, what/where is the Midwest anyway, home births, ancient sea monsters, and modern ferrets.
The “center is on immigration”
In case you missed it, a centrist Democrat, Tom Suozzi, won the special election to replace disgraced U.S. congressman George Santos in New York District 3. Immigration was at the heart of the campaign. Here is the editorial board of […]
Evangelical roundup for February 15, 2024
What is happening in Evangelical land? Should evangelicals fear Nones? French evangelicals launch a “Stop Abuse” website. Russell Moore talks politics, faith, and mission. The Asbury Revival: One year later. The National Association of Evangelicals celebrates Black History Month: Evangelical […]
FORUM: Christopher Lasch (II)
Thirty years after Laschâs death, how should we remember him?
Chicken-fried democracy
South Dakota’s legislative Cracker Barrels show democracy at its best.
Presidential love letters
Here is your Valentine’s Day post. It comes, via LitHub, from Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making?: Letters of Live and Lust from the White House. A taste: When a man writes a letter to a woman […]
Can Presbyterians fall in love?
I published this piece at Common-Place, back in 2008. I thought I would repost it for Valentine’s Day: Can Presbyterians fall in love? Okay, everyone falls in love, but when people think of Presbyterians they normally conjure up images of […]