Archives for May 2024

The GOP is a Trump cult. Just ask Bob Good

  |  

Lets talk about Bob Good, the congressman who represents Virginia’s 5th district: Good has a pretty impressive MAGA record. But that won’t get him very far in today’s GOP. Why? Because he would not bend the knee to Trump. Yes, […]

“They like the singer but not the song”

  |  

Pope Francis’s 60 Minutes interview is still making waves. Evangelicals are freaking out because Francis said that human beings are “good at heart.” Progressive Catholics are mad about his remarks on the ordination of women as deacons and his comments […]

Let’s talk about climate change

  |  

Katherine Hayhoe is Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor and the Political Science Endowed Chair of Public Policy and Public Law at Texas Tech University. (Wow, that’s a long title!) She is an evangelical Christian (her husband pastors an evangelical congregation […]

Vice-President Rubio?

  |  

Will it be an all-Florida GOP ticket in November? Florida senator “Little Marco” Rubio wants to part of the ticket, but he doesn’t want to lobby for it. Here is Michael Bender and Patricia Mazzei at The New York Times: […]

Have we lost our moorings as a society?

  |  

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman thinks so, and he makes some pretty good points. Here is a taste of his column, “How We’ve Lost Our Moorings as a Society“: …Almost 30 years ago I visited the Atlantic Forest in Brazil with […]

Ty Cobb hit .367, but Josh Gibson hit .372

  |  

Here is the Associated Press: Josh Gibson became Major League Baseball’s career leader with a .372 batting average, surpassing Ty Cobb’s .367, when Negro Leagues records for more than 2,300 players were incorporated Tuesday after a three-year research project. Gibson’s […]

Ken Burns at Brandeis

  |  

Documentary film maker Ken Burns recently delivered the commencement address to the graduating class of Brandeis University. Read it here. Or watch it here: Here is a taste of Karen Tumulty’s piece at The Washington Post: Burns offered some elegantly […]

Talking evangelicalism and race with Edward Carson

  |  

It’s not often I get to talk with a Black ex-evangelical who is a history teacher, DEI specialist, and member of the Communist Party USA. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with Eddie Carson on WJOP radio (Newburyport, Massachusetts). We talk […]

On the narcissism of Trump’s Memorial Day remarks

  |  

In case you missed it, yesterday Trump wished everyone a happy Memorial Day: Memorial Day is a day we remember those who fought and died for our country. It is a day for historical thinking–a day for connecting with those […]

This is the guy running for governor of North Carolina

  |  

Here is David Graham at The Atlantic: A decade ago, Mark Robinson had a dead-end job and a nasty habit of posting anti-Semitic, homophobic, and sexist screeds on Facebook. Today he is North Carolina’s lieutenant governor. This November, he could […]

The Author’s Corner with Nathan Perl-Rosenthal

  |  

Nathan Perl-Rosenthal is Professor of History, French and Italian, and Law at the University of Southern California. This interview is based on his new book, The Age of Revolutions: And the Generations Who Made It (Basic Books, 2024). JF: What […]