Over at the Panorama, historian Gabe Loiacono introduces us to hog reeves. “Hog reeves were annually elected town officers,” he writes, “whose part-time position ensured that all hogs in the town wore a yoke and a nose-ring and were generally […]
Archives for August 2024
REVIEW: Still the Jeremiad
James Davison Hunter turns to ‘culture’ for hope. Can it deliver?
David French is voting for Harris-Walz. What are his fellow evangelicals saying about the decision?
In his most recent New York Times column, David French announced that he will be voting for Harris-Walz in November in order to “save conservatism from itself.” Here is a taste: It is fascinating to me that there are voices […]
Will I be voting for Donald Trump in November?
I got a few messages this week informing me that some folks on social media are saying that my recent piece merging “Evangelicals for Harris” with Charles Camosy’s First Things essay on abortion means that I am going to vote […]
“What deporting 15 million people would look like”
Every now and then I hear or read something about Donald Trump doing well among Hispanics. As Mexican journalist LeĂłn Krauze argues, Hispanic voters who support the former president need to know exactly what he is planning. Here is a […]
There Is No Should in Grief
In the face of anguish, loss, and mortality, we need good stories
The Arena is on vacation (and a few reading recommendations from the Current vault)!
Arena is on vacation–but there are some great reads from Current vault!
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: Who was Prince Whipple and what did he have to do with Washington crossing the Delaware? Armand D.Angour reviews Simon Horobin’s C.S. Lewis’s Oxford. David French on why he is […]
“Evangelicals for Harris” speakers named on the day after we learn more about Tim Walz’s extreme views on abortion
In his 2010 book To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter argued that both the Christian Right and the Evangelical Left were guilty of […]
Is Tim Walz an “unhinged moral degenerate?” Is he “demonic?”
Recently, conservatives–especially conservative Christians–have said some pretty bad things about Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s VP pick. As we noted in our recent roundups of evangelical responses to the Harris-Walz ticket, some evangelicals are calling Walz an “unhinged moral degenerate,” “demonic,” […]
Blessing of Unicorns: Nature, plants, novels, homeschooling, and trying to write better
This week’s Unicorns: essays on living creatures, plant life, homeschooling and parental rights, and trying to write better with the help of two masters of the craft.
Songs of Wheat, Refrains of Birds
Self-sufficiency comes all too easily. The ravens know a better way.
Steve Martin will NOT play Tim Walz on Saturday Night Live
Martin told Lorne Michaels that he is “not an impressionist.” He added: “You need someone who can really nail the guy. I was picked because I have gray hair and glasses.” More here.
Jenna Ellis will testify against Rudy Giuliani in Arizona election case
In 2020, Jenna Ellis was part of a group of Donald Trump lawyers who tried to overturn the results of the presidential election. She now realizes that she hitched her cart to the wrong wagon. This, of course, is what […]
Damon Linker on the post-liberal Catholics driving J.D. Vance and the Trump campaign
Linker compares today’s anti-liberal Catholic conservatives to the liberal Catholic conservatives who gathered around Richard John Neuhaus’s First Things twenty years ago. Linker is well-suited to make such comparisons. He was editor of First Things from 2004 to 2005. After […]
“Electing the President” is an amazing digital resource for understanding the popular vote in presidential elections from 1840-2020
I could play around on this site for hours on end. From the website: “Most presidential election maps emphasize the candidates and parties who won or lost the Electoral College. Electing the President shifts the focus to American voters, highlighting the […]
Making sense of the far right’s flags
Over at The Atlantic, Ali Breland gets us oriented. Here is a taste of “A Field Guide to the Flags of the Far Right“: Americans love flying flags. Not just the Stars and Stripes—flags of their state, their city, their […]
REVIEW: Richard Nixon’s Graceless Religion
Nixon sought redemption—but on his own terms
Reading through the Penguin Little Black Classics: numbers 3-5
This post continues the series begun with this essay on Penguin Little Black Classics, number 1-2. The Penguin Little Black Classics are an excellent read. Each short book is entertaining and, at mid-50 pages, just long enough to give you […]
What Trump said in 2020 about the way Minnesota governor Tim Walz handled the George Floyd protests
Donald Trump was “very happy” with the way Walz handled the Minneapolis rioters. Here ABC News: In the hours after Vice President Kamala Harris announced Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, allies of former President Donald Trump rushed to denigrate the […]