A few things online that caught my attention this week: Simone Weil: “decreationist“ An New York Times editor on what she learned about slavery in her 1960s history class. It’s not what you might expect. Female war correspondentes in the […]
Cornel West vs. Bernie Sanders
Democratic socialists disagree over Joe Biden in 2024: I am a West fan, but I lean toward Sanders here. There are certain times in one’s life–hopefully only a few times–when doctrinal purity must be set aside for the greater good […]
“‘Keep off the Grass’ is not a sexist remark”
I recently saw some tweets from folks who suggested that men are sexist and probably misogynistic if they criticize the ideas of a woman. Yes–sometimes this happens. But sometimes the person being criticized just has bad ideas. And sometimes these […]
Post-Roe abortion debate is coming to Pennsylvania
Prior to the Dobbs decision no one really cared about state Supreme Court races. They do now. Here is Holly Otterbein at Politico: Less than a month after their double-digit victory on abortion rights in Ohio, Democrats are preparing to […]
Is Cornel West a Marxist?
Conservative political philosopher Robert George defends his friend and presidential candidate:
Springsteen opens Gillette Stadium show with “Lonesome Day”
This is the first time “Lonesome Day” has ever opened a Springsteen show. Did he have Jacksonville in mind?
Imagine if the Christian right started offering mere âthoughts and prayersâ to end abortion
Four dead at a Dollar General store in Jacksonville today. That’s the 470th mass shooting in the United States this year–and it’s only August. I wrote this piece at The Washington Post after the 2019 shootings in El Paso, Texas […]
Vivek Ramaswamy: The United States won World War II because FDR got polio
Watch GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on the Jordan Peterson Show: I like to teach my students that two things can indeed be true at the same time. But not in this case.
Speech of the day
Can one oppose abortion and still be a democratic socialist?
Check out Matt McManus‘s review of Sohrab Ahmari’s Tryanny , Inc.: How Private Power Crushed American Liberty–and What to Do About It at Jacobin. As I noted in an earlier post, socialists really like this book despite Ahmari’s social conservatism. […]
Did New York Times columnist David Brooks just endorse Nikki Haley for the GOP presidential nomination?
It sure looks like it. Here is a taste of his column today: I have a bunch of friends and acquaintances who are Never Trump, maybe-Trump or kind-of-Trump Republicans. Theyâve been looking around for the candidate they can support and […]
Could Vivek Ramaswamy pass his own citizenship test?
I think the upstart GOP presidential candidate would get at least one question wrong. Here is College of the Holy Cross historian Ed O’Donnell: Here is the full context: See our take on Ramaswamy’s recent GOP debate performance here. George […]
Do you want to make the past more interesting for your students? Focus on contingency.
In my book Why Study History (revised second edition coming in March 2024!) I introduce students and other readers to Thomas Andrews and Flannery Burke’s five Cs of historical thinking. They are change over time, context, causality, complexity, and contingency. […]
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:
Trump is the only president in American history with a mugshot
He is also back on X (Twitter); On the day he surrendered at the Fulton County Jail, Trump tweets that he will “never surrender.”
Evangelical roundup for August 24, 2023
What is happening in Evangelical land? How Tim Keller influenced British evangelicals. White evangelicals and Vivek Ramaswamy. What are evangelicals thinking about as the 2024 election approaches. Shane is still chopping: White evangelicals trust Trump. Young evangelical climate activists. The […]
Donald Trump: Rainmaker
âSometimes folks need to believe in something so badâ
Tonight’s GOP debate: Winners, losers, and Vivek
My favorite tweet about Vivek Ramaswamy’s performance at tonight’s GOP debate came from conservatvie William Kristol: Vivek Ramaswamy has no political experience. Tonight it showed: Ramaswamy’s schtick works well on cable news, but tonight he made every candidate on the […]
The GOP candidates debate abortion tonight
The GOP presidential candidates came out swinging tonight: Once these candidates got their prepared zingers out of the way, they settled down to have a fairly civil debate on abortion. (This may be becacuse the loud-mouthed Vivek Ramaswamy was not […]
Jenna Ellis jumped on the Trump train. Now she has a mug shot.
Jenna Ellis is perhaps the best example of an evangelical Christian who built her entire career and public persona around Donald Trump. No one knew who she was before 2017,. She was homeschooled, attended Cedarville University (she later transfered to […]