People for the American Way has a selection of quotes from Janice Rogers Brown (who was just confirmed), apparently intended to demonstrate how nutty she is and what a threat her confirmation is to all that is good and decent. And indeed, some of it does seem a bit nutty; Brown appears to be a…

you realize that you’re closer to the age Anne Bancroft was when she played sexy “older woman” Mrs. Robinson than you are to Dustin Hoffman’s recent college graduate. Sigh.

The BBC is having a vote to determine the greatest (western) philosophers of all time. The voting is closed, – UPDATE: Thanks to Jack Perry I see now that the voting is not closed; it’s the nominations that are closed. My mistake. So, go vote if you want a say! – and the results will…

I cursed his aunts and his uncles and him and all the rest of the family. ‘Do you know that Lady Florence has broken off her engagement with me?’ ‘Indeed, sir?’ Not a bit of sympathy! I might have been telling him it was a fine day. ‘You’re sacked!’ ‘Very good, sir.’ He coughed gently.…

Pastor Frontz and Camassia have both been discussing Catholic-turned-Episcopalian priest and guru of “Creation Spirituality” Matthew Fox’s new “95 theses” which he recently posted to the cathedral door in Wittenberg (what is it with these revisionist Episcopalians and their self-important Luther impersonations?). Some of Fox’s theses are silly, some are eminently debatable, some are just…

Here’s another noteworthy piece from Steve Chapman, “Stem Cell Debate Myths”: Start with the claim that 400,000 frozen embryos otherwise would go to waste. The truth is that most of them are anything but “surplus.” According to a 2003 survey by researchers at the RAND Corp., a California think tank, 88 percent of them are…

Even among folks who opposed the Iraq war, the general consensus (apart from the far Left) has been that now that we’re there, we have to stay. Two op-eds worth noting say it ain’t necessarily so. First, George McGovern and Jim McGovern (no relation, apparently) say it’s time to start bringing the troops home: Our…

I’ve noticed a spate of articles recently on churches trying to make themselves more “hip” to appeal to teens and twentysomethings (Here’s one for instance. Here’s another.). This seems at least loosely connected to the “emerging church” phenomenon which is, among other things, trying to recover (or invent?) a more “authentic” and “meaningful” style of…

Steven Riddle has a series of posts on the practice of lectio divina (here, here, and here). via David Koyzis, an interesting-looking site: Ron Dart, Red Tory and High-Church Anglican. Josh has found something very disturbing. Also, while searching for something else I came across this interesting document: A Theologians’ Brief on the place of…

I’m about 35 pages into John Howard Yoder’s Karl Barth and the Problem of War. The text is an account and critique of Barth’s views on war, based on Barth’s writings as well as personal conversations Yoder had with him. Chapter 3 offers a general overview of Barth’s approach to the ethics of killing. While…