The Good Book in the Internet Age
David Plotz of Slate is undertaking a fascinating project with a terrible name: “Blogging the Bible.” It starts here and is a mix of snarky commentary and a close reading rooted in genuine curiosity.
Miscellany
An Early Contender for Sentence of the Year
Nominated for its brevity, its simplicity, its expressiveness, and its sonic shape: “They’d boo free pie.”
Tagged: Language
Building Up by Tearing Down
I’m about 15 years late to this party, but I’ve always planned to write a lengthy piece on my love for Oliver Stone’s JFK. My point would simply be that whatever its failings as a credible history (or even a viable alternative history), JFK excels as propaganda, and should be studied for that reason. In a 1993 essay in The Atlantic, Edward Jay Epstein does a good job explaining Stone’s methods.
Tagged: JFK, Oliver Stone, Politics, Propaganda
Bunnies! (Of the Dead Variety)
On her way to join me at a screening of Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut, my wife ran over a bunny with her car. Oh, the irony.
Tagged: Bunnies, Donnie Darko
No More Doggie Sex
As someone who has made the “slippery slope” argument on the implications of legalized gay marriage, it was refreshing to see my friend Dahlia pick it apart.
Tagged: Dahlia Lithwick, Gay Marriage, Politics, Same Sex Marriage, Slate
Distrust Your Eyes
I’m not a big fan of the online magazine Salon – it’s so knee-jerk liberal that it’s offensive to thoughtful people, preachy to the choir of loyal leftists, and easily dismissed by conservatives. But today’s edition includes three interesting pieces.
Tagged: Salon
No More Monkey Sex
Because I believe dead horses should be beaten, Snob heroine Dahlia Lithwick writes an amusing but bitter piece on the topic of the U.S. Supreme Court and the death penalty.
God’s Away on Business
Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick is my favorite legal writer, because she invariably cuts through the bullshit and makes the U.S. Supreme Court sound fun and catty. She’s also excellent at clearly laying out the issues of a case and talking about it both legal and practical terms. Yesterday’s dispatch on the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is a perfect example.
Terrorism and Its Aftermath: Two Essays
It’s imperative that we indulge our grief, anger, and even hatred, and it’s equally important that we shed those things, however briefly, as we consider our individual and collective responses. Anger is natural. It’s what we do with it that tells us whom we are.
