Crunchy Con

Behold, the perfect summer cocktail

Rod Dreher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:00:27 -0500

I was blessed to spend about three hours this evening drinking and talking with two good friends, Rawlins and Bill H., whose comments you see from time to time on this blog. Bill took us to a semi-out-of-the-way Dallas bar...

Summer in Texas = Life in hell

Rod Dreher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:52:36 -0500

I just went out into the backyard to admire the new back steps a carpenter built for us, and I could barely stand to be out there for more than a minute. It's 103 degrees here in Dallas this afternoon....

Astyk: Michael Jackson mourning b.s.

Rod Dreher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:52:08 -0500

Boy, Sharon really hits a home run with this intelligent jeremiad against the cult of public celebrity mourning that has overtaken our country. Think about it: three weeks ago Michael Jackson was a washed-up celebrity weirdo, a plastic-surgery addict, probably...

Ohio anti-white "hate crime"

Rod Dreher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:47:14 -0500

Again, I don't believe in the concept of hate crimes. I believe in crimes. But if you are a believer in hate crimes as a legitimate concept, then let's hear you call for the hate-crimes hammer to come down hard...

Pixar and the Pope

Rod Dreher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:41:18 -0500

Take a look at this short, utterly charming Pixar film: Now, go read the Anchoress for her clever exegesis, explaining how this video tells the essential truth about Pope Benedict's newest encyclical, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth). I'll have...

Prosperity Gospel prospering in hard times

Rod Dreher — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:23:23 -0500

I was reading this piece in Slate asking how the Prosperity Gospel -- the idea that God wants you to get rich, if you want to -- is faring in hard times, and thinking, "This is really good and well-informed;...

Why shouldn't the Uighurs riot?

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:44:53 -0500

Of course I don't approve of rioting, but the Chinese government has been crapping on the Muslim Uighur minority for a very long time, dispossessing them in their own land (as it has done to the Tibetans, moving ethnic Han...

Casey Kasem retires

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:19:43 -0500

Did you know that deejay Casey Kasem retired abruptly this weekend? I didn't. Truth to tell, I thought he had died ages ago. Did you know that he was the voice of Shaggy in "Scooby Doo"? Did you know that...

Can you eat your pet?

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:54:50 -0500

Caleb Stegall ponders the topic, and comes down against the idea of pets. Excerpt: "Pets" as a category are a symptom of the deeper rot and sickness of conspicuous consumption in American culture and life. Eat your pets? One may...

Segregationist suburban swim party!

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:32:49 -0500

This is ugly. Some black kids in an inner-city day care were supposed to be able to get out of town to go to a suburban country club for a swim break. Read on: But every Monday afternoon, they were...

Paris Jackson speaks

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:24:10 -0500

Did you watch Michael Jackson's young daughter Paris speak at yesterday's event? Here's that clip: It was extremely moving, and reminded me that however freaky MJ was, he was this child's daddy. I remember a friend I once had whose...

Remembering the better Michael Jackson

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:55:38 -0500

Two years ago, the real Michael Jackson died -- the legendary beer journalist and advocate, I mean. Here's his WaPo obit, which discussed how incredibly important he was, and how he bears a great deal of responsibility for the fact...

Camille Paglia vs. hate crimes

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:34:25 -0500

From Camille's latest Salon column, in which she answers letters from readers: I am conservative politically, yet I see the profound weaknesses in the movement. One thing from the liberal side of thinking that I struggle with is the concept...

Marketing church and religion

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:19:58 -0500

Slate analyzes and rates Scientology's new advertising campaign. I watched the ad they embedded into the story, and it struck me as fairly potent. I think Scientology is a weird pseudo-religion, so it doesn't bother me that it gets a...

Alberto Gonzales finally employed

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:24:19 -0500

The former US Attorney General has at long last landed a job. He will be teaching a political science class at Texas Tech in Lubbock this fall. The former leading light of the Bush 43 administration will also be helping...

Why you should invest with Muslims

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:18:49 -0500

Mistrusting bankers has been good for their mutual funds....

Maya Angelou at the Hallmark store

Rod Dreher — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:50:44 -0500

Did you know that poet Maya Angelou, who typed wrote so eloquently of Michael Jackson's demise having left the planet "piercingly alone," not too long ago released her own line of inspirational kitsch via the Hallmark store? it must not...

Fundamentalism, intolerance and science

Rod Dreher — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:02:24 -0500

This is not the kind of story you think it will be from the headline. Anglican priest Michael Reiss is a leading British bioethicist and science educator. Until late last year, he ran the Royal Society's science education division. Why...

The unstable Sarah Palin

Rod Dreher — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:45:43 -0500

John Podhoretz tells fellow conservatives an inconvenient truth: Last week, the day Palin made her bombshell announcement, Jonah Goldberg wrote her an open letter urging Palin to bone up on issues and become fluent before taking the big jump into...

Needed: Dignity and duty

Rod Dreher — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:52:37 -0500

David Brooks: The old dignity code has not survived modern life. The costs of its demise are there for all to see. Every week there are new scandals featuring people who simply do not know how to act. For example,...

Maya Angelou eulogizes Michael Jackson! Ru-u-u-n!

Rod Dreher — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:20:28 -0500

(Pictured above, one of the most terrifying weapons ever devised by the Celebrity-Industrial Complex) A sensibly misanthropic friend e-mails: I'm planning to have the TV in my office on all morning - I don't want to miss a single...

Happy Tuesday with Mary Poppins

Rod Dreher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:18:04 -0500

I heard the whole film "Mary Poppins" twice on the way to and from Colorado. Kids in the back seats watching it on DVD. I thought I'd heard about enough of La Poppins, but Andrew Sullivan posted this great dance...

But will Elton John serenade him off?

Rod Dreher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:56:11 -0500

Time to get your Charles Cosimano on, as America's celebrity-industrial complex goes into Defcon 5 in advance of tomorrow's apotheosis of Michael Jackson: Downtown hotels were quickly filling. Police, trying to avoid a mob scene, warned those without tickets to...

If ABBA had chickens...

Rod Dreher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:36:51 -0500

The Mighty Joe Carter sends along news (and photographs) of a cheapo yuppie chicken coop made from repurposed IKEA furniture parts. I love the idea behind the website, IKEA Hacker, dedicated to people who creatively re-engineer IKEA furniture. Check it...

Sarah Palin, Mark Sanford and Occam's Razor

Rod Dreher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:36:22 -0500

Stanley Fish argues the public statements and actions of Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford are so puzzling and unusual that maybe, just maybe, they are exactly what they seem to be. Here's Fish: Maybe he should look at the video...

Palin: A view from Alaska

Rod Dreher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:27:11 -0500

A reader from Alaska sends in the following, which I post with permission: Hi Rod, Thought you'd like to know that all the talking guys on the local radio up here in AK are saying that the cost to the...

Was Neda a Christian?

Rod Dreher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:33:14 -0500

Terry Mattingly has some shocking information (if true) about the icon of the ongoing Iranian unrest....

Robert McNamara and the fog of war

Rod Dreher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:21:30 -0500

The best thing you can do to mark the death of Robert S. McNamara, who passed away today at 93, is to rent Errol Morris's 2003 documentary "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara."...

Sarah Palin's poisoned chalice

Rod Dreher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:13:16 -0500

In his best Times column yet, Ross Douthat -- who, like me, was an early Palin enthusiast, but was later disillusioned and disappointed -- reflects on how Palin ruined her national political career by accepting John McCain's bid to join...

Oelwein, Ludlow and the rest of us

Rod Dreher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:09:26 -0500

I rarely agree with Frank Rich, but this weekend he was spot on. Excerpt: The estimated $65 billion involved in Madoff's flimflam is dwarfed by the more than $2.5 trillion paid so far by American taxpayers to bail out those...

Orthodoxy in the Philadelphia area?

Rod Dreher — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:14:09 -0500

A reader writes: My husband's company has offered him a transfer to the Philadelphia area. We are thinking about taking it, but we don't know anything about the region. The most important thing to us is church. Do you know...

Huckabee: The Palin dragonslayer?

Rod Dreher — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:24:35 -0500

Steve Waldman says that if Sarah Palin is planning a 2012 run for the GOP presidential nomination, only Mike Huckabee can stop her from locking up the religious conservative base. That sounds about right to me. Strangely enough, the fact...

How should Megan and Peter marry?

Rod Dreher — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:29:13 -0500

Here's some happy news: Peter Suderman and Megan McArdle, two of the best bloggers around, are getting married. Mazel tov! Many years! They've now got to figure out how to get married affordably. Any advice? I have only a broad...