Monthly Archives: April 2012

“[A]fter watching the video myself, I came a way less convinced that Savage had bullied anyone and more aware of Evangelical culture’s tendency toward martyrdom.”

“Question: do we really need to give teenagers a book [“The Catcher in the Rye”] which is about exactly how teenagers tend to feel? . . . Enter Franny and Zooey. A lesser known Salinger novel[.]”

“I write about this here because I don’t know how to reconcile the joy of my daughter’s impending arrival with the deep ambivalence I feel about this pregnancy.”

“For this edition of ‘Grace Notes’, I’m going to focus on a few gems that, if it weren’t for Bandcamp, I never would’ve heard.”

“Battleground provides an unflinching look at the political world in a way that’s less about idealism and politics than it is the personal impact that results from working in politics.”

“Charity is never that easy, and anyone who has ever worked with the poor knows that a total shutdown of any kind of safety net would be a disaster, and yet they also know that there are some who abuse the system.”

“If I buy what the film’s selling, then the only consolation I have is that at least I feel alive as the flames melt me.”

“If mature moviegoers are truly concerned with discernment, then they’d better start cultivating finer imaginations that are oriented in such a way so as to desire what is good.”

“No one is perfect. Not even the airline industry.”

“Is this the beginning of a creepy new trend to keep celebrities alive for as long as we please?”

“But the larger idea of ‘beauty’ has an unavoidable element of subjectivity to it in most cases, which is one of the difficulties in defining art as wholly objective.”

“If Metta World Peace is harmed, it will be as a result of his own actions—not by the NBA’s impulsiveness.”

“So if you are one of the many people who hates Facebook, here is something worth considering: perhaps you are using it poorly.”

“I am in awe of the refinement that Helm’s suffering created in his music over the years and I wonder at the fruit of him taking his Southern sound to a new land where it was received for it’s beauty, authenticity and simplicity.”

How can we learn from the exceptional lives of our heroes without becoming discouraged?

“Lactation is not a disability; it’s a choice, yet it points to larger social discomforts about women generally and mothers specifically.”