Author: Rufus F.

{I do want to respond to nadezhda in greater depth at some point. I also understand that this is a bit impressionistic-like most discussions of culture. For now, however, let me say that I...

Since it’s Saturday and we’re all relaxing (sort of), I thought I’d post this John Waters interview in lieu of posting. It makes me nostalgic for Baltimore dive bars and bull dagger lesbians, while...

Writing at the NYTimes, Ross Douthat tweaks the noses of liberals, who he says enjoy the culture wars after all. “Can we officially retire the notion that liberals don’t like the culture war? That...

What’s the real problem with the culture wars? Some weirdo suggests it’s that “the stakes are so low“. (Posted on my other, much neglected, blog for fear it’s not “leaguey” enough.)

{Note: Aristotle’s ‘De Anima’ is a work that has, admittedly, got me tied up in knots, which I think will be evident in this post. I’m going to reread De Anima; but I figured...

Here’s an evocative little poem by Ted Hughes. It’s not my favorite of his work (like a lot of people I find Hawk Roosting to be truly perfect), but it’s still, I think, a...

Salon recently posted a fascinating interview with journalist Meredith Maram, who falsely accused her father of molesting her during the heyday of the 1980s “feminist-inspired… mass panic” about “repressed memory syndrome” and has now...

Did the Hebrews have a concept of madness? This strange question comes to mind as I read the Bible and tragedies at the same time. I sympathize greatly with Kierkegaard’s feeling that modern man...

I’ve been thinking of reviving the Sunday poems here for some time now. This W.H. Auden poem struck a chord with me and I thought some of you might like it. O WHAT IS...

Numbers and Deuteronomy complete the Pentateuch/Torah- the books of Moses depicting the creation of the world, the delivery of the Jews out of Egypt, the establishment of the tribes of Israel and their laws....

The conversation about the Crusades piqued my curiosity, so I read “The Conquest of Constantinople” by Geoffrey of Villehardouin, knight and historian of the Fourth Crusade. I’m certainly no expert on the subject, although...

The ursine and passionate Andrew Sullivan emerges from his recent hibernation today with a must-read post about yesterday’s “State Secrets” ruling. Sullivan: “Yes war requires some secrecy. But Obama has gone much further than...

I rented Harlan County USA for Labor Day and found it, not surprisingly, to be an extremely absorbing documentary. Chronicling a 1973 strike at the coal mines of Duke Power, Barbara Kopple draws us...

Genesis contains some of the best-remembered stories of the Old Testament. But Exodus has narrative advantages over Genesis, particularly its straightforward and compelling central narrative: how Moses led the Jews out of Egyptian bondage...

My wife has joked about the foolhardiness of blogging the Bible due to the likelihood of offending everyone: people who take the Bible as the word of God understandably take it very seriously, and...

Socrates, we’ll remember, felt a reverent awe in the face of poetry. In Ion, god-inspired rhapsody had an effect on the audience akin to possession. In Republic, the emotions aroused by poets threatened the...

It was a disaster, a quagmire, a nightmare, and the American government should have never gotten us involved… But, some short term goals have been met and now they’re getting ready to start pulling...

I’m not sure this is the best approach to “beer blogging”, but I thought I’d  post something about my current favorite beers, the three Chimay ales. The Chimay “red” was available at the LCBO...

I realize we’ve reached mosque overload here, but I have an obscure textual question about a story the Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf tells in a video I linked to recently, which in itself really...

Peter Jaworski holds an annual “Liberty Summer” event for fellow libertarians on his parents’ land in Orono, Ontario. This year, irony-loving Canadian government officials shut down the event by threatening to fine him up...