Religion Dispatches
…those of us whose lifestyles are dependent upon a ‘religious’ devotion to cheap oil. The deepest irony of all is that BP, along with the other oil companies, has come to function as a god. The truth, buried beneath all the oil and punditry, is that our devotion to this false god has led to the suffering of innocents, in the oceans and beaches, in the marshes and ecosystems, and in our communities. We have been slow, too slow by far, to realize th…
Read More…illac” insurance plans that will be taxed under this new law—and “it ain’t cheap!” she proclaimed. As a good Republican, she believes in the self-regulating power of an unencumbered free market. If insurance companies are allowed to compete freely with one another, she figures, then insurance premiums will go down and people will have more choice. She noted that about 10 companies compete for her health care dollar each year when they have open en…
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…fans among the expo’s 40,000 visitors. “Some Christians Think We are Just Cheap Harlots” “A lot of guys pose for photos with us and when they go home and look up what’s on our T-shirts, they learn what we’re about,” Lobért explained to Telegraph reporter Philip Sherwell. “We call it booby-trapping.” But those who attend adult entertainment fairs aren’t exactly Lobért’s target audience. Her conspicuous appearance is also meant to attract the other…
Read More…ttle-discussed provision of the ACA, hospitals that serve disproportionate numbers of the urban poor are losing their subsidies. But for Obama not to stand his ground and say that the cheap, low-level policies that many healthy people now have should be cancelled for the sake of the common good: that’s just inexcusable. On the other hand, he’s not getting a lot of help from his Democratic “friends” on this one, and for the same reason: They likewi…
Read More…credit: the man has balls to say this. Yes, fracking gives Americans more cheap carbon energy—for a while. And then we’re left with ruined landscapes, ruined aquifers, and our same old dependence on foreign energy sources, having failed to turn to renewables while mindlessly pumping more cheap petroleum into our veins. Like other critics of the new encyclical, Brooks chalks up the pope’s hostility to capitalism as the product of naivete or perhap…
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…andpiper, and I hasten to tell you what little I presume to know about his flights, his heat, his incredible heart. (“Seymour,” 113-114) After this burst of spiritual and quasi-scriptural energy spanning roughly a decade, Salinger fell silent. Theories abound as to why. He ran out of things to say. He felt that he’d said everything he could responsibly say. He felt that publishing was just “a damned interruption.” I’ve even heard that he stopped w…
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…famous mega-preacher. Outside, cordoned-off protesters shouted through megaphones, denouncing Warren’s positions on same-sex marriage, while Starbucks distributed Tazo tea latte samples just outside the church entrance. Inside, in the balcony seats that had been set-aside for non-dignitaries like Ralph and myself, I realized quickly that the service we were attending was as much about celebrating the election of Barack Obama as it was about recall…
Read More…attached to a nose tube and lugging an oxygen tank, must climb many narrow flights of stairs to reach the famous “annex.” The film provides tight, wrenching shots of her claustrophobic struggle—the stairs that briefly lengthened Anne’s days could shorten Hazel’s life. Yet, for the moment, Hazel triumphs. She collapses at the top of the stairs and recovers to view the Frank family’s hidden refuge. Ultimately, overcome by the emotion of their journe…
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…ave a specific audience in mind when writing? Yes, passengers on long-haul flights. I hoped the book would be readable in one stretch for anybody when they have nothing better to do. Are you hoping to just inform readers? Give them pleasure? Piss them off? All of the above. What alternative title would you give the book? I quite like the title. Along with the design, it’s probably the best thing about the book. How do you feel about the cover? Oop…
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…mbitious critic George Steiner at the age of 90. While both men were prone flights of metaphysical abandon and strong opinion, it was Bloom who was more widely known among the general public, whereas at times even literary theorists and critics seemed unaware of Steiner. It was their loss, for the polymathic Steiner was arguably the most brilliant, engaging, and creative of the twentieth-century’s English-language critics. Steiner was incapable of…
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