My wife and I began a new Christmas tradition a couple years ago, and we’re trying to spread it. There is a beer – a very remarkable beer – that’s named after the season’s favorite saint: Samichlaus . Every year on December 6th, the Feast of St. Nicholas, the good beer brewers of of Austria begin … Read more
As an achievement in technical innovation, Avatar is phenomenal, a ride worth taking more than once, but as adventure movies go, it is impressively new in every way except the way that matters most. Its look will last. But its heart won’t go on. — Jeffrey Overstreet Deep down, Avatar is bone-headed, but it’s also … Read more
I’ve never seen this much snow in Maryland and I’ve lived here almost nine years. We had about two feet in Baltimore — our car was almost invisible under a pile of the white stuff, and everything was shut down. People are now digging out. There’s something magical about a snowstorm in the city. Everything … Read more
Time for your Friday morning links: Former Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who had been excommunicated for illegally ordaining priests and for marrying a Korean woman, has at last been defrocked as well. The top five YouTube videos of 2009. Number one might surprise you, in a good way. Gorgeous book cover designs. I want to hang … Read more
Time for your Friday morning links: Former Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who had been excommunicated for illegally ordaining priests and for marrying a Korean woman, has at last been defrocked as well. The top five YouTube videos of 2009. Number one might surprise you, in a good way. Gorgeous book cover designs. I want to hang … Read more
So, you thought the Manhattan Crazy-Cozies were bizarre? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Over at his wonderful Light On Dark Water blog, Maclin Horton has just pointed me to the hands-down winner of my own personal little “Most Peculiar Living Arrangements Imaginable” competition: During the late 1950’s and early 1960’s when the Cold War was escalating, the … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
Last Thursday was Human Rights Day and Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, held a hearing to highlight abuses in China, Cuba, Sudan, Vietnam and various other countries. Vietnam, for example, has gone “from bad to worse”: “Hanoi has unleashed a torrent of repression upon courageous citizens fighting for basic rights. … Read more
“Brian Cox” and “nearly lethal levels of cuteness” are not things I would ever have expected to find together. Cox, an amazingly prolific actor probably most famous state-side for playing Ward Abbott (in the Bourne series) or William Stryker (in X2), appears to be quite a competent drama teacher, as well: (This clip reminds me … Read more
“Brian Cox” and “nearly lethal levels of cuteness” are not things I would ever have expected to find together. Cox, an amazingly prolific actor probably most famous state-side for playing Ward Abbott (in the Bourne series) or William Stryker (in X2), appears to be quite a competent drama teacher, as well: (This clip reminds me … Read more
Over at the Canadian financial paper, The Financial Post, Diane Francis has a piece on what she sees as “the real inconvenient truth” being ignored at the UN’s Copenhagen conference: The “inconvenient truth” overhanging the UN’s Copenhagen conference is not that the climate is warming or cooling, but that humans are overpopulating the world. A planetary … Read more