Tag Archives: culture

The “Little Missionary”: A Child Healer in Brazil

Six years old. She’s called the “Little Missionary,” and the money is rolling in. Religion exploiting children. Is this a bug or a feature? Brazil’s evangelical revolution sees miracle healers take centre stage Poverty and technology contribute to boom of … Continue reading

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The Center Does Not Hold: Bastard Christianities

If his lecture outlining his argument is any indication, Catholic intellectual Joseph Bottum’s new book, An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America (Image 2014), is going to be talked about “far and wee”: The major event … Continue reading

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Camille Paglia Eats Taylor Swift

Our cultural hatred for aging and growing up (20-somethings still rehearsing teenage personas; 60-somethings botoxing) has Camille Paglia (aged 65) seriously annoyed, and in a recent article for the Hollywood Reporter, one of her targets for criticism is Taylor Swift, … Continue reading

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What, Exactly, Is Wrong With Bestiality?

__________ The above video is amusing, but also raises an interesting question: what is it, exactly, that’s wrong with bestiality? Notice that the perpetrator isn’t getting it on with women and fantasizing about animals; instead, he’s getting it on with … Continue reading

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Wine is a Girl Thing?

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A Wonderful Arugula Rant

This guy’s arugula rant never went viral back in 2008, but it should have. It has only gotten about 1600 hits at YouTube, but it’s absolutely worth seeing: And here’s some arugula I found being sold at “elite” Walmart:

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The Prodigal Son (and Daughter) Culture

Should we call our time the era of the prodigal sons and daughters? Chris Hedges, from page 44 of his book Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle  (Nation Books, 2009): We are a culture … Continue reading

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Love’s Labours Scorned: Robert Wright on the Quran

A careful student of religious texts, Robert Wright, in the New York Times this week, offers his considered judgment on the what the Quran is: [I]f you’re curious as to the reason for the Koran’s seeming ambivalence toward Christians and Jews: … Continue reading

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Backward Causation: William Dembski’s Desperate Ad Hoc Move, Ctd

One more thought on William Dembski’s recently published idea of “backward causation,” a term that he designates for salvaging the idea that death really did come into the world by the sin of Adam and Eve. Would you propose such a thing, … Continue reading

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In Case You Missed It: Welcome to Laredo, Texas! 250,000 People, Zero Bookstores!

This was in the Los Angeles Times a couple of months back: Laredo, Texas, is set to become the largest U.S. city without a bookstore. The B. Dalton in the Mall del Norte, owned by parent company Barnes & Noble, is … Continue reading

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The dispiriting cultural politics of shallowness transformed into the cultural politics of humanity

A stunning ad if you watch it to the end. It will completely blow you away: Press rewind on despair. I felt like the first half of this ad I was watching Fox News and the second half I had come … Continue reading

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Sarah Palin Groupie Watch

They see themselves as innocent and sincere, and she’s one of them, so they perceive her as innocent and sincere. Who’s in the family, who’s not? Politics is often less about formal platforms and policies and more about cultural signals and cultural style, isn’t it?

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King Tut Finger

In Western culture, Egypt seems to be the best place to trace lithe, high glamour, iconic posing, and so it seems fitting that a certain style of freeze frame dancing would be dubbed as “tutting” (as in “King Tut” or … Continue reading

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Hollywood Tries to Tackle the Science v. Religion Question Accompanied by Exorcist Music and Explosions

I haven’t seen the film, but the trailer makes it appear at least mildly interesting (philosophically and as a measure of our cultural Zeitgeist ):

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A Non-God Collective Delusion?: Mind Control Conspiracy Web Sites Remind Some Mental Health Professionals of the Delusions Shared by Insular Religious and UFO Groups

The NY Times today has a fascinating article on people who believe that they are under constant surveillance by the government—and who comfort one another via Internet sites devoted to this “problem.” The article likens the phenomenon to insular religious groups: The extent of … Continue reading

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Crying (Softly) in the Wilderness?: Leon Wieseltier (Mildly) Channels John Ruskin

In the “Washington Diarist” column of the August 27 New Republic, Leon Wieseltier expresses angst at the direction of contemporary American culture, and is unimpressed by all of our contemporary whiz-bang technological advancement, asserting that things of real value have been dying—and are … Continue reading

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