Reading

My curiosity is Kindled

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Kindle

Photo credit: Jon ‘ShakataGanai’ Davis

That unspeakable poltroon, Hunter Baker, has frustrated me yet again.

I was all set to deliver a jeremiad tonight. I have seen the demise of our civilization, clearly and ever more near, and I was ready to deliver the fatal diagnosis in tones of stentorian woe. I promise you, it would have wrecked your weekend, if not your whole month.

Then I get a package, and what has Hunter Baker done? He’s sent me an Amazon Kindle.

Because I’ve commented frequently that I’m not about to jump into this newfangled gimcrackery. Paper books were good enough for Edward Bulwer-Lytton, and by hunky, they’re good enough for me.

Now I have a Kindle.

I kind of like the idea.

In light of this development, I hereby delay the Apocalypse, at least until I can figure out how to hook it up to my WiFi.

I’ll keep you posted.

Update: I ought to mention that Hunter Baker is the author of The End of Secularism.

Blogs, Socials

"A" is for aardvark; "B" is for back alley

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Aardvark

Got word today that Brandywine Books will shortly be added to the BBOV (Big Blogroll ‘o Vark) of the Aardvark Alley blog. Aardvark Alley is an orthodox Lutheran blog, specializing in meditations on the church calendar, though they branch out into other subjects from time to time. I doubt we’ll make the coveted “Confessional Lutheran Blogs” list, since we harbor a Calvinist (not to mention a pietist Lutheran), but any mention over at AA (gee, that looks wrong) will doubtless steer a better class (Lutheran) of readers to our site.

Mark Steyn is getting back into blogging mode. Today he takes a surgical saw to the American abortion culture. Remember “Doctor” Kermit Gosnell? How is it that a monster like that has faded utterly from public consciousness within a couple weeks?

Ever since Roe v Wade, proponents of a woman’s “right to choose” have warned us against going back to the bad old days of rusty coat hangers and unsterilized instruments from money-grubbing butchers on the wrong side of town. Now, happily, the back alley is on the main drag, and with a state permit framed on the wall.

Read it all.

Blogs, Socials, Religion

Rats! In two different senses of the word.

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Cartoonist Doug TenNapel, whose work I’ve always enjoyed, has a new web comic called “Ratfist” going here. It just started in January, so if you start now, you won’t have a huge backlog to catch up on.

James M. Kushiner, at the Mere Comments blog where I can also be seen to post occasionally, discusses a furor over the new C. S. Lewis Bible, to be published by HarperCollins. They chose to use the New Revised Standard Version Bible, the famous “emasculated Bible” where all the icky male imagery has been fig-leafed over.

Do you see a problem with this?

Not to mention the questionable taste of having a C. S. Lewis Bible in the first place. From the petition sent to the publisher:

We the undersigned wish to express our disapproval of HarperOne’s choice of the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) for their edition of The C. S. Lewis Bible. Though we commend Harper for publishing a Bible that includes thoughts and meditations from C. S. Lewis, we disagree with their choice to key Lewis’s writings to the text of an intentionally gender-neutral translation of the scriptures that Lewis himself would have opposed. By doing so, Harper tacitly suggests that Lewis would have approved of the NRSV and the agenda that underlies its gender-neutral translation. Yet, the majority consensus among C.S. Lewis scholars is that Lewis was firmly against gender-neutral usage and the egalitarianism on which it is based.

Reviews

DVD Review: The Adventures of Robin Hood

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So I wrote a while back about buying the DVD set of the old English Sir Lancelot TV series, starring William Russell. All in all it was fairly disappointing, compared to my childhood memories. The production values were low, and the plots rather silly.
I expected little better when I bought the complete The Adventures of Robin Hood from the same period (at under 20 bucks a great deal, as it ran 143 episodes). I’m happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised. The Adventures of Robin Hood holds up considerably better than Sir Lancelot, or so it appears as I complete my viewing of the first season.
My main worry was ideological. As is well known, the producers of Robin Hood hired a number of American communists, blacklisted in Hollywood, to write for the series. My occasional viewing of random episodes over the years gave me the idea that party line came out in a number of story elements.
But (at least in the first season) I actually saw little of that. In fact, much is made of the injustice of the Norman’s stealing the property of Saxons (Robin in particular). At one point, somebody even goes so far as to say that unjust taxes are theft. Also, the Church is treated with considerable respect (doubtless in deference to English broadcasting standards of the day). Continue reading DVD Review: The Adventures of Robin Hood →

Uncategorized

My further adventures

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It was a weekend to remember, the second in a row for me. A weekend whose chief feature was that what I expected was almost never what actually happened.

The plan was to visit my brother in Iowa, because my niece and nephew-in-law, missionaries in China, are home on a short leave. The original plan was for me to ride down with another family member who was coming from further north.

But he had car trouble, and had to cancel. So I loaded up Mrs. Hermanson and turned her nose south.

In northern Iowa, near Mason City, she lost power (though the engine continued running). I pulled her over to the shoulder, and phoned AAA. Continue reading My further adventures →

Blogs, Socials

Strange goings on

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Herring monger

I know only heartache can come from this. I get my hopes up, tremblingly extend my trust, develop confidence over time, and then… it’s gone again. Where I looked for a light respite from the trials and stresses of modern life, there is only the brute word, “Hiatus,” evocative of hernias.

Yet hope persists. And so I share the link with you — Anthony Sacramone’s brilliant Strange Herring blog is back.

For now.

Uncategorized

While I Was At the Conference

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I don’t usually tell you what I do offline. I’m sure enough connections have been made for an investigator to find me, so maybe I’m just kidding myself about how much distance really have between here and, well, where I am. But I want to point out some articles I’ve written this week on the men’s conference I have been working.

CBMC held a great men’s conference in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, last week with several solid speakers and a moving prayer and communion meeting on the snowy battlefield. Read the overview here. There are other short articles and videos, which you can reach from the Good News front page.

Book Reviews, Creative Culture