“Republicans are not readers”

There’s a bit of truth in the thick of this self-loving opinion by a Guardian’s book blogger. “Because by choosing to write books, as opposed to becoming talk show hosts, or country singers, Palin and Wurzelbacher are tacitly endorsing two of the things that Blue America loves the most, and which Red America has often disdained: freedom of expression and reading.”

Sure. I’m a Republican, and I never read or write. I don’t give a rat’s rear-end about those things. I’d much rather picket my local learning establishment or fish in the river I polluted.

I Didn’t Take Civics in Grade School

And I earned about 88% on the American history and civics quiz linked from this post, but I confess I don’t think I would have gotten one of the questions if I had not read the post. Answer the 33 questions yourself and tell us how you do.

Targeted Reading for Boys

Ballantyne the Brave is the website and blog of Joshua T. Phillips, 15, who is dedicated to inspiring boys to read good books like those of G.A. Henty and R.M. Ballantyne. It was Robert Louis Stevenson who gave us the phrase “Ballantyne the Brave.” Phillips writes, “He did this to honor Ballantyne for his bold vision of manhood — a vision which influenced Stevenson himself.”

I see one of Ballantyne’s books is on Leif Ericsson, called The Norsemen in the West. Rife with errors no doubt, but hopefully fun to read.

The Pot Calls the Kettle, um . . .

Somehow, I think this is funny.

American writer Tobias Wolff considers conservatives (i.e., people not on his side) to be the rudest of Americans. He write, “When I see someone being rude to a waiter, or blocking the road in a Ford Expedition, or yakking loudly on a cell phone in a crowded elevator, I naturally assume they voted for George W. Bush.”

Give it up.

About time too

Anthony Sacramone, formerly of “Luther at the Movies” and “First Things” is back blogging at Strange Herring.

I suppose he’ll suddenly give it up again in a couple of weeks, but for now, our long night of the cyber-soul is over.

Tip: First Things.

Shameful coverup

Remember the Bower family? The missionaries whose plane was shot down over Peru in 2001, resulting in the deaths of the wife and daughter?

Turns out the CIA lied about the circumstances of the action.

Story here.

Public service announcement

To retailers who started putting out Christmas merchandise in October, and radio station programming directors who are already playing “seasonal” music, and homeowners who’ve put out their holiday lights, even though it isn’t Thanksgiving yet.

I understand. I’m a Boomer too. I know that Christmas was the most wonderful, magical time of the year when you were a kid. It was for me, too. I, too, would love to recapture that feeling.

However. You’re not a kid anymore. You’re an adult, too beaten up by life to be taken in by glockenspiel music and colored lights. Especially when you strung those colored lights yourself.

You will never get the magic of Christmas back by making the holiday longer. You’ll only get it back by making the holiday deeper.

The people who invented Christmas actually believed that God became man. That means that all our highest aspirations, dreams and hopes are not fantasy, but fact, and that Ultimate Truth came down to hang out with us a while. And then died for us. And then defeated death.

When you get that, you’ll get Christmas back.

Just thought you’d like to know.

eHarmony forced to provide same-sex matches

From Chris Field at Townhall.com, by way of Culture and Media Institute:

The California-based company will begin providing same-sex matches as part of a settlement with New Jersey’s Civil Rights Division. Garden State resident Eric McKinley filed a complaint against the online matchmaker in 2005.

Under terms of the settlement, the company can create a new or differently named Web site for homosexual singles. The company can also post a disclaimer saying its compatibility-based matching system was developed from research of married heterosexual couples. …

Because the “gay rights” movement is all about, you know, just letting people alone.

Here’s the post.

Book Reviews, Creative Culture