The Making of a Marine

Blogger Matthew White is chronicling the Parris Island Marine boot camp experience of blogger Donald Sensing’s son Stephen in a series called Adventures in Parris…Island, and it’s a must-read. With all the negative press the military has gotten recently, it’s good to know that there are soldiers defending this country with the wherewithal to withstand … Read more

The Village

No spoilers here, so it’s safe to read on. I saw The Village this week and was duly impressed. While many do not share my opinion, I think that there are generally two camps that viewers of M. Night Shyamalan’s films fall into: those who think his films are silly, and those who think his … Read more

Behind the Story

Joe Carter has the lowdown on the NY Times Magazine “Costco abortion” girl, Amy Richards: she has worked with Planned Parenthood, and is founder of a feminist organization which has financed abortions. Carter rightly ponders why the Times tried to conceal this bit of the story: Apparently, the Times realized that framing the story as … Read more

The NEA? How About NDEA?

The National Education Association should be renamed the National Democrat Education Association. Rusty Lopez points to a Phyllis Schlafly report on this year’s meeting of the national teacher’s union. It turned out that their meeting had little to do with education: For the 2004 political campaign, the NEA will “partner” with left-wing organizations such as … Read more

DVDs, Good and Bad

Here’s a recap of some DVDs I’ve viewed recently and some quick takes on them: The Last Samurai is as good a depiction of culture clash as I’ve seen. Director Edward Zwick pulls this off on so many levels—culture wars occur on two levels: the American adapting to Japan, and the old Japan’s conflict with … Read more

Compromise and Third Wheels in Presidential Politics

Reader John Divito writes: Hello! I wanted to let you know that I ran across a couple of internet articles you might be interested in. It seems to me that there are two camps of conservative Christian voters–those that vote strictly based on their conscience (and hence for a third party–say, the Constitution Party), and … Read more

Weekend Roundup

Going three days without internet is good for the soul—once in a while. Being out of town, it took me until I got back to find out that Mike Tyson got KO’d in the fourth round in Louisville Friday night. I guess Iron Mike is a little rusty. I also missed a theater screening of … Read more

Approaching a Century

Got back from a weekend in Tennessee where I had the privilege of wishing my great-aunt Nancy Sharp a happy 90th birthday (she’s the better looking one in the photo above). After 90 years, Aunt Nancy is still as sharp as her last name. A more thoughtful person I’d be hard pressed to find. People … Read more