Culture

TV newsreaders Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw think that there’s too much coverage of President Reagan’s death and memorial in the news: “Once the herd starts moving in one direction, it’s very hard to turn it, even slightly,” Rather said. “Nationally, the herd has grown tremendously.” I’m not really sure which herd Rather is talking … Read more

It seems that the preponderance of Britney Spears-like clothing among teenage girls has reached a breaking point. The Associated Press is reporting that many girls are demanding that stores carry more modest clothing: “We like to call this new girl Miss Modesty,” said Gigi Solif Schanen, fashion editor at Seventeen magazine. “It’s such a different … Read more

Drudge is reporting that the ABC network, the bastion of family values, has scheduled for the fall a new reality show called “The Swap.” The show is based on the British unscripted show called “Wife Swap.” Yes, this is for real: The title, which conjures up visions of a 1970s swingers party, is racier than … Read more

Everybody needs a villain these days (as if Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden don’t fit the bill), and the latest villain on the American scene is McDonald’s. While McDonald’s has had a longtime villain on staff, the Hamburglar, the entire company has been portrayed often as the bad guy on the block. There’s the … Read more

The beheading of Nick Berg will undoubtedly cause the usual suspects to claim we had it coming, due to the Abu Ghraib abuses. This is, of course, a ridiculous comparison. If the terrorists wanted actual revenge, they could have stripped Berg and led him around by a leash. Tit for tat. Instead, these cowards took … Read more

In the garden of Eden, God gave to Adam the responsibility of naming all the living creatures (see Genesis 3:19-20). That was then. In this day and age, most living creatures already have names, leaving only newborns as the players to be named later. I always find it ineresting when the Social Security Administration releases … Read more

There was a time when fairness was a moral virtue worth fighting for. Fairness centered on the concept of justice, and had to do with making things right. Fairness has gone the way of the dodo. Having attended and heard reports of various commencement ceremonies of late, it would seem that fairness has now been … Read more

Several blogs have addressed this issue already very adequately, but something I saw today that made me want to give it another look. I’m talking about the quickly growing trendiness of the “Jesus is my Homeboy” t-shirts and the like. Celebrites have been caught donning the gear, and many Christians have taken to wearing them … Read more

I remember when “20/20” was an investigative news show, the popularity of which spawned various copycats on the competing networks. Apparently investigative news no longer attracts viewers, judging from ABC’s decision to have the show host an adoption game-show tonight: Tonight ABC’s weekly news program “20/20” is to air Barbara Walters’s profile of Jessica, a … Read more