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July 2016

July 22, 2016

Finding a Good Plumber

Until I met Russ Keene I was at the mercy of the most wicked class...

July 21, 2016

This is the most important election of my lifetime? Nuts!

Evidently I have lived in very bad times. Since I was a little boy, I...

July 20, 2016

Truth Matters: And Almost Nobody Always Tells It

Tell the truth. My dad told this to me as a boy and he...

July 19, 2016

On Hating Haters

There are few sins more satisfying than hating hateful people. The racists on my social...

July 18, 2016

Terrifically Terrible Prayer

Let's not talk politics. Let's talk prayer and not prostituting prayer in the service of...

July 17, 2016

The Worst Argument For a Bad Candidate: Irrational Hope

How was he doing? "Tolerable," was the old man's response. If you are a Christian...

July 16, 2016

Bad Arguments Make Good Men Do Bad Things

Bad arguments make good men do bad things. Even a very good man can outthink...

July 15, 2016

Hated for Our Virtues: France, USA, and the World

God save France and the West. If enough people hate France enough to die to...

July 14, 2016

Thinking as a Woman is Necessary to Think Well (Theaetetus)

Sometimes one has to say something so obviously good and true that saying it sounds...

July 13, 2016

Knowing Isn’t So Easy (Theaetetus)

Everyone knows until some smart guy comes and confuses them. Sometimes he is just a...

July 12, 2016

Breathless Waiting: from Abstaining to Chastity

To love absolutely one must learn to say no to love. This is not a...

July 11, 2016

I am not Howard Roark or Mark Studdock

I am told that Ayn Rand did not like CS Lewis. Yet having read Fountainhead over this...

July 10, 2016

Love’s Long Game (Race in America)

True love is willing to wait for the beloved and in our broken world, love's...

July 09, 2016

Saying: “I do not know.”

Racism. Dead African-Americans. Dead officers. These are bad things. The temptation is to use stronger...

July 08, 2016

We Cannot Lose: A Thought Based on an Artificial Parrot

My Nana was a strong woman surviving a childhood that would send most people spiraling...

July 05, 2016

She Gives Us All Beauty and a Name

There is nothing that can be done about it now. She is dead and buried...

July 02, 2016

My Life Long Pal: Three Things to Learn from Daniel Reynolds

Today is Daniel's birthday. . . not the prophet, but my brother. My mother used...

July 01, 2016

With Eyes Wide Open: Death Comes to All (Phaedo)

A good man dies well, a great one makes his death matter. A leader looks...

June 2016

June 30, 2016

Stay Strong (Crito)

A human reading this is going to die or is dead and is wasting the...

June 29, 2016

Do Not Be a Jerk for Justice (Euthyphro)

There is a West Virginia expression: "He is so straight, he leans a little." God...

June 25, 2016

Oh General Custer (On My Birthday)

It was with great disappointment that I discovered that my birthday marked the Battle of...

June 24, 2016

John the Baptist: The Best Not Jesus in History

I have never taken John the Baptist as seriously as the Bible takes him. He...

June 23, 2016

Will the Civil War ever really end?

Everything happening right now in the US, everything, has a piece of the Civil War in...

June 22, 2016

Accepting the Ending (The Tempest)

We aren't very good at accepting "endings" as fans and cry for a sequel, reboot,...

June 21, 2016

This Magical Island: On My Anniversary (The Tempest)

This will first be published on the day, thirty years ago, when I married Hope...

June 20, 2016

Friendship: Don’t Underestimate It (Two Noble Kinsmen)

If we eliminated the popular music, theater, and video dealing with romantic love, there would...

June 19, 2016

Even A Blot of Grease Can Be God’s Man (Henry VIII)

Do not flatter the great. That's easy to say, but hard to do and even...

June 18, 2016

Life Lesson: Genius Needs Company (Edward III)

Genius needs company, so any company that tries to build on a solitary genius will...

June 17, 2016

Give America Cordelia, We Need Her Just Now (King Lear)

Israel was on the ropes, God sent Deborah, and Israel was saved. France was ruined,...

June 16, 2016

When Things Seem to Turn out Badly, They May Turn Out Well (King Lear)

If you were in King Lear's family, the play is a tragedy. If you were...