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August 2026

August 26, 2026

The Significance of Playing a Game

To play a game, says a philosopher, "is to voluntarily take on unnecessary obstacles to make...

July 2026

July 08, 2026

Sports and War

Hayden Daniel relates the different kinds of sports to the different kinds of war: Military...

June 2026

June 15, 2026

Monday Miscellany, 6/15/26

Churches that accepted gay marriage are now pressured to accept polyamory. Oregon referendum would ban...

March 2026

March 30, 2026

Holy Week Miscellany, 2026

Finnish Lutherans CONVICTED for booklet on the Bible & homosexuality. Americans' opinions about AI. And...

February 2026

February 13, 2026

DISCUSS: The Winter Olympics

Are you following the Winter Olympics? If so, what events, athletes, or story lines do...

August 2025

August 29, 2025

DISCUSS: Completely Realigning Baseball

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has put forward a radical proposal to completely realign Major League...

August 21, 2025

Why Technology Will Never Take Over Completely

Watching videos of the robot Olympics made me realize why technology will never take over...

June 2025

June 02, 2025

Monday Miscellany, 6/2/25

The death of currency precision. A technology that thwarts AI cheating. And legislator stripped of...

March 2025

March 07, 2025

DISCUSS: Should the NFL Ban the Tush Push?

The Eagles developed a play that is almost impossible to stop: Several big players line...

January 2025

January 15, 2025

Trump’s Impact on Popular Culture

Donald Trump's political victory seems to be accompanied by a larger "vibe shift" in American...

January 10, 2025

DISCUSS: The NFL Playoffs

The National Football League playoffs start tomorrow! What do you think will happen? What do...

November 2024

November 22, 2024

DISCUSS: Sports

To conclude this politics-free week (except for Monday), let's discuss the classic "safe topic": Sports.

November 04, 2024

Monday Miscellany, 11/4/24

Medical AI is hallucinating; a salient question on transgenderism in sports; and a bunch more...

August 2024

August 16, 2024

DISCUSSION: The Olympics

Did you watch the Olympics? If so, what were your highlights and lowlights? Can you...

August 01, 2024

“The Last Supper on the Stage on the Seine”

Christians around the world have been offended by the opening ceremony at the Paris Olympics,...

May 2024

May 27, 2024

Memorial Day Miscellany, 5/27/24

On this memorial day, we consider: competing to get into the military; indignation at the...

January 2024

January 19, 2024

DISCUSSION: On Sports

Why do we care so much about sports?

September 2022

September 16, 2022

DISCUSS: Talking Sports

College and NFL football have started up again! Baseball is headed to the wire and...

July 2022

July 11, 2022

The Nature of Fun

Novelist Walter Kirn distinguishes "fun" from other pleasures. In his essay "The Holy Anarchy of...

August 2021

August 03, 2021

Sports Are Now Depressing

Sports have become depressing. Everywhere I look--the Olympics, professional sports, college athletics--I see scandal, controversy,...

July 2020

July 31, 2020

Cultural Suicide

There have been many cultures and civilizations that no longer exist. Some were destroyed by...

February 2020

February 04, 2020

The Super Bowl Commercial That Fox Refused to Air

You saw the Super Bowl ads. But you didn't see this one. Pro-choicers, whose control...

May 2019

May 16, 2019

Getting Fired for Saying that Sinners–including Gays–Will Go to Hell?

Israel Folau is a star player for the professional Australian rugby team the Wallabies. But...

February 2019

February 08, 2019

“One of the Great Weirdo Cities of the World”

Sam Anderson is a writer for the New York Times Magazine who came to Oklahoma...

June 2018

June 06, 2018

But the Disinvited Eagles Always Stood for the National Anthem!

President Trump disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles from the traditional White House reception for SuperBowl champions. ...

February 2018

February 19, 2018

The Spirit of Curling

I found myself drawn into the Winter Olympics when I watched an Austrian skier named...

February 08, 2018

The Olympics & the Disenchantment of Sports

The Winter Olympics start today. Are you all fired up about that? No? The entire...

December 2017

December 20, 2017

The Newly Discovered “Christmas Sermon for Pagans” by C. S. Lewis

The scholar Stephanie R. Derrick tells about discovering two previously unknown essays by C. S....

October 2017

October 11, 2017

NFL drops to “least liked” sport

The National Football League had surpassed Major League Baseball as "America's game." But no more....

October 10, 2017

Tebow the Missionary Kid & Kaepernick the Lutheran Confirmand

These two kneeling football players represent two strains of Christianity in America.