Category: News

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Hodgepodge

By Jim Spiegel

Here’s a review of a new biography of Frank Sinatra.  The greatest male vocalist of the 20th century wasn’t interesting just for his singing.  His life off the stage and away from the studio was a fascinating tumultuous drama.

Here is an interesting essay on Galileo, which shows us a different side of one of the founders of modern science.  And it suggests yet another way in which aesthetic concerns have been pivotal in the history of science.

And from the department of “stranger than fiction” comes this bizarre, serpentine tale of criminal intrigue.  It shouldn’t be long before this is adapted to the silver screen—that is, if its complex plot can be made intelligible to viewers.

Lastly, after the Chicago Bears’ loss to Green Bay last week, sports journalists piled on Jay Cutler like a pack of hyenas on a gimpy gazelle.  I was astounded to hear sports commentators draw hasty conclusions and slam the Bears’ QB for lacking courage and toughness.  Wow.  Golden Rule, anyone?  Anyway, here’s one level-headed sports journalist who is getting it right.

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An Atheist to Pray For

By Jim Spiegel

In case you weren’t aware, one of the “four horsemen” of the new atheist movement, Christopher Hitchens, was recently diagnosed with esophageal cancer.  Despite undergoing chemotherapy for his condition, Hitchens has managed to write a superb Vanity Fair piece on the “Topic of Cancer.”

You might also want to check out Anderson Cooper’s recent CNN interview with Hitchens.  Among other things, they discuss the prospect of a potential deathbed conversion.  Not surprisingly, Hitchens rules out the very possibility of recanting on his atheism, even if his demise is imminent.

Hitchens makes note of the fact that many people are praying for him.  He can certainly count me among that throng.  I am hopeful that he, too, will find the divine grace and forgiveness we all so desperately need.

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News Miscellany

By Jim Spiegel

I am a strong believer in small government, and here is one illustration why.  Also on the political front, check out Charles Krauthammer’s disturbing prognostications about potentially radical legislation coming this Fall.

Rick Warren recently injured his eyes while gardening.  He’s going to be okay.  In a Tweet Warren expressed his desire that God would be glorified through his pain, which surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly, given our therapeutic culture) has sparked some controversy.  See the comment string in this CT piece.

I’ve been reading a bit of Christopher Hitchens’ new horribly titled but brilliantly written memoir, Hitch-22.  Here is a small taste.  Like a lot of his writing, the book is droll, insightful, and self-absorbed.  In this case, the latter quality is appropriate—it is a memoir after all.

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Tax Rates, Breasts, and Internet-induced Brain Damage

By Jim Spiegel

The Obama administration plans to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire this year.  I have been dismayed by this for many reasons, not the least of which being the fact that this will reintroduce the “marriage penalty”’—married couples will pay more taxes than unmarried couples who live together.  But if one respected economist is correct, the consequences of rolling back the tax cuts will be much more dire.  Arthur Laffer has sparked a lot of debate with his recent Wall Street Journal piece predicting an economic collapse if the Bush tax cuts are allowed to expire.

It is hardly news that in American culture women’s breasts are widely regarded primarily as sex organs.  But apparently now this perspective is so ingrained that even a writer for a mother’s magazine finds the idea of breast-feeding “creepy.”  Check out this disturbing article in the Telegraph, where Rowan Pelling writes, “Modern women have been told so frequently that their breasts are man-magnets that many find it impossible to believe they have any other biological function.”

And, now that you’ve been surfing a bit to a few websites, you might want to know about Nicholas Carr’s new book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.  How is the Internet affecting us cerebrally?  Not well, evidently.  In addition to this review, check out the short video at the end of the page, in which Carr summarizes his book.