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What Makes A Story Work? In the search for a really good, binge-worthy source of entertainment (I do a lot of elliptical these days), I have taken to re-watching stories that actually work — That Thing You Do, Blast From the Past, True Grit, Breaking Bad to name a few— over taking a chance on..
The Scary Thing.. I haven’t watched a great deal of Depp V. Heard, but I did stop in to see Amber’s moisture-less crying jag. I also watched a bit of Depp’s testimony. Amber’s grief was so singularly awkward a performance that I went from being a little amused by it to being more than a..
Watchable.. There’s an annoying, and inexplicable, contention routinely spouted by the political establishment on both sides of the aisle: “..our election systems are rigorously fair and accountable; election fraud is impossible. Anyone who questions our voter system integrity is un-American.” George Stephanopoulos can’t even bring himself to begin an interview on the subject without barking..
I don’t watch a lot of cable TV, but while traveling and taking in Gordon Ramsay’s “Nightmare Kitchen,” I was struck by the tonal difference between Ramsay brutally bringing restaurant owners to tears and a Facebook ad quietly assuring us their advanced algorithms and their community standards team had removed 17 million dangerous posts. On the..
Lying For The Lord The epistle of James, throughout the centuries, has proven a challenge for even the most sincere Christians, (Martin Luther among them), because it puts faith to the test. If we agree we are saved by grace alone, through faith in Christ, then we would be wise to make sure our “faith”..
Disclaimers Honoring what is left of the Fourth Amendment, I should say, at the outset there is nothing wrong with the right sort of privacy — good fences build good neighbors, don’t make love at the garden gate, keep your Stasi wiretaps out of my phone calls — all of that. No one should be..
Pure Misinformation The white-hot, laser-bright line between abject fear and totalitarianism was hugely on display, yesterday, in the Supreme Court’s hearing of a case calling into question the Biden administration’s OSHA vaccine mandate. I’m not a lawyer, nor even a student of the court, but I’ve read enough court transcripts to register, with high alarm,..
Dazed and Confused Since the outbreak of Covid in March of 2020 — twenty-two months now — I continue to make this sad confession: “I still have no idea what is going on.” I am not, of course, talking about the obvious contours of the crisis. A dangerous virus is getting people sick and killing..
A Cloud of Sadness One of the most “centered” people I know — a winsome young lady whose good cheer promised better times when our entire extended family was feuding — confessed to being bewildered by a cloud of sadness descending on the world. She’s not alone. The Weinsteins, on their DarkHorse Podcast, recently wondered which author..
The older I get, and the more I learn, the more I’m willing to look back at intervals of my life characterized by bad assumptions, faulty conclusions and passionate attachment to falsehood. It took me years, for example, to really understand religious legalism, to understand how you could slip into it without knowing it, and..
