Stolen Lives (2009) If the people who make Hallmark television movies ever decided to spice things up with a lingering, forensic eye on dead bodies and a little Morena Baccarin porch humping, it might look something like this curiously lifeless crime drama, which really should have its own caution tape wrapped around it. It features a..
Some years ago, I was on the phone with a woman from Minnesota. It was a January day in Southern California — a very crisp, cold 58 degrees or so. I remember how cold it was because it was one of the few days I had the impulse to wear a t-shirt under my..
Keep the List Small, Please Certain conversations are not allowed, nor are certain associations. We don’t seek out the company of pathological liars. We don’t invite women who have a habit of hitting on married men to dinner parties. We don’t invite Holocaust deniers to speak on public platforms, (unless you’re Columbia University.) We..
I suppose I make an odd culture warrior. I don’t fit the James Dobson brand. I hate the war on drugs, along with its serial abuses against the Bill of Rights. I don’t think the church talks enough about sex, and it certainly doesn’t do a very good job celebrating the sort of..
Wish You Were Here (2012) I have a weakness for movies about western couples who visit some exotic third world hell hole and wonder what in the world they were thinking when they planned the trip. Moral of the story: stay away from Cambodia. This was extremely well executed, with incredible performances by Joel Edgerton..
I will confess to being both pleasantly charmed and puzzled by the Sermon on the Mount. As I wrote yesterday, the Savior’s words in Matthew 5:48, (“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect”), should make an honest student of Christ scratch his head. Perfect? Perfect as..
Was Jesus Looking For Pansies? I had a spirited discussion with a pro-life activist yesterday over an incident that took place outside of a clinic recently. A very angry post-abortive father responded to the sidewalk counselors by breaking one of their cameras, hitting one of them in the face, and chasing the remaining counselor..
How I came to understand Christmas Even as a child, I was attracted to university catalogs and course guides. It was a nerdy obsession, to be certain, but it promised such a rosy menu of options. Colleges had a way of wrapping up an entire lifetime for you, in gift paper: Take Economics 101, then..
We were fighting over an airplane. That was my first memory. The airplane was an apple crate, and we were three years old, and when you sat inside the crate, you imagined the cockpit and the wings and the propeller, and I remember it being a pretty good little reverie, especially if you could..
“Father, I would have wisdom.” “Then you must read, ponder, contemplate..” “Who shall be my teacher?” “A man of wisdom, who knows the Word.” “I know of such a teacher.” “Who, son?” “A man called Bill O’Reilly.” “…Son?” “Yes, father?” “You should consider making shoes.” (more…)