“TIF but I didn’t LOL” (updated)

Gramma addresses some textese. [updated link] She also proposes TIF for That Is Funny, or TIVF for That Is Very Funny, to use when you aren’t really Laughing Out Loud. Because it’s lying to say you are, when you aren’t. Added: There’s a follow up post at the same blog.

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“The Tyranny of Tolerance”

From Ken Myers, writing at Touchstone: In June of 1941, C. S. Lewis preached a sermon that has come down to us as one of his most enduring essays: “The Weight of Glory.” Lewis’s sermon was a reflection on the nature of the rewards that await believers, and he began by making the following claim: “If [...]

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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, revisited

From Mr. Smith and The Ides of March, by Robinson O’Brien-Bours: While both Clooney’s and Capra’s films depict a political system rife with corruption, there is a hugely important difference between the two. Clooney’s dark and pessimistic tale brings no closure to it, and no hope; one leaves the theater with a bitter sense of [...]

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What makes something right or wrong?

It matters what you base your ethics on.

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Little sins

Today’s Grace Gems devotional (emphasis in original): Little Sins (J.R. Miller, “Daily Bible Readings in the Life of Christ” 1890) “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same–will be called least in the kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 5:19 A great many people are careful about breaking [...]

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Doing right, or doing wrong

This snippet of John Wayne monologue from “The Alamo” has a pointed way of describing what happens to a man when he decides to do wrong.

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The Coffee Break

The following is a chapter from my book Not Exactly Innocent. It’s a chapter where I detour a bit to have some fun with regional language, and with men sitting around giving each other a hard time – but it’s also one in which I toss some pro-life activism into the mix. I am pro-life, [...]

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“The Beauty of the Ethical”

Ross McCullough discusses beauty in the sphere of everyday life, well lived. And he discusses it beautifully, too. Such a deal. I remember being with a group of ladies once, Christians all, and the discussion turned to what ‘purpose’ God might have in mind for each of us to fulfill. The discussion lines soon were [...]

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Our courts having lost their moral way…

… David Bentley Hart makes A Modest Proposal for restoring sanity to our land. You must promise me that you will read all of it if you read any of it. His colleague at First Things, Hadley Arkes, traces how we got to the present state of insanity, where thugs are protected and decent people [...]

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Book note: Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein

Hilary White looks at classic literature, moral issues, current events, and contemporary books by bestselling author Dean Koontz. (They do tie together. Really.)

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