Archive for August, 2007
OPW: The Dilemma of Belief
Today’s “Other People’s Worlds” is about the age-old question of belief versus atheism. It’s also a rather oddly cited quote, for which I apologize. It comes from the philosopher William James’s “The Will to Believe,” one of the most famous Christian apologetics. In it, James argues that belief (in God) is a choice that one […]
Democratization of Celebrity: Perez Hilton et al.
The world has changed a lot in ten years. Even five years ago there was no space in the world for a man like Perez Hilton. For the unenlightened, Mr. Hilton (not his real name) is a moderately-overweight nearly-thirty gay man with a Microsoft Paint fetish.
The fact that I can tell you all these things […]
The Politics of Good Enough
I don’t remember what beer it was (or is), but it sold itself by saying that “there’s good enough and there’s better than it has to be.” The implications was, of course, that the beer was in the better-than-it-has-to-be category.
But while reflecting on a myriad of recent political events, I couldn’t help wondering when the […]
On Brown Houses, and Paying Attention
As we drove away last Thursday, we were interrupted by my mouth saying, “Hey, that house is brown.” And though this is a good demonstration of the power of my mouth to say things I don’t intend it to, that is not what this is about.
This is about noticing things. In Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, […]
Review: The Average American Male
The Average American Male, a novel by Chad Kultgen, is something I would probably never read if it hadn’t been both on the recommended shelf at a local bookstore and on sale. At the time I thought that the cover was nice enough (big sans-serif letters in stark black and white), that the title was […]
