milk and honey

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 08:23:12 -0500

Gilead

I finished reading Marilyn Robinson’s Gilead. I have tons of thoughts about this wonderful novel, but they’re jumbled. For now, I think I’ll leave them that way. It’s wiser simply to be with this book for a while than to dissect it.

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 12:07:50 -0500

Crazy thought

Even if the GOP barely keeps the Senate in November, is it possible that an impeachment trial in the next two years would convict Trump with some GOP votes, on the theory that kicking him out could help them in the 2028 elections?

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 20:15:41 -0500

Interesting Point About Trump’s CNN, et al., Ban

Someone on the PBS Newshour noted that Trump’s banning of news agencies he doesn’t like is of a piece with his gutting of government inspectors general. Anyone whose job is to hold him accountable is his enemy.

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:22:15 -0500

Spurs, here’s a reminder.

@frjonjordan, if this helps, I’m all for it.

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 11:24:56 -0500

Oh, boy.

Wendell Berry and Annie Dillard so close together. I am so grateful for both of them. May they rest in peace and rise in glory.

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 14:35:09 -0500

I’m a lamp.

I love the quiet humor of “Poorly Drawn Lines” by Reza Farazmand.

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 18:40:49 -0500

Benefits of Age

Jonah Goldberg:

I often roll my eyes when young people claim that older people “just don’t understand” this or that. We know what it was—what it is—like to be young; we just also know what it’s like not to be, too.

I’d say, “We know what it was like to be young when we were young. We know – in part – what it’s like to be young today”

Fri, 11 Sep 2026 08:28:24 -0500

9/11

All changed, changed utterly…

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.

– W.B. Yeats, “Easter, 1916”

O, God, our times are in your hand…

– Psalm 31

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 20:24:47 -0500

Civility

I’ve been watching “Jeopardy Masters.” (I’m about 10 days behind, so please, no spoilers!) What’s striking is how gracious these superb players are to each other. Maybe they’re directed to be nice, but it seems utterly genuine. If only our “civil” discourse could be so truly civil.

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 07:44:16 -0500

Damon Linker:

Beginning with September 11, we entered an era shaped decisively by militant populism and disruption. From Occupy Wall Street and Bernie Sanders’ 2016 insurgency to Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the GOP to the Women’s March and George Floyd protests to the insurrectionary riot of January 6, 2021 and Trump’s 2024 re-election and so many other, smaller examples, both here and around the world—militant populism and disruption targeting establishments and the people who run them have become the predominant fuel for politics, as well as the lens that at once focuses and distorts our public life. …

We now live in a world shaped by constantly churning popular anger and grievance arising from the periphery and directed at the perceived core of power. Those in genuine positions of authority can try to suppress the fury through acts of repression. But such efforts often just end up fueling the next round of outrage from outside and below. The outraged, meanwhile, aim above all at provocation. Their primary goal is to embarrass and shame the powers that be. Hence the popularity of “owning the libs” on the American right and, on the left, of denouncing racists and xenophobes. …

— a form of politics motivated above all else by the compulsion to take the other guys down a peg.

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 15:32:01 -0500

This will make you happy.

Do you know Instagram’s “Dust-to-Digital” account? It’s a great collection of clips of superb musicians performing on the street, in houses, at church, all over, everywhere in the world, often using homemade instruments. Try this one featuring young artists. Sound up!

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 19:31:44 -0500

Damon Linker

Every day this know-nothing lunatic remains in the presidency is a day during which the country, and the world, tempts … terrible fates. The stupidity radiating from the Oval Office is blinding, though often in a quasi-comical way. But it wouldn’t take much to turn that comedy into tragedy.

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 10:28:01 -0500

Eccentricity Crisis

Sam Buntz

Through its educational priorities and excessive fixation on the quantifiable, the U.S. only supports forms of eccentricity that lend themselves to some immediately definable commercial goal, while neglecting any that have to do with pure curiosity. Hence, we’re lobbing gobs of money at the Sam Altmans and Elon Musks of the world, while forsaking interest in reality itself, in what all this stuff actually is. Pure curiosity about nature, the force that motivated Thoreau and Ramanujan, seems liable to languish on the fringes.

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 10:06:10 -0500

Real Genius

Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.

– Arthur Schopenhauer

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 14:28:18 -0500

Saruman or Adrian Vermeule?

As the Power grows, its proved friends will also grow; and the Wise, such as you and I, may with patience come at last to direct its courses, to control it. We can bide our time, we can keep our thoughts in our hearts, deploring maybe evils done by the way, but approving the high and ultimate purpose: Knowledge, Rule, Order; all the things that we have so far striven in vain to accomplish, hindered rather than helped by our weak or idle friends. There need not be, there would not be, any real change in our designs, only in our means.

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 09:07:28 -0500

Difficult on purpose

Jonah Goldberg:

For obvious reasons, I don’t trust Trump with unchecked power. But I also wouldn’t trust Abdul Al-Sayed, or Bernie Sanders, or anyone else with unchecked power. Indeed, the fact that these people tend to believe that obstacles and inconveniences on their quest for ever-more power are somehow illegitimate or unfair is precisely why I don’t trust them with power.

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:06:21 -0500

Real Casualties

Isabella Gonzales, a 19-year-old Army private from a Dallas suburb, was one of the three U.S. service personnel killed over the weekend because of Donald Trump’s lack of impulse control. Real death, real grief; not that he cares. But the rest of us should.

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 18:20:08 -0500

Messi notwithstanding, this is just terrible.

From The Athletic:

Argentina standing with their backs to the presentation as Spain players go up to receive their medals.

More from Darron Richman on The Athletic:

… Argentina shamed themselves from beginning to end and even beyond the final whistle. They were an embarrassment.

Oh, and this is nice too. Post-match.

Leandro Paredes, … pushed the Barcelona defender [Eric Garcia] in the throat.

Finally, this Argentina showreel.

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 12:04:07 -0500

“Well, that didn’t work. Or that. Or that.” What now for Iran?

Richard Haas:

It is important to keep in mind that economic shortcomings still constitute the principal weakness of the Iranian regime. There is no reason to give up on the notion that economic pressure can lead to policy moderation or conceivably even regime change down the road. Economic relief for Iran should thus be heavily and specifically conditioned.

The whole thing is worth your time. And Trump’s.

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 11:46:11 -0500

Why am I not surprised?

Like calls to like:

Paxton struck back with Texas heavyweights…. The single $250,000 donation from Jones, the Cowboys owner, dwarfed any individual celebrity contribution to Talarico.

Dallas Morning News, July 18, 2026

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 09:00:24 -0500

The Great Photography of Gordon Parks

Via Colossal

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 16:25:51 -0500

World Cup

Especially for England (but for France, too), having to play a stupid 3rd-place game amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:26:14 -0500

Pedro Porro!

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 14:11:54 -0500

Only Too True

‘Now, Julian, we don’t want a sermon,’ said Winifred. ‘You know Mildred would never do anything wrong or foolish.’

I reflected a little sadly that this was only too true and hoped I did not appear too much that kind of person to others. Virtue is an excellent thing and we should all strive after it, but it can sometimes be a little depressing.

Barbara Pym, Excellent Women (1952)

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 11:02:50 -0500

Skill nostalgia or Necessary Calibration?

This may resonate with some micro.bloggers: “The radical reasons why you dream of making things by hand”