Saturday, January 20, 2024

Saturday Good Reads - Jan. 20, 2024


Embrace AI! Beware of AI! When it comes to artificial intelligence, you can find just about any narrative you want to follow. Kate Knibbs at Wired reports on one development that’s already with us – a flood of scammy, AI-generated books on Amazon. Casey Shutt at Mere Orthodoxy goes a fit further; citing the writer Paul Kingsnorth, this pastor says we should look at AI – and its potential for darkness – within a spiritual framework. 

We haven’t had one yet, but there needs to be a reckoning with what happened during the COVID pandemic, writes Benn Darr at Front Porch Republic. The West, with barely a thought, embraced totalitarianism. He’s reviewing a book entitled The Covid Consensus, so it doesn’t mention the testimony this past week by Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins on how they now view the lab leak theory as credible.

 

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley made a misstep when she fumbled her answer to the question “What caused the Civil War?”. Mark Malvasi at The Imaginative Conservative answers the question – it was slavery. As usual with any issue, which the news media tend to reduce to cartoons at best, the issue was more complex than a single, simple, one-word answer. 

 

More Good Reads

 

Writing and Literature

 

Copper – short story by Benjamin Myers at The Muleskinner Press.

 

Chasing Lions: Don Quixote in Pursuit of the Beautiful – Jacob Terneus at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

On Reviewing Books – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

The Audience Comes Last – Chris Martin at FYI.

 

What’s New – And Not So New – in Spy Fiction – John Wilson at Micah Mattix’s Prufrock.

 

Faith

 

Three Reasons the Old Testament is More Important Than You Think – Michael Kruger at Canon Fodder. 

 

Sit and Be Still – Jeffrey Stivason at Gentle Reformation.

 

Israel / Hamas

 

How Hamas made hawks out of Israel’s liberals – Zoe Strimpel at The Spectator.

 

The Girls I Met in the Tunnels – Agam Goldstein-Almog at The Free Press.

 

Culture

 

How ‘Evangelical’ Are Iowa’s Evangelicals? – Thomas Kidd at The Wall Street Journal.

 

The Truth About Banned Books – Janes Fishback at The Free Press.

 

Javier Milei shocks Davos – Kate Andrews at The Spectator.

 

American Stuff

 

The Life and Times of William J. Flynn, the “Bulldog Detective” – Jeffrey Simon at CrimeReads. 

 

America Works, DEI Doesn’t – Pastor Corey Brooks at Tablet Magazine.

 

Poetry

 

To My Brother – poem after John Keats by Mary Jane Myers at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Thursday, snow forecast – Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

“Again” and “A Forgotten Joy” – Angel Villaneuva at Society of Classical Poets.

 

“The Mission” Main Theme – Ennio Morricone



 Painting: Woman Reading a Letter, oil on canvas by Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919).

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