Faith, Fiction, Friends: Saturday Good Reads

I’d subscribed to The Free Press on Substack, originally as a free subscriber. And then they added a Sunday column on poetry with author and social commentator Douglas Murray, which was behind the paywall. That was sufficient for me to move to a paid subscription. Murray, who’s British, is an editor at The Spectator, and whenever he speaks or writes, it’s always worth paying attention. Since Oct. 7, he’s been an unabashed champion for Israel; his logic is devastating (to opponents). And his insights into favorite poems are a marvel. Bari Weiss, editor of The Free Press, announced this week that Murray is continuing for a second year.

Niall Ferguson, a Scottish-American historian and senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, has a warning to Americans. If you think a third world war is impossible, you may be overlooking what’s beginning to stare everyone in the face. David Goldman at The Claremont Institute echoes a similar theme, pointing out that the United States has been experiencing a string of foreign policy disasters. See “Saving America’s Future from the Blob.”

Last fall, while we were in England, my wife and I visited Canterbury Cathedral. It’s a magnificent place, full of history, faith, and remarkable stories. This past week, it was also full of an event called a “silent disco.” It’s hard to imagine a place known for the martyrdom of Thomas Beckett becoming a pop music venue, but that’s what happened. Ben Phillips at The Critic Magazine took note, and he doesn’t have much patience with those who “clutched their pearls” (like we did, I don’t mind saying). He asks a fundamental question, that places the silent disco right in the middle of a major problem for England’s great cathedrals – and that’s how to pay for their maintenance and upkeep.

There needs to be a reckoning on what happened during the Russiagate upheaval. We know now that the highest levels of the CIA were involved in manufacturing “evidence” allegedly proving that the Donald Trump campaign team were in league with Putin’s Russia. The Steele dossier was concocted by the Clinton campaign team and its attorneys. And virtually the entire national news media joined the Russiagate chorus, without ever questioning whether it was real. This past week, independent reporters Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, and Alexandra Gutentag published extensive articles about what really happened. At Racket News, Taibbi explains how reporters who did try to find out the truth dearly paid for it, often at the hands of other reporters.

It makes me wonder who the real threat to democracy actually is. Independent reporters may be the only ones left doing real journalism.

More Good Reads

Poetry

Tichborne’s Elegy – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

“I am the Stone” and “The Promised Land” – Brian Yapko at Society of Classical Poets.

Unutterable Name – David Whyte.

‘In the Wilderness’ by Robert Graves – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Ashes – Kelly Belmonte at All Nine; image by Tom Darin Liskey.

Life and Culture

What a Century-Old Austrian Economist Can Teach Us About Peace in a Tumultuous Election Year – Jonathan Lawler at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

The fight for civilization in higher education – Peter Wood at The Spectator.

Music