Saturday, June 15, 2024

Saturday Good Reads - June 15, 2024


If you visit New Orleans, a must-see is the D-Day Museum, expanded into the World War II Museum. You can watch movies about the war in Europe and the Pacific (part of the admission fee) produced by Steven Spielberg. And the exhibits are incredible. The reason the museum ended up in New Orleans has to do with a man named Andrew Jackson Higgins, whose New Orleans firm designed and manufactured the D-Day landing boats. Higgins has been called “the man who won the war for us.” 

Charles Dickens was a major writer (some say the major writer) of the 19th century, but he wasn’t a poet. And yet. Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern considers a poem he wrote and placed in The Pickwick Papers. It’s about a dying frog, of all things. 

 

This is what passes for journalism today. Concerning the rescue of the four Israeli hostages, CNN reported they’d been “freed” and Reuter’s sad they’d been “released.” And the BBC asked an Israeli interviewee if the residents of the apartment building where three of the hostages were imprisoned should have been warned first. (Not to mention that three of four rescued were being held in the apartment of a journalist for Al-Jazeera.) Seth Mandel at Commentaryexplains the truth about the war in Gaza.

 

Quote of the Week: “The New York Times, which will delete its own website before admitting they got anything wrong about Biden, Russia, or Covid, is still saying the Hunter Biden laptop could all be fake: ‘Many claims about the laptop’s contents have not been proved, but it played a role in the prosecution of Mr. Biden over a firearm purchase.’ Hmmm. Claims. Not been proved.” – Nellie Bowles, The Free Press.

 

More Good Reads

 

Israel

 

Why We Shouldn’t Trust ‘The Facts’ Coming Out of Gaza – Eli Lake at The Free Press.

 

Israel Killed 31 of My Family Members in Gaza. The Pro-Palestine Movement Isn’t Helping – Ahmed Fouad Alkatahib at The Free Press.

 

I Went to Cover a Protest. I Was Surrounded by a Mob – Olivia Reingold at The Free Press.

 

Iron Dome: Israel’s Double-Edged Sword, Part 1 – Michael Oren at Clarity with Michael Oren. 

 

Activism Uncensored: Thousands surround White House with two-mile long “red line” banner for Palestine – Ford Fischer and Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

American Stuff

 

The Foundation of American Folly – N.S. Lyons at The Upheaval.

 

Lincoln’s Grief – David Bannon at Front Porch Republic.

 

Faith

 

Dickens, Diabetes, and Positive-Sum Games – Dr. Anne Bradley at Acton Institute.

 

Does Bach’s Music Prove the Existence of God? – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

 

1994 and All That, 30 Years On – Matthew Hosier at Think Theology.

 

Culture

 

A Doctor Told the Truth. The Feds Showed Up at His Door – Emily Yoffe at The Free Press.

 

FBI Asked Co-Workers of Bureau Employee About Trump Support, Vaccine Beliefs – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

We are not Users: The Hidden Impact of Digital Labels – Brent Lucia at Far From Equilibrium. 

 

How Public Schools Became Ideological Boot Camps – Robert Pondiscio at The Free Press.

 

Ukraine

 

War and (A Just) Peace in Ukraine – Yury Avvakumov at Church Life Journal.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Good (and Bad) Fathers: Six Perspectives on Fictional Fathers, for Father’s Day – Dixie Dillon Labe at The Hollow.

 

The Problems Posed by AI and Flannery O’Connor’s Unfinished Novel – Jessica Hooten Wilson at Church Life Journal.

 

Poetry

 

The Inaugural First Things Poetry Prize – First Things Magazine.

 

Longfellow’s Bridge – Gunny Markefka at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Looking – poem by David Whyte.

 

British Stuff

 

‘I wouldn’t call it a victory’: Fossil Free Book Organizers on Baillie Gifford’s exit from literary festival funding – Lucy Knight at The Guardian.

 

J.S. Bach’s “Chaconne” – Marc Bouchkov and the Frankfort Radio Symphony



 Painting: An old man reading by candlelight, oil on canvas by Godfried Schalcken (1643-1706).

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