Saturday, May 20, 2023

Saturday Good Reads - May 20, 2023


Four years in the making, the report by Special Prosecutor John Durham on “Russian collusion” was released this week. Predictably, the mainstream media (like The New York Times and The Atlantic, not to mention my own hometown newspaper) decided it amounted to nothing. If you’re still trying to deny your own culpability in promoting a hoax that tore the country apart, it’s a good position to take. Roger Kimball at The Spectator gives a better overall summary, while his colleague Peter Van Buren says the report unmasks the Deep State. Eli Lake at The Free Press says the FBI actually protected Hillary Clinton (four investigations were stopped from the top-down).  

If you don’t trust the pundits on either side (and pundits are all we have left), you can read the Durham report for yourself.

 

Would you like to be the Corporate Vice President of Belonging? Something is happening in the DEI industry: strategies and tactics are changing, writes Abe Greenwald at Commentary Magazine. Pushback is rising, and some corporate executives are realizing that many DEI programs at their companies are making matters worse.

 

I can remember when The Wizard of Oz finally made it to television. I was five years old, and my mother and I watched it together (she’d seen it when it was first released in movie theaters in 1939). Even on a black-and-white TV, it was magic. Mark Malvasi at The Imaginative Conservative says the movie is something more than a film – it’s a fable of modern America.

 

More Good Reads

 

Life and Culture

 

Christopher Lasch’s forgotten utopia – Ashley Colby at UnHerd. 

 

The Shattered Image of the Thirteenth Century – John Mark Reynolds at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

One Homeschool Year: A Local Story in Four Seasons – Nadya Williams at Front Porch Republic.

 

Anatomy of a medical scandal: How not thinking can infect a workplace, community or entire culture – Victoria Smith at The Critic Magazine.

 

We’re All Bored of Culture – William Deresiewicz at Tablet Magazine.

 

American Stuff

 

The Girl of the Endless Summer: How ‘Gidget’ helped to put surfing on the map – Kevin Mims at Quillette. 

 

Ewell’s Letter to Grant in the Wake of Lincoln’s Death – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Civil War. 

 

Are Americans Better Off? – Jon Schaff at Front Porch Republic.

 

Ukraine

 

An unreviewable album: The music is beautiful; the context is not – Norman Lebrecht at The Critic Magazine.

 

Beyond Metaphor: Inside the First Month of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine – Serhiy Zhadan at Literary Hub.

 

Faith

 

Why is the SBC Membership Declining? – Ryan Burge at The Gospel Coalition.

 

The Doom of Choice – Jake Meador at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

People Walking Away? We Are NOT in Unprecedented Times – Eric Geiger.

 

He Drew Me Through Agony: My Painful Path to Faith – Kathryn Butler at Desiring God.

 

Poetry

 

The Power of One – Roy E. Peterson at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Writing and Literature

 

What recent publishing controversies say about the industry – Nathan Bransford.

 

Readers Aren't Flocking to Chatbot Novels Just Yet – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

Take Heart – 20schemes Music



 
Painting: Reading the Scriptures, oil on canvas by Thomas Waterton Wood (1823-1903)

1 comment:

Sandra Heska King said...

That video... on repeat.

My mom's parents divorced when she was young. Her dad had a habit of not showing up for things. She would have been probably 10 when the Wizard of Oz came to the theater. They had a date, and she waited forever for him, but he never showed. It deeply affected her. And after that, my parents mostly did things spur of the moment for fear of the joy of looking forward to something and then being disappointed.