It’s been a strange week for news. In a case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, one justice likened transgender surgery for children to taking an aspirin, while another said regulating it would be like regulating interracial marriage. Word salad disease must be spreading. The doctor who blew the whistle on Texas Children’s Hospital discovered what happens when the U.S. Justice Department goes after you for telling the truth. On the appointments front, the man whose reputation alleged scientific experts tried to destroy (and who turned out to be right about lockdowns) has been nominated to run the National Institutes of Health. And if you thought the FBI didn’t need reforming, read Matt Taibbi’s interview with FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley and what the FBI could have done, and didn’t, before 9/11.
When we visited London earlier this fall, my wife couldn’t understand why I was so insistent on seeing the Elgin marbles (politically renamed the Parthenon Marbles) at the British Museum. I explained that, unless we traveled to Athens, we would likely never have the chance to see them again. And, yes, negotiations are underway for their return to Greece. Bijan Omrani at The Critic Magazine argues that if they marbles should be returned to Greece, they should instead be given the cities in the Delian League who were robbed of their independence by Athens.
If you’ve ever wanted to read Homer but couldn’t find the time or taking on both The Iliad and The Odyssey looked too intimidating, Matthew Long at Deep Reads Book Club has a plan. For 2025, he’s structured weekly readings along with some discussion time.
More Good Reads
American Stuff
Thoughts on the Declaration of Independence – Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative.
The Brothers’ War – Joseph Casino at Emerging Civil War.
Pardon Me, But This is B******t – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.
Recapping the Franklin 160th – Joe Ricci at Emerging Civil War.
British Stuff
How the Great Smog of London Killed Thousands in 1952 – Sky History.
Scruton and the roots of modern conservatism – Dan Hitchens at The Critic Magazine.
The Closing of the British Mind – Seth Mandel at Commentary.
The Rot in Britain – and the Remedy – Niall Ferguson at The Free Press.
Life and Culture
The Long Defeat of History: Tolkien’s hope for the entropy of ages – Jake Meador at Comment Magazine.
The Student’s Dilemma – Elizabeth Stice at Front Porch Republic.
The Problem is the Banana on the Wall – John Horvat at The Imaginative Conservative.
When the Family Flourishes, Society Flourishes – Jon Gabriel at Discourse.
Faith
Is Christmas a Pagan Tradition? – Kevin DeYoung at Clearly Reformed.
News Media
The Essayist Supreme: Remembering Lance Morrow, 1939-2024 – Paul Beton at City Journal.
Poetry
AI is a terrible poet – Owen Edwards at The Critic Magazine.
A Review of Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds by James Matthew Wilson – Steve Knepper at New Verse Review.
“She Walks in Beauty,” poem by Lord Byron – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Art
Go On, Wounded Healer – Jack Baumgartner at The School for the Transfer of Energy.
‘Send us everything’: how six students brought together more than 100 Van Gogh works just a few years after his death– Martin Bailey at The Art Newspaper.
Writing and Literature
Mary Shelley’s Grief – David Bannon at Front Porch Republic.
Does Teaching Literature and Writing Have a Future? – Phil Christman at Plough.
In the Bleak Midwinter – Paul Cardall with Audrey Assad.
Painting: Portrait of Old Man with Book, oil on canvas by Marcantonio Bassetti (1586-1630).
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