Confessions of a Conservative Atheist
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Henry V was literally and figuratively born in blood, especially as his father became king after starving the former ruler, Richard II. We should probably not spare Richard too much sympathy, however. He was the last of the Plantagenet kings, who rose to power on a tide of violence in the 12th century, violence that… Continue reading The real Henry V, the Magna Carta, and the glorious depravity we are heir to
How much should we care about the plight of a man too afraid to change his life, one who knows it, and yet can’t stop bitching about it, whether they are dancing alone or jerking off? Read literally, “Dancing in the Dark,” one of Bruce Springsteen’s biggest hits and the source for perhaps his most… Continue reading “Dancing in the Dark” and the art of self-help, Springsteen style
Can a song can be a stirring patriotic anthem and a condemnation of certain aspects of the American experience at the same time, a paradox of a piece of music if you will? On the surface, “Born in the USA” isn’t a patriotic song, far from it. Originally conceived and recorded as a mournful yet… Continue reading Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” and the paradox of a song
In an era where TV rarely ventured beyond the dreaded “To be be continued…” ending, Mr. Lynch and Mr. Frost placed a bet that people wanted more, that the mystery was important for the sake of the mystery, that not everything needed to be explained, and that sometimes things are better without an ending. In… Continue reading David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and the birth of two genres, at least
Cars are, in a sense, milestones in our lives. When I “finally” got my first roadster in 2002 it seemed a lifetime of driving had passed already, though it hadn’t even been ten years since I got my license and I couldn’t have predicted I’d have five more, spanning more than twenty. Technically, the headline… Continue reading My sixth six-speed roadster and a few reflections on aging after a half lifetime of cars
Mr. Lynch was a director’s director, an artist who operated well outside the mainstream, sometimes far outside of it, but whose appeal occasionally crossed over in both classic films such as The Elephant Man and the birth of prestige TV with Twin Peaks. David Lynch as had a career perhaps as strange as the film’s… Continue reading David Lynch and a life lived outside the frame
For whatever reason, there is something deep in the modern psyche that has been corrupted and cannot bring itself to accept the past as it was, that greatness has always been tinged with things we come to regret, that progress isn’t perfect, and that people never will be. While much of corporate America was busy… Continue reading Dungeons & Dragons can’t stop doubling down on woke in a small lesson for those who think the war is over
When you consider the literal and figurative bullets the world dodged on the way to December 31, things could have been much, much worse, almost unimaginably so, but don’t tell our so-called betters that. They are mired in misery and think you should be too. Even in conservative circles, 2024 is getting a bad wrap,… Continue reading 2024 could’ve been a hell of a lot worse, but don’t tell the media that…
It is the supreme irony of our age that we live in a period of more peace, prosperity, and health than the world has ever known, one where new wonders arise practically weekly, but cannot bring ourselves to acknowledge how truly lucky we are. There are years that are objectively bad. No one, or at… Continue reading When did every New Year become the winter of our discontent?
It’s human nature, but if you value what you have now, what you’ve seen, done, and hopefully learned, why would you want to go back to a point where you had none of it or at least less of it? Aging is a funny thing to say the least. I suspect almost all of us… Continue reading New Year’s, the mysteries of aging, and whether we’d really want to go back in time to be our younger selves
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 