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Rod Dreher

The Greek economic crisis is quickly spreading. Today, Spain’s debt was downgraded, which is a much bigger deal than Greece’s woes. But Greece is loping steadily toward sovereign default. A Greece rescue plan is said to cost a staggering 100 billion euros — or more! I pity the German taxpayers, who are being asked to…

Meet Gillian Duffy, a genial grandmother who is quickly becoming a British media sensation, thanks to PM Gordon Brown’s being nice to her face, then calling her a “bigot” behind her back — forgetting that he was wearing a live mike. Thanks to electronic media, including the power of YouTube, the PM has just committed…

I was listening this morning to a segment on NPR’s Morning Edition in which two music commentators discussed the music of a female rapper named Niki Minaj. I found Minaj’s music to be ugly and unlistenable, but I think that about almost all rap music, so take that opinion for what’s it’s worth. What made…

Further to the discussion on epistemic closure, consider science blogger Jonah Lehrer’s post about poker faces and brain testing. Excerpt: The larger lesson is that the brain can’t escape its embodiment. Even abstract information – and what’s more abstract than a random number? – is subject to the heuristics of physical movement: Up means higher,…

Well, I’ve been to two tai chi classes so far, and I’m really liking it. The moves look so easy when you watch others do them, but they’re not easy at all, at least not if you are as physically graceless and as uncomfortable in your body as I am. But with practice, it starts…

Hey, how about this, from Scientific American?: Eat less saturated fat: that has been the take-home message from the U.S. government for the past 30 years. But while Americans have dutifully reduced the percentage of daily calories from saturated fat since 1970, the obesity rate during that time has more than doubled, diabetes has tripled,…

This item about a Benedictine nun drawing spiritual lessons from cheese-making might just be the Platonic ideal of a Rod Dreher blog post. Excerpt: Mother Noella began her presentation with a slide of a gold-gilded icon of St. Benedict beholding a ray of sunlight. She also showed images of yeast budding in aging cheese, under…

I finally got around last weekend to listening to a recent This American Life broadcast about the NUMMI plant. Here’s the promo text: Host Ira Glass introduces the story of the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., aka NUMMI. In 1984, General Motors and Toyota opened NUMMI as a joint venture. Toyota showed GM the secrets…

Patrick Deneen caught the Off Broadway revival of “Our Town,” and had some thoughts upon leaving the theater. Excerpt: The juxtaposition of Grover’s Corner and New York captures the essence of two different worldviews. In the one, the challenge of human life is to reconcile our capacious longings with our need for home, belonging and…

My friend Chuck Bloom down in Texas sent this to me over the weekend. It got to me, as you might well imagine: Chalk this one up to another Ruthie Leming victory. Here in Dallas, there is a well-known Celtic musician/singer-songwriter named Michael William Harrison, who has been performing in local venues and pubs for…
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