Just re-read this & was relieved to find he really does pull no punches, on this & so many other issues. Zero excuse for church ignore & defend evils.

Re conversion, have to love Maritain’s bluntness in late 1938 Commonweal interview (published Feb ‘39).

Willy Vlautin: The Horse; The Left and the Lucky. Sad, generous, perfect voice for the texts. Here’s a recent bit from the Backlisted newsletter.

Rooney sounds a lot like Eliot—this is excellent…

Can’t recommend highly enough the audiobook read by Jay O. Sanders—wry absurdity of the voices is perfect. Free via the Libby app from many public libraries. 10/10

If he’d only held out two more weeks…💸

Here is another whose wife & kids aren’t white, all-in

Same energy, same content in box

Audible, Libby app for US libraries, etc. I wish Sanders would do more readings based on the quality of this.

Succubus reminds of Hillsdale’s monthly, Incubus

@piercepenniless.bsky.social @massimofaggioli.bsky.social @jackhanson.bsky.social Thanks for this, helped clarify two things for me: 1. re shift from just war to holy war, US culture war has been great training ground: mission seen as divinely sanctioned, want to change real facts on the ground 1/2

@depthsofwikipedia.bsky.social True story~ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Z...

@raygunsite.com if it’s not copyrighted, you should 💯 resurrect this design (from an AAAS conference several years ago). There’s also a chimpanzee variant that’s decent~

last *three

Martin Wolf’s last two FT columns agree

Nice chaser:

Nice timeline sequence

His playbook would improve too

@epress.bsky.social I’m sure you’re familiar with this; just finished & it reminds me greatly of your work (& of Gitta Sereny’s): the patient, cumulative, piercing moral clarity that emerges through Part I. Many parallels to now as a society slides faster into darkness.

Good description of this in a recent NYRB of Douthat’s latest. He’s obvs to the right of reactionary centrists, but a similar play.

French another moralist who can’t go beyond both-sides in this moment

Thanks very much for your thoughtful & valuable work. If the smaller platform proves unsustainable, is one option to publish both on Steady and on Substack? Some seem to settle on that as a morally tolerable position that allows for broader reach (cf Zohran staying on X). Complicated questions.🙏

@iammilliam.bsky.social Not sure if you’re a Joy Williams fan, but her new collection is vintage stuff. You’ve mentioned your mother passing in the past year; my father is dying now & I find Williams an excellent companion as we endure—liminal yet acute, feels the wicked & the affectionate.