Staying relevant in late consumer capitalism requires highly sophisticated resources and the willingness to tailor your values to whatever your audience wants. In trying to compete in this market, the church has forfeited the one advantage it had in the game to attract disillusioned youth: authenticity. When it comes to intransigent values, the profit-driven world has zilch to offer. If Christian leaders weren’t so ashamed of those unvarnished values, they might have something more attractive than anything on today’s bleak moral market. In the meantime, they’ve lost one more kid to the competition.
Writing from the Edge of the Middle | The Russell Kirk Center
"I was never in the bureaucracy, always in the theater," McCarry, who served in the CIA in the 1950s and '60s, told The Washington Post in 1991. "I've consciously tried not to romanticize anything, especially not intelligence work. I've always said that I've been writing a series of episodic, naturalistic novels. The people just happen to be spies, politicians, civil servants. If pediatricians lived lives in which the manipulation of emotions were the tools of the trade, I probably would have written about them
Charles McCarry, prescient spy novelist, dead at 88 | The Sacramento Bee
In Search of Isaiah Berlin is really two books in one. The first is Hardy’s account of how he met Berlin and brought together his unpublished radio broadcasts, lectures, articles and manuscripts. The second, the last hundred pages, is about their philosophical exchanges, focusing in particular on Berlin’s ideas about human nature, pluralism and religion.
"I was never in the bureaucracy, always in the theater," McCarry, who served in the CIA in the 1950s and '60s, told The Washington Post in 1991. "I've consciously tried not to romanticize anything, especially not intelligence work. I've always said that I've been writing a series of episodic, naturalistic novels. The people just happen to be spies, politicians, civil servants. If pediatricians lived lives in which the manipulation of emotions were the tools of the trade, I probably would have written about them
Charles McCarry, prescient spy novelist, dead at 88 | The Sacramento Bee
The New York Times – Oops! Famously Scathing Reviews of Classic Books From The Times’s Archive: “What can we say? We don’t always get it right. Here’s a look back at some of our most memorable misses.We called “Sister Carrie” a book “one can get along very well without reading,” dismissed “Lolita” as “dull, dull, dull,” and had nothing nice to say about “Howards End.”
Prinnie Stevens, Mahalia Barnes and Jimmy Barnes Sing Morava River Deep Tatra Mountain High
“Americans are spreading their book consumption across several formats, and the use of audiobooks is rising. About three-quarters (74%) of Americans have read a book in the past 12 months in any format, a figure that has remained largely unchanged since 2012, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in January. Print books remain the most popular format for reading, with 67% of Americans having read a print book in the past year. And while shares of print and e-book readers are similar to those from a survey conducted in 2016, there has been a modest but statistically significant increase in the share of Americans who read audiobooks, from 14% to 18%. Overall, Americans read an average (mean) of 12 books per year, while the typical (median) American has read four books in the past 12 months. Each of these figures is largely unchanged since 2011, when the Center first began conducting the surveys of Americans’ book reading habits…”
Leaked Documents Show US Gov’t Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates Through Secret Database NBC News San Diego : “The documents detail an intelligence-gathering effort by the United States and Mexican authorities, targeting more than 50 people including journalists, an attorney, and immigration advocates…Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates show the U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports. At the end of 2018, roughly 5,000 immigrants from Central America made their way north through Mexico to the United States southern border. The story made international headlines. As the migrant caravan reached the San Ysidro Port of Entry in south San Diego County, so did journalists, attorneys, and advocates who were there to work and witness the events unfolding. But in the months that followed, journalists who covered the caravan, as well as those who offered assistance to caravan members, said they felt they had become targets of intense inspections and scrutiny by border officials.
Prinnie Stevens, Mahalia Barnes and Jimmy Barnes Sing Morava River Deep Tatra Mountain High
“Americans are spreading their book consumption across several formats, and the use of audiobooks is rising. About three-quarters (74%) of Americans have read a book in the past 12 months in any format, a figure that has remained largely unchanged since 2012, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in January. Print books remain the most popular format for reading, with 67% of Americans having read a print book in the past year. And while shares of print and e-book readers are similar to those from a survey conducted in 2016, there has been a modest but statistically significant increase in the share of Americans who read audiobooks, from 14% to 18%. Overall, Americans read an average (mean) of 12 books per year, while the typical (median) American has read four books in the past 12 months. Each of these figures is largely unchanged since 2011, when the Center first began conducting the surveys of Americans’ book reading habits…”
Leaked Documents Show US Gov’t Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates Through Secret Database NBC News San Diego : “The documents detail an intelligence-gathering effort by the United States and Mexican authorities, targeting more than 50 people including journalists, an attorney, and immigration advocates…Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates show the U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports. At the end of 2018, roughly 5,000 immigrants from Central America made their way north through Mexico to the United States southern border. The story made international headlines. As the migrant caravan reached the San Ysidro Port of Entry in south San Diego County, so did journalists, attorneys, and advocates who were there to work and witness the events unfolding. But in the months that followed, journalists who covered the caravan, as well as those who offered assistance to caravan members, said they felt they had become targets of intense inspections and scrutiny by border officials.
