Paste Magazine's review of Terrence Malick's The New World hits the nail on the head in this concise reflection on the movie. It is one of the most reflective and quiet movies I've watched in a while. I don't recommend you see it if you have lots to do and can't take it in in one sitting.

So I just finished reading Rod Dreher's new book Crunchy Cons (Crown Forum, 2006). If you have felt in yourself some of the tension that I feel when I think of calling myself "conservative," knowing that under the same umbrella stand fat-cat country-clubbers, bigoted rednecks, and culture-eschewing fundamentalists, you may find in this book a validation of sorts. Dreher isn't trying to sway you, the reader, to action; he more modestly sets out (like a good journalist) to describe a trend (more on that later), and perhaps along the way he suggests a few ways in which you may broaden your concept of conservatism, so as to be truer to your human nature and real conservatism. ...read more »

If you've consumed the latest monoculture offering of The DaVinci Code, you will probably think this is funny. Maybe it's my dry sense of humor.

Speaking of which, today one of the critical care fellows cornered me in the elevator with:

"You're British, aren't you?"

Me: "Huh?"

Fellow: "Well, your parents haven't told you that you were Native American, did they?"

Me: "Huh?"

Fellow: "Okay, so you're British. Yeah, you have to be, with your dry sense of humor..." (Walks out of the elevator)

My long absence is unexplainable. With apologies, here's what I've been up to:

* I went to Cincinnati for a course in Advanced Laparoscopy (advanced video surgery using small incisions) and got together with my med school buddy John and his sweet wife Laura. We dined at Brio tuscan grill on the Levee, a terrific place for Italian. The beef Carpaccio (read: 2.5 oz. of raw beef layered like carpet on a large platter) served with field greens, capers, mustard aioli, and flaxseed crackers was surprisingly delectable. Dessert was at a Cincinnati staple - Graeter's Ice Cream.
* This week I started work as the Transplant chief resident with five transplants and a liver resection. ...read more »

What would Screwtape, C.S. Lewis' diabolical spokesperson, say about the Da Vinci code? You can almost smell the brimstone again as you read Eric Metaxas' version of what Screwtape might say about Dan Brown's soon-to-be movie. A fun read, and so very condescending to all the gullibles who swallow the Holy Grail fiction whole!

I'm nearing the end of an epoch, or so it seems. I've been a trauma chief for the last three months, and it's coming to and end. It's tiring, my wife and kids are fed up with me, and I'm much grumpier nowadays. It will all happily come to an end April 2 when Carrie and I toss caution to the wind, leave the kids with their Gramma Jeannie and Aunt Sarah, and board a cruise ship, not to be heard from for exactly seven days. Grand Cayman, Cozumel...it doesn't matter, as long as there is sun and I have some good books along!

And yeah, the blog posts should start to pick up once I'm not sleep deprived and creatively depleted...

...not the Radiohead song, but my computer is finally OK. Repaired, that is. So the reason I've not been posting for a fortnight is that my computer died. I, not being that variety of geek, was helpless. So, I lugged the box into CompUSA and BestBuy, only to be told by the former "Yeah, you need a new power supply. Just order one online and we'll put it in for you." Thanks, genius. Apart from not being on the internet at home, I couldn't find the power supply I needed anywhere on the web when surfing at work. So the BestBuy Geek tells me, "Oh yeah, you can use our website to order the part," and kindly let me use their computer to order it on the web. After calling him back over several times to assist me in my clear incomprehension of the way to do this (his eye rolling and sighing were not lost on me), it was done. I managed to install it myself, but that was nothing compared to trying to communicate with the creature I shall hereby call "Geekus computerstoreii". ...read more »

With the upcoming da Vinci Code movie starring Tom Hanks, you can bet there will be a big revival of the da Vinci craze. Apart from being unblushingly anti-Catholic in some of his books, Brown spins a very good tale. Problem is, people start believing it's all really true, when Brown is making a lot of the story up from whole cloth. That would be called fiction, and it's a popular genre.

Bill Wilder, of the Center for Christian Study in Charlottesville, gave a talk last year about the da Vinci Code, from the perspective of a Christian theologian. You can listen to it here on mp3.

Bono's remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast this week in Washington are a must read! I mean, when I hear this guy talking I think of a raggedy, wild-eyed Old Testament prophet telling God's people to repent. A few excerpts:

The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age [AIDS]. Love was on the move. Mercy was on the move. God was on the move.

God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. ...read more »

The Wall Street Journal online has a disturbing article about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (or Ahmadinezhad) and his cozy relationship with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. What they have in common is, of course, the desire to embarrass and weaken the United States through whatever saber-rattling, blustering, or buffoonery (as with Mr. Chavez) is necessary. Ahmadinejad is outspoken in his desire to pursue nuclear technology, and even the EU nations are getting nervous. Mr. Ahmadinejad has denied the historical occurence of the holocaust in typical anti-Semitic fashion, and would like to see Israel wiped off the map, with its residents exported to the U.S., Canada, and other Israel-friendly nations. In a show of solidarity with Tehran, Hugo the ventriloquist's puppet has recently taken up the anti-Semitic rhetoric, much as a new gang inductee will show allegiance by shoplifting or vandalizing. ...read more »

Blogger Jeff Jarvis has some good thoughts on how to revive the local newspaper: focus on your market, don't waste paper and ink on things that are increasingly anachronistic (like stock quotes and TV listings), and don't waste money to send a local sports writer on junkets to the US Open when you can syndicate the best of the national writers. I can get the national news online on cnn.com or on TV at Fox News, but I can only read about local news, artists, bands, and cultural happenings in my local paper. That is added value that people might be willing to pay for, whether they get it online or in newsprint, or both. ...read more »

Found a good blog today - it's called Common Grounds. A number of christian thinkers from all fields (theology, law, arts) are contributors, including an old friend, Greg Thompson, newly-called pastor at Trinity Church in Charlottesville.

Byron Calame, public editor at the New York Times, writes that he's getting the Heisman (for those of you non-football-savvy, this is the stiff-arm pose) from the editor and publisher of the NYT. Calame sent a list of 28 questions to executive editor Bill Keller and publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., asking for more details about the Times' much-heralded story that the NSA eavesdrops on calls from the USA to overseas numbers and vice versa. Turns out, Keller and Sulzberger won't give their ombudsman (and, by extension, their readers) the time of day. Request declined. No reason given. And no clarification to follow.

Weird story. I could speculate, but I won't. Just follow this one. ...read more »

Read two books this week (vacation - isn't it great!). I just finished 2005's Pulitzer prizewinning novel, Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. I followed that with Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller's "nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality." When I finished the first and started the latter, it was like hearing a performance of Verdi's Aida and then walking into a Willie Nelson concert. Both good, but very different!

Here's my take on each book: ...read more »

Be sure to read the Wall Street Journal's editorial about the hot desert winds blowing from the mouth of so many senators (Russ Feingold and Jack Reed, among others) this winter about "secret" wiretaps conducted by the NSA and authorized by the president.

Far from being the long-hoped for scandal that brings Bush down, this appears to be a kerfuffle of underwhelming proportions:

...in a previous FISA case (U.S. v. Truong), a federal "court, as did all the other courts to have decided the issue [our emphasis], held that the President did have inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches to obtain foreign intelligence information." And further that "we take for granted that the President does have that authority and, assuming that is so, FISA could not encroach on the President's constitutional power." ...read more »