This is my Democrat face. Angry...and a little confused.

I have to agree, from a Democratic perspective, that the quote by — —– was out of line. Neither party is more or less Christian than the other. But the assertion that Christ didn’t say it was the government’s duty to take care of the needy is somewhat weighted. He didn’t assign any responsibilities to the governments, including the enforcement of morality. So any legislation based on His teachings falls into the same category.

I think that it is every individual’s responsibility to take care of the poor, as you said. The problem is that it’s not happening. So the next step is to put the government in charge of it. And if I’m going to be paying taxes, I’d rather they benefit poor people.

Yeah, I didn’t pay taxes. It also didn’t occur to me that the government might be more selfish and inept than the rest of us. My bad.

Richard Corliss for Time:

But as the first grieving fades, and all those people Jackson’s lawyers paid to keep quiet get other people to pay for their stories, the tabloid tattling will return. The noise should be as instructive as it is ugly. It will force Michael Jackson’s fans and foes to ask: Why must our stars fall so spectacularly and fail us so egregiously? Perhaps it’s because we want them to. Indeed, it may be the primary function of celebrities like Jackson to show us, in their early radiance, what we could dream of being – and in the murk of their decline, what we fear we could become.

Michael Jackson has been, for most of my life, my favorite singer. I used to practice his dances in my room and ask my parents to relax my hair. I memorized every word on Thrillier, Bad, and Dangerous. I stayed home to watch the prime time premier of the video of Remember the Time.

As I got older I learned that I couldn’t like him that much if I wanted to be socially accepted. So I made some jokes and paid less and less attention as he got stranger and stranger. I still play his music for my son though. And I still think he was one of the best entertainers of the last 50 years, as most people in the world do, I think. I also think that the problems he’s had over the last 30 years can be laid largely at the feet of his father, and what he did in the first 10 or 15.

Michael was the most talented of his brothers, even at 6 or 7 years old. Joe made performing the family’s first priority, and Michael was the star. The group sang anywhere they could get the gig, including strip clubs. Michael was in the spotlight and under pressure to perform for the family’s success from such a young age.

His childhood was lost, and it seems like he spent his adult life trying to get it back. And no amount of money, fame, or talent could counteract the follies of a 9-year-old psyche in a 30, 40, or 50-year-old man with nearly unlimited resources. And as he became more and more outlandish, the public seemed to take more and more pleasure in ridiculing him, and it went on for years with little – if any – sympathy. As I think about it, I can hardly understand why.

Continue reading…

Rachel Toor in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

The mere act of reading good books, if you are not stopping to scrutinize the moves and tools used by the writers, examining and dissecting the choices they have made and why they work, will do nothing for you when you sit down to write. If reading good literature was enough, I would have written the Great American Novel years ago.

I got Pride and Prejudice and Zombies last night. I’m not really a zombie guy, so I have no idea why I’m so excited. I just am.

My wife and I started looking to buy a house this week. We’ve seen a few nice ones, but haven’t been thrilled. We’ve been agonizing over the cities, neighborhoods, streets, and the actual houses.

Each time we’ll step outside to discuss our options and the next house we’re going to see with the agent, and we’ll discuss what we liked and didn’t like, what we feel like we need in a house, and why we don’t think this one had quite enough.

And each time we’ll look at our son, who is standing (or kneeling) in the dirt, playing with a stick. He cried every time we told him that we had to get in the car, and every time we got out, the first thing he said was, “Stick!!”

I wish all I [thought I] needed was a stick and some dirt. Life would be so much easier.