Russellarbenfox
MY BLOGS
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In Medias Res
http://inmedias.blogspot.com/
Essays, notes, and fragments--personal, political, and philosophical--from the midst of things
LATEST ARTICLES ( 589 )
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Flight Films
Right about now exactly a week ago, as best as I can calculate it, I was halfway between Seattle and Minneapolis, after having left Nanjing, China, early... Read more
Posted on 17 November 2014 SOCIETY -
Mormons and the American Liberal Order
[Cross-posted to By Common Consent]Seeking the Promises Land: Mormons and American Politics is a superb work of social science. Read more
Posted on 17 November 2014 SOCIETY -
My Five Favorite Stephen King Stories
Stephen King is visiting Wichita, KS, today, and thanks to my wife's employment at Watermark Books, we're going to have front row seats. Read more
Posted on 14 November 2014 SOCIETY -
Saturday Night Live Music: "Pretending to Care"
Todd Rundgren's A Cappella is one of the greatest pop albums I've ever listened to; there's not a track on it that I don't love, and this track is perhaps my... Read more
Posted on 09 November 2014 SOCIETY -
Kansas: Election-Day Predictions
Got back from voting about 40 minutes ago. At 6am there was a long line already. Of course there's always a bunch of early risers like me taking care of their... Read more
Posted on 04 November 2014 SOCIETY -
Mid-Sized Meditations #5: Conservatism, Localism, and the Mittelpolitan Problem
[Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic] This morning, I completed a series of lectures and discussions with a local civic group here in Wichita. Read more
Posted on 30 October 2014 SOCIETY -
On Being a Liberal Mormon: Two Defenses and an Attack
[Cross-posted to By Common Consent]One week before election day here in the United States, let’s consider, both politically and philosophically, a couple of... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2014 SOCIETY -
Kansas: 10-Day Predictions
Taping an episode of This Week in Kansas last Thursday, our host Tim Brown asked us assembled commentators: what do we predict for November 4, only a week and... Read more
Posted on 25 October 2014 SOCIETY -
The Cone of Shame Just Took On an Entirely New Meaning
(Via Accordion Guy, taken from this collection of rejected New Yorker Read more
Posted on 21 October 2014 SOCIETY -
Saturday Night Live Music: "Better Than a Hallelujah"
I've listened to Amy Grant on and off ever since my church to mission to South Korea a quarter-century ago. Christian pop never penetrated American Mormonism th... Read more
Posted on 19 October 2014 SOCIETY -
"I Just Started the Paleo Diet Yesterday, and I’m Wondering If There’s a Way to...
Via Samuel Brown, via The Toast, comes "All The Comments on Every Recipe Blog." Enjoy.“I didn’t have any eggs, so I replaced them with a banana-chia-flaxseed... Read more
Posted on 15 October 2014 SOCIETY -
Kansas: 20-Day Predictions
Walking out from a Wal-Mart this morning, someone approached me, and asked if he'd seen me before. Since I've been doing quite a bit of television work on... Read more
Posted on 15 October 2014 SOCIETY -
Saturday Night Live Music: "Rough Boys"
Scholars and sociologists and historians of sexuality can talk all they want about fluid gender orientations, the gay sub-culture of the 1960s and 70s, leather... Read more
Posted on 12 October 2014 SOCIETY -
My Favorite Live (Single) Albums
My old friend David Jenkins challenged me to provide some Friday night discussion by listing my five favorite live albums. Well, I'm sorry Dave: I can't. I can'... Read more
Posted on 11 October 2014 SOCIETY -
"This Bald Chick; What's With Her Head?"
The news of the death of Jan Hooks, a delightfully funny woman whose tenure on Saturday Night Live and Primetime Glick gave me many a laugh, put me in mind of... Read more
Posted on 10 October 2014 SOCIETY -
The Settled and the Strange: Seven Thoughts for Sukkot
[Cross-posted to By Common Consent]Today is the first full day of Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles, one of several Jewish holidays that I have long felt a... Read more
Posted on 09 October 2014 SOCIETY -
Three Ways Sam Brownback Could Keep Gay Marriage Illegal in Kansas: Some Free...
In the few days since the Supreme Court declined to review the decision of the 10th Circuit Court that Utah’s same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional, there... Read more
Posted on 08 October 2014 SOCIETY -
Saturday Night Live Music: "I Want You to Want Me"
Quite possibly the greatest power pop single ever, off one of the greatest live albums of all time. Cheap Trick's backlog can't begin to compare with the piles... Read more
Posted on 05 October 2014 SOCIETY -
Mid-Size Meditations #4: City Liberty, Country Liberty
[Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic]It's clear to me that one of the primary things people (in the United States, certainly, but also elsewhere) think about... Read more
Posted on 03 October 2014 SOCIETY -
Meeting the Ups
[Cross-posted to By Common Consent]Just so you know, there's probably no way that anyone who doesn't fit into the very narrow Venn overlap of "church-going... Read more
Posted on 02 October 2014 SOCIETY