Russellarbenfox

LATEST ARTICLES ( 630 )

• The Wonderfully (if Perhaps Insufficiently) Radical Bill McKibben

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic]I've been a fan of Bill McKibben's writings for close to 30 years. That doesn't mean I've agreed with, or even enjoyed,... Read more

  Posted on 31 May 2019 SOCIETY

• Listening to Macca #5: Wings Errata, McCartney II, and Tug of War

  

  I want to begin this entry with a rethinking of some of my comments last month, as I finished up McCartney's musical history with Wings. I'm not taking any of i... Read more

  Posted on 31 May 2019 SOCIETY

• Michael Austin's Enemies, and What He Says About Them

  

  [Cross-posted to By Common Consent]Michael Austin (who, for the record, is an old and close friend) does not fit most people's stereotype of a "patriot," the... Read more

  Posted on 27 May 2019 SOCIETY

• Bringing Wendell Berry (and Business) to Sterling

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic]A week ago I was able to organize a small group of friends to attend a fine, relatively intimate event at Sterling College... Read more

  Posted on 06 May 2019 SOCIETY

• Arguing About Abortion (but Actually Mostly Other Things) in Kanas

  

  [I was asked to provide some commentary on the recent abortion decision by the Kansas Supreme Court which received so much national attention. Read more

  Posted on 05 May 2019 SOCIETY

• Listening to Macca #4: Wings at the Speed of Sound, London Town, and Back to...

  

  This month was spent wrapping up McCartney's final experience leading a regular, formal band. To be honest, most shed no tears over this. Read more

  Posted on 30 April 2019 SOCIETY

• Listening to Macca #3: Band on the Run and Venus and Mars

  

  I obviously haven't finished my song-by-song march through everything McCartney did with Wings, but I will be very surprised if these two albums don't turn out... Read more

  Posted on 31 March 2019 SOCIETY

• What Urban Liberals Might Learn From Rural Rebels

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic]Loka Ashwood, a rural sociologist at Auburn University, visited The Land Institute in Salina, KS, last September, and... Read more

  Posted on 29 March 2019 SOCIETY

• American Conservatism, and the Socialist Specter Which Haunts It Still

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic]Back in February, Rod Dreher shared with his readers an idea for a new book: to introduce conservative Christians in... Read more

  Posted on 22 March 2019 SOCIETY

• Some Thoughts About Wichita and Baseball

  

  For those who care, some thoughts about the controversy over the proposed baseball stadium (with its attached riverfront development package) here in Wichita. Read more

  Posted on 18 March 2019 SOCIETY

• A Tale of Two Congressmen (with a 10-Point Constitutional Excursus)

  

  [The Wichita Eagle ran this morning an editorial of mine praising Senator Jerry Moran, one of my senators here in Kansas, for breaking with his party and... Read more

  Posted on 17 March 2019 SOCIETY

• Listening to Macca #2: Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway

  

  The next two albums Paul McCartney put out were his first with Wings. The way Sir Paul felt about this always shifting, never stable collection of... Read more

  Posted on 28 February 2019 SOCIETY

• One Way to Tell Elizabeth Warren's Story

  

  [This began at a Facebook comment Monday morning, and now it's a Politico article. The version below is the one I wrote before it was edited down. Read more

  Posted on 13 February 2019 SOCIETY

• Listening to Macca #1: McCartney and Ram

  

  My pop music project for 2019? Listening to Paul McCartney's entire post-Beatles oeuvre. Why? Well, why not? Is that a good enough reason for you? Read more

  Posted on 31 January 2019 SOCIETY

• Definitely Not My Favorite Python, But Probably the Most Pythonesque Python for...

  

  I've talked about Michael Palin's fascinatingly comprehensive and yet un-critical diaries, John Cleese's funny and sometimes scary arguments with himself, and... Read more

  Posted on 21 January 2019 SOCIETY

• 五十而知天命

  

  The above characters, in spoken Chinese, are "Wǔshí ér zhī tiānmìng"--but I can't speak Chinese, so that is irrelevant. What is relevant is the phrase's meaning... Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2018 SOCIETY

• The 10 Best Movies I Saw in 2018

  

  Once again, these aren't necessarily movies that came out in 2018; in fact, only three of these ten are. But they are all movies I saw for the first time this... Read more

  Posted on 30 December 2018 SOCIETY

• The 10 Best Books I Read in 2018

  

  No fiction made my list this year, in part just because of different reading choices I made this year, and also because the largest fiction reading projects I... Read more

  Posted on 29 December 2018 SOCIETY

• Songs of '78: "I Wanna Be Sedated"

  

  Yep, one more, though I basically wrapped up this series back at the end of November. True, there were songs released in December of 1978, but none that really... Read more

  Posted on 28 December 2018 SOCIETY

• Five Silent Nights (Plus One)

  

  [Cross-posted to By Common Consent]Probably just about right now (or if not now, then within the next few hours), in Oberndorf, Austria, at Central European... Read more

  Posted on 24 December 2018 SOCIETY