Russellarbenfox

LATEST ARTICLES ( 630 )

• What Kansas Republicans Should Learn From Yesterday

  

  [A quick follow-up from yesterday:]Primary contests don't necessarily tell you much about general elections. The number of people who show up to vote is so... Read more

  Posted on 06 August 2014 SOCIETY

• Happy Birthday, Mr. Berry

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic] Today, Wendell Berry turns 80. There is much which could and perhaps should be said in honor of him on the occasion of hi... Read more

  Posted on 05 August 2014 SOCIETY

• Primarily About Kansas

  

  It's primary day here in Kansas. I voted earlier this morning, at a polling station at the church a little more than a half-mile down the road from our house. Read more

  Posted on 05 August 2014 SOCIETY

• Summer Movie Round-Up

  

  Summertime is a good time for films--you're staying up late, you get too tired to do anything besides stare at a screen, you had to the theater to get out of th... Read more

  Posted on 04 August 2014 SOCIETY

• Saturday Night Live Music: "Hallelujah"

  Last week, our second daughter performed in a musical revue, "That's Entertainment!," put on by the Wichita Children's Theater and Dance Company. She sang this... Read more

  Posted on 03 August 2014 SOCIETY

• A Dad Worth Aspiring Towards

  Stephen Colbert is asked by Rookie magazine to answer some questions from their female readers, as part of their "Ask a Grown Man" feature. Read more

  Posted on 31 July 2014 SOCIETY

• James Garner, RIP

  

  In the annals of mid-20th-century popular entertainment, there are few, if any, names more worth praise than James Garner, who has just died. "Maverick." The... Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2014 SOCIETY

• "Baby, I Live In A Lighthouse (But Not That Lighthouse)" Is, Of Course, Brian...

  

  A friend of mine found this the other day, posted it to Facebook, and we haven't stopped laughing since. It's genius, I tell you: pure genius. Read more

  Posted on 17 July 2014 SOCIETY

• Trust, Community Ties, and Letting Your Children Play

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic] The story has exploded all over the internet : Debra Harrell, a Georgia woman, dropped her 9-year-old child off at a... Read more

  Posted on 16 July 2014 SOCIETY

• Saturday Night Live Music: "(I Could Only) Whisper Your Name"

  

  Exactly 20 years ago today, Harry Connick, Jr., released She, a funk album which dramatically changed his musical persona and which remains, two decades later, ... Read more

  Posted on 13 July 2014 SOCIETY

• The Things People Do on Long Car Trips

  This was mostly our oldest daughter Megan's idea (she came up with it sometime around Cheyenne, Wyoming, and we had it finished before we crossed into... Read more

  Posted on 02 July 2014 SOCIETY

• Saturday Night Live Music: "Send Me On My Way"

  Tomorrow we begin a family trip across the United States, going from Kansas to Colorado to Wyoming to Montana to Idaho to Washington state, then on to Oregon,... Read more

  Posted on 29 June 2014 SOCIETY

• "It’s Very Cold Out And Love Does Not Exist Also"

  

  Why haven't I read any of the classic Russian novels? Even though I should? Perhaps because as "Every Russian Novel Ever" demonstrates, they're all so... Read more

  Posted on 16 June 2014 SOCIETY

• Saturday Night Live Music: "Midnight Apparitions"

  This week I pulled from my shelf of old cassette tapes which I have at the office something that I haven't listened to in quite some time: Kim Simpson's debut... Read more

  Posted on 15 June 2014 SOCIETY

• How the Fall of Eric Cantor Continues to Prove James Madison Wrong, Or...

  

  My friend Michael Austin has become a skilled pundit, and his observations on American politics are usually smart, historically informed, and wise. Read more

  Posted on 11 June 2014 SOCIETY

• What Works and What Doesn't After 75 Years

  

  1939 has been called Hollywood's greatest year often enough that, a short while ago, I decided to revisit (or, in a couple of cases, visit for the first time)... Read more

  Posted on 09 June 2014 SOCIETY

• "I Could Do Better If I Had More Space."

  

  The fantastic tale of how Stephan Pastis, author and artist of the very fine (though not, in my humble opinion, truly great) comic strip Pearls Before Swine,... Read more

  Posted on 08 June 2014 SOCIETY

• How Marx Explains the Pomo-Con/Front-Porch Divide, In Four Easy Steps

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic] Via Rod Dreher, I see that the occasionally interesting blog Postmodern Conservative has departed its longtime home at th... Read more

  Posted on 04 June 2014 SOCIETY

• What Tiananmen Meant to Me, Twenty-Five Years Ago

  

  In the summer of 1989, I was living in Seoul, South Korea--on Yeouido (여의도) island, in fact, just a few miles from the 63 Building. (I strongly doubt any foreig... Read more

  Posted on 04 June 2014 SOCIETY

• Burkean? Maybe, In a Sense. But Left Conservative? Not at All

  

  [Cross-posted to Political Context]Ryan Lizza posted a short note today, about the new limitations on the industrial production of carbon emissions which the... Read more

  Posted on 03 June 2014 SOCIETY