Russellarbenfox

LATEST ARTICLES ( 599 )

• Progress, Yes, But Still No Space for Music Critics?

  

  (From The Onion; hat tip: Rod Dreher.)CITY OF DIS, NETHER HELL–After nearly four years of construction at an estimated cost of 750 million souls, Corpadverticus... Read more

  Posted on 25 September 2013 SOCIETY

• Letterman on 9/11

  Still, for all its flaws and limitations, this monologue, given on September 17, 2001, remains the best video memento of the attacks 12 years ago. Worth... Read more

  Posted on 11 September 2013 SOCIETY

• Lupin, James, Or Dumbledore?

  

  So, this is making the rounds on Facebook today:It's a wonderful occasion for geeky Myers-Briggs conversations, but it's flawed. Read more

  Posted on 11 September 2013 SOCIETY

• Because I Still Have a Bunch Sitting on a Book Shelf Immediately Behind Me Here...

  

  Matthew Yglesias, who is young and worldly and sophisticated and intelligent and wise, wants to know, as he targets what appears to him to be yet another... Read more

  Posted on 09 September 2013 SOCIETY

• Saturday Night Live Music: "Wrapped Around Your Finger"

  Stumbled on to this one by accident, and it's brilliant. I could do without the background orchestration, but man: Rufus Wainwright deeply mines this old... Read more

  Posted on 08 September 2013 SOCIETY

• Once More (About Syria), With Feeling (and Editing)

  The Wichita Eagle ran today a much condensed (and, I suppose, perhaps much improved) version of my post from Monday on my wish/hope that Congress will, in... Read more

  Posted on 06 September 2013 SOCIETY

• Films for Teaching International Relations

  This is a well-worn topic, but still, as I'm teaching International Relations this fall for the first time in a couple of years, I figured I needed to update... Read more

  Posted on 06 September 2013 SOCIETY

• Hail Britannia! (Politely, Of Course)

  

  Dear British People,Thank you; we understand you now.Sincerely, America.----------------------WHAT THE BRITISH SAY WHAT THE BRITISH MEAN WHAT FOREIGNERS... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2013 SOCIETY

• Dear Congress: Please Make President Obama Look Bad on Syria (Even If Your...

  

  [Cross-posted to Political Context]To Senators Roberts and Moran and Representative Pompeo,Sometime in the next week or so, Speaker of the House John Boehner an... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2013 SOCIETY

• My APSA Report, 2013

  

  It's been a while since I've written any reflections on the American Political Science Association's annual meeting--in part, I suppose, because I don't get... Read more

  Posted on 02 September 2013 SOCIETY

• Remembering Radio (and Me), Part 4: 1993

  

  And so, 1993: twenty years ago, the year I turned 25, graduated from BYU, started graduate school, and married Melissa. And also, to a great extent, stopped... Read more

  Posted on 29 August 2013 SOCIETY

• Come, Listen to a Prophet's Voice

  

  Exactly 50 years ago today, on Wednesday, August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King--a conservative Southern Baptist, a democratic socialist, a troublemaker, an... Read more

  Posted on 28 August 2013 SOCIETY

• Remembering Radio (and Me), Part 3: 1988

  

  By 1988, the year I turned 20 years old, I'd left Spokane, WA, never (yet) to return with any kind of permanence. Instead, for half of the year I lived in Provo... Read more

  Posted on 28 August 2013 SOCIETY

• Remembering Radio (and Me), Part 2: 1983

  

  So, 1983, the year I turned 15, my last year in junior high (in Spokane, WA, at that time they divided up the grades K-6, 7-9, and 10-12) and the first and... Read more

  Posted on 27 August 2013 SOCIETY

• Remembering Radio (and Me), Part 1: 1978

  

  Last week, Matt Yglesias asked why people don't remember the 1990s more fondly. (This isn't the first time he's blogged nostalgically for his Clinton-era youth.... Read more

  Posted on 26 August 2013 SOCIETY

• Orson Scott Card, Unoriginal Fantasist

  

  So, I see exploding all over the internet the news that science-fiction author Orson Scott Card has waxed lyrical (at nearly 3000 words) about a "silly thought... Read more

  Posted on 14 August 2013 SOCIETY

• Thoughts on Elshtain

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic]Jean Bethke Elshtain, a profound and important political theorist and ethicist, died yesterday. Read more

  Posted on 13 August 2013 SOCIETY

• The Big Two-Oh.

  

  On a Friday the 13th, twenty years ago today--or twenty years ago, less about six hours from now--Melissa Madsen and I were married in Salt Lake City, Utah. Read more

  Posted on 13 August 2013 SOCIETY

• Taking Stock of the Summer, Part 1: Home Improvement

  

  Well, it's Friday, August 2--which means I only have about ten days left before all the meetings and the mad preparations for fall semester begin. Read more

  Posted on 02 August 2013 SOCIETY

• Science is Stunning, Sometimes

  The must-see video of the day: compiled and corrected footage from two different space shuttle flights results in our being able to watch, and listen, as the... Read more

  Posted on 29 July 2013 SOCIETY