Russellarbenfox

LATEST ARTICLES ( 599 )

• Behind the Beautiful Forevers, and the Ground on Which Communities Are Built

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic]The final sentence in Behind the Beautiful Forevers--Katherine Boo's wonderfully written, devastatingly detailed... Read more

  Posted on 07 January 2013 SOCIETY

• Why Haven't I Seen The Hobbit Yet?

  

  It's January 3, 2013, and I still haven't made it to the theater to see The Hobbit. Why not?Party because of all the partially negative (or at least... Read more

  Posted on 03 January 2013 SOCIETY

• All Creatures Great and Small

  

  [Cross-posted to By Common Consent]My father decided that we needed to learn how to work--and since he ran a feed mill, getting farm animals that we could feed... Read more

  Posted on 24 December 2012 SOCIETY

• Conservative Wisdom from an Original Radical

  

  [Cross-posted to Front Porch Republic]Last Friday, Tom Hayden, co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society, principal author of 1962's Port Huron... Read more

  Posted on 10 December 2012 SOCIETY

• Dave Brubeck, RIP

  A year and a half ago, we lost Joe Morello. Now, David Brubeck has joined him. Of the greatest cool jazz quarter of all time--Brubeck on piano, Morello on drums... Read more

  Posted on 05 December 2012 SOCIETY

• Home Teaching and the Miracle of Interruption

  

  [Cross-posted to By Common Consent]Yesterday, I and another member of our church went to talk and counsel with a family in our congregation. (In Mormon parlance... Read more

  Posted on 26 November 2012 SOCIETY

• Posner's Wrong About the Electoral College

  

  Richard Posner has written a defense of the Electoral College, which is one of the several elements of our national Constitution which I don't like. I read his... Read more

  Posted on 13 November 2012 SOCIETY

• Why I'm Not Troubled by My Decision Not to Vote to Re-Elect Obama, Round II

  

  This morning I dropped my oldest daughter off at an early-morning church class, then drove to another church, which happens to be our local polling station. I... Read more

  Posted on 06 November 2012 SOCIETY

• The Best Book I've Read This Political Season (About the Last One)

  

  Writing a book on current events is a complicated crap-shoot. In an age of blogs, social media, and basically instantaneous communication, to write and get... Read more

  Posted on 01 November 2012 SOCIETY

• Why I'm Not Troubled by My Decision Not to Vote to Re-Elect Obama

  

  [Cross-posted to Political Context] About three weeks ago Conor Friedersdorf, a libertarianish blogger for The Atlantic, put up a post about how even those who... Read more

  Posted on 16 October 2012 SOCIETY

• The Most Important Vote I'll Make on November 6th

  

  Three weeks from today, I'll be able to vote for my preferred candidate for president of the United States, for my regional congressional representative, for... Read more

  Posted on 16 October 2012 SOCIETY

• Saturday Night Live Music: "Find Myself a Sunny Spot"

  It was 1992, in Provo, Utah, and a student newspaper I contributed to, and a feminist club I hung around with, had a joint, great idea for a fundraiser: we'd... Read more

  Posted on 14 October 2012 SOCIETY

• Saturday Night Live Music: "Steamroller" and Much More

  I'd never consciously listened to a James Taylor song before the two years I spent in South Korea on a proselytizing mission for the Mormon church from... Read more

  Posted on 07 October 2012 SOCIETY

• Mocking Romney's Mormon Self-Sufficiency, and What That Misses

  

  [Cross-posted to By Common Consent] Amy Sullivan has an article on The New Republic's website this morning, calling Mitt Romney "insufferably cheap," and arguin... Read more

  Posted on 02 October 2012 SOCIETY

• Cleansing the Altar, and the Anvil Too

  [Cross-posted to By Common Consent]Some interrelated thoughts for today, which is Yom Kippur, a Jewish holiday that I kind of wish every year was one of my own. Read more

  Posted on 26 September 2012 SOCIETY

• Saturday Night Live Music: "Diamond in the Rough"

  Early Shawn Colvin. Melissa and I saw her do a great show at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC sometime in the late 90s; I wish I could find a recording of that, o... Read more

  Posted on 23 September 2012 SOCIETY

• How Mitt Romney Deflated the Mormon Moment

  

  [Cross-posted to By Common Consent] Before we get too far into this week's Democratic National Convention, let me get off my chest something about last week's,... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2012 SOCIETY

• The Kansas GOP Has Thought Itself Out of Another Good Politician

  

  [This is a submission to the Wichita Eagle; we'll see if they take it. Update, 9/7/2012, 1:00pm CST: a shortened version of the article was printed in the... Read more

  Posted on 04 September 2012 SOCIETY

• Saturday Night Live Music: "I Hung My Head"

  Melissa and I may never have seen The Police in action (and considering that they came to both Kansas City and Dallas during their reunion tour a few years back... Read more

  Posted on 02 September 2012 SOCIETY