... While I was failing, miserably, to provide you with new blog content.
James Poulos on the case against the Kurdish option.
The United Countries of Baseball. (I only wish Red Sox Nation controlled that much of southern Connecticut ...)
Tim Lee on the trouble with partisanship. (Incidentally, the Atlantic is running a great piece on a related subject - namely, why George W. Bush's expansive vision of executive power will likely be largely embraced by his successors, Democrats and Republicans alike. But it isn't out yet; indeed, it isn't even in the next issue, but rather in the issue after that, which should give you a sense of how far in advance things are planned and edited around here. So for now you'll have to take my word for it.)
Rod Dreher on vulgarity in religion.
David Edelstein, dissenting a little bit from all the critical love for Bourne 3.
The trailer for Resident Evil: Extinction. (Okay, maybe it's only interesting to me. I think I'm the only person in the world with a fondness for those films; they're the kind of dreck I like, and I'm not sure why, any more than I know why I like, say, Underworld but not the equally dreck-ish Blade trilogy. It's a lot easier to figure out why you enjoy good films then why you enjoy bad ones.)
Also, Mark Oppenheimer, who wrote that "go easy on Scientology" piece that I found so odd, has kindly sent me a response to my criticisms. I'll post his remarks (and some further remarks of my own) at some point in the next few days; for now, here's your Scientology fix for the weekend. It's the opening clip from Ted Koppel's interview with David Miscavige, the head of the Church, back in 1992 (you can find the rest of the interview hereabouts):
Also it's less true now than ten years ago, but the superstation effect of TBS and WGN used to give the Braves and Cubs control of large swathes of what's labeled Rangers, Astros and unincorporated territory.
Parts of Brooklyn still need to be labelled "Dodgers". But otherwise, yes, a qualify assessment.
Posted by Nicholas Beaudrot | August 4, 2007 12:30 AM