Category: television
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Breaking Bad Isn’t Worth The Time
The big, sprawling multi-season dramatic series that have received the greatest commendation in recent years — from The Sopranos to The Wire to Deadwood to Mad Men to Breaking Bad — have never seemed to me to be worth the enormous investment of time they require. The one that I followed the most closely, The Wire, is really fantastic — but I have to say, if…
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“…cruel optimism…”
Take the well-known slogan on the atheist bus in London. I know, I know, that’s an utterance by the hardcore hobbyists of unbelief, but in this particular case they’re pretty much stating the ordinary wisdom of everyday disbelief. The atheist bus says: “There’s probably no God. So stop worrying and enjoy your life.” All right:…
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Fox News and Reverse Discrimination
“Nearly 7-in-10 Americans who say they most trust Fox News say that discrimination against whites has become as big a problem as discrimination against blacks and other minorities.” A recent survey by The Brookings Institution and the Public Religion Research Institute, “What It Means to be an American: Attitudes in an Increasingly Diverse America Ten…
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urban exile: the silence of the lambs
The latest Urban Exile column has been posted at Out of Ur. In this column I ask questions about the reticence of many churches to talk about race and racism. I’m grateful for the helpful suggestions made by the Leadership Journal editors about the content I submit; I’ve learned a lot about writing from those…
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ira glass of this american life
I subscribe to a few different podcasts that get automatically downloaded to my mp3 player. One of these is the public radio program, This American Life. It is hard to describe TAL to those who’ve never listened to the one hour program. Each week the host, Ira Glass, introduces a theme. Over the next hour…
David W. Swanson 