The Queue

Progress through Liberal Fascism has been slower than I'd prefer, but there are only so many hours in the day & only so much self-discipline in this beggar's soul. I'm about one-third of the way through & thus far it makes for chilling, tightly argued reading. I'm setting it aside for the nonce in favor of an addition to my Lenten preparations, His Holiness Pope Francis's first encyclical, Lumen Fidei. I've not before read a papal encyclical, so this should be novel as well as illuminating.

Recently
Mark Mazzetti, The Way of the Knife: The C.I.A., a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth
Christian Caryl, Strange Rebels: 1979 and the Birth of the 21st Century
Helene Wecker, The Golem and the Jinni

Currently
Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith)
Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning ***paused***

Presently
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Swords of Mars
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Synthetic Men of Mars
Sir Ernest Shackleton, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage
Edgar Rice Burroughs, Llana of Gathol
Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter of Mars
Richard Price, Clockers
Sir Richard Francis Burton, translator, "Sinbad the Sailor" from The Arabian Nights

Lately Neglected
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill
Edmund Burke, The Evils of Revolution
F. J. Sheed, Theology for Beginners

Project OSPREY
My bracket is bruised, but not completely busted: nine of my predicted clubs advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, including all of my Final Four & seven of my Elite Eight projections. I had Duke advancing to the sweet Sixteen, but then being defeated by Michigan, so the epithetless Blue Devils' Round o' 64 upset didn't upset my bracket too terribly much. My biggest personal bust so far has been Oho State, who in a fit of league pride I picked as advancing to the Elite Eight (& there being felled by Florida). I did not participate in the Billion Dollar Bracket competition, from which every one of the millions of entrants has already been excluded; I once won the house N.C.A.A. pool, back at 1213, & I've always known that with that win I exhausted my lifetime allotment of sports-related gambling winnings.

The Rebel Black Dot Songs of the Day
Shane Harper, "Hold You Up" via iTunes (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: From the motion picture God's Not Dead, which I recommend highly. 'Tis not perfect, but it gets more things right than it gets wrong. Also, Lent!

Sonntag, 23 März
James Brown, "The Old Landmark" from The Blues Brothers: Original Soundtrack Recording (T.L.A.M.)

Commentary: Always remember, possessors of filthy mouths & bad attitudes though they were, Joliet Jake & Elwood were really & truly "on a mission from God." He moves in mysterious ways & often in answer to prayer He sends one of us, sinners though we are.