Arts & Culture
Arts & Culture, Philosophy, Reviews
Babylon 5: Pioneering, Philosophic Science Fiction
Thomas Walker-Werth February 21, 2023
Babylon 5 is a unique science-fiction series that tells an epic story rich in philosophic ideas and moral messages. These make it timeless and well worth watching for anyone interested in complex drama.
Arts & Culture, Politics & Rights
Taylor Swift Fans Should Celebrate Her Becoming a Billionaire
Justyna Piątek-Pawłowska February 21, 2023
Contra those who think it’s not possible to ethically accumulate so much wealth, Taylor Swift has done so by trading value for value—never resorting to force or fraud. She created that wealth, and fans upset about this “need to calm down” and acknowledge this fact.
Arts & Culture, Politics & Rights
Are Filmmakers Finally Standing Up to Chinese Censorship?
Angelica Walker-Werth December 12, 2022
The Chinese Communist Party perpetrates some of the worst censorship in the modern world. Film companies have a moral responsibility not to sanction the CCP and its horrors by capitulating to them—much less collaborating with them.
Arts & Culture, Reviews
This Afterlife: Selected Poems by A. E. Stallings
Timothy Sandefur December 3, 2022
A. E. Stallings’s distinctive poetry succeeds because it merges a conscientious focus on meaningful content—saying relevant and powerful things about human experiences—with a painstaking attention to formal design. The results are masterpieces of integration.
Arts & Culture, Good Living
Life Lessons from Literary Tragedies
Andrew Bernstein November 21, 2022
Superb literary tragedy induces in us unforgettable intellectual-emotional experiences of human error leading to the agonizing downfalls of even great (or formerly great) men. As philosophy, it does not tell but shows us in searing action many major errors to avoid if a flourishing life is our goal.
Arts & Culture
Six Wistful Winter Poems
Various Authors November 21, 2022
Including works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Claude McKay, Eliza Cook, Walter de la Mare, and Sara Teasdale.
Arts & Culture
The Orville: New Horizons, Created by Seth McFarlane
Thomas Walker-Werth November 21, 2022
The Orville: New Horizons explores complex issues in a balanced manner and presents a positive but believable vision of the future, resulting in one of the best science-fiction shows in recent decades.
Arts & Culture, Reviews
Hocus Pocus 2, Directed by Anne Fletcher
Angelica Walker-Werth November 4, 2022
Unfortunately, Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) features only the trappings of the original, with watered-down characters, a weak plot, and no moral message.
Arts & Culture, History
The Life and Fate of Vasily Grossman, Banned Russian Novelist
Timothy Sandefur October 29, 2022
The life and fate of banned Russian novelist Vasily Grossman is a tragedy worthy of his own novelistic skills. More than fifty years after his passing, we can only imagine what he might have achieved had communist tyranny not stifled him.
Arts & Culture, Reviews
Declassified: A Low-Key Guide to the High-Strung World of Classical Music, by Arianna Warsaw-Fan Rauch
Jon Hersey October 24, 2022
Declassified tells the stories not only of the loves and losses of Beethoven and Brahms but of the heartbreak of a young musician who built a life for herself atop the expectations of others—and who, in the wake of inevitable disappointment, learned to salvage her love of classical music and spotlight its value for all to see.