Happy New Year

I’ve been absent a lot from my blog because neither the mornings, when I look after my daughter, nor the afternoons, in which I try to get some work done, are particularly amenable to blogging. But I could do more, mainly because I get caught in a trap of my own devising that says that any post I write should be a long(ish) and substantial article. Not that I always fall into my own trap. Anyway, I hope to write shorter pieces when that’s all that I have the time and opportunity for.

So:

I’ve been reading some articles recommended in two columns by David Brooks in the NYT.

I’ll just mention two, both of which concern Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens wrote a book called “God Is Not Great” and I saw a clip of him on YouTube that looked impressive, and I’m pleased to see atheists challenge theism. But this Claremont Institute review by Ross Douthat takes a hatchet to “Good Is Not Great.” The review is snarky but very effective.

Also on Hitchens, or rather by him, is a Vanity Fair article in which Hitchens discusses his reaction to hearing that a young US soldier killed in Iraq had signed up for the armed forces because of Hitchen’s persuasive arguments in favor of war against that country.

Neither the review nor Hitchen’s position on the war inspires me with much enthusiasm for the man.

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