Japanese PM

Now or Never for Nihon

We've covered Japan's demographic woes here before. Some people scoffed at the ancient island nation's peril. But now her own prime minister is warning the time to address Nihon's population crisis is "now or never." Japanese Prime minister Fumio Kishida pledged on Monday to take urgent steps to tackle the…
January 23, 202312 Comments
First Contact Enterprise-E

Star Trek: First Contact

Our retrospective on the Star Trek film franchise left off on the installment that officially handed the keys to the Next Generation crew. Though a general audience pleaser upon release, Star Trek: Generations has since acquired a reputation as a mixed bag of good visuals marred by character mishandling and…
January 20, 202311 Comments
Crowder Con Inc

Con Inc Exposed

It's no secret that this blog has been critical of Conservative pundit Steven Crowder. After all, his career is one of the answers to the often-asked question "Why doesn't Conservative media ever do anything effective in the culture war?" But now, it looks as if Crowder is breaking the Con…
January 19, 20239 Comments
Male Suicide

Losing Our Religion

It's been pointed out before on this blog that irreligiosity kills. Now, a new paper adds to the mountain of evidence that not just individual belief, but public group worship, is essential to one's wellbeing. Hat tip to authors David V. Stewart and Alexander Hellene. So-called deaths of despair such…
January 18, 20238 Comments
Civilization 1

The Gen Y – Millennial Gap

A commenter on yesterday's post writes: I don’t quite know what to say. I’m a millennial, and one who has hardly heard a song from the 80s (That I was aware of) but when I heard that last song on your list I felt… Something. It wasn’t nostalgia, it was……
January 17, 20239 Comments
80sNot80s

80s Not 80s

One strange aftereffect of Cultural Ground Zero has been the rise of the retrowave musical aesthetic. Like the PulpRev in fiction, this movement doesn't so much embrace a genre as an earlier state of the art - in retrowave's case, the 1980s. To a member of Generation Y, the phenomenon…
January 16, 202334 Comments
Fall of Bablyon

The Fall

Spend any length of time in dissident circles online, and you'll soon be introduced to the concept of the Collapse. Though formulated by philosophers of history a hundred years ago, the idea that civilization now faces a great decline is popular with ex-Trump supporters discouraged by the MAGA program's failure.…
January 13, 202310 Comments
Fr Chad

Fr. Chad Is Back

Yesterday's post on the decline of Liberal Catholicism gave rise to a lot of comment. Hats off to my Twitter mutual @catholic_dan7 for posting this follow up from Fr. Chad Ripperger. Watch the celebrated chad exorcist here: A wealth of great stuff here Some highlights: Modernism has stooped to a…
January 12, 20232 Comments
Life Teen Mass

Hopeful LibCath Listicle

Way back in the mists of time before the Trump years, #GamerGate, and even the Sad Puppies days, Fr. Dwight Longenecker's blog was on my regular rotation. Fr. D. is a former Anglican priest, Catholic convert, and indie author whose balanced commentary proved quite helpful in the early days of…
January 11, 202311 Comments
Star Trek_Generations

Star Trek: Generations

Way back in 1992, when pop culture was regaining its footing after the post-1980s hangover, I recall a friend telling me that another Star Trek movie was planned. It would feature the Original Series and Next Generation casts and be called Generations. To understand my reaction to that claim, you've…
January 10, 202311 Comments