This week I finished: The Abolition of Man: Reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools, by CS Lewis: I read the Chronicles of Narnia as a kid but don't remember much of them. Then between Hillsdale College courses and other conservative speakers, I hear about CS Lewis all the time. I thought I'd start with a short book I heard mentioned a few times. Well, it's short, but not quick or easy. It started off easy enough to follow, but it didn't take long before I felt like I would have to write here something like: I must not be that smart because this book's writing was too hard for me to understand. I felt…

This week I finished: 8 Billion Angels, directed by Terry Spahr: I've become friends with Terry since first watching his documentary on overpopulation years ago. He recently released it free on YouTube. I recommend it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_XZtF-I7vo Here's the movie's page: https://8billionangels.org. From Scientific American: Eight Billion People in the World Is a Crisis, Not an Achievement The major driver of plant and animal loss is habitat destruction caused primarily by the encroachment of a swelling human population. By Naomi Oreskes The world reached two important milestones toward the end of last year. First, the human population passed eight billion in November, a whopping increase of one billion people since 2011. Then, in December, representatives of 188 governments adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, promising to conserve and…

This week I finished: In the Mood for Love, directed by Wong Kar-Wai: It's hard not to first mention this movie's style in the qipaos, hair, make-up, ties, and music. Each dress and hairdo must have taken hours to get right each time, looked sewn-in. The word I keep coming back to for the style is: perfect. What a beautiful movie. But the movie covers more than style. Who hasn't had their heart broken? Who hasn't been cheated on? Who hasn't had to live with choices we couldn't take back but had to keep living with them? Despite the gravity and emotion of the characters' situation, it felt impersonal to me through most of the movie. That is, until the end, when it became universal.…

This week I finished: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn: I'm sure I read this book before, but long enough ago that this time was almost anew. I've been reading about liberty, freedom, equality, and democracy. I've read and written about slavery and the Holocaust. Soviet / Stalinist gulags are on par, but different, and equally important to understand what a nation, or dominance hierarchy, can devolve into. I won't try to put into words the world that Solzhenitsyn can and did. He lived it for eight years. The book conveys a dystopia human beings created for each other. It's personal and human beyond what history books convey. I'm learning more about the history too. I'm not sure if or…