All posts by Chuck Fager

Review: A Legacy of Spies” — John LeCarre’s Latest

I sought out the books after reading a recent joint interview with JLC & another, younger author who writes respected nonfiction about the intelligence world.

The nonfictioneer insisted that JLC has written the “truth” about that world via his fiction. His elder accepted the praise patiently. LeCarre is now mid-80s, likely beyond the reach of flattery. Besides, this truth as he has disclosed it comes down to endless lies, betrayal & blood in the service of “causes” all but consumed by the cost of their illusions; a job well-done, yet hardly the fodder of smug self-satisfaction.

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A Titanic Evangelical Ship of Fools: Michael Cromartie’s Doomed Voyage

Politico linked to a lengthy 2013 profile of Cromartie & his mission from the main intellectual evangelical mouthpiece, Christianity Today. It’s a very interesting period piece, clearly aimed to help Cromartie shore up fundraising for the project in the rocky post-Crash years.
Under the subhead, Michael Cromartie is guiding media elites into a more accurate view of conservative Christians, the article also highlights both the value of Cromartie’s work, and in retrospect its poignant, perhaps even tragic underlying folly

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A Labor Day Memory: The Big Eclipse?? Wake me When It’s Over

I learned a few things along the way, which lightened the tedious miles: particularly that many of the Canadian towns we passed through had been founded by “United Empire Loyalists.” After some cogitation, I realized these were the tyrannical Tory scum the victorious colonials ran out of the new United States after our revolution. That explained, among other things, the guy in the red coat on the sign for Shelburne; a “Redcoat.” 

But their progeny, after these eight intervening generations, seemed not preoccupied with this old quarrel, happy to take our few US tourist dollars. And on the morning of July 10, 1972, though road-weary, we were headed out toward the far eastern end of their oddly-shaped island, looking for a spot to park and watch the day turn to night.

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Breaking: North Carolina YM-FUM Shuts Down

There’s a notorious set of photos from St. Louis, of a public housing project called Pruitt Igoe, being brought down in a controlled detonation of high explosives. The story is that the project, meant to provide sturdy housing for the poor, had become toxic and uninhabitable. It could be a fitting parable for North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM – NCYM for short)

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