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David French

french.jpgA few weeks back Lisa noticed that one of the articles summarized in the current issue of The Week was written by David French. We knew a David French at Lipscomb, so she googled him and he's the same one. The column highlighted in The Week was in the National Review online discussing a recent survey of college faculty and titled "Bias Against Evangelicals on Campus? You Don't Say!." An excerpt:

For some time, the leftist academic establishment has responded to literally hundreds of stories about the violation of the fundamental rights of religious students with the argument that those stories are mere "anecdotes" and are not evidence of a wider problem. In recent years, however, the systematic studies have come pouring in, including studies showing dramatic political disparities in the classroom, dramatic drop-offs of faith practice during the college years, and now we see concrete evidence of sheer bigotry. Our nation's colleges and universities have a religion problem, and faithful students and professors are paying the price.

Turns out that David is a frequent contributer to the "phi beta cons" blog ("THE RIGHT TAKES ON HIGHER ED") on the National Review (an archive of his posts from the last 30 days is here). He appeared on The O'Reilly Factor back in May with a UCLA student who was embroiled in a controversy with Planned Parenthood (French writes about the controversy here). Last year he quit his job with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, took a new job with Alliance Defense Fund, and joined the army reserve (he writes about it in the National Review here). David's wife is Nancy French of "A Red State of Mind" fame. David and Nancy are involved in the Romney campaign and the Tennesseans for Mitt and Evangelicals for Mitt web sites. It's been interesting to see what one of our college acquaintances has been up to on the national stage. I was curious to see if he's on Wikipedia, but not yet.

Great Expectations

200px-Great_expectations_ver3.jpg Friday night we watched Great Expectations (1998,R) (ScreenIt! Review). From Wikipedia:

Great Expectations is a 1998 contemporary film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel of the same name, directed by Alfonso Cuarón and starring Ethan Hawke, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert DeNiro, Anne Bancroft and Chris Cooper. Despite its popular and respected cast of actors, the movie received mixed reviews.

I like Ethan Hawke (especially the Before... couple of films). I enjoyed this version of Great Expectations. I give it 4 out of 5.

Spielberg on Spielberg

Tonight I finished watching the documentary Spielberg on Spielberg on Turner Classic Movies. As you might guess from the title, it was a sort of retrospective of his films with Spielberg commenting on his career and it's development. It was quite interesting...both to look back on the films (so many of which I had seen, of course) and to see his perspective on the films and his career. I give it 4 out of 5.

Coma

Earlier this week I watched the HBO documentary Coma. From the HBO web site:

...COMA explores the mysteries of the injured brain and its ability to heal. Giving voice to people whose quality of life and very existence have been threatened, the special goes inside a top U.S. medical facility for the treatment of head trauma and follows four coma survivors over the course of a year.

I thought it was quite interesting. The struggle and heartache...for the injured...for their families...for the people who try to care for them. I give it 4 out of 5.

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