A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Local

  • Emancipation Day

    D.C. observes April 16th as Emancipation Day. From Wikipedia: On that day in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act for the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia. The Act freed about 3,100 enslaved persons in the District of Columbia nine months before President Lincoln Read more

  • Wish you were here

    From the (suddenly indispensable) Capital Weather Gang blog: We are living through some of the most extreme winter weather we’ll ever experience in the metro region this morning. Heavy snow, winds exceeding 40 mph, and true whiteout conditions have paralyzed the entire region and steady snow will continue for a couple more hours or so Read more

  • The resurrection of Eastern Market

    My wife and I live about a block and a half from Eastern Market, but the fire that gutted the building happended just before we moved here, about two years ago. Since then, the butchers, fish-monger, etc. have been housed in a makeshift building across the street, while the weekend produce vendors set their stalls Read more

  • So much for states’ rights

    In the grand tradition of Congress treating D.C. as its own personal political laboratory, Nevada’s Republican senator John Ensign has attached an amendment to the D.C. voting rights bill that would essentially gut what remains of the District’s gun control laws post-Heller. I actually have fairly middle-of-the-road, or even conservative views on gun rights. Part Read more

  • Inching closer to voting rights

    Senate clears way for approval of D.C. voting rights bill D.C. Vote: As Constitutional As You Want It To Be If DC isn’t going to be “retrocessed” into Maryland, or made the 51st state, then I don’t really see any other solution that’s fair and reasonable. I look forward to having a representative in Congress Read more

  • Assorted links with no particular unifying theme

    –Lynn on why some people are pro-choice on abortion but anti-gay marriage and the various meanings of “sodomy” –Matt Yglesias on DC Statehood (bonus: a couple of nifty images of US flags with 51 stars from Yglesias commenters) –Humane Society CEO Wayne Pacelle recently appeared on the Kojo Nnamdi show, an excellent program on DC’s Read more

  • One party (non-)state

    All the hoopla of the presidential contest aside, voting as a DC resident is a pretty unexciting prospect. First off, there’s no doubt that DC’s 3 electoral votes will go to Obama. Democrats enjoy third world dictator-levels of support in the District, and last I checked Obama was polling above 80% here. You could vote Read more

  • Jeffersonia

    I don’t know how many ATR readers live in the DC area, but the Library of Congress currently has a very cool exhibit of Revolutionary-era documents, “Creating the United States,” which includes Jefferson’s “rough draft” of the Declaration of Independence, complete with handwritten edits from Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and members of the Continental Congress. Read more

  • Economics for community

    As I mentioned previously, Daly and Cobb’s central concern is that the abstractions of economics leave out aspects of reality that are crucial to understanding the world and shaping the economy in a way that nourishes community and is sustainable in the long run. Following A.N. Whitehead, they refer to the phenomenon of treating an Read more

  • Diocese of Mass: Just say no to marriage?

    Some priests in the Episcopal diocese of Massachusetts are sponsoring a resolution to be considered at the upcoming diocesan convention that would get the church out of the business of marrying people. Instead, couples would have to get married by a justice of the peace and could then come to the church for a blessing Read more