A Thinking Reed

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

Personal

  • Why I voted for President Obama (again)

    I voted today–D.C. started early voting last Monday–and, not surprisingly, I pulled the lever (or rather pushed the touchscreen) for the Obama-Biden ticket. This wasn’t at all a hard decision. On every issue I care about, the Romney-Ryan G.O.P. is significantly worse than the Democrats. And this includes those areas where Obama has most disappointed–peace, Read more

  • Semi-hiatus

    As readers of my Twitter feed may be aware, my wife gave birth to a healthy and beautiful baby boy last Thursday morning. We’re extremely happy (and tired, etc.). However, a foreseeable, if unintended, side-effect of the new addition is less time (and energy) for blogging. So expect few if any posts for the next Read more

  • On the death of a cat

    Two poems: On the Death of a Cat By Christina Rossetti Who shall tell the lady’s grief When her Cat was past relief? Who shall number the hot tears Shed o’er her, belov’d for years? Who shall say the dark dismay Which her dying caused that day? Come, ye Muses, one and all, Come obedient Read more

  • Merry Christmas!

    I hope all those who celebrate enjoy the season! Blogging will be minimal for the next week or so. Read more

  • Bad blogger

    I’ve been a little under the weather and extra busy this week, so the Advent series may have to go on hold. I hope to have some more time for blogging soon. Read more

  • The Common English Bible–a new translation

    My dear wife got me an Amazon Kindle for my birthday, which I’ve been enjoying immensely. Poking around in the Kindle store, I decided I should download a version of the Bible. But which one? I usually read either the New Revised Standard Version or the Revised English Bible. But the Kindle version of the Read more

  • Libertarianism and the politics of human frailty

    Jim Henley, who’s long been one of my favorite bloggers, has been writing a really interesting series of posts touching on aspects of his defection from libertarianism toward a more liberal/social-democratic politics. In his most recent post, Jim wonders if libertarianism is “an inevitably temporary political outlook.” He notes that many people seem to “outgrow” Read more

  • State of the blog address

    I just realized that July 1st marked the 7th anniversary of my blogging efforts. I started out on a Blogspot site (“Verbum Ipsum”) and migrated over to WordPress and A Thinking Reed a few years later. (All the archives have been imported to this site.) I’ve been at it more or less continuously ever since Read more

  • Bike commute update

    It’s been about a month or so since I started commuting to work by bike, and my experience has been overwhelmingly positive. The Capital Bikeshare has worked out extremely well–I haven’t run into any problems with bikes being unavailable or there not being room to dock the bike at my destination station. The most challenging Read more

  • More on cycling, mostly links

    Okay, maybe the hottest day of the year (so far) wasn’t the most opportune moment to start biking to work regularly. But I got my shiny new Capital Bikeshare key in the mail over the weekend and couldn’t resist trying it out. I’ve also finally found a route that’s both efficient and bike-friendly. Anyway, I’ve Read more