A Thinking Reed

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

Politics

  • Missouri tea party hates puppies

    For years, Missouri earned the dubious distinction as the nation’s “puppy mill capital” because its lax humane regulations and enforcement allowed dog breeders to raise puppies at low costs in terrible, overcrowded conditions. Last fall, Missouri voters approved a referendum to finally solve this problem — the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act — which mandates Read more

  • Friday Links

    Somewhat abbreviated… –Here’s the Red Cross disaster newsroom page for donations and updates on today’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan. –How climate change can lead to increases in earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic activity. –The Christian Century responds to B.R. Myers’ anti-foodie polemic, drawing some useful distinctions. –A study finds that chickens are capable of empathy. Read more

  • Odds and ends

    In lieu of more substantive blogging… —Lent: I managed to make it to an Ash Wednesday service at lunchtime yesterday, but I have no grandiose plans for Lenten discipline. Every year it’s tempting to think that I’ll really get back on track (after the seemingly inevitable decline in my churchgoing, prayer life, Bible reading, almsgiving, Read more

  • Friday Links

    –Why Washington doesn’t care about jobs. –At the Moral Mindfield, Marilyn has more on the question of whether welfare reforms benefit animals raised for food. –Metallica’s classic album Master of Puppets turned 25(!) yesterday. This was the first real metal album I ever heard, and it’s still one of the best. –NPR’s “First Listen” is Read more

  • What’s a radical?

    Since I’m reading his book, I’ve been reading up a little on Howard Zinn (who died last year). This is from Bob Herbert’s column right after Zinn’s death: I always wondered why Howard Zinn was considered a radical. (He called himself a radical.) He was an unbelievably decent man who felt obliged to challenge injustice Read more

  • History with a preferential option for the poor

    I probably should’ve read this years ago, maybe as an angry 19-year-old (though, come to think of it, I wasn’t really that angry when I was 19), but I recently started Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. So far I’m pretty impressed: I was expecting a political harangue, but what Zinn’s doing Read more

  • Friday Links

    –Why unions are essential for the future of liberalism. –Maryland is very close to legalizing same-sex marriage. –Indiana is very close to passing a draconian, Arizona-style immigration law. –International aid groups appeal to Congress to restore funding for humanitarian aid. –A slideshow and discussion on the question “Is meat green?” –How much would a government Read more

  • The heart and soul of liberalism

    I highly recommend this Kevin Drum article from the latest issue of Mother Jones on the decline of unions and what it means for the prospects of liberalism in the U.S. Drum points out that organized labor’s waning influence coincided with skyrocketing economic inequality and contends that this has important lessons for liberalism’s long-term efforts Read more

  • Solidarity, not resentment

    This article from Alternet on 12 Things You Need to Know About the Uprising in Wisconsin is chock-full of good information, but I’d like to focus in is this bit at the end, which gets at a key issue: The Right has made great political progress getting Americans to ask the question: “How come that Read more

  • Friday links

    –The Australian broadcaster ABC’s Religion and Ethics site has a series of articles by Martha Nussbaum on democracy and education: parts 1, 2, and 3. –Coal is not cheap. –Vegan nutritionist Virginia Messina argues that healthy diets can include meat analogues. (A corrective of sorts to anti-processed-food extremism.) –At the great metal blog Invisible Oranges: Read more