A Thinking Reed

  • Catechesis FAIL

    Thoreau at Unqualified Offerings brought these depressing opinion poll results to my attention. Essentially, the more of a Bible-believing regular churchgoer you are, the more likely you are to approve of torture: 53% of white mainline protestants said that torture can rarely or never be justified, while 46% said that it could sometimes or often(!)…

  • Hymn for the day

    Not the one we actually sang today, but I like this one better: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia! our triumphant holy day, Alleluia! who did once upon the cross, Alleluia! suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia! Hymns of praise then let us sing, Alleluia! unto Christ, our heavenly King,…

  • The psychology of torture

    Marvin made the point in comments here that it’s depressing to even be arguing about the morality of torture. After all, the wrongness of torture is something we should all simply take for granted, and the fact that it’s become a contested topic says something really bad about where we are as a country. Personally,…

  • Friday metal – Cleveland rocks edition

    Chimaira is a metal/hardcore sextet from Cleveland; their new album, “The Infection” just came out and is really good. Here’s a clip from their 2003 album “The Impossibility of Reason” (a very postmodern title, don’t you think?):

  • Jacques Ellul vs. the Kindle

    Well, sort of. John H. at “Confessing Evangelical” has a very interesting post using 76 questions Ellul suggested we ask about any new technology.

  • Global warming, food shortages, and … civilizational collapse?

    I got to hear a talk the other day by Lester Brown, head of the Earth Policy Institute. He talked, among other things, about the relationship between global warming, food scarcity, and the geo-political instability that could result. Scary stuff. This article provides a summary of his ideas.

  • Souter’s out, according to the Times

    I wondered why their were all those reporters hanging around the Supreme Court when I was out running this morning. Now I know.

  • The Life You Can Save 5

    So, where have we traveled so far? Singer has argued that 1) we have a moral obligation to help those who lack access to sufficient food, shelter, and medical care and 2) that we can do this by donating to aid agencies. Assuming we agree with him, how much should we give? Part 4 tries…

  • Boldly going

    A buddy of mine scored some tickets to an advanced screening of the new Star Trek movie last night, and was kind enough to invite me along. I enjoyed it a lot. I consider myself a fairly serious Trek fan, if not a true, hardcore Trekkie, and I thought it was great fun. It also…

  • Tortured reading

    I haven’t been blogging on the torture issue, mostly because others are doing it far more justice than I even could. But, in case you aren’t already reading them, Glenn Greenwald, Andrew Sullivan, John Schwenkler, and Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings have been my regular sources of info and analysis on this. Also see: this piece…