A Thinking Reed

  • Animals and Good Samaritans

    This is in interesting article about the dilemmas that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association faces concerning whether and when to help marine animals in distress. Dilemmas like this are sometimes used as a reductio ad absurdum of animal rights. For instance, people will sometimes ask, if we have an obligation not to wantonly kill…

  • Left-wing American exceptionalism

    Christopher makes an important point. To anyone who’s tempted to believe that the Bush years were a complete departure from an otherwise unbroken American tradition of “moral leadership” I’d recommend–for starters–getting acquainted with Andrew Bacevich’s The Limits of Power, which I blogged about here. Then we can move on to the collected works of Reinhold…

  • Recent musical discovery — Wovenhand

    From the department of man does not live by heavy metal alone: Wovenhand (or “Woven Hand” as I sometimes see it written) started off as a side project for David Eugene Edwards, the front man for the alt-countryish group 16 Horsepower. But they broke up and Wovenhand now seems to be his full-time project. Anyhoo,…

  • Climate and conservation

    This article in today’s Post discusses how people responsible for wildlife conservation are having to change their approach because of global warming. The old model, where you set aside a certain fixed area of land to protect the wildlife within it, is becoming obsolete as changes in the climate will, or are already, driving those…

  • Moyers, Frank, and Sirota on the economy

    Bill Moyers’ Journal hosted an interesting discussion with Thomas Frank and David Sirota on the bailout, the economic stimulus, and what people can expect and/or hope for from Obama. I think Sirota’s point (toward the end of the segment) about the longing some people feel for an “authoritarian capitalism” or a “czarist” model for fixing…

  • Comments

    The WP spam filter is usually pretty effective, but I’ve noticed a couple of legitimate comments being swept up in the dragnet recently. Looks like I’ll have to be a bit more vigilant. Thanks for your patience, esteemed readers!

  • Is marriage sacred?

    In arguments about gay marriage you sometimes hear suggestions that we should have a strictly civil version of marriage (or union) for the public realm that applies to gay and straight people alike, while leaving “sacred” marriage to religious bodies. This may or may not be a good idea, but what I wonder is whether…

  • McGovern: Don’t escalate in Afghanistan

    An open letter to the President from Mr. “Come Home, America” himself (via A Conservative Blog for Peace).

  • Just say nein!

    The president of the German government’s advisory body on environmental issues has suggested that, for environmental reasons, Germans should cut back their meat consumption to “prewar” levels and strive for a diet more like the Italians. Predictable attacks from industry about trying to deny consumers “freedom of choice” follow. (Via the–somewhat unfortunately named, given the…

  • Heavy metal name flow chart

    This is great. I think my favorite category is “badass misspellings,” as contrasted with “pointless misspellings.” (via Jeremy, in comments.)