A Thinking Reed

  • A dual-aspect political theory?

    I started reading Thomas Nagel’s Equality and Partiality, on the subject of moral and political philosophy. Those familiar with Nagel’s work will note a recurring theme concerning the different, and often apparently irreconcilable, views of ourselves that we’re compelled to take by personal experience and more reflective, impersonal stance. For instance, from my own first-person…

  • (Non-human) animals who use tools

    Very cool. It seems like birds, in particular, are proving to be smarter than we thought. The mole rat face mask is pretty incredible too.

  • Big screen Eddie

    How cool is this–Iron Maiden is releasing a big-screen tour documentary. Equally cool–singer Bruce Dickinson is a licensed pilot and flew the jet they traveled on (appropriately named “Ed Force One”) for much of the tour. The movie is called Iron Maiden: Flight 666. Doesn’t get much more metal than that.

  • Friday metal – As I Lay Dying, “Within Destruction”

  • Not bad for week one

    Obama gives military’s interrogation rules to CIA (More here from NRCAT.) Obama orders CIA prisons, Gitmo shut Obama blocks some of Bush’s last-minute environmental decisions More of this, please.

  • Girard on war and apocalyptic

    Via bls comes this review of a new book by Rene Girard (not yet translated into English, it appears) wherein Girard critiques Von Clausewitz’s On War and discusses the prospects for humanity’s self-annihilation. Girard turns to the Revelation of John, the apocalyptic passages in the Epistles, as well as the “little apocalypse” of Mark 13…

  • MLK was unserious

    I was offline for most of the day yesterday and missed this good post from Matt Yglesias on King and nonviolence (via Marvin).

  • Congrats, President Obama!

    Despite living six blocks from the Capitol, the wind chill and a bug that I’m trying to fend off kept me inside watching the proceedings from the comfort of my sofa like a real American. I’m not a fan of the imperial presidency and all the pomp that has grown up around it, but only…

  • Saved by theology

    So, today at church I was roped in to assisting with communion at the last minute, something I’ve never done before. I was distributing the wine, which we do by pouring it from a chalice into tiny plastic cups that people take from a tray on their way to the altar rail. However, if, for…

  • Hmmm…

    Via Derek: You’re St. Justin Martyr! You have a positive and hopeful attitude toward the world. You think that nature, history, and even the pagan philosophers were often guided by God in preparation for the Advent of the Christ. You find “seeds of the Word” in unexpected places. You’re patient and willing to explain the…