A Thinking Reed

  • Extremism in the defense of beer

    Great story about the rise of craft brewing in the US, focusing especially on Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware, maker of various “extreme” beers (really hoppy ales, beers with offbeat ingredients, etc.). For my birthday I treated myself to a 4-pack of their 90 minute IPA. Yummy stuff. The article, though, becomes a kind of…

  • Gourmands, aesthetics, and ethics

    If more proof was needed that I’m not hip, I’m sorry to say that I never read David Foster Wallace–and indeed only vaguely knew who he was–before his suicide this past September. But I recently came across this incredible piece of his published in 2004 in Gourmet magazine. Incredible not least because it was actually…

  • Thought for the day

    …theology, an enterprise that, despite the oftentimes homicidal urgency Christians attach to it, has yet to save anybody. What saves us is Jesus, and the way we lay hold of that salvation is by faith. And faith is something that […] I shall resolutely refuse to let mean anything other than trusting Jesus. It is…

  • Usage question

    I’ve noticed a somewhat widespread tendency for writers to use the expression “to paraphrase” in something like the opposite of its proper meaning. “To paraphrase” properly means, as far as I know, to express the same idea using a different form of words. But many people now seem to use it to mean something like…

  • Of Palin and poultry

    I’m with Jim Henley – there’s nothing particularly disturbing about this Sarah Palin interview at a turkey farm (well, except insofar as Sarah Palin is inherently disturbing). Where exactly do people think Thanksgiving turkeys come from? Jim’s also right that the farm where the interview takes place is, by all appearances, far more humane than,…

  • WALL-E

    Strangely affecting! I haven’t gotten that choked up at an animated movie about robots since The Iron Giant.

  • Ethical challenges for the president-elect

    Obama’s global ethical challenges, according to Peter Singer: -close Gitmo and end the practice of detaining people whithout charges -withdraw from Iraq -increase and better target foreign aid -take serious action on global warming Sounds about right. (Incidentally, it’s looking like Obama is going to make climate change a priority.)

  • Tom Turkey in hell

    Surprise! When you reduce animals to the status of things, they tend to get treated like…things. I don’t want to get all vegetarian self-righteous here, but here’s a thought. Thanksgiving is, among other things, about, well, giving thanks to the Author of our being. And surely part of that thanks-giving is treating that which we…

  • Mainline on the sidelines

    Political theorist/theologian Charles Mathewes reviews a book on the public witness of the mainline and its decline. He makes what seems to me a crucial point: the ineffectiveness of much of the mainline is in large part a function of the fact that the denominational bureaucracies often don’t represent the people in the pews. And…

  • Wishy-washy theological liberals

    It’s a commonplace that even those who purport to take the entire Bible “literally” end up emphasizing certain passages and reinterpreting others. Take, for instance, this story of a charismatic church in Loudon County, VA that appears to be taking on cult-like features centering around the iron-fisted leadership of its head pastor. Among other things,…