A Thinking Reed

  • 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,…

  • Department of odd arguments

    Emmylou Harris fans vs. Allison Krauss fans. I may be simple, but I would’ve thought the fan base for these two artists would have a pretty substantial overlap; it certainly wouldn’t have occurred to me that their differences would generate such heated debate! I’m a fan of both these ladies and have seen them both…

  • Beyond Prejudice 4

    In the previous posts we saw Pluhar make a two-step argument for moral rights. First, she argued that any agent, reflecting on the nature of her own agency, must advocate for herself basic rights to freedom and well-being, simply because she is a purposive agent. Second, Pluhar contends that the principles of consistency and universalizability…

  • Ecopsychology?

    I don’t know that I’d buy all the theoretical trappings, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there’s something to this. As a kid growing up in a small, largely rural town, I spent a lot of time riding my bike, wandering around in the woods, and spending a lot of more-or-less unsupervised time…