A Thinking Reed

  • Unhappy conservatives

    The American Conservative asked an eclectic group of thinkers on the Right (broadly speaking) to offer their endorsements for the election. Interestingly, by my count there are four Obama voters, two McCain voters, and twelve people who say they will either vote third party, write someone in, or not vote at all. This isn’t too…

  • Fear of a liberal planet

    Under some circumstances I might be sympathetic to the argument that handing both Congress and the presidency to the same party is a bad idea. After all, our system of government is based on the principle of checks and balances, and one-party rule can lead to corruption and abuse of power in short order. But…

  • Prop 2 in the news

    The NYT and the Washington Post both have articles this weekend on the Proposition 2 campaign in California. The Times profiles Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society, who’s group has been spearheading the campaign. The Post article gives the lay of the land on both sides of the issue. I’m astonished by some of…

  • School of prayer

    Christianity Today has a piece on praying the Psalms, making the point that prayer is “learning to desire the things God wants to give, and then asking him for them,” and that the Psalms are an excellent–if not the best–way to do this. Praying the Psalms is something I don’t do nearly as much as…

  • Annals of pandering

    As a son of western Pennsylvania I’m naturally delighted to learn from John McCain that my ancestral homeland is the most God-loving part of the country!

  • Weak tea

    The RNC is now running this ad (at least in our television market): Are voters not supposed to notice that John McCain also lacks executive experience and hasn’t sat in the Oval Office during a crisis? Weak. They’ve also been running that ridiculous “I’m Joe the Plumber” ad about how that commie Obama will raise…

  • Initial thoughts on Gutierrez’s Theology of Liberation

    I just finished reading, for the first time, Gustavo Gutierrez’s Theology of Liberation. My understanding is that it was one of the earliest works of liberation theology, coming out of a Latin American, specifically Peruvian, context. What’s interesting to me is that, not having much background in LT, I was expecting something like warmed-over Marxism…

  • Production matters: the limits of locavorism

    Ezra Klein points out that eating locally is neither feasible for a lot of people, nor is it necessarily the best way to reduce carbon emissions with your food choices. (Granted, there are other reasons for eating locally.) Peter Singer and Jim Mason make a similar point in The Ethics of What We Eat (a…

  • Lazy man’s abortion blogging

    I’d been toying with writing a post outlining my current thoughts about abortion, but, turns out, I agree with nearly everything in this post from Lynn. So I’ll just refer you there. Thanks, Lynn!

  • Against obedience and suffering

    I’m still mulling over this couple of posts from the blog “An und für sich”: “Against Obedience” “Christ’s Suffering” They’re interestingly contrarian (as opposed to contrarian in a shallow, knee-jerk way).