A Thinking Reed

  • Unnecessary roughness

    John Schwenkler, who blogs here, wrote, in a comment to this post: [It’s] hard to see [given what I characterized as the “traditional” view of our place in the cosmic scheme of things — ed.] why we, unlike other animals, should be under an absolute (or even less than absolute) obligation not to consume members…

  • Thoughts about the Ascension and other faiths

    Today at church we observed the feast of the Ascension and our pastor preached what I thought was a fine sermon. His message, in essence, was that the Ascension is important because it shows that the love that was revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is affirmed to be the sovereign force…

  • The humanist half-way house

    God save us even from well-meant benevolence. It is possible to be sure, in individual cases, what is or is not to an entity’s profit or harm. It seems entirely obvious that we should not wantonly do harm, but only (at the most) for our necessities. That we should do good is a much more…

  • The literature of peace

    Here’s a review of an interesting-sounding book on pacifism and English literature (though, given the subject, the review spends a surprising amount of time talking about Tolstoy).

  • Friday metal – Tony Stark edition

    This afternoon I went to see Iron Man with my pal Andrew. Big fun – exactly what a superhero movie should be. Definitely a cut above some recent superhero mediocrities; the A-list cast certainly didn’t hurt. Robert Downy Jr. has become one of my favorite actors in recent years. So, naturally: Oh, and I don’t…

  • The death knell of factory farming?

    Matt Halteman has a good round up of coverage on the Pew factory farming report. Could be that things are coming to a head as the confluence of a lot of factors (climate change, the price of oil, Pollan-inspired foodieism) seems to be convincing more and more people that our industrial food system is unsustainable.

  • Gravel the libertarian?

    According to several of those political quizzes circulating on the Internet, Alaska-Senator-turned-bitter-curmudgeon/longshot-Democratic-presidential-candidate Mike Gravel was one of my top matches for president. I guess should be heartened, then, to see that Gravel is apparently now pursuing the Libertarian nomination. Gravel’s platform is actually an odd grab-bag of proposals, including replacing the income tax with a…

  • The church and social justice

    Derek and Christopher have both been pondering the issue. Also relevant is this post on Niebuhr’s Moral Man and Immoral Society from Fr. Chris. I’ve wondered from time to time if part of the problem isn’t that the church has lost the idea of vocation. Instead of equipping lay people for ministry in the world…

  • Pew Commission vs. factory farming

    Wayne Pacelle’s Humane Society blog reports that the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has released a report recommending a “a phase-out of ‘the most intensive and inhumane confinement practices’—gestation and veal crates and battery cages.” This fall California will be voting on a ballot…

  • Quote of the day

    “Animals are metal“