A Thinking Reed

  • King’s X – “Over My Head”

    I don’t know if folks remember the hard rock/soul/prog/funk act King’s X – this clip is from their 1989 album “Gretchen Goes to Nebraska”: The band is still together and, in fact, have a new album coming out next month. (They were also, perhaps unfairly, dogged by the “Christian rock” label for much of their…

  • Creative destruction

    The book reviewed here asks if capitalism as we know it is compatible with reining in environmental destruction. The author is pretty convinced that the answer is no. If this is right, the problem then seems to be that 1. there’s no particularly attractive alternative to capitalism currently on offer and 2. even if there…

  • The high price of “cheap” meat

    From Ethicurean: Here’s a number to knock you out of that mid-day stupor: every year, taxpayers shell out between $7.1 billion and $8.2 billion to subsidize or clean up after our nation’s 9,900 confined animal feeding operations. That’s the finding of “CAFOs Uncovered,” a new report released earlier today by the Union of Concerned Scientists.…

  • More from Beckmann on food aid and the farm bill

    Last week I blogged about Bill Moyers’ recent interview with Bread for the World’s David Beckmann. Beckmann discussed, among other things, how current US farm policy distorts food aid programs for very poor parts of the world. You can read more from Beckmann at the Christian Century here. Beckmann is clear that it’s a complicated…

  • Throne and Altar

    A troubling article on the treatment of Protestant “sects” under a regime of strengthening ties between the Orthodox Church and the Russian state. Russophile Fr. Chris has some comments here.

  • Links for Earth Day

    George Monbiot on the food crisis, the environment and meat eating. Michael Pollan tries to reconcile personal virtue and social change. How to invest in renewable energy, sustainable infrastructure, and rebuild the American manufacturing base while we’re at it. Dreaming of an eco-apocalypse? A review of a book about looking for sustainable seafood. A collection…

  • The evangelical bishop

    Some readers might be interested in this profile of Tom Wright from the British magazine the New Statesman, which discusses, among other things, his politics and his “literalist” views on the Resurrection and the Second Coming. And, apparently, the good bishop likes his sports cars.

  • A contemplative and Christocentric prayer

    I’ve been trying to get back into the habit of praying the Rosary. For whatever reason, I’ve found that it’s a form of prayer that really speaks to my condition. Looking for some resources online I came across two I really liked: this sermon on praying the Rosary from Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P. and this…

  • Spring fever

    I finally get what everybody was talking about when they said that Spring in DC is wonderful. I had the day off today and took the opportunity to wander a bit around the city. It’s about 80 degrees, low humidity, crystal blue sky, and it seems like every last bit of flora is in full,…

  • A kinder, gentler side of Lee

    Lest you think all I do is listen to bone-crunching heavy metal, I do enjoy other kinds of music (my love of Johnnny Cash, Elvis, and Public Enemy has been documented on this blog, for instance.) Lately I’ve been enjoying the newish album by a group called Band of Horses. I belive it’s what the…