A Thinking Reed

  • 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…

  • Friday metal – sci-fi concept video edition

    As I Lay Dying, who I’ve been listening to a lot lately, appear to have made a sequel to this video: Here’s installment two: It’s not entirely clear what’s going on, but it’s a rather bleak, Orwellian future and there’s some bad mojo going down.

  • Doctrine and personal faith

    Fr. Chris makes an important distinction. I want the church to coporately uphold the historic Christian faith even when I personally experience doubts (not an uncommon occurrence).

  • Umbrellas and mushroom clouds

    Maybe instead of debating how far to extend our “nuclear umbrella” we should be re-thinking the morality of nuclear retaliation itself. Is it ok to threaten our enemies (real or potential) with mass, indiscriminate slaughter?

  • More papal linkage

    Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society has an appreciatvie post on Benedict’s public statements about our treatment of animals. E.J. Dionne on the Pope’s discomforting words for the Right and the Left.

  • The pope: still Catholic

    One of the puzzling things about the Pope’s visit has been the media’s mantra-like repitition of the fact that Benedict believes that Catholicism is the “one true faith,” as though this was something odd or eccentric. The obvious and snarky response to this astonished observation is that, well, he is the Pope. But more to…

  • Shoe size

    Here’s a new version of the ecological footprint quiz. Despite the fact that I a) don’t own a car and b) walk virtually everywhere I go, I scored pretty badly in the travel category, and I think virtually all of it can be chalked up to air travel. In his book Heat, George Monbiot tried…

  • Bell’s Amber Ale

    I was in the mood to try something new the other day, and the guy at my local liquor store recommended this to me. It’s quite good. Brewed in Michigan, it’s got a nice hoppy flavor, but sweet and complex. Too many American microbrews these days seem to be trying to out-hop each other.

  • Meta-blog

    I’m still trying to figure out how to work regular blogging into my new, less flexible, schedule, as you may have noticed from the erratic posting. I’ve been shooting for posting a series of shorter posts once or twice during the week with maybe a longer essay on the weekends. I still haven’t quite figured…