A Thinking Reed

  • Surprisingly apt search terms

    Sometimes bloggers will post lists of the wacky search terms that lead people to their blog. But this selection of mine from the last couple of days shows people…being led here looking for things that are actually discussed on this blog. How boring! presidential candidate quiz “skeptical of the skeptical environmentalist “where did the party…

  • What’s next for the world economy?

    A pendulum swing away from globalization and toward protectionism? I still have no idea how (if at all) we reconcile indefinite economic growth with environmental limits while at the same time attending to poverty and inequality. But I am pretty skeptical that “buy more stuff” is a viable long-term solution to our economic woes (never…

  • Was Narnia missing its sexy?

    British newcomer Barnes brings sexy back to ‘Narnia’ (via Christianity Today) I have to say, C. S. Lewis and sexy are not two things that usually go together in my mind. That said, I recently caught the trailer for Prince Caspian and thought it looked pretty good. But I’m darned if I can remember what…

  • Heath Ledger, R.I.P.

    This is pretty shocking. I’m not much of a celebrity-phile, but I always thought Ledger turned in good performances, even in his “fluffier” roles. A real shame. RIP.

  • Cap and Trade 101

    A helpful primer (via Gristmill).

  • What kind of religious “center”?

    Bill McKibben reviews two books on Christianity: one by Harvard preacher Peter Gomes, and the other a book from the Barna Institute, the Gallup of evangelical Protestantism, reporting on young people’s perceptions of Christianity. Gomes is an interesting guy: a black, old-school New England conservative, Anglophile Baptist minister who happens to be gay. He’s widely…

  • Springtime for militarism

    John McCain has some admirable qualities and has taken some good stances in defiance of his party, but Justin Raimondo performs a salutary service in reminding us that McCain’s record on foreign policy has been not only consistently pro-war, but that he has consistently taken the maximally hawkish view on any given conflict (e.g. he…

  • Barth, Yoder, and the problem of war

    I assume that most readers of this blog also read Marvin’s site regularly, but in case you don’t, you should really check out his current series on Karl Barth and war: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 With more to come, including a “Yoderian” response to Barth’s position. See here for…

  • MLK and non-violence

    Given how Martin Luther King Jr. has become a kind of American plaster saint that politicians of all stripes routinely genuflect toward, it’s easy to forget how radical his message was: As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve…

  • The surge a success?

    Andrew Bacevich is skeptical.