A Thinking Reed

  • Clueless economist watch

    Steven Landsburg writes in the NYT: All economists know that when American jobs are outsourced, Americans as a group are net winners. What we lose through lower wages is more than offset by what we gain through lower prices. In other words, the winners can more than afford to compensate the losers. Does that mean…

  • Animal cloning: cui bono?

    Marvin asks: So what if it’s safe? Do we need to clone beef cattle, dairy cattle, swine and chickens? It’s not like I’m starving, and I’m not sure how this helps people who are starving. Who benefits from cloning livestock? This seems to be yet another great example of what I’ll call “technologism:” If we…

  • A cross of black gold?

    This look at the “Christian oil industry” is bizarre and fascinating.

  • We’re doomed, the continuing series

    Two items from yesterday’s WaPo: Are we witnessing a massive slow-motion extinction of species? And what does that mean for our future and our children’s future? Cheap accessible cars for the people of India: commendable free-market egalitarianism or death sentence for the planet?

  • Friday metal – mainstream love edition

    This was published a while ago, but the Guardian asks: Why Is Metal Still Ignored by the Mainstream? Mastodon, “Sleeping Giant”

  • Indiana Jones 4

    I’m cautiously optimistic. We’ve all been burned with the Star Wars prequel experience, and I’ve joked that it should be called Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Retirement Home, but I’ll be more than willing to give it a shot.

  • Zoos

    I’m against ’em, basically. Any practical benefit they serve (education, entertainment, scientific research, species conservation) can be provided in other ways that don’t infringe the natural liberty and well-being of wild animals. I mean, I’m not fanatical about it, and there are plenty of other more pressing issues, but I think it’s a practice that’s…

  • Lutherans and lay presidency

    The case for it. LutherPunk and Fr. Chris comment. I think there are good reasons to have only ordained persons presiding at the Lord’s Supper. However, in extreme cases I don’t see any insuperable theological objection to a lay person doing it. There’s a remark of Luther (perhaps apocryphal) that in emergencies “even” a woman…

  • Avery Dulles: Who Can Be Saved?

    Haven’t had a chance to read this yet, but I might have something to say about it later.

  • Obama: left-libertarian?

    Interesting view, but I think it’s a bit of a stretch.