A Thinking Reed

  • Should we stay or should we go?

    A debate at the Commonweal Magazine website between Matthew A. Shadle and Andrew Bacevich. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, so caveat lector and all that.

  • Obama the green

    Grist is impressed with Barack Obama’s energy plan. Overall I’ve been underwhelmed by Obama and have had a hard time understanding the enthusiasm of certain of my Democratic friends. But we could do a lot worse than a President with an ambitious plan to tackle climate change and a commitment to a more rational foreign…

  • Natural law, homosexuality and the ELCA

    Carl Braaten has published a spirited defense of natural law ethics at the Journal of Lutheran Ethics with which I’m in substantial agreement. I think that if natural law ethics didn’t exist we’d have to invent it, and that people who claim to be deriving their ethics solely from uniquely Christian principles have usually smuggled…

  • Skeptical of the skeptical environmentalist

    The Washington Post Sunday Outlook section ran a lengthy piece form “skeptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg (based on his new book), arguing that we need to avoid the “extremes” in the climate change debate – those who deny that human-caused climate change exists on one hand and those who see it as an extremely serious and…

  • The angry American

    The Washington Post Style section had a short interview with Merle Haggard this morning, with Hag sounding off about the current state of the USA. (He also has a new bluegrass album out.) The interviewer refers to Hag’s politics moving to “the left” from the days of “Okie from Muskogee” and “The Fightin’ Side of…

  • Three approaches to faith and works

    In continuing the tradition of outsourcing quality theological reflection to my betters, allow me to link to this weighty post from Christopher on justification, sanctification and the various kinds of legalisms and antinomianisms that afflict the left and right. The way I’ve learned to think about faith and works was that we are saved –…

  • Friday metal – Motorhead, “The Ace of Spades”

    Among the ugliest men in rock ‘n’ roll, God bless ’em.

  • Predestination with a human face

    Marvin has taken back up his series on “essential tenets of the Reformed faith” with posts on divine sovereignty and predestination. I commend the second one in particular. Though, I suppose you’re either destined to read it or not. 😉

  • Is Ron Paul crazy?

    Well, maybe. But he also manages to combine uncompromising rhetoric with political savvy, according to Jeremy Lott (via). This may help explain why Paul is doing better than anyone expected (his campaign reportedly now with more cash on hand than John McCain’s, for instance). One of the interesting thing about Paul is that he’s able…

  • Increasing skepticism about free trade

    60% of Repbulicans polled are skeptical that free trade benefits the U.S. See here (HT)for a good explanation of why dismissing these folks as economically illiterate misses the point.