A Thinking Reed

  • Yuengling vs. the union

    This story, if accurate, is a bummer. The writer is absolutely correct about its ubiquity in the greater Philadelphia area. And now that we’re back in the world of Yuengling distribution it’s been my go to beer. Which makes this all the more unfortunate: Earlier this year, the employees at Yuengling’s Pottsville brewery decertified —…

  • Oops

    I seem to have accidentally deleted a long post I just wrote and published on the meanings of “progressive,” “liberal,” etc. Oh well. You win some, you lose some. Maybe I’ll attempt an actual substantive post a bit later. UPDATE: Jeremy had the lost post in his Bloglines and was kind enough to paste it…

  • Friday metal – Ronnie James Dio tribute edition

    Here’s a hilarious new video of Killswitch Engage’s cover of Dio’s “Holy Diver”: And, of course, the immortal original:

  • Tom Snyder, Joe Strummer, and Johnny Rotten

    Veteran talk show host Tom Snyder has passed away. Josh has dug up a couple of fascinating clips of him interviewing the Clash and John Lydon (nee Rotten).

  • Jesus Freaks and CCM

    This Slate article examines the connections between the at times far out lives and music of the 60s “Jesus People” and contemporary Christian Rock. The Christian embrace of hip youth scenes can be traced, like so much, to the cultural ferment of the 1960s. Given that we are all weathering a Summer of Love flashback,…

  • Transhumanism

    The fact that some people’s idea of utopia involves “uploading” your personality into a computer and living forever frankly gives me the creeps. (I also am not sure it’s even a coherent idea. In what sense would that be me rather than just a Max Headroom-style copy of me?) I have no idea how many…

  • Evangelicals for Palestine

    This seems like a heartening sign: Coalition of Evangelicals Voices Support for Palestinian State. Of course, most of the signatories to the letter to the President mentioned in the article are the usual suspects of the evangelical left (Tony Campolo, Ron Sider), but others like Richard Mouw and David Neff of Christianity Today seem indicitave…

  • Lord, teach us to pray

    This weekend we were visiting my family in my ancestral homeland of Western Pennsylvania. As is our habit, we attended the early service at the ELCA congregation in my hometown. This is a gem of a church and we always receive a warm welcome when we worship there, even though we don’t have a particular…

  • July reading notes

    I recently finished a book called Atonement, Christology and the Trinity: Making Sense of Christian Doctrine by Vincent Brummer. Brummer is a Dutch philosopher of religion in the Reformed tradition and this book is an attempt to give an account of these central doctrines of Christian belief. Brummer starts from the premise that loving fellowship…

  • Friday metal – Pantera, “Domination” (live in Moscow)

    (n.b. some bad language and major shredding)