A Thinking Reed

  • I’m surprised no one thought of this sooner…

    Beatallica – a band devoted exclusively to doing Beatles covers in the style of Metallica. The album is St. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band. Tracks include “..And Justice for All My Lovin,’” “Blackened in the USSR,” and “Leper Madonna.” Slightly reminiscient of Dread Zeppelin, the original mash-up band. “A Garage Dayz Nite”

  • More Kinkery

    “Victoria” (live in Providence, RI in 1979)

  • The conservatism of Ray Davies

    Apropos of yesterday’s post, the lyrics from The Kinks’ “God’s Children”: Man made the buildings that reach for the sky And man made the motorcar and learned how to fly But he didn’t make the flowers and he didn’t make the trees And he didn’t make you and he didn’t make me And he got…

  • Michael Vick, Gregory of Nyssa, and our duties to animals

    In light of the allegations of animal cruelty being brought against pro football player Michael Vick, Diana Butler Bass looks to the writings of the 4th century church father for some hints about how Christians might think about our connections to other creatures and the duties we have toward them.

  • Humans as GMOs

    This article at The Nation makes the case that even progressives who take the ultra anti-restrictionist line on abortion should support regulation of new reproductive technologies. These technologies have the potential for very serious unintended social consequences and therefore shouldn’t be left solely to individual choice. This seems like a place where progressives and cultural…

  • “Green consumerism” vs. consuming less

    A couple of weeks ago the New York Times ran a story on the new “green consumerism.” Today George Monbiot writes that it’s not good enough to “buy green”; we have to buy less. His contention is that “green” consumption is at this point a supplement to rather than a replacement of conventional consumption and…

  • NYT: Public doesn’t want to hear ideas for universal health care or getting out of Iraq

    A friend of mine sent a link to this excellent post at the American Prospect’s Beat the Press blog, tearing a NY Times op-ed for pronouncing, seemingly without evidence, that “minor” candidates like Rep. Dennis Kucinich should be barred from the presidential debates since no one cares what they have to say. On the contrary,…

  • Tammy Faye Messner (Bakker), RIP

    Tammy Faye, one of the symbols of the corruption of American televangelism lost her battle with cancer. A few months ago my wife and I watched the documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye. I have to say that I came away from that much more sympathetically disposed to her. Obviously the kind of fundraising she…

  • Paging Dr. No

    Here’s a pretty sympathetic if not uncritical profile of Ron Paul in the New York Times Magazine by Christopher Caldwell. One of the things I took away from this piece is that Paul’s ability to attract a broad spectrum of support from people who are alienated from the political status quo is the flip side…

  • Friday metal – Darkest Hour, “Sadist Nation”

    These guys are local – I’ve been listening to their new album Deliver Us most of this week. This one’s from their 2003 realease (not for the faint of heart):