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Reading the Bible
Whew! Things have been getting pretty grim around here lately: war, abortion, stem cells, etc. Let’s change the subject. Here’s a question for you: How do you read the Bible? Assuming that you do, that is. Lately I’ve been following the daily lectionary from Oremus. On the plus side, this, like the BCP lectionary, gives…
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Breaking up is hard to do
Iraqi officials say sectarian break-up is inevitable In some sense this might not be such a bad idea. “Iraq” as a country is an artificial construct which was apparently being held together primarily by the brutal rule of Saddam Hussein. Self-determination for its various ethnic/religious groups might well be preferable. Unfortunately, a break up of…
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The other war
Nope, not Iraq or Israel-Hezbollah/Lebanon. This one: Peace talks aimed at avoiding civil war in Somalia were officially postponed Monday following a week of high-risk brinkmanship and heightened rhetoric from emboldened Islamic militias and the country’s weak transitional government. One side and then the other refused to attend talks that were due to restart Saturday…
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When unilateralism is good
In light of the apparent collapse of the most recent round of trade talks, it’s worth reiterating a point I’ve made before: The talk about various countries making “concessions” by, say, lowering tariffs is misleading, at least if you take an orthodox free trade approach. According to free trade theory, a country benefits from lowering…
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More on the Friedmans and Iraq
Chip Frontz rightly chastises me for not providing more context to the Milton Friedman quote below. Here’s the rest of the exchange from the WSJ interview with Prof. Friedman and his wife Rose, a distinguished economist in her own right: Does it disappoint Mr. Friedman that the Bush administration hasn’t been able to roll back…
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Quote of the day
“What’s really killed the Republican Party isn’t spending, it’s Iraq. As it happens, I was opposed to going into Iraq from the beginning. I think it was a mistake, for the simple reason that I do not believe the United States of America ought to be involved in aggression.” – Milton Friedman
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Left-Right fusion in ’06 (and beyond?)
This is interesting – Maryland’s independent Senate candidate Kevin Zeese has been endorsed by the state’s Green, Populist, and Libertarian parties, essentially creating a left-right fusion ticket. Zeese is emphasizing a populist-based opposition to the Iraq war, ending the war on drugs, cutting corporate welfare, defense of civil liberties, election reform, and shoring up Social…
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Notable links
“Hot and Bothered: Facing up to Global Warming” by Bill McKibbon. Now that global warming denial seems to be crumbling – even former skeptics are coming around – what will we do about it? And what kind of role should churches play? “Theocracy! Theocracy! Theocracy!” at First Things. Ross Douthat reviews the recent spate of…
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ESCR worse than abortion?
This is an interesting argument from the Catholic legal blog Mirror of Justice to the effect that destroying embryos for research is worse than abortion. Of course, the argument won’t cut any ice with you if you don’t think that the embryo has some kind of moral standing, but I’m not particularly interested in revisiting…
