An overview of various groups who might fall under this umbrella term by Steve Waldman at Slate. It seems to me a lot of where you end up on the political spectrum may have less to do with having a particular political ideology than it does with what issues are the most important to you.…

From The Onion’s AV Club, Seven Songs with Factual or Logical Mistakes in Their Lyrics, featuring such gems as: 2. Young MC, “Bust A Move”Though Young MC is completely logical throughout most of this song––he’s absolutely right, in most situations, you should bust a move––things get a little confusing in the last verse. He raps:…

I’ve seen this quote attributed to St. John Chrysostom, mostly on various libertarian-leaning political sites. But I’ve never actually seen it in context. Does anyone know if a) St. Chyrsostom actually said this and b) what he meant by it? It certainly sounds cool, but I’m not sure I really know what it means.

Here’s an interesting series of maps breaking down the concentration of religious groups in the U.S., via Camassia. Unsurprisingly, our impending move to New England isn’t exactly taking us into the heart of Lutheran country.

Massachusetts is getting ready to implement a plan with a novel approach aimed at providing universal health care: “This is probably about as close as you can get to universal,” said Paul Ginsburg, an economist who is president of the nonpartisan Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington. “It’s definitely going to be inspiring…

Just cuz I feel like it…

I see that Kevin Carson‘s book Studies in Mutualist Political Economy is the subject of an entire symposium issue of the Journal of Libertarian Studies. Kevin runs the very interesting Mutualist blog and has even been known to comment here from time to time. I haven’t read Kevin’s book, but from what I’ve been able…

Bible scholar Ben Witherington III critiques Joel Osteen‘s variation of the “prosperity gospel.” Some commenters defend Osteen on the grounds that, e.g. his church is very multiracial. Which is surely a good thing, but the question for the church (qua church, as it were) is what does it gather around? The gospel of Jesus Christ…

Here’s a helpful chart (PDF) offering side-by-side comparisons of the various proposals currently on the table. (Via Tapped)

Spotted last night in downtown Philadelphia: a vaguely punk-ish looking guy wearing a green hooded sweatshirt on the back of which he had written in big, black letters: “Death to Emo.” So, have we entered the post-emo era?