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The counter-narrative emerges
The immediate spin on the aftermath of Katrina was that New Orleans had descended into a Hobbesean world of criminality and anarchy. But it’s now starting to look like that ain’t necessarily so. To wit: this LA Times article. Snippet: Maj. Ed Bush recalled how he stood in the bed of a pickup truck in…
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Angels and demons
Today is the feast of St. Michael and all angels. There’s very little serious discussion of angels (and the demons, their wicked counterparts) these days ; popular images tend to involve either a saccharine Hallmark-card type spirituality or lurid horror-movie imagery. But as our pastor pointed out last night, the Bible mentions angels over 200…
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What liberalism is and isn’t
Just wanted to try and come to some kind of conclusion regarding Christopher Insole’s The Politics of Human Frailty: A Theological Defense of Political Liberalism (see here, here and here for previous posts on this topic). In his concluding chapter Insole wants to clarify what the defender of political liberalism is and isn’t committed to.…
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In your heart you know he’s right
Zod in 2008! (via Unqualified Offerings) But wouldn’t this require amending the constitution? (I believe he’s an immigrant, after all.)
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Torture is bad, m’kay?
I don’t usually agree with John McCain, but props to him for calling for an investigation into new allegations of torture of prisoners in Iraq. Y’know, it’s funny (not ha-ha funny) that after all the tortured arguments (pardon the expression) about whether it would be justified in various contrived “ticking bomb” scenarios, the actual torture…
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A surfeit of certainty
In today’s paper the story of Cindy Sheehan getting arrested at the White House was right next to the story of five Shi’ite elementary school teachers being lined up against a wall and executed by Sunni terrorists. Intentional or not, it’s enough to make me question the wisdom of the “get out now” crowd. One…
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Stuck in the middle?
This quiz has been making the rounds: You are a Social Liberal(61% permissive) and an… Economic Conservative(60% permissive) You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating
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Huston Smith, pluralism and truth
The AP interviews Huston Smith (via Godspy) on his new book The Soul of Christianity. I’ve always enjoyed Smith’s writing, even though I have fairly substantial disagreements with him. He’s very good on debunking “scientism” and pointing out that science does not give us an exhaustive account of reality, as the article mentions. Where I…
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The rich vs. Bush (and social cons)
Robert Novak reports (from an elite gathering in Aspen) that the ultra-rich are turning on George Bush: For two full days, George W. Bush was bashed. He was taken to task on his handling of stem cell research, population control, the Iraq war and, especially, Hurricane Katrina. The critics were no left-wing bloggers. They were…
