A Thinking Reed

  • "I support the right to die. You go first."

    Interesting interview with disability-rights activist Mary Johnson on Million Dollar Baby, Hunter S. Thompson and the “right” to die.

  • In Defense of Heresy

    Well, what I think Ralph Luker means is to defend the concept of heresy – i.e. that there are some opinions that are beyond the pale. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mean “In Defense of Arianism” or “In Defense of Monophysitism” or what have you. Anyway, good stuff here: I’m not defending heresy here. I’m…

  • What (if anything) is the matter with Kansas?

    Continuing the trend of blogging about books I haven’t read (and probably won’t read), I’ve recently read two interesting reviews of Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter with Kansas? For those not in the know, Frank’s thesis is that culturally conservative red-state voters have been duped by the GOP’s ostensible (and, according to Frank, largely fake)…

  • The Lonely Conservatism of Pat Buchanan

    I hate to pick on Pat Buchanan since, whatever his other flaws, he’s been an early and consistent opponent of the Iraq war and the broader “maximalist” view of the “war on terror.” Still, there seems to be a persistent confusion running through his recent writings that bears on the present troubles. In his latest…

  • Liberals, Neocons, and Neocon(federate)s

    There’s been a minor brouhaha over Thomas Woods’ Politically Incorrect Guide to American History (n.b. I haven’t read the book). Woods, a paleoconservative and frequent contributor to LewRockwell.com and The American Conservative, apparently takes a dim view of the North’s part in the Civil War (a.k.a. “The War Between the States,” a.k.a. “The War of…

  • The Passion of JPII

    Surprisingly good article from Newsweek on the Pope’s suffering as a testament to the gospel of life he has consistently proclaimed.

  • Yoder and Proudhon

    I found it interesting to read this next to this.

  • Anatomy of an Obsession: A Collection of Half-Baked Thoughts on Just War and Pacifism

    Okay, no more posting on the whole just war theory/pacifism thing for a while. But for posterity’s sake (or just for handy reference), I’ve collected what I think are all or nearly all the posts I’ve done dealing with jwt and/or pacifism. Here they are (in chronological order): “Fighting with One Hand Tied Behind Your…

  • Postmodernism and Christianity

    There’s a lot of loose talk abroad about how Christianity has been or should be affected by, understand, or resist “postmodernism.” More often than not people either don’t define what they mean by postmodernism, or they set up strawmen (e.g. postmodernism=there is no truth!!), or they uncritically accept that we live in a “postmodern” age…

  • Blog-o-Drama

    Via Michael Gilleland I see there has been a bit of a dust-up at The Conservative Philosopher resulting in Max Goss’ departure from the blog (see here and here). Once again it seems an example of blogland taking itself a bit too seriously. But the happy result for me is that I have been directed…