A Thinking Reed

  • Making the world safe for CAFOs

    The NewYork Times gives some coverage today of the ongoing efforts in Iowa, Florida, and now Minnesota to make it impossible for activists to reveal animal abuse in factory farms to the public. I continue to be kind of shocked by how brazen the industry’s attempts to shield itself from public scrutiny are. And that…

  • A leaner, meaner liberalism?

    I’m not qualified to assess the numbers offered in President Obama’s speech on his plan to reduce the federal debt. There’ll be lots of details to come, and lots of commentary on his plan from people far better equipped to crunch the numbers than I am. Plus, whatever we ultimately end up with will no…

  • Freedom isn’t free

    I recently came across this article in The Nation arguing that the Left needs to reclaim the language of freedom from the Right. While liberals have espoused values like equality and social justice, since the 70s, the author contends, they have largely ceded the language of liberty to conservatives. The problem with this strategy is…

  • Friday Links

    I spent the day hanging out with my family, so these are coming a little late… –Why Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal is neither brave nor serious. –Free-range meat isn’t necessarily “natural.” –A case for universalism from the Scottish evangelical preacher and biblical scholar William Barclay. –A review of a recent book called What’s the…

  • Friday Metal: Sylosis, “After Lifeless Years”

    Just discovered these British neo-thrash metallers. Pretty good stuff.

  • Mission creep watch, the continuing series

    From today’s WaPo: An operation billed as a humanitarian intervention in Libya by President Obama was described in starkly more military terms Thursday by the administration’s top two defense officials. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told lawmakers that continuing coalition attacks on Libyan government troops — even when they were not directly threatening civilians —…

  • The anti-Piper

    Process theologian John Cobb’s reflections on the earthquake in Japan make for an interesting contrast with John Piper’s recent statements. From the perspective of process thought, not only human choices, but even inanimate nature enjoys a certain autonomy: For process thought, however, the contrast of human events and natural ones is not quite this sharp.…

  • Time article on the debate over “humane” meat-eating

    This article from Time provides one of the best overviews I’ve seen in a mainstream publication about the issues surrounding factory farms and the use of animals for food. It notes that there’s debate among “humane” meat proponents, vegetarians, and vegans about whether it’s okay to use animals for food at all, but also highlights…

  • Friday Links

    –John Cohn at The New Republic on the end of “compassionate conservatism.” –Should life be more like a game? — The rise of white identity politics in DC? –From Book Forum, a collection of links on how we treat animals. (I guess that makes this a meta-link?) –How Pearl Jam went from being the biggest…

  • The bishops vs. Elizabeth Johnson

    The US Catholic bishops’ committee on doctrine is accusing feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson of “criticiz[ing] and … revis[ing] in a radical fashion the conception of God revealed in Scripture and taught by the Magisterium” in her recent book Quest for the Living God. What seems to be at issue is Johnson’s contention–more fully fleshed out…