1. The prisoner’s dilemma — with actual prisoners. (Shouldn’t that be prisoners’ dilemma?) The results of this experiment remind me of my favorite scene from The Dark Knight: “Give it to me and I’ll do what you shoulda did 10 minutes ago.”
2. “But when she runs, oh, how she runs, laughing, leaving horse and rider in the dust.” That’s Job 39:18 in Eugene Peterson’s The Message translation. And here is Veronique Greenwood on why ostriches are such fantastic runners. And also on why our human legs are “the evolutionary equivalent of duct tape and paper clips.” So next time you sprain your ankle, just think “Intelligent design.”
(Oh, and here’s one biblical scholar’s take on the “ostrich” in Job 39 — which he thinks is probably something else, like a sandgrouse.)
3. So what’s worse than arguing in favor of more abortion restrictions based on data from Nazi medical experiments? How about arguing in favor of more abortion restrictions based on data from Nazi medical experiments that never actually happened? It’s weird that anti-abortion politicians are so obsessed with Nazis. They keep telling us that being pro-choice will lead to the Holocaust, when — as Henry Morgentaler’s life demonstrated — the truth is it was the other way around.
4. Hey, remember the racist, violent, not-too-bright “chief” of the one-man police force in Gilberton, Pa.? It turns out even “Oath Keepers” — the far-right, militia-friendly conspiracy-minded association of far-right, militia-friendly, conspiracy-minded military and law-enforcement employees — thinks “Chief” Mark Kessler is a bit too far out there. The Oath Keepers are distancing themselves from Kessler.
So even some far-right militia groups seem to have a right-wing boundary, while, as we discussed the other day, the white evangelical subculture does not. Warren Throckmorton wrote earlier this week about evangelicals’ embrace of something called the “Institute on the Constitution,” a right-wing group with ties to the racist, Neo-Confederate League of the South — and with ties to the National Religious Broadcasting network and to Liberty University. Throckmorton also notes that this “Institution” has commended “Chief” Kessler of Gilberton.
So for those keeping score: Too right-wing for the Oath Keepers does not necessarily mean too right-wing for Liberty University.
5. If the Rapture is imminent and the world is going to end at any moment, then there’s no need to bother updating the cultural references in your sermons. John Hagee does not care for that hip-swinging Elvis Presley and his race music.
6. What Laura said. Yes, that. (Different color big box, same gig.)
7. Stay safe Rev. Ref. Best wishes and prayers for all of you out there.
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