Trump requests extension for tax reform plan

Last updated on: April 26, 2017 at 7:21 pm By Fred Clark

The Trump administration today released a slap-dash, vague, one-page document on the subject of "Tax Reform." It offers little in the way of details, just a series of somewhat-connected bullet-points relating to this general theme. This is not a plan or a proposal, but a wish-list of the various -- and often contradictory -- ingredients that Trump's various advisers might want to see should such a plan or proposal ever get written. But, hey, if a loosely related series of bullet points is good enough for the White House, then it's good enough for me. Read more

I can’t forget the glamour

Last updated on: April 25, 2017 at 2:49 pm By Fred Clark

Today is the centennial of the birth of Ella Fitzgerald, and thus a day worth celebrating. Also: The Temple of Knowledge; the trash-can-as-trash problem; literal navel-gazing with creationists; and Orrin Hatch refers to Native Americans as "far-left special interests." Read more

Anxious, overbearing parents glad for return of ‘Brio’

Last updated on: April 24, 2017 at 11:19 pm By Fred Clark

Brio is back. Focus on the Family is resurrecting its magazine targeting the teenage girls of white evangelicalism, because if anyone has his finger on the pulse of what’s hip and cool for teenagers, it’s long-time religious-right patriarch, spanking enthusiast, and proven false prophet James Dobson. Those who remember reading Brio back in the ’90s fall into two general categories: Those who were horribly embarrassed by it at the time, and those who are horribly embarrassed now not to have been... Read more

Sunday favorites

Last updated on: April 22, 2017 at 7:09 pm By Fred Clark

"Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy." Read more

‘Im at the preacher’s door’

Last updated on: April 21, 2017 at 6:13 pm By Fred Clark

Today’s protest anthem and Saturday open thread comes courtesy of Kendrick Lamar: We gon’ be alright. (“What do you mean ‘we,’ Kemosabe?”) Read more

LBCF, No. 131: ‘7 pages, 6 phone calls’

Last updated on: April 20, 2017 at 7:35 pm By Fred Clark

Bad writing entails a failure to convey or communicate whatever it is that the writer is trying to express. LaHaye & Jenkins have failed at something prior to and more fundamental than that. They began by portraying one whole world — the post-Event world following the Rapture, and then they abruptly and completely abandoned it for a different one, a different kind of world, in which the next set of preordained events from their End Times Checklist could be imagined. Read more

Smart people saying smart things (4.20.17)

Last updated on: April 20, 2017 at 6:11 pm By Fred Clark

Wise words from Te-Nehisi Coates, David Dark, Fred Rogers, Ijeoma Oluo (and her brother), Molly Worthen, and from a former president who used to offer hope and inspiration at annual Easter prayer breakfasts. Read more

Money, Hell, and ‘Kirk Drift’

Last updated on: April 19, 2017 at 7:41 pm By Fred Clark

That engagement may initially be hostile, but that hostility compels me to pay attention. It gets me to the point of, "Oh yeah? Well, we'll see about that!" And, as embarrassing as that misplaced hostility may later prove to be, it has the salutary effect of compelling me to see about that, which means it can render me, perhaps for the first time, capable of seeing about that. Read more

Captain Kirk, the Green Woman, and the Bible

Last updated on: April 20, 2017 at 4:46 pm By Fred Clark

She must have been one of Kirk's romantic conquests, right? If you had asked me that, I'd have told you, yes, of course, everyone knows that. J.J. Abrams even included a funny reference to it in the 2009 movie reboot. But as Horáková points out, that's wrong. James T. Kirk never even met that green woman. The text doesn't always say what we are sure it says. Read more

Holy Saturday

Last updated on: April 14, 2017 at 7:37 pm By Fred Clark

Yesterday was this same Saturday, and so was the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that. Why should we expect that tomorrow will be any different? Seriously, just look around. Does it look like the meek are inheriting the earth? Does it look like those who hunger and thirst for justice are being filled? Does it look like the merciful are being shown mercy? Read more