Great Scott! It's Back to the Future Day. Some random Wednesday notes, including: The unbelievable resumes of itinerant preachers; the Benedict option for racists; farewell to Mythbusters; and why the original idea of Sunday school was better for churches and for everyone else. Read more
The world is supposed to be just like it was before -- back when we were kids. That means bedtime stories, playing in the back yard, prayer in schools, leaded gasoline and lousy lightbulbs, women and minorities who knew their place, gays in the closet, white men in the White House, and centerfolds in Playboy. Read more
In theater, you never use a prop gun that's capable of shooting live ammo, you never allow live ammo anywhere near your prop gun, and you never stage a scene so that even a prop gun loaded with blanks is pointing directly at any actor or audience member. An Arizona troupe just got all three of those things wrong. Plus: Reading the Bible as it is; young-Earth creationism and pool filters; and my state's awkward practice of electing its Supreme Court justices. Read more
I've heard and seen this claim endlessly repeated by apparently well-meaning white evangelicals for decades. In their circles, this is something that Everyone Knows to be true -- even though it's completely false. And even though it's transparently false -- a bogus claim that can't withstand even a momentary bit of scrutiny. Read more
"When you come upon your enemy’s ox or donkey going astray, you shall bring it back. When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free." Read more
"On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. He said to it, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again.'" Read more
So remember, kids, when you put the shift on against a lefty with a runner on first, someone needs to cover third base. Also: "The Auks" is a cool mascot name; a reasonable debate; farewell Pandagon; and "Valley Forge Americans." Read more
In the first 100 pages of this book we've learned about a nuclear war (it's OK, no one was hurt), and the disappearance of 2/5 of the world's population. Yet these same 100 pages are strangely uneventful -- the story of a man whose flight to London is detoured to Chicago, so he then charters a private plane to New York. You don't need to wait for the Left Behind Video Game -- you can capture all the excitement of the books right now by playing online at sites like Expedia and Travelocity. Read more
We really need a better, catchier name for this star than KIC 8462852. Not just because that would be more convenient, but also because there's a very slim chance that future data will strengthen our suspicion of intelligent life there enough to prompt us to attempt to contact or communicate with them. And if it ever came to that, we'd need some better way to address them than as "People of the KIC 8462852 system." Read more
Dahlia Lithwick on "Carly Fiorina's Big Lie." Therese Oneill looks at "the terrifying medical logic of 18th-century law." Kate Botkin and Kathy Khang respond to a pair of prominent white Christian racists. And Edmund Waldstein discusses how usury fuels "the psychology of the conquistadors." Read more
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