A more observant passenger on Rayford Steele's plane might've noticed that no one with alcohol in their system was among the disappeared. "That explains it! It explains why all the children were taken! It's the alcohol, the alcohol will protect you!" Then you can imagine everybody clamoring for a drink to ensure their safety before the next wave of abductions hits. Read more
Pennsylvania's law requiring witnesses to swear on the Christian Bible is blatantly unconstitutional -- a clear violation of the First Amendment. But just as importantly, this law is simply stupid. Asking Muslims or Jews or atheists to swear on the Christian Bible undermines the whole intent of such rituals, which is to solemnize the oath by referencing something the witnesses themselves regard with reverence. Read more
Vatican Guy No. 1: "How should we advertise our all-male conference on women?" Vatican Guy No. 2: "How about with a sculpture of a nude headless woman whose breasts and genitals are bound with golden rope?" VG No. 1: "Perfect." (Plus some other Wednesday evening linkage.) Read more
The NYPD and police from Missouri are always making news, but not in a good way. Lutheran clergy shame the North Miami Beach PD's teach-yourself-racism program. And lots of bad apples do a whole bunch of spoiling. Read more
Newton's Third Law of Sanctimony; UPS wants to charge extra for taunting you with stickers instead of packages; Phil Plait has both enormous patience and no patience for anti-vaxxers; and there's probably no St. John's Wort in your St. John's Wort -- probably no wort of any kind. Read more
President Obama urged parents to vaccinate their children. As a result, for the past two days we've seen a steady parade of ambitious Republican officials denouncing the evils of vaccination and attacking the germ theory of disease, followed by another group of Republican officials trying to control the damage by arguing that #NotALLRepublicans think that preventing disease is a Bad Thing. Read more
Regardless of what one thinks about abortion, this scene doesn't contribute to the conversation about it in any constructive way. It's an exercise in tribal affiliation rather than an argument designed or intended to persuade. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins are writing here for an audience they assume already is -- and must be -- anti-abortion. Those readers do not need to be convinced that abortion is immoral, and LaHaye and Jenkins aren't trying to convince them of that here. Their point, rather, is to convince those readers that Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins share their opposition to abortion. The point is to convince readers that LaHaye and Jenkins are unassailably part of the anti-abortion tribe. Read more
Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey misconstrues equal protection. Critiquing modesty culture: an introductory linkiography. Scot McKnight on mowesses pretending to be lions. And the pro-life Christians who took hacksaws to women -- aberration or apotheosis? Read more
Turner writes: "The way that most white American evangelicals read the Bible did not lead them to oppose glaring social injustices." No. The acceptance of glaring social injustices led to "the way that most white American evangelicals read the Bible." Read more
A somewhat distracted collection of links to recent political news and commentary. Read more
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