Here's a round-up of some of the recent responses to Dave Ramsey's recent ugly bout of punching-down at the powerless. Some of this criticism is sharp and strongly worded, but most of it is still far, far gentler than the sarcastic reproach with which Job blasted Bildad when that archetypal fool resorted to Ramsey's brand of victim-blaming garbage in the Bible. Read more
Oxford and Vatican team up to put ancient texts online. Montgomery County clerk still pushing for marriage equality as his main opponent faces criminal charges. Inmate firefighters: I'm ambivalent about the policy, but excited by the story possibilities. More news from the states of dismay. That time when Langston Hughes had to explain a poem before Congress. More trailer-park Jubilee. Read more
I believe that a progressive estate tax is wise, prudent and just policy for a society concerned about equality of opportunity and the preservation of democracy and personal liberty rather than oligarchy. That belief is based on a host of principles -- e.g., justice and liberty are Good Things -- and prudential judgments that I believe are both reasonable and congruent with my Christian faith. This is, in other words, not a sectarian belief that I would seek to impose on secular society, but rather a conclusion that I think would be shared by all people of good will. Read more
Credit-card banks and other lenders are scared of Richard Cordray and of Elizabeth Warren. But they're not scared of Dave Ramsey. They love the guy. No matter how many new ways they concoct to fleece their customers, they can always count on Ramsey to have their back, telling his radio audience that it's their fault and that their only response should be to cut expenses and pay those new rates and fees in full. Read more
Over the Rhine and the Lone Bellow team up on a Paul Simon classic, plus some Wednesday morning links, including: A pep-talk from Digby, Oswald's pallbearers, the claim that we out-love God, counting adherents of conspiracy theories, urinal physics, biblical manhood, George Bailey's Yelp reviews, and the Mormon bishop in disguise. Read more
A church that gets a lot of things right, but one big thing very wrong. More on Christianist patriarchy and child marriage. Good actor, bad movie. Marg Herder forges hope for the long term. "How can Christians get poverty wrong?" Sea level turns out to be a lot more complicated than I realized. Read more
"So they think women should stay home with their kids instead of working? ... But they're for welfare reform? ... So I guess it's different for poor women?" Read more
The Morton Grove (Ill.) Park District requires the members of its board to stand, salute, and recite a loyalty pledge written by a socialist. It's not mandatory, exactly -- that would clearly be illegal. But it's still indescribably creepy. The claim is that this formal recitation of a loyalty oath is somehow an expression of patriotism. That's obviously not true. Patriotism means love for one's country, and coercion cannot coexist with love. Read more
So, then, media tycoon, televangelist and fabulously successful grifter Paul Crouch is dead. Adelle M. Banks provides the straight-news story for Religion News Service, “Prosperity gospel televangelist Paul Crouch dead at 79“: Paul Crouch, the religious broadcaster who co-founded Trinity Broadcasting Network and was known for his prosperity gospel messages and lavish lifestyle, died Saturday (Nov. 30). He was 79. … Crouch and his wife, Jan, started the network in a rented facility in Santa Ana, Calif., in 1973. Now... Read more
Mario Batali, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ken Starr, Bill Donohue, Vision Forum, Hell houses, crisis pregnancy centers, Nazi experiments, NFL locker rooms, clueless clergy, conventional racist nausea, and the end of racism. Among other things. Read more
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