Not only was the Pentagon braintrust flummoxed by Van Riper in the war game, they were just as surprised, months later during the actual invasion, when Iraqi insurgents began employing many of these same tactics. This was, they said, just another one of those calamities that "no one could have predicted." Except that everybody had. Read more
How big a boost to Regal's bottom line will health care reform provide? I'm guessing it will be large. Much larger, I think, than whatever new costs-per-employee the law entails for the company. That calculation is a job for the company's economists. Unfortunately, the company doesn't have any economists, only accountants. Read more
Following New Zealand's lead, the Delaware state House of Representatives votes to approve marriage equality. But Delaware legislators failed to follow the Kiwis example by celebrating with a beloved traditional Delaware love song. I suppose George Thorogood's "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" wouldn't really have been appropriate anyway. Read more
We had a plague of locusts across the Middle East, at Passover no less. Then we had a two-headed shark. So it's no wonder that National Public Radio is asking "How Close Is Doomsday?" or that books about "The Antichrist" are big business all over the world. Here's a roundup of some other news and commentary about "Bible prophecy," the End Times, etc., including how Tim LaHaye helped the NRA kill a gun safety bill favored by 90 percent of Americans. Read more
"You're not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is gonna be done for $1.7 billion?" "Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution ... this is it for the US. ... The American part of this will be $1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this." Read more
The larger problem is that according to fundamentalism, those falsehoods are inextricably linked to everything else. Everything. So if it turns out that the Earth is actually 4.5 billion years old, then, according to fundamentalism, life has no meaning, happiness is impossible, love is illusion, Jesus is dead, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins, and we are of all people most to be pitied. Read more
Somehow I've ended up with another night job, so I'll be asleep when you read these Monday morning links, featuring: the importance of studying duck penises; some smart thoughts on the Bible; David Simon on the Senate -- an institution more dysfunctional than any in 'The Wire;' a wedding in No Man's Land; a big buck at the Big Box; Westeros Morning Playbook; and marital chastity. Read more
After editing that Second Chapter of Acts album cover recently, I had "Mansion Builder" stuck in my head for days. It can be such a pretty song that I almost don't mind the vapid otherworldliness of its theology. Almost. Read more
Mark 7:24-30: "He said to her, 'Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.' But she answered him, 'Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.'" Read more
Good con artists are difficult to prosecute. This is true, in part, because getting conned is viewed differently than being the victim of other forms of crime. There’s a sense of shame, or at least of embarrassment, on the part of the victims, so they’re less likely than other crime victims to report the crimes. Con artists know this, and they exploit it. Read more
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