That was precisely the plan. The phrases "cakewalk" and "greeted as liberators" were actually spoken, and $1.7 billion was the precise figure cited by the Bush administration. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that America's military involvement, "Could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months." That was Plan A and there was no Plan B. Read more
Just as I anticipated that Francis -- or whoever else the new pope turned out to be -- would be unsurprisingly disappointing for not being a Baptist, so too I expected any new pope would disappoint when it came to a host of other vitally important issues on which anyone likely to become pope was almost certain to be, well, wrong. The patriarchy and hierarchy of the Catholic church is wrong. The church's treatment of LGBT people is wrong. The church's insistence on a nominally/officially celibate priesthood is wrong. These are serious problems and serious mistakes, but I couldn't seriously expect any new pope not to continue repeating them. Read more
Beginning in the 1980s, a feverish hysteria swept across America. It was centered in one demographic -- the white evangelical subculture -- but it wasn't confined to that group, and it came to reshape the wider culture, the agenda of elected officials, and the political landscape of the country in fundamental ways, placing a fear of imaginary monsters at the core of our national identity. Read more
Here, from the bottom of page 184 of Ross Douthat’s book, is an example of the prose that the Times’ editors found so compelling. Read more
Leftover observations from the week that was, including: some Christian families now including education in their homeschooling; why churches have a stake in supporting a living wage; more white evangelical "experts" demonstrate a clueless disregard for the meaning of consent; treating the Grand Inquisitor as a role model; and how the CFPB is protecting consumers from banks, and why Mitch McConnell wants to stop that. Read more
The Breastplate of St. Patrick: "Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me ..." Read more
Lying about others — bearing false witness against them — is dangerously corrosive. It sets the liar on a downward path that leads not just to moral confusion, but to epistemological insanity. Bearing false witness will ultimately make you crazy. Read more
"Did exactly this actually occur precisely in this way?" is probably the least interesting, least insightful, least helpful, least edifying, least inspirational questions one could ask about this story. Those who make it their first question, and their most important question, seem to be trying to hide, to evade, to distract themselves from actually engaging the actual story on its own terms. They'd rather talk about historicity -- by which they mean cubits and kettle corn. Read more
And thus we come to the paradox of pitchforks. Any creature capable of eternally wounding another creature with a pitchfork lacks the authority to wield that pitchfork, rightfully belonging at the other end of it. The pointy, business end of it. Read more
It won't help us to sort this out by skipping ahead to later volumes or to the prequels, where the authors imagine they settle this question. The story so far is too firmly committed to both answers for the contradiction to be resolved that way. Based on his actions and his agenda thus far, Nicolae has to know that he is the Antichrist. And based on his actions and his agenda thus far, Nicolae cannot know that he is the Antichrist. Read more
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