So President Bush (the first one) was rallying for a war with Iraq (also the first one) and Pope John Paul (the second one) issued a strongly worded condemnation of such a war as unjust. I was in a room filled with formidable women who had themselves been opposing the march to war using much the same language the pope was now using. They were very pleased with his statement. Someone suggested they might include a quote from that statement... Read more
If I send it to you, you’ve got to promise to keep it whole “Fall at Your Feet,” Crowded House “Fall Away,” The Fray “Fall Behind Me,” The Donnas “The Fall of Troy,” Tom Waits “Fall on Me,” Cry Cry Cry “Fall on Me,” Mark Erelli “Fall on Me,” R.E.M. “Fall to Pieces,” Avril Lavigne “Fall Too Soon,” Milla “Fallen Angel,” Robbie Robertson “Fallen for You,” Sheila Nicholls “Fallin’,” Asher Roth “Falling,” Julie Cruise “Falling Dove,” Crowded House “Falling for... Read more
Chris Rodda reports on one U.S. Marine squadron’s “Return to Being ‘Crusaders’“: In 2008, when Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 was preparing to deploy to Iraq, the unit’s commander, Lt. Col. William Lieblein, did something very wise and sensible — he changed the nickname of the unit from “Crusaders” back to its former name, the “Werewolves.” Stating the obvious, Lt. Col. Lieblein said, “The notion of being a crusader in that part of the world doesn’t float.” But now, under... Read more
JoAnn Wypijewski offers a thought-provoking history lesson, reminding us that whatever we might think about A Handmaid’s Tale as a speculative, dystopian vision of the future, it’s also an accurate reflection of America’s dystopian past: The mass-culture story of slavery is usually told in terms of economics, labor, color, men. Women outnumbered men in the enslaved population two to one by slavery’s end, but they enter the conventional story mainly under the rubric “family,” or in the cartoon triptych Mammy-Jezebel-Sapphire,... Read more
Ben Peck of The American Prospect has a list of the “Top Ten Tax Facts.” The whole thing is worth reading — as is the source material Peck links to. Here are some highlights: 1. The government has collected less in taxes as a proportion of the economy in the past three years than it has in any three-year period since World War II, and tax rates are at historic lows. … 4. Corporate income taxes for the past three... Read more
Guy Sayles: “Will Majority Religions Protect the Rights of All?“ As a Christian and a Baptist pastor, I believe that the spirit of Jesus includes a refusal to coerce, directly or indirectly, strongly or subtly the conscience of another person. I also believe that, when the state, in this case the Buncombe County Schools, promotes, actively or passively, a particular religious viewpoint, it becomes an agent of coercion, impinging on the rights and freedoms of people who are served by... Read more
In the previous post on this topic, I mentioned that the power brokers and power seekers of the religious right have deliberately nurtured, encouraged, enforced and exploited evangelical tribalism. They have helped to draw the particular boundaries of the tribe and to define who is Us and who is Them. But what accounts for the thing itself? The effort to delineate strict boundaries and to require unquestioning compliance with “the big four” (anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-evolution, anti-environmentalist) only works because evangelicals... Read more
If I had a band-aid on my finger and you asked why, it’d be kind of cool if I could say, “I was bitten by a Magellanic penguin.” Study: Women paid less than men. Study: White juries more likely to convict black defendants. Study: Homophobia may reveal denial of own same-sex attraction. Study: Sunday news show guests skew conservative. “In Florida’s Palm Beach County alone, Bank of America has sued itself for foreclosure 11 times since late March.” “They will... Read more
The following note is posted on LevonHelm.com: Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey. Dammit. Charlie Pierce has a lovely salute. And many more can be found on Twitter. That’s where I found a link to this odd little short story by Jacob Hatley, featuring Helm and songs from his 2007 album Dirt Farmer: Read more
Richard Land, the public face of the Southern Baptist Convention, has finally remembered the first rule of holes. But it may be too late for either him or the SBC. The longtime “ethics” spokesman put himself and his entire denomination in a deep hole with his initial rant on the slaying of Trayvon Martin. Then Land defiantly spent the next several weeks digging in deeper. That rant on the Martin case, made on Land’s radio show, Richard Land Live!, ought... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In