It seems we need even more fresh thread for those who wish to discuss Ron Paul, so let me start this one off by saying something nice about the man. Ron Paul had a pretty sweet swing at the plate. Just look at that photo — pinched from David Brown’s post last week at Big League Stew — showing Paul batting in an annual congressional baseball game a few decades back. As Brown says: No matter what you think of... Read more
Left Behind II: Tribulation Force, Part 5 Earlier, in a faithful adaptation of a scene from the book, the filmmakers were no more successful than Jerry Jenkins had been in portraying a phone call to an unlisted number as a sign of the Antichrist’s terrifying power. In this next scene, director Bill Corcoran strays from the book significantly in an attempt to increase the creepy-Antichrist factor. In the movie, it seems, Nicolae Carpathia can control elevators. Cam-Cam presses the button... Read more
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, was born today in 1882. To mark his birthday, here is an excerpt from his July 2, 1932 “New Deal” speech accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president. There are two ways of viewing the Government’s duty in matters affecting economic and social life. The first sees to it that a favored few are helped and hopes that some of their prosperity will leak through, sift through, to labor, to... Read more
One from James McGrath and two from Peter Enns … James F. McGrath: “Why Doesn’t the Bible Contain Superior Medical Advice?“ You will look in vain in the pages of the Bible for a recommendation that people cover their mouth and nose when they sneeze and cough. You will find mentions of strong drink, but nothing about distilling the alcohol and using it to clean wounds or disinfect anything at all. Nor will you find the Bible’s authors recommending that... Read more
Mark Thoma: “The Purpose of Macroeconomic Policy?“ There clearly is a class of people willing to sacrifice the livelihood and well-being of others in pursuit of their ideological goal of a smaller government (so long as their own future remains secure). The notion of “expansionary austerity” was the cover, but so long as government shrinks as a result of the policy, the expansionary part is secondary. If reducing the size of government slows the recovery, that’s a small price to... Read more
David Crary of the Associated Press has a helpful round-up of marriage equality politics in several states: Maryland, New Jersey, Washington, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Minnesota. The first four there are hopeful stories, the latter three are cause for concern (in the short run, at least). Crary’s piece drew the attention of Christianity Today’s Politics Blog. That’s not surprising, since CT’s readership is the evangelical subculture for whom marriage equality has been a headline-grabbing obsession for the past... Read more
Ezekiel 23:19-21 Yet she increased her whorings, remembering the days of her youth, when she played the whore in the land of Egypt and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose emission was like that of stallions. Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians fondled your bosom and caressed your young breasts. Read more
Ben Emerson’s ambitious effort to blog through the Bible — the Whole Dang Thing — reached one of my favorite stories this week. It’s in the 27th chapter of Numbers (Numbers 27:1-11), so I think of it as one of those bits of narrative tucked into that book as rewards for any reader who has managed to slog through its long lists of rules and names and begats. A man named Zelophehad died. He left behind five daughters, but no... Read more
I think I’ve figured out who that little silhouette in Disqus’ not-so-neutral default avatar is. It’s Junias. Junias is a character in some translations of the Bible. More specifically, he’s a character invented by translators and inserted into the Bible. He’s a made-up person with a made-up name. Junias never existed. And Junias’ name never existed. But despite that, you can read the non-existent name of this non-existent person right there in the Bible — provided you have the right... Read more
The Ms. Blog offers a collection of reader-submitted photos of products marketed to people and also to women. Not to men and to women, but to people — normal, legitimate, regular people, and to women — abnormal, subordinate, irregular not-quite people. I’ve borrowed one example here, two children’s books presented as unequal companions. One book is for “kids” and the other is for “girls.” This sends a message, sometimes blatant and sometimes subtle, that half of the world is somehow... Read more
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