Avoiding the always-disastrous last resort of war

Last updated on: January 20, 2012 at 11:17 am By Fred Clark

Juan Cole shares a guest post from Thomas J. Buonomo that I want to recommend as smart, wise and good. Buonomo suggests a promising alternative approach to the current situation between the United States and Iran. And, more broadly, Buonomo demonstrates the kind of creativity and wisdom that ought to inform our thinking in general about foreign policy and defense. “To avoid War, Obama Should Offer Iran Renewable Energy Aid” Buonomo writes. First he outlines the situation that has led... Read more

Fox News: Trust, distrust and control

Last updated on: January 21, 2012 at 6:20 pm By Fred Clark

Kevin Drum highlights an extreme, but unsurprising, result from a recent Public Policy Polling survey on trust and TV news: Among Republicans, as [this] chart shows, the shape of the river is simple: they don’t trust anyone except Fox News, who they adore. These numbers are spreads, with NBC, for example, garnering 17-percent trust vs. 69-percent distrust. Fox News, conversely, garners 73-percent trust vs. 17-percent trust. Well, you say, maybe this just means that trust in the media is really... Read more

Happy Dolly-Buffy Day

Last updated on: January 19, 2012 at 9:02 pm By Fred Clark

God made me for a reason and nothing is in vain Redemption comes in many shapes with many kinds of pain Oh sweet Jesus if you’re listening, keep me ever close to you As I’m stumblin’, tumblin’, wonderin’, as I’m travelin’ thru — Dolly Parton, “Travelin’ Thru“ Today is Dolly Parton’s birthday. It’s also the birthday of Buffy Anne Summers. Reason No. 427 that Dolly Parton is even cooler than you may have realized: As a partner in Sandollar Productions,... Read more

Banks behaving badly

Last updated on: January 19, 2012 at 5:24 pm By Fred Clark

“Every aristocracy that has ever existed has behaved, in all essential points, exactly like a small mob.” — G.K. Chesterton Main Street’s Doug Foote reports that the Obama administration and banks are moving closer to a slap-on-the-wrist foreclosure-fraud settlement: There was talk over the past few months about a $25 billion settlement, which would help less than 10 percent of underwater homeowners. Now today we’re hearing about an even smaller settlement, valued at around $19 billion. Of course these are... Read more

Still celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.

Last updated on: January 19, 2012 at 3:14 pm By Fred Clark

At Pandagon, Jesse Taylor takes a cynical look the ritualized dismissal-by-praise that has come to accompany this week’s national holiday: Martin Luther King Day is problematic. It’s problematic because it’s the leading edge of a bifurcation of King’s legacy into what can charitably be called the Disney King and the Real King. The Disney King is the one whose predominant message was a race-ignorant society where recognizing “the content of one’s character” was a command to ignore the entirety of... Read more

‘Your fully intelligent adversaries’ have made a deliberate choice

Last updated on: January 19, 2012 at 1:05 pm By Fred Clark

White Georgia politician Jimmy Carter says that white Georgia politician Newt Gingrich knows exactly what he’s doing in his race-baiting and racist campaign talk: “He knows the subtle words to use to appeal to a racist group,” Carter [said]. “When you emphasize, over and over, welfare, food stamps, and ‘why don’t the black people get jobs,’ and if I’m president, I’ll make sure they turn toward a work ethic, rather than an ethic of welfare and food stamps, that’s appealing... Read more

Smart people saying smart things

Last updated on: January 19, 2012 at 12:27 am By Fred Clark

Richard Beck: “The Fence of Matthew Shepard“ In James Cone’s recent book The Cross and the Lynching Tree he makes the argument that the cross and the lynching tree need to form a dialectic. If the two are separated the cross becomes innocuous and meaningless. As Cone writes: Unfortunately, during the course of 2,000 years of Christian history, this symbol of salvation has been detached from any reference to the ongoing suffering and oppression of human beings. … The cross... Read more

Every day is a good day to call Congress about SOPA, PIPA

Last updated on: January 18, 2012 at 3:21 pm By Fred Clark

If you’ve visited Google or Wikipedia or Reddit today, then you’ve already encountered the widespread Web blackout in protest of two awful pieces of legislation which could, as Wikipedia says, “fatally damage the free and open Internet.” The goal of these bills is to combat online piracy and protect copyrighted material. Following are some links with background about these bills and why I and many, many others think they’re a Bad Idea. Brad Plumer: “Everything you need to know about... Read more

TFTM: Leave the gun, take the salvation

Last updated on: January 17, 2012 at 9:40 pm By Fred Clark

Left Behind II: Tribulation Force, Part 3 “When your fiancé comes, he can stay here too,” Cam-Cam tells flirty not-Alice as she settles in to his apartment, and hundreds of conservative youth pastors sigh in relief as the movie crosses back into mostly acceptable territory. It’s clear now how the movie’s version of the book’s romantic-confusion subplot will unfold, with Chloe jumping to the wrong conclusion about Cam-Cam and not-Alice and bursting into silly girl-tears. It’s just so much more... Read more

Who decides who is a ‘minister’?

Last updated on: January 17, 2012 at 1:50 pm By Fred Clark

Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School vs. EEOC involved the “ministerial exception” to many laws governing employers and the workplace. That exception reflects both an effort to avoid state entanglement in religious disputes and, more broadly, a bit of common sense. For example, say you’re the owner of a pizza place and you’re looking to hire a new delivery driver. You can’t put up a sign that says, “Jews Need Not Apply.” And you can’t put up a sign that... Read more