John Hodgman, “That Is All“ I know better now than ever that wealth deranges. It disconnects you from the world. It inflates your self-regard. It allows you to believe that four people congratulating you at your country club makes you a goddamn hero of America. And it leads you to say things like former banker John A. Allison said in the article linked: “Instead of an attack on the 1 percent, let’s call it an attack on the very productive.”... Read more
Lilit Marcus: “Florence, The Machine, Faith, and Me (Part 1) (Part 2)” Florence Welch’s brand of majestic tribal-pop “secular gospel,” or what Tom Ewing refers to as “Big Music” in his recent and excellent look at post-U2 stadium rock for Pitchfork, has so many parallels to evangelical worship music. Take for example the track “Spectrum” on Ceremonials, with its language of deliverance (“and we will never be afraid again”); its soaring chorus and hushed middle eight; the vernacular of “light,”... Read more
Luke 2:8-14 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see — I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,... Read more
It’s Christmas Eve, babe … Read more
It’s kind of a Christmas tradition here to post an excerpt from Anne Lamott’s “Advent Adventure.” This is the key part, but follow that link to see how Lamott sees this story of incarnation and grace as a Christmas story. “The only things getting me up the stairs are Terry, behind me, pushing me forward every so often, and this conviction I have that this is as bad as it’s ever going to be — that if I can get... Read more
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, presents himself as a libertarian who believes in smaller, limited government and a strict adherence to the Constitution. Hogwash. For decades, Ron Paul churned out vile newsletters peddling unfiltered racism, anti-gay hysteria, and anti-Semitic, John Birch Society “trilateral” insanity. If you’ve got the stomach for it, you can peruse dozens of these at Mr. Destructo. It’s the kind of old-school, flagrant racism you only see inside a closed circle of angry white people certain that only... Read more
Defining dominionism down: Good’s Kristin Rawls reports on a nice, attractive young couple who are helping to give dominionism a nicer, more attractive face. They’d prefer we don’t say “dominionism,” though, because in their ideal of a Christian America governed by biblical laws privileging Christianity, no one would be forced to convert: The Mitchells practice a form of politicized conservative Christianity that most observers would call dominionism. Libertarian-leaning supporters of state’s rights, they would like to see government reconstructed from... Read more
The headline of this post is true for all of us, actually, even when it doesn’t seem like it. Someone wants to hear your story. But the point of this post is a bit more specific with regard to the someone and the you here. The someone in this case is Margot Starbuck, who’s an insightful writer (author of, among other things: Unsqueezed and The Girl in the Orange Dress). And the you may or may not be you, in... Read more
Ian Ayres and Aaron S. Edlin are pushing for a Brandeis tax based on maintaining a Brandeis ratio of 36-to-1. I hope they keeping pushing for this, even though I doubt their proposal will go anywhere. I’m just happy they’re calling it a “Brandeis tax” and a “Brandeis ratio,” because every time anyone asks why they’re calling them that, they can quote this, from Supreme Court Justice Louis D Brandeis: We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated... Read more
Scot Paltrow: “The watchdogs that didn’t bark“ Four years after the banking system nearly collapsed from reckless mortgage lending, federal prosecutors have stayed on the sidelines, even as judges around the country are pointing fingers at possible wrongdoing. … Foreclosure-related case files in just one New York federal bankruptcy court, for example, hold at least a dozen mortgage documents known as promissory notes bearing evidence of recently forged signatures and illegal alterations, according to a judge’s rulings and records reviewed... Read more
Select your answer to see how you score.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In