Chris Hedges appeared on The Colbert Report to talk about his book American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Crooks and Liars has the video: COLBERT: They're all full of love, and you sound very angry, so who's the Christian here? HEDGES: I don't think anger is a bad thing. I mean, Augustine said hope has two children, anger and courage. Anger at the way things are and courage to make them better. And I look at... Read more
Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel — it's vulgar. — Molly Ivins This Sandy Huffaker cartoon is, at best, a case of collateral damage. At first glance, it seems to take aim at Hollywood and the vapidity of so many movie releases, but the sub-Mad Magazine level film titles on the marquee don't pack much of a... Read more
Here's a nice little profile piece from the paper's ultra-local weekly "Crossroads" section. It's a Local Boy Makes Does Good story, about a young man from the area who is serving as a missionary with OMS International, helping to train local church leaders and working in the agency's local schools and its medical clinic. If it will help to keep the comments thread here from veering off into a discussion of the legitimacy of missions, then just think of him... Read more
"You have no reason to reproach yourself: you did your best." "A human best, which is very little. It's hard to accept the idea that there cannot be an order in the universe because it would offend the free will of God and His omnipotence. So the freedom of God is our condemnation, or at least the condemnation of our pride." I dared, for the first and last time in my life, to express a theological conclusion: "But how can... Read more
One of the least fruitful dead-ends in any online discussion forum is the Eternally Refined Analogy. Someone attempts to illustrate their argument with an analogy which, being only an analogy, is not perfectly equivalent to the gist of what they're trying to say. And with startling speed, the original matter of the argument is abandoned and the conversation becomes primarily about criticism and refinement of the analogy. Part of the reason I've never been particularly fascinated with game theory is... Read more
The problem with criticizing the credit scoring system, as Colin and some others have sensibly pointed out in the comments to the previous post, is that it arose in order to avoid something that may well have been worse: the Good Old Boy/Country Club network that effectively denied access to capital at a decent rate to anybody not in the clique, no matter how credit-worthy they might be. Credit scoring improves on the former system by at least introducing the... Read more
It's the fifth of the month, or a full moon, or whatever the cycle is for these things, and so today's paper again includes an article attempting to explain credit scores and why they're important, and the sorts of things that (might) make yours higher or lower. And like every other weekly/monthly article on this same subject, this one fails to mention the two steps that will do more than anything else to improve your credit score: 1. Get yourself... Read more
Founding Funk Brother Joe Hunter was found dead Sunday at age 79. Didn't remember his name before I read that this morning. Maybe you didn't either. But we all remember his piano and the Motown sound he helped to invent. His passing is sad news, but it's hard not to smile when listening to this: Read more
Rush Limbaugh, tomorrow: "The [Bears/Colts] lost even though the media has been very desirous that a black coach do well. There was a little hope invested in [Lovie Smith/Tony Dungy], and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn't deserve." Read more
A toast to Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council for arguing that drinking a beer while watching the Super Bowl is "substance abuse." Perkins is upset because the NFL told Fall Creek Baptist Church in Indianapolis that they weren't allowed to charge admission for their Super Bowl party featuring the big game on a giant projection screen. (Here's the AP story, and a nice Slate explainer, "Is My Super Bowl Party Illegal?") The NFL explained to Fall Creek that... Read more
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