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June 29, 2007

Fishing for stories that don't exist

A common criticism of journalists is that they have certain biases in selecting stories. Their reporting of certain events or issues are not necessarily biased, but rather their choice of the story at all reveals their true bias.

And so my curiosity was piqued yesterday when I came across this solicitation on the website of my local newspaper:

The minimum will rise gradually up to $7.25 an hour in 2009, under the new laws recently passed by state lawmakers and by Congress. Indiana workers who are not covered by the federal minimum now will be included in the increase, too.

Are you trying to make ends meet with a minimum-wage job?

If so, the Courier & Press would like to hear from you today. We would like to interview you and include your comments in Thursday's newspaper. Be prepared to tell us your name and where you work.

Please call reporter Bryan Corbin at (317) 631-7405 or send an email to corbin.statehouse@earthlink.net.

Apparently Bryan was hoping to begin a compelling article through the eyes of some noble bread-winner "trying to make ends meet." Or perhaps Bryan intended to intersperse anecdotes throughout his story using real-life examples of how a government-mandated wage hike would help needy people.

Apparently, though, no one in the Evansville region is "trying to make ends meet with a minimum-wage job." At least, that's the conclusion one could draw after reading Bryan's story which finally ran in today's paper. In it Bryan makes no mention of any real life examples of those earning a minimum wage.

What can we make of the earlier solicitation but lack of any resulting examples? This is, in my mind, a clear case of a reporter seeking to portray a particular, incomplete picture. And when the lack of responses suggests something economists have been preaching for decades - that the minimum wage does a lousy job of helping bread winners - Bryan chooses to ignore this. Instead he offers a cliche article presenting "both sides" of a largely economic issue.

Minimum wage hikes fail at targeting poverty, because most of the people who get it aren't poor, and most of the people who are poor don't get it. It often simply transfers money from other poor people -- those who lose jobs due to the higher minimum wage, and those who shop at places that pay the minimum wage.

The equilibrium for wages is currently above the minimum wage, so raising it will likely have little effect right now. But that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

Previously on ITA:

The Minimum Wage by Z. Wendling

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 03:56 PM | Comments (4)

June 28, 2007

Blair as a Lesson for America

In a final farewell essay published in a recent edition of The Economist, Tony Blair wrote the following:

In this age, foreign policy is not an interesting distraction from the hard slog of domestic reform. It is the element that describes a nation's face to the world at large, forms the perceptions of others to it and, in part, its perception of itself.

We all talk of interdependence being the defining characteristic of the modern world. But often we fail to see the fundamental implications of such a statement. It means we have a clear self-interest as a nation in what happens the world over. And because mass media and communication convey powerful images in an instant across the globe, it dictates that struggles are fought as much through propaganda, ideas and values as through conventional means, military or diplomatic.

In just two paragraphs Blair demonstrates why he was such a successful, artful leader. But it also stands in stark contrast to America's current leadership and its apparent understanding of what is necessary to win the so-called "war on terror".

As Tony Blair exits the world stage, at least as the leader of America's closest friend, I reflect most upon an imbalance created by the loss of his perspective outlined above. By failing to grasp it, Bush has turned the world away from America and, worse, a critically important truth he essentially got right - radical Islamicism poses a dangerous threat to Western civilization.

President Bush's glaring failures are painfully evident when he's side-by-side Blair. As Blair understands far better than Bush, "terrorism" as it is now understood will only be defeated through a battle of ideas fought in a mass media battlefield. Mr. Blair put it this way: "We should condemn not just their barbaric methods of terrorism, but in particular their presumed sense of grievance against the West."

I have never fully supported the military war in Iraq. But what I have always supported is a war of values whereby we attack the ideology of radical Islamicists head-on and with confidence. Tony Blair was as deft a soldier as any in this war of values. For that he will be missed. Let us hope that his leadership will be followed not only by his successors in Britain, but by Bush's successors here at home.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 12:19 AM | Comments (6)

June 27, 2007

Irony

H/T: BabyTrollBlog (note: strong language and other potentially NSFW content on that blog)

A litle Googling reveals that this picture was taken during a 2006 protest over the Muhammad cartoon controversy. Still worth a thousand words, though.

Posted by Eric Seymour at 04:06 PM | Comments (39)

The Host's Dreadful Abode

No, it's not a prop from Battlestar Galactica - it's a Tabernacle! Anglo-Catholic Ruminations' latest, a "Terrible Tabernacle Contest," is looking for "blasphemous, inappropriate, weird, or just plain ugly Tabernacles." The Spirit of Vatican II materialized? And don't miss his Chintzy Chasubles Contest, which appears more ecumenical, drawing from Episcopalian vestments as well.

Posted by Seth Zirkle at 08:37 AM | Comments (0)

June 26, 2007

Summer Reading

Everyone remembers the first time they fell in love with a book. It's a work you can return to again and again, only to once more be astonished at what missed before and go to bed genuinely delighted that you discovered it this time around. For me this book is Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies. Then again, who could forget Brideshead Revisited? Like Waugh's other work, both of these classics still seem eerily relevant as commentaries on contemporary society.

And we now have a glimpse into the private realm of the Waugh dynasty thanks to Alexander Waugh's recent Fathers and Sons, which chronicles four generations of the Waugh family. Alexander, Evelyn's grandson, gives no quarter to the reservation that typifies British culture, allowing the reader to discover first-hand that literary genius brings both power and pain. For anyone who enjoys Waugh's literary style, his grandson's opus will be a pleasure to read. As the New Yorker's Joan Acocella remarks, "'Fathers and Sons' is witty, in the Waugh manner, but it is also poignant." I could not agree more.

Posted by Seth Zirkle at 03:07 PM | Comments (1)

Speaking of Fred...

Blog neighbor Joe Carter of The Evangelical Outpost teamed up with Jared Bridges to create a new website titled "BLOGS for Fred". The two brought me on as a fellow editor. In the words of its "about" page:

Blogs for Fred is online community and group blog covering the campaign of Fred Thompson for the GOP nomination for President. The purpose of the site is to organize and inform bloggers who support his candidacy.

Update: In response, Brutally Honest says, "I'd rather be led by Fred."

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 11:46 AM | Comments (2)

Sicko Reviewed

Reason magazine has posted a good review of Michael Moore's latest film, Sicko.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 09:37 AM | Comments (15)

June 25, 2007

Thompson rising?

For the first time, Fred Thompson is leading the field for the GOP nomination in a major poll. The Rasmussen Reports poll released last Tuesdsay gave Thompson a 1-point lead over Rudy Giuliani, capping a 16-point surge over three weeks. And Thompson hasn't even announced his candidacy yet.

The Iowa Electronics Markets have also gotten in on Fredmania, it seems. Contracts for a Thompson primary win were first offered on June 15, and have had the highest value of the GOP field ever since. The IEM, of course, is a much different sort of predictor of political outcomes, because participants have real money at stake. Also, contract buyers and sellers may be investing based on the short-term, not the final outcome.

Related ITA entries:

FDT: Certified Bad A$$ by J. Claybourn
Fred Thompson: Let's Open the Door by J. Claybourn

Posted by Eric Seymour at 01:01 PM | Comments (6)

June 22, 2007

Ron Paul's Cell Phone Problem Revisited

My post titled "Are cell phones killing Ron Paul's campaign?" was noted by Andrew Sullivan, who asks, "I wonder if libertarians are more likely to have cell-phones than others?" The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum will have none of it and says that pollsters are more clever than Andrew and I when it comes to polling methods. Indeed they are, and those polling experts are expressing a growing concern over their failure to include the cell-phone-only crowd.

As Mark Blumenthal explains in a post today at Pollster.com, there has been an explosion in academic papers addressing this very subject. Scott Keeter, the director of survey research at the Pew Research Center, has posted a concise and accessible review here of four pilot studies over the last two years that interviewed people with cell phones over their cell phones. In it Keeter writes the following:

[G]iven the speed with which the number of cell-only households has increased, there is growing concern within the polling business about how long the landline telephone survey will remain a viable data collection tool, at least by itself.

The average difference between cell-only and landline respondents was approximately 8 percentage points, resulting in roughly a 2 percent difference in the ultimate result. In a tight primary race, of course, this makes a world of difference. And as cell-only use continues to rise, the problem will just get worse. In early 2003, just 3.2% of households were cell-only. Today that figure is over 13%.

Fortunately there appears to be a number of sensible solutions that may make up for some of the current deficiencies in polling methods. In the meantime, however, we're left with rather incomplete samples.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 02:36 PM | Comments (14)

Freeze! You're on camera.

I am by default skeptical of all government authority, and any trust or justification of government power most often carries the burden of proof. No where is this more evident than with police force. The tendency of state legislatures to pass nanny-state laws that infringe upon civil liberties irks me in part because the duty of enforcing those laws typically falls to cops whose rate of pompousness and arrogance far outpaces that of the rest of the population.

One obvious check upon power-hungry, out-of-control cops is to simply film their actions. If a cop mouths off to you, treats you with disrespect or, worse, assaults you in some way, the ability to immediately post these things to YouTube would be a great equalizer. Yet as Radley Balko writes in his latest Fox News column, a slew of people have been arrested for simply filming police officers while on duty.

The amateur photographers are most often prosecuted under wiretapping laws which prohibits the intentional interception or recording of anyone's oral conversation without their consent. Cops are public servants and paid on the public dime. But thanks to wiretapping laws they are able to avoid public scrutiny.

These wiretapping laws apparently don't exist in Mokwa, Missouri. There the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri is handing out cameras in the hope of deterring police abuse.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 10:14 AM | Comments (7)

The White Dwarf Church

Religious historian Philip Jenkins argues in Foreign Policy that the demise of European Christianity has been greatly exaggerated. While its state religions remain vacuous and its cathedrals stand as tourist spots for Americans, where European Christianity truly exists it burns hotter and stronger than ever. "Its convinced adherents represent a small but vigorous minority," Jenkins says, ". . . more passionate, enthusiastic, and rigorously committed to personal holiness. To use a scientific analogy, when a star collapses, it becomes a white dwarf -- smaller in size than it once was, but burning much more intensely. Across Europe, white-dwarf faith communities are growing within the remnants of the old mass church." This White Dwarf Church may prevent the "Islamization" of Europe that many critics are worried about.

Committed secularists should not miss the Habermas quote at the end either.

Posted by David Darlington at 09:31 AM | Comments (4)

June 21, 2007

Praise for Barack Obama

"Barack Obama is vowing to detail all his earmark requests today and is challenging his Presidential rivals to do the same." More from TPM Cafe, which links to Obama's earmarks here.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 02:41 PM | Comments (0)

Are cell phones killing Ron Paul's campaign?

Forget any possible cancer links. Dr. Ron Paul's main concern with the growing use of cell phones may be their effect on traditional poll results. About 13 percent of all households in the country have "cut the telephone cord" in favor of cell phones, according to federal figures released in May. This growing group of Americans are simply ignored in traditional telephone (i.e. land line) phone surveys.

This Pew Research Center survey is perhaps the most comprehensive to date in working to determine what impact this has on polling data. The Pew survey found that cell-phone-only Americans are disproportionately younger, less affluent, less likely to be married or to own their home, and more liberal on many political questions. Yet "the absence of this group from traditional telephone surveys has only a minimal impact on the results."

Notably, the Pew survey was conducted over a year ago, and the percentage of those now cell-phone-only has nearly doubled in that time. Perhaps a new study using the same techniques would reveal a different conclusion. Either way, though, "minimal impact" is in fact significant in the context of primary polling, where even a couple percentage points can make or break a candidate's future.

Although Rep. Ron Paul is essentially libertarian, many of his positions - opposition to the Iraq war, greater civil liberties, etc. - would traditionally be defined as "liberal" in the lexicon of some members of the press. And voters (particularly younger ones) who align with those positions would seem to be the very people Ron Paul counts among his most ardent supporters.

Of course some will simply reply that polls are irrelevant this early in a presidential race. But early polls do help determine who's in and who's out of candidate forums and debates, not to mention who gets the coveted early campaign donations. In Iowa, for instance, Rep. Paul has already been excluded from a significant forum that features all of the other main candidates.

In the end it may be impossible to determine what impact outdated polling methods have on Ron Paul's candidacy. But the constant rise in cell-phone-only Americans should give us cause for skepticism toward the countless land-line-only surveys that so drastically shape primary outcomes.

Update: A follow-up to this post can be found here.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 01:47 PM | Comments (14)

June 19, 2007

Academic Angst

My mother, a thirty-five year veteran of the Indiana public school system, continually tells me that today's children face pressures her generation never experienced at such a young age. ATF - not the federal agency but alcohol, tobacco, and fornication - appear to be serious problems for many instructors and administrators in the secondary education arena these days.

And don't forget the ubiquitous demand for academic excellence. Apparently unwilling to disappoint his parents, a German tenth grade student recently conspired with two other students to threaten his teacher with a "steel rod" in order to steal her briefcase he believed to contain report cards. Unfortunately for anxious lad the whole event failed miserably:

The [Berlin] Morgenpost reports that students at the school are mystified by Friday's events. Some said that there is significant academic pressure on 10th graders at this time of year' but that report cards haven't been completed yet. Others said the crime was out of character for Zacharias [mastermind of the imbroglio], who is "totally nice and well-liked."

Posted by Seth Zirkle at 08:53 PM | Comments (0)

June 18, 2007

How Americans use their water supply

Swivel is a great website that charts everything from crime statistics to American Idol contestant popularity. Here's one from today's front page.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 01:47 PM | Comments (1)

June 17, 2007

Ron Paul on Drugs

No, not him high, but rather a heated exchange of Ron Paul with some audience members regarding drugs. It's classic.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 10:44 PM | Comments (1)

June 16, 2007

RIP: Toucan Sam

Saturday morning used to be the time where children watched cartoon shows, and where cartoon characters pitched them high-sugar cereals which made them hyper in the short run (to the dismay of parents everywhere) and fat in the long run. It looks like that era is ending, however. The Kellogg Company announced this week that they will no longer use Toucan Sam in television marketing to kids under 12. Kellogg is under pressure from the professional killjoys at the Center for Science in the Public Interest to change its recipes and its approach to children's marketing. Fruit Loops' Toucan Sam and Rice Crispies' Snap, Crackle, and Pop got the axe because both products were deemed not healthy enough under Kellogg's new standards for fat, sodium, sugar, and calories. The characters remain on their respective boxes for now, but will disappear from television until Kellogg decides to change the cereals.

Give me a moment to pour out a bowl crazy-colored milk for that fine bird. Hat tip.

Posted by David Darlington at 12:22 PM | Comments (2)

June 15, 2007

A British Invasion

I've posted pictures of my recent trip across the pond to Britain here. Our travels took us to traditional tourist destinations in the south; quaint Welsh villages via narrow winding roads; medieval castles and modern royal playgrounds; hip London neighbourhoods and traditional family suburbs; and, finally, to mystical Scotland.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 09:46 AM | Comments (3)

June 14, 2007

A Paul McCartney Renaissance

Paul McCartney has released his latest album - Memory Almost Full - to widespread acclaim. In the United States it has already sold 160,541 albums in its first week. The lead single released in the U.S. is "Ever Present Past", and while I like this song I particularly liked "Dance Tonight", which was the lead single used in the rest of the world. The marketing for this song (no doubt orchestrated by Paul's new label) is worth noting as well. The music video was posted exclusively on YouTube and featured the ever-lovely Natalie Portman.

The success of this album could be a sign of a sort of McCartney Renaissance. Ever since his nasty divorce with ex-wife Heather Mills, McCartney has "looked terrific and sounded even better." As a living legend and one of the greatest singer/songwriters in the history of humanity, it's easy to take for granted that McCartney 65 years of age. But as Fox's Roger Friedman reports, this doesn't stop him from impromptu performances where he "he hits all high notes, and gives out a yelpin' Little Richard-like rock scream that seems impossible." In short, McCartney has not lost his magical touch.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 05:48 PM | Comments (1)

June 13, 2007

America's Philosopher-King

"In other words, Anthony Kennedy doesn't much care whether his abstractions are true; the important thing for him is that he wants them to be true. As a lawyer in private practice, the future Justice Louis Brandeis was famous for having inaugurated the "Brandeis Brief," a long compendium of statistics measuring the empirical effects of various pieces of social legislation on real American workers. Kennedy, by contrast, has inpired the proliferation of the anti-Brandeis Brief, which might be called the Kennedy Brief. In a Kennedy Brief, lawyers on both sides fall over themselves to court Kennedy's favor by repeatedly citing the opinions of Justice Kennedy."

Jeffrey Rosen's ode to Justice Kennedy's jurisprudence in the latest issue of The New Republic leaves no holes (holds) barred - which is to say that it's well worth the read.

Posted by Seth Zirkle at 07:51 PM | Comments (1)

June 12, 2007

100,000,000 Victims

The Victims of Communism Memorial was dedicated today in the Federal City. Privately-financed but publicly authorized, it is a 10-foot bronze statue of the Goddess of Democracy, the figure erected by the Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989 before they were massacred by the People's Liberation Army.

The Memorial is a sober reminder that the most destructive ideology of the bloody 20th Century far outstripped its shorter-lived rival, fascism. It is even more sobering to realize, as the Victims of Communism Foundation notes, that the destruction continues.

Posted by Zach Wendling at 11:58 PM | Comments (1)

Ron Paul: A Sideshow No More?

FreeMarketNews.com is reporting a shocking story which, if true, could drastically shake up the Republican race for president. According to their reports from observers close to the campaign, Rep. Ron Paul is now close to rivaling John McCain for campaign dollars.

Congressman Ron Paul's donations have moved up - not by hundreds of thousands - but by millions as a result of his debate performances and groundswell of support on the Internet and in New Hampshire, observers close to the campaign say.

Specifically, the "observers" claim his campaign has neared $4 or $5 million. To put that in perspective, John McCain has only $5,180,799, although Romney and Giuliani have nearly twice that. Radley Balko and Andrew Sullivan have more on the Ron Paul surge.

While money may not win elections on its own, analysts often use it as an indicator of the strength of one's support. Telling a phone surveyor you support someone is vastly different than actually cutting a $200 check to that same candidate. But there is something to be said for traditional grass roots activism as well, and in that department Paul is also making strides. Ron Paul's website is available here, where you can learn more about him and donate to his campaign. Rep. Paul is also scheduled to appear on the Colbert Report tomorrow, June 13th.

Update: Like Radley, I wondered why Ron Paul didn't show up in a recent L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll, but then I read the poll question. Paul wasn't offered as a possible choice.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 10:14 AM | Comments (1)

Simply Amazing

I occasionally tune in to America's Got Talent or American Idol, but for the most part these shows are a depressing reminder that "talent" and "art" are relative terms whose mainstream meaning can differ from my own. On Saturday, however, a humble Welshman named Paul Potts appeared on Britain's Got Talent and changed everything.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 10:00 AM | Comments (1)

Albania: American loving thieves?

Albania appears to love America and, by extension, President George Bush. This video of enthusiastic crowds clamoring for an opportunity to just touch the president is a good example of that. But their love for Bush may also extend to his watches. At about the 1 minute mark Bush's watch seems to disappear. Did it drop or did some American-loving Albanian end up with a nice memento? We report, you decide.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 09:52 AM | Comments (1)

Arm Thyself with Knowledge

An anonymous former Circuit City employee, writing in the Consumerist, has penned an incredibly helpful post titled, "27 Confessions Of A Former Circuit City Worker". As some of the comments to the post reveal, some of the tactics he describes were likely only relevant to his particular store. But many apply across the board.

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 09:23 AM | Comments (1)

June 09, 2007

Hey look kids! There's Big Ben! And There's Parliament!

Via the Freakonomics blog, Reuters is reporting that, in a survey of 15,000 European hoteliers through Expedia.com, Americans are considered the second best tourists in the world behind the Japanese, who get high marks for being polite and tidy. Americans also rank high for their generous holiday spending habits.

It wasn't all good for the U.S. though, as Americans came in #1 for "worst dressed," perhaps justifying the "ugly American" stereotype. Still, the British fared worst in the survey, taking in low marks for their rude behavior, noise, and miserly attitude to tipping.

Go ahead and take that Canadian flag off your suitcase.

Posted by David Darlington at 09:43 AM | Comments (3)

June 07, 2007

The Politics of Personality Destruction

The New York Sun has a great article on the odd things running for president does to one's personality, and why come candidates thrive and others don't. It's worth reading through just for the interviews with failed candidates Bob Kerrey, Bob Dole, and Michael Dukakis.

Posted by David Darlington at 05:52 PM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2007

The 'preemptive strike' defense

ITA friend and neighbor Josh Whicker has penned a new satire piece titled "Indianapolis man testifies that assault on homeless man was 'preemptive strike'". Here's a tease:

An Indianapolis iron worker took a page out of President Bush’s book when explaining to a jury why he attacked a homeless man in an alley after a football game last November.

When Marion County prosecutor Glenn Simmons asked William L. "Butch" Riley, 38, why he poked Timothy Upshaw Jr. in the right eye and groin with the tip of his umbrella in an alley near the RCA Dome after the Colts thrashed the Philadelphia Eagles 45-21 on November 26, the defendant had an atypical response.

"I must and will act preemptively to defeat any enemy who would impose his or her will on me, my allies, or my friends," said Riley, who was wearing a blue suit and red tie with a bald eagle tie tack. "That is good enough for our government so it is good enough for me."

The fun didn't stop there though, because the folks over at Fark picked up on it and linked to it, with numerous commenters not realizing the article is satire. That, I fear, doesn't bode well for our society. But as always some Fark commenters didn't disappoint. Here are a few of my favorite responses:

"It was just bad intelligence..."
"He's fighting them in Indianapolis so I don't have to fight them here."
"b...b...but the guy who walked by before him wanted to do it too...and he was in violation of city council sanctions."

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 02:52 PM | Comments (0)

Victory in Absentia?

"'My name is Thompson -- Tommy Thompson. The candidate, not the actor,' said the former Wisconsin governor and secretary of Heath and Human Services. It was a bad joke, and like most of what comes out of Tommy Thompson's mouth it made one wonder if he's actually delusional enough to think he can be president...." Like many of us, John Tabin of The American Spectator was not impressed with last night's debate.

But that is not to say it was completely useless as a nascent indicator of presidential hopefulls. As many still wait for Fred Thompson's official announcement, Republican candidates mentioned his name more than once - beginning after only five minutes. "If a candidate becomes the subject of a debate without showing up, he wins." While I'm not completely convinced this is categorically true, it seems appros to the "Rudy McRomney," a la Jim Gilmore, on display last night.

Posted by Seth Zirkle at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)

On Theology

(edited and reprinted from my own site, since the rest of the crew seems to be on vacation)

Rule number three: Theology is a humanities not a science. It's closer to literature, philosophy, history, or even music than it is to the hard or social sciences. Scriptures aren't to be read as a textbook, rulebook, or cookbook.

The easiest error any sincere, believing Christian can fall into is legalism. This is because it's usually begun with the best of intentions -- to know God and obey Him more fully. But, as C.S. Lewis writes in Screwtape Letters, the devil does his best work when he takes something good and twists it just so, making us think we're on the right course when we're really off track by a hair. Eventually, we find ourselves someplace we'd rather not be.

Life is far more complex, nuanced, and quirky than can be dreamt of in any systematic theology. The problem lies in the way we use the bible. When we use the bible as something other than the testimony of the first-century witnesses pointing to Christ, we risk turning it into a textbook, rulebook, or a recipe book. First and foremost, the bible should be our present witness to what Christ has done and can do in people's lives. Secondarily, we can get good living advice, personal inspiration, or what else from the book, but if that becomes the primary purpose of scriptures, then we're off track. Too many preachers today, especially in evangelical churches, preach what has been called a "recipe theology," where the point of the bible is to get "biblical principles" on the topic of the day, or to drive home a particular political or ethical agenda, rather than to preach Christ crucified. Follow these principles, obey these rules, and life is easy and no one ever gets hurt. You just have to decode the right verses.

This Christless preaching turns the bible into a self-help book Oprah would try to sell us. The bible needs to be recognized as witness, as literature, as history, as philosophy, as music, and as a book of life principles. The bible is not a complex scientific problem that needs to be deduced or engineered. A lot of times, the rules aren't even spelled out for us. We want black-and-white and right-and-wrong; and sometimes the answers are there and sometimes they're not. What does the legalist doggedly looking for answers do in those latter cases? Usually, despair.

Remembering that theology is a humanities not a science is also an antidote to the "cage phase" that many recent converts go through. I'm sure we all know people who converted to a religion or to a branch within a religion who put everything -- past beliefs, actions, even relationships -- through the prism of scripture via their new interpretive scheme. People going through the cage phase can be harsh, cruel, and dismissive of others, especially towards those of us who might gently disagree that they were predestined to be right and we were predestined to be wrong. "Cage phasers" look at the bible and their beloved systematic theology as closed systems with all the answers, all the i's dotted and t's crossed. Only in time and maturity, when their subject knowledge is deeper and the cracks begin to show, do cage phasers resemble normal human beings again.

This is also one of the reasons I appreciate Martin Luther so much. As Gene Veith notes, Luther didn't write systematic theologies like Calvin or scholastic Catholics. He wrote bible commentaries. The lack of a system makes it very hard to believe that Luther had all the answers right there. In fact, he's maddeningly illogical and inconsistent at times. Which is awesome.

Posted by David Darlington at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2007

It's Funny Because It's True

The nation to Ken Griffey Jr: "We Wish It Were You Hitting 756 Home Runs."

Posted by David Darlington at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2007

Diving for Meat

Odin, a five-year-old, 445 pound white Bengal tiger dives for a piece of meat during a performance at the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, Calif., Wednesday, May 30, 2007. Odin was born at the park and was hand raised.(AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Posted by Joshua Claybourn at 03:39 PM | Comments (4)

June 01, 2007

'Too Bad'

I've been away in Britain for a couple of weeks, and my extensive travels necessarily took me away from my typical dose of current events. (BBC News, while good, simply doesn't compensate for an RSS reader at my disposal.) So I was pleased that the first column I read upon returning was Peggy Noonan's latest piece simply titled "Too Bad" (H/T to Drudge). It hardly needs to be said that Noonan, one of the speech writers for Ronald Reagan, is one of the most eloquent conservative writers around. But her column eviscerating the Bush administration is so spot-on that I shall simply link to it in the hope that you, too, get a taste of its refreshing clarity.