Consider this an experiment and an invitation for feedback. The three-column layout gives a bit more flexibility with sidebars, does it work? Is it user-friendly? Ugly? Your take on this matters more than mine does.
(Update: Tweaked this a bit so the center column is a fluid width.)
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I've heard several people refer to Fred Thompson's likely late entry into the race for the Republican presidential nomination as an attempt to be the "hero on the white horse," riding in at the last minute to save the day.
It strikes me more as an attempt at the "quarter-to-two, how do you do." My friend BD calls this "taking a bye in the first round." The idea being not to show up at the bar until at least after midnight, at which point your entry as Someone New — someone who has not already been evaluated and dismissed — provides you with a halo of hope. The by now slightly buzzed patrons, just beginning to reluctantly concede that their evening will be a disappointment, may be eager to turn to you in the hopes that you will be interesting or charismatic enough to salvage things.
Kind of a sleazy move, really. And probably not the basis for a meaningful long-term commitment.
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Earlier, in passing, I mentioned Media Matters' study, "Left Behind: The Skewed Representation of Religion in Major News Media." That study points out the way culturally and politically conservative religious leaders are overrepresented in the news media.
True enough, but my bigger pet peeve is the way that religious leaders with fringe views are treated as mainstream. Journalists and TV hosts with little knowledge of the religious traditions these folks say they represent tend to take at face value whatever claims they make. Thus, for example, Tim LaHaye is able, time after time, to make the unchallenged assertion that Left Behind simply presents "what Christians believe" or "what the Bible teaches."
It'd be like if ESPN had Dr. Mike Marshall on as an "expert on pitching." The former Cy Young award winner is an expert on pitching, of course, but a bit more context would be needed to accurately convey his real place in, and influence on, baseball.
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Matthew Yglesias makes a pragmatic case for "internal critiques" regarding religion:
… Seeking arguments against female genital mutilation in the Koran seems like an obviously smart move. In countries where large numbers of people believe FGM is required by Islam, arguments of the form "Islam requires FGM, FGM bad for women, therefore Islam should be abandoned" aren't going to get off the ground. Arguments of the form "FGM is not required by Islam" or, even better, "FGM is condemned by Islam" are, pragmatically speaking, much more useful.
Hold that thought, I want to return to this point later.
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Don Bosch of The Evangelical Ecologist offers a summary and review of Thursday's "Discussion on Global Warming" hosted by the Family Research Council.
Yes, the same Family Research Council that regularly fills my in-box with e-mail "Updates" in which FRC spokesmodel Tony Perkins spouts dishonest denialist talking points and repeatedly suggests that global warming is myth invented by proponents of a socialist one-world (Carpathian?) government.
No surprise then that the discussion included shameless corporate mouthpiece-for-hire E. Calvin Beisner — a.k.a. Scaife's pocket go-fer.
Related: Another of Scaife's pet theologians tries his hand at climate-change denial.
Found that via the same Matt Yglesias post in which he linked to this invaluable resource from Grist: "How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic." And here's a handy bestiary of denialists.
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In another of those FRC updates, Perkins celebrates a recent Gallup poll finding that:
About one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word.
I'd be interested in a Gallup poll on what percentage of the American adult population is able to explain what "literally" means.
(BooMan sees a correlation between this poll and another one.)
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Somehow, this makes perfect sense:
A cultural icon for more than 30 years, Tammy Faye Bakker's phenomenal rise from farm girl to evangelist superstar has finally been put onstage with a terrific pop-country score …
Here's hoping it offers the same generosity of spirit as The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
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