Michael Grunwald is a reporter for Time magazine. He recently sent out a tweet that said, “I can’t wait to write a defense of a drone strike that takes out Julian Assange”.
He has since deleted the tweet but nothing even truly disappears in the internet. In the face of a backlash he apologized for the tweet calling it ‘dumb’ but he has a long history of supporting drone strikes attacking those who are concerned about civil liberties. [Read more…]
The evangelical Christian movement, like all large movements, is not monolithic. A new study from Baylor University finds that there is what it calls a ‘messy middle’ that is splitting from orthodoxy while still staying within the evangelical movement. And the issue that is creating this split is the attitude towards gays. [Read more…]
The word ‘scientism’ frequently crops up in discussions of atheism and religion. It is often used pejoratively as an epithet against new atheists, to suggest that they are somehow extremists who think that anything that is not science-based is somehow worthless. [Read more…]
Baxter the Wonder Dog is not overly fond of playing fetch. He particularly does not like to play it outdoors. But on occasion indoors he will play for about a dozen throws before he gets fed up and wanders off. But sometimes when he gets excited about something he will fling his fetch toy by himself and then pick it up. [Read more…]
I was reading the Wall Street Journal that the conference hotel provides and came across this article today that suggests that there are splits between the three groups that are providing support to Edward Snowden: Wikileaks, Glenn Greenwald, and Snowden’s father’s husband and wife legal team of Bruce and Mattie Fein. Mattie Fein said that they were concerned that the other two groups were not acting in Snowden’s best interests and were working for their own benefit and even trying to make money off him. [Read more…]
Sports writer Martin Manley committed suicide yesterday on his 60th birthday. Unlike most suicides that leave people wondering fruitlessly what caused it, he decided to create an elaborate website that has a long explanation and is prepaid five years in advance. [Read more…]
There have been a spate of recent cases involving fraud at the major banks and this may give the impression that the government is finally cracking down on them. Matt Taibbi argues that we need to look very carefully at the outcomes of these prosecutions to see if they are really serious. [Read more…]
I don’t drink alcohol. There are several reasons for it. One is that I just never developed the taste for it and find it unpleasant. Another is that Sri Lanka has a real drinking problem with many people drinking far too much too often and I had considerable first-hand awareness of the negative effects on them and their families and careers, which turned me off at an early age. The third is that on the solitary occasion where I had several drinks, I noticed that I was losing control of what I said and did, and it was not a pleasant feeling. As a result, I only drink wine on very rare occasions when offering a toast or something and have a beer once or twice a year at events where there is no alternative. [Read more…]