Maybe religion's moral foundation isn't so solid... RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today. According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems. While we're questioning religion's effect, it might be a good opportunity to see how the Bible Belt fares against us godless heathens in the North and West. Here's a completely partisan site that uses statistics that show maps of crimes rates, education, etc....
Astute observers will notice a new entry on the blog roll: The Hand That Feeds Me. A certain mysterious DG alum has put his writing to good use and commenced the skewering. Check it out....
I've been watching a lot of the John Roberts hearings. He seems like a fundamentally decent (and smart) man. Even Democrats who have worked with him praise his fairness lack of ideology. I'm impressed by how much he's tethered his conclusions to the law's application to specific cases and circumstances. He seems to get that judges today shouldn't merely interpret the constitution by what it meant in 1787. His speaking and decision-making always seems to be very, very specific, and always put into a larger legal context. I like him, even if he's going to vote conservatively most of the...
More Appropriately Named the "Go Ahead, Look Back" Series
This article from the Guardian Online describes a current London concert series in which artists play an album live from beginning to end, including among others Iggy Pop's Funhouse and Gang of Four's Entertainment. The article then gives several artists' suggestions (I don't want to spoil the surprise, but let's just say the song "Sweet Leaf" is mentioned somewhere). Personal aside: Many years ago in Boston, we saw Red House Painters perform the Rollercoaster album from beginning to end, which was a particular surprise since they had a new album to promote. (I remember cracking up when Kozelek asked for...
I Get All My Links from the Black Table, Part XVII
Presenting: Socks with Sandals. May God have mercy on our, um, soles. (I'm deeply sorry about that one, but it's 4 a.m. and I can't sleep. My brain apparently puns all by itself.)...
I have a new favorite baseball team. So what if they're working to get Jim Palmer in their rotation? They still have Johnny Damon. The Flogging Mollys, a rotisserie team out of a place called First, also have the greatest news coverage on the Web. Sometimes the most random and obsessive things are greatest....
So, all my plants are dead. We moved into a dank, infested apartment that killed plants I had kept for over 7 years. Now I'm ready to give it another whirl (especially, once we move in a few weeks). How about some urban compost? NYC Compost has some great tips for the space- and soil-challenged. Here's the most important thing: protect your food scraps from rodents and pests!...
The fine folks at TSG have posted Jack Kerouac's Navy file from 1943, which details his honorable discharge for psychiatric reasons. Without any particular training or back ground, this patient, just prior to his enlistment, enthusiastically embarked upon the writing of novels. He sees nothing unusual about this activity. Physical and neurological examinations are negative and mental examination reveals no gross evidence of psychosis....
