Politics
The Law of Lightbulbs
Economics / Law / Politics / Psychology / Technology

The Law of Lightbulbs

by Michael Sansbury on May 2, 2013 • 3 Comments

Andrew Sullivan alerted his readers to a new study whose results should come as no surprise to readers of this blog. The study came from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was picked up by grist.org. Here is how grist.org described the study:

With a fixed amount of money in their wallet, respondents had to “buy” either an old-school lightbulb or an efficient compact florescent bulb (CFL) . . . . Both bulbs were labeled with basic hard data on their energy use, but without a translation of that into climate pros and cons. When the bulbs cost…

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Grace From the Very Top
Politics / Sports

Grace From the Very Top

by Nick Lannon on Apr 17, 2013 • 2 Comments

1993 is, I’m sure, notable for many things.  But for some, it was most notable as the year of the second straight “Fab Five” appearance in the NCAA National Championship game.  The year before, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, Ray Jackson, and Chris Webber had become famous for being an all-freshman starting five at the University of Michigan, introducing what has been referred to as “a hip-hop element” into the game, and getting all the way to the championship game before losing to Duke. The next year, as sophomores, the Fab Five was even better. Again, they went all…

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Another Week Ends: Gucci Addictions, Narcissism Epidemics, DFW, Phone vs. Heart, PZ on Drones (on CNN), R. Crumb, Tale of Two Suedes, and Kung Fu Grandpa
Addiction / America / Film / Grace in Practice / Literature / Music / Politics / Relationships / Social Science / Suffering / Technology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Gucci Addictions, Narcissism Epidemics, DFW, Phone vs. Heart, PZ on Drones (on CNN), R. Crumb, Tale of Two Suedes, and Kung Fu Grandpa

by David Zahl on Mar 29, 2013 • 4 Comments

1. The author of the original Friday Night Lights, Buzz Bissinger, dropped as offbeat and not-quite-repentant a tale of addiction on GQ this month as I have ever come across. A convergence of shopping and sex addiction rooted in Law-induced despair (never being able to measure up to initial success) and plain old powerlessness, the circumstances are so outrageous you almost wonder if it’s a prank. Like many an addict/human being, Bissinger is peculiar mix of self-loathing and self-indulgence, both fearful and proud at the same time, his smatterings of wisdom covered up by layers of misanthropic confusion and a…

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Hell’s Capital: Watching Season One of House of Cards
America / Identity / Law / Politics / TV

Hell’s Capital: Watching Season One of House of Cards

by Ethan Richardson on Mar 21, 2013 • 3 Comments

Everything was clean, so precise and towering
I was welcomed with open arms, I received so much help in every way,
I felt no fear…I felt like I belonged –Wilco, “Hell Is Chrome”

“You know what I like about people? They stack so well.”

If hell is not chrome in House of Cards, it is certainly elegant. As Netflix’s second in-house television production venture, it ought to be, with a 100 million dollar budget, with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright and Kate Mara, with David Fincher’s hand in the mix. Whether it is the clean handling with which impossible tasks are accomplished, whether it…

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Five Golden…Themes! What We Just Couldn’t Get Enough of in 2012
America / Everyday / Film / Identity / Music / News / Politics / Psychology / Relationships / Sports / Technology / Theology / TV

Five Golden…Themes! What We Just Couldn’t Get Enough of in 2012

by Ethan Richardson on Dec 14, 2012 • 4 Comments

One of Mockingbird’s most distinctive features is the repetition. Like Christmas itself, we’re trying to point that one “old, old story,” that ancient theme, as we see it dug up time and again. It’s dug up in all sorts of places, of course, from 18th century poetry archives to slasher films, from church basements to top-tier corporate office towers. But it’s still resonating a singular focus–the Gospel–from these unforeseen, albeit obscure, sources.

Despite the wide-spanning scopes and intentions of some of our favorite “news” sources, the same thing unwittingly tends to happen. After all, reporting the news means telling and retelling…

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“Human at the End of the Day”: The One Thing We Already Knew about Petraeus
America / Identity / Law / News / Politics

“Human at the End of the Day”: The One Thing We Already Knew about Petraeus

by Ethan Richardson on Nov 16, 2012 • 7 Comments

I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that the media is blood-hungry after the election tides have pulled back, but it’s also certainly true that the blood-hunger has found its outlet in former CIA director David Petraeus, who resigned November 9th, citing the extramarital affair with biographer Paula Broadwell that was being investigated by the FBI. Everywhere in the media right now, it is a low-hanging fruit of the first degree: a highly decorated official, congressional wartime paranoia, offenses on the moral front–offenses by one of our utmost commanders against country, against God, against love.

I say it in that order for a…

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Another Week Ends: Post-Election Meekness and Melodrama, Googlepoetics, Psychopathic Stories, DFW Exists, The Testament of Mary, Episode VII, and Skyfall
Books / Film / Humor / Poetry / Politics / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Social Science / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Post-Election Meekness and Melodrama, Googlepoetics, Psychopathic Stories, DFW Exists, The Testament of Mary, Episode VII, and Skyfall

by David Zahl on Nov 9, 2012 • 2 Comments

1. Definitely not the easiest week to write this column. The Interwebs, as one might have predicted, have been consumed by I-Told-You-So’s and The-End-Is-Nigh’s, neither of which are a whole lot of fun–at least not from the standpoint of grace. Who knows, maybe you found yourself staying away from screens altogether this week, biding your time until the sanctimony and self-pity dissipated a little…. Maybe you took the opportunity to read the new DFW collection, catch up on Bob’s Burgers, change an ungodly number of diapers, and possibly delve a bit deeper into the unreleased work of The Rolling Stones.…

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Surviving November Pt 4: Partisan Narratives, Universal Sympathies and Keith Richards’ Choirmaster
America / Identity / Law / Politics / Psychology / Social Science

Surviving November Pt 4: Partisan Narratives, Universal Sympathies and Keith Richards’ Choirmaster

by David Zahl on Nov 5, 2012 • 7 Comments

Just in the nick of time, the final installment of our series on Jonathan Haidt’s wonderful The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. To read part one, go here. 

Living in a “swing battleground state” (VA), I’ve had the distinct privilege of witnessing the escalation of hostilities this fall. And escalated they have! From the ads on TV to the volunteers at the door, the signs on the street to the telemarketers on the phone, it’s been tough to find a hiding place. Apparently even Walking Dead viewers are on the fence this November (Arrow viewers,…

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Another Week Ends: Taylor Swift, Tragedy’s Tragedy, Friday Night Faith, Crises of Boredom, and More November Haidt
America / Art / Books / Celebrity / Everyday / Grace in Practice / Interviews / Music / Politics / Theology

Another Week Ends: Taylor Swift, Tragedy’s Tragedy, Friday Night Faith, Crises of Boredom, and More November Haidt

by Ethan Richardson on Oct 26, 2012 • 1 Comment

David Zahl is finishing up his paternity leave this week. Congratulations amigo! Love to you and yours.

1) In his “Life of Reilly” magazine series, ESPN’s Rick Reilly covered a hummer of a story about one of the most backwards high school football games in history, in which there were “rivers running uphill” and “cats petting dogs.” Taking place in Grapevine, Texas, a well-to-do suburban high school team took on a team from the juvenile justice center—the Gainesville State School Tornadoes versus the Grapevine Faith Lions. Having home field advantage in more ways than one, the Lions’ coach surrendered all—fans,…

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Previously on Parenthood: Max Braverman Breaks the Fourth Wall
America / Children / Politics / Psychology / Sermons / TV

Previously on Parenthood: Max Braverman Breaks the Fourth Wall

by Matt Schneider on Oct 26, 2012 • 1 Comment

The past few weeks I have been highlighting some theological insights to be gained from Parenthood, which is now in its fourth season. As I said in the post on Kristina and the other on Julia, there has been much suffering in the Braverman clan lately, but today I wish to highlight a reason for rejoicing in the life of Max Braverman, Kristina and Adam’s teenage son with Asperger Syndrome who is played by Max Burkholder. I also wish to connect this line of thinking on Parenthood with some other discussions I have had recently as well on communication such as…

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Surviving November, Pt 3: Fact Checkers, Missing Ethics Books, and the Must/Can Distinction
Politics / Psychology / Social Science / Theology

Surviving November, Pt 3: Fact Checkers, Missing Ethics Books, and the Must/Can Distinction

by David Zahl on Oct 16, 2012 • 4 Comments

Have you noticed the increase, this election, in talk about “fact-checkers”? I can’t seem to escape articles and tweets about post-debate/-speech tallies of “checked facts.” While no doubt we could use a little help wading through all campaign hyperbole and Wiki-what-have-you, it sometimes seems that we’ve forgotten the time-tested cliche that one man’s fact is another man’s fiction (and always has been). It may be a cynical sentiment but it is also one that strikes me as far less cynical than the apparently widely held conviction that one or both candidates is an unremorseful liar, foisting their contempt for raw…

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Surviving November, Pt 2: (Inner) Lawyers, (Inner) Press Secretaries and Presidential Debates
Philosophy / Politics / Psychology / Social Science / Theology

Surviving November, Pt 2: (Inner) Lawyers, (Inner) Press Secretaries and Presidential Debates

by David Zahl on Oct 5, 2012 • 6 Comments

To read part one, go here.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one thinking about Jonathan Haidt during this week’s presidential debate. When it comes to The Righteous Mind, it was pretty much an Exhibit A situation. That is, for all the learning and sophistication and charisma up on that stage, when two ‘righteous minds’ are locked in what Haidt calls “combat mode,” autopilot takes over and you can almost write the script. Yet we all pretty much know that the script itself is not the point of these things–people respond much more to how things are said than what is…

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Surviving November, Pt 1: Political Divides, Intuitive Dogs, and Rational Tails
Everyday / Identity / Politics / Psychology / Social Science

Surviving November, Pt 1: Political Divides, Intuitive Dogs, and Rational Tails

by David Zahl on Sep 12, 2012 • 6 Comments

Maybe the non-stop and increasingly ludicrous “opposition ads” have started to make you dread turning on the TV. Maybe you can’t read your (predominantly pop culture-focused!) Twitterfeed without getting depressed about the dehumanizing level of partisanship being so casually embraced by otherwise thoughtful people. Maybe you find blind loyalty to (or hatred of) a particular institution fundamentally alienating. Maybe you’ve “hidden” that portion of your friends on Facebook whose political inclinations diverge from your own. Or maybe you’ve lost the ability to sympathize even a little bit with those on “the other side” and have caught yourself characterizing a school…

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Another Week Ends: Rich Exhibitionists, Public Potheads, Political (L)aw, Sons of Bill, Gamer Success, and Dissociative Pornography
Children / Identity / Music / Politics / Technology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Rich Exhibitionists, Public Potheads, Political (L)aw, Sons of Bill, Gamer Success, and Dissociative Pornography

by WB on Aug 31, 2012 • 1 Comment

1. For every voyeur, there’s an exhibitionist – and social media sites are no exception. We try to post the most enviable pictures of ourselves possible on Facebook or, at the very least, the most desirable. And others obsess over other people’s pictures, thinking, “If I could just be in that group of people, doing that activity — this person I barely even know is just so lucky.” Enter stage center the (don’t click this) “rich kids of instagram” tumblr site, which features teenagers or college-age kids on yachts, at the Hamptons, or in ritzy Miami clubs. The tagline? “They have…

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Another Week Ends: F. Scott FitzDylan, Dormroom Surrender, Self-Fulfilling Paranoia, Caveman Vulnerability, Campaign Boredom, More Olympics and Air Conditioning
America / Forgiveness / Identity / Interviews / Music / News / Politics / Psychology / Science / Sports / Technology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: F. Scott FitzDylan, Dormroom Surrender, Self-Fulfilling Paranoia, Caveman Vulnerability, Campaign Boredom, More Olympics and Air Conditioning

by Ethan Richardson on Aug 3, 2012 • 2 Comments

1) The New Yorker recently released a very good (and very short) story from none other than F. Scott Fitzgerald, called “Thank You for the Light.” A “pretty, somewhat faded woman of forty,” a midwestern corset saleswoman, she cannot find a place to smoke a cigarette away from judgmental eyes. She is becoming desperate and in her desperation she finds, yes, a church. A small sampling here, but be sure to take the extra five minutes and read the whole thing here.

And to herself she was thinking, If I could just get three puffs I could sell old-fashioned whalebone.

She had…

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