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Men Without Guns: A Tribute to Larry McMurtry

…that when the scene was readied and the time came for them to fly, they refused. They had had enough of ignominy; better to remain on the limb indefinitely. Buzzards are not without patience. Profanity, fire-crackers, and even a shotgun full of rock salt failed to move them. I’m told that, in desperation, a bird man was flown in from L.A. to teach the sulky bastards how to fly. Describing one un-felled swoop, McMurtry has made mythologizing silly,…

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Hipsters v. Hasidim Over Brooklyn Bike Lane

…opless protest. White’s organization works not only to advance cyclists’ causes but to change how they ride as well. One of its projects is a handbook called “Biking Rules!,” which includes a “Street Code” for responsible bicycling. “There is not a single community board meeting about bike lanes where cyclist behavior is not an issue,” said TA communications director Wiley Norvell. They believe that cyclists should work in a spirit of cooperation…

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Extra-Terrestrial Kitsch: Capricology #4

…s. I am not quite sure about the “film noir” feel of Caprica. It’s a cross between a 1930s pre-code movie and Metropolis. The cops, the smoking, the old-fashioned cars; I thought Caprica was supposed to be technologically savvy, not a cross between the future and the past. What does this say about its inhabitants—and the show’s creator? I agree with Diane, this week seems to be a placeholder for something to come, but in the process, I did not lea…

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Is Islamic Homophobia a Western Import?

…ting on the essentially homophobic nature of Islam, it goes too far in the opposite direction by blaming the contemporary homophobic posture among Muslims almost completely on imperial violence. In either scheme, Muslims lack real agency. We mustn’t confuse religious rationalizations of homophobia with its deeper causes, which for the most part still elude us. We commentators on all sides of this debate might be better off admitting when we’re doi…

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Where Christianity and Islam Collide

…the case of Christianity, evangelicalism and Pentecostalism. Griswold hops between the megachurches on the outskirts of teeming Lagos, to the underground headquarters of Jemaah Islamiyah in a wealthy Jakarta suburb. Here, there, and in between, Griswold finds support for an argument that she makes at the outset: Christianity and Islam are both “in the midst of decades-long revolutions—reawakenings—based on effervescent forms of worship.” Perhaps t…

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Spiritual Envy: Michael Krasny’s Agnostic Quest

…with breaking away from what I was anchored in, and trying to find my own code. But it was a code that was birthed from parents who were strong believers in a higher set of ways of living your life. And that’s what they bequeathed to me. So precious. Do you think that some people are just better at religion than others? Christopher Isherwood talks about the idea of the “religious genius.” Do you think that’s possible? Why not? It makes sense. I t…

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Republicans Claim Shari’ah Law Threatens Constitution

…ongressional scrutiny and investigation and hearings in the days ahead because one thing is pretty clear. . . . . it’s, I think, a matter of time before you find mutations of freedom of speech taking place here. I don’t know if it takes the full form of hate speech legislation in accordance with which, as he said, people are being tried in Europe and elsewhere, or whether it takes another form. But the point is it won’t be America if shari’ah is p…

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Black Women and the Sacred: With “Lemonade,” Beyoncé Takes Us to Church

…imagery in “Lemonade” is about barely keeping one’s head above water after betrayal, heartbreak and pain. But it’s also about rebirth, renewal, restoration and baptism. There is stunning footage of a group of women in white dresses “wading in the water,” echoing the Christian tradition of baptism but also echoing the African-American ritual of escape from slavery by way of the water. Black women, like Harriet Tubman, were often critical in leading…

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Gun Ownership as Sin—A Strategic, Secular Proposal for Gun Reform

…gun controllers would surely agree that obeying or disobeying the law is a free, individual choice. To use this Arminian sense of sin in the gun control debate may come perilously close to the pro-gun argument that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” But we are heirs of the progressives as well as the 19th-century reformers. We don’t have to choose between individual responsibility and systemic reform through government action. We can co…

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Sanctuary and the Second Amendment: Do Guns Deserve Special Protection?

…Indeed, the tradition of sacred spaces as gun-free (weapon-free, violence-free, force-free) zones makes the use of sanctuary language in recent “Second Amendment Sanctuary” legislation curious. The turn from the use of “sanctuary” from its origins in restricting vengeance, violent enforcement, and weaponry to the protection of gun-keeping within the sanctuary borders, while rhetorically brilliant, feels particularly cynical when research shows th…

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