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The Social Science Animal: Brooks Argues for Emotion over Reason

By Beatrice Marovich

…at and careerist American society, eventually becoming CEOs (of a cable company), presidential campaign organizers, or think tank operatives (who write articles that sound as if they quote, primarily, from Brooks’ Times column). But instead of inspiring figures of human potential, they come off more as cheap foils that Brooks is using to market his theories to the wealthy, literate class of policy wonks that he hopes will take his ideas seriously….

Possible Heir to Dalai Lama Cleared of Corruption Charges

By Tsering Namgyal

…oversy has raised the profile of Karmapa, albeit to an unwelcome level. It has also formally instantiated him into the politics of India, China and Tibet, something, which the Karmapas in the past have avoided. His predecessor the 16th Karmapa, who passed away in 1981, preferred to remain that way. However, given the prospective role—which actually now looks more and more like an obligation—that this Karmapa could play going forward, this latest i…

Four Reasons Why Egypt’s Revolution Is Islamic

By Zaid Hassan

…erhood started out as a social movement, they overcame their reluctance to participate in formal opposition politics in 2005. They joined the street demonstrations of the Kifaya movement, engaged in debate on political reform and successful contested parliamentary elections, winning 88 out of 444 seats (having only contested 150 constituencies). As one commentator noted, the Brotherhood took “extremely seriously” its decision to “…trade in its his…

Crowdsourced Catholicism: New iPhone App Lets Users Forgive Sins

By Vincent Gonzalez

…imulators, and financial scams. We forget too easily that online facelessness also facilitates the sacred possibilities of the masked ritual, the voting booth, and the therapist’s couch. From their first moments, online spaces have mingled the privacy of the truck stop bathroom wall and that of the confessional. Penance on the iPhone, whether or not it grows from its larval state, is a fascinatingly unabashed conjunction of the two….

Sarah Palin and the Politics of Victimization

By Randall Balmer

…han once, taking cheap shots at political adversaries (including McCain campaign apparatchiks) and using the annoying, sophomoric reference to the Democratic Party as the “Democrat” Party. But Going Rogue was not unpleasant. The second book in the Sarah Palin œuvre, however, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, crosses the line from cute puppy bouncing on his back legs to mangy cur relentlessly humping a visitor’s leg. By all…

Hajj Journal: Tawaf: How I Fell in Love…

By Amina Wadud

…test bit interested in a few hairs?! I just kept on, with my dhikr and the pace. The pace that is like a rushing river. The pull, like a string in my heart getting ever more taut. Soon, she just disappeared. At another point, an African guy circled close enough to me from behind that his elbow stayed square in my back for more than one of the sides; and so, I told him, in English too, “remove your elbow from my back,” and he did, and then he too d…

The Moral Bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Asceticism

By Vlad Chituc

…lley upgrade. Maybe we will one day live in a techno-ascetic utopia, where parking lots become parks and power plants become museums because we all use solar cells and drink Soylent and have our clothes shipped to us (efficiently) by drone. But who will exist on the fringes? Rhinehart’s vision would have us invert the “haves” and the “have-nots,” letting the rich live lightly by offloading the messy business of consuming and owning to the poor. Th…

Springtime for Ross Douthat?

By Daniel Schultz

…y now), Gustavo Gutierrez, Marcus Borg, James Cone, Sallie McFague, or any number of other thinkers and theologians that Douthat does not recognize. The only people who want to bring back Niebuhr are conservatives. (I’m an admitted fanboy, but that’s about coming from the same church background as Niebuhr as much as anything.) And that doesn’t even get to the worst of it. Douthat misunderstands Francis’ amazing, charismatic realignment of Catholic…

Romney Goes to Bat Against Reid in Nevada

By Joanna Brooks

Yesterday, 2012 presidential contender Mitt Romney participated in a town hall-style teleconference call in support of Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle, a move some observers believe was designed to overcome concerns among Mormons (who make up 7% of Nevada’s population) about comments by Angle’s pastor deriding the LDS Church as a “kooky” “cult.” More likely, it’s a move by Romney to appear relevant in the context of a Tea Party-infused,…

Is the Satanic Temple Just an Elaborate Prank? 10 Questions for the Author of ‘Speak of the Devil’

By Joseph Laycock

…fluence to have even written a book about Satanism. There are also more sympathetic people who still assume TST is an elaborate put-on. There is a degree of smugness that accompanies this view: People who assert it imply they have “figured out the joke” and everyone else is still catching up to them. It’s true that TST began with a series of prank-like political actions. But this view assumes there is nothing to TST beyond what the media reports….