{"id":4565,"date":"2017-07-14T14:17:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T22:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=4565"},"modified":"2017-07-17T06:11:31","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T14:11:31","slug":"things-glen-found-interesting-volume-109","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2017\/07\/14\/things-glen-found-interesting-volume-109","title":{"rendered":"Things Glen Found Interesting, Volume 109"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>On Fridays I share articles\/resources about broad cultural, societal and theological issues. Be sure to see the explanation and disclaimers at the bottom. I welcome your suggestions. If you read something fascinating please pass it my way.<\/p>\n

Things Glen Found Interesting<\/h3>\n
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  1. How We Are Ruining America<\/a> (David Brooks, NYT): \u201cTo feel at home in opportunity-rich areas, you\u2019ve got to understand the right barre techniques, sport the right baby carrier, have the right podcast, food truck, tea, wine and Pilates tastes, not to mention possess the right attitudes about David Foster Wallace, child-rearing, gender norms and intersectionality.\u201d This column spawned much derision on social media, but I strongly agree with Brooks \u2014 and so do many commentators. Here are sympathetic reactions from Freddie deBoer on the left<\/a> and from Rod Dreher on the right<\/a>. Dan Drezner takes it in a different direction<\/a>, and the Monkey Cage says \u201cduh\u201d<\/a> while Alan Jacobs calls people unwilling to acknowledge Brooks\u2019 observation \u201cwillfully blind<\/a>\u201d.<\/li>\n
  2. Luther\u2019s Revolution<\/a> (The Nation, Elizabeth Bruenig): \u201cTheology is morality is politics is law\u2014and whether or not it\u2019s immediately obvious, the world is steeped in theology. In contemporary America, and especially in the more secular precincts of Western Europe, it seems unlikely that one could look at a property deed or a government budget and find, just beneath its explicit reasoning, traces of old theological disputes and their resolutions. But they\u2019re there\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. I\u2019ve Worked with Refugees for Decades. Europe\u2019s Afghan Crime Wave Is Mind-Boggling.<\/span><\/a> (Cheryl Benard, The National Interest): \u201cEuropeans were predisposed to be positive towards Afghan refugees. But it quickly became obvious that something was wrong, very wrong, with these young Afghan men: they were committing sex crimes to a much greater extent than other refugees\u2026 It took a while for the pattern to be recognized because, until recently, western European media deliberately refrained from identifying an assailant\u2019s refugee or asylum status, or his country of origin.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Personality, Gender, and Age in the Language of Social Media: The Open-Vocabulary Approach<\/span><\/a> (Schwartz HA, Eichstaedt JC, Kern ML, Dziurzynski L, Ramones SM, Agrawal M, et al., PLOS One) \u2014 This one is from 2013. Pay particular attention to <\/span>Figure 6<\/span><\/a> and notice the cluster of words associated with emotional stability. #blessed #on_my_way to #church<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. No Retreat: Lecrae\u2019s Approach to \u201cCulture-Making\u201d<\/span><\/a> (Jemar Tisby, Christ and Pop Culture): <\/span>\u201cBut Lecrae couldn\u2019t fulfill his mission if his beats only banged in Christian ears, though not because Christians aren\u2019t important to him. It was Christian fans who propelled him to popularity and still continue to support him. Nevertheless, having testified in Jerusalem, so to speak, Lecrae felt compelled to testify also in Rome (Acts 23:11).\u201d This is related to what we\u2019re covering in our summer reading project<\/a>, and you\u2019re welcome to join us. <\/span><\/li>\n
  6. In Praise of Extreme Medicine<\/span><\/a> (Alex Tabarrok, Marginal Revolution): \u201c<\/span>It\u2019s odd that we allow some crazy things and ban others\u2014even more that the crazy things we allow are sometimes socially useless while the crazy things that we ban are sometimes socially valuable. <\/span>The case for banning extreme sports, for example, is much stronger than the case for banning extreme medicine.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. \u2018Born this way\u2019? It\u2019s way more complicated than that<\/span><\/a> (Alia E. Dastagir, US<\/span>A Today): \u201cGetting America to believe that people are born gay \u2014 that it\u2019s not something that can be chosen or ever changed \u2014 has been central to the fight for gay rights. If someone can\u2019t help being gay any more than they can help the color of their skin, the logic goes, denying them rights is wrong. But many members of the LGBTQ community reject this narrative\u2026\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Why Roman concrete still stands strong while modern version decays<\/span><\/a> (Nicola Davis, The Guardian): recommended by an alumnus. I sometimes hear people state it like a self-evident truth that we are smarter than the ancients. I see no evidence we are any more intelligent than them. We just have more accumulated knowledge in certain domains.<\/span>
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    Things Glen Found Entertaining<\/h3>\n