Bruce's blog

Then he made the molten sea; it was round, ten cubits from brim to brim, and five cubits high. A line of thirty cubits would encircle it completely.

—1 Kings 7:23

From Slacktivist:

Are there secret kitchens beneath a London McDonald’s in which babies sacrificed to Satan are cooked before being eaten by Satanic cult members? Do these Satanic baby-killers wear special shoes made from the skins of dead babies? Do they drink blood and dance wearing the skulls of the babies they’ve slain for their Dark Lord?

Your Brain is Primed To Reach False Conclusions

Supply-side economists like to make a direct link between tax rates and economic growth. Forbes magazine's Ben Wilterdink, in a 2013 article, explains, "Rather than driving up rates on a small number of overburdened taxpayers, these states create an environment where people and businesses can flourish.

Jon Stewart nails it. When politicians can't determine whether an action is right or wrong until they've determined which political party is doing it, the system is broken.

The Side of the Oklahoma Racist Frat Story That Nobody Is Talking About

We've gotten pretty good at spotting racists in America, and we're okay at punishing them too. But the structures and systems that produce the racists still elude us. Instead, they embed themselves in our psyche and masquerade as the natural order. It's why incidents like the SAE debacle seem to come out of nowhere and shock us out of our post-racial revery.

The state of Kansas is in crisis. Income tax cuts passed in 2012 have failed to give the state's economy the "shot of adrenaline" that Governor Brownback promised. Now the state is facing a $648 million budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. The legislature has discussed several ways to make up the shortfall.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker made news last month when his annual budget was found to contain a line item that would amend the University of Wisconsin's mission statement to remove the sentence, "Basic to every purpose of the UW System is the search for truth." But an article this week by Salon's Heather Cox Richardson puts Walker's action in a historical context going back more than half a century to a then-recent college graduate name William F.

Capital Punishment and Jailhouse Religion

Its proponents claim it has scientific merit; its detractors say it is grounded in religious doctrine. But the truly salient characteristic the Intelligent Design (ID) movement in the first three decades is the amount of time it has spent embroiled in court battles.