Right and left share a little cognitive dissonance with regards to their view on the role of government especially when comparing domestic and foreign relations. On the left, government is seen as the "last best hope for mankind"...with regards to a plethora of social programs but at the same time the scourge of the planet with regards to its presence overseas. On the right, social programs are viewed as a necessary evil to be minimized wherever possible because of their corruption, inefficiency, and waste but at the same time seen as a ray of hope and bastion of democracy in a corrupt wicked world.

12. The Bohemian Temptation: Francis Schaeffer and the Agenda of Culture

13. How to gain gain discernment in five easy steps.

14. Question of the Week: "It's funny, but why is it that pastors who want to build mega-churches, after having accomplished that goal, end pushing their congregations into being members of "small groups""

15. From the Archives: The Daily Kos' Markos Zuniga confirming what we've always suspected:

One of my dirty little secrets -- I read very few books. In fact, the only time I read books is when I'm traveling, at the airport and on a plane. There are only two authors I have ever gone out of my way to read everything they've written -- Hunter S. Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

16. New York, 2106

17. Ever wonder how Google Maps knows how to tell you to turn left at I94 or that its .2 miles until the next turn? It's because this guy drives around and maps out the directions.

18. Why Modern American Evangelicals are Theologically Dumber than our Forefathers -- Reason #27: Earning a Bachelor's degree entails listening to an average of 1500 hours of lectures. The average New England churchgoer of the 18th century listened to some 15,000 hours of sermons in his or her lifetime.

19. Amazon + YouTube = ZonTube

20. A Genealogy of Influence

21. Quoth Klosterman -- From Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto:

The most wretched people in the world are those who tell you they like every kind of music ?except country.? People who say that are boorish and pretentious at the same time. All it means is that they?ve managed to figure out the most rudimentary rule of pop sociology; they know that hipsters gauge the coolness of others by their espoused taste in sound, and they know that hipsters hate modern country music. And they hate it because it speaks to normal people in a tangible, rational manner. Hipsters hate it because they hate Midwesterners, and they hate Southerners, and they hate people with jobs.

22. Marginal Revolution)

23. "There are a hundred magazines, but only about five stories." -- G.K. Chesterton

24. The Week's Best/Worst Use of a Pun in a Blog Title: Will gay sheep lead to ewe-genics?

25. Human flourishing and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

26. Holy Hinn-ema -- Sure it's an old clip. But who ever gets tired of hearing Benny Hinn's wife preaching about lifeless, backslidden Christians needing a "Holy Ghost enema... right up your rear end"? Not me.

27. Henry Blodget says what I've been thinking for years: Why you should never take Jim Cramer seriously.

28. Why We Are Pro-Life

29. Map of connections between characters in the New Testament (HT: BoingBoing)

30. 15 Seconds of Fame -- Ever wonder what happened to the once-red-hot websites like Razorfish, Cybergrrl, and Suck.com? Ghost Sites has the answers. Steve Baldwin?s blog, the Internet?s version of VH1?s Behind the Music, is a humbling reminder of just how fleeting web-celebrity can be.

31. Formula for Procrastination: Desire to Complete Task (U) = Expectation of Success (E) x Value of Completion (V) / Immediacy of Task (I) x Personal Sensitivity to Delay (D), or U=ExV/IxD

32. Can a robot who doesn?t believe in a Creator be an intellectually fulfilled droid?

33. Lately I've been experiencing a strange, wistful feeling of absence. Usually it happens when it rains or at night when I'm alone. It's an aching sense of inexplicable loss. For the longest time I couldn't place my finger on what was causing it. But the other day I was at Quiznos and it hit me: I miss the spongmonkeys.