Gregg Easterbrook
Encyclopedia
Gregg Edmund Easterbrook (born March 3, 1953) is an American
writer, lecturer, and a senior editor of The New Republic
. His articles have appeared in Slate
, The Atlantic Monthly
, The New York Times
, The Washington Post
, The Los Angeles Times, Reuters
, Wired, and Beliefnet
. In addition, he was a fellow at the Brookings Institution
, a Washington, D.C. think tank. During the National Football League
season, Easterbrook writes a column called Tuesday Morning Quarterback
, currently on ESPN.com
. He often intersperses pop culture commentary and observational humor throughout his columns, such as when he followed a discussion of the Pittsburgh Steelers with an aside about how "The Dark Knight," the Warner Bros.
Batman
sequal, used Pittsburgh, Chicago, and New York to film the fictitious city of Gotham.
, the son of George Easterbrook, a dentist, and Vimy Hoover Easterbrook, a teacher. Easterbrook attended Kenmore West High School in Tonawanda
, New York
. One of his childhood heroes was his home state Senator, Charles Goodell
, the father of future NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
. In 1970, Easterbrook, then 17, volunteered in Goodell's failed re-election campaign. Though he was raised as a Baptist
, he now attends Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
.
Easterbrook has a bachelor's degree in political science from Colorado College
and a master's in journalism from Northwestern University
. He is married and has three children, two sons, born in 1989 and 1995, and a daughter born in 1990. He is the brother of Judge Frank H. Easterbrook
and Neil Easterbrook, English professor at Texas Christian University
.
; science; space policy; "well-being" research; Christian theology; and sports, most notably professional football.
. His April 1980 Washington Monthly article "Beam Me Out Of This Death Trap, Scotty" accurately forecast many of the Shuttle's issues, including an overambitious launch schedule and the consequent higher-than-expected marginal cost per flight; the risks of depending on the Shuttle for all payloads, civilian and military; the lack of a survivable abort scenario
if a Solid Rocket Booster
were to fail; and the fragility of the Shuttle's thermal protection system
. After the Challenger
disaster in 1986, the article's prescience made Easterbrook a frequent commentator on space issues, and after the Columbia
disaster in 2003 he received attention for his belief that the shuttle program should be canceled and replaced with a "modern system that would make space flight cheaper and safer."
More recently, he has harshly criticized NASA's plans to construct a lunar outpost
on the Moon as a poor use of resources. He writes:
According to Easterbrook, the billions of dollars that a lunar colony might cost should instead be devoted to environmental research on the Earth; reducing the costs of access to space; exploring the solar system with space probe
s; space observatories
; and protecting the Earth from near-Earth asteroids, priorities that he repeated in a 2007 Wired
article, "How NASA Screwed Up (And Four Ways to Fix It)".
He again focused on the lack of technology to protect the Earth against asteroid and comet impacts in a June 2008 cover story for The Atlantic, in which he said nothing is presently being done despite as much as a 10% chance of a serious asteroid impact in the coming century. Instead, he claims that NASA is more interested in "keep[ing] money flowing to favored aerospace contractors and congressional districts."
A recurring theme in many of Easterbrook's space articles is a general opposition to human spaceflight. Easterbrook has criticized the International Space Station
project, and is against a manned mission to Mars
. In the Atlantic article, he expressed opposition to the Apollo program:
's book The Skeptical Environmentalist
, first published in Danish three years later, and argued that many environmental indicators, with the notable exception of greenhouse gas
production, are positive. He called the environmental movement
"among the most welcome social developments of the twentieth century," but criticized environmentalists who promoted what he saw as overly pessimistic views that did not accept signs of improvement and progress.
A Moment on the Earth proved to be very controversial, especially among environmentalists. Easterbrook was accused of mischaracterizing data concerning environmental health, using faulty logic, and being overly optimistic. Other reviewers, like Michael Specter
in The New York Times
, had praise for the book's efforts to raise positive points in the debate over environmental policy.
Until recently, Easterbrook had argued that global warming
was not happening, or at least that it was not a manmade problem. He pointed out several times that even the National Academy of Sciences
had expressed skepticism that global warming was caused by humans and that further research was needed.
Easterbrook publicly modified his position in 2006 as a result of scientific developments, writing, "As an environmental commentator, I have a long record of opposing alarmism. But based on the data I'm now switching sides regarding global warming, from skeptic to convert." He said that "the science has changed from ambiguous to near-unanimous" concerning an artificial greenhouse effect
and that greenhouse gas emissions must be curbed.
Easterbrook is also a big supporter and admirer of Norman Borlaug
, one of the most important figures in the Green Revolution
. Easterbrook wrote an article devoted to him in 1997 entitled “Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity.”
He revisited these issues in a 2008 article for The Wall Street Journal
, "Life Is Good, So Why Do We Feel So Bad?" Despite negative public sentiment, he says the case for things being good is actually quite strong:
He adds, "Since 1992, the percentage of Americans who tell pollsters of the Pew Research Center they 'can afford what they want' has risen steadily – from 39% in 1992 to 52% today, the highest ever. So why do we think the economy is failing?" He suggests that the modern news media is one reason for the disparity between improving conditions and decreasing satisfaction. "Whatever goes wrong in the country or around the world is telecast 24/7, making us think the world is falling to pieces – even when most things are getting better for most people, even in developing nations. If a factory closes, that's news. If a factory opens, that's not a story." He suggested a similar reason was partly responsible for people's perception that wars were becoming more common, when in fact they have become less so since 1991:
In 2010, he released, "Sonic Boom: Globalization at Mach Speed," which focuses on how the world will change with the oncoming of world globalization.
, "using haiku
and humor to dissect that most all-important of subjects – pro football." He published a work of Christian theology, Beside Still Waters
, in 1998. In it, he argues against God being omnipotent
but as learning and developing as history progresses, a form of open theism
.
at The New Republic Online
, until mid-2004. In October 2003, in a column critical of what he considered to be the senseless violence in the Quentin Tarantino
film Kill Bill
, Easterbrook wrote the following:
This caused an uproar and accusations that Easterbrook and The New Republic were anti-semitic. Easterbrook wrote that he "mangled" his own ideas by his choice of words and wrote the following to explain his thought process and to apologize:
He further explained that he worships at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
, one of the handful of joint Christian-Jewish congregations in the United States. Easterbrook had previously written in a column that "one of the shortcomings of Christianity is that most adherents downplay the faith's interweaving with Judaism" and indicated that he and his family sought out a place where Christians and Jews express their faith cooperatively. The New Republic accepted blame for the piece in an apology and denied that his comments were intentionally anti-semitic. Easterbrook continued to blog for them, and still writes articles on environmentalism
(especially the damage caused by sport utility vehicle
s), religion
and other subjects.
in 2000, and on ESPN.com's
Page 2 in 2002. Following the Kill Bill controversy, Disney, the parent of ESPN, fired Easterbrook in October 2003. "TMQ" was published for two weeks on the independent website Football Outsiders
, and then for NFL.com. Prior to the 2006 season, the column moved back to ESPN.com.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer, lecturer, and a senior editor of The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
. His articles have appeared in Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
, The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, The Los Angeles Times, Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
, Wired, and Beliefnet
Beliefnet
Beliefnet is a large multi-faith e-community that aims to provide a free forum for religious information and inspiration, spiritual tools, and discussions and dialogue groups. Beliefnet provides information about various religious and spiritual beliefs, ranging from Christian denominations to...
. In addition, he was a fellow at the Brookings Institution
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
, a Washington, D.C. think tank. During the National Football League
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
season, Easterbrook writes a column called Tuesday Morning Quarterback
Tuesday Morning Quarterback
"Tuesday Morning Quarterback" is a column written by Gregg Easterbrook on ESPN.com.The column is noted for its length and frequent sidetracking into political and non-football-related discussion...
, currently on ESPN.com
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
. He often intersperses pop culture commentary and observational humor throughout his columns, such as when he followed a discussion of the Pittsburgh Steelers with an aside about how "The Dark Knight," the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
sequal, used Pittsburgh, Chicago, and New York to film the fictitious city of Gotham.
Personal life
Gregg Easterbrook was born in Buffalo, New YorkBuffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, the son of George Easterbrook, a dentist, and Vimy Hoover Easterbrook, a teacher. Easterbrook attended Kenmore West High School in Tonawanda
Tonawanda (town), New York
Tonawanda is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2000 census, the town had a population of 78,155. The town is at the north border of the county and is the northern suburb of Buffalo...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. One of his childhood heroes was his home state Senator, Charles Goodell
Charles Goodell
Charles Ellsworth Goodell was a U.S. Representative and a Senator from New York, notable for coming into both offices under special circumstances following the deaths of his predecessors.-Early life and education:...
, the father of future NFL commissioner Roger Goodell
Roger Goodell
Roger S. Goodell is the Commissioner of the National Football League , having been chosen to succeed the retiring Paul Tagliabue on August 8, 2006. He was chosen over four finalists for the position, winning a close vote on the fifth ballot before being unanimously approved by acclamation of the...
. In 1970, Easterbrook, then 17, volunteered in Goodell's failed re-election campaign. Though he was raised as a Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
, he now attends Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland. The church has a unique partnership with the Bethesda Jewish Congregation , in which they share the same space for worship...
.
Easterbrook has a bachelor's degree in political science from Colorado College
Colorado College
The Colorado College is a private liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It was founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell...
and a master's in journalism from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
. He is married and has three children, two sons, born in 1989 and 1995, and a daughter born in 1990. He is the brother of Judge Frank H. Easterbrook
Frank H. Easterbrook
Frank Hoover Easterbrook is the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He has been Chief Judge since November 2006, and has been a judge on the court since 1985...
and Neil Easterbrook, English professor at Texas Christian University
Texas Christian University
Texas Christian University is a private, coeducational university located in Fort Worth, Texas, United States and founded in 1873. TCU is affiliated with, but not governed by, the Disciples of Christ...
.
Career
Easterbrook's journalistic style has been characterized as "hyper-logical" and he himself as "a thoughtful, deliberate, and precise journalist ... a polymath and a quick study." His main areas of interest are environmental policy, global warmingGlobal warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
; science; space policy; "well-being" research; Christian theology; and sports, most notably professional football.
Space program
Easterbrook has been a long time critic of the Space Shuttle programSpace Shuttle program
NASA's Space Shuttle program, officially called Space Transportation System , was the United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011...
. His April 1980 Washington Monthly article "Beam Me Out Of This Death Trap, Scotty" accurately forecast many of the Shuttle's issues, including an overambitious launch schedule and the consequent higher-than-expected marginal cost per flight; the risks of depending on the Shuttle for all payloads, civilian and military; the lack of a survivable abort scenario
Space Shuttle abort modes
A Space Shuttle abort was an emergency procedure due to equipment failure on NASA's Space Shuttle, most commonly during ascent. A main engine failure is a typical abort scenario. There are fewer abort options during reentry and descent...
if a Solid Rocket Booster
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster
The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters were the pair of large solid rockets used by the United States' NASA Space Shuttle during the first two minutes of powered flight. Together they provided about 83% of liftoff thrust for the Space Shuttle. They were located on either side of the rusty or...
were to fail; and the fragility of the Shuttle's thermal protection system
Space Shuttle thermal protection system
The Space Shuttle thermal protection system is the barrier that protects the Space Shuttle Orbiter during the searing heat of atmospheric reentry...
. After the Challenger
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38 am EST...
disaster in 1986, the article's prescience made Easterbrook a frequent commentator on space issues, and after the Columbia
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster occurred on February 1, 2003, when shortly before it was scheduled to conclude its 28th mission, STS-107, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas and Louisiana during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in the death of all seven crew members...
disaster in 2003 he received attention for his belief that the shuttle program should be canceled and replaced with a "modern system that would make space flight cheaper and safer."
Lunar outpost (NASA)
A lunar outpost was an element of the George W. Bush era Vision for Space Exploration, which has been replaced with President Barack Obama's space policy. The outpost would have been an inhabited facility on the surface of the Moon. At the time it was proposed, NASA was to construct the outpost...
on the Moon as a poor use of resources. He writes:
According to Easterbrook, the billions of dollars that a lunar colony might cost should instead be devoted to environmental research on the Earth; reducing the costs of access to space; exploring the solar system with space probe
Space probe
A robotic spacecraft is a spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe. Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to...
s; space observatories
Space observatory
A space observatory is any instrument in outer space which is used for observation of distant planets, galaxies, and other outer space objects...
; and protecting the Earth from near-Earth asteroids, priorities that he repeated in a 2007 Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
article, "How NASA Screwed Up (And Four Ways to Fix It)".
He again focused on the lack of technology to protect the Earth against asteroid and comet impacts in a June 2008 cover story for The Atlantic, in which he said nothing is presently being done despite as much as a 10% chance of a serious asteroid impact in the coming century. Instead, he claims that NASA is more interested in "keep[ing] money flowing to favored aerospace contractors and congressional districts."
A recurring theme in many of Easterbrook's space articles is a general opposition to human spaceflight. Easterbrook has criticized the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
project, and is against a manned mission to Mars
Manned mission to Mars
A manned mission to Mars has been the subject of science fiction, engineering, and scientific proposals throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century...
. In the Atlantic article, he expressed opposition to the Apollo program:
Stung by criticism that the moon-base project has no real justification—37 years ago, President Richard NixonRichard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
canceled the final planned Apollo moon missions because the program was accomplishing little at great expense; as early as 1964, the communitarian theorist Amitai EtzioniAmitai EtzioniAmitai Etzioni is a German-Israeli-American sociologist.-Biography:In 1933, Amitai Etzioni was only four years old when the Nazis rose to power in Germany. He was separated from his family but reunited with them by the year 1947...
was calling lunar obsession a “moondoggle”—NASA is selling the new plan as a second moon race, this time against Beijing.
Environment and global warming
Easterbrook published a 1995 book A Moment on the Earth, subtitled "the coming age of environmental optimism," presaged Bjørn LomborgBjørn Lomborg
Bjørn Lomborg is a Danish author, academic, and environmental writer. He is an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre and a former director of the Environmental Assessment Institute in Copenhagen...
's book The Skeptical Environmentalist
The Skeptical Environmentalist
The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World is a book by Danish environmentalist author Bjørn Lomborg, controversial for its claims that overpopulation, declining energy resources, deforestation, species loss, water shortages, certain aspects of global warming, and an...
, first published in Danish three years later, and argued that many environmental indicators, with the notable exception of greenhouse gas
Greenhouse gas
A greenhouse gas is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range. This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone...
production, are positive. He called the environmental movement
Environmental movement
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
"among the most welcome social developments of the twentieth century," but criticized environmentalists who promoted what he saw as overly pessimistic views that did not accept signs of improvement and progress.
A Moment on the Earth proved to be very controversial, especially among environmentalists. Easterbrook was accused of mischaracterizing data concerning environmental health, using faulty logic, and being overly optimistic. Other reviewers, like Michael Specter
Michael Specter
Michael Specter is an American journalist who has been a staff writer, focusing on science and technology, and global public health at The New Yorker since September 1998...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, had praise for the book's efforts to raise positive points in the debate over environmental policy.
Until recently, Easterbrook had argued that global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
was not happening, or at least that it was not a manmade problem. He pointed out several times that even the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
had expressed skepticism that global warming was caused by humans and that further research was needed.
Easterbrook publicly modified his position in 2006 as a result of scientific developments, writing, "As an environmental commentator, I have a long record of opposing alarmism. But based on the data I'm now switching sides regarding global warming, from skeptic to convert." He said that "the science has changed from ambiguous to near-unanimous" concerning an artificial greenhouse effect
Greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere...
and that greenhouse gas emissions must be curbed.
Easterbrook is also a big supporter and admirer of Norman Borlaug
Norman Borlaug
Norman Ernest Borlaug was an American agronomist, humanitarian, and Nobel laureate who has been called "the father of the Green Revolution". Borlaug was one of only six people to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal...
, one of the most important figures in the Green Revolution
Green Revolution
Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1970s, that increased agriculture production around the world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s....
. Easterbrook wrote an article devoted to him in 1997 entitled “Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity.”
Wellness and satisfaction
One of Easterbrook's books, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, published in December 2003, explores people's perception of their well being. The book focuses on statistical data indicating that Americans are better off in terms of material goods and amount of free time available but surveys show that they are not happier than before. Easterbrook argues that this has occurred due to choice anxiety and abundance denial.He revisited these issues in a 2008 article for The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, "Life Is Good, So Why Do We Feel So Bad?" Despite negative public sentiment, he says the case for things being good is actually quite strong:
He adds, "Since 1992, the percentage of Americans who tell pollsters of the Pew Research Center they 'can afford what they want' has risen steadily – from 39% in 1992 to 52% today, the highest ever. So why do we think the economy is failing?" He suggests that the modern news media is one reason for the disparity between improving conditions and decreasing satisfaction. "Whatever goes wrong in the country or around the world is telecast 24/7, making us think the world is falling to pieces – even when most things are getting better for most people, even in developing nations. If a factory closes, that's news. If a factory opens, that's not a story." He suggested a similar reason was partly responsible for people's perception that wars were becoming more common, when in fact they have become less so since 1991:
In 2010, he released, "Sonic Boom: Globalization at Mach Speed," which focuses on how the world will change with the oncoming of world globalization.
Other work
Easterbrook has written two novels, The Here and Now (book) (2002) and This Magic Moment (book) (1986), along with works on a variety of other topics. Tuesday Morning Quarterback (2001) was largely similar to his column of the same nameTuesday Morning Quarterback
"Tuesday Morning Quarterback" is a column written by Gregg Easterbrook on ESPN.com.The column is noted for its length and frequent sidetracking into political and non-football-related discussion...
, "using haiku
Haiku
' , plural haiku, is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterised by three qualities:* The essence of haiku is "cutting"...
and humor to dissect that most all-important of subjects – pro football." He published a work of Christian theology, Beside Still Waters
Beside Still Waters
Beside Still Waters is a nonfiction book by Gregg Easterbrook. In it he defends religion against its critics. He expounds a theory of religion and Christianity based on his reading of the Old and New Testaments, in which God is not an omnipotent omniscient being, but rather a limited and perhaps...
, in 1998. In it, he argues against God being omnipotent
Omnipotence
Omnipotence is unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence to only the deity of whichever faith is being addressed...
but as learning and developing as history progresses, a form of open theism
Open theism
Open theism is a recent theological movement that has developed within evangelical and post-evangelical Protestant Christianity as a response to certain ideas that are related to the synthesis of Greek philosophy and Christian theology...
.
Kill Bill controversy
Easterbrook also had a blogBlog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
at The New Republic Online
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, until mid-2004. In October 2003, in a column critical of what he considered to be the senseless violence in the Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence...
film Kill Bill
Kill Bill
Kill Bill Volume 1 is a 2003 action thriller film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It is the first of two volumes that were theatrically released several months apart, the second volume being Kill Bill Volume 2....
, Easterbrook wrote the following:
Set aside what it says about Hollywood that today even Disney thinks what the public needs is ever-more-graphic depictions of killing the innocent as cool amusement. Disney's CEO, Michael Eisner, is Jewish; the chief of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, is Jewish. Yes, there are plenty of Christian and other Hollywood executives who worship money above all else, promoting for profit the adulation of violence. Does that make it right for Jewish executives to worship money above all else, by promoting for profit the adulation of violence? Recent European history alone ought to cause Jewish executives to experience second thoughts about glorifying the killing of the helpless as a fun lifestyle choice.
This caused an uproar and accusations that Easterbrook and The New Republic were anti-semitic. Easterbrook wrote that he "mangled" his own ideas by his choice of words and wrote the following to explain his thought process and to apologize:
Twenty minutes after I pressed "send," the entire world had read it. When I reread my own words and beheld how I'd written things that could be misunderstood, I felt awful. To anyone who was offended I offer my apology, because offense was not my intent. But it was 20 minutes later, and already the whole world had seen it... My attempt to connect my perfectly justified horror at an ugly and corrupting movie to the religious faith and ethnic identity of certain executives was hopelessly clumsy...accusing a Christian of adoring money above all else does not engage any history of ugly stereotypes. Accuse a Jewish person of this and you invoke a thousand years of stereotypes about that which Jews have specific historical reasons to fear. What I wrote here was simply wrong, and for being wrong, I apologize.
He further explained that he worships at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church
Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland. The church has a unique partnership with the Bethesda Jewish Congregation , in which they share the same space for worship...
, one of the handful of joint Christian-Jewish congregations in the United States. Easterbrook had previously written in a column that "one of the shortcomings of Christianity is that most adherents downplay the faith's interweaving with Judaism" and indicated that he and his family sought out a place where Christians and Jews express their faith cooperatively. The New Republic accepted blame for the piece in an apology and denied that his comments were intentionally anti-semitic. Easterbrook continued to blog for them, and still writes articles on environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
(especially the damage caused by sport utility vehicle
Sport utility vehicle
A sport utility vehicle is a generic marketing term for a vehicle similar to a station wagon, but built on a light-truck chassis. It is usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on- or off-road ability, and with some pretension or ability to be used as an off-road vehicle. Not all four-wheel...
s), religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and other subjects.
"Tuesday Morning Quarterback"
"Tuesday Morning Quarterback" ("TMQ") was originally published in SlateSlate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
in 2000, and on ESPN.com's
ESPN.com
ESPN.com is the official website of ESPN and a division of ESPN Inc. Since launching in 1995 as ESPNet.SportsZone.com, the website has developed numerous sections including: Page 2, SportsNation, ESPN 3.com, ESPN Motion, My ESPN, ESPN Sports Travel, ESPN Video Games, ESPN Insider, ESPN.com's...
Page 2 in 2002. Following the Kill Bill controversy, Disney, the parent of ESPN, fired Easterbrook in October 2003. "TMQ" was published for two weeks on the independent website Football Outsiders
Football Outsiders
Football Outsiders is a website started in July 2003 which focuses on advanced statistical analysis of the NFL. The site is run by a staff of regular writers, who produce a series of weekly columns using both the site's in-house statistics and their personal analyses of NFL games.In 2005 and 2006,...
, and then for NFL.com. Prior to the 2006 season, the column moved back to ESPN.com.
Articles
- "Beam Me Out Of This Death Trap, Scotty" Washington Monthly, April 1980
- "Are We Alone?", The Atlantic Monthly, August 1988
- "Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity" The Atlantic Monthly, January 1997
- "The Nation: Home Security; The Smart Way to Be Scared". New York Times. Feb. 16, 2003.
- "Long Shot" The Atlantic Monthly, May 2003
- "Debunking Doomsday" Wired, July 2003
- "Who Needs Harvard?" The Atlantic Monthly, October 2004
- "The Real Truth About Money" Time magazine, January 17, 2005
- "There Goes the Neighborhood" New York Times Book Review, January 30, 2005
- "The End of War?" New Republic, May 30, 2005
- "Finally Feeling the Heat" New York Times, May 24, 2006
- "Case Closed: The Global Warming Debate Is Over" Brookings Institution paper, May 2006
- "TV Really Might Cause Autism" Slate, October 16, 2006
- "Moon Baseless: NASA can't explain why we need a lunar colony". Slate. Dec. 8, 2006.
- "The Sky is Falling" The Atlantic Monthly, June 2008