Latent Maniacal Tendencies

Just one more thing . . .

2011-12-20T11:59:00.002-05:00

By the way, feedback is more than welcome! These short-short stories were done for a variety of venues over the last ten years, and don't look for more coherence than comes with the month of December as a setting.But any other reaction you have to scenes & characterization & dialogue is more than welcome. My gmail address is on the author page.

Time to reactivate this blog . . .

2011-12-20T10:46:00.002-05:00

I've been pretty much all Facebook, blogishnesswise, the last two years; this blog was my link park for interesting stuff to show Joyce. Time to use it as a feed-blog for the Amazon Author Page (since I can't see how to route FB to it, suspect they don't want that, and a Feed from Blogspot is easy as mince pie with slowly melting ice cream). Greetings, and try "Winter Stories" . . . and tell your friends!

We'll see what I do with this.

Ah, Frances.

2010-06-13T11:16:00.001-04:00

http://www.francesmayesbooks.com/about/

Campbell the hard way . . .

2010-05-25T01:53:00.001-04:00

http://www.piney.com/Lockereasonableness.html

Ayup.

2010-04-20T07:39:00.000-04:00

http://thedanashow.wordpress.com/2010/04/19/letter-to-the-editor/

FDR, June 6, 1944

2010-04-16T21:31:00.000-04:00

http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/fdr-prayer.htm

Notes for the Last Will and Testament of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

2010-02-27T10:38:00.000-05:00

http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/people/acampbell.html

Whoops. "adjusted," eh?

2009-11-23T10:50:00.000-05:00

http://camirror.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/these-will-be-artificially-adjusted/

It's the Cookie Cutter That Really Gets You

2009-11-17T22:40:00.000-05:00

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1228630/How-Hitlers-Nazi-propaganda-machine-tried-Christ-Christmas.html

There's Yer Problem

2009-10-23T23:13:00.000-04:00

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/1005/taxes-financial-aid-college-roughing-up-middle-class_print.html

Global . . . Something

2009-10-07T14:15:00.001-04:00

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/dr-holdrens-ice-age-tidal-wave/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/opinion/07friedman.html

Gore Vidal Continues To Amaze

2009-09-30T19:36:00.000-04:00

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article6854221.ece

Outer, Inner - GKC

2009-09-21T14:26:00.001-04:00

"The outer ring of Christianity," wrote G. K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy, one hundred years ago, "is a rigid guard of ethical abnegations and professional priests; but inside that inhuman guard you will find the old human life dancing like children, and drinking wine like men; for Christianity is the only frame for pagan freedom."
His next sentence is as chilling as the previous is warming. "But in the modern philosophy the case is the opposite; it is its outer ring that is obviously artistic and emancipated; its despair is within."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/septemberweb-only/135-51.0.html

Newt on Health Care

2009-09-21T12:51:00.001-04:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574425324084867640.html

Oh, great.

2009-09-16T09:59:00.001-04:00

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/sep/09091110.html

Technically , I Should Not Find This Funny

2009-09-11T15:07:00.000-04:00

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/12_year_old_boy_scouts_volunteer?utm_source=infocus

Climate Change & the Failure of Democracy

2009-09-09T19:59:00.001-04:00

"We are going to have to look how authoritarian decisions based on consensus science can be implemented to contain greenhouse emissions."

http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C34504.aspx

Holmes Meets Conan Doyle (thanks to McIntyre)

2009-09-07T12:50:00.000-04:00

http://www.bookviewcafe.com/index.php/Vonda-N.-McIntyre/Novellas/Novelettes/A-Sherlock-Holmes-story-by-Vonda-N.-McIntyre

Terry Goodkind's Law

2009-09-05T22:31:00.001-04:00

Wizard's First Rule:

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.

Sunspots 'n Earthquakes

2009-09-02T17:05:00.000-04:00

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDA1ODcxZmUyYjJmMjQ0YjcwYmVjYWU4NTRjNDdhY2Y=

Sunspots, etc.

2009-09-02T14:07:00.001-04:00

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmU0NDMzZTlkM2E5MDBhY2Q4N2ViYTFkNjVmNzU5NTc=

2009-08-28T14:19:00.000-04:00

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/08/06/long-debate-ended-over-cause-demise-of-ice-ages-solar-and-earth-wobble/

Health Care, at least for a day after passage

2009-08-25T13:49:00.000-04:00

http://www.donkeylicious.com/2009/08/flowchart.html

Good discussion in the comments.

Page 216

2009-08-24T18:37:00.000-04:00

http://washingtonindependent.com/56175/the-2004-cia-inspector-generals-report-on-torture

A Group To Watch

2009-08-20T21:31:00.000-04:00

http://www.thelighthousecovenant.com/

Oh, My.

2009-08-20T09:52:00.000-04:00

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kkYrkUROovI/SozXPGOMkjI/AAAAAAAAAPE/xcg3leQad2o/s1600-h/Central+steeple.jpg

Sarah Palin is . . . wrong, right?

2009-08-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

http://www.freep.com/article/20090819/OPINION05/90819047/1336/opinion/Truth-about-death-panels

Neither side is justified, but for balance & perspective

2009-08-20T08:21:00.000-04:00

http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=621

Harry Potter still waiting for a sermon

2009-08-18T09:10:00.001-04:00

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2009/08/16/how_the_boy_wizard_won_over_religious_critics?mode=PF

Physical and spiritual health

2009-08-18T09:08:00.000-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/science/18angier.html

What Does Health Insurance Cost?

2009-08-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

from http://www.gormogons.com/2009/08/with-tremendously-important-debate.html

With the tremendously important debate currently taking place regarding the perceived need for healthcare reform and the government’s alleged responsibility to provide coverage for every person in this country – which your Mandarin can guarantee will include those in the country illegally through a blanket amnesty program, but that is another topic for another time – I began to wonder how much does health insurance actually cost.

So I spent some time today on the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois web site today to do some research. There were 9 different plans to choose from that ranged from all encompassing to hospitalization only. For purposes of this research I focused on two plans:

• Blue Choice Select:
o $5,000,000.00 Lifetime Benefit
o $30.00 Office Visit Co-pay
o Drug Card with $10.00 Co-pay for Generics
o $6,000.00 (Family of 4*)/$3,000 (Individual**) Out of Pocket Limit
o $756.02 (Family of 4*)/$233.29 (Individual**) Monthly Premium

• Basic Blue:
o $5,000,000.00 Lifetime Benefit
o $3,000.00 (Family of 4*)/$1,000.00 (Individual**) Out of Pocket Limit
o $558.10 (Family of 4*)/$172.21 (Individual**) Monthly Premium

So doing some basic math and making some assumptions, I choose to tackle the 47,000,000 uninsured people out there. Let’s assume that of that number, 15,000,000 are illegal immigrants and should be excluded, another 10,000,000 are children that could be covered under existing programs such as SCHIP, but their parents are too lazy to fill out the paper work, and another 10,000,000 are those 18 to 35 year olds that think they are indestructible and don’t need insurance. Having subtracted those 35,000,000 people from the equation we are left with 12,000,000 people that do not have access to health insurance either due to affordability, unemployment, or the transitioning from one job to another. Once again I feel the need to state that while they may not have health insurance, they are not excluded from receiving emergency healthcare.

Now if we take 12,000,000 and multiply that by the monthly cost of the Blue Choice Select individual monthly premium you get a cost of $2.8 Billion per month or $33.6 Billion per year. If you take that same number and multiply it by the monthly cost of the Basic Blue individual monthly premium you get a cost of $2.1 Billion per month or $24.8 Billion per year.

Walt Disney was a Congregationalist, sort of

2009-08-12T10:11:00.000-04:00

http://www.disneydreamer.com/Waltfaith.htm

http://www.mouseplanet.com/8181/The_Gospel_According_to_Walt

. . . and this excerpt is just fascinating, pages 15-21:

http://books.google.com/books?id=YGtbYTyulb4C&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=walt+disney+religion+church+faith&source=bl&ots=SqX3qjgQ88&sig=PBDiJ8GrYhbBk6QWzTr_uLbQeDw&hl=en&ei=LsuCSpG2C5eCtgfsvNnECg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#v=onepage&q=walt%20disney%20religion%20church%20faith&f=false

Oh, C'mon

2009-08-11T21:35:00.001-04:00

http://www.thebookstudio.com/blog/bethanne/which-i-refute-claim-richard-russo-misogynist#comment-2229

No words.

2009-07-08T08:40:00.001-04:00

http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/141140

Tigers Eating Their Young

2009-06-02T09:15:00.001-04:00

http://www.sj-r.com/opinions/x124603932/Ted-Rall-It-s-increasingly-evident-that-Obama-should-resign

A Call To the Mainline on Same-Sex Marriage

2009-06-01T22:08:00.000-04:00

http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=7166

That's Gotta Leave a Mark

2009-05-28T11:05:00.001-04:00

http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/539fjevm.asp

This is the Center of the Universe, Central Ohio!

2009-05-28T10:02:00.000-04:00

http://www.ufodigest.com/news/0509/ROSWELL-DEBRIS.php

Never To See Their Likes Again

2009-05-28T09:35:00.000-04:00

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/jpodhoretz/66511

Eeeek! Bible Cooties!!!

2009-05-18T16:11:00.001-04:00

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/05/18/2009-05-18_rummys_memos_suggest_a_crusade_after_all_used_scripture_to_prod_w_in_iraq_war.html

My New Desktop (for now, anyhow)

2009-05-14T13:17:00.001-04:00

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_55GLukgbBwo/SgUYsP3l0LI/AAAAAAAABv0/IZOVLd50reU/s1600-h/07+North+Kaibab+Trail+Roaring+Springs+Canyon+GRCA+AZ+(1024x768).jpg

Yikes.

2009-05-14T09:35:00.001-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/health/13mothers.html

This Is Beauty . . .

2009-05-09T12:20:00.000-04:00

. . . and art:

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/uss-enterprise-space-cruiser.php

Revelle said WHAT???!!!!????

2009-05-09T12:19:00.000-04:00

http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/38574742.html

Um, I Don't Like This

2009-04-29T12:50:00.000-04:00

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/storms2012/

You Mean It Isn't Illegal?

2009-04-28T17:53:00.000-04:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124087403668161211.html

Interesting! And still not definitive.

2009-04-28T08:48:00.001-04:00

http://tamino.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/younger-dryas-impact-event/

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sciencenow;2009/401/3

http://webpages.charter.net/tsiolkovsky/Clovis_Comet_Crater.pdf

Angel Food Ministries Has Some 'Splaining To Do, Lucy

2009-04-24T17:28:00.001-04:00

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/02/27/angel_food_ministries_sued.html

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/03/02/angel_food_ministries.html

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2009/03/04/angel0304.html

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2009/03/07/angelfood0307.html

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/03/30/angel_food_ministries.html

Modern Faith, Neatly Outlined

2009-04-11T08:11:00.001-04:00

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/this-i-believe/

Yes. Yes. Yes.

2009-04-11T07:40:00.000-04:00

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/travel/12outback.html

Mainline Clergy Surveyed

2009-04-08T22:55:00.002-04:00

http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=6579

The fact that the pastors say their congregations feel pretty much as they do does not, necessarily, mean that they do.

Polygamy For Thee, But Not For Me?

2009-04-08T08:48:00.001-04:00

http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/04/the-polygamy-slippery-slope.html

http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/04/volokh-on-gay-marriage-slipper.html

Prehistory From the Water's Eye View

2009-04-04T21:59:00.000-04:00

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/travel/05dordogne.html

Make sure to click the slide show and get to number 6.

Royko at the Goat

2009-04-04T18:47:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpuXfcx0pRU

Clergy Aren't CEOs, But . . .

2009-03-28T06:03:00.000-04:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/business/15cornerweb.html?em=&pagewanted=all

My Worry Exactly

2009-03-26T15:25:00.000-04:00

http://is.gd/p7Dk

Hitchens Runs Into a Hitch

2009-03-25T16:15:00.000-04:00

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2009/03/reflections_on.html

Ah, um, yeah

2009-03-23T15:56:00.001-04:00

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-bd-22-mar22,0,5436164.column

from Daniel Patrick Moynihan

2009-03-21T10:48:00.001-04:00

“The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.”

Shame If Anything Happened To This Nice Farmer's Market You Got Here . . .

2009-03-18T20:24:00.001-04:00

http://cryptogon.com/?p=7362

James Has Something To Say

2009-03-16T18:41:00.000-04:00

http://lileks.com/screed/?p=98

What is Happiness?

2009-03-13T08:55:00.002-04:00

If we want to know where America as a whole is headed--its destination--we should look to Europe.

Drive through rural Sweden, as I did a few years ago. In every town was a beautiful Lutheran church, freshly painted, on meticulously tended grounds, all subsidized by the Swedish government. And the churches are empty. Including on Sundays. Scandinavia and Western Europe pride themselves on their "child-friendly" policies, providing generous child allowances, free day-care centers, and long maternity leaves. Those same countries have fertility rates far below replacement and plunging marriage rates. Those same countries are ones in which jobs are most carefully protected by government regulation and mandated benefits are most lavish. And they, with only a few exceptions, are countries where work is most often seen as a necessary evil, least often seen as a vocation, and where the proportions of people who say they love their jobs are the lowest.

What's happening? Call it the Europe syndrome. Last April I had occasion to speak in Zurich, where I made some of these same points. After the speech, a few of the twenty-something members of the audience approached and said plainly that the phrase "a life well-lived" did not have meaning for them. They were having a great time with their current sex partner and new BMW and the vacation home in Majorca, and saw no voids in their lives that needed filling.

It was fascinating to hear it said to my face, but not surprising. It conformed to both journalistic and scholarly accounts of a spreading European mentality. Let me emphasize "spreading." I'm not talking about all Europeans, by any means. That mentality goes something like this: Human beings are a collection of chemicals that activate and, after a period of time, deactivate. The purpose of life is to while away the intervening time as pleasantly as possible.

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.29531/pub_detail.asp

Arrrrgggghhhh.

2009-03-12T08:52:00.001-04:00

Gotta read to the end . . .

http://lileks.com/screed/?p=90

Who, Us?

2009-03-10T09:09:00.001-04:00

Yeah, you.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123664427493678121.html

A WSJ Editorial: The Charity Revolt

Among those shocked by President Obama's 2010 budget, the most surprising are the true-blue liberals who run most of America's nonprofits, universities and charities. How dare he limit tax deductions for charitable giving! They're afraid they'll get fewer donations, but they should be more concerned that Mr. Obama's policies will shove them aside in favor of the New Charity State.

What did these nonprofit liberals expect, anyway? Mr. Obama is proposing a vast expansion of the entitlement state, and he has to find some way to pay for it. So logically enough, one of his ideas for funding public welfare is to reduce the tax benefit for private charity. His budget proposes to raise the top personal income tax rate to 39.6% in 2011 from 35%, and the 33% rate to 36% while reducing the tax benefit from itemized deductions for the top two brackets to 28% from 35% and 33%, respectively. The White House estimates the deduction reduction will yield $318 billion in revenue over 10 years.

From the Ivy League to the United Jewish Appeal, petitions and manifestos are in the works. The Independent Sector, otherwise eager to praise the Obama budget, worries the tax change "could be a disincentive to some donors." According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, total itemized contributions from the highest income households would have dropped 4.8% -- or $3.87 billion -- in 2006 if the Obama policy had been in place. That year, Americans gave $186.6 billion to charity, more than 40% from those in the highest tax bracket. A back of the envelope calculation by the Tax Policy Center, a left-of-center think tank, estimates the Obama plan will reduce annual giving by 2%, or some $9 billion.

Um, yeah

2009-03-06T08:10:00.000-05:00

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=Y2JjYWYzMmFlOWU2NTFkZTE2NzQzZTg1NDFjNDgzN2U=

Nordlinger on Limbaugh

2009-03-05T07:18:00.001-05:00

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NWYyNjBhNWU2NzQ5ZWNhZThmZGYxY2ZiYmEwNjViMmM=

Can I Have Your Picture?

2009-02-28T23:13:00.000-05:00

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1323

Courtesy TN GOP

2009-02-26T14:15:00.000-05:00

These Aren't The Nazis You're Looking For

2009-02-26T13:55:00.001-05:00

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2009/02/christopher-hit.php

Shocked, shocked

2009-02-26T12:36:00.001-05:00

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/burris/1450607,CST-NWS-burris26.article

Why Would Anyone Today Believe In Demons?

2009-02-26T12:14:00.000-05:00

Walt Whitman -- "I am infinite, i contain multitudes." In that spirit:

I can be psychological: the subconscious is where some of our darkest longings seek to find expression.

I can be Jungian: there is a collective unconscious, and it has a Shadow side.

I can be clinical: there are many elements of epilepsy, addiction, obsession, as well as simple neural disease or insult, that manifest in strange behaviors that are impossible to neatly classify.

I can be poetic: the Void is hungry, and must constantly be fed.

I can be anthropological: human history is filled with different ways we try to understand both inhumanity and illness as departures from an ideal norm, often personalized and anthropomorphized.

I can be cheerfully liberal: We fear the dark, but there's really nothing there except for our need to learn and understand and grow beyond our fears.

I can be grimly liberal: Greedy selfishness can and should be eliminated, but as long as it is allowed to flourish its ultimate expression is in oppression, discrimination, racism, and genocide. (But a mandatory addition to the public school curriculum or government program can slow or stop greedy selfishness at its root!)

I can be nihilistic: The Dark is ultimately All.

I can be cautiously political: Some people believe that there are others who often are influenced somewhat by factors beyond their understanding or control, and i think we all agree that those people need and deserve our help, with the best tools available in our society today.

Or, i can be a fairly mainstream Christian: I think we dismiss the Bible's talk of demonic influences and possession too easily; i'm not always sure i see what scripture is getting at when demons are described and dealt with, but it certainly has some powerful analogies to lives i see playing out around me, let alone in my own erratic heart.

Hey, i can be a really liberal Christian: Haven't you heard of Walter Wink? "The Powers That Be" helps us see demonic possession as less a matter of an individual issue, but of structures and systems, governmental to congregational, and reminds us that the spiritual realities of change are as important as the politics of transformation.

But some days i'm just a traditional, basically Orthodox Christian: I believe there are demonic forces at work in the world that wish me ill and drag me down, within and without, that affect relationships and communities and events, on which prayer and fasting have a very real impact. Those acts often help in stopping and changing those assaults. Those acts help me stay on the path i try to follow, but am often tempted to stray from. I might not participate in an exorcism, but i would never mock someone for choosing to do so -- i might ask them if they really think they know what they're doing, the same as i would someone "playing" with a Ouija board. I don't want to burn them, wouldn't laugh at someone for doing so, but i would walk away.

Of course, for saying i contain many contradictory aspects of my personality, some might say "He has a demon in him!" I'm with C.S. Lewis, who said we don't help matters by being too interested in the demonic any more than we do by claiming there is not and could be no such thing.

MSNBC on Obama Speech

2009-02-25T11:36:00.001-05:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29377101/

Nice work, guys.

Education and the Humanities

2009-02-25T11:03:00.001-05:00

Bad news --
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/books/25human.html

Good news --
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/us/25desks.html

Bi-partisanship? 'We just have to try. We don’t have to succeed.'

2009-02-25T10:42:00.001-05:00

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=02&year=2009&base_name=rahm_and_minirahm

Openness, and Transparency

2009-02-25T10:21:00.000-05:00

http://sweetness-light.com/archive/obama-demands-secrecy-for-defense-cuts

Worrisome Stats

2009-02-20T17:07:00.001-05:00

http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/02/eric-holder-and-black-sensitiv.html

Which Man Is Not Sane?

2009-02-19T23:34:00.001-05:00

Or are both? Or neither?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hGvQtumNAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFNeBRc7W7s

My own personal experience tells me . . . neither. They each know exactly what they do, and why. Their propositions may be questionable, but they are internally consistent.

I Got a Fever

2009-02-19T09:56:00.000-05:00

If You're From Chicagoland, You'll Care

2009-02-18T11:48:00.000-05:00

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0218-bozo-main-storyfeb18,0,3378318.story

A Vampire Sees the Light

2009-02-16T12:39:00.001-05:00

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1137

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=1297

The first link gives you Rice's own words; in the second, a more recent analysis of her work with some startling suggestions to which i hope someday to read Rice's reactions.

Sderot, Looking Up

2009-02-05T10:28:00.001-05:00

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/68703/

What Does "Sarah Palin" Mean?

2009-02-05T08:06:00.000-05:00

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/the-meaning-of-sarah-palin-14674

Yikes!

2009-02-05T07:17:00.000-05:00

12. I don’t believe there’s all that much good about institutional Christianity. It exists, has to exist and always will exist, but Jesus started a movement, not an institution. (And definitely not a business or a club.) Christianity is a cross-cultural, evangelistic, church planting movement. It’s all about taking the Gospel to individuals and cultures first, then practicing what it means to be Christians in whatever context we live. I can be pretty annoying about this.

13. I’d like everyone- infant baptizers and children baptizers- to own up to the fact that evangelism has badly suffered because we baptize children. Even if you believe it’s right, you still have to contend with the effect all of this has had on evangelism. (In fact, refusing to own up to our lack of evangelistic focus is a primary problem with theological types.) And no, it doesn’t have to be that way, but you figure it out.

14. I believe in an educated ministry, but I don’t see much reason for traditional seminary. It’s expensive and inefficient to a fault. We need mentoring, apprenticing, church-centered programs, etc. The seminary product is about to become the buggy whip of evangelicalism.

15. I believe people who have left the faith have a lot of useful things to say to us, and we need to listen. We also ought to apologize and make a lot of things right. We’ve heard and driven off millions of people, and then we’ve mostly blamed them.

The whole list?

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/twenty-five-sortof-random-things-i-do-and-dont-believe#more-2793

Making Facebook Your Friend

2009-02-04T10:39:00.001-05:00

http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/

I know, it isn't funny (but it is)

2009-02-02T11:38:00.001-05:00

http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

Parked for later attention

2009-02-01T17:01:00.001-05:00

On children and communion --
http://www.gbod.org/worship/default_body.asp?act=reader&item_id=2910

On Natural Law and Marriage --
http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6408

Another Book Better Than Movie Story

2009-01-30T12:56:00.001-05:00

But with quite a difference . . .
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWFkMGM4MmE4YjQ1NTZmM2FkNjUzYzc5NjdjODVkNDk=

Check the link in the last paragraph for a further counterpoint.

Brad DeLong at TheWeek.com

2009-01-30T07:56:00.000-05:00

The current recession may turn into a small depression, and may push global living standards down by five percent for one or two or (we hope not) five years, but that does not erase the gulf between those of us in the globe's middle and upper classes and all human existence prior to the Industrial Revolution. We have reached the frontier of mass material comfort--where we have enough food that we are not painfully hungry, enough clothing that we are not shiveringly cold, enough shelter that we are not distressingly wet, even enough entertainment that we are not bored. We--at least those lucky enough to be in the global middle and upper classes who still cluster around the North Atlantic--have lots and lots of stuff. Our machines and factories have given us the power to get more and more stuff by getting more and more stuff--a self-perpetuating cycle of consumption.

Our goods are not only plentiful but cheap. I am a book addict. Yet even I am fighting hard to spend as great a share of my income on books as Adam Smith did in his day. Back on March 9, 1776 Adam Smith's Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations went on sale for the price of 1.8 pounds sterling at a time when the median family made perhaps 30 pounds a year. That one book (admittedly a big book and an expensive one) cost six percent of the median family's annual income. In the United States today, median family income is $50,000 a year and Smith's Wealth of Nations costs $7.95 at Amazon (in the Bantam Classics edition). The 18th Century British family could buy 17 copies of the Wealth of Nations out of its annual income. The American family in 2009 can buy 6,000 copies: a multiplication factor of 350.

Books are not an exceptional category. Today, buttermilk-fried petrale sole with pickled vegetables and parsley mayonnaise, served at Chez Panisse Café, costs the same share of a day-laborer's earnings as the raw ingredients for two big bowls of oatmeal did in the 18th Century. Then there are all the commodities we consume that were essentially priceless in the past. If in 1786 you had wanted to listen to Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in your house, you probably had to be the Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke of Austria, with a theater in your house--the Palace of Laxenberg. Today, the DVD costs $17.99 at amazon.com. (The multiplication factor for enjoying The Marriage of Figaro in your home is effectively infinite for those not named Josef von Habsburg.)

James explains Twitter to old people (like me)

2009-01-30T06:48:00.000-05:00

http://www.startribune.com/local/38675377.html

The Stimulus Package, Tracked Daily

2009-01-27T20:14:00.000-05:00

http://www.readthestimulus.org

Whom I'd Like To Be When I Grow Up

2009-01-25T19:25:00.000-05:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126921.500-one-last-chance-to-save-mankind.html?full=true&print=true

A Measured, Fair, Partisan View of Jan. 20

2009-01-25T08:44:00.002-05:00

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzVkOTQxYmQzNzRlZjM2MDNkMTZiYTNmYzA0M2EzMzg=

His most interesting takeaway -- Obama won by 7 points, FDR by 18, and the maps for the party state by state in the 1928 elections and then the 1932 results is truly shocking. It's total dominance one way to total dominance the other way.

With that in mind, this speech is even more interesting in it's own right, let alone in comparison:

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/fdrfirstinaugural.html

Hope

2009-01-25T07:42:00.001-05:00

This is what it looks like:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373

Not to be entirely forgotten . . .

2009-01-24T08:28:00.002-05:00

Sooner or later, the facts of '81 to '85 will come out . . . and almost no one will care, and perhaps at this point shouldn't.

Personally, i'm more bothered by the fact that Dohrn is still at Northwestern School of Law than i am that Obama is in the White House, which i'm getting downright happy about, all things being equal (i.e., given that McCain ran an idiot campaign that did not bode well for his governance).

Very, very interesting - and quite fair

2009-01-23T21:04:00.000-05:00

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzVkOTQxYmQzNzRlZjM2MDNkMTZiYTNmYzA0M2EzMzg=

Invocation & Benediction

2009-01-20T21:38:00.000-05:00

The framing elements of the day's historic events:

Pastor Rick Warren's invocation, in text and video --

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/01/rick_warrens_in.html

and Rev. Joseph Lowery's benediction, transcript linked and video embedded --

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctpolitics/2009/01/inaugural_bened.html

Truly, i didn't think Pres. Obama's inaugural address was lackluster at all; just what the occasion called for. And if you haven't had occasion to, make sure to click by http://www.whitehouse.gov

Ow - Now That's Gonna Leave a Mark

2009-01-18T13:22:00.001-05:00

http://www.disciplesworld.com/newsArticle.html?wsnID=14634

Rich Corinthian Leather

2009-01-14T23:13:00.000-05:00

So, in honor of Ricardo Montalban --

http://vodpod.com/watch/279944-baby-its-cold-outside

and it was from watching this very movie, as an exchange student in Greeley, Colorado in 1949 that Sayyid Qutb wrote the book which was the basis for what became . . . al-Qaeda.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/presence-feb06.html

See also http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120190688451636621.html for the context of what so disturbed Qutb.

You can't make this stuff up.

Thank you, Lt. Raz

2009-01-13T21:46:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI1q3etFX2k

He's explaining to us the implications of an operational map captured from a Hamas command post. Oddly, this hasn't attracted much attention in general media, but you can watch it for yourself here.

Huh.

2009-01-12T06:29:00.001-05:00

http://www.dailytech.com/Article.aspx?newsid=13834