How does this guy sleep at night?
And Harry Reid appears to have his back.
The FHer way: find a judge to give you the results you couldn’t get by constitutional means.
Sola scriptura or tradition, too?
I’m still feeling my way back to a consideration of the notion of revealed religion. Sometimes as I immerse myself in something like this lecture, I realize how postmodern my insistence upon spirituality as an immediate experience has been. I begin to see how I, and so many boomer-age seekers, looked over and over again for a road-to-Damascus (or under-the-Bodhi-tree) experience in a meditation technique, or a pill or a pipe. It’s that old “give-it-to-me-now-and-according-to-my-specifications” mentality.
Of course, I still have major questions. When, say, a Hebrew prophet such as Isaiah or Malachai, or a Gospel author such as Mark, or even an apostolic letter-writer like Paul committed “the word of God” to parchment, how, specifically, did that person’s role as a conduit for said word work? Did they have some kind of wham-bam surrounded-by-light experience?
But I digress, which is easy to do for a question-filled seeker like me. Great lecture that sheds light on some important historical as well as theological matters.
For all of you who think there is no threat to the West from within
Two of the Mumbai terrorists were British Muslims.
“For if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
The quote above is, of course, from the Nazarene, who said this to no one in particular as he was stumbling up the road at Calvary, blood dripping from his scourged and shredded flesh and bearing the weight of the instrument of his execution.
The Nazarene, of course, is ostensibly the reason for the sale and the frenzy of the shoppers.
11.26.08
Mumbai
At least 78 dead so far. Several hostages.
It was indeed well-coordinated. Looks like they were targeting Westerners.
11.25.08
Has the Chicago Marxist been mugged by reality before even being sworn in?
A mugging by reality being, of course, the transformative experience involved in the definition of a neoconservative put forth by pioneer neocon Irving Kristol (father of Weekly Standard editor Bill), himself a former Marxist.
Larry Kudlow is not alone in his glowing assessment of the economic team Obama is assembling.
Along with the tone of being encouraged, though, sources such as Kudlow acknowledge that it remains to be seen how all this translates into legislative relations once the conversation along the length of Pennsylvania Avenue turns to levels of taxation. So many options for limiting human freedom and confiscating Americans’ hard-earnd money: to look like a fairly sharp and wealth-friendly guy and let the W tax cuts run their natural course and sputter out when scheduled, or stay more true to the Fher promise: repeal those evil, oppressive cuts right away, or – Heaven forfend! – betray the base and do what makes imminent sense to anybody with half a brain and institute yet deeper cuts in taxes on income, corporate earnings, and capital gains?
And on the spending side? So many beleagured elements of our recession-ravaged society. How to decide the most deserving of bailouts? Then there are those crises the FHers have been ranting about for decades: health care, the global climate, infrastructure.
Are they crises or not? If so, we don’t spare the largesse just because we’re in this icky financial meltdown, do we?
That debate will come up, however grown up the members of this economic team. The Chicago Marxist will be the moderator, given that he’s now the boss of the whole shootin’ match.
Where will he personally come down on the whole deal?
Dig this, Barry
Chavez and Medvedev orchestrate a summit and an arrival of warships. The clear message is that this friendship is solid and growing.
Yes, the economies of both Russia and Venezuela are in the commode. So is every other country’s. Here’s what these two particular nation-states have chosen to do with their resources.
11.24.08
23 – 20
In San Diego. Adam Vinatieri pulls them through once again. He knew his field goal was the deal-closer even while the ball was still in mid-sail.
Playoff hopes remain alive.
11.20.08
This is the kind of argument that just may make a card-carrier out of me
As longtime BN readers know, I am basically an agnostic with very ecumenical mystical leanings, but have lately become, for a variety of reasons, drawn to the premise of conventional Christianity.
A while ago, while randomly poking around on the Web (Hmmm; if you read the linked item, I may come to regret the potential for that phrase to be interpreted as a pun. No matter; let’s not be distracted!) I chanced upon a February post at one of my favorite blogs, The Anchoress. I know we’re in the run-up season to the birth of Christ, but this Lent-season essay is about the most compelling outlining of why one ought to adopt the Christian take on reality that I’ve ever encountered – and you’re getting this from a guy who plums the Bible and C.S. Lewis daily and is currently reading No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers by Michael Novak.
The key is to say to our omniscient Creator, I’m so sorry. I love you like I’ve never loved anything or anyone, and I fully let your love into my heart, soul and life.
Now, how long will I be able to keep that up?
A perfect case study in wrong
eharmonycom settles a lawsuit by agreeing to post homosexual profiles.
So much for free markets, respect for individuals’ moral codes, the definition of family that served humankind quite well for 10.000 years and still serves all other species well, and sanity generally.
You have to ask yourself why the person bringing the lawsuit didn’t take the entrepreneurial route and set up a matchmaking site for those who see things his way.
Freedom is dying before our eyes without so much as a whimper.
11.19.08
The season of utter madness
I haven’t had much to say about where I stand regarding benefit of the doubt for the president-elect. Certainly it’s on my mind a lot. There’s no shortage of column space in this world devoted to the subject, that’s for sure.
After much swirling around of my thoughts and feelings on the matter, I’ve landed on something pretty close to what Michael Medved comes up with in his Townhall.com piece today. Barack Obama remains, in my estimation, a hardcore leftwinger with truly frightening policy proclivities and a majority of personality traits that I find off-putting if not disgusting. That said, there is no alternative universe to run to. He will take the oath of office on January 20. He is assembling his administration in the most precarious time I have personally ever witnessed. It would be foolish to wish him anything but the best – the most refined judgement he can muster, and the most favorable circumstances fate can bestow.
The unfortunate quality of Medved’s let’s-hold-off-and-see-what-he-puts-in-place stance is that, given the dizzying pace with which economic and security-related events are unfolding, as well as the aggressiveness with which Obama is pursuing his vision, it becomes more superceded hourly by developments that we must decry as alarming.
Today’s Wall Street Journal is full of articles, columns and editorial comment that make plain the madness of the FHer regime’s approach. Everything about it is the exact opposite of a real remedy for the ills of the day. On page A8, for instance, is a story about how the regulatory machine is gearing up. Top Obama aide Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-IL, crows that the “agenda is going to be bold.” “Activists” will run the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the EPA and the Department of Labor.
One can see it coming, like the next stage of a cancer: The very measures that have damaged and possibly killed our domestic auto industry – unsustainable UAW contracts, CAFE standards – are just the beginning of what the new regime wants to impose on the (formerly) Big Three. The editorial page of today’s WSJ features a required-reading alarm bell entitled “The Environmental Motor Company.”
Let’s continue to extend the benefit of the doubt where we can as much as we can, but let’s also plainly state things that become clear. One is the fact that the new administration is going to distort the notion of private ownership of business, base policy on a sham scientific concept (climate change), and seize more of citizens’ assets to pay for it. This, at a time when the economy is screaming for people to be able to keep more of what they are earning.
The American public voted for this to transpire. That may be the most disorientingly irrational aspect of our current juncture. These are not times to expect encouragement for proceeding in a sane and rigorously reasoned way. The kudos in post-modern America go to those who conduct their affairs in the opposite manner.
11.18.08
If you can check this out, you’ll be doing well and doing good
Not the kind of economic / cultural harbinger you want to see going down: a great Bloomington, IN wine bar, Tutto Bene, a place I’ve played a few times and where I presented, with Jazz From Bloomington, our combination booksigning / Melvin Rhyne performance / Sunday brunch fundraiser, Barbecue at the Sunset Terrace, a little over a year ago.
Just got an e-mail from this week’s featured performer, Dennis Riggins, who says that the Widen family, which owns Tuto Bene, is deeming November make-or-break for booking live jazz. The door numbers just haven’t been sufficient to warrant it for a while. Dennis was practically begging poeple to turn out.
If you live in the area adn can go see his group, which is first rate, Wednesday evening, please do.
I’d go, but I have my own gig at the Chateau de Pic tasting room in Clarksville that evening.
