tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52389642011-04-21T23:40:07.740-04:00Imagine the QuakerMirror of newquaker.com weblog.merlenoreply@blogger.comBlogger2891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1105023340491709512005-01-06T08:30:00.000-05:002005-01-06T09:55:40.493-05:00I am no longer maintaining this page as a mirror for the New Quaker Notebook at newquaker.com. If you link to imagine the quaker, please update your link to my weblog at newquaker.com.
merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104653867412906052005-01-02T03:10:00.000-05:002005-01-02T03:17:47.413-05:00My new web portal, Radical Christian Information [radicalchristian.info] is up and working at last, and I'm submitting to the search engines and soliciting submissions and URL recommendations.
After watching the format behavior of the site's HTML tables under a variety of browsers, I'm rethinking my plans to move its format to 100% CSS. Tables have been unjustly maligned, I think. (Oh, excuse merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104652596951740572005-01-02T02:45:00.000-05:002005-01-02T02:56:36.953-05:00Oh, we spent our tithe at the race track. Last Monday, in response to the Bush administration's initial pledge of $15 million to help Asian nations hit by the devastating tsunami, Jan Egeland, UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, called the gift stingy and complained about the level of assistance by Western nations in general. The initial US giftmerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104649338115150702005-01-02T01:50:00.000-05:002005-01-02T02:02:18.116-05:00Hmm, I just discovered that my 1999 review of Caught in Between, by the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, is featured at the UCC Palestine Solidarity Campaign at University College Cork, Ireland. The group has affiliation with the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. I hope this doesn't mean that I'll be swept up in the Patriot Act II, or will find my name on a no-fly list.
I found (and still merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104218649702980502004-12-28T02:07:00.000-05:002005-01-02T03:08:34.036-05:00I just finished the .info web setup for a new website for committed Christians with a steadfast faith in the radical, transforming love of Jesus Christ. The web portal, Radical Christian Information [radicalchristian.info], will share like-minded sites and information and will post approved user-submitted sites.
I've used straightforward HTML tables for the preliminary layout, but plan to move merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104036424905186882004-12-25T23:45:00.000-05:002004-12-26T00:00:03.510-05:00Who is Ty, you ask? Ty is the monkey off my back. My mother gave him to me many years ago and he's still hanging around.
Here he is reading E.F. Schumacher's classic Small is Beautiful, because I re-read it every now and then, too.
merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104034524883758162004-12-25T23:10:00.000-05:002004-12-25T23:15:24.883-05:00I have to get off this Bush jag. I'm now having Bush episodes in the way I used to get Nixon episodes: they weren't healthy or productive for me then and probably aren't now. Besides, I'm reaching a point where I just end up repeating myself, or at least start saying the same thing in different, creative termsbut that's only because the Bush administration is consistent, just as the Nixon merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104032973108645932004-12-25T22:30:00.000-05:002004-12-25T22:58:33.386-05:00"Everywhere peace is needed!" As rescuers finish digging up bodies from the truck bomb attack on the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad today, I have to reflect on the stark differences between two world leaders and their markedly different Christmas messages.
On the one hand is a man I admire very much, Pope John Paul II, who now can't walk, suffers from Parkinson's Disease, can barely talk or sit merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1103868351093346432004-12-24T00:55:00.000-05:002005-02-13T00:39:16.306-05:00Well, I finally got to the post office in Herkimer and picked up my copy of Time magazine with the romantic cover featuring as "Person of the Year" President George W. Bush, American Revolutionary. How did he get this ridiculous honor? What were they thinking? Says Time in the frontpiece: "For sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1103318554416353862004-12-17T16:35:00.000-05:002004-12-17T16:22:34.416-05:00One of my favorite Bob Newhart gags has him as a psychotherapist with a sure-fire technique for fixing his patients' psychological problems: No matter what problem they bring to him, his prescription is "Just stop it!" You have a drinking problem? "Just stop it!" he says. Anxious about things? "Just stop it!" And so on. Well, at least it's funny when he delivers it. But this isn't about merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1103147342856406932004-12-15T16:44:00.000-05:002004-12-15T19:47:24.453-05:00Sometime in 1996, around the time of my separation and divorce, I gave up on radio, TV, and all forms of media news. I did that for about a year and a half. I suppose I could have done something else, like maybe not speaking for a year, walking around with chalk and a small chalkboard to use for communication, but the divorce made me want to scream a lotthe scary, primal kind, which comes frommerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1103083426211162272004-12-14T22:30:00.000-05:002004-12-15T12:52:51.710-05:00Correcting the Duke. I got a comment today from someone in the UK regarding one of last year's blogs about David Duke and correcting my reference to the institution from which he received his honorary doctorate. Alas, one of my sources was The Village Voice, but, hey, I can't use that as an excuse. Rent (the commenter) says that Duke was given his doctorate by "a private organization with merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1102997435070634892004-12-13T22:50:00.000-05:002004-12-13T23:10:35.070-05:00Well, it's been close to two weeks now with Pepe, my daughter L's new chihuahua puppy. Here's a picture. His ears haven't perked up yet, but when they do, I'm sure his first words will be "Yokiro Taco Bell!"
Again I'm captured by the thought that animals occupy a special place for us on earth, and that the difference between us and them has nothing whatsoever to do with any special merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1102745783852139612004-12-11T01:10:00.000-05:002004-12-15T19:44:20.670-05:00On going in the out exit. I don't see it mentioned often that the American model of democracy is difficult to reproduce, although our current President seems to think that it's darn easy to do.[1] When we look at efforts to create a democratic representative government in countries previously governed by despots, dictators, or monarchs, we ought to see results that look pretty much like what merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1102300731406424892004-12-05T21:28:00.000-05:002004-12-05T22:51:49.703-05:00On disciplining Bush and Cheney. Consider the following four contemporary events.November 20, 2004: Bush Arrested. Canada charges president for war crimes. US President George W. Bush was taken into custody this morning by Canadian authorities during his two day visit with Prime Minister Paul Martin.A lesbian pastor was found guilty and defrocked on December 2nd when a jury of United merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1101936215673099812004-12-01T16:15:00.000-05:002004-12-01T16:33:00.610-05:00International credit terrorism. A recent NPR report on the decline of the US dollar against the euro, the yen, and the Canadian dollar brought out this interesting answer to a simple question on what the US Treasury does with foreign investment. The interlocutor in the center of this is Mark Zandi, chief economist for Economy.com, a consulting firm, and he has just finished telling NPR that merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1101666505305493622004-11-28T13:25:00.000-05:002004-11-29T09:36:45.506-05:00Since 2005 is only a month away, it's time to think about ordering the new Friends Calendar from the Tract Association of Friends. I mean, hey, it's only a $1.50. They also have a cool pocket version of the calendar for 50 cents less. The order form (listing the calendars and all of their books, pamphlets, and tracts) is available here. This is another good way to support the work of your merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1101543025346108322004-11-26T23:06:00.000-05:002004-11-27T03:34:38.986-05:00The how of thanksgiving. My daughter and I ate Thanksgiving dinner yesterday at the house of a friend from the Caribbean island of Nevis; we were joined during the meal by her cousins who were living and working in Ottawa, Canada. We ate split pea soup, curried lamb, buttered rolls, sweet potatoes, vegetable casserole, turkey, collard greens, mashed potatoes, and any of several pies (pumpkin, merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1101366745919350462004-11-25T02:05:00.000-05:002004-11-26T19:07:32.093-05:00Steven Williams, a Christian public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay area, is suing the Cupertino Unified School District over what he says are acts of religious discrimination and violations of his First Amendment right to free speech. Williams, who teaches fifth grade at the suburban Stevens Creek School, apparently has been discussing the beginning of the United States in his classes merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1101072536337167072004-11-21T15:28:00.000-05:002004-11-21T16:28:56.336-05:00My fiction collection The Man Who Rowed Lake Pontchartrain and Other Stories (New York, 2004) is now available at Amazon.com. You can also get more information about it here.
merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1100927459711307492004-11-20T01:10:00.000-05:002004-11-20T18:29:18.300-05:00In the light our vision of the US-led invasion of Iraq becomes much clearer and the truth of the situation there is finely elucidated. The scales fall from the eyes. We know now that if you are in Iraq and oppose what the US, the coalition, and the unelected US-appointed government of Iraq are doing in that country, you are what we call an insurgentand you will be either killed, maimed by merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1100837854958307662004-11-18T23:10:00.000-05:002004-11-19T21:07:13.426-05:00From my philosophy class.
Dear Teacher:
Question: We have to discuss the continued indentity of the self. Does that mean a philosopher's view on the self while a person is still alive and then the self after the person dies?
Answer: Do you really understand the question you just asked? I think many issues of so-called "life after death" can be answered by clarifying just what we mean when we merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1100660555480770462004-11-16T12:55:00.000-05:002004-11-16T22:02:35.480-05:00Pardon our tax dollars at work. At the request of my friends at Sojourners, I sent the following letter to my elected representatives in support of HR 1258 to close the US Army School of the Americas, renamed in 2001 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation as a cosmetic reform:I write to urge you to co-sponsor HR 1258, a bill to close the Western Hemisphere Institute for merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1099845963034098452004-11-07T11:35:00.000-05:002004-11-07T14:42:10.756-05:00Yesterday I received a letter from Friend Bill Martin in Venice, FL, who had just read my January 7 post in which I reported (with a smile) on his Christian nudist project Natura. Since he wrote directly to me, not as a comment to the blog, I won't reprint his letter, but will report that he started Natura in part as a Christian social effort to reduce improper sexual activities, to lower teen merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1099767555928037882004-11-06T13:35:00.000-05:002004-11-06T13:59:15.926-05:00The next four years are going to be difficult times for Americansfor Christians and non-Christians alike. Like a maelstrom, the focus of the 2004 election centered on the events of 9/11 and the counterfeit link between the invasion of Iraq and the so-called war on terrorism. Should this be a surprise? America really can't go a year without calling out its armed forces for some combat missionmerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1099607775185201112004-11-04T17:25:00.000-05:002004-11-04T19:18:40.536-05:00The mourning afterNovember 2. I just got back from Fort Knox, KY, where my number 2 son graduated from US Army Basic Training. On the afternoon of November 2, I flew into Louisville and rented a car for the drive to accommodations in the small town of Muldgraugh, next to the base. I'm very proud of my son, and seeing "Harton" on his uniform brought back memoriesand, well, so did being on merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1099251691290962052004-10-31T14:35:00.000-05:002004-10-31T14:43:34.180-05:00Beyond Oz's curtain. On Friday, I walked down the College's corridor leading from the classroom/administration building to the cafeteria and happened to notice an interminable line of yellow paper ribbons stuck to the wall with Scotch tape. One of them had my name on it, the result of a $1 donation to a campus organization promoting Domestic Violence Awareness Month. October was Domestic merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1099155406591299692004-10-30T13:48:00.000-04:002004-10-30T13:12:37.766-04:00Genocide in Iraq, etc. Yesterday The Lancet published a public health survey [.pdf] undertaken in Iraq in September 2004. The survey, "Mortality before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq," is the first science-based survey using cluster sample methodology after the invasion of Iraq, and the results confirm our outstanding fears about the ongoing conflict. "Making conservative assumptions," merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1099021660438372072004-10-28T23:40:00.000-04:002004-10-28T23:47:40.436-04:00Yesterday, in a special issue of the journal Nature Genetics, the published results of a survey of human variation as expressed in the human genome map conclude that race and ethnicity are no longer satisfactory categories for discerning differences among the human race. "It is impossible to look at people’s genetic code and deduce whether they are black, Caucasian or Asian, and there is no merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1098601221482808992004-10-24T02:55:00.000-04:002004-10-24T12:11:43.503-04:00The antiwar on terror. Here's a clever online video that tackles a contemporary antiwar theme à la The Corporation documentaryexcept that in this case the corporation is us. It takes a while for the film to load, especially over a dial-up connection, but I think you'll find that patience is rewarded.
I learned about the film on a forum over at Jesus Radicals.
merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1098544806989864752004-10-23T11:13:00.000-04:002004-10-23T11:31:54.823-04:00Rodin's Lutheran thinker. He wrote about it himself, so it's no secret that Martin Luther spent many contemplative hours in his lavatory. I first encountered Luther's constipation in an undergraduate history seminar at the University of South Florida, where my professor argued passionately that Luther's 95 theses were really a product of his frequent struggles with Satan, who would visibly merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1098393156766655862004-10-21T17:07:00.000-04:002004-10-21T17:12:36.766-04:00This will chill you. On October 14, three teachers attended a Bush rally near Medford, Oregon, where they teach. They had heard on NPR that the Bush campaign was stifling First Amendment rights, so they fastened on a clever plan that would allow them to see their president and also, in a benign manner, to call attention to the importance of American civil libertiesliberties such as free merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1098326281689642852004-10-20T22:30:00.000-04:002004-11-04T17:55:22.570-05:00This just in: Hamid Karzai beats out Howdy Doody as new elected Afghan President .... As we watch the burlesque of voting in Afghanistan and prepare for a similar party-down in Iraq, nothing is going to dazzle us more than the chaos awaiting us here after the 2004 US presidential electionmore insults, more suspicions, missing voting records, ineligible ballots, disenfranchised voters, merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1098130711411491212004-10-18T16:13:00.000-04:002004-10-18T21:34:39.353-04:00In the November 2004 issue of The Progressive, Howard Zinn writes on what he calls "Our War on Terrorism," calling attention to the "war on terrorism" as logically incoherent. After all, "Since war is itself the most extreme form of terrorism, a war on terrorism is profoundly self-contradictory." He therefore asks, "Is it strange, or normal, that no major political figure has pointed this out?merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1098072556554103982004-10-17T11:35:00.000-04:002004-10-18T00:15:22.573-04:00It's all about flip-flops, really. The American Friends Service Committee has on its website a list of questions to ask candidates at political events. Among the questions are those pertaining to:Pre-emptive warIsrael/PalestineColombiaInternational LawForeign Aid/Humanitarian AssistanceDebtTradeNuclear Non-ProliferationMilitrary/Defense BudgetCivil LibertiesIndian Trust Fund CaseIndustrial merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1097184941769998272004-10-07T17:30:00.000-04:002004-10-07T22:43:41.476-04:00How can bad be good? As we watch Bush and Kerry go at each other over the reasons for the Iraq invasion, it just gets stranger and stranger. This all has to be the stuff of satire, but not when real life is much more uproarious, or perhaps more heartbreaking, than anything I could ever make up. Charles Duelfer's testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday is a case in merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1096944126139049362004-10-04T22:24:00.000-04:002004-10-04T22:44:35.730-04:00Interfaith again. Just today I received a letter from Cathie Eustis, president of the Atlas Interfaith Foundation in New Orleans, responding to my April 4 blog. There I discussed my Muslim daughter A.'s interest in attending an "interfaith" organization. I certainly didn't intend to speak disparagingly about the organization, but apparently I left the Atlas Interfaith Foundation with that merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1096823799388433502004-10-03T13:07:00.000-04:002004-10-03T13:16:39.386-04:00Money for nothing .... With all due respect to Dire Straights, I have to say that it's refreshing to see at least one of the wealthiest Americans putting both his money and his time into an attempt to fix our political situation. I'm talking about George Sorosto be distinguished surely from other wealthy Americans who just don't seem to be all that interested in the American political processmerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1096775563962240762004-10-02T23:40:00.000-04:002004-12-01T16:40:51.003-05:00Weird politics. Watching the Kerry-Bush debate, um, presentation actually got me yearning for a parliamentary system. What still raises the little hairs on the back of my neck is the comment by President Bush (made with a sour smirk and a lunge of his head as he clutched the podium) that America would never ask permission from other countries before prevailing to ensure the security of the US.merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1096176122188625232004-09-26T01:13:00.000-04:002004-09-26T01:34:09.456-04:00When 2 is the loneliest number. I'm still bothered by the sinister but subtle attack by Focus on the Family against Jim Wallis and his "God is not a Republican...or a Democrat" petition drive sponsored by Sojourners. In the the first of a five-part series examining the role of evangelical Christians in the 2004 presidential election, Pete Winn's article in CitizenLink, a Focus on the Family merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1095885955886345822004-09-22T16:42:00.000-04:002004-09-22T23:45:33.790-04:00Peace train to nowhere. BBC News announced today in headlines:US in shock over hostage deathsAmerica has woken up in shock to the news that both the US hostages being held by militants in Iraq have been killed by their captorsI don't know what this means. Who's in shock? At the college today no one was talking about the beheading of civilian American worker Jack Hensley, nor about his merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1095646972293383172004-09-19T22:15:00.000-04:002004-09-19T22:22:52.293-04:00When I'm on NPR. I was listening to NPR today and I finally got the response I was looking for, and I'm going to use it. What am I talking about? I have this fear that one day I'm going to be listening to an interview on NPR and the interchange is going to go something like this:Thank you [name] for coming on our program today...
Well, thank you for having me on your program today...
Oh, merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1095546214599170182004-09-18T18:14:00.000-04:002004-09-19T00:51:14.800-04:00Terrible peace. During the week, the Bush administration reaffirmed what we knew all along: that its peace strategy consists of imprisoning or killing those who oppose the interests of American freedom. Acting pre-emptively remains the rule. The President said as much in a speech before the National Guard in Las Vegas on Tuesday. There he said: "We will strike the terrorists abroad so they merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1095001306232258822004-09-12T10:59:00.000-04:002004-09-12T11:01:46.233-04:00Embryonic stem cells promise medical science solutions to a gathering of intracticable human diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, heart disease, and many others. What stands in the way is the belief that the use of embryonic stem cells is a moral wrongand so the debate, like that over human fetal abortion, gathers its own inertia within the body of merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1094961640561388412004-09-11T23:58:00.000-04:002004-09-12T00:31:00.920-04:00Hey, God! Snap, snap. Whenever I'm really bad and slip in beside Satan in some evil deed, I still can't fathom why I do what I do knowing that what I'm doing, while I'm doing it, is something I shouldn't be doing at all. I'm not thinking about the human temptation situations Paul cautions us about in 1 Corinthians 10:13, for even though God always provides me with a way out of the tempation, merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1094399639475420272004-09-05T11:50:00.000-04:002004-09-05T12:01:14.096-04:00Ever since the Republican National Convention in NYC I have been thinking again about the just war and how we are tempted to go from commitment to Christ to pagan practicability. The bulk of just war theory rests on two pieces of scripture: Luke 3:14 (John the Baptist tells soldiers to be content with their pay) and Romans 13:1, on Paul's entreaty for Christians to submit to civil authorities. merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1094272372269439502004-09-04T01:30:00.000-04:002004-09-05T13:00:55.723-04:00The aftermath of pride. L. and I have been in the process of moving from apartment to house, so that has kept me away from the blog for over two weeks (well, that and the start of another busy semester at the college), but in the process I had another weird convergence of ideaspride and conscience.
Here's how it happened. L. and I finally finished the move to the house and one of the thingsmerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1092548989091890802004-08-15T01:48:00.000-04:002004-08-15T01:55:44.950-04:00Eye on Venezuela. I'm not a left-leaner, but I do have to admire Hugo Chavez for two things: one, his efforts to improve life for the poorest of Venezuela's citizens and, two, his staunch refusal to bend under pressure from the US oil industry (and, well, from the Bush administration, too). So the recall referendum in that country is going to be an interesting sight. Since he first came to merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1092412401078652152004-08-13T11:50:00.000-04:002004-08-14T21:51:28.266-04:00Ouch! Moore attacks with the past. Do you ever have one of those memories of something you've done and deeply regretand suddenly it jumps back in your head and it hurts? I imagine this is what Porter Goss (R-FL) is experiencing.
We already know that Michael Moore likes to use the ambush interview in his films, so I guess it shouldn't surprise us to see him using "ambush memories" in merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1091943042525629382004-08-08T01:25:00.000-04:002004-08-13T21:18:36.116-04:00Success by death. During the Vietnam conflict, the US Military Advisory Command measured the progress of the war by the number of enemies killed, wounded, or captured during an operation. This was known as a body count. The body count is not officially being used to measure progress in the so-called "war on terrorism," but it is being used to measure progress in establishing merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1091932701805163722004-08-07T22:25:00.000-04:002004-08-13T21:05:28.120-04:00US Drug War in Latin America Is FailingMr Walters Will Use Spooky Hand TechniqueUS drug tsar admits failed drug policy in Latin America but promises "spooky hand" will prevail. Donald Rumsfeld, below, demonstrates "spooky hands" strategy.BBC - US drug tsar John Walters has admitted that Washington's anti-narcotics policy in Latin America has so far failed.Mr Walters said in Mexico that billions merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1091672622644028582004-08-04T22:20:00.000-04:002004-08-04T22:43:42.673-04:00Well, duh. Reuters news service reported today on the latest issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in which British and US researchers admitted that our solar system is probably unique. All other solar systems (at least 120 of them) are gassy planets in elliptical orbits that take them far too close to their stars for them to be anything like Earth. The scientists merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1091336821721354042004-08-01T00:56:00.000-04:002004-08-01T01:07:01.723-04:00Frightening fun with numbers. A California marketing research firm, the Barna Group, reported Monday on its nationwide survey on Christian Americans and their views on time-wasting public-policy issues such as removing the Ten Commandments from government buildings, removing "In God We Trust" from the nation's currency, removing "One Nation Under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, the presencemerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1091332184380840172004-07-31T23:49:00.000-04:002004-08-01T00:00:05.566-04:00When British historians attack. I guess this has to belong to one of two categories(1) "Blimey, where have these people been?" or (2) "Guess who just fell off the turnip lorry." The Reuters news service reported today on an English newspaper's story about a group of British historians who've just discovered that Hollywood films are guilty of "sloppy," "formulaic," "shameless," "irresponsible"merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1091053317400092032004-07-28T18:14:00.000-04:002004-08-14T23:01:09.703-04:00Louisiana cat. After twenty years of marriage my wife decided to go to work full-time. I didn't make enough money for our lifestyle in our gated community, so she would leave the house through the front door in the morning and return the same way in the evening. At her new job she met a woman who was moving with her second husband to Baton Rouge for their new life there, but they couldn't merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1090958146458296832004-07-27T15:42:00.000-04:002004-07-27T16:39:03.243-04:00Separating the inseparable. The big chill for Christians has to be the thought of an American Church, a kind of modern western theocracy with specific toe-the-line doctrines. This certainly seems to be the direction Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, Judge Roy Moore, Pat Robertson, and many others want to take the country. But if there is a culture war coming in the US, it's going to be hard tomerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1090890443881269112004-07-26T21:07:00.000-04:002004-07-26T21:12:11.316-04:00American Christians are shrinking. According to a new statistical report by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, the percentage of Protestants is declining in the US and will probably fall below 50 percent by as early as the close of this year.
What it means, I think, is that the American Church is shrinking, losing adherents from what is becoming a dead faith, merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1090818332122912802004-07-26T01:04:00.000-04:002004-07-26T01:16:28.080-04:00The vacation's over. During my beach-filled week on Florida's east coast, I happened to notice how vibrant the economy was (at least compared to what I find in central New York) and how rich the area seemed in the sheer number of small businesses. Could there be a real connection between its economic health and its robust, entrepreneurial, small business environment?
According to US Business merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1090595839258606342004-07-23T11:15:00.000-04:002004-07-24T16:56:36.000-04:00When in doubt, use a cliché. Okay, so I'm still on vacation, but I just have to say something about the recent buzz over the mocking insult Arnold Schwarzenegger directed at his Democratic opponents in the California legislature. At a photo-opportunity during a stop at a mall food court, the Governator said: "If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want tomerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1089816000980955322004-07-14T10:36:00.000-04:002004-07-14T10:44:35.396-04:00Recharge (+/-). I'll be on vacation for a week and don't expect to be posting to the weblog in that time. I need some time on the beach, and I have to work through the printer's galleys for "The Man Who Rowed Lake Pontchartrain and Other Stories."
merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1089778857520533382004-07-14T00:14:00.000-04:002004-07-14T00:26:06.973-04:00The grapes are sweet, says Bush. Because much of Freud's psychoanalytic writings follow upon his pre-analytic Project for a Scientific Psychology (1895), in which he attempts to set down a scheme for a neuroscience of mind, the popularity of his "defense mechanisms" ends up disguising the reductionist basis of his explanation of familiar patterns of behavior that occur in normal coping merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1089429523211634792004-07-09T23:18:00.000-04:002004-07-09T23:18:43.210-04:00Amish in Hollywood Hell. Well, it's official. Viacom has decided to go ahead and air its exploitive reality TV series "Amish in the City" on its UPN network. The series, which airs on July 28 with a special 2-hour episode, takes 5 Amish teens from their simple rural communities and sticks them in a Hollywood Hills home with 6 other roommates, including a fashion-forward party girl, a swim merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1089404038979336752004-07-09T16:13:00.000-04:002004-07-09T16:19:28.576-04:00Nader and Dean go to counseling. Today at 2:00 PM est Howard Dean and Ralph Nader got together for a Nader vs. Dean debate in a live broadcast on NPR's information show Justice Talking.
The debate was really about two issues: One, (Dean) "Ralph, please quit your candidacy and come home. We have to stop George W. Bush no matter what." Two, (Nader) "The Democratic Party is a mirror image of merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1088924416122448192004-07-04T03:00:00.000-04:002004-07-04T12:23:32.683-04:00The condoms of patriotism will set you free. Curse the ACLUno, wait, long live the ACLUno, wait, curse the ACLU.... You know, I've never really understood the hatred some Americans have for the American Civil Liberties Union. As an American institution, the group seems to be the most consistent guardian of traditional American values, at least so far as they spring directly from the US merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1088904098339231642004-07-03T21:15:00.003-04:002004-07-04T00:17:28.716-04:00Moore finds the real WMD. I convinced my daughter L. to go with me to see Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. She's fought me over it for a week now, but finally couldn't handle my persistence any longer. She hates documentaries, she says, but she sat through this one from beginning to end. It is brilliant, classic Moore, only better. It has the same documentary devices Moore uses in each of merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1088830799467080372004-07-03T00:59:00.000-04:002004-08-13T21:06:49.720-04:00Little Hominid May Have Been Failed Experiment
WASHINGTON - A tiny pre-human who lived more than 900,000 years ago in what is now Kenya may have been a "short experiment" in evolution that never quite made it, scientists said on Thursday.
The little fingernail clearly belongs to an adult and was found last summer at a site where much larger hominids classified as Homo erectus lived, said a merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1088787498616479602004-07-02T12:58:00.000-04:002004-08-13T21:07:51.963-04:00On skepticism and air doughnuts. Petitio principii (begging the question) is an informal fallacy wherein one assumes as a premise in an argument the very conclusion that is meant to be proved. We also call this reasoning in a circle or perhaps "making air doughnuts."[1] The fallacy shows up now and again, and even appears recently in an article by Pascal Boyer in the March/April 2004 issue merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1088426894614033142004-06-28T08:48:00.000-04:002004-06-28T10:32:09.296-04:00Who's minding the store? While listening to the radio, you will occasionally be interrupted by a loud, annoying buzzing sound, an out-of-date vestige of Cold War angst, which concludes with the announcement that "This has been a test of the Emergency Broadcast System, blah, blah." The problem is not so much that this system is inadequate as a warning system for any national emergencythe merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1088363575128810722004-06-27T15:12:00.000-04:002004-08-13T21:10:27.170-04:00Rumsfeld has contingency plan if more US troops needed in Iraq"Don't sweat it, folks," said Rumsfeld. "I can always bring back the Draft."ISTANBUL - The United States may not have to increase its force levels in Iraq but it has contingency plans in case the need arises, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday.
"The real task of security is not to flood a country with more and more troopsmerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1088357853322877132004-06-27T13:37:00.000-04:002004-06-27T13:38:37.980-04:00The haunting. As I reread Brennan Manning's The Ragamuffin Gospel, I can't let loose of his declaration that "The sinner saved by grace is haunted by Calvary, by the cross, and especially by the question, 'Why did He die?'" Perhaps this is the difference between our salvation and that which is attributed to the heresy of universalismnot only do we know where we stand in our relationship with merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1088275261819837652004-06-26T14:40:00.000-04:002004-08-13T21:12:01.223-04:00Cheney's wily world of words. I think Vice President Cheney is getting a bad rap after reports that he hurled the "F-bomb" at Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont during "picture day" on the Senate floor on Tuesday. According to new reports yesterday, Cheney turned to Leahy and scolded the Vermont senator for accusing him of war profiteering in Iraq through his ties with Halliburton. merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1088198807189504692004-06-25T17:25:00.000-04:002004-06-25T17:26:47.190-04:00Letter to the Editor, Christianity Today:
I don't mean to belittle Bob Smietana's contribution (July 2004 issue: "When Does Personhood Begin?") to the wider issues involved in stem-cell research, in vitro fertilization, and abortion, but he really doesn't move us any further along.
The modern abortion debate used to be mired in infuriating banter over "when did life begin" and years were wastedmerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1088045479615412922004-06-23T22:51:00.000-04:002004-06-23T22:51:19.616-04:00Guantanamo is not what we think it is. What we were led to believe was a detention center, basically a stark holding pen for suspected Taliban fighters and al-Qaeda operatives, may well be another cruel institution built on the model of the American civilian prison. The difference, however slight, is that the civilian prison houses convicts: the detention center at Guantanomo shrouds no one merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1087710569483889402004-06-20T01:49:00.000-04:002004-06-20T01:51:56.710-04:00The other Reagan legacy. Democracy Now! has a transcript of its recent interview with Catholic priest Fr Miguel D'Escoto, who was Nicaragua's Foreign Minister under the Sandinista government in the 1980s. "Reagan Was the Butcher of My People" gives another bitter side to our memory of the former president.
Democracy Now! pioneers the largest public media collaboration in the US, airing on merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1087698514966744112004-06-19T22:28:00.000-04:002004-06-19T22:29:43.606-04:00They're not biscuits. I'm still unnerved by the zany response by Bush and Cheney to the Sept. 11 Commission's finding that the contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda "do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship." [Washington Post, June 18, 2004]. In response, Bush chanted: "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda: because merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1087626201683025332004-06-19T02:23:00.000-04:002004-06-19T02:45:40.193-04:00A wink is a declarative sentence. American Christians have squandered an enormous opportunity to display good Christian behavior to a world that needs our example, not the example of angry Jihadists or menacing, furtive, terror-minded warriors emerging from the fringe of a radical Islam. Instead, looking back at nearly three years of bad behavior on the part of our leadership (a leadership merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1087152881368037482004-06-13T14:54:00.000-04:002004-06-13T15:53:26.420-04:00Return of the body count. MSNBC today reprinted a death table from London's Reuters news service listing the total number of deaths in Iraq since the beginning of fighting, as of today. I supply a copy of it here. Figures in parentheses are numbers of dead since May 1, 2003, when President Bush said that major combat was over. The data came from the the Pentagon's latest death tally (a.k.a. merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1087069357612810352004-06-12T15:42:00.000-04:002004-06-12T16:40:43.800-04:00Hinn goes down under. So I guess I'm not the only one to see the similarity between Benny Hinn's magic show and Simon the Sorcerer's attempts to buy the power of spirit baptism from Peter and John [see Acts 8:9-24]. Hinn's Australia International Crusade will be down under in Brisbane on June 25-26, and the Courier-Mail reported last week on attempts to have Hinn challenged on his ministry's merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1086814773287502042004-06-09T16:59:00.000-04:002004-06-09T21:20:50.303-04:00Dismembership. Sometimes I feel so incredibly disconnected from contemporary Christianity. Perhaps what I feel is actually the general separations among what makes up what we call the Body of Christ, like bones being cut at the joint. Today my friend Al, a Catholic, and I chatted over lunch about the wide diversity of Christians in Herkimer and how this small rural population has divided merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1086749522958772262004-06-08T22:50:00.000-04:002004-06-08T22:52:02.956-04:00Torture in the Chambers. Today I heard the hot interchange between Senator Joseph Biden and Attorney General John Ashcroft and I don't see the gist of it being reported forthrightly in the print media. Ashcroft was appearing before a surly Senate Judiciary Committee and Biden asked him directly if he believed that torture was ever justified. He evaded the question. Biden accused him of beingmerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1086736251879069152004-06-08T19:10:00.000-04:002004-06-08T19:17:19.436-04:00What's funny about zero? One day in 1975 in Hamilton, Ontario, I went to the local convenience store and bought Issue No.1 of Captain Canuck, the comic book. Canadians had a superhero! I had a first edition! If I held onto it long enough, I would be rich! I could afford more exclamation points! The Canadian comic book was in publication from 1975 to 1980, and then disappeared, but merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1086621200027258302004-06-07T11:13:00.000-04:002004-06-07T14:43:12.410-04:00Pretending to be good. I was in a hurry to get to the College this morning and I did the usual "5 miles over the speed limit," slowed down to 25 mph for the elementary school in New Hartford, and then zoomed into Herkimer. Now here is where I consistently cheat. The speed limit past the high school is 30 mph, but the speed limit for the school zone is 15 mph. Normally the only people who merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-108627221570009122004-06-03T10:16:00.000-04:002004-06-08T22:26:17.920-04:00Bush's money pit. On May 5, the Bush Adminstration begged Congress for another $25 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. You know, that really is a lot of money, and yet it looks like our sound-and-fury Congress is going to give it all to him. And this is on top of what may well turn out to be a humongous $280 billion tab since the first Gulf War for operations in Iraq, merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1085973081686692132004-05-30T23:11:00.000-04:002004-05-30T23:26:07.486-04:00Remember the future. This Memorial Day will have a special significance for me. Not because of the new memorial unveiled in Washington, DC, this weekend, nor because my father served in WWII and remained in military service (first in the Marines and then in the Air Force) until retirement, but rather because I must now confront again the very issue of service to country and the stupidity of merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1085967358414600732004-05-30T21:35:00.000-04:002004-06-09T21:30:17.130-04:00Right of Returnto South Carolina? Michael Gallaugher of the Christian Conservative pointed out to me the WorldNetDaily news reports on a movement called ChristianExodus.org. Alarmed by the recent rise of liberal values, the erosion of classical Christian ideals in the US, and meddlesome federal policies, Cory Burnell began the organization in order to "coordinate the move of 50,000 or more merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1085858386676952632004-05-29T15:19:00.000-04:002004-06-05T21:43:48.926-04:00The Lone Nader. Nader is going to make it to the Presidential election, but it's an uphill battle for himnot because he isn't the best candidate, but really because of the incredible inertia of our ridiculously awkward, biased electoral process. I've complained before about how Duverger's law has resulted in a two-party system in the US, not because we have two outstanding parties vying for merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1085848626110517492004-05-29T12:36:00.000-04:002004-05-29T13:11:28.423-04:00Free sex. Yesterday Reuters reported that a Zambian man committed suicide after his wife caught him in a love embrace with a chicken and he was admonished by his neighbors in the village. I mention this because it bears directly on an important issue with homosexuality and its standing outside of God's purpose.
I figure that gays hate it when their sexual incidents are compared to bestiality,merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1085450108321177272004-05-24T21:54:00.000-04:002004-08-13T21:15:53.876-04:00Bush gets gas. Tonight I listened on NPR as President Bush delivered his speech to the US Army War College on his administration's plans for Iraq. It began sounding just like a busy plan for domestic improvementsexcept that the domestic region was not over here, but over there.
Today the average gasoline price is at a record $2.064 per gallon in the US and the reason why the President won't merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1084932587615876732004-05-18T22:09:00.000-04:002004-05-26T23:17:00.853-04:00At the Cato Institute, Ted Galen Carpenter has a short topical report on Gallup's recent survey of Iraqi public opinion vis-à-vis the Bush Administration's treasured opinion that "there is a silent majority of Iraqis who regard coalition forces as liberators, want those forces to stay for a prolonged period, oppose insurgent attacks on coalition troops, and are enthusiastic about creating a merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1084729836893598672004-05-16T13:50:00.000-04:002004-05-16T13:56:01.933-04:00In the previous century Albert Camus raised an important question about the possibility of a principled life in the order of consistent Christian values. In his short novel, L'Etranger, we watch the criminal prosecution and sentencing of Meursault, an Algerian, for the apparently senseless killing of an Arab. When he is asked to say that he regrets his crime, Meursault says instead that he is merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1084677898804824122004-05-15T23:24:00.000-04:002004-05-16T00:45:39.963-04:00We all harbor outrage at war and past events that turn out to have engendered lasting horrors. What will my grandchildren, and their children, think of our behavior in Iraq? It is one thing to look back with an indignant judgment of past injustice, for we have both the benefit of a better perspective and the anticipation that we can avoid it in the future; it is another thing entirely to watchmerlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1084635433478591282004-05-15T11:36:00.000-04:002004-05-15T11:45:35.910-04:00David Duke and the Middle East Question. Am I the only one to see the irony in the day today? This marks the 56-year anniversary of the establishment of Israeland today marks David Duke's exit from the Baton Rouge halfway house to which he had been sent following his release from federal prison in Big Spring, Texas, last year. Duke was sentenced to 15 months in prison for swindling his merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1084032922436083302004-05-08T12:15:00.000-04:002004-05-09T12:33:06.513-04:00If the Abu Ghraib saga isn't worth weeping over, then surely we must tear our clothes over an equally exasperating outrage. The Washington Post reported today that 7 in 10 Americans want Donald Rumsfeld to keep his job! This is according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Quick, call Seinfeld and get Elaine Benes on the phone! We need her to say again: "What's wrong with all you people? merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1083988136712916482004-05-07T23:48:00.000-04:002004-05-09T12:34:20.420-04:00While the "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses" at Abu Ghraib continue to burn away what remaining credibility the US had in the Arab world, this behavior shrouds a more profound issue in the American penal system. President Bush says that these were the acts of a few persons engaged in abhorrent, appalling, un-American behavior which does not reflect our high values. Defense merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1083976018279791802004-05-07T20:26:00.000-04:002004-05-07T20:31:39.733-04:00The new issue of Christian Reflection is in the mail. I know because mine came today. This issue, "Inklings of Glory," studies the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and his writer-friends C.S. Lewis and Dorothy Sayers. You too can have a free subscription to the series simply by contacting Baylor University's Center for Christian Ethics or by using the online form at www.ChristianEthics.ws.
merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1083723925009705492004-05-04T22:25:00.000-04:002004-05-04T22:33:57.060-04:00"The system works. The system works." That is Donald Rumsfeld's new mantra as the scandal over Iraqi prisoner abuses continue to unfold. So 25 Iraqis have died in US custody and the list of prisoners who were abused, humiliated, and tortured while on America's watch is just being rolled outand this has apparently been part of a pattern that reaches back at least a full year. Is this merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1083546256851466402004-05-02T21:04:00.000-04:002004-05-04T22:33:06.263-04:00I'm finally getting The Man Who Rowed Lake Pontchartrain ready for its print publication. I will have a sale link on newquaker.com when ready.
merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1083388248569469912004-05-01T01:10:00.000-04:002004-05-04T22:36:13.576-04:00Bible game cheats. My friend R.F., who used to be an administrator but was later restored to sanity as a professor at the College, walked into my office and handed me an article from the April 20th Guardian on how US Christian fundamentalists are driving Bush's Middle East policy. He and I have had many talks about this subject and I've tried to help him understand the difference between what merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1083119148584592112004-04-27T22:25:00.000-04:002004-04-27T22:33:10.076-04:00Chill the patriot. So you think the possibility of being labelled an "enemy combatant" and shoved in a hole on Guantanamo Bay is real enough. Well, here is the kind of story that raises the little hairs on the back of my neck and makes me think that the forces that attacked the US on 9/11 actually won the very war of terror they started. If not, then our current administration is already merlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1082942682032619182004-04-25T21:24:00.000-04:002004-04-25T21:33:47.420-04:00The possibility of Christian anarchy rests inevitably on the metaphysical doctrine that time is real. If time is not real, then we are living in eternity, always with the present being present, a remembrance of the past only, and the future merely anticipated. Many important philosophers have believed in the unreality of timee.g., St. Augustine, Spinoza, Kant, F.H. Bradley, Russell, Quinebut merlenoreply@blogger.com