Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
It's the only word that really "captures the moment" about this event: Washington Episcopal Bishop John B. Chane announced Saturday he will retire in the fall of 2011, saying it was "time to elect a younger person to lead what I consider to be the best and one of the most influential dioceses in the …
Continue reading "A Real "Alhamdulillah" Moment: Bishop John Chane Retires"
From the 1928 BCP, it's the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard: For the Kingdom of Heaven is like an employer who went out in the early morning to hire labourers for his vineyards. He agreed with the labourers to pay them two shillings a day, and sent them into his vineyard. On going …
Continue reading "The Gospel for Septuagesima: Christians Need to Stop Pining for the Big Payoff"
That's the question people in the West simply will not ask: The second problem, and this is the most serious, is that Shirk fails to demonstrate that China has made such a great economic leap not only because it engaged in market reform - the former Soviet Union and East European countries did the same …
Continue reading "Is China Succeeding Because of Its Totalitarian Heritage, or in Spite of It?"
Back in November, I posted a brief narrative piece from the Moody Blues' album Days of Future Passed, along with some thoughts on the album's New Age underpinnings and its influence on me and on my novel The Ten Weeks. A snatch of that narrative piece is a good way to note the sad passing …
Continue reading "Challenges Infinity, and is Soon Gone: The Death of Tony Clarke"
This, from Black Swan Capital: There exists the potential that this tighter-money posturing, maneuvering, squirming or strategizing by the Fed will ultimately support the US dollar’s value. Well it can’t hurt, considering the overwhelming sentiment that the Fed will opt to inflate away the US dollar. And that brings me to something President Obama mentioned …
Continue reading "State of the Union Takeaway: We Need to Export More Goods. But How?"
The EPA is at it again: The Obama administration set stricter limits on the amount of nitrogen dioxide in the air for short periods of time along busy roads and is requiring states to install monitoring equipment in big urban areas in an effort to crack down on pollution during periods of high traffic. Vehicles …
This coup has the left in apoplexy: Instead, when Tim Tebow and his mother agreed to tell their story (of how Tim was born even when his mother was advised to abort him) in an ad that’s a part of Focus on the Family’s “Celebrate Life, Celebrate Family” campaign, an ad that cost Focus on …
Continue reading "Tim Tebow's Pro-Life Super Bowl Ad: So How Will They Block the Beer Commercials?"
I see that The Times' Ruth Gledhill is on the trail of this issue: The charity is in the process of doing research into why men don't come to church, and their questionnaire makes, for this woman anway, pretty reading. Read on for some of the reasons they suggest why real men might not like …
Now that the necessary "supermajority" in the Senate (a tenuous concept at best) is gone, the Democrats, like Lenin a century ago, are wondering: what is to be done? Here's a suggestion: nationalise (or more accurately federalise) Medicaid. Currently a joint venture of the states and the Feds, making it an entirely Federal program would …
Continue reading "Option for the Democrats: Nationalise Medicaid"
The opposition to his renomination is, in some ways, simply amazing: In a statement Friday morning, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, came out against Mr. Bernanke, who was named to his post during the Bush administration. She said she had “a lot of respect” for him and praised him for preventing the economic crisis …
Continue reading "Canning Ben Bernanke: Hope You've Got a Good "Plan B""
Positive Infinity 