Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Saw this quote from Christian inspirational writer William Arthur Ward on, of all places, Foreign Policy's website: The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails. In the spirit of what I've been seeing on Facebook lately, we should want to know what the opportunist would do. …
Continue reading "The Optimist, Pessimist and Opportunist Square Off Again"
I received an intriguing comment from Desmond on my 1662 Book of Common Prayer page. He was taking issue with my comments about women in ministry, but he did so in a odd way. Since he hit on subjects that I have talked about before and probably need repeating for newer visitors, I'll take his …
Continue reading "Just to Reiterate: My Thoughts on Women in Ministry, and About Being a Snob"
Robert McDowell is right about the threat to internet freedom: On Feb. 27, a diplomatic process will begin in Geneva that could result in a new treaty giving the United Nations unprecedented powers over the Internet. Dozens of countries, including Russia and China, are pushing hard to reach this goal by year's end. As Russian …
Continue reading "Curtailing Internet Freedom: I Guess it’s Back to the Telex"
He may not have thought of that, or perhaps he did... What Obama describes as the American Dream can seem a spare, fundamental aspiration, tailored for a campaign that looks to be fought over who is best equipped to safeguard the interests of middle-class Americans... "If you're willing to put in the work, the idea …
Continue reading "Obama's Modest American Dream Has a Soviet Ring"
Krugman's the one who's scratching his head here: Many readers of The Times were, therefore, surprised to learn, from an excellent article published last weekend, that the regions of America most hooked on Mr. Santorum’s narcotic — the regions in which government programs account for the largest share of personal income — are precisely the …
Continue reading "Paul Krugman’s Hard Lesson in Ingratitude"
As we approach Mardi Gras and the beginning of Lent next week, I thought I'd post these photos of the New Orleans Mardi Gras from around 1950. That date is approximate; the slides that either my father or mother (or both) took were undated. Nevertheless they show a New Orleans that was, in many ways, …
The flexing of national muscle--military, political and economic--we are seeing in the Middle East regarding the Islamic Republic's aspirations makes as good a backdrop as any to consider how things will wind up. In this post we will show it's possible to get a glimpse of two visions of the end, and both in an …
The Catholic League is prepared for war: Catholic leaders are furious and determined to harness the voting power of the nation’s 70 million Catholic voters to stop a provision of President Barack Obama’s new heath car reform bill that will force Catholic schools, hospitals and charities to buy birth control pills, abortion-producing drugs and sterilization …
Continue reading "Obama and the Catholics: It May Be a Kulturkampf, but He's No Otto von Bismarck"
As this Shiny Sheet editorial/article (the way it's placed, it's hard to tell) illustrates vividly: It’s unfortunate it took this long for officials at Susan G. Komen for the Cure to reverse last week’s wayward decision to cut funding to Planned Parenthood. It’s unfathomable that it took the charity three days from when the loss …
Continue reading "Social Conservatism is a Hard Sell in the Upper Reaches"
February is Black History Month in the United States. I have never done a specifically black history piece on this site, although I have from time to time suggested, for example, that Anglicans realise that the "Anglican Communion" is now and should be the "African Communion" with the centre of authority appropriately relocated. But I …
Continue reading "The Reason General John Pershing Was Called "Black Jack""
Positive Infinity 