For those who look at this objectively, the dead end of green jobs stimulus is unsurprising: Noticeably absent from President Obama's latest economic-stimulus package are any further attempts to create jobs through "green" energy projects, reflecting a year in which the administration's original, loudly trumpeted efforts proved largely unfruitful. The long delays typical with environmentally …
Rating Teachers Would be Simpler Without the State Supported Monopoly
The trade union strikes back in the face of the LA Times publishing teacher performance data: Although the Times acknowledged that this measure does "not capture everything that goes into making a good teacher," that's exactly how the paper used this data. In its race to create dramatic headlines, the paper sacrificed both the tenets …
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Don't Burn the Qur'an. Study It!
I have to admit that the Dove World Outreach Church's plan to burn Qur'ans on Saturday is one of the stupidest things I have heard of in a long time. The reason is simple: it is impossible to share our Christian faith with Muslims (have meaningful dialogue, if you please) unless we have a knowledge …
Cars That Drive Themselves: The Next Step
It's the logical "next step" from the smart highways, cars that drive themselves: It may sound like science fiction, but the research arm of the Transportation Department is at work on this future right now. With many modes of transportation already using automation as standard operating procedure, cars guiding themselves and avoiding crashes might not …
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Stephen Hawking and the Arrogance of Insignificance
At the end of his piece Why God Did Not Create the Universe, Stephen Hawking makes the following statement: Although we are puny and insignificant on the scale of the cosmos, this makes us in a sense the lords of creation. This statement is part of a long train of inconsistent thinking on this subject. …
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Touch not God's Anointed
This is the fifth in a sporadic series on the Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The previous post was Confirmation or Chrismation? In the previous piece we discussed the chrism, or anointing immediately after baptism. Discussing this to the newly baptised and chrismated, Cyril makes a very bold statement: Having therefore become partakers …
In the Middle East, Tensions Really Don't Rise at Times Like This
The Wall Street Journal, eminent publication that it is, is misleading people with opening lines like this: Rising tensions in the Mideast cast a shadow over the start of the first direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in nearly two years Wednesday, and leaders at the Washington summit vowed to press on with negotiations. "Rising tensions" imply …
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If I Told You Where My Palm Beach House Is, I'd Have to Kill You
But now it can be known: Bernadette Casey Smith, daughter of the late former CIA director William Casey, has sold Estrella del Mar, her family’s North End oceanfront house at 1240 N. Ocean Blvd. for $6.8 million, according to a warranty deed filed Thursday afternoon. Most recently listed for $8.5 million, the 10,000-square-foot Spanish-style main …
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Confirmation or Chrismation?
This is the fourth in a sporadic series on the Catechetical Lectures of St. Cyril of Jerusalem. The previous post in the series is here. One of the significant differences between the “Western” Churches (Roman Catholic, Anglican) and their “Eastern” counterparts (Orthodox, Chalcedonian and otherwise) is the varying practice of what is done to Christians …
On the Road to Middle East Peace, the Devil is in the Details
Detail #1 is the fact that President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Mahmoud Abbas doesn't have the authority with his own people to make it stick: Whether these talks succeed or collapse, this will probably be the last task for the aging Palestinian leader, also known as Abu Mazen. At 75, Abbas, chairman of …
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Positive Infinity 