Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
At the end of an otherwise interesting post, James Gibson at Sanctus makes the following parting shot: The visceral reaction against the Manhattan Declaration is a case study in the evangelical ghetto mentality. Born in ignorance, it grows into bigotry and a most un-Christlike lack of charity. If he was fishing for understanding, he needs …
Continue reading "Are People Who Don't Like the Manhattan Declaration Necessarily Bigots?"
Linking the three temptations of Jesus in the wilderness with the three major lusts outlined in 1 John 2 has a long history in Christian preaching. Here is an example from Augustine's second homily on 1 John, with some bullet points for clarity: These three (temptations) there are, and you can find nothing whereby human …
Continue reading "Augustine on the Temptations of Jesus and the Three Major Lusts"
South Florida is riveted on the BP oil spill and the Loop Current, but in Manalapan they've got other things washing on the beach: A suspicious device washed ashore on the beach this morning, prompting a call to the bomb squad, police said. Manalapan Police and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office bomb squad investigated …
Continue reading "While Watching for the Oil Spill, a Bomb Shows Up"
Another gem from Jerome's Homilies on the Psalms, this time Psalm 84 (from here): “How lovely are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” The sole ambition of some people is to possess property; others long to be enriched with the wealth of the world; still others wish to hold prominent places at conventions and be …
Continue reading "The Greatest Ambition: Jerome on Psalm 84"
The Tree of Life has been a topic of special interest to me since I made the connection with the lignum vitae (The Tree That Grows in Heaven.) Here is Jerome's linkage of Psalm 1 with the other allusions to the tree, from his Homilies on the Psalms (from here): “He is like a tree …
No kidding, this, from Rubin on Tax: A theme we have often mentioned is that capital flows to where it is best treated. Obviously, the level of tax imposed on businesses is a key element of how capital is treated in any given jurisdiction. A 2010 KPMG guide analyses the current tax competitiveness of 10 …
Continue reading "Mexico: The Tax Haven for Those Who Survive the Lead Rain"
Someone has finally put forth the case that only Ivy Leaguers should really be on the Supreme Court: The gatekeeper power of such institutions is why it was so important to desegregate them (using affirmative action, among other tools) and why virtually all leaders of great universities talk about diversity and access. For about 40 …
From J. Vernon McGee's Through the Bible, commenting on John 15:18-19: Notice what will happen if you are a child of God. The world will hate you. I believe that a Christian's popularity can be an indication of how he is representing Christ in the world. I do not believe a Christian can be popular …
That's exactly what they're implying in their defence of Elena Kagan: The White House declared publicly, even before President Obama nominated Elena Kagan, that she is not a lesbian. "False charges," White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said after a conservative blogger wrote last month on a CBS News Web site that Kagan would be the …
Continue reading "Does the Obama Administration Think Being Lesbian is Wrong?"
That great son of the Confederacy (and probable relative to his Ulster Unionist namesake) David Trimble gets it right on this one: Many of these orthodox may not yet be fully conscious of this change. It is in some ways subtle, in the tone and frequency of blog posts and other communications among those who …
Continue reading "Recognising the Inevitable Split in the Anglican/Episcopal World"
Positive Infinity 