Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
A retired British diplomat finally breaks down and admits it: On Sunday I got up and went to church. I can’t really call myself a regular churchgoer, but for some reason I am getting up about three hours earlier than normal while on holiday in the Bahamas, so it involved no real overcoming of sloth... …
Continue reading "The Old Colonies are Really an Improvement After All"
Rowan Williams is at it again: The Archbishop of Canterbury has condemned evangelist "bullies" who attempt to convert people of other faiths to Christianity. Dr Rowan Williams said it was right to be suspicious of proselytism that involves "bullying, insensitive approaches" to other faiths. In a speech at Guildford cathedral, Dr Williams criticised those who …
Continue reading "Rowan Williams and Evangelist "Bullies:" Save the Whining for the Atheists"
In this case, the United Kingdom: The image of three young Kosovans, found dead, roped together, at the foot of a Glasgow high-rise, deserves to go down in the annals of British shame alongside the pictures of the Chinese cockle-pickers who drowned in Morecambe Bay. In their detail, of course, the tragedies are quite different. …
Continue reading "Asylum Seeking in the Country Which Everyone Wanted to Leave"
Thomas Farr at the Washington Post thinks that the Obama Administration is side-lining both American law and policy on this subject: Religious freedom advocates were encouraged by the President's stated views and allowed themselves to hope that America's international religious freedom policy, long isolated at the State Department, would be strengthened under the new administration. …
Continue reading "The Changing Priority on Religious Freedom"
It surely does: U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to tamp down an uprising in politically vital Florida against a new strategy for NASA that has rankled space veterans and lawmakers and sparked fears of job losses. Obama's decision to kill NASA's Constellation program to launch astronauts into orbit and return Americans to the moon …
Continue reading "The "Scientific" Administration Takes the Heat for NASA Cutbacks"
The subjects of evolution and creation are explosive ones, not only because of their scientific implications, but for their social and political ones as well. That's been the case since Darwin first set forth the theory. It is certainly true today; for all of their protestations about the desire to be "scientific," implementing whatever can …
It had to happen sooner or later: When board members and administrators from Baylor University and the Baylor College of Medicine were recently engaged in conversation about the possibility of strengthening ties between the two institutions, some suggested that the faith component of Baylor University's mission would negatively affect the quality of the scholarship for …
Continue reading "Penalising Faith-Based Institutions for Scientific Activity"
Although it's a deadly serious subject, there's an enormous amount of irony in this: The top U.S. diplomat in Pakistan says the Obama administration does not know how many Americans might have disappeared overseas to train with al-Qaida or other terrorist groups. The number is not thought to be large, but Ambassador to Pakistan Anne …
Continue reading "Where "Radicalised" Americans Are Depends Upon What Kind You're Looking For"
Doesn't look that way: Increasingly, senior administration officials shrug when you mention the November mid-term elections. “We did all we could,” and “it’s not our fault” is the line; their point being that if jobs (miraculously at this point) come back quickly, the Democrats have a fighting chance – but not otherwise. It may be true, at …
Continue reading "Does Obama Really Want to Win in 2010? If the Termites Hold Hands…"
From Engineering News-Record, in an industry that's having more than its share of redundancies these days: We know it’s bad practice to bid low just to stay in business and keep working. A contractor can go bust if the job goes bad, profits don’t materialize, and bankers desert the firm. But keeping people employed through …
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