This, from David "Spengler" Goldman: Bill Clinton, the last Democratic president, thought in effect, “Let’s get economic growth so I can tax it and pay for all my toys and games.” That was the “New Democrat” approach. Obama knows that if the economy crumbles and he’s the only one left with a checkbook, then everyone …
The Hard Sciences Aren’t Hard on Religion
I made a statement recently that some of my Christian friends may not have appreciated much: I’m one of those people who’d like to see hard science and math education become the “core” education in our schools, as opposed to the arts or social sciences, which is the case now in the Anglophone world in …
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The Politics of Sacrifice are Absurd
Michael Cohen hasn't thought this issue through very clearly: Today, nearly 50 million Americans lack health care coverage, the average American is often one serious illness away from financial ruin and every year nearly 20,000 Americans die because they don’t have health insurance. Yet last week, when President Barack Obama gave a nationally televised news …
In The Picture: An Applehead Siamese Cat Shows Off
Everyone wants family pictures. To get past the usual studio shots, my mother brought out Bernice Ransom, portrait photographer of socialites, to make some of my brother and myself at our home.In her advertisements, Ransom claimed that "children...pets...home sittings...our special 'cup of tea'!" What she didn't tell everyone was that, with a cat, the first …
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Let the Laity Arise: “People are starving, and you want us to wait for a meeting of the Standing Committee?”
This from Anglican Mainstream, showing that ecclesiastical bureaucracies are frequently part of the problem and not the solution: So, the following Tuesday, the Women of Purpose met for a fund-raising. From within their Fellowship they raised 2.6 million shillings. When they approached one of the clergy at All Saints’ Cathedral, Kampala, about making an appeal …
George Bush, the Gothard Man
Originally posted 26 April 2006. I'm reposting it as it's relevant not only for evaluating George Bush's legacy, but Bill Gothard's as well. George Bush is in a tight place these days, with poll numbers falling as fast as gas prices are rising (the two, unfortunately, are related.) So how did this come about, especially …
Katharine Jefferts Schori Needs to Take the Money and Run
In a recent address on this subject, TEC Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori reveals the biggest problem in her position on the property: I will continue to uphold two basic principles in the work some of us face in dealing with former Episcopalians who claim rights to church property or assets. Our participation in God's …
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Microsoft’s Long Decline. Another High Five for the Mac World.
From this: Apple has always only competed in the middle-to-high range of the computer market. But it was never the case, historically, that Apple sold a majority of middle-to-high-end computers. Even given that NPD’s numbers represent only retail sales, is there any reasonable doubt that Apple’s share of the non-retail market for $1,000+ computers is …
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Join the Club. Maybe Not! A Strange Tale of Two Worlds in Palm Beach
Originally written and posted March 2005. Since that time, Bernie Maddoff has made one of the clubs featured in this piece famous (if impecunious,) so I've rewritten it a bit. The following year I got to play golf at the Ridgeway Country Club, a formerly "Jewish country club" in Memphis, TN, which opened its membership …
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Atheism Isn’t Self-Evident From a Scientific Education
In describing a "camp for atheists" (that's not an entirely accurate generalisation, but it's close) Ruth Gledhill notes the following: At Camp Quest, children will be led to believe that science, which forms the main substance of their instruction, is incompatible with religion and religious beliefs, not because a scientific education makes this fact self-evident …
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Positive Infinity 