Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Two events this past weekend ran together to illustrate what is, for me, the central dilemma of living in this world--the fact that authority no longer reflects what we know to be true. Let's start with the church. In reaction to my posting of George Conger and Kevin Kallsen Put a Wrap on the Anglican …
Continue reading "A Church to Believe In, A Country to Believe In"
Buried in the middle of a story of how an Ohio Christian school is punishing one of its students for attending a public school prom is this: The handbook for the 84-student Christian school says rock music "is part of the counterculture which seeks to implant seeds of rebellion in young people's hearts and minds." …
Continue reading "Newsflash to Fundamentalists: You Are the Counterculture Now"
It's sad but true. We owe an apology to our Central American bretheren: Political risk is becoming a growing concern for investors in the United States as the government plays a larger and more controversial role in private enterprise because of the financial crisis. State intervention in economic affairs is always closely watched by investors …
Continue reading "Our Revised Pledge: “And to the Banana Republic for Which It Stands…”"
In the middle of his rant (and I'd recommend this for a more intelligent assessment of the Afghan situation) Pepe Escobar lets this out: As for the "Pak" (Pakistan) component of AfPak, it is pure counter-insurgency (COIN). As such, His Master's Voice has got to be Central Command commander and surging General David "I'm always …
Or at least it looks that way: China, wary of the troubled US economy, has already "canceled America's credit card" by cutting down purchases of debt, a US congressman said Thursday. China has the world's largest foreign reserves, believed to be mostly in dollars, along with around 800 billion dollars in US Treasury bonds, more …
I've about had enough of the blather (especially from my Christian colleagues) about the whole business of torture during the last administration. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the Obama Administration's reasons for shying away from prosecution are entirely practical. They are as follows: Prosecuting one's predecessors makes it easier to …
Continue reading "The Non-Issue of Torture in the Bush Administration"
Abu Daoud challenged me on the whole business of people and businesses fleeing the UK on account of rising taxation. I answered that, but now on this side of the pond we have this: Code Section 162(m) limits the deduction for compensation paid to certain highly paid employees of publicly held corporations to $1 million …
Continue reading "The IRS Rewards Corporations For Not Being American"
Being the darling of America's elites will probably not be much of a warning to us about this: The British budget last Wednesday did very little to rectify that country's yawning fiscal deficit, but what little it did was almost entirely at the expense of the country's high-income earners, those making over 150,000 pounds (US$210,000). …
The juxtaposition of two posts deserves note. First, this one from Abu Daoud about Our Islamic Future (it's the YouTube video below): The second comes from the New York Times (HT to Titusonenine): More than ever, America’s atheists are linking up and speaking out — even here in South Carolina, home to Bob Jones University, …
Continue reading "Islam vs. the Atheists: The New Competition"
The current edition of True Maroon, an online magazine for and about Aggies, features a piece (in video and text) on Forrest Mims III '66, science writer and researcher. In November 2008, Discover magazine named him one of the "50 Best Brains in Science." But all was not so rosy for Mims. As the text …
Continue reading "Forrest Mims, Creationist, Featured in True Maroon"
Positive Infinity 