One of pot shots that Hillary Clinton and her operatives made at conservative Catholics is that they used terms like “subsidiarity” that no one understood. Since they may be right about that, I think an illustration is in order. Many of you know that I teach Civil Engineering. Six years ago, my department head (who …
Americans Aren't the Only Ones to Choose Between "Bad" and "Really Bad"
All of the blubbering and whining going on about how Americans (and especially Christians) are somehow criminal to vote for a certain candidate needs to be put in this perspective, from a 2013 post: A few months ago, when the Iranians elected themselves a new president, I asked an Iranian friend what he thought of …
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Our Elites' Snotty Attitudes, Then and Now
Wikileaks' revelations that Hillary Clinton and her operatives take a dim view of social conservatives--following her characterization of large portions of the population as "deplorables"--has ignited a great deal of anger. As someone who started out life growing up with the elites, I think some perspective is in order. Let me start by putting up …
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Buoyancy and Stability: An Introduction
Note: this post has moved and has been updated extensively. You can go to the new post by clicking here.
When Catholic Academia Bails on Philosophy, We're All in Trouble
Which is what some of it, at least, has done: A similar crisis has shaken the philosophical estate within the church. Before 1970 philosophy enjoyed an enviable prominence in the curriculum of Catholic colleges. This Neo-Scholastic philosophy was certainly structured around the perennial questions—Does God exist? What is virtue?—but it was an odd, manual Thomism …
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Getting Closer on the St. Andrew's Sex Scandal?
It's not the closest thing, but... Bishop Audrey Scanlan of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania yesterday removed the Rev. Howard White from the priesthood. White, 75, was among several adults who sexually abused students at St. George's School in Middleton, Rhode Island in the 1970s and 80s, according to a report released recently by …
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Mohr’s Circle Analysis Using Linear Algebra and Numerical Methods
Abstract Mohr's Circle-or more generally the stress equilibrium in solids-is a well known method to analyse the stress state of a two- or three-dimensional solid. Most engineers are exposed to its derivation using ordinary algebra, especially as it relates to the determination of principal stresses and invariants for comparison with failure criteria. In this presentation, …
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Drinking With the Trailer Park Crowd Doesn't Make You a Better Person
But you wouldn't know that from Allison Benedikt's "blame and shame" piece on why people who send their kids to private school are bad people: Reading Walt Whitman in ninth grade changed the way you see the world? Well, getting drunk before basketball games with kids who lived at the trailer park near my house …
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Prayer for Rosh Hashanah
From the Jewish High Holiday Prayer Book: O God, divine Ruler of the universe, as the twilight of the old year fades into the night that marks the birth of another year, we gather together in Thy house with mingled emotions, mindful of the blessings and the sorrows Thou hast seen fit to lay upon …
The Fed Takes Its Lumps from Donald Trump
He hits hard: Ms Yellen last Wednesday dismissed as emphatically wrong Donald Trump’s claims that she and her institution were keeping short-term interest rates low at the behest of the Obama administration. “Partisan politics play no role in our decisions,” she declared. Mr Trump is throwing punches at a time when the US central bank …
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Positive Infinity 