Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Our strange government is at it again: It began when the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the interplay of taxes and subsidies in the law “creates a disincentive for people to work.” The report predicted the mix would lead to fewer hours worked, costing the equivalent of nearly 2.5 million jobs. …
Continue reading "America in Blue Suede Shoes: Obama vs. the Work Ethic"
In view of yesterday's debate on the subject, this, which is the postscript for University of Texas at El Paso math professor Granville Sewell's book Analysis of a Finite Element Method: PDE/PROTRAN: As I begin my 12th year of work on TWODEPEP (now PDE/PROTRAN ), I am intrigued by the analogy between the 11 year …
Continue reading "Granville Sewell on the Weaknesses of Darwinism"
There are two threads in the news these days that illustrate where our "Western civilisation" (which at this stage is neither) is going. As is usually the case, "God, gays and guns" are at the centre of the problem, but not in the venues they're normally associated with. Let's start with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin …
Continue reading "Our Insane "Civilisation": John Kerry and Justin Welby"
...in William Penn's Philadelphia. This, from Robert Carse's Ports of Call: But the Scottish Presbyterians who came in from North Ireland were the worst. They knew their rights, they said, and they would have those satisfied before they stepped foot out of Penn's town of brotherly love. Most of the Scots were big, rangy men, …
One of the features of this blog is the Music Pages, where some music of the "Jesus Music" era is featured, a good deal of it to the delight of the artists. I can't take the credit for starting this; that must go to "Diakoneo" of the Ancient Star-Song, whose blog started in 2006 and …
From St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 3, q. 26 a. 1: Properly speaking, the office of a mediator is to join together and unite those between whom he mediates: for extremes are united in the mean [medio]. Now to unite men to God perfectively belongs to Christ, through Whom men are reconciled to God, according …
Namely Taiwan: Beijing and Taipei this week announced the beginning of their first ever government-to-government talks. It is to some extent a mutual recognition of each other's standing, and as well as a sure-footed step in the process of reunification - so important for the People's Republic of China - it sets an important precedent …
The confirmation (against a lot of pushback) that the Carthaginians really, truly did sacrifice their children bring to mind this memorable passage from G.K. Chesterton's The Everlasting Man: There was established on the opposite coast of the inland sea a city that bore the name of the New Town. It was already much older, more …
Continue reading "Chesterton on the Carthaginian Sacrifice of Children"
He confidently states that "extremist religions" are at the bottom of conflict these days: Referring to wars and violent confrontations from Syria to Nigeria and the Philippines, Blair, writing in the Observer, argues that "there is one thing self-evidently in common: the acts of terrorism are perpetrated by people motivated by an abuse of religion. …
Two summers ago I posted a piece on my favourite pastor, my first parish priest. Protestants in general and Pentecostals in particular like their pastor to be a great pulpiteer to boot. With the advent of Christian (well, part of the time) television, people have an opportunity to follow preachers other than their own pastor …
Continue reading "My Favourite Preacher: Jaques-Benigne Bossuet"
Positive Infinity 