Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
But Bill is, unsurpisingly, against it: Microsoft founder head Bill Gates has banned the use of products made by arch-rival Apple from his house, his wife has revealed. But the blockade could backfire on Gates, 53, after Melinda admitted there are times she feels envious of her friends' iPhones. She told Vogue magazine that the …
Continue reading "Melinda Gates Wants an iPhone: After They’ve Boosted all the Rest…"
In the summer of 1972, I was making my transition from being an Episcopalian to a Roman Catholic. That transition is commonly referred to today as “swimming the Tiber,” but at the time I was also making another water crossing that, for me, was also very significant: we sold our home in Palm Beach and, …
The world has believed this insignificant group of lowly, unimportant, and uneducated men precisely because the divine character of what happened is more marvellously apparent in the insignificance of such witnesses. What gave power to the preachers who persuaded the world was not the eloquence of the words they uttered, but the miracles of the …
Look, now, at the great virtue called fortitude. Is not its very function—to bear patiently with misfortune—overwhelming evidence that human life is beset with unhappiness, however wise a man may be? It is beyond my comprehension how the Stoics can boldly argue that such ills are not really ills, meanwhile allowing that, if a philosopher …
Continue reading "The Ultimate Good in Life, the Stoics, and the New Atheists"
The city of man, for all of the width of its expansion throughout the world and for all of the depth of its differences in this place and that, is a single community. The simple truth is that the bond of a common nature makes all human beings one. Nevertheless, each individual in this community …
If I ever write a "self-help" book, it will be All I Ever Knew About Politics I Learned From the French. (Click here for some of what I have actually written.) Watching the French makes one a cynic, and at times like this it holds one in good stead. My French teacher in prep school …
Continue reading "Barack Obama, the Edgar Faure of American Politics"
Tennessee's Democrat governor weighs his, and the state's, options: Tennessee could reject a portion of the $787 billion economic stimulus package out of concerns that it would force the state to raise taxes on businesses in the future. At the National Governors Association meetings in Washington, D.C., Gov. Phil Bredesen said this week that he …
Continue reading "Maybe That’s Why Obama Didn’t Ask Phil Bredesen to be Commerce Secretary"
I'm reposting this today primarily because the incident at Galatoire's (a very well known restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans) took place on an Ash Wednesday which is, IMHO, the best day to eat out in the Crescent City. But I also think that the comments on prosperity teaching needs reiteration. Orignally posted …
In the case of Cain and Abel, there was no rivalry in any cupidity for the things of earth, nor was there any envy or temptation to murder arising from a fear of losing the sovereignty in both were ruling together. In this case, Abel had no ambition for domination in the city that his …
Continue reading "Evil men hate those who are good for no other reason than that they are good"
None other than the National Council of Churches, in their 2009 Yearbook: According to the 2009 Yearbook, among the 25 largest churches in the U.S., four are growing: the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (up 1.63 percent to 5,873,408; the Assemblies of God (up 0.96 percent to 2,863,265); Jehovah's Witnesses (up 2.12 percent …
Continue reading "Somebody Thinks the Church of God is Growing"
Positive Infinity 