Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Although we are unenthusiastic about bringing back the draft, we aren't any more enthusiastic about our military actively recuriting foreigners to defend our country. This is not based on some vague, moralistic patriotic urge. It is based on a knowledge of late Roman history, and specifically the disaster that the British leader Vortigern induced when …
Continue reading "A Country Needs to be Defended by its Own"
About that time an edict was issued by the Emperor Augustus that a census should be taken of the whole Empire. (This was the first census taken while Quirinius was Governor of Syria). And every one went to his own town to be registered. Among others Joseph went up from the town of Nazareth in …
Continue reading "The Christmas Story, from the Positive Infinity New Testament"
Back before the election, we noted a piece in the Shiny Sheet about Ann Coulter's problems with voting in Palm Beach. At the time, we felt that this was a prosecutorial fishing expedition, politically motivated. Things keep moving somewhere with this. Now the Town of Palm Beach has thrown the investigation back to the Palm …
The in-process exodus from the Episcopal church by various parishes in Northern Virginia has been greeted with glee by many in the Anglican community. The reality is, however, that what they are doing is more of a necessity than a joy. When a denomination or other church organisation decides to abandon the basics of Christianity, …
Continue reading "Leaving the Episcopal Church: Doing What Has to be Done"
On the back of an Episcopal baptismal certificate, 1863. The only similarity between then and now is the authoritarian command of the church. And these days the Episcopal Church is getting its authority from somewhere other than above. After Jesus had come into the Temple Courts, the Chief Priests and the Councillors of the Nation …
Continue reading "What Episcopalians Used to Expect from Themselves"
It's bad enough that Jimmy Carter has uncritically accepted the idea that Israel is solely responsible for all of the Middle East's problems. But the fact that he won't even debate Alan Dershowitz--a card-carrying liberal if there ever was one--only shows that his hopeless pseudosophistication has gone beyond human repair. Carter has forgotten that Jews …
We're sure that this is what Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky is saying to himself after the fiasco (which SEA-TAC is finally reversing) in which the Rabbi threatened to sue the airport for not including a menorah with the Christmas trees at the airport. The airport, of course, responded by ordering the removal of the trees, which …
This is the time of year when the minds of the very young turn to Santa Claus. Cookies and milk appear near the fireplace. Mall Santas experience full employment. And "The Night Before Christmas" gets recited ad nauseam. Eventually somebody breaks the news that there is no Santa Claus, but as long as the gifts …
The Iraq Study Group report highlights something that deserves better treatment than it receives in our political/media system: the problem with Americans negotiating for anything. Basically, Americans look at negotiating with Iran, Syria or anyone else the same way they do business deals: the negotiators go in, they apply whatever skills they have at "doing …
As you might expect, we're not surprised that James Baker's committee has supported the "right of return" and a Middle East peace conference without Israel. Baker's thinking is exactly the same as the reason Russia got into bed with Iran: cash flow. The oil industry's main source of raw material is the Persian Gulf, and …
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