Tuesday, April 3. 2007
 ...and foolishness. Pelosi and company visiting Syria reveals a break with reality, whether Dem or Repub. Who do they think they are?
I am not saying that diplomacy should not try to deal with enemies or adversaries, but it is not the job of Congress to do the work of the State Dept. and the Administration. Bush has been slow on the uptake for the past year, and so it may appear that there is a power vacuum but, even so, you don't become part of a rogue foreign policy - especially with a nation which supports Hezbollah. Leave it to the pros at State, such as they are. Image borrowed from Powerline's photo piece on the subject. There is some sort of insanity going on. By the way, where's Condi these days?
 Re-posted from April, 2006
From a piece by Brian at Real Meal Blog: As we approach Holy Week and focus on the death of Jesus and his subsequent resurrection, let us reflect on the implications of the Cross for those who seek to follow Jesus. My daughter’s argument for the safety of a life in captivity over the risk of a life freedom brought to mind the words of Jesus. In Matthew, Jesus’ most powerful challenge to his followers comes in chapter 16. Consider these two verses: NIV Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. Most of us read these verses only in the negative: self-denial, hardship, etc, but this is a distortion of Jesus’ point. Yes, the way of discipleship is hard. Let’s be clear about this.
Following Jesus Christ is a profound counter-cultural action. It is a life of risk. It is not about safety. But it is the opportunity to live a full life in the service of our Creator. It is an opportunity to live for that which we were made. Nothing could be more exiting nor, dare I say it, fulfilling. It is about following Jesus into the places that only those who have lost the fear of living can go. Jesus invites us to consider ourselves “dead men [or women] walking” precisely so that he can unleash us into a world that desperately needs women and men who are not afraid of uncertainty, danger, and trials because they know that their true Master is with them always (28:20).
Image: Duccio (1255-1319), Entry into Jerusalem
I am re-posting this essay because I think it got a bit lost in the mix over the weekend. Why so important? Because it makes clear that our civilization and our culture - including our religion - are what we have going for us. These things are precious, and more fragile than we'd like to think. The noble savage is a child's dream.
World violence is diminishing. A History of Violence - a speech by Steven Pinker. A sample: In the decade of Darfur and Iraq, and shortly after the century of Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, the claim that violence has been diminishing may seem somewhere between hallucinatory and obscene. Yet recent studies that seek to quantify the historical ebb and flow of violence point to exactly that conclusion. Some of the evidence has been under our nose all along. Conventional history has long shown that, in many ways, we have been getting kinder and gentler. Cruelty as entertainment, human sacrifice to indulge superstition, slavery as a labor-saving device, conquest as the mission statement of government, genocide as a means of acquiring real estate, torture and mutilation as routine punishment, the death penalty for misdemeanors and differences of opinion, assassination as the mechanism of political succession, rape as the spoils of war, pogroms as outlets for frustration, homicide as the major form of conflict resolution—all were unexceptionable features of life for most of human history. But, today, they are rare to nonexistent in the West, far less common elsewhere than they used to be, concealed when they do occur, and widely condemned when they are brought to light. At one time, these facts were widely appreciated. They were the source of notions like progress, civilization, and man's rise from savagery and barbarism. Recently, however, those ideas have come to sound corny, even dangerous. They seem to demonize people in other times and places, license colonial conquest and other foreign adventures, and conceal the crimes of our own societies. The doctrine of the noble savage—the idea that humans are peaceable by nature and corrupted by modern institutions—pops up frequently in the writing of public intellectuals like José Ortega y Gasset ("War is not an instinct but an invention"), Stephen Jay Gould ("Homo sapiens is not an evil or destructive species"), and Ashley Montagu ("Biological studies lend support to the ethic of universal brotherhood"). But, now that social scientists have started to count bodies in different historical periods, they have discovered that the romantic theory gets it backward: Far from causing us to become more violent, something in modernity and its cultural institutions has made us nobler.
Read the whole thing (link above). Sounds like Freud's Civilization and its Discontents wasn't too far off. Civilization has its challenges, but the alternatives aren't so hot. Image: Mor's Feast of Attila the Hun
The Very Reverend Jeffrey John, Dean of St. Alban's, claims Christ did not die for our sins. The Telegraph. I think this guy is inventing his own religion. There is a term for that. Dobson acts like a real jerk. I wish he would stick to his knitting. Much of his family stuff is very good, but when he gets into politics he makes a fool of himself. The New Atheists vs. the Old Atheists. The Tennessean. And who knew Harvard had a Humanist Chaplain. What's that, exactly? (h/t, News for Christians) A Maggie's Farm reader was presented with the following "version" of The Lord's Prayer at her Episcopal Church: My Creator (soul's Source, spirit's Destination, Ground of Our Being, etc.)
in whom/which is heaven, or within which we can find heaven (as co-creators)
we revere/respect you
We will work to see your divine intent become a reality where we live.
We will work to see that everyone has the food they need to live and have health and energy to contribute to the welfare of Earth and its life systems.
We sense that we are forgiven for our admitted shortcomings to the extent that we art able to forgive others their failures.
We recognize the presence of evil in our world and strive to avoid being a part of it as well as pointing it out whenever we are aware of it.
We work for these changes in our lives and in the lives of others in the spirit of Jesus who cared for all those who were unjustly treated or oppressed.
May we make these things so. As Rick Moran would say, I am speechless.
The Unchained Goddess, from Bell Telephone Hour on TV, in 1958. Video at Evangelical Outpost. Makes Al Gore sound positively tame. Remember, this show was before the global cooling hysteria of the 1970s.
There are familiar forms of self-righteousness in which people become so suffused with the virtue of their cause that they cease to care about intellectual honesty. Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (h/t, Done with Mirrors)
Giant gypsum crystals in a cave in Mexico. Note the man in photo on the left. More about the cave, and more photos, here. (h/t, David Thompson) 
Monday, April 2. 2007
Today: Fox Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Purple Grackle, Goldfinch, Slate-colored Junco, Cardinal, Blue Jay, White Throated Sparrow, Song Sparrow, House Finch, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Chickadee, Mourning Dove, Tufted Titmouse.
 Dr. Sanity has a piece today - Showdown at the OK Corral - which perfectly captures the current Moslem-West showdown which is happening at this very moment.
She is absolutely correct that weakness and doubt in the face of Moslem hostility only brings on more. It's like blood in the water. As she says, "They aren't like us." No, they are in a different culture with different rules - if you want to call them rules. We call them dishonorable and uncivilized, but they do not see it that way. I am not going to quote it. Just do me a favor and read her piece.
I never learned from a man who agreed with me. Robert A. Heinlein
Unbelieveable but real. Youtube
This pretty boat has twin 350 Crusader engines. Speaking of boats, Sippican Cottage does Boatyard. Many can relate, I am sure. 
Sunday, April 1. 2007
 About 5000 anti-war protesters from the US, Britain, France, and Germany braved the dangers to assemble in Baghdad yesterday to protest ongoing Al Quaida activities against the people of Baghdad.
"As long as Al Quaida and Iran continue to create mayhem in Iraq, there can be no peace or security. The good people of Iraq do not deserve this," said a press statement issued by the organizers of the march. It went on to state "We urge the Islamic terrorists to lay down their arms and bombs and to get a job, get married, open an Individual Retirement Account, and help build the economy of this fine country so all can have happy, normal, peaceful lives." Carrying placards reading such things as "Stop the war," "Al Quaida sucks," "Nice people aren't suicide bombers," "Iran Go Home," "Al Sadr is a Nerd,"and "Guys with bombs won't get dates," the marchers followed a route through the main thoroughfares of downtown Baghdad for about five hours yesterday, and will hold a press conference this morning before returning to their homes. The march was entirely peaceful, and thousands of curious but supportive Iraqis emerged from their homes and shops to watch the marchers as they banged on pots and pans and chanted "Bombs aren't cool - let peace rule," "Don't be a fool - freedom is cool," and "One, two, three four - we don't want your Jihad war." As the marchers broke into John Lennon's deeply moving hymn "All we are saying...is give peace a chance," we asked Omar, a bread merchant whose shop was along the route, for his reaction. "Veddy nice hats," he observed. Photo of the Baghdad peace march borrowed from Dr. Sanity's piece on the peace movement.
Saturday, March 31. 2007
An old southern Baptist country preacher had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young men, the boy didn't really know what he wanted to do, and he didn't seem too concerned about it. One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment. He went into the boy's room and placed on his study table four objects: A Bible
A silver dollar
A bottle of whisky
A Playboy magazine "I'll just hide behind the door," the old preacher said to himself, "and when he comes home from school this afternoon, I'll see which object he picks up. If it's the Bible, he's going to be a preacher like me, and what a blessing that would be! If he picks up the dollar, he's going to be a businessman, and that would be okay, too. But if he picks up the bottle, he's going to be a no-good drunkard, and, Lord, what a shame that would be! And worst of all, if he picks up that magazine he's gonna be a skirt-chasin' bum." The old man waited anxiously, and soon heard his son's footsteps as he entered the house whistling and headed for his room. The boy tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned to leave the room he spotted the objects on the table. With curiosity in his eye, he walked over to inspect them. Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm. He picked up the silver dollar and dropped it into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink while he admired this month's Centerfold. "Lord have mercy," the old preacher muttered in disgust, "he's gonna be a Congressman." (h/t, Alpha Patriot)
 "Tolerance" is a one-way street. How about plain good manners? Michelle on the chocolate Jesus
Evita sending Bill out to raise money. A sign that she is worried. Who is running? And one rhetorical question: How come Rudy gets all sorts of attacks this week for answering a question by saying that perhaps his wife might attend a Cabinet meeting on a topic of special interest to her - while Bill Clinton ran as "two presidents for the price of one"? Hillary attended meetings whenever she wanted. Breaking into houses at night and killing women and children. The US Army pays a visit to Omar's Baghdad home. Nice example of justice in Texas. Ace. A bad day for the little Mrs. Image: Photo of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival (thanks, reader)
 Talked with a friend last night who had just returned from Africa, and who spent ten days at Singita's Ebony Lodge in South Africa's huge Kruger National Park.
It sounds like a trip of a lifetime, and Singita's lodges (each with a small number of guest suites) sound like the most comfortable places in Africa with service which silently anticipated their every want. They even had his favorite cigars in a humidor waiting for him on arrival. They got to the lodge by chartering a plane from Johannesberg, which he described as becoming a lawless, white-hating and frightening city. The famous Saxon Hotel is surrounded by walls, barbed wire, with dogs on patrol and armed guards. We may be fated to watch this amazing country deteriorate into a third world country. You can fantasize about, or plan, your trip to Singita here. The lodges here. Conde Nast Traveller named Singita the 2004 Best Hotel in the World.
If you didn't take the time to listen to this short speech by Evan Kayet, do it. He is smart. He gets it. I have promised to buy dinner for all of my lib friends who will listen to it.
With Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, David Crosby, and Bob. YouTube The Byrds, I'll feel a whole lot better when you're gone. YouTube
Friday, March 30. 2007
 Why is the overfishing of sharks leading to a serious decrease in scallops on the East coast? Explained here.
I think shark fishing is stupid anyway. What's the point? People chum for them, catch them, kill them, take a photo, and throw the thing overboard. Not sporting, not manly. People - not the government - should decide to quit it. Image: A Sea Scallop, the source of those big "scallops" at the fish market.
 20 I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the state, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party, generally.
21 This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy. 22 The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty. 23 Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. From his Farewell Address
From a piece by Fred Sanders on George Washington Carver: Carver developed a homespun religious philosophy and told little stories that catch the imagination. One story has him crying out to God, “Oh, Mr. Creator, why did You make the universe?” to which God replied, “You want to know too much for that little mind of yours. Ask me something more your size.” So he tried “Dear Mr. Creator, tell me what man was made for.” Still too big. Finally: “Mr. Creator, why did You make the peanut?” "Thats better!" the Lord said, and He gave me a handful of peanuts and went with me back to the laboratory and, together, we got down to work.
It might be homespun but it works for me.
Thursday, March 29. 2007
I still cannot believe that a military Brit prisoner would speak these words: "Obviously we trespassed into their waters," Turney said. "They were very friendly and very hospitable, very thoughtful, nice people. They explained to us why we've been arrested. There was no harm, no aggression." Meanwhile, incomprehensibly, Pelosi refuses to support the Brits.
Have you paid your taxes yet?!?! 18 million illegal aliens are depending on you
The newest Jib Jab. Not their best.
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