Look at this. Two UK posts in a row. After hearing my daughter express herself in our living room on this subject more than once, I encouraged her to put it in prose that sings. And so she did. Right here. If this were a Blandings story, and if Bekah were Baxter, this is the …
How Not to Lower the Net
There is not really a delicate way to get at one of the root problems with modern higher ed without confronting the emotional engine which drives those problems. And when we confront that engine we discover that the problem is caused by the atomosphere we all live in, and not by this or that nefarious …
War on Overworked Metaphors
Just a quick, additional example of how we should draw political conclusions from what everybody knows, this time with some criticism for the neocons. What with the Christmas Day bomber guy and all, we are seeing another round of debate between the neocons, who say we need to treat this thing like a war, and …
Timber Wolf Poo and Rabbit Poo
This post was originally titled “The Way of the Cross and Constantine,” but this is more interesting, don’t you think? Jesus died outside Jerusalem two thousand years ago. That death was not only the hinge upon which all history turns (although it certainly is that), it is also the hinge in the story of every …
Yeah. Like That.
The president said that the health care package that cleared the Senate was the most important social legislation since Social Security. Which was, as my daughter Rachel put, like saying we haven’t had weather this good since Katrina.
Stirring the Pan Ever More Vigorously
As I have written before, there are many political assessments that should be made on the basis of what everybody can see, and not on the basis of esoteric “insider” knowledge. Further, these judgments should certainly not be made on the basis of a paradigm powerful enough to invert what is obviously happening — powerful …
A Carnival of Pillage
“And thus all have confessed that no government can be happily established unless piety is the first concern; and that those laws are preposterous which neglect God’s right and provide only for men” (Calvin, Institutes 4.20.9). And, as we see unfolding in Congress right this minute, a group of men who have no fear of …
A Pre-existing Condition
Now that the brigands of the Senate have successfully doubled down in order to get their 60 votes for cloture, they can now amend the bill at their pleasure, and part of their pleasure will be double-crossing the people they bribed to get their cloture vote. Did we say the people of Nebraska would never …
The Wise Men and the Nations
INTRODUCTION: This part of the Christmas story is not a stand alone story. In the narrative, we find a type of how all the rulers of this world will eventually come to kiss the Son. THE TEXT: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there …
Holy Ghost Industrial Grade Sandpaper
I have been writing on distance learning, and how, while it provides some important things, like information, it is utterly incapable of providing other things, like how to deal with people. In a learning community, in a school or college, your fellow students are people, your teachers are people, the administration is made up of …