I was in wait-and-see mode on Rick Warren praying at the inauguration. My initial reaction was uh oh, but being as judicious and thoughtful as I am, I thought I would wait and see what he actually said in his prayer. The upshot is that I was fully prepared to praise him for participating in …
Anything Goes But That
“The most eminent American universities have become centers where sexual license and depravity are praised and the only conduct that meets with official rebuke is open disapproval of immorality” (Harold O.J. Brown, The Sensate Culture, p. 207).
Covered By Snow
Once a young man was told by his father to pick up some clutter in the side yard—there were some tools, and a few toys, and some debris from a small rock wall that they had been building for a flower bed. His father came home after dark that day (it was winter and so …
A Topping Suitable
The discussion horses for my Israel and Hamas post are galloping down the road, reins dragging on the road behind them. So let me get a few band aids on my fingers and then say just a few more things here. Might calm everybody right down, or we might get to see another set of …
Israel and Hamas
Before I say what I am going to say about Israel and Hamas, let me start with a few preliminaries. First, I am a Christian and this means that I believe that Jesus Christ is the only hope of every nation, and this includes Israel. This means that Muslims and Israelis both are summoned by …
1975 Was a Good Year
Nancy posted this picture of our wedding on her blog, along with an account of the proceedings. This was thirty-three years ago today, and I continue to be as grateful as a man is allowed to get. I got married at the tender age of 22, and have been married, therefore, for sixty percent of …
Up to My Waist in Global Warming, Shovel in Hand
Okay, I had to shovel my walk again this morning. Our Ponderosa pine are beautifully flocked again. We have had more snow than I ever remember having here. Snowfall records are shattered in Spokane. My truck hasn’t been out of four-wheel drive in weeks. As a friend asked me at church yesterday, where is Al …
Of Course, Lots of Things Make Me Happy
A dusting of snow in Malibu. Real snowfall in Las Vegas. A boatload of snow dumped on us last night. We are in for another real winter it appears, two of them back to back. Spokane, just up the road from us, had to go to DefCon5 snow removal, or whatever they call it, running …
Sickly Recluse Is Right
“We were fully in the modern age; the primitiveness and squalor of the Middle Ages had been left behind. The poet Swinburne proclaimed, ‘Glory to man in the highest, for man is the maker of things. Whitman sang of himself, and Nietzsche, a sickly recluse, wrote ecstatically of the Superman” (Harold O.J. Brown, The Sensate …
Yeah, But the Incoherence Is HD on a Plasma Flat Screen
“The governments of Western countries do not have propaganda machines like Dr. Goebbels’, but all of Western culture is permeated by mass communications and round-the-clock entertainment. Whole populations are effectively anesthetized; independent thinking becomes rare; slogans replace thought; and logical analysis virtually ceases to exist” (Harold O.J. Brown, The Sensate Culture, p. 115).