The man who would be Emily Dickinson

With all of this talk about someone forging a Kenyan birth certificate for Obama, I was reminded of a fascinating article I read many years ago in the Guardian.
Mark Hofman was a really good forger. He conducted careful research and he chose his victims well. They were people who bought the forgeries because they wanted [...]

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Never again?

Today we hear another case of random yet targeted violence in the shooting at the Holocaust Museum in D.C. Random, because the perpetrator didn’t know the museum security guard who he killed. But targeted, because the perpetrator, a white supremacist, chose to kill someone at a museum which documents the genocide of millions of [...]

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Interesting advert

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Quote for the day

When evangelicals on the right call President Obama a socialist, a racist, anti-American, an abortionist, not a real American, and, echoing the former Vice President, someone who is weakening America’s defenses and making us less safe, the logical conclusion is violence. If you take these words literally you might pull the trigger to “make America [...]

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For Gods sake enough with circumcision

Circumcision should be routinely considered as a way to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections, argue US experts.
They spoke out after research found circumcision significantly cut the risk of infection with herpes and the cancer-causing human papillomavirus.
Circumcision is known to sharply reduce the risk of HIV infection.
But the study, featured in the New England [...]

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Headlines for the day

It’s pretty obvious that America has some serious problems. None of which have to do with gay marriage or abortion or name your own wedge issue. Alabama, Los Angeles. These daily massacres are starting to become commonplace.

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Michelle Malkin urges boycott of South Carolina over “jihadist” flag

No, not really. But not implausible.

Picture and the history of South Carolina’s flag is at Wikipedia.

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Bringing me down to earth

A friend once told me that if I wanted to brought down from my temporary high of Barack Obama’s election and what it said about America, to just look take a look at the Department of Homeland Security’s website. It did the trick.
This is perhaps an even more potent tonic. How can you defend a [...]

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Unexpected insight and honesty from the Republicans

I’ve always thought religious extremism was really the same all over the world if you swap out the religion with another. Pete Sessions (R-TX):
“Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban,” Sessions said during a meeting yesterday with Hotline editors. “And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to [...]

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Another photo from the inauguration

Via SeattlePI:

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Still snowed in

I’m loving staying at home. Watched Alexander Nevsky last night. Great film.

In today’s news I notice that the Pope is going on about his favorite target: the gays. Christ, that guy thinks about sex a lot. Which I suppose is understandably since he’s supposed to not be having any, but really? Isn’t Christmas just two [...]

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The Tudor Choir Christmas Concerts

One of our holiday traditions is seeing The Tudor Choir at Christmas. The music of this choral group speaks for itself. Embedding has been disabled, but if  you’d like to get a taste of it click here.

This year the Tudor Choir is doing a few concerts in the area including Christmas Carols at the Blessed [...]

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Mormons surprise me

Here’s an article from the Salt Lake City Tribune about how the LDS is fighting to get gay marriage banned in California.
The LDS Church’s campaign to pass Proposition 8 represents its most vigorous and widespread political involvement since the late 1970s, when it helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment. It even departs from earlier [...]

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Are you trying to lose the election for McCain?

McCain supporters ask this question to the guy giving out Obama/Islam bumper stickers.

The strategy is not working guys. You’re going to have to talk about the issues.

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Terrorists infiltrate the Catholic church

Really, what hope do we have of defending ourselves from a terrorist attack if the evil doers out there can infiltrate the Catholic church as apparently happened in 1982.
The late Pope John Paul was wounded by a knife-wielding priest in 1982, a year after he was shot in St Peter’s Square, but the injury was [...]

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I Kissed a Girl church sign

Via Matt Yglesias.
I’m not sure I understand what the purpose of this sign is. Do they think they are going to bring parishioners to the pews with that kind of sign? Most people go to church because they find it uplifting.

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UC rejects Christian “education”

As a graduate of University of California, I’m quite pleased that UC has refused to allow credit to college preparatory courses that do not prepare you for college. Why a parent would want to handicap their child’s education and future because of religious ideology is a mystery. Maybe they worry that their religious instruction just [...]

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Kenyans reject adult circumcision

Damn straight. Solving the AIDS crisis via circumcision is like removing your tonsils so you won’t get the flu. We hear a lot about the ignorance of Africans in regards to AIDS. Well the elders of this village are contradicting that. They know better.
Elders from Kenya’s Luo community in western Kenya have refused to [...]

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Evolution

Here’s a shout out to a great post on the wordpress blog Later On. Anyone interested in evolution, creationism or science should take a look.
“Ask and it shall be given,” as Jesus said. You have asked (repeatedly) for transitional forms in the fossil record, and more and more are found. These provide strong evidence of [...]

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The Reason for You Tube’s Existence

The Young Turks.

Via Politico.

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Why can’t I write headlines like these?

Creating the perfect editorial headline is difficult to be sure. It must pique the reader’s interest, indicate what the article is about and also give a clue as to what the writer’s opinion is. I have to say these headlines from the blog Ye Are Gods not only accomplished all of that, but they gave [...]

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A Christian Nation

Isn’t it ironic that in order to even be considered a candidate for President of the United States Barack Obama had to be a Christian, and yet this election has driven him away from his church and from spirituality. How could anyone not be disillusioned by the demands of this electorate?
Anyone who thinks this country [...]

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Obama is a Muslim and Other Falsehoods

Quite frankly, I don’t think that the people who say they think Obama is a Muslim really think that. I believe it’s code for we don’t feel comfortable electing a black man as president but we can’t think of a good reason. If they do, then I have to wonder how gullible are they in [...]

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Stubborn Old People

My grandmother was a Southern (Louisiana) headstrong woman — very self-sufficient and very stubborn. One time when she visited my family in California we decided to take her dinner to a Mexican restaurant. She refused. She told us she had heard on Paul Harvey that Mexicans ate bugs and she would not go to a [...]

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John Roberts – Sister Mary Would Like to Speak to You

Nun of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary comments on Voter ID disenfranchisement
WHO: Missourians for Fair Elections
WHAT: Press Conference on the impact of legislation to
require government-issued photo ID to vote
WHEN: [...]

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