noted in passing...

Giving It All Away (AB459)

2012-01-11T08:47:00.001-08:00

Back in July the Legislature of California voted to award all of California's 55 electoral votes to whomever wins the popular election nationwide. In other words, the Democrat might win the state in a landslide, but the electoral college delegates would vote as a block for his opponent, based on results in the populous east coast. Governor Brown signed this bill (AB459) into law in August.
It is the largest voter disenfranchisement in history, and did not come through
California's well worn initiative system. It was a direct action of the Legislature alone who did not count it wise to refer the matter directly to the citizens. It is important to name the 76 Californians who sold the rest of us out.

AB459 vote 7/14/2011

Assembly votes for the bill:
Alejo Allen Ammiano Atkins Beall
Block Blumenfield Bonilla Bradford Brownley
Buchanan Butler Charles Calderon Campos
Carter Cedillo Chesbro Davis Eng
Feuer Fong Fuentes Furutani Galgiani Gatto
Gordon Hagman Hall Hayashi Roger Hernández
Hill Huber Hueso Huffman Lara Bonnie
Lowenthal Ma Mendoza Monning Norby Pan Perea
John A. Pérez V. Manuel Pérez Portantino
Skinner Solorio Swanson Torres Wieckowski Williams Yamada

State Senate votes for the bill:
Alquist Calderon Corbett Correa De León
DeSaulnier Evans Hancock Hernandez Leno Lieu
Liu Lowenthal Negrete McLeod Padilla Pavley
Price Rubio Simitian Steinberg Vargas Wolk
Yee

Governor Brown signed the bill into law 8/8/2011

Those who voted against are to be commended, few though they be. There
were only 30 across both houses.

What a come down!

2011-12-04T16:55:00.001-08:00

The church calendar rightly highlights important aspects of Christ's work in the world: His atoning sacrifice at Good Friday, His resurrection on Easter, Ascension Day, Pentecost. These are vital to the life of the Christian and of the Church. But this season is Advent, and we are tempted to skate right past this particular aspect of His great work.
Condescension, the coming down to our level. His scandalous act that some branches of the church could never embrace, breaking off rather than bending to the story as it is found. God became a man. As Paul the Apostle puts it, "He made himself nothing." (Php 2:7) In order to take our place it was required of Him to be put in our place.
No, that's wrong. He wasn't put here; He put himself here with us. God moved into our neighborhood. It was a journey He set out on and a destination He chose for himself. Passive voice has no place in the work of Christ. He was not sacrificed, but rather gave himself as a ransom for many. He was not put down, but the royal things He was He set aside, and He came down to be with us.
The other aspects of Christ's work we marvel at from one side. We accept his sacrifice on our behalf. We await our resurrection that will be some how like his. We will be caught up. He do the catching. Ours is the passive voice in so much of this.
Except in this-- we are invited to join him in coming down. Paul says in this same passage that our attitude should be like Christ. Condescension can have an awful tone when we use it among ourselves, but it is so fitting of Him who set down everything that made him God over us, and taking on something else to be found as God right next to us.
This season is Advent, and you are invited to move into the neighborhood.

CO2 as percent of total atmosphere

2011-08-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

From 1960 to 2010 CO2 in earth's atmosphere went from 0.032% to 0.039%.

Not a one percent change. Not a tenth of a percent change. Not a hundredth of a percent change. Just seven thousanths of one percent change in CO2 levels as part of total composition.

Data collected at Mauna Loa and reported on NOAA website. link

Just sayin'

Desiderata

2011-08-28T08:57:00.001-07:00

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, American Poet, ca 1920

I was reminded of these words today and wanted to keep them in the collective memory.

The COOKIES were good ...

2011-08-24T12:49:00.001-07:00

This afternoon was the first in a short series of "Workshops" in the Chowchilla area for the High Speed Train document review. Tomorrow they are in Le Grand, and Thursday at the Chowchilla Fairgrounds. The California High Speed Rail Authority brought copies of their new draft Environmental Review which people could read individually. Authority specialists helped people find whatever chapter and section they were looking for. If they knew what they were looking for. Handling people one at a time also significantly reduced the 'pitchfork' factor. There was no general presentation. There were no questions from the floor. No microphone. Nevertheless, the workshop quickly took on the air of the Chicago Trading Floor.

People living in the Ave 24, Ave 21, UPRR/99, and BNSF corridors need to carefully review those documents to find if they are on one of the several proposed paths of the HST. Apendix 3.1-A had very detailed satelite photos of ranches potentially effected. People not specifically in line with the tracks also may be impacted by road changes in their immediate area. They'll be putting up a lot of fence along the route.

The workshops in Chowchilla deal with a number of decisions concerning the Wye that will direct San Fransisco trains to Sacramento or to Los Angeles. There are at least four possible routes and until one is finally chosen, the other parts of the HST system cannot be planned. Nay-sayers have called the initial section of the system, the Merced-Fresno corridor (containing the Chowchilla Wye), "the train to nowhere." And it will be a very quiet bit of track for a very long time as the rest of the massive statewide system is built. But it is also the most complex piece of this huge puzzle. It has to start here and grow in both directions, if it is going to be built at all.

The Authority is to be commended for trotting out their charts and graphs, maps and volumes of reports. I am sure there was a wealth of useful data buried there. But buried is how I felt. Anyone planning to attend the two remaining workshops needs to do their homework beforehand. Without a ready question to ask they will find the session less than satisfying. But on a brighter note, the cookies were delicious and the water was ice cold. Galilee Missionary Baptist Church in Fairmead were the perfect host. One of the routes in fact runs very near the church.

The documents are available online and also at a variety of public forums where they can be studied in quiet detail. Comments to the Authority may be submitted online or in person at these workshops. Public hearings on the HST will be held in September. Should be fun!

Four Gaits

2011-08-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

Impressions of people I saw today:

She threw her shoes before her as she walked, leaving the rest of her to trail along behind like a lawn dart.

He stalked along the sidewalk like a man who had been much heavier in the recent past.

She moved like a broken folding chair, her face burdened with the focus required to maintain net forward motion.

He lounged as he walked, like one half expecting a sofa to suddenly materialize into which he could schlump down.

Flying High

2011-06-29T18:29:00.001-07:00

It looked like a gentle evening for a sunset sail, just us two. We've had our boat a half dozen seasons now, and I finally decided to hang out an ensign flag. We lake sail, and there is no real doubt about country of origin. But it is coming close on the 4th, and I thought it would look fine waving on the backstay.

And it really does. The boat has white topsides a blood red boot stripe, and navy blue bottom paint that rolls up as she heels to the wind. The whole effect with the flag was very nautical. I never realized how much I would like a tell tail. Our new flag flapped gently in the direction of the wind and made sail trim so much easier. The wind almost died completely several times, but the light little flag would jump up and point the way in the slightest rising puff.

Suddenly around 6pm the wind kicked up fiercely, rushing from 4 knots to a howling 25. We still had all our canvas up and struggled to get room for adjusting sails. Just before we had been shouting to a tiring cross-lake swimmer, offering a float or a tow, but he would take no help. We got quickly into open water, the boat heeling over violently. I was glad we had installed a downhaul line for the jib sail out front. The foredeck is no place to be when the boat is pitching in the waves. We downed the jib, which helped a good deal, but were unable to round up to wind which would give us the slack for reducing the main sail to the first reef point.

We struggled against the full wind in the sail to get at least part way down and secure the reef nettles, binding up the unused sail. We had enough control by then to finish the first reef and haul in to the second. When I built two reef points into the sail (I lofted the sails at home on our livingroom floor and stitched them on our little Kemore portable.) I thought it overkill, but was glad to have the second reef that day.

Now, finally, with no jib up and flying just a quarter of the main, the rest reefed in, we were able to take a tack back towards the rock levee. We could see the swimmer had made it to shore and was walking back along the levee road. Despite the howling wind and the boisterous waves, she was now sailing upright on her feet and making good progress. It was good to be in control again.

And we might have spent the rest of the evening jousting back and forth down the length of the lake, but the wind was whistling in the rigging and the waves topping whitecaps. We were starting to get wet and cold. We decided to turn in.

This was mistake number one.

Turning for the docks, we prepared the docklines and tracked our progress, sighting against the rocks on the levee. We were sailing level and well, but coming in too fast. It would be a sudden stop at dockside. So we took down yet more sail.

This was mistake number two.

When the wind is driving straight toward the docks, one can take down all sails and come in at a gentle pace on bare poles. You have enough forward motion to use the rudder to bring yourself alongside the docks, crew steps out and neatly cleats off the boat. This is poetry to behold. On this day the wind was not driving straight toward the docks. By the time it became apparent that the wind was coming from too far off the port quarter it had pushed us outside the docking area approach. Hastily trying to rehoist the main sail and cut right, rounding up for another pass only saw us driven past the willows, past the concrete spillway, and driven onto the rocks of the levee. The gusts held us pinned against the shore. One brave soul tried to come to our aid, but didn't have the horsepower to pull both himself and us off the lee shore. He barely made it back out himself.

We secured the boat as best we could to the fences and posts along the shoreline. The waves were now grinding the hull against the rocks. Lines to shore would at least localize the damage. We stepped ashore and met the sheriff's man who offered to get the powerful patrol boat and haul us off the rocks and back to the dock. A night on the rocks would surely have ruined the hull.

While waiting for the rescue, my attention came back to the brave little flag beating furiously against the gale screeching through the rigging. It had ridden the wind and waves with us the whole way, and now, sole occupant of the stranded vessel, held forth as if to say, "Take heart, this is nothing so terrible. Have courage, I've seen a lot worse. Iwo Jima was windier than this. So was the smoky breeze topping the Twin Towers. Omaha Beach was a bigger challenge, so was Bull Run, Gettysburg, Bunker Hill. Think about Oklahoma City, the Nairobi Embassy, or the base of the US Marines in Kandahar. No, I've seen a lot worse. This is nothing to be concerned about. Take courage."

The Sheriff arrived in short order and hauled us off the rocks and soon we were tied off at the dock. Another few moments more had her safely aboard the trailer and snug in the parking lot. The damage is cosmetic, a little fiberglass, a little paint. A little of the kind of effort that endears a boat to her owner and gives her name meaning. Our girl is named Amada, "Beloved" in Spanish.

And the little flag is stowed safely below waiting our next outing, confident of whatever comes our way, full of the boyant spirit that floats aloft on every evening breeze. Or gale.

Fair winds and following seas.

Cause and Effect

2011-01-12T12:08:00.000-08:00

Would the Arizona shooter have gotten off as many rounds as he did if Pima County were more supportive of concealed carry weapons? Put another way, would this tragedy have been as severe if it happened in Maricopa County where Sheriff Arpaio is a defender of concealed carry?

AZCentral.com reports Sheriff Dupnik's attitude as just the opposite.
"At a Sunday news conference, Dupnik singled out [AZ State Rep.] Harper's proposed college faculty gun bill as an example of the state's lax firearm laws."
"We're the Tombstone of the United States of America," the sheriff said, referring to the Arizona town famous for once dispensing old West justice. "I have never been a proponent of letting everybody in the state carry weapons wherever they are. That's almost where we are."

I don't know if I'd want to carry if Sheriff Dupnik was going to show up at my post-incident hearing. You'd like to think you were not going to get shafted for doing the hard thing, but..

So now there will be calls for more gun control, the Brady gang will be out in force. But the Tragedy in Tucson didn't happen because someone had a gun. It happened because ONLY ONE had a gun.

Home for the Holidays?

2010-12-22T14:03:00.001-08:00

The popular holiday tune has travelers chuckling to one another "from Atlantic to Pacific, gee the traffic is terrific!" How like the original Christmas story, everyone is on the move.

Joseph and Mary are headed south for the census. The wise men caravan west out of Baghdad. The shepherds, already away from home at night, start off on a side trip to verify what angels had reported. Herod would be travelling, but his GPS is on the fritz and he is awaiting directions. (recalculating...)

After the child is born, they are off again, not home to Galilee, but to Egypt. What a travelogue! How many visas and border crossings would there have been if Messiah had come instead in 2011? Imagine how stressed TSA would be if every April 15 we all had to go home to pay our taxes.

There is so much movement going on in the Christmas story that we gloss right over the most amazing journey that happens. The Prince of Heaven comes to a dark little corner of our planet. (Well, it's not ours really, we just live here. But you get my meaning.) Divinity gets off the throne and visits humanity. Majesty takes on our poverty. That's an amazing journey.

So holiday traffic is nothing new. Drive safely. Have a blessed season. Watch out for angels crossing against the lights. And who knows, if we play our cards right, maybe we'll get to see what Messiah looks like coming in 2011.

Maranatha! Merry Christmas!

Missional Christmas Carols - part 5

2010-12-09T07:36:00.001-08:00

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is based on Longfellow's wrenching poem written in the depths of the War Between the States. One of the verses that didn't make it into the carol holds this powerful image: "It was as if an earthquake rent the heathstones of a continent."

A unified whole, the carol nevertheless drops two verses that limit the scope to that war, and rearranges the remaining five. Here is the carol in its entirety.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

This carol is unusual in that it dwells entirely in the modern era, if you can call 1863 modern. It is included here among missional carols not for any instruction to care for the poor, or break chains of oppression, but for the ringing pronouncement that Wrong shall fail and Right prevail. While Longfellow rightly attributes this to the Living Insomniant God, our own participation with Him is certainly implied. Longfellow's poem ended with that potent verse. Seven years after the war Calkin wrote the tune and moved an intermediate verse down to the end, as by then the world had indeed finally revolved from night to day. At least temporarily.

Missional Christmas Carols - part 4

2010-12-07T07:12:00.001-08:00

The missional turn in a carol happens when we leave Bethlehem and the shepherds (and the wee donkey too) and deal with the "so what?" for living today.

Joy to the World gets at it down in verse 3:

"No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground.
He comes to make his blessings flow,
Far as the curse is found."

Here is wonderful balance between grace and action. He has seen our situation, the curse we have covered ourselves with as a blanket. And as deep and wide as those compounded sins go, he is pouring out blessings, his blessing, that will overwhelm and saturate all our sin.

Our response? No more let sins grow. Inattention and careless living is complicity with the thorn bushes, as my garden shows clearly enough. The weeds have their own agenda. Laissez faire may work for the economy, but not for life. But when sins and their attendant sorrows are rooted out, then blessing is unencumbered and can roll where he will send it.

Laissez faire, Let it be so.

Missional Christmas Carols - part 3

2010-12-05T08:23:00.000-08:00

I remember every Christmas Eve program growing up we kids would sing "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and get a bag of hard candies at the end of the program.

We never, however, sang the third verse: "No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in."

I was twenty one before I really got ahold of this truth.

Missional Christmas Carols - part 2

2010-11-29T07:47:00.001-08:00

Good King Wenceslas makes no mention of Bethlehem, the Christ Child, nor even God or Christmas, although the feast of Stephen referenced falls on December 26th. It recounts the story of Bohemian Saint Vaclav who around 930AD went barefoot into the snow to give alms. He died at 28.

The last line of the fifth verse gives the missional punch:

"Therefore Christian men be sure, wealth or rank possessing,

Ye who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing."

Originally published in a collection of Easter music, this beloved English carol was written in 1853 by John Mason Neale. The tune is much older, being collected as a springtime carol from the late middle ages. Aside from the cheerful tune, the carol also marked the church tradition of giving alms on St. Stephen's Day. Stephen was one of the seven appointed by the Apostles to care for the poor and widows as told in Acts.

Missional Christmas Carols - part 1

2010-11-28T21:07:00.001-08:00

Millennial Christ-followers desiring a faith with street credibility will find common cause with many hymn writers of 160 years ago. O Holy Night was originally a French carol of 1847 and brought into the American song book by a Unitarian minister in 1855.

The third verse, tracking closely with the French original reads,

"Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother;
And in His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
Let all within us praise His holy name..."

Here the French carol feeds the emergence of the American abolitionist movement, itself an outgrowth of the Second Great Awakening. A powerful rediscovery of God leads inescapably to pracical matters of justice, not just in the life of the church, but in the economic sector as well.

Abraham Kuyper, Dutch theologian a few years later would declare, "No single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'"

Take a Lesson from Chile

2010-10-14T10:23:00.001-07:00

The world press is agog with the triumphant rescue of miners from the San Jose mine in Chile, as well they should be. The international cooperation of effort to save the miners is a landmark. Now that all are brought out alive the Chilean officials have turned to looking for causes and blame.

What if the same approach had been applied to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf? First all hands on deck to fix the problem, then afterward play the blame game. How might it have turned out differently with Chilean leadership styles rather than American blame cycles?

Let's Start Small

2010-09-09T14:12:00.001-07:00

Politicians will often try to get their name on some building project, Reagan Airport, Kennedy Space Center, etc. I'd like to propose Barack Obama Ct. here in Merced.

There are lots of unnamed streets in our unfinished developments full of half built houses that no one can afford to buy.

Besides, I think a cul du sac is a perfect picture. Once you go down it you find it doesn't lead anywhere and your only choice is to turn around and go back the way you came.

The Problem with Book Burning

2010-09-08T09:24:00.001-07:00

Florida pastor Terry Jones is set to burn a book that confirms Jesus as Messiah (Quran surah 3:45). A book that proclaims resurrection for followers of Jesus, s3:55. A book endorsing the entire message of the Old Testament and affirming the continuity of Jesus' preaching with those OT prophets s4:163; s5:46; s5:68. Surah 60:8 actually forbids violence against those not actively opposing Islam.

Of course there are real differences between biblical doctrine and the message of the Quran. Jesus of the Bible is uncreated and coeternal with the Father (John 1:1). The biblical Jesus really died on the cross (John 19:33,34) and has already been raised to life. Jesus in the Bible received worship as God (John 20:28) and proclaimed his equality with God (John 10:30). The Jesus of Quran is "son of Mary" and never "son of God," so I get why pastor wants to burn it. It is probably not for hateful things regarding infidels, but for what it says about Jesus. The most important question in the world is the one Jesus asked Peter, "Who do you say that I am?" (Matthew 16:15,16) What do you think about Jesus? Was he a man only, or God only, half and half, or is he fully God and fully man? The answer, your answer, is very telling.

My point is that there are lines of truth buried in the Quran that would lead a serious student into contact with eternal truth about Jesus. The Quran endorses the message of the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel. What is wanted is not burning but real reading of Quran and then the books Quran endorses. I am not liberal in many senses, but in this I am. I believe one who freely (liberally) reads and engages the texts will find the truth welling up within. Inshla

Nose vs. Face

2010-07-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

I understand the dire threat that cyber attack is to American security. So Senator Lieberman's Internet Kill Switch bill is making its way through channels, having passed from committee last week. Whether or not the bill is actually a kill switch, or a prohibition on using a kill switch unless absolutely necessary, commentators quote the Communications Act of 1934 as already giving POTUS to power to shut down "wire communications" at will.

The problem with this line of reasoning of course is that the Internet is a lot more than "wire communications." No one is performing bank functions over AM radio. No one is providing medical care and records over the TV network. But these and more go on every minute over the Internet.

Closing the Internet to fend off cyber attack is analgous to blowing up a building to prevent its being bombed, or closing a department store to stave off shoplifting, or cutting off the nose to spite the face. If the mere threat of cyber attack will shut down the Internet, then cyber terrorism just got a whole lot easier. Who needs to hire thirteen-year-old wunderkinder in Pakistan when a few well placed emails will acomplish the same ends.

And can you imagine what the outcry would have been if the Bush Administration had proposed this, rather than the current one? Wait a minute. Didn't they?

Good idea!

2010-05-27T20:44:00.001-07:00

Mr. Obama grows increasingly frustrated with the spill in the Gulf. According to news he has told aides to "Plug the damn hole." This is pure genius, and BP taking his lead on this with their "top kill" maneuver, a fancy name for a big mud pie in the tube. And I am moved to wonder if it might be the very watchword of the Obama presidency--

For instance, when unemployment is at a recent high and many seasonal jobs are going to Mexican workers who arrived on this side of the border by alternate means, "Plug the damn hole" in the border security. Right?

And, when the national debt has topped all previous records and spending continues to hemorrhage out of the US Treasury, "Plug the damn hole" in the national coffers.

Ok, and, since every time our President stands up in front of the cameras and opens his mouth, Wall Street tanks and China buys more of the American dream, so the next time you see him walk into a room with a speech in his hand, wad it up, and "Plug the ..."

Paradise for Crooks

2010-05-19T10:13:00.001-07:00

It is now easier than ever to make a decent living as a crook thanks to the Internet, social networking websites with loose data policies, and information aggregating sites like spokeo.com.

I looked up my profile at spokeo and, in spite of my own paranoid stance on posted personal information, I found my city and street, my phone number, my marital status. Spokeo pulls information from many public sources including property records and buying patterns.

Here's where it gets wierd. I sometimes buy baby powder to douse my stinky sneakers. Spokeo gave me children. I buy chlorinators to manage my swamp cooler. Spokeo got me a swimming pool. All this is only in the electronic record, there are no kids or pool. Maybe if I order a replacement tri-star hood ornament, Spokeo will get me that Mercedes...Or, if I subscribe to Shooting magazine, Spokeo might give me a Glock!

In fact, if I were to tweak out my facebook profile just a bit, I might meet some fascinating people: street corner entrepreneurs, bank executives, Federal agents, foreign agents!

And here is the point. If I am dumb enough to list my street address and post that I am going to Hawaii for two weeks, I deserve to come back to an empty house. DUH!!

But the other side of it is scariest, and we have no control of it. Crooks and worse can build up whole false identities with the aid of the Internet. We know about predators already masquerading as teenagers. But info-bots like spokeo and others actively and aggressively build these identities for them. A couple more iterations and we will not be able to tell who is legit unless we gave birth to them.

Oh, and if you buy baby wipes, maybe not even then.

Just Dance!

2010-02-22T21:13:00.001-08:00

There's been such an uproar about the Russian ice dancing pair that tried so unsuccessfully to highlight an Australian aboriginal dance in their Olympic routine. We didn't see their performance, but let me ask a question here.

Whose bright idea was it to have the ice dancers skate their impressions of ethnic folk dances, dances that people have kept alive through centuries of tradition? Did they not think that the addition of ice and skates and compulsory elements like 'twizzles' would pretty much mangle the dances they tried to feature?

I think about the Canadian couple dancing that Paso Doble knock-off. It was striking, but not much to do with a Paso Doble, or a bullfight. That red skirt could have been a lot more dramatic with a sharp assymetrical hemline to symbolize the matador's cape. Or the American couple in the Indian garb, and him with those wild blonde locks. I'm just saying...

I am not myself ethnically offended by any performance I saw. Nobody was crazy enough to ice dance a polka. But I was mildly put off by the French interpretation of a hoedown. It wasn't so much the chaps or the Daisy Dukes or the bow-legged swagger, but that they were, well, the French!

Tempest in a tea cup?

2010-02-11T20:18:00.001-08:00

The America's Cup race Monday was called for lack of wind. Wednesday's race had a good stiff wind, but a sea state with waves above 1 meter, and was postponed again. Tomorrow's race forecasts even larger waves and will likely postpone yet again.

I wonder if it is time to say something obvious. Alinghi 5 and USA are undoubtedly the fastest sailboats ever afloat. The two giant multihulls reach at multiples of wind speed. But a Catalina 42 sailed by a club champion in any local yacht club could have completed two races by now and walked away with the title, while the big boats sit in their berths.

The America's Cup is an ocean race, and these two contenders may be a match for each other, but not for the sea. A ninety foot boat that cannot contend with 40 inch seas is poorly designed. Perhaps Larry Ellison can build a bath tub big enough for the contest to procede, but clearly neither boat is up to the Cup.

Less is More, Really!

2010-01-04T10:23:00.001-08:00

A revolutionary marketing technique arrived this morning in an iPhone app. Fluent News will bring you, at no charge, headline feeds from dozens of news bureaus: CNN, ABC, FOX, ESPN, BBC, NPR, FOX Sports, the list is very comprehensive.

A for-cost upgrade to the product is available to filter out the feeds you DON'T choose to wade through.

Selah.

Yes, it now costs more, much more, to receive less product. And it is worth it.

Marshall McLuhan in the 1964 Understanding Media, chapter 2: Media Hot and Cold, was a prophet!

Of course we all use filters very day. "Search" engines like Yahoo! and Google provide a service where only half the function is actually to search. The other, and more vital function, is to filter. McLuhan used the unfortunate Freudian word censor, but regardless, the idea is to put the most likely matches on top of the search. It is the quality of the filtering algorithms that make or break a search engine.

The distinction here is that content used to be the product. You bought a newspaper for what was printed in it. With Fluent News the content is free, the product for sale is the filtering mechanism we need to bring sense to the flood of news, hence the name.

Safe Harbor

2009-12-29T10:11:00.001-08:00

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas time and everything that goes with it, the carols, the candles, the shopping/wrapping/gifting mayhem, chocolate, hard candies, the music, and the expectant waiting for the Christ child. I will even tolerate small doses of Gene Autry.

But THIS moment on the calendar is my favorite, when the commercialism is no longer lurking under the tree. When the shepherds are back to their flocks and the Magi have not yet arrived. It feels like having reached a quiet anchorage, sheltered from the maelstrom of holiday havoc. The tree stands in silent splendor. A cup of tea warms my fingers. And the peace promised by the angels finally falls and settles and stays for however long this moment lasts.

In other years we would go on retreat during this time, taking planners and Bibles and reflecting on the year gone, and setting sights on the one to come. Today the dog is by the fire and I can't think of any better retreat than right here at home.

In this moment, may you encounter that peace of promise, drink a cup of fulfillment. May you find in these fleeting days your own safe harbor.

As I was saying...

2009-12-10T10:57:00.001-08:00

From the editors of the Merced Sun Star newspaper:

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/181/story/1213615.html

Tuition and Taxes

2009-12-10T10:54:00.001-08:00

from letter to the Merced Sun-Star newspaper:

The UC Regents on Thursday made news by raising the tuition that students will pay an additional 32 percent, claiming huge deficits.

What the Regents, supposedly the smartest people in any room, don't seem to get is that shrinking their market share is no way to grow a business...

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/180/story/1185109.html

Hasan in the dock

2009-11-09T16:25:00.001-08:00

Having had the misfortune of surviving his suicide rampage at Fort Hood, Major Hasan now faces a criminal trial. The pundits are already predicting the impossibility of his finding a fair trial. Here is an idea.

I had originally thought the best thing would be to patch up his wounds and send him back to his unit, turning briefly a blind eye to whatever transpired. But in the interests of providing him a jury of peers, due to him as a citizen of this country, the prosecution and defense should agree to pack his jury with twelve American born Muslim men. Then let us see whether the "religion of peace" can produce anything like justice, or if the vision of Muslim America is anything more than a pipe dream (or a smoke screen).

The Problem with Fairness

2009-09-18T16:11:00.001-07:00

Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats have kept pursuing the revival of the Fairness Doctrine that mandated holders of radio station licenses air opposing views. In their view there are a larger number of conservative voices on the air, and it is difficult for liberal ideas to find adequate voice. Regardless of the accuracy of this view, how could anyone oppose the idea that both sides of an issue should be heard? Indeed, if it is such a good idea for broadcast transmission, then what about cable, or the internet?

The problem is trying to apply modernist binary logic to complex postmodern issues and arguments. The day of right-left, black-white, good-evil analysis has passed. Genuine good and perfect evil still exist, of course, on at least a cosmic level. But here in the daily world things are more mixed. Evil terrorist groups are funding schools. Good social organizations are driven by self-interest and self-promotion. Corporations, the latest bogey men set up for all to mock, are funding tremendous public programs through their foundations.

As regards the Fairness Doctrine, any particular issue of public interest has many facets, not merely two, pro or con. Take California water wars as an example. Is the issue one of environment versus the farm? What about urban versus rural? Is water a resource of financial value to be marketed? To whom does it belong, the Federal government, the State, The people, the land owners over which it flows, the land owners under which it seeps?

This is one issue. How can a government board possibly sort out whether fairness has been achieved? What of ideas that come along late in the course of debate? These are often the best and most salient points to be made as dialog continues to mature on an issue. But how can fairness be achieved without giving discussion over totally to the latest arguments. And what could possibly be fair about that?

The Fairness Doctrine is doomed by its very aims to be reductionistic, to reduce public discourse to the crudest of arguments and to impoverish the debate it seeks to enrich.

Unless, of course, you have a different perspective...

Another Modest Proposal

2009-08-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

There is a flaw in the logic of health care reform leading to cost savings. Improving health can never lower costs. Extending life only leads to increased (albeit deferred) health care costs. In the end everybody still dies. The more advanced the age, the more complex and expensive the health care issues become.

If we really want to lower health care costs in the long run, may I propose increasing risk-based, preferably lethal, activities including:

Promoting fast food abuse, especially the super size program.
Encouraging smoking, particularly those forms involving inhaling.
Televise the 'Darwin Awards.' Some are not aware of their available options.

Start more wars.

Advance access to extreme sports. Eliminate helmet laws.

Lower the age of retirement to fifty. The most lethal year of a man's life is the twelve months immediately following retirement.

Lower the driving age to ten.

Give away motorized wheel chairs to finish-off the obese. If they start walking everywhere we will never be rid of them.

Attention to these and other more disasterously productive measures would lead to real savings in health care, unlike the frankly wrong-headed approach currently working its way through Washington. Thank you dear reader, and be careful out there.

PS - Dear reader, if your neighbor rudely reading over your shoulder at the Internet cafe finds this post offensive, please refer him to Jonathan Swift.

Wuzzatigan?

2009-05-28T20:07:00.000-07:00

Let me get this straight. Back in December under the last administration GM came to Washington for a hand out. GM was, it was said, too big to let fail.

Then later, under the current administration, more bailout was added to that, the taxpayers took property interest in the company, the UAW took more interest (talk about a conflict of interest).

And now that it is even bigger, GM is going through what?

Bankruptcy!

What was all that about?

Jim Grasley

Out of the Frying Pan...

2009-05-21T18:50:00.001-07:00

President Obama today talked about transferring the remaining Gitmo detainees to other countries. I hear there are about 48 prisoners remaining. He wants to send them to countries like Saudi Arabia...

And he thinks Guantanamo was abusive? Once the detainees enter a Saudi prison, no one will ever see or hear of them again.

Or perhaps they will come to a maximum security facility in the US. Two things are going to happen there. Either they are going to get shivved on the yard, or they are going to open a radical training center in C-block.

Now as to security. Jihadists who may have wanted to spring their buddies from Gitmo had to get by either Castro or the Marines. But if the detainees come to, say, San Quentin? It is a relatively minor problem to walk up to the gates and make trouble. And I don't even want to think about visiting day.

Every President makes a few gaffs in the first year. And there is no "good" solution to Gitmo. If they weren't jihadists and radicals when they went in, they are now, after years of detainment. But we need to think clearly about how bad they really have it at Guantanamo, and whether our compassionate solutions are not many times worse for them, and more to the point, for all of us.

The Triumph of Style over Substance

2009-04-20T17:02:00.000-07:00

The media on both right and left fall into a fit whenever the President meets a new world leader. Did he shake hands? Did he bow? How low was the bow? Did it involve a cheek buss?

Granted, it is a measure more important than the First Lady's wardrobe choices, but still in the realm of style and symbolism.

When are we going to focus on what is actually said to these leaders? And if we knew, would it then be a matter of substantive policy bulwarks, or merely the latest daily verbal stylings, full of sound and fury, but in the end signifying nothing?

And Your Point Is...

2009-04-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

Today's report about the emergency room abuses in Ausin, TX was of course shocking. That 9 individuals could rack up 2700 ER visits in six years pushes the limits of credulity. Do these people have no life?

But then we begin to ask questions. Where are you going to take this story?

Well, of course we need nationalized health care to limit these abuses. Don't you see how broken the healthcare system is? The national evening news suggested controls to stop abuses so "legitimate" ER cases would get their due attention.

There is one reason these abuses happened, and it doesn't have to do with the 3 homeless people or the 7 mental people among the 9 "offenders"

In a word, the reason is EMTALA, the law that says persons presenting to ERs across the nation MUST be treated without regard to ability to pay. It is a federal regulation, an unfunded mandate from the national healthcare system.

Of course the healthcare system is broken. My only question is, who made it broke?

Where Do You Plug This Thing In?

2009-04-01T12:45:00.001-07:00

It's been reported that battery powered vehicles use more energy per mile traveled than gas only vehicles. It costs energy to generate energy, there is a large loss in long distance transmission, more in step-down to usable voltages, more yet in battery charging, and finally some inevitable inefficiency in the electric car itself.

Nevertheless, some put electric car energy efficiency at 25%, and conventional vehicle running at 25mpg at 15%. And gasoline has transmission overhead of its own, too, in the form of tank trucks. [check Cecil Adams' article at http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2759/are-electric-cars-really-more-energy-efficient]

Of course, if you live in the Pacific Northwest and use Hydro-power, bully for you. If you are next door to Nevada Solar One and can jack into that source, terrific.

The problem no one is talking about is generation capacity. We are using all the power we make now to power our ipods, air conditioners, traffic lights, beer coolers and super computers, etc. In California the Public Utilities Commission has forced the utility companies to dismantle excess power generation facilities. Surplus assets. Deregulation. Does anyone remember rolling blackouts? Flex your power now?

So everyone puts a Tesla or a Volt in the garage and then what? There is not enough generation capacity in the international power grid to ramp up even a partial replacement of the gasoline used in our cars. Would somebody please build a new power plant in California?

Anyone...?

Anyone at all...?

Exceutive FIAT

2009-03-31T08:44:00.000-07:00

When the car companies started beggng alms at Washington, I remember people saying we had to keep GM, Ford and Chrysler afloat because of jobs and because we clearly had to have something to drive.

At the time I thought it silly. Has Toyota actually shipped a car to the US in the last decade? My wife's Chevy Prizm was built 114 miles from here at a Toyota plant in Fremont, CA. Built in America by Americans for Americans to American (no wait, California) standards in a Japanese plant.

I thought at the time that just the thing to would be big three bancruptcies followed by reorganization followed by acquisition by Toyota or Mercedes. If Detroit can't run a car company someone else will.

But now I see the wisdom of this new paradigm. US tax payers (not us per se, but the next generation of tax slaves) dump billions into an industry whose management can't find its socks. Then we turn around and give Chrysler GRATIS to Fiat.

Fiat!?

Hey, maybe Zastava has grown tired of making Yugos and wants to take a crack at the Explorer.

Bonuses are a good thing

2009-03-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

Everyone in Washington DC is up in arms about the AIG executive bonuses. How distasteful. How wasteful.

They may be the best spent $160 million in the trillion dollar stim package.

After all, who better knows what to do with a couple million in cash? AIG execs will buy Escalades, Beneteaus, and Real estate. When they run out of luxury items to buy, they will still have money to invest in business ventures. Spare change will wind up in banks where all the rest of us can borrow it at interest.

What not a single AIG exec is going to do is go into the backyard and bury it.

As for the rest of the stimulus, two words... shovel ready.

POV

2008-11-14T06:40:00.001-08:00

My cup is half empty.

the Pessimist

My cup is half full.

the Optimist

My cup runneth over!

the Psalmist

Golden Parachute

2008-11-12T08:32:00.001-08:00

GM has now joined the soup line with the federal mortgage giants and AIG. It seems if you are a big enough failure you can extort the world economy into paying for your lunch.

I wonder how long it is going to take for members of Congress to start asking failed executives to repay their mega-bonuses. Executive bonuses are a drop in the bucket compared to collosal fiscal reversals, but it is the principle of the thing. Why reward failure? It is distasteful to Americans, and painful to watch when one's own parachute is in tatters.

Of course it will be argued that the bonuses were earned in better days when the economy was right side up, like last summer. The execs made their numbers, brought in the profits, and that is why they got the atta-boys. It isn't their fault the economy is determined to sink like a sounding blue whale.

And that is just the point, isn't it. If the failure of global economies is too big to lay at the richly paneled door of the executives, then probably the previous run-up in the economy wasn't really their doing either.

Mandate?

2008-11-11T08:34:00.001-08:00

Mandate: n. That brief period of time between final election results and first opinion polls when a politician feels he has to accomplish something, anything, regardless of whether he ran on the issue.

It always surprises me that a politician who won 53% of the popular vote will claim to have a big mandate from the people. It further surprises me that said mandate is used to advance things like stem cell research, which we are already pursuing, and which got little mention in the campaign.

Let the politician remember that 47% of the electorate mandated that he go back to his day job, and proceed judiciously.

Of course there is a real mandate here. Anyone familiar with the electoral maps can see it. The results play the ends against the middle, or more to the point, the cities against the towns and country. The victor in this election owes his new job to LA, NY, SF and other urban centers. We can expect favors to come due shortly after January 20.

Suicide by Chocolate

2008-11-05T17:33:00.000-08:00

Last night after seeing how the electoral map was shaping up I baked us some post-election-pecan-crusted-double-fudge-brownies. Served hot under two scoops of vanilla ice cream, it was supposed to be comfort food.

It didn't help.

I will say that after a much too long political season listening finally to concession and victory speeches was somehow cathartic. Mr. McCain returned to his natural role of gentleman Senator, collegial, respectful, conciliatory. And Mr. Obama followed up with a stirring speech of his own. Both spoke about reconciliation and healing and reaching across the party divide. It reminded me of the gracious remarks offered by Speaker Pelosi two years ago. "Partnership, not partisanship," and "dialogue and trust across the aisle."

Mmm-hmm...

So John McCain will return to the Senate, the perennial Maverick, reaching across to heal the nation. But with a new administration in the White House, and strengthened Democrat positions in both Houses of congress, will anyone on the other side be reaching back?

"This is Texas"

2008-07-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

Ya gotta love Texas Governor Rick Perry's response to hurricane Dolly's category 2 landfall last night.

"These hurricanes can be highly unpredictable. We prepare for the worst and pray for the best," he said. "This is Texas. Our approach is to lean into these problems."

God bless Texas!

Ich bin ein Frankfurter

2008-07-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

Hot dogging around the Middle East and Europe this week is the Senator from Illinoise with anchors from nbabcbs in close pursuit. It irked me yesterday to have Charlie reporting on hurricane Dolly's Texas landfall with the Holy City Jerusalem as a back drop. The implied message is that the center of the universe is wherever the new messiah is standing. Today it is Berlin.

Even Charlie's semisoftball question ("Rookie mistake?") didn't compensate for the affected gravitas that relocation conferred. BO gets to act presidential for the cameras, leaving it to McSame to simply react presidential, which is not the same thing at all.

Blue Monday

2007-12-28T11:27:00.000-08:00

CO2 is acknowledged to be a greenhouse gas that is increasing rapidly in the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. CO2 is generated by among other things, human respiration, which produces about 2.2 pounds per person per day. If every person of the 6.6 billion souls on the planet were to hold their collective breath for one minute, the CO2 savings during the exercise would amount to 10 million pounds. Therefore, on January 14, 2008 at 12 noon local time every person on the planet is hereby encouraged to hold their breath for one minute. Persons with breathing difficulty may participate by holding for 15 seconds at four different intervals during the noon hour.

In addition to global warming, atmospheric CO2 feeds the rainforests, the kelp forests, the cornfields and switch grass fields growing renewable energy. This event will have no net effect on atmospheric CO2, and is proposed only as a feel good exercise in futility designed to keep people from tackling more environmentally damaging projects.

Christmas choices

2006-12-08T09:29:00.000-08:00

Eddie stumped along the dark sidewalk in his jeans and work boots, his hands jammed deep into the pockets of his jacket against the December night. He had been working outside all day and the chill had settled into the soles of his feet. His foreman had just paid him for the week and he had three hundred seven dollars cash in his left front pocket. It was five days to Christmas.

Passing a house with a lighted tree in the front window he caught a whiff of wood smoke. That and the cold night made him think of warmth. Warmth made him think of heat, and heat made him remember the 2-day notice from the power company lying on the card table in his rented dining room. The dining room that doubled as his kitchen, living room, and bedroom. Keeping the lights and heat on would take all but twenty-six dollars of his pay.

But twenty-six dollars is more than nothing, and as he walked on past Smokie’s and heard the laughter and smelled the blend of stale beer and cigarette smoke, he wanted to drop inside, just to say hi, and to warm up. But it was five days to Christmas.

Instead he warmed up at the corner market. He had made a complete tour of the three short aisles before he started to thaw. He then set about gathering some supplies for the next week. The cheapest cut of meat is still too rich for twenty-six dollars and so he settled for beans and rice, a half gallon of milk, half a dozen eggs, a few other staples and some red apples for Buddy when he would come from his mother’s on Sunday. On the way to the checkout he weakened and threw in a chocolate bar. What’s Christmas without something sweet to share with your kid?

He chatted up the sales clerk for as long as he thought he could get by, then headed back out to the dark street. There were now two dollars in his jeans that didn’t already belong to somebody else. How was guy supposed to make Christmas happen on two dollars and change? He liked his job ok, but he hated never having enough to make it. He hated the cold. As he walked past a bell ringer he looked the other way. Charity wouldn’t be so bad if he could just once be on the other end of it.

Reaching the corner where he should turn down to his apartment, he stopped in a pool of light under the street lamp. He brushed the smeared mud off the toes of his boots while he debated with himself. Finally he straightened up and turned away from his street down toward the Fire House.

In one empty bay of the garage the Marine Reserves had set up a “Toys for Tots” distribution center. Long tables were piled with new unwrapped toys people had donated. When Eddie stepped inside it was bright and warm. He signed in and then took his time picking out something for Buddy.

Once he looked up across the table and recognized another man from the site. The big man with rough weathered hands was evaluating a bright pink box with a fashion doll inside. The man looked up and Eddie didn’t grin, but tossed him a nod of recognition. The little girl had a father that cared. That’s all Eddie saw.
Eddie passed up the toy cap pistol and chose a chubby teddy bear. He didn’t get to spend near enough time with his son, but the bear would. As he was making his way quietly back to the door, someone spoke and he turned.

“Do you want to wrap that?”

“Excuse me?”

“The bear, do you want to wrap it?”

One table was spread out with rolls of bright wrapping paper, tape and scissors. A woman ahead of him finished wrapping up an Elmo, and then it was his turn. Eddie chose the gaudiest paper he could find and using a good deal more than was needed managed to get all the corners taped down tight.

“How much?” Eddie ventured, praying under his breath that two dollars would cover it.

“All the paper was donated to us, sir. We couldn’t charge. God bless you.”

Eddie handed off the scissors to the big man with the pink doll and said, “Merry Christmas!”

May you know the joys of giving
and of receiving this Christmas.
We have all been given so very much
from God and from our fellow man.
Christmas is to share.
God bless you.

Happy New Year, Nancy!

2006-11-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

The silver lining to all of this is that the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, and she might not have considered this, but the Speaker doesn’t really get to say that much.

St. Catherine's at the Getty

2006-10-31T08:23:00.000-08:00

This winter the Getty is hosting an exhibit of icons and manuscripts from the ancient monastery of St. Catherine’s at the foot of Sinai. Part of the exhibit will reconstruct some of the ambiance of that sacred ground. I am curious to know if the most important piece of furniture from St. Catherine’s will make the trip. I refer, of course, to the famous holy wastebasket.

St. Catherine’s was built in the sixth century and is the oldest monastic site in continuous operation to the present day. Their collection of icons and manuscripts is the stuff of legend.

In 1844 Tischendorf was scouring the Near East for anything of value when he stopped by St. Catherine’s and happened to glance in the trash. Dumpster diving is not a new practice. What he saw there evidently made his voice tighten a little and his hands shake, because the monks in charge of the trash wouldn’t let him have all of it. He later dated the 43 leaves he was able to rescue as mid-fourth century copies of one of the oldest Bibles he had ever seen.

In the end, after twenty years of trying, out of St. Catherine’s at Mt. Sinai (though not out of the trash, out of the collection) came one of the oldest and most complete copies of the Scriptures still in existence, Codex Sinaiticus, now in the British Museum.

So, what’s in your wastebasket?

This Just In

2006-09-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

This Just In …
============ ========Tourism officials in Israel did little to sell the city of Jerusalem as a must-see for visitors when a brochure suggested it did not exist. The sightseeing pamphlet was translated from Hebrew and should have read: "Jerusalem - there's no city like it!". But instead the slogan in English read: "Jerusalem - there's no such city!", reported the Israeli newspaper Maariv.

Tens of thousands of the leaflets were distributed before the Jerusalem municipality realised its mistake. ============ ========The link: http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 2/hi/middle_ east/5364192. stm

NY Times and Terror

2006-07-10T10:34:00.000-07:00

OK, I thought I wouldn't have to weigh in on this, but...

Everyone is all over the NY Times for publishing information damaging to the efforts of our government to track finances of terrorist cells. But it isn't the Times at fault here.

The issue lies with the Bush administration source that leaked sensitive information to the Times. Once that data was in the files of the Times, I would rather they publish. Then at least we all know what the terrorists know.

Does anyone think the system security at the Times is anywhere near as tight as that at the DOT? Does anyone doubt that Al Queso has eyes and ears at the Times?

The fault is in loose cannon at the Dept of the Treasury. Prosecution and prison should start there.

Mountain of Evidence

2006-05-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

There is another part of the whole DaVinci Code controversy that puzzles me. It is a new approach to documentary evidence. People examining the book often wonder how such theories can be taken so seriously. It is so far out of the main stream. Why is this story getting such play? Brown is sloppy, but he is a novelist, not an historian. There are other professional historians utilizing the same technique, however. On the premise that the victor writes the prevailing history, they weight alternate and contradictory evidence heavier in an attempt to ferret out the fuller truth. These alternate documents have previously been marginalized because they contradict the prevailing history.

The traditional approach to history is much like the prospector in Jack London’s short story “The All Gold Canyon.” The miner assays back and forth up a slope, panning out individual shovels of dirt, locating the pocket by the number of flakes of gold revealed in each pan. Moving up the slope he narrows the pattern and closes in on the pocket, which he then mines out. In historical studies we likewise collect sources, compare, evaluate, locate the center based on the weight of evidence, and marginalize conflicting documents to the periphery. We call the center “truth,” and we publish a book.

The new approach resembles more a tent. Competing views stake out their extreme positions, establishing a space between them where we can pitch a tent of truth. Think about the classic Arminian-Calvinist debate about free will versus predestination. Positions on each side are firm, but truth lies somewhere between, maybe everywhere between. In this model it is possible that no data is actually reported from within the tent. We locate the tent from the hard data at the staking points. This is a black hole model of history. Astrophysicists don’t have any data from black holes, but they infer their existence from surrounding peripheral phenomena.

It is like a high mountain covered in ice and shrouded in mist. We infer the character of the mountain based on reports from the foothill villages, but no one actually lives up there, or has ever returned from an expedition to go there. Like our tent, the mountain covers considerable territory. This method establishes a region of truth, not a point of truth. Let that sink in.

This method does not abolish truth. The tent has an inside and an outside. The mountain stands in the midst of plains and valleys that are not the mountain. But truth in this model is not pointillism; it is not reductionistic truth. It sets out space enough to have a civil conversation where all parties can lay claim to truth without denigrating the other conversants.

The traditional point-of-truth approach has always suffered from the illusion that once properly stated, truth was in fact established and static. The new region-of-truth model likewise suffers from some staking points that are in reality weaker than others, or set in thin air. The burden of the historian remains validation, evaluation and interpretation of the evidence available.

But Pliny said...

2006-05-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

There is something bothering me about the DaVinci Code. The book claims two things. First, that Jesus was voted divine at Nicea, 300 years after his death. Prior to this no one, including Jesus, thought he was God. The second point is that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had a child that founded a royal line of French kings. Here is my problem. If Jesus wasn’t God, then what made his kid so special? Why does anyone care about the offspring of a crazy itinerant preacher who was condemned a heretic?

I should have read the book instead of waiting for the movie. But it irked me to deal with Brown’s Nicene premise when history tells us the controversy dates back to the earliest decades of the church. Pliny, a ruler not sympathetic to the Christian movement, wrote the Roman Emperor Trajan in AD 110 how adherents of the “superstition” met before daybreak and recited “a hymn to Christ, as God.” One of these hymns is quoted in Paul’s Philippian letter and shows how very early on the church had a very high view of Jesus’ divine nature.

Even early heretics like the Docetists made divine claims for Christ. They believed the divinity of Christ was a settled point. Where they had difficulties was with his humanity, which they believed was a put on. Ignatius refuted these ideas about the same year.

I would mention biblical witnesses like Isaiah, the Four gospels, Paul’s letters, Jesus many claims, and the charges of blasphemy for his claims. But these sources are under suspicion for the very fact they made it into the Bible. What do we believe though, that the documents preserved by the early church were the ones they found to be true, or that the Church Fathers concocted them to squash the truth? I know conspiracies happen, but I also know they fall apart on closer examination.

So I guess I’m going to the movie, examining both, and keeping the one that stands up. Why do I think I already know which one that will be?

Los Illegales

2006-04-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

Some people are blaming the migrants. If they would only use the proper channels to come to America then we wouldn't have an immigration problem. Ask anyone who's tried it. The system is broke. It can take years to get a legitimate work permit if you get it at all.Some people blame the farmers who hire the migrants. If they would only follow the labor laws and check people's documents. So, what, a guy named De La Cruz applies for a job and you call the FBI? That's harrassment. Chances are his family has been here longer than mine.Some blame the grocery chains that don't pay the farmers enough to hire legitimate labor to pick the food.Tell me something. Would you change grocery stores if you found out a head of lettuce was a nickel cheaper down the street? Sure. So would I. And as long as my nickel is more important than their justice, I'm the problem with immigration.

Life, Liberty, and Gratuitous Violence?

2006-04-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

Let’s be clear about two things. Video games are not speech, and they are not free. Judge Steeh’s ruling strikes down Michigan law restricting sale of violent video games to minors. The US military is using video games to train our troops how to conduct urban battle; do we not see a disconnect when commercial video games aimed at 15-year-olds train on drifting, street racing and police evasion tactics?

The speech declared free by the Constitution is speech suppressed. It is the speech of the town hall meeting. It is the broadside sheet on the street corner. It is the blues lyric. It is the blog. It might face suppression by political authority, by socially correct authority, or by editorial authority. No one who has ever sent a conservative letter to the San Francisco Dailies believes the newspapers represent a “free press.” They are in business to sell a product to a market, just like the pornographers, the distillers, and the video game houses. If the shelves are full of your games and all kids have to do is have Mom buy it for them, guess what, it’s not suppressed. It’s controlled.

Here's a thought, if you really think your First Amendment rights to Free Speech are being impinged, reduce the price to zero and give your product away. That will get the word out. What? Not willing to go that far? Then you're not concerned about Free Speech, but about Commerce. That's another section of the law. Please don't wrap yourself in the Constitution, the seams are under enough strain as it is.

And if the game makers don’t think they can profit from games bought by parents for kids, what needs to change?

The New Democracy and HR4437

2006-03-31T10:25:00.000-08:00

All this week protests against HR4437, a malformed immigration bill, sprouted across California with no visible means of support. Students emptied high school and junior high campuses to march in the streets. No one organized these protests in the traditional activist manner. They were spontaneous real time grass roots events driven by cell phones, instant messaging, and Internet blogs. Let the reader understand.

School administrators pleaded with students to remain on campus and set up stations in school libraries for writing letters to congressmen. Meanwhile the communication savvy students have bypassed these traditional channels and published mountains of data on the Internet in a publication cycle measured in minutes. Legacy media droned on about the students getting an ad hoc civics lesson. The media have not yet come to grips with the fact that democracy has undergone an evolutionary sea change while we were gawking at the marchers. It will be weeks before they get it.

Tension is good

2006-02-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

We were awakened at two a.m. as a creek came gushing through the tent. The cozy little campsite we had chosen in the daylight turned out to be a torrent with the nightly rains. That would have been bad enough, but neither had I properly staked the lines, and when the wind picked up so did the tent. Repitching a tent in the dark, wind and rain can produce its own teachable moment. We learned the hard way (is there any other way?) the importance of tent siting to a pleasurable camp.

You can’t read very far in the Bible before you find that there are some challenging things written there, and how Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture. Recently our little group strove to reconcile Matthew 12:36 “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken” against Romans 8:1 “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” In the heat of discussion I incautiously let go of one position and cleaved to the other, and was found flapping in the wind.

Too often I sweat to resolve issues best left in tension. The resulting theology becomes quickly convoluted and takes on a plastic man-made feel. If I could only learn to live with the tension, the mystery, I would find myself staked securely in the sweet spot, holding tightly to all the truth available to me, safe, dry and in a spacious place.

The Treachery of Plumages

2006-02-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

If it floats like a duck...

with apologies to Rene Magritte, Ducks Unlimited, and the citizens of St. Claude, France.

This is only a test

2006-02-10T11:29:00.000-08:00

Active Noise Cancellation is the new watchword in personal audio technology, and is just the latest in a long line of personal protective equipment. See if you can detect a theme in the following list: spam filters, mailbox rules, block lists, allow lists, internet filters, adware scrubbers, popup blockers, message machines, call screening, the national don’t-even-think-of-calling-me list, the V-chip, Personal video recorders, pay per view. There is a whole sector of new industries that exist, not to supply product, but to block it from your life.

We just came through a Christmas season (there’s that word again) where a major debate was waged on the issue of individuals desiring to have freedom from religion. Maybe we could apply that same logic to other constitutionally guaranteed “rights.” What about freedom from speech, or from the press, or from the press of speech? I mean, you can say whatever you want, but why do I have to listen? And if I don’t happen to catch the original quote, what benefit can anyone see in replaying a solid week of misrepresented sound bites?

Here’s a question. How many of the rights guaranteed in the US Constitution are we now actively and purposefully filtering out of our lives?
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Chocolate?

2006-01-17T09:57:00.000-08:00

Mayor Ray Nagin does have a way with words. His speech in New Orleans on the celebration of the King holiday raised both spirits and eyebrows when he advocated, nay promised, that his recently deluged city would once again be predominantly black. Immediately the pundits went to their microphones and the networks started cutting sound bites. He is a master at getting the word out, and the word is “chocolate.”

But I think I get it, at least in part. The challenge before Mayor Nagin is not only to rebuild New Orleans, but to remake it as it was. Gentrification is defined as what happens when a lot of money comes pouring into a poor area, making it no longer suitable for the poor. Without careful planning there will be a city rebuilt on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain, but it won’t be New Orleans.

The mayor is not so much the governor of a city as the guardian of an attitude. We saw the same kind of mantle fall on Mayor Giuliani after the Towers. It is a prophetic calling to stand and lead.

As to the Mayor channeling God and Dr. King, I am not certain he speaks for either one. But his comments in total were more pertinent than the sound bites give him credit. Is God mad at America? Quite possibly. If God is true to His word, then yes, we are not where we ought to be. Is it because of Iraq, though, or because of New Orleans? One of the big issues on God’s to do list appears to be defending the cause of the poor and powerless. I think of the video footage of Iraqi citizens with blue fingerprints after voting. Then I think of the footage of those left behind at the Superdome. Who was more powerless and neglected?

The Mayor’s address was incendiary. I’m sure he meant every word of it. But was it racist? If there is real racism in Mayor Nagin’s speech, it will show on the news the next time New Orleans floods and the people standing chest deep in sewage are mostly black and all poor. Again.

Phones for Terrorists

2006-01-14T15:17:00.000-08:00

Untraceable cell phones sold over the counter in big box stores may come into the hands of terror cells operating in the US. The troubling thing about this report is only that it comes as news. Are we that stupid? I am trusting that the FBI had a heads-up about these products usefulness in the field, given they appear from the news to be standard issue for the CIA. And thanks to the vigilance of Wal-Mart clerks in Texas we are now all aware that a purchase of large numbers of Tracphones will tip-off local law enforcement. The message to the terrorists is clearly that they may buy their disposable cell phones, but in smaller lots, and they will be put to the trouble of finding an open Wal-Mart. Take that!

I am all for a free and open market, and I am sure the members of the Michigan militia already have their cache of untraceable cell phones, ever prepared for the coming resistance. I am tempted to go out while I still can and get one or two for under the front seat. But there passed a point somewhere in the last decade when I wonder if we are being as smart as we can be about all this.

We are paying more attention to our borders these days, as we should. But more and more it seems that everything the terrorists need to bring us low is sold at the local outlets. Lenin was wrong, America won’t spend herself to death, she will sell it direct to her killers on the street corner for cold cash.

Alito

2006-01-13T09:32:00.000-08:00

Once again the United States Senate natters away its sole opportunity to really discover what sort of man has been put forward for the US Supreme Court. During judge Alito’s two days of questioning Republican Senators were fawningly playing softball, while the Democrats were predictably mired in issues that are so last millennium.

Senator Feinstein is reported to have said that Roe was a decision “women all over America have come to depend on.” Write a law- shape a culture. Or in this case overturn a dozen state laws via court order, and then staunchly defend the decision against over-overturning and declare it to be “settled (albeit extra-legislative) law”

Oddly enough, the second big issue for the Senators was Alito’s view on separation of powers.
Selah
Yes, the Senators who are up in arms about over-reaching in the Executive have no thoughts whatever about the courts overstepping into their own province of law making.

What emerges again, as in the hearings for Chief Justice Roberts last fall, is that the Senators are more taken with the daily scandal sheets than with the Constitution, and more interested in giving one another a black eye than in deciding what will work best for the country over the next thirty years.

On second thought, maybe it is for the best they leave lawmaking to the courts.

Epiphany

2006-01-06T10:51:00.000-08:00

It is rude, is it not, to just show up on someone’s doorstep empty handed? My Chinese friends are passed masters at this grace of gifting. Most commonly this time of year it would be a bag of clementines (tangerines), always welcome gifts to ward off colds in the region of China south of the Yellow River without winter heat, and bearing the added advantage of being immediately consumable, as the host turns and regifts the visitor with a plate of shared fruit.

But as I remember growing up in central lower Michigan, there was a custom of Sunday afternoon visiting, where friends and relatives dropped-in unannounced on us on a weekly basis, there was no gift required. Their visit was grace enough.

Taking this class on the prophets from Trinity has put me in mind of the eternal struggle between promise and performance. Not the vast gap between my empty promises and my meager performance, but the delicate balance between God’s gracious promise to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and his expectation that we will nevertheless endeavor to do what we can in response.

So I am struck with the story of the Magi from the East (Baghdad?) who packed up their gifts to bring offerings to God. And I know all about the deeper meaning of the gold, frankincense and myrrh. And that the gold was especially handy as Joseph over extended his original trip plans to take in Egypt. But the Magi didn’t know any of that, maybe never knew. They just knew, with their oriental sensibilities, that they should oughta bring something. After all, you don’t just come to God empty-handed.

You bring your best. You prepare. You save up a lifetime to make this one pilgrimage. You clean up your act. You get straight. You get right. You hedge your bets, pack up your best stuff, put your out-of-office notice on, and hit the road.

And on the road you rehearse “the speech,” you anticipate the look of pleasure on the face of God, you lie awake and look at the stars, too excited to sleep.

And when you arrive, in the wrong place, unanticipated, somehow coolly unwelcome, ‘terribly sorry to intrude,’ redirected, finally meeting an infant God who teethes on the golden bangles, and snuffs at the incense, and tries to eat the white nodules of poisonous resin. This is your epiphany.

And yet the face of God is oddly pleased. Your gift is inappropriate, your preparations inadequate, your maps inaccurate, but your visit is somehow grace enough. He doesn’t really need anything else you have, just you.

2005-09-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

Time once again for the biggest beauty pageant America promotes. Cameras have come back to the U.S. Senate chamber and the popularity parade is well underway. As Senators examine Judge Roberts for Chief Justice this week, they will be mugging for the camera and asking tough sounding questions, framing for their constituencies the issues they ran on.

And who can blame the Senators? Hearings are the only times they get to put their faces out there, to get some national name recognition. Come late 2007 we will see the same names come up on the primaries of both parties. Hearings perform an important publicity function.

Unfortunately, the hearings will not perform the function we need them to. The Senators’ questions this week will be partisan, parochial, and fixed on a rear view perspective. Will Roberts uphold Roe? Will Roberts defend property? What about privacy? Meanwhile Roberts is being examined for a post where he will shape the Court for the next thirty years.

Yesterday’s cases matter only if they come up for review, and how often does SCOTUS ever take up issues overturning its own precedents? But every new case bubbling up through the lower courts today has potential for either eroding or edifying the influence of the Constitution of the United States. Will the new Chief Justice read the Constitution broadly or narrowly? Will we have an originalist, a revisionist, or a pragmatist?

These are the important questions, but they don’t play well to the cameras. They don’t incite heated discussions on the Sunday shows. And important as they are, they won’t be asked this week.

2004-08-20T17:52:00.000-07:00

How can censorship be advocated by the left? How can the silencing of opinion be part of a liberal platform?

We are talking about the contrarian book and the controversial ads (a new one out today) put out by the Swift Boat Vets for Truth. Why are the Kerry lawyers threatening suits against media outlets? Why are Kerry's surrogates calling for the President to order the ads pulled and the book banned? And if he did, the next moment the left would be on him for censorship!

If there is a problem with the content of the group's message, the courts are open. Don't Kerry and Edwards appreciate the chilling effect they are having on the democratic process? It is so strange for the GOP, the people who brought us the Patriot Act, to come out as the champions of that most liberal principle, free speech.

2003-11-01T13:51:00.000-08:00

Somewhere in the First Amendment between the establishment clause and the free exercise clause we need to pry open enough elbow room for American culture to stand.

I understand that the Pledge of Allegiance as written by a defrocked socialist minister never mentioned God at all, and that the words “Under God” admitted by President Eisenhower had more to do with the Red Scare of the mid-fifties than piety of any particular stripe. So much is, as they say, history.

Here’s the rub. As a person of faith, and there are a few, of various faiths, my allegiance is already pledged. The nature of faith is that it is supreme, transcendent, over arching, and over ruling all other commitments. Normally this isn’t a problem; most faith systems that have lasted more than a couple hundred years are pretty consistent with social order. But along comes the Pledge of Allegiance, and without that little two-word caveat “under God” I am hard pressed to make such a pledge. Of what value would it be?

I am old-fashioned, believing a pledge or promise to be just that. And this is after all the 21st century, where promises were made to be broken, contracts have escape clauses, and a few men and women on active duty feel no compunction carping to the press corps about their orders. But then I remember this is also the era of “keep it real” and “just do it.” Walking your talk never goes out of style, but being circumspect about your talk in the first place has done.

What’s at stake in the debate on the Pledge is not theology. God goes on, so does faith. Or if you are of the faithless persuasion, so does integrity, conviction. What is at stake is the Pledge itself, and our allegiance to the Republic, which is us, each of us, and all of us. If one party can’t say the pledge with, and the other party can’t say it without, then we remain, regardless of the Pledge, one nation eminently divisible.