Ecce Homo

This sounds oddly familiar

2012-02-19T14:09:00.002-05:00

On one hand, we have the US:

For one thing, Awlaki was never charged or indicted for anything in the U.S. — he was simply executed without any charges (the Obama administration, after trying to kill him, reportedly “considered” charging him with crimes at one point but never did) – and thus, there was nothing to which he could “turn himself” in even if he wanted to.

. . . .

The way the process normally works, as Reuters described it, is that targeted Americans are selected “by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions”; moreover, “there is no public record of the operations or decisions of the panel” nor “any law establishing its existence or setting out the rules by which it is supposed to operate.”

Which sounds a bit like the famed Star Chamber

The court was set up to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against prominent people, those so powerful that ordinary courts could never convict them of their crimes. Court sessions were held in secret, with no indictments, no right of appeal, no juries, and no witnesses. Evidence was presented in writing.

And what happened to the Star Chamber, one might ask?

Over time it evolved into a political weapon, a symbol of the misuse and abuse of power by the English monarchy and courts.

Hacking and risk creation

2012-02-17T17:20:00.004-05:00

Perhaps I'm a bit dumb, but didn't Facebook create the risk by building a bad system, and this dude showed the world that they had a bad system?

Mr Mangham's defence lawyer Tom Ventham had said his client was an ethical hacker who had a "high moral stance" and Yahoo had "rewarded" him for pointing out its vulnerabilities previously.

. . . .

Passing sentence, Judge Alistair McCreath told Mangham his actions were not harmless and had "real consequences and very serious potential consequences" for Facebook.

"You and others who are tempted to act as you did really must understand how serious this is," he said.

"The creation of that risk, the extent of that risk and the cost of putting it right mean at the end of it all I'm afraid a prison sentence is inevitable."

Yeah, I understand the consequences. Facebook writes crap code that lets the world access their data. Some guy points this out to them that they have a problem on their hands. Said guy gets prosecuted for pointing out that the emperor is without clothing.

A translation to a non-technological realm might be: Jimbo Motor Company makes a car that has a minor tendency to blow up when you're on the highway. A mechanic decides to check the car out and finds the problem. When he reports the problem, he goes to jail, because it could hurt sales of the car. Now I agree that it's not a fair comparison. But it's not so untrue either.

RWA, the mutant cousin of SOPA

2012-02-12T21:47:00.002-05:00

But there is another threat also making its way through the US Congress — less publicised but also hugely important.

That threat is the Research Works Act (RWA), by which scholarly publishers like Elsevier (with its 36% profits as a proportion of revenue) hope to claw back total ownership of federally funded research. The way academic research works is an absolute scandal to start with, but the behaviour of publishers now — charging both authors and readers, and trying to get laws passed supporting their outdated and corrupt business model — is absolutely disgraceful.

The government pays a zillion for the research, and then the journal that charges the government to publishes it wants to make it illegal not to charge other people to read it. Sounds legit.

Also worth reading is the article "Academic publishers have become the enemies of science" that is linked to by ReProg.

A petition

2012-02-06T00:20:00.000-05:00

We petition the Obama administration to:

Rescind the HHS Dept. Mandate Requiring Catholic Employers to Provide Contraceptives/Abortifacients to Their Employees

What censorship looks like in the West

2012-02-05T23:28:00.001-05:00

Recently it has come to our attention that our primary website is filtered by Vodafone in the UK, by 3 (three.co.uk) in the UK, by O2 in the UK, and by T-Mobile in the UK and the USA. It used to be the case that we only saw filtering and censorship events in places like Egypt, Syria, or Iran and now we're going to explore what those attacks look like in the context of the UK and the USA.

Quote of the week

2012-02-05T23:18:00.001-05:00

And it's just Sunday!

P.S. - Sanity tip: Whenever one of your lawsuits is against the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, maybe you should say to yourself: "You know, I wonder if I'm way off the deep end here?"

Not mementi mori

2012-02-05T23:13:00.001-05:00

I try not to be shocked by what to me are glaring errors of usage in print, soothing myself with the reflection that times have changed, no one studies the classical languages any more, and you can't tie the present to the millstone of the past.

I try to be shocked and bemused, it gives me something to do. Suffice to say, the plural of "memento mori" isn't "mementi mori" because you can't do that to Latin words.

Units of beauty

2012-02-05T23:02:00.003-05:00

Thanks to Mr. Rich, who taught me that the "Helen" is the internationally accepted unit of beauty:

Helen of Troy (from the Iliad) is widely known as "the face that launched a thousand ships". Thus, 1 milliHelen is the amount of beauty needed to launch a single ship.

Like the tesla, dealing in milli-units is probably more common in day to day tasks.

Euphemism and evil

2012-02-05T21:32:00.000-05:00

A differen't way to spell it

2012-02-04T20:01:00.002-05:00

I have found some people on the interwebs spelling different as "differen't". Fascinating. I guess at some point, you just start putting "'"s between ns and ts. I was quite nonplussed by the discovery as you can imagine.

The Little Thing

2012-02-04T15:59:00.002-05:00

Thank you to Mr. Jester for finding this article.

Viable babies were born. Gosnell killed them by plunging scissors into their spinal cords. He taught his staff to do the same.

This is a remarkable moment in American life: A man is killing actual living, gurgling, bouncing babies on an industrial scale – and it barely makes the papers.

But, you know, if you speak up about this, you might be a terrorist . . . better to just stay quiet.

What if the Government Ordered the Human Rights Campaign to Cover Conversion Therapy for Gays?

2012-01-26T12:05:00.000-05:00

A thought experiment, thanks to TOTM.

Hatefest? You decide

2012-01-26T12:01:00.002-05:00

With regards to the March for Life

From LGF:

On his way to a religious fanatic anti-abortion hatefest, Sen. Rand Paul was detained today by TSA agents at Reagan National after a scanner went off, and he then refused a pat down.

And from AA:

Alveda King speaks of her abortion regret. She's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s niece. She doesn't celebrate her birthday--which is January 22nd too--except by being at the March For Life every year... Seriously, go watch her speak on this webpage.

Nothing more hateful and fanatical than talking about your regrets in life and how you wish others wouldn't make the same mistakes. I mean, they're practically burning witches at the stake down there.

I was against Reagan before I was for Reagan

2012-01-26T11:58:00.000-05:00

Thank you Mr. Newt for my morning chuckle.

Happy Lunar New Year

2012-01-22T23:14:00.001-05:00

Corporations and Speech

2012-01-22T01:36:00.001-05:00

So, to critics of Citizens United, I have a question: should those business entities have had a right to engage in SOPA/PIPA protests like they did? If so, what is the source of that right, and by what mechanism is it vindicated?

Indeed.

Are humans herbivores?

2012-01-21T21:30:00.001-05:00

Turns out, no.

I feel like I'm arguing that the Pope is Catholic. To clarify a point that eluded many who wrote me about this: the issue is not whether vegetarianism is healthier, better for the planet, etc., than the standard U.S. diet. I don't doubt it is. It's whether humans are naturally vegetarians.

Here it seems to me the best evidence is our history as a species.

The best SOPA protest page in the universe

2012-01-21T21:05:00.001-05:00

On my day without Wikipedia . . .

2012-01-19T11:46:00.002-05:00

I finally set up a Tor relay node. Great fun, you get to help people in China evade secret police, and there is only a small possibility that the FBI will send a paramilitary unit to kill you. If you want a higher chance of paramilitary encounter, I would recommend an exit node. Or, you know, you can run one at a commercial facility, but that's no fun.

Importance of the Oxford comma

2012-01-17T21:10:00.001-05:00

You don't want to be left with just JFK and Stalin.

Do note that the link is to Memebase.

Santorum - all for killing scientists

2012-01-17T20:46:00.001-05:00

Our country is not at war and the Iranian scientist who just got offed was not a combatant. He was a murder victim–which Santorum thinks is wonderful.

Gross.

Drug raids

2012-01-16T21:54:00.000-05:00

An excuse for the government to kill the innocent!

Or, if you use marijuana, and have a small amount of marijuana in your home, you may get shot to death by police during a raid. In fact, marijuana is so dangerous that police may shoot you when they raid your home if they just think you may have it. And it goes without saying that marijuana is dangerous to your dog, who may get shot during a raid.

SOPA in a nutshell

2012-01-16T20:46:00.000-05:00

As Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian explained, PIPA and SOPA are “the equivalent of being angry and trying to take action against Ford just because a Mustang was used in a bank robbery.”

I am not bewildered by chestnuts

2012-01-09T01:12:00.000-05:00

And I do not know what this sentence means:

Apart from roasted chestnuts on the streets of New York City in the winter and a cameo appearance in Thanksgiving stuffing, Americans seem a little nonplussed about chestnuts, which have at times been a major source of sustenance here at home and abroad.

Krugman declares self to be an idiot

2012-01-08T22:28:00.001-05:00

Good thing no one keeps old newspapers or anything like that.

A brief guide to indefinite detention

2012-01-08T22:24:00.004-05:00

Hostilities forever!

You're here because someone in the U.S. government determined that you work for al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Or that you substantially supported them, or an associated group, or whatever and whatnot.

And remember that I may very well be a terrorist. Maybe you are too!

Both ways

2012-01-08T22:20:00.003-05:00

I was a bit confused by this sentence

Once again, Republican politicians are pandering to the lowest, most bigoted element of society with an unnecessary, clearly discriminatory bill that would ban shariah law from Pennsylvania courts.

Followed by this sentence

Shariah law is not currently being used by Pennsylvania courts, and in fact the US Constitution specifically bans such a thing and has for centuries. But when you're pandering to haters and bigots, logic goes right out the window.

So that would suggest that Pennsylvania having laws in line with the federal Constitution is hateful and bigoted? Or is the Constitution itself hateful and bigoted for not allowing Sharia law to be used? I mean, when the Feds outlaw some civil rights violation, one usually doesn't get angry at states harmonizing their laws with the one passed by Congress.

New Athiests, New Wusses

2011-12-19T10:39:00.001-05:00

Metallic men of the future who look into the abyss and laugh don’t get a tremble in their voices about how they feel like “outsiders” when mean theists at the Cool Kids table talk about prayer.

An excellent point as always Mr. Shea.

Wegmans and magazines

2011-12-04T20:44:00.001-05:00

Yay for common sense.

Yeah. You know what we need more of? Censorship. Not oppressive government regulation of free speech. Goodness knows we have enough of that already.

No, we need more personal censorship, just as a general courtesy—as a way of acknowledging that the world is yucky enough as it is, and there’s no need to dial up the levels of yuck every time we get the chance.

Happy Advent

2011-11-28T00:20:00.001-05:00

Or not so happy, I guess.

CONDITOR alme siderum,
aeterna lux credentium,
Christe, redemptor omnium,
exaudi preces supplicum.

A little math and philosophy

2011-11-20T20:19:00.002-05:00

Expand your mind as the bright lights of MathOverflow discuss the value of proofs.

As a person who has been spending significant time to learn mathematics, I have to admit that I sometimes find the fact uncovered by Godel very upsetting: we never can know that our axiom system is consistent. The consistency of ZFC can only be proved in a larger system, whose consistency is unknown.

Weird things that have happened

2011-11-14T23:52:00.002-05:00

Yesterday while out for a jog, a deer almost ran into me. I should have sued him.

Today at Mass, a dude gets up during the Prayer of the Faithful and starts cursing out the priest for, apparently, ad-libbing some of it, and then accuses him of various forms of sexual depravity. Apparently he had some intention that he was listening for and didn't hear it. Security didn't do too much, which is weird with all of the guys they have standing around with walkie-talkies.

Waterboarding is torture

2011-11-14T22:56:00.001-05:00

Oh that silly liberal Obama-loving left-wing lapdog McCain . . . oh wait.

Happy blogversery to me

2011-11-07T20:59:00.002-05:00

Yet another year of failing to live up to my tagline and stated intentions!

Latin Q&A Stack Exchange

2011-11-06T23:57:00.000-05:00

Taking shape . . .

Cops kill drunk kid

2011-11-06T23:29:00.001-05:00

Be careful when you call for an ambulance, I suppose, is the lesson. You may get more of a SWAT team response.

The more I read this opinion, the more I became convinced that there was utterly no reason why 18-year old Lukus Glenn had to die. At least viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. I would be horrified -- horrified -- if I were his parents, and watched the police kill him.

Evalatuion of claims

2011-11-06T23:21:00.002-05:00

Just because a book comes from an impressive publisher doesn't mean it's super-good.

This volume of Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences is a translation of a book originally published in Russian by three scientists from Russia and Belarus, and is mainly based on publications in Russian-language journals and other sources on the consequences of the Chernobyl accident for human health and the environment. The original Russian publication was published in 2008.

In the opinion of this reviewer, the authors unfortunately did not appropriately analyze the content of the Russian-language publications, for example, to separate them into those that contain scientific evidence and those based on hasty impressions and ignorant conclusions. . . .

The list of cited references in the translation (Yablokov et al. 2009) indicates that the authors avoided the most respectable papers of Russian-language authors, which received serious international peer review and were published in respected journals.

Sheep can be dangerous too

2011-11-06T23:07:00.001-05:00

Especially if you dance like that.

RIP Mr. Lisp

2011-10-26T01:30:00.000-04:00

The Mexican Mafia as government

2011-10-23T22:49:00.000-04:00

DMR RIP

2011-10-13T23:05:00.001-04:00

Welcome Hermeneutics.SE!

2011-10-12T02:00:00.001-04:00

For those not in the know, StackExchange is a Q&A type of site that tries to get good info to float to the top.

Anwar al-Awlaki in brief

2011-10-12T01:51:00.002-04:00

Let me summarize the Administration's position in my own words:

The fifth amendment doesn't apply to him, because we're accusing him of exercising his first amendment rights.

Now we just need to implement a certain British diocese's proposal to make blogging illegal and we can start eliminating some of the more subversive elements in our political system, like me.

Hell to Heaven and back, minus the Inferno

2011-10-10T09:20:00.003-04:00

In explaining what the after-life may look like, Fr. Groeschel does make reference to Dante's Inferno, but he places much more of an emphasis The Dream of Gerontius by John Henry Newman and other poetic and theological sources. Fr. Groeschel writes as he speaks - clear and directly, with occasional anecdotal or humorous tidbits to spice up the narrative.

Fr. Groeschel is, as always, well grounded in history, theology, psychology, science, and the literary, giving a very well-rounded shape to his discussions of heaven, hell, and purgatory. For a short book (only about a 100 pages) he packs a punch. There is much worthy of rereading in this thought-provoking book. I read it rather quickly, but I have already gone back over sections to read it slowly and ponder more deeply some of the content. The book is theologically dense, and yet a pleasurable and easy read. Fr. Groeschel explains the divine in human terms, and makes some of the more difficult concepts quite simple and graspable.

I had the pleasure of hearing Fr. Groeschel speak last winter in Albany, NY, where I purchased this book and had the chance to receive Fr. Groeschel's blessing and autograph. The talk was on life after death, a subject of much interest to me these days, but I have not gotten to the book till recently. This topic seems to come up a lot, especially in my work as a catechist, so I am glad I finally got around to reading this short book. I recommend it to all who catechize, defend the faith, or are simply curious as to what our eternal moment with the Lord might be like. If you sit with this text it may well impact your faith-life, as it has mine.

A cool story about buried treasure at Oak Island

2011-10-09T20:19:00.000-04:00

Off topic

QOTD

2011-10-09T20:18:00.000-04:00

I contend that Planned Parenthood is directly to blame for an increase in unplanned pregnancies: they do everything they can to preach the gospel of everyone having as much sex as possible, so of course pregnancies go up. There is . . . I’m almost dying here, with the sheer stupidity of having to say so . . . a connection between sex and babies.

Blasphemy!

Heaven as told by a four-year old

2011-10-02T14:35:00.002-04:00

I read this book at the insistence of a loving relative in the aftermath of the passing of my father. I suppose she thought it would be consoling to hear how a four-year boy had a near death medical experience and had a divine encounter. The child vividly describes heaven in details that seem to me to be largely Scripturally and doctrinally sound.

First of all, and this is just my personal aversion, I can't deal well at this point with gruesome medical details, which dominate the first 40 pages or so of the short book. That is my own sensitivity and it is tender territory for me. So many of the details reminded me of my own father's suffering, but my father did not have the happy ending this boy did of total recovery that would outshine the shadow of death he was under. So instead of finding it consoling, I found it painful to relive some of those terrible details of suffering.

In fact I put down the book for three months and read other things, but finally came back to it as I intended to finish and return the book before I returned to visit my aunt who leant it to me. In concluding the book, I did find it much more uplifting when I got past the medical drama and delved into the messages of heaven this toddler was delivering up to his parents and the world. I began the book as a skeptic, but by the end I do believe this child had a rare divine encounter of the eternal. Many of the details were fascinating to read, and sweetly told from a child's perspective. I was touched by how his message helped others to heal. His experiences of encountering his older sister and great-grandfather in heaven provided much healing to his mother and grandmother, and others as well.

As sweetly moving as this story is, I found the writing-quality to be very poor. I understand that the main author is a simple man, a minister and owner of a garage-door business, who never had aspirations to be a published author. However, it is co-authored by Lynn Vincent, a published author of several titles, and so one would rightly expect better. The writing comes across as childish. Details are included that seem rather irrelevant, and details that hint at powerful and interesting side-stories are mentioned briefly. The hinting at the author's father's bipolar disorder, the car-crash that ended his grandfather's life that seemed like a suicide, and the small-town life of rural Nebraska are details that intrigued me, but were sadly underdeveloped.

The poor writing I was able to get past, but I am afraid that it won't translate to more sophisticated readers, such as the New York cognoscenti. I am afraid I would have a tough time trying to convince my intellectual friends to take this book seriously. However the book is a New York Times bestseller in the one year it has been out and a hardcover edition is coming out in November. I am guessing that most readers are coming from the middle of the country, and that this book has an evangelical bent to it, but is most likely to be read by people who are already Christian and believe in an after-life.

What did intrigue me was the non-Protestant details that this son-of-a-minister included in his experience of heaven: an emphasis on the wounds of Christ, Mary's presence beside Jesus, the communion of saints, etc. But some of these details I think were overlooked by the father. For example Mary is only mentioned in the epilogue, and the father/author seems surprised by the communion of saints and his son's description of Christ's wounds, but doesn't do much more than note them.

One detail that disturbed me was when the child becomes fixated on a dead man in a casket who was not a member of the church, and he insistently asks, "Did he have Jesus in his heart?" with a trembling and anxiety that shook him to the core. One can see the fundamentalist belief played out, that the only way to heaven is through faith in Christ, and all others are damned. It seems to upset the boy that someone might be excluded from the eternal paradise, and indeed it disturbs me too. Not that I think heaven is guaranteed for all, but that faith in Christ is something we can't fully control. Faith is a great gift and the surest means to being eternally united in God's love, but it is something that we can't fully control. Faith is a gift and often a product of one's circumstances in life, to whom and what culture one is born into, and so we cannot presume that God's mercy will not be extended to those who have sought God in their life, but for whatever reasons did not have faith in the triune God.

To summarize, I think the boy's experiences are real and the story moving, and by the numbers of the books sold, his story is clearly touching people's lives, but only certain types of people. I would not recommend this book to someone who isn't already Christian or who can't stand poor writing and a few theological errors.

I am reading another book on life after death that I am finding more helpful and will review shortly upon finishing.

Origins of Labyrinth

2011-10-02T03:04:00.001-04:00

Of interest to the Columbia University crowd.

QOTD - Law School

2011-10-02T03:02:00.001-04:00

I learned little about the law at Harvard Law School. This was partly due to my own laziness, and partly due to professors whose teaching pointlessly focused on ideologically-trendy but atypical situations, or hide-the-ball Socratic dialogue. (For example, my property instructor was obsessed with sexual harassment of lesbians by tenants).

Seriously though, a good discussion on why law school and the practice of law aren't super-connected.

The latest trends in moral thought

2011-09-30T21:00:00.002-04:00

Kill a newborn - no problem. Just a slightly delayed abortion after all.

Want to eat french fries? Slow down there.

Blogging considered harmful

2011-09-30T20:59:00.001-04:00

I am afraid that for personal ethical reasons I am not prepared to co-operate – I believe that blogging as currently manifested should be made a serious criminal office . . .

Ah yes, those people publishing their opinions, what a danger to society. We should ban newspapers and political organizations too, nothing good comes of stirring up the pot.

L'Shanah Tovah!

2011-09-28T19:50:00.000-04:00

The universe is really big

2011-09-26T01:07:00.001-04:00

Check out the atlas.

Who's the job creator?

2011-09-24T13:25:00.001-04:00

Correct answer: Me!

Nonplussed

2011-09-19T21:41:00.000-04:00

Today I declare war on dubious uses of words. The most common issue I see is with the word "nonplussed", which in fact means bewildered but which people use to mean, I guess, "not plussed", except that plussed is not a word, alas.

Exhibit A:

They're super messy. Sauce ends up on your hands, your face, and very often your friend's couch. As a host, you want to order wings but you know your friends have the dexterity and cleanliness of a kindergartner. This typically doesn't go over well with your already nonplussed Significant Other.

I declare this war for two reasons.

Firstly, I think it is important for words to have meanings, so that we can have discussions.

Secondly, every time I try to parse a sentence with "nonplussed" in it, it takes me about a minute to try to figure out what in the world the author means. For example, here I was wondering why the spouse was bewildered.

On a side note, Wikipedia says that the word refute is now of disputed usage. I have never heard it mean anything other than to "deny with reasoned argument", but apparently now it just means to disagree with someone? What nonsense. We already have a word that means that - "disagree".

Now we must ask if this war is a just war. Well, there are a bunch of traditional criteria for jus ad bellum.

Just cause - Certainly met. We can't have language disintegrating on us.

Proper authority - degree from a prestigious institution, know a few English majors. Close enough.

Right intention - For sure.

Reasonable prospect of success - debatable, but I think if we publicly shame people who do stuff like this, treat them like cigarette smokers (no incorrect usages of nonplussed allowed within 25 feet of this building!) we can win.

Proportionality - In my opinion, quite proportional.

Last resort - I've tried gentle correction, but it just doesn't work! I'm at wit's end here.

So I extend this invitation to all those who love freedom and being able to understand what other people are saying. Remember you're either with me or against me.

Hipster Troll God

2011-09-18T11:02:00.000-04:00

A fine Internet meme.

Railroads and "Do Not Hump"

2011-09-17T17:06:00.001-04:00

Dear Cecil:

Whilst driving around recently a friend and I got stuck at a railroad crossing waiting for a freight train to go by. To pass the time, we began speculating on the meaning of a sign we saw on some of the cars saying DO NOT HUMP. We conjectured that this might be some sort of safe-sex campaign organized by the railroads in the wake of the AIDS crisis, but eventually rejected the idea. So we put it to you, Cecil — what is the meaning of this odd instruction?

— Gene W., Dallas

Sad to say, I knew exactly what it meant before I read the article.

Historical Jesus vs. Real Jesus

2011-09-05T14:53:00.006-04:00

In The Five Gospels the Jesus Seminar warns against looking for a comfortable Jesus. That is sound advice. What I have tried to demonstrate in this book, however, is that the truly uncomfortable Jesus, the genuinely “countercultural” Jesus, is not the one reconstructed according to the ethos of contemporary academics-whether it is Crossan’s politically correct revolutionary Jesus or Borg’s charismatic-founder Jesus or any of the others-but the one inscribed in the canonical Gospels. The Jesus who truly challenges this age, as every age, is the one who suffers in obedience to God and calls others to such suffering service in behalf of humanity. This is the Jesus that classical Christianity has always proclaimed; this is an understanding of discipleship to which classical Christianity has always held.
- The Real Jesus, epilogue, by Luke Timothy Johnson

Earlier this summer I praised Bord for his book Jesus. I found some of Borg's explanations for the Gospel accounts to be surprisingly fresh, startling, and insightful. However Borg, as do others of the Jesus Seminar, play down Jesus' divinity. He doesn't come right out and say that the resurrection didn't happen, but he does describe the resurrection in terms of an "experience" more than an event, one that was perhaps more psychological in nature than physical. Borg downplays the importance of the Gospel of John, again true to his Jesus Seminar affiliation. Members of the Jesus Seminar tend to think John inauthentic to the "historical Jesus."

Johnson in The Real Jesus, provides a wonderful rebuttal to the weaker points of Borg and other Jesus Seminar writers. Johnson points out that the "historical Socrates" is not the real Socrates, no more is the quest for the "historical Jesus" going to lead us to the real Jesus. Johnson favors working with the canon to uncover who Jesus really is, rather than throwing out Gospels or epistles that don't seem to jive with the historians' preconception of who Jesus is. Johnson argues that our best way to learn about Christ is through the writings of his first followers and the early church. Johnson recognizes the diversity of perspectives in the canon, but rather than finding them a problem, accepts that the early Christians accepted the plurality, and so should we. Instead of focusing on minute differences and discounting one Gospel or the other, Johnson focuses on what he calls the "pattern of Messiahship" the big themes and major teachings of who Jesus is and his message that are present in all four Gospels.

The first half of the book is a bit of a diatribe against the Jesus Seminar folks, and Johnson doesn't really come into his own ideas until the second half, but it is worth reading through the whole thing to fully appreciate both sides of the "historical Jesus" versus "real Jesus" argument.

Sadly Borg and the Jesus Seminar camp are excellent at marketing themselves, and so Jesus was a New York Times bestseller, whereas The Real Jesus is not a well known book. If you only have time for one, read The Real Jesus. Besides, it's shorter!

Sage advice

2011-09-04T21:35:00.002-04:00

Mating starts with the male and female locating and identifying each other using a mixture of pheromones and vibrational communication. Once they have satisfied the other that they are of opposite sex and of the correct species, mating can commence.

The best part about this is that it is good advice for most species.

How to tie a tie like a great old one

2011-09-04T19:32:00.001-04:00

A great use for ties that may have been cast into the outer void.

Rule of Law

2011-08-29T22:12:00.002-04:00

The idea that there is no limit to the powers of the legislator is in part a result of popular sovereignty and democratic government. It has been strengthened by the belief that, so long as all actions of the state are duly authorized by legislation, the Rule of Law will be preserved. But this is completely to misconceive the meaning of the Rule of Law. This rule has little to do with the question whether all actions of government are legal in the juridical sense. They may well be and yet not conform to the Rule of Law.

. . . .

To say that in a planned society the Rule of Law cannot hold is, therefore, not to say that the actions of the government will not be legal or that such a society will necessarily be lawless. It means only that the use of the government's coercive powers will no longer be limited and determined by pre-established rules. The law can, and to make a central direction of economic activity possible must, legalize what ot all intends and purposes remains arbitrary action. If the law says that such a board or authority may do what it pleases, anything that board or authority does is legal -- but its actions are certainly not subject to the Rule of Law. By giving the government unlimited powers, the most arbitrary rule can be made legal; and in this way a democracy may set up the most complete despotism imaginable.

The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Volume 2), p. 119. (978-0-226-32055-7)

In my CC class (hi Naomi) we once had a debate over whether the (US) Constitution was a purely formal document or whether it prescribed a certain sort of government, rather than a certain form. I believe the conclusion was that while only a form was required, the form was senseless without a certain set of assumptions or values. So carrying out the motions required by the Constitution without holding to the prerequisite values would be sort of like taking the choreography from "West Side Story" and dancing it to the music of "42nd Street". You wouldn't really be getting much out of it.

A similar idea, I think, with the "Rule of Law". Just because a legislator has passed a bunch of laws doesn't mean that the result is the sort of state that is traditionally associated with free nations.

Decision Fatigue

2011-08-29T09:55:00.003-04:00

Apparently exercising your will-power also depletes it. The research has implications for many aspects of daily life, from maintaining will-power in dieting and shopping, to arbitrary decisions from parole officers. Of great interest to me are the implications for educations. When final exams are scheduled back-to-back for example, students inevitably do worse on the second exam. Students become mentally fatigued of multiple-choice tests, they may be getting hungry, glucose-levels can be low in the brain. The long-term effects of their choices become less important to the more instantly gratifying choices of taking a break, eating, or having fun. I have observed this in students who have had to make-up tests after-school. They rush through the test, and when unsure of an answer they leave it blank or take a random guess, rather than applying themselves and taking their time as they would have if they had taken the test in the morning.

The research also suggests that decision-making fatigue is more taxing on the poor, who are burdened by more trade-off decisions in shopping than they wealthy. On a tighter budget each item has to be more carefully considered in terms of price. Ironically the toll of decision-fatigue is more impulsive and poorer decisions, such as grabbing that candy bar at the check-out counter.

How to prevent decision-fatigue? Some quick tricks:
- Steady supply of glucose throughout the day. (Protein and complex carbohydrates.)
- Taking breaks and snacks during long and decision taxing exercises.
- Ample sleep.
- Avoid late-in-the-day decisions.
- Structure your day so as to avoid taxing the ego. For example having a schedule to exercise or study with a friend so that it doesn't become a daily decision of will-power to work-out or study, but just a routine you follow.

Useful article! Something our society needs to look at more!

Replacing senioritis with meaningful life experience

2011-08-29T09:44:00.002-04:00

How much did you learn spring semester of your senior year of college? Honestly, the most meaningful experience for me was volunteering with autistic and special education students at a local elementary school after I took the English AP exam. Perhaps that very experience is part of the reason I am a teacher today. I can't say I learned too much in my other classes.

Let's face it, seniors have no will-power at the end of the high-school career to keep schlepping through traditional academic course-work. Once accepted to college, the only ambition seems to keep your GPA high-enough to avoid losing admission or any scholarships. Not much intrinsic motivation there. But what if you could put those students into real-world working situations? What if we could expose students to team-work, the work place, and give them internships and projects that are tailored to their interests? Well WISE has been doing precisely that since 1972. Founded in Greenburgh, New York, the program now has national scope, and continues to spread to high schools across the country. My only question is, how come I haven't heard of this program sooner?

I am excited that the school where I will be teaching this fall will be implementing this program for the first time for its seniors.

Important Hurricane Survival Skills - Soldering

2011-08-27T03:02:00.000-04:00

Taxes

2011-08-27T01:20:00.002-04:00

A response to Mr. Buffet's call for higher taxes on the wealthy - some interesting factoids, e.g.:

Today, top earners—the 250,000 people who earn $1 million or more—pay 20% of all income taxes, and the 3% who earn more than $200,000 pay almost half. Almost half of all filers pay no income taxes at all. Clearly they earn less and should pay less. But they should pay something and have a stake in our government spending their money too.

The right to confuse people

2011-08-21T17:45:00.002-04:00

Ms Torres announced her candidacy for the governing party despite a constitutional ban on relatives of the president standing to succeed him.

Her lawyers argue that the ban infringes the right of all Guatemalans to stand for election.

Sounds legit. I'm sure the Guatemalan constitution is a living document, after all. Why bother doing what it says?

Lack of Homeric knowledge

2011-08-21T14:41:00.001-04:00

After someone refers to the Trojans as the "Troyans":

Haxis
August 20, 2011 at 12:57 pm

no… the trojans were the ones who USED that giant wooden horse. hence, TROJAN HORSE.

Response:

CheeseonToast
August 20, 2011 at 1:09 pm

Not sure if trolling, or never read Homer.

Justin Acocella - RIP

2011-08-14T21:36:00.002-04:00

You will be missed.

"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."

Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again"

BART Mubaraks

2011-08-14T18:35:00.001-04:00

This week, EFF has seen censorship stories move closer and closer to home — first Iran, then the UK, and now San Francisco, an early locus of the modern free speech movement. Operators of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) shut down cell phone service to four stations in downtown San Francisco yesterday in response to a planned protest.

Land of the free . . .

Unger on worker co-ops

2011-08-08T19:27:00.000-04:00

In a conventional business, there is a strong built-in conflict between employees and management. Management, representing the owners, wants to minimize the cost of the employees (wages and benefits) and to maximize their contributions to profit. The employees (workers) want to maximize their wages and benefits, and to work under safe, satisfying conditions.

. . .

A promising way to deal with the conflict between workers and owners is to eliminate it altogether by making the workers the owners. A company of this type is called a worker co-op. Let's look at how such organizations operate, the successes, problems, and solutions. But first consider a partial step in that direction which is more common in the US.

Fascinating, do tell me more.

Copyright in Russia

2011-08-07T22:40:00.000-04:00

"In Russia, you reform copyright law. In America, copyright law reforms you..."

Mark Shea's roundup of government making you safer

2011-08-07T22:23:00.003-04:00

A lovely collection of dudes getting threatened for taking photos of their children and children getting fined for saving woodpeckers from cats.

I am a middle aged man

2011-08-07T14:28:00.005-04:00

So certain individuals have always suspect me to be in my mid thirties, even when I had just graduated from college. It turns out that Google agrees with them.

Here are my Google ad prefs, which is sort of what Google infers from your searches. You can see your own here.

If you look closely, it says

Demographics - Age - 35-44

Seems like I skipped a few years there.

The Nine Days

2011-08-02T00:27:00.001-04:00

Or as a Lit Hum classmate of mine once said, "Happy Ash Wednesday!".

LotH in NYC

2011-08-01T23:21:00.004-04:00

Where can you pray your Divine Office together with the faithful in NYC? I know of a few places:

1) St. Frances de Chantal in the Bronx
Location: 190 Hollywood Ave., Bronx, NY 10465
Available: Morning Prayer (Lauds) 8:40 am - (Preceding 9 AM mass)

2) Notre Dame in Morningside Heights - Manhattan
Location: 405 West 114th Street, New York, NY 10025
Available: Morning Prayer (Lauds) - daily following 8 am mass. Evening Prayer (Vespers): Monday - Friday following 5:30 mass.

3) Church of the Holy Innocents, Midtown Manhattan
Location: 128 West 37th Street, New York, NY 10018
Available: Midday Prayer: Mondays & Fridays at 12:05 pm

4) Saint Jean Baptiste - Upper East Side of Manhattan
Location: 184 E. 76th St., New York, NY 10021
Available: Morning Prayer: Monday through Friday at 8 am. Evening Prayer: Monday-Friday, and Sunday, all at 5 pm!

5) Various religious communities. For example the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have Eucharistic adoration on Fridays from 2 pm to 6 pm at St. Adalbert's, 420 E. 156th St., Bronx, NY 10455. If I recall correctly, they close with vespers and benediction.

6) Some Catholic schools: St. Raymond High School for Boys in the Bronx, at least two years ago when I taught there, had morning prayer and mass Tuesday through Thursday in their chapel at 8 am. This is really for the school community though.

6) The environs: It's not the Bronx, but St. Joseph in Bronxville has morning prayer preceding the 9 am mass, Monday through Friday.

Any other good places to pray the Liturgy of the Hours? Not all churches advertise this kind of thing on Masstimes.org, so I would appreciate any further listings. Also, what places offer singing with the office, such as the practice of singing a hymn to open the prayers? Anybody chant the psalms? Any small groups starting this up in your parish? Let us know!

Catholic planking

2011-07-31T23:56:00.002-04:00

Cultural events - not yet a replacement for God

2011-07-31T22:25:00.002-04:00

Many have argued that belief in the Almighty and observance of rituals should no longer be central to Jewish education but should be replaced with cultural events and the study of Jewish history. . . .

Advocates of this proposal feel that belief in the Divine is no longer relevant in an age in which science has replaced religion, and Jewish observance no longer speaks to the majority of our young people. Therefore, these two factors do not serve as enough of an incentive to remain Jewish.

But this theory is highly problematic. To argue that belief in the Almighty is outdated is not only a gross misreading of the truth but also what people are in need of. When vital values become obsolete, and many are overwhelmed with every kind of pleasure and comfort, man feels increasingly like a stranger in his own skin.

Principles are principled

2011-07-31T22:12:00.001-04:00

Perry’s position in favor of states’ rights based upon the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution extends also to abortion, even though he is himself pro-life. ABC reports that Perry indicated to reporters in Houston that states should be allowed to decide for themselves whether to legalize or ban abortion if Roe were overturned.

“You either have to believe in the 10th Amendment or you don’t,” said Perry. “You can’t believe in the 10th Amendment for a few issues and then [for] something that doesn’t suit you say, ‘We’d rather not have states decide that.’”

Wow, a bold and well-reasoned statement. I had just despaired of ever hearing one from a politician.

Chambers Street and Columbia University

2011-07-27T19:18:00.001-04:00

Ephemeral New York uncovers the connection at the subway station!

High Praise for Jesus

2011-07-27T00:29:00.002-04:00

The book that is.

Borg is brilliant and challenging. His uncovering of the historical Jesus, a pre-Easter versus post-Easter understanding, may seem irrelevant to Biblical literalists, but for those with an open mind, this book may prove revolutionary. At least it did for me. So many Gospel stories that I struggled with, had difficulty reconciling with my personal experience and understanding of God and Jesus, were given radically new explanations that breathed fresh life into some of the tired and awkward explanations I had previously accepted. Borg espouses a sort of "Neotraditionalism" one that goes back to the roots of Christianity, seeking to understand who Jesus is as the disciples understood Him. The result is a striking emphasis on Jesus' humanity, but one that makes him seem all the more radical and relevant in today's world. Well worth a read, even if you disagree with some of Borg's assumptions.

World Youth Alliance

2011-07-25T22:22:00.003-04:00

World Youth Alliance endorses World Youth Day at European Parliament:

“When the Holy Father called us, young people during the closing event, "the disciples of the new millennium and the watchmen of the dawn" it struck me deeply.” Blauwen says that after this encounter, she changed her life to follow this call. “All of this is burning in my heart and I do not seize to deepen it but also to transmit it to others that is why since I have gone to WYD, not for myself but to able to give this message of hope.” Blauwen testified to the importance of youth in Europe´s society through the positive messages of World Youth Day and the call to responsible citizenship.

I think I'll check out WYA when I'm in Madrid this August.

Rape still bad, but Hate Sex is trending

2011-07-24T09:39:00.001-04:00

Street View, 1982

2011-07-24T09:36:00.000-04:00

Making a market

2011-07-19T23:08:00.003-04:00

I've seem some calls for investigation/lynching/etc of various trading shops/investment banks for their evil deeds. Here's one example:

Investigators discovered that Goldman traders bragged about selling "shitty" deals to clients and the mega-bank bet against the same financial products it was selling to investors. And they've lied about it all the way to the bank.

Yes, usually when you sell something to your clients, you're selling it. That's sort of the nature of selling things, unless I'm missing something. If I call up my stock broker and buy 100 shares of Microsoft, he may very well sell me those 100 shares, betting against me. And I'm betting against him. Am I missing something?

Differing definitions of irreparable

2011-07-17T23:45:00.001-04:00

Gay rights groups say the policy -- even as it is being discarded -- violates the due process and First Amendment rights of military members. In their appeals, the Log Cabin Republicans said allowing the policy to remain in effect pending appeal would be unacceptable and would cause "irreparable harm."

Apparently delaying gratification causes irreparable harm.

Psychology Stack Exchange in commit phase

2011-07-17T23:43:00.002-04:00

If you're not familiar with "Stack Exchange", it is a family of Q&A sites that try not to suck. It's kind of a big deal in my corner of the Internet, right up there with Pedobear.

Dead baby jokes on Lamebook

2011-07-16T15:55:00.000-04:00

And I quote:

So I made a "dead baby" joke and it offended some girl that had an abortion a few years ago. And I got yelled at. So let me get this straight making jokes about dead babies = bad, actually making dead babies = okay.

Not a nun

2011-07-12T21:15:00.001-04:00

I first observed the phenomenon of faux-nuns when I was invited by a friend to go to monthly Holy Hours at a convent. I noticed a lot of girls were wearing long skirts and oversized crosses around their necks. They did not wear makeup. I kept confusing them with the postulants. But they were not postulants. They were just dressed almost identically to the nuns.

Ms. Ely provides some insight into a phenomenon that I had not noticed before, but seems to be somewhat prevalent. "What are you retreating from", indeed.

The problem with corporations not being people

2011-07-11T23:38:00.001-04:00

Is that it means people lose their rights when the get together to do something.

While it's true that corporations aren't human beings, that truism is constitutionally irrelevant because corporations are formed by individuals as a means of exercising their constitutionally protected rights.

Waking up after brain death

2011-07-11T23:33:00.000-04:00

DROMMONDVILLE, Quebec, July 5, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last week, Madeleine Gauron, a Quebec woman identified as viable for organ donation after doctors diagnosed her as “brain dead,” surprised her family and physicians when she recovered from a coma, opened her eyes, and began eating.

Oops.

Happy Birthday, South Sudan

2011-07-09T02:29:00.001-04:00

Waterways: From the Hudson to the Sound

2011-07-01T20:12:00.002-04:00

I proudly introduce you to Waterways, a fledgling new blog of mine. I will continue to add my occasional two cents to Squach's blog, but I feel that some of the content I want to write about is not fitting for this space. My new blog will be dominated by an informal study of the local aquatic ecosystems of Westchester County, the Bronx, and beyond. There will be frequent posts featuring the local wildlife, reviewing science books and literature, and attempting to raise awareness of the environmental treasures, and issues, in our own backyards. I invite you to take a look, give me feedback, and make suggestions for future posts. Thank you!

Praise for the Polish Dominicans at Notre Dame

2011-06-27T15:26:00.003-04:00

A story project with some amazing tribute to the priests who made this parish so great over the past eight years.

J Q&A

2011-06-22T21:45:00.003-04:00

The new Jewish Life StackExchange Q&A site is in beta, and seems to be in need of new visitors! Given their mission of making the internet suck less, all interested parties should visit.

I believe it's actually a relaunch of a StackExchange 1.0 site, so they should have a built-in community from that.

Defer to science?

2011-06-11T17:18:00.003-04:00

As Prof. Bainbridge notes, given that we can't even make up our minds about whether salt is good or bad for us, it seems a bit arrogant that we claim to understand the long-term functioning of the planet.

I wonder what would have happened if New York's little salt ban had gone through. Perhaps a little less micromanagement from the top is in order?

Not a good week to not kiss authority's butt

2011-06-07T00:05:00.005-04:00

Upload a video to Youtube, get suspended from your school. Yay Soviet Canuckistan - don't question the almighty state!

But administrators at the Grade 12 student’s Whitby high school were so offended when they found the animations on YouTube last month, they sent him home and called the police. He is being kept out of school during the investigation.

Man that's a rough country. You upload some funny stick figures to YouTube and your school calls the cops.

Down to Florida - Feed the homeless, get arrested! There's no worse crime than giving food to the hungry.

Not to be outdone, the Miami Beach police try to destroy video evidence of their misconduct, but are caught on video doing it. Classic double fail!

Luckily, there is one win:

In AD 1775 War was Beginning.
John Hancock: What Happen?
Paul Revere: Somebody set us up the cannon!
British: All of your forts are belong to us! Ha ha ha ha!
Samuel Adams: Take off every HORSE!
Paul Revere: For great justice!

(for those not in the know about AYBABTU)

WD-40 not a true lubricant

2011-06-06T23:58:00.001-04:00

Well, that's good to know!

Mass extinction

2011-06-05T21:03:00.000-04:00

How does it happen, time and again? A New York City business survives for eons, a whole century and more--through two World Wars, the Great Depression, the high crime and economic doldrums of the 1970s--only to vanish at the same time that so many other long-term survivors are vanishing, in the span of a single decade.

Rewrite war in progress at Wikipedia

2011-06-05T20:48:00.001-04:00

The topic: Paul Revere. Apparently Palin supporters have decided to rewrite the page so that her little historical goof the other day looks less goofy. Hilarious!

Hat tip: LGF

Way to ruin the ending

2011-06-05T16:19:00.001-04:00