Especially as our leaders find that the best way to retain power is to encourage our social divisions. Another symptom of our nihilistic age. If only someone from the president on down would call for calm instead of offering yet another lecture on blame.
Politicians benefit from American tribal warfare
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Hey, EPA. Could I Draw Your Attention, Please?
I mean, I know that the EPA is busy with the 21st century version of genocide against the Navajo, but it appears that land-based bacteria in the ocean water is starting to become an issue. Above is the latest in surf attire.
Related: Putrid algae overtakes Florida's south coast just days before July Fourth
I used to play bass for Putrid Algae.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Archaeological News
It appears that the legendary Anglo-Saxon monastery of Lindisfarne has been found.
In Celtic archaeology, this is a rather big deal.
In Celtic archaeology, this is a rather big deal.
Bienvenido a nuestra Banana Republic
BREAKING: FBI finds John Wilkes Booth "extremely careless" in discharge of firearm.— Stephen Green (@VodkaPundit) July 5, 2016
Looks Like the Word "Obituary" is Now Considered Wrongthink*
"Life Tributes"? Really?
*"Wrongthink" is from George Orwell's 1984, a novel I thought rather lightweight until I realized that it's becoming increasingly prophetic.
Some Roistering from the Australian Press
As we increasingly live in a world where everyone must have the same thoughts and use the same words, I'm finding the give-and-take of Australian political reporting to be refreshing.
Again, nobody has a clue. It’s a complete mystery. What on earth might be the common factor linking mass killings in Paris, Brussels, Orlando, London, Madrid, Bali, Israel, Libya Somalia, Cameroon, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, the Philippines, Russia, Burkina Faso, Kenya and now Istanbul? What pattern might there be?
Harvard + Divinity = LOL
Jesus’ wife has finally taken the sad step that culminates many a marriage: the gruesome divorce. Harvard Divinity School professor and historian of early Christianity Karen L. King, who has spent the past four years championing a one- by three-inch papyrus scrap bearing the Coptic words "Jesus said to them, 'My wife' " as part of an ancient 4th-century "gospel" indicating that many early Christians believed Jesus had been married, has now conceded that the tiny fragment is probably a "forgery."
That a qualified academic pushed this nonsense for so long, and received appointments and book contracts because of it, is absolutely immoral. This is what happens when self-interest, rather than intellectual curiosity, drives research.
This, too, from The Atlantic, should be read: The Unbelievable Tale of Jesus's Wife
Harvard [and Columbia] are no strangers to "Christian fraud", however. If you wish, read about Morton Smith.
That a qualified academic pushed this nonsense for so long, and received appointments and book contracts because of it, is absolutely immoral. This is what happens when self-interest, rather than intellectual curiosity, drives research.
This, too, from The Atlantic, should be read: The Unbelievable Tale of Jesus's Wife
Harvard [and Columbia] are no strangers to "Christian fraud", however. If you wish, read about Morton Smith.
This is Largely True and I Appreciate the Author's Compassion
HOW A GENERATION LOST ITS COMMON CULTURE
Ancient philosophy and practice praised as an excellent form of government a res publica – a devotion to public things, things we share together. We have instead created the world’s first Res Idiotica – from the Greek word idiotes, meaning “private individual.” Our education system produces solipsistic, self-contained selves whose only public commitment is an absence of commitment to a public, a common culture, a shared history. They are perfectly hollowed vessels, receptive and obedient, without any real obligations or devotions.
Monday, July 4, 2016
Quotations From The Founders
“[July 4th] ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.”
–John Adams in a letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams, October 11, 1798
“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the Fourth of July]?" “Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity"?
- John Quincy Adams in 1837, at the age of 69, when he delivered a Fourth of July speech at Newburyport, Massachusetts.
“ God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel”
– Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention of 1787.
"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the Constitution] a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests."
- Alexander Hamilton, 1787, after the Constitutional Convention.
“It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
- Patrick Henry, in a May 1765 Speech to the House of Burgesses.
–John Adams in a letter written to Abigail on the day the Declaration was approved by Congress
"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." - John Adams, October 11, 1798
“Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day [the Fourth of July]?" “Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity"?
- John Quincy Adams in 1837, at the age of 69, when he delivered a Fourth of July speech at Newburyport, Massachusetts.
“ God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel”
– Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention of 1787.
"For my own part, I sincerely esteem it [the Constitution] a system which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interests."
- Alexander Hamilton, 1787, after the Constitutional Convention.
“It cannot be emphasized too clearly and too often that this nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religion, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason, peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”
- Patrick Henry, in a May 1765 Speech to the House of Burgesses.
The Book of Common Prayer's Collect for Independence Day:
Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Lord God Almighty, in whose Name the founders of this country won liberty for themselves and for us, and lit the torch of freedom for nations then unborn: Grant that we and all the people of this land may have grace to maintain our liberties in righteousness and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
From the Rector's Bookshelf
Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
From a former marine and Yale Law School graduate, a powerful account of growing up in a poor Rust Belt town that offers a broader, probing look at the struggles of America’s white working class
The author and I have much in common, given that we were born just fifteen miles from one another, share a military experience, and were initiated as strangers in a strange land by being the first Ivy Leaguers in our families.
An excellent introduction to the book was published just recently and it may be found here:
Oddly, in my personal experience I didn't feel as out of place, or as unwelcome, at Princeton, or in education, retailing, or construction, as I have in The Episcopal Church hierarchy. Odd, isn't it?
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Well, This is a Pity
All the history that’s going to die with the Campbell Apartment
It is here that I've met with publishers or non-church friends [aka friends] before an event, prepped for a visit to Nat Sherman's, or waited for a train. Where else am I going to get a Metropolitan?
Everything You Know is Wrong
Hole in ozone layer is closing and will be 'healed' by 2050
People who don't know much about Earth science, which seems to be a great number these days, will say it's because of the reduction in fluorocarbons. The reality is that the "hole" opens and closes pretty much of its own accord throughout the eons.
People who don't know much about Earth science, which seems to be a great number these days, will say it's because of the reduction in fluorocarbons. The reality is that the "hole" opens and closes pretty much of its own accord throughout the eons.
Friday, July 1, 2016
"Rediscovering Gaia’s Riches"
As one of the researchers put it, “[t]here’s a lot more fresh groundwater in California than people know.” The breakthrough here involved searching for water deeper underground than aquifers designated for human consumption typically lie. The drawback (there’s always a drawback) is that the deeper water tends to be more brackish, and is naturally more difficult and costly to extract. Moreover, the deeper one drills for water, the closer one gets to oil and gas drilling (typically thousands of feet of rock layers separate hydrocarbons from groundwater tapped for consumption), and the greater the chance there is of contamination. All of that being said, this remains a remarkable find for the parched state.In other words, Malthus was wrong and resource concerns are often overblown.
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