It occurred to me in a moment of comparative idleness, while I was running some chord progressions on my electronic zither to get the right feel for the madrigal I’m composing in medieval French about the union of a strange quark and a heavy mu boson, that the personal essay — the blog, ifyou will — of today is the historian’s mother lode of tomorrow. Read More
Images Conceits & Lollygags
the God dilemma
April 10, 2013
“Growing Pains” actor turned Christian film star Kirk Cameron is taking issue with comments famed physicist Stephen Hawking made about the existence of heaven. “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers,” Hawking said of the human brain to the Guardian newspaper Monday. “That is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
Cameron, a Christian evangelist who heads the online ministry, Way of the Master, responded on his Facebook page Wednesday, Read More
Cameron, a Christian evangelist who heads the online ministry, Way of the Master, responded on his Facebook page Wednesday, Read More
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The "Connecticut Effect"
February 13, 2013
Speaking before the Wisconsin State Convention of the NRA, lobbyist Bob Welch said that the organization would have to wait until the "Connecticut Effect" had dissipated before it could push through its agenda of loosening gun laws even further. The "Connecticut Effect" of which he speaks is, of course, the murder in Sandy Hookof 20 six and seven year old children and 6 adults who were trying to protect them. Read More
Carnage in the schools = bad fruit
December 15, 2012
From a post by TPM online:
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee attributed the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in part to restrictions on school prayer and religious materials in the classroom.
"We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," Huckabee said on Fox News. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?"
Well! We seldom discuss God in the supermarket. That would explain why my bananas have brown spots all over them. Read More
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee attributed the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in part to restrictions on school prayer and religious materials in the classroom.
"We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools," Huckabee said on Fox News. "Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?"
Well! We seldom discuss God in the supermarket. That would explain why my bananas have brown spots all over them. Read More
Here Dead We Lie
November 11, 2012
On Thursday, November 21 1963, there was a program on, the Korean War, narrated by Richard Boone. In it he recited the Houseman poem:
Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
From which we sprung.
Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young. Read More
Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
From which we sprung.
Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young. Read More
A quote:
October 17, 2012
Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe - H.G. Wells
A brief poem:
October 2, 2012
In a cave in Shanidar, in what is now Iraq,
A man
Of the type we call “Neanderthal”
Was buried some 60,000 years ago.
After a fatal accident.
He was placed on a bed of flowers,
And more flowers were strewn over him:
Hollyhock, bachelor's button, groundsel, and hyacinth.
Some scientists believe
That it was a sort of religious rite
I think someone loved him very much. Read More
A man
Of the type we call “Neanderthal”
Was buried some 60,000 years ago.
After a fatal accident.
He was placed on a bed of flowers,
And more flowers were strewn over him:
Hollyhock, bachelor's button, groundsel, and hyacinth.
Some scientists believe
That it was a sort of religious rite
I think someone loved him very much. Read More
Debra Saunders & the Death Penalty
September 26, 2012
The SF Chronicle has a columnist named Debra Saunders who is pretty much a right-wing ideologue (I was going to say “nutcase,” but that’s impolite) . Her Sunday (9/22) column “Save the Death Penalty” was particularly factually incorrect, morally untenable and simplistic. I will expound on this because the subject is of particular interest to me — and besides I’m against killing human beings no matter who’s doing the killing. Read More
A Short Poem
September 21, 2012
From the playgrounds of the rich
They could see the hovels which
House the poor, and oft their eye
Would twitch in mordant sympathy.
Now the rich have built a wall
So they can’t see the poor at all.
They could see the hovels which
House the poor, and oft their eye
Would twitch in mordant sympathy.
Now the rich have built a wall
So they can’t see the poor at all.
A Kennedy Quote:
September 16, 2012
“If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hearall the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty.”
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy Read More
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy Read More