I like her.  I’m actually intrigued by her presidential candidacy:   http://www.nationalreview.com/article/421677/carly-fiorina-communicator-campaign-trail-political-skills?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral   I would love to see her debate Hillary Clinton.   Posted from Victoria, British Columbia     Read more

    http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/lgbt-grant-maker-wants-to-win-religious-liberty-fight-within-three-years-96064/   Here are some crucial lines from the article:   “We are at a crossroads where the choices we make will mean we will fight religious exemptions for two to three years or have a protracted twenty year struggle on our hands,” Tim Sweeney told leading business executives and others attending the Out & Equal Workplace Advocates executive forum, held in San Francisco in late March 2015. . . .   Bohnett has been an outspoken critic... Read more

    Luke 16:1-9   This is one of the weirder passages in the Gospels.   Is Jesus really commending what is, by just about any standard, unethical behavior?   I think that’s extremely unlikely.   What he is clearly praising, though, is worldly wisdom, prudence — canniness, if you will.  Competence in real life.  Functioning.   Disciples of Christ are not to be fools.  They’re to be fully in the world, while, of course, not being of the world.  They’re... Read more

    “Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth — the universe looks suspiciously like a fix.  The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves.  For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient ‘coincidences’ and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to be necessary in order for life, and hence conscious beings, to exist. Change any one of them and the consequences would be lethal.... Read more

    Thanks to Cassandra Hedelius for bringing this piece to my attention:   http://dailysignal.com/2015/07/29/how-rich-corporate-elites-are-lobbying-lawmakers-to-crush-marriage-advocates/   I have to say that I’ve been somewhat surprised by how ready and willing advocates of the gay agenda have been, by and large, to crush the freedoms of those who dissent.   There were promises, years ago, that this wouldn’t happen.  But I didn’t trust them then, and it turns out that my mistrust was obviously well placed.   What surprises me still,... Read more

    From Richard Panek, The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality, 28:   “Saying that all the billions of stars we see are part of our galaxy and that billions of galaxies lie beyond our own doesn’t do justice to the scale of the universe.  Just as our eyes didn’t need to evolve to see radio waves in order for us to survive, maybe our minds didn’t need to... Read more

    Coming up next week!   http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865633482/A-rich-buffet-of-faith-building-presentations.html   For detailed information on the conference and how to register for it, see here.   Posted from Victoria, British Columbia     Read more

    My former student Nate Oman trains his law-professorial eye on the recently publicized crisis in the relationship between the Boy Scouts and the Church:   http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2015/07/my-theory-of-the-churchs-statement-on-the-change-in-bsa-policy/   Posted from Victoria, British Columbia   Read more

      Some of you, I know, have been to the Church of the Multiplication — full name: The Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes — at Tabgha, on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee.  And you may know that it was seriously damaged a few weeks ago, along with some of the other buildings in the complex, by an arson fire.   I bought a book in the now-badly-burned gift shop there back in May.... Read more

    Luke 15:11-32   This is, of course, one of the great parables in the New Testament, and, if I may say so, one of the great stories in all of literature.   It has at least two themes:   1)  It illustrates the mercy, forgiveness, and love of the father/Father.   2)  It warns against smug self-righteousness and self-centeredness am;one those who’re trying to be disciples.   It would be important for either of them.   Posted from... Read more