Jesus Creed
Snow works its little miracles!
This post by Gary Stratton has to be one of the best blog posts of the year.
Ted links us to a beautiful version of “Immanuel.” Jim Martin on dealing with weariness. Bill Donahue is a leadership guy, and this post is just one of his many that many find helpful.
An excellent post by Dan Reid (where have you been Dan?) on publishing challenges: One and Two.
Ever have this experience of Janet‘s? I have … but in another way: a deep sadness and melancholy when I come to the end of a favorite author’s works. Faith ponders silence. I’ve been following this series by Mike Glenn.
Christmas facts (or non-facts).
Linda. Josh (what about you?).
So true, Brad, so true. So helpful, Eugene, so helpful.
Patrick weighs in on a sensitive claim — the Not Ashamed Day — by some UK Christians. Pete Enns weighs in on the when and why of Genesis.
Don’t do this from your home!
(HT: Geeding)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wS3cC_CVCA&feature=player_embedded
Meanderings in the News
1. Do you concentrate better at a coffee shop? “Back home in Toronto, with my ergonomically correct chair, spacious desk and dedicated Internet connection, I pulled up my notes from the journey to Laptopistan and tried to write. Within 10 minutes, I was lost in Facebook and watching old “Soul Train” clips on YouTube. So I unplugged my laptop, traded my sweat pants for jeans and walked two blocks to the nearest coffee shop. There was some country music playing at a comfortable volume, and the familiar sight of cords along the floor. I took a seat between a guy working on an identical MacBook Pro and a woman drawing in a journal, and I worked like I was back in Atlas: productively, contentedly, fueled by a steady diet of Earl Grey tea, an economically acceptable quantity of cookies, and that social pressure I was craving.”
2. Oh, no, don’t Newt: “During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said that he is “much more inclined to run” for president in 2012 than not run. Gingrich has been hinting for months that he may seek the presidency — though he has a history of making a lot of noise about running before deciding against it, as he did before the 2008 election. On Sunday, Gingrich said that after speaking with friends and colleagues, he is “more inclined to think it is doable.” However, he said he would not make a decision until the “end of February, beginning of March.”
3. This piece by Lisa Foderaro nails it: “The move mirrors similar prunings around the country at other public colleges and universities that are reeling from steep drops in state aid. After a generation of expansion, academic officials are being forced to lop entire majors. More often than not, foreign languages — European ones in particular — are on the chopping block. The reasons for their plight are many. Some languages may seem less vital in a world increasingly dominated by English. Web sites and new technologies offer instant translations. The small, interactive classes typical of foreign language instruction are costly for universities. But the paradox, some experts in higher education say, is that many schools are eliminating language degrees and graduate programs just as they begin to embrace an international mission: opening campuses abroad, recruiting students from overseas and talking about graduating citizens of the world.” Education can’t be calculated like this.
4. On deportations: “When ICE officials realized in the final weeks of the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, that the agency still was in jeopardy of falling short of last year’s mark, it scrambled to reach the goal. Officials quietly directed immigration officers to bypass backlogged immigration courts and time-consuming deportation hearings whenever possible, internal e-mails and interviews show. Instead, officials told immigration officers to encourage eligible foreign nationals to accept a quick pass to their countries without a negative mark on their immigration record, ICE employees said.”
5. Shankar Vedantam: “Republicans have a near monopoly on complaints about government spending. Dozens of new Tea Party candidates were elected to Congress on a promise to clean house. But data going back two decades—to stick to Simpson’s crude metaphor—show the milk is mostly coming from Democratic states, and the sucking is being done by Republican states.”
6. State problems: “While next year could be even worse, there are bigger, longer-term risks, financial analysts say. Their fear is that even when the economy recovers, the shortfalls will not disappear, because many state and local governments have so much debt — several trillion dollars’ worth, with much of it off the books and largely hidden from view — that it could overwhelm them in the next few years.”
7. William Bennett, John Cribb, on twelve reasons to be grateful for the USA.
8. Ed Whelan points to Ted Olson’s former arguments: “If “incorporating society’s current preferences into the Constitution” is “a very perilous course” (and I certainly agree that it is), it is all the more perilous to be entrenching in constitutional guise the current preferences of what has been demonstrated, in election after election, to be a minority. (And, no, I am of course not disputing that genuine constitutional rights operate in a countermajoritarian fashion.) Seemingly intoxicated by his new role, Olson is now racing recklessly down the “very perilous course” that he once warned against—in far more modest contexts—and he’s trying to drag the nation along with him.” Has Ted Olson ever gone on record to explain his changes?
9. Ross Douthat: “This, in turn, may be remembered as the great tragedy of the culture war: While college-educated Americans battle over what marriage should mean, much of the country may be abandoning the institution entirely.”
10. David Brooks: “Every day, hundreds of thousands of scholars study human behavior. Every day, a few of their studies are bundled and distributed via e-mail by Kevin Lewis, who covers the social sciences for The Boston Globe and National Affairs. And every day, I file away these studies because I find them bizarrely interesting.”
Meanderings in Sports
Is Tiger back? “Alan Shipnuck, senior writer, Sports Illustrated: Tiger’s biggest edge was his head. No one was tougher, or believed more. Yang and the 72nd-hole miss at the Barclays chipped away at that. Now that edge is gone. Getting it back is more important for Tiger than any swing tweak.”
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