Jesus Creed
The Chicago Cubs
Excellent post by Allan on faith’s challenge in a good society. And CAS looks at our society from the opposite angle.
Derek explores the socio-economic kingdom vision of Jesus. What Patrick says about Ireland is good for the USA.
Church numbers (HT: Geeding) Preacher Mike’s pen was raptured …
Mike Glenn posts on the difference between tolerance and hospitality.
Brad Wright on computer technology. So true.
Get a good look at Bill Donahue’s blog this week: a series of very good posts.
Elizabeth Esther: “When did the secularist culture–a culture that is largely antagonistic toward large families–so effectively persuade the Christian community to hold the same perspective toward many children? At first, it was a stunning wake-up call for me to realize that while many Christians paid lip-service to the idea that children are blessings from God, their actions and their attitudes said otherwise.”
The single pastor issue: part one and part two.
Meanderings in the News
1. Special Coffee, never tasted: “Kopi Luwak can sell for upward of $227 a pound. Its largest markets are in Japan and South Korea. The taste has been described as “unique, mild, and smooth with a hint of dark chocolate and secondary notes of earth and musk.”
2. Now that’s an encouraging list: “Some foods can trigger bad breath. If you’re worried, limit consumption of foods like garlic, onions, curry, and fish. Acidic beverages like beer, wine, coffee and soda can also be a trigger. They all contain foul-odor-releasing compounds that get absorbed into your bloodstream. The odor is given off in your breath until all of the food is out of your body. Limit chocolate candy and sweets, as well. The sugar helps bacteria to reproduce in your mouth, leading to bad breath.”
3. The inner secrets of your Google search: “The New York Times asked an expert in online search, Doug Pierce of Blue Fountain Media in New York, to study this question, as well as Penney’s astoundingly strong search-term performance in recent months. What he found suggests that the digital age’s most mundane act, the Google search, often represents layer upon layer of intrigue. And the intrigue starts in the sprawling, subterranean world of “black hat” optimization, the dark art of raising the profile of a Web site with methods that Google considers tantamount to cheating.”
4. It was Valentine’s Day this week… and so WaPo had a set of columnists define love. The whole “noun” vs. “verb” thing is catchy but well-nigh useless.
5. Charles Krauthamer: “Democracy is more than just elections. It requires a free press, the rule of law, the freedom to organize, the establishment of independent political parties, and the peaceful transfer of power. Therefore, the transition to democracy and initial elections must allow time for these institutions, most notably political parties, to establish themselves.”
6. Some Glenn Beck kookery and tomfoolery: “William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and a regular Fox News commentator, welcomes the debate among conservatives over the political revolution in Egypt. “It’s a sign of health that a political and intellectual movement does not respond to a complicated set of developments with one voice,” he wrote recently. “But hysteria is not a sign of health,” he continued. “When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He’s marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s.” In the conservative National Review, editor Rich Lowry called Kristol’s comments “a well-deserved shot at Glenn Beck’s latest wild theorizing.”
7. Very good piece by Michael Novak on love: “As a result of this invention, we Westerners have come to think that the central fire of human happiness is romantic love, love forever and ever (love “happily ever after”). Imagination ends with the romantic couple walking hand in hand across the fields toward the sunlight. Many people spend their entire lives looking for such love, wanting to feel such love, wondering, when they are first attracted to another, ifthat’s what they’re now feeling. Above all, most people love being in love, love the feeling of loving, love even the mad passion of being in love.”
8. Are e-books bankrupting brick and mortar? “It happened in the early 2000s when MP3 technology changed the way Americans listened to music, shuttering record store chains across the country. (Tower Records filed for bankruptcy in 2006). And it’s happening again, as Borders Group Inc. announced it is filing for bankruptcy as early as Monday. The rising popularity of e-books and stiff competition from online retailers like Amazon spelled declining annual revenues for Borders.”
9. Dubliner Bono: “JOHANNESBURG – Rock star Bono said Tuesday that technology is key to solving Africa’s problems and urged other stars to come forward and promote good causes. Following his Sunday’s sold-out concert in Johannesburg that drew bigger crowds than the World Cup final, the U2 frontman said social networking, coupled with improved access to information, could transform governance on the continent, that is beset by corruption and autocratic leaders.”
10. Mary Rogers: “If you are a woman living in Cairo, chances are you have been sexually harassed. It happens on the streets, on crowded buses, in the workplace, in schools, and even in a doctor’s office. According to a 2008 survey of 1,010 women conducted by the Egyptian Center for Women’s rights, 98 percent of foreign women and 83 percent of Egyptian women have been sexually harassed.”
Meanderings in Sports
Tiger got spiked for spitting, but I’m sure glad baseball players can spit. Not sure what they’d do if they couldn’t. I can imagine big old Ray Nitzschke and Dick Butkus spitting it too…
No one can replace Ron Santo. But Keith Moreland will follow Ronny.
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