“’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Read more
Robin Hood Who: Unstoppable, death-defying, badass revolutionary outlaw who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Historical Accuracy: Some slight possible real-life basis for the legendary hero of folklore, but probably not much. On screen: IMDB lists 125 movies and television shows featuring the adventures of Robin Hood, including several big-budget Hollywood features. Harriet Tubman Who: Unstoppable, death-defying, badass revolutionary outlaw who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Historical accuracy: The true story of... Read more
OK, so yet another religious right pastor rails against the “homosexual agenda,” claiming that gays “will not stop until their will is pressed upon the majority.” Blah blah blah, yadda yadda, same stuff, different day. But the pastor in question here is Matthew Hagee, “son and heir apparent of televangelist John Hagee.” That’s “Bible prophecy expert” John Hagee. Hagee is a premillennial dispensationalist preacher who has, for decades, been telling us that the Rapture was about to occur — “perhaps... Read more
The “occupation” of Zuccotti Park was not an end in itself. The Occupy movement was organized to address injustice and inequity, but that injustice had nothing to do with the lack of tents erected in a lower Manhattan park. Nor was the encampment in the park established in order to produce a particular or specific remedy. The occupation echoes similar earlier efforts, such as “Resurrection City” in Washington, D.C., or the Bonus Army encampment near the Capitol. The Bonus Army... Read more
1. When your actions are lawful, honorable and just, you perform them in the light of day. You have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. You don’t need to seek out publicity and the camera’s eye, but you have no cause to avoid them because you can be proud of your actions, knowing them to be lawful, honorable and just. 2. If your actions are such that you perform them in the dark of night, avoiding cameras... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 433-437 Last week we discussed the protagonists’ lack of curiosity about the very specific schedule of calamities awaiting them in the Great Tribulation. Today we see that this hardly matters, because even with very specific advance warning these two guys are incapable of taking action. In these pages of Tribulation Force, both Rayford Steele and Buck Williams learn that World War III is about to begin — they learn that the second seal has been opened and... Read more
So the Liar Tony Perkins came out recently with the claim that President Barack Obama has “created an atmosphere that is hostile toward Christianity” and that Obama, personally, “has a disdain for Christianity.” Then I saw this headline on Christianity Today’s blog: “Tony Perkins: Obama Is Hostile, Disdainful of Christianity” and thought, “wow, that was so over-the-top that even Christianity Today is calling him out on it.” Except they’re not. CT seems to be citing Perkins as a credible and... Read more
Banks used to take more than $36 billion a year from their customers. They just took it. They did this by reaching into those customers’ accounts and removing the money $30 at a time. This was called “overdraft protection,” and the banks pretended it was a service for those customers. That practice has been reined in somewhat with new rules requiring banks to describe these “overdraft protection” charges more accurately and to convince their customers to allow them to take... Read more
This is just a note to any history buffs who haven’t yet discovered Brad DeLong’s “Liveblogging World War II” series. DeLong’s been doing this for more than a year, posting contemporary accounts from all sides of that conflict 60 years to the day after they were originally written or spoken. On Nov. 13, for example, he provided a first person account of Nov. 13, 1941 from Eleanor Roosevelt. On Nov. 11, he posted FDR’s 1941 Armistice Day speech. On Nov.... Read more
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Nov. 14, 1937 Enforced idleness, embracing any considerable portion of our people, in a nation of such wealth and natural opportunity, is a paradox that challenges our ingenuity. Unemployment is one of the bitter and galling problems that now afflicts man-kind. It has been with us, in a measure, since the beginning of our industrial era. It has been increased by the complexity of business and industry, and it has been made more acute by the... Read more
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