Tribulation Force, pp. 312-317 Buck's next phone call is with Chaim Rosenzweig. "I need your help." Buck told Rosenzweig he needed to get closer to the Wailing Wall. "I tried," he said, "but I probably didn't get within a hundred yards. The two men were preaching, and the crowds were much bigger than I ever saw on CNN." He goes on for a bit, explaining to his friend how determined he is to get his interview: "I know every journalist... Read more
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Ten people, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., were shot earlier today at an event hosted by the congresswoman. Reports at this time say five people are dead, including a federal judge who was at the event and a nine-year-old girl. The congresswoman was shot in the head, but her doctors are "optimistic" following surgery. No motive has yet been reported for the shooting. Talking Points Memo has been doing an excellent job following the story as it unfolds, so I'll... Read more
The big game is tonight, the college football national championship. No, I don't mean the contest between Oregon and Auburn for the chance to declare themselves "national champions" without ever facing undefeated TCU. I mean the bona fide championship game for I-AA in which the University of Delaware's Fighting Blue Hens and the Eastern Washington Eagles face off as the only two teams left standing after battling through weeks of actual playoffs. So tonight, since it's the last game of... Read more
Oh, I just don't know where to begin … "ABC," The Pipettes"About a Girl," Cibo Matto"About a Girl," Nirvana"About Love," The Choir"About to Walk," Throw Me the Statue"Ac-Cent-Tcu-Ate the Positive," Johnny Mercer"Accidently Kelly Street," Frente"Accidents Will Happen," Elvis Costello & The Attractions"Achin' To Be," The Replacements"Acknowledgment," John Coltrane"Acrobat," U2 It's been a while since we last played the Alphabet Game on Fridays, so let's review the idea. The Internet convention of posting a Friday Random 10 turns out to be... Read more
Is humor redemptive? Or, put another way, is not allowing oneself to have a sense of humor a sin? I think it can be. Or, rather, I think it can be the consequence of sin. Joylessness often is. What brings this up was a recent alert — I mean, ALERT!1! — that popped up on Facebook, lamenting and condemning an allegedly soon-to-be-published "gay friendly Bible." Responses from the Anti Kitten-Burning Coalition included the usual sorts of thing: "America has gone... Read more
It's a new year, so it's a new chance to harp again on one of my pet peeves — the evasive abstraction of the so-called "pro-family" agenda of the so-called "pro-family" groups. These groups sometimes announce their "pro-family" stance by stating their allegiance to "The Family" right there in their name — Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, American Family Association, etc. But there are also dozens more such groups without that word in their names. The problem with... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 310-312 Alone in the pilot's living quarters on Air Force One, Rayford Steele reflects on his new circumstances: How proud Irene would have been of this moment, when he had the top job in the flying world. But to him it meant little, though he felt in his spirit that he was doing what God had led him to do. I'd have thought the "top job in the flying world" would have involved working for NASA rather... Read more
If you look at the calendar for the coming week you'll see this word written in on Thursday: "Epiphany." That seems strange. Epiphanies don't seem like the sort of thing one can schedule ahead of time and plan for like that. "Good meeting, Jim, let's meet again tomorrow to finish up." "Fine, just let me check my … Oh, no, sorry. Thursday's no good. I've got an epiphany Thursday." "Hmm, well how about Friday?" "Depends, Bob. Have to see what... Read more
So the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives has decided to begin the 112th Congress by reading aloud the entire U.S. Constitution. I'm a big fan of the Constitution and I'm all for reading it — publicly or privately, silently or aloud. If almost anyone else were proposing this stunt, I'd say it couldn't hurt. But I pay attention, and after years of seeing this lot disrespecting national symbols and institutions by reducing them to tribalist slogans and... Read more
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