Left Behind, pp. 239-247 One more brief note on Nicolae Carpathia's dazzling performance at the United Nations. This was the young Antichrist's coming out party and certain aspects of it seem familiar. He stands before the U.N. where "they were all together in one place," people "from every nation under heaven." And when he spoke, "each one heard him speaking in his own language." The quotations in that paragraph are not from Left Behind, but rather from St. Luke's account... Read more
Listen, I think I could be dreaming … "Wait," Sarah McLachlan "Wait 'til We Get Home," Lone Justice "Waiter," Nellie McKay "Waitin' on a Sunny Day," Bruce Springsteen "Waiting for a Reason," Mark Heard "Waiting for Somebody," Paul Westerberg "Waiting for the Great Leap Forward," Billy Bragg "Waiting in Vain," Annie Lennox "Waiting on the World to Change," John Mayer "Walk Between the Raindrops," Adam Again "Walk of Life," Dire Straits "Walk On," U2 "Walk out to Winter," Aztec Camera Read more
During his State of the Union speech, President Bush and I both got a bit lost in the details of his domestic policy initiatives. Fortunately, WhiteHouse.gov offers a handy summary in language so simple that even a president can understand. So let's look at that "Twenty in Ten" energy proposal. The purported goal is to reduce America's gasoline consumption by 20 percent in 10 years. That sounds ambitious until you realize that Blade Runner is set in 2019, which is... Read more
U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 3: [The President] shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient … (Over time, it seems, "such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient" has evolved into "such measures as polls shall judge likely to provide a bump in his sagging approval ratings.") Here's the transcript of last night's State of the... Read more
"Retired Generals Criticize Bush’s Plan for Iraq," The New York Times reports on a Senate committee hearing last Thursday: The American effort in Iraq has gone badly because the United States did not understand the consequences of deposing Saddam Hussein, said Lt. Gen. William E. Odom, a former director of the National Security Agency. He said the principal beneficiary of the war was Iran and al-Qaida, not the United States. “There is no way to win a war that is... Read more
Longtime readers of this blog may have noticed that illiterately literal interpretations of the Bible are one of my pet peeves. Especially when these readings involve interpreting a passage without any regard for context. Especially when those promoting these clumsily crypto-literal interpretations maintain a proud and determined ignorance of how the passage in question has been interpreted by others, living and dead, for two thousand years. Especially when those promoting such readings seem to think that the word "God" refers... Read more
The following is from E.F. Schumacher's quixotic classic, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. Specifically, from the essay, "The Problem of Unemployment in India." Posting this here so that I can link to it in the future. – – – – – – – – – – – – If there are millions of people who want to better themselves but do not know how to do it, who is going to show them? Consider the size of... Read more
Avedon Carol takes issue with: Jonathan Chait's dopey article in which he again babbles about how the people who were right about the war were right for the wrong reasons, and that's why we should still listen to all the people who were wrong (for, I guess, the right reasons). Chait imagines that those of us who opposed the invasion never gave the right reasons. This is an incredibly stupid thing to say, not least for the fact that he... Read more
Left Behind, pp. 242-247 Nicolae Carpathescu, er, sorry, Carpathia, the new president of Romania and Antichrist-in-waiting, is about to speak at the United Nations. It's not clear why he's there, or why anyone should be particularly interested in what he might have to say. He isn't an expert in any particular field. He's had less than a week of experience as a national leader. Carpathia has been described as the "consummate politician," but in his short career so far we've... Read more
ITEM: CNN political analyst Jeff Greenfield compares Barack Obama with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad because both men have been known to wear a jacket without a tie. (Video here.) Greenfield is respected as a sophisticated, serious analyst (just ask him), so I figured I should try my hand at some Greenfield-style analysis: Here's a picture of the president and the first lady at a recent Washington event, sporting what we could call the classic Bush look. It's a look the... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In