The "Christmas season" has officially begun. This is so according to both the Christian calendar (yesterday was Advent Sunday) and the Capitalist calendar (Friday was "Black Friday"). Plus, Santa arrived safely at Macy's at the end of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is another way of keeping track of these things. Last year we had two FM stations here in Philadelphia running the same mix of schmaltzy Christmas music all through December. This year, apparently to get a jump on... Read more
Been getting a greater-than-usual flow of comment spam recently. In clearing out some of this, I may also have deleted some legitimate comments from Saturday. My apologies if your recent post has disappeared, and please feel free to repost it. One of the more annoying recent spammers has been advertising an "Online Casnio." Is it too much to ask that spammers at least use spell-check? I'd advise you to avoid betting at online casnios. You'll lose all your omney and... Read more
The online-retail industry group Shop.org wants us to refer to today as "Cyber Monday" — the online-shopping equivalent of "Black Friday." Here's the industry press release about this effort. The idea, I guess, is to create an online shopping frenzy on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Why not just shop online on "Black Friday" and avoid the crowds? Two reasons: 1) Shop.org is a subsidiary of the National Retail Federation, an industry group that also represents the brick-and-mortar stores, so they... Read more
The following is from the program for the memorial service held last Friday for my friend Dwight Ozard, who passed away Nov. 14. If you remember me, remember too those born into death and suffering who literally have no one in this world who even knows their name, let alone someone to breathe it in prayer to God. That process of making my cancer a chance to help others expand their world — to begin to think about issues of... Read more
Left Behind, pg. 196 The New Hope Village Church is being run by a post-rapture skeleton crew consisting of the apostate Rev. Bruce Barnes and get-back Loretta. Most of the following chapter consists of the long, sad saga of Barnes' former sham-faith. Before we dive into that extended monologue, a brief aside on the Rev. Barnes' former vocation. He (re-)introduced himself to Rayford Steele as New Hope's "visitation pastor," and repeatedly makes clear that his was a lesser, subordinate role... Read more
what can you say? the impossible happens Radiohead, "Karma Police" Iggy Pop, "Lust for Life" Iris DeMent, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" Pedro the Lion, "Suspect Fled the Scene" Adam Again, "River on Fire" Marc Broussard, "Home" Patti Smith, "People Have the Power" Echo & the Bunnymen, "Killing Moon" Elvis Costello, "Running Out of Angels" The Pogues, "Dirty Old Town" Read more
I want to thank everyone for your movie suggestions. As of today, you'd recommended more than 500 different titles, of which I'd seen fewer than 200 — so I've got some work to do updating the bottomless Netflix queue. Thanks also for the many suggested additions to the blogroll. I've bookmarked more than 70 of these, so look for some upcoming revisions to the list on your right. (I probably won't be adding My Neighbors Are Hoors to the blogroll,... Read more
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, don't say anything without your lawyer present." — Matthew 25:31 (American version) OK, I've seen this LiquidGeneration game [warning: it plays music] linked to from a few places. It's pretty funny — either despite or because of its combination of irreverence and callousness. The description of the game is simple: Have you ever gotten a homeless person confused with the Son of God, Jesus Christ?... Read more
Dwight Ozard died Monday. I met Dwight in the basement of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He had come to Philadelphia from London, Ontario, in order to study and to change the world. He took the reins of Prism magazine and turned it into an "alternative evangelical voice" and something that mattered. I learned more in that basement, working with Dwight on the magazine, than I did in the classrooms upstairs. Those years were a joy. Dwight left Prism for Americus,... Read more
Brad DeLong often repeats this question, originally posed by Daniel Davies a few years ago. I'm seriously looking for an answer. Can anyone … give me one single example of something with the following three characteristics: 1. It is a policy initiative of the current Bush administration. 2. It was significant enough in scale that I'd have heard of it (at a pinch, that I should have heard of it). 3. It wasn't in some important way completely f— up... Read more
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