Science's new heresy trial: "Mr. Meyer submitted his paper to the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, a scientific journal affiliated with the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of Natural History. The editor, Rick Sternberg, a researcher at the museum with two Ph.D.s in biology, forwarded the article to a panel of three peer reviewers. In scientific and other academic scholarship, submitting research to the judgment of other experts in the field ensures that published articles have genuine merit. Each of the reviewers recommended that, with revisions, the article should be published. Mr. Meyer made the revisions and the article was published last August.
Whereupon major academic publications—Science, Nature, Chronicles of Higher Education—expressed outrage. The anger was focused not on the substance of the article, but on the mere fact that a peer-reviewed scientific journal would print such an article.
So the wrath of the Darwinists fell on Mr. Sternberg, the editor. Although he had stepped down from the editorship, his supervisors at the Smithsonian took away his office, made him turn in his keys, and cut him off from access to the collections he needs for his research. He is also being subjected to the sectarian religious discipline of 'shunning.' His colleagues are refusing to talk to him or even greet him in the hallways.
His supervisors also staged an inquisition about Mr. Sternberg's religious and even political beliefs. Mr. Sternberg, who describes himself as a Catholic with lots of questions, has filed a case alleging discrimination not just on the grounds of religion but 'perceived' religion."
Monday, March 21, 2005
Schiavo: Who's life is it anyway.
As with many of us I expect, I have begun to follow the case of Terri Schiavo more closely over the past week. I still do not consider myself an expert on the facts of the case but I was called as an expert witness the other day.
While driving my oldest daughter around town she asked me to explain what all the fuss was over starving someone.
As I began to explain I could feel nausea in my gut. I explained that Terry Schiavo is in a coma (which I learned later is not true) and her husband wants to relieve her suffering by removing a tube that feeds her. I tried to be as even handed as possible in my explanation but when it came right down to it I was explaining to my daughter that a judge is going to order the starvation of a helpless victim.
My daughter, even at the tender age of 11, was incredulous. She immediately asked an interesting question, "Why is it her husband's decision? He's not even related to her."
I'm not one to extol the virtue of blood over love in the realm of family bonds (a la Dennis Prager) but in this case I thought my daughter had raised a pretty fair question. Why is the life of Terry Schiavo in the hands of someone who has no life long blood relation to her?
It seems from this article that Terri Schiavo's brother is more concerned with her life than here husband.
...and a little child shall lead them.
While driving my oldest daughter around town she asked me to explain what all the fuss was over starving someone.
As I began to explain I could feel nausea in my gut. I explained that Terry Schiavo is in a coma (which I learned later is not true) and her husband wants to relieve her suffering by removing a tube that feeds her. I tried to be as even handed as possible in my explanation but when it came right down to it I was explaining to my daughter that a judge is going to order the starvation of a helpless victim.
My daughter, even at the tender age of 11, was incredulous. She immediately asked an interesting question, "Why is it her husband's decision? He's not even related to her."
I'm not one to extol the virtue of blood over love in the realm of family bonds (a la Dennis Prager) but in this case I thought my daughter had raised a pretty fair question. Why is the life of Terry Schiavo in the hands of someone who has no life long blood relation to her?
It seems from this article that Terri Schiavo's brother is more concerned with her life than here husband.
...and a little child shall lead them.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Dennis Prager: The case for Judeo-Christian values: Part II
Here's the next installment in a great series.
Dennis Prager: The case for Judeo-Christian values: Part II: "Years ago, I debated this issue at Oxford with Jonathan Glover, currently the professor of ethics at King's College, University of London, and one of the leading atheist moralists of our time.
Because he is a man of rare intellectual honesty, he acknowledged that without God, morality is subjective. He is one of the few secularists who do."
Dennis Prager: The case for Judeo-Christian values: Part II: "Years ago, I debated this issue at Oxford with Jonathan Glover, currently the professor of ethics at King's College, University of London, and one of the leading atheist moralists of our time.
Because he is a man of rare intellectual honesty, he acknowledged that without God, morality is subjective. He is one of the few secularists who do."
Friday, March 18, 2005
Campus Paper: I think I was born this way?
Dennis Prager talked about this article the other day.
The McGill Daily: Brain Candy: Meow meow meow mix: "It’s hard to go through four years of a humanities BA reading Foucault and Butler and watching The L-Word and keep your rigid heterosexuality intact. I don’t know when it happened exactly, but it seems I no longer have the easy certainty of pinning my sexual desire to one gender and never the other. "
Apparently some people choose to be gay.
The McGill Daily: Brain Candy: Meow meow meow mix: "It’s hard to go through four years of a humanities BA reading Foucault and Butler and watching The L-Word and keep your rigid heterosexuality intact. I don’t know when it happened exactly, but it seems I no longer have the easy certainty of pinning my sexual desire to one gender and never the other. "
Apparently some people choose to be gay.
Updated: You gotta be kidding me!
I could have mailed this faster:
I'm in the airport in Phx @ 2pm on Sat. March 12. I don't know how much internet access I'll have for the next few days. More soon..
From my phone,
Ryan
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Why Oil in ANWR us probably a good idea...
When liberal columnists in the New York Times are writing like this, you know environmentalism has a bad name: The New York Times (free sign up required):
"In the 1970's, the environmental movement was convinced that the Alaska oil pipeline would devastate the Central Arctic caribou herd. Since then, it has quintupled.
When I first began to worry about climate change, global cooling and nuclear winter seemed the main risks. As Newsweek said in 1975: 'Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend ... but they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century.'
This record should teach environmentalists some humility. The problems are real, but so is the uncertainty. Environmentalists were right about DDT's threat to bald eagles, for example, but blocking all spraying in the third world has led to hundreds of thousands of malaria deaths.
Likewise, environmentalists were right to warn about population pressures, but they overestimated wildly. Paul Ehrlich warned in 'The Population Bomb' that 'the battle to feed humanity is over. ... Hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.' On my bookshelf is an even earlier book, 'Too Many Asians,' with a photo of a mass of Indians on the cover. The book warns that the threat from relentlessly multiplying Asians is 'even more grave than that of nuclear warfare.'"
Actually the UN has been convening to figure out how to solve the problem of underpopulation.
Back in 1991 I heard some guy on the radio doing a bit he called an "Environmentalist Wacko Update". I was stunned because I had never heard anyone desecrate the holy name of environmentalism. He went on about how most of what Environmentalism claims is exaggerated or outright, politically motivated lies.
He later published a book called See I told you so.
I wonder why?
"In the 1970's, the environmental movement was convinced that the Alaska oil pipeline would devastate the Central Arctic caribou herd. Since then, it has quintupled.
When I first began to worry about climate change, global cooling and nuclear winter seemed the main risks. As Newsweek said in 1975: 'Meteorologists disagree about the cause and extent of the cooling trend ... but they are almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century.'
This record should teach environmentalists some humility. The problems are real, but so is the uncertainty. Environmentalists were right about DDT's threat to bald eagles, for example, but blocking all spraying in the third world has led to hundreds of thousands of malaria deaths.
Likewise, environmentalists were right to warn about population pressures, but they overestimated wildly. Paul Ehrlich warned in 'The Population Bomb' that 'the battle to feed humanity is over. ... Hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death.' On my bookshelf is an even earlier book, 'Too Many Asians,' with a photo of a mass of Indians on the cover. The book warns that the threat from relentlessly multiplying Asians is 'even more grave than that of nuclear warfare.'"
Actually the UN has been convening to figure out how to solve the problem of underpopulation.
Back in 1991 I heard some guy on the radio doing a bit he called an "Environmentalist Wacko Update". I was stunned because I had never heard anyone desecrate the holy name of environmentalism. He went on about how most of what Environmentalism claims is exaggerated or outright, politically motivated lies.
He later published a book called See I told you so.
I wonder why?
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Cronkite: Stay Classy America!
In a Providential irony, I watched the Netflix DVD of Anchorman on the way back from Phoenix yesterday. Ron Burgundy is an newsman who is almost completely ignorant about the world around him. This is only a movie though, right?
Just the day before, however, I read this article about the rambling incoherence of America's foremost anchorman, Walter Cronkite. His comments are too long winded and muddled to reproduce here at length but this summary will give you an idea:
OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today: "So, to sum up: 'Those Arabs,' who are at once 'dying of AIDS' and 'starving to death,' and who by the way get their electricity from 'a foot pump,' are 'mad at us' over the Kyoto accords and bejeweled TV 'doxies.' Ergo, we need 'true world government.' Such wisdom is the product of 65 years in the news business."
This is not a joke. Read it for yourself.
Life imitating art. Stay classy America!
Just the day before, however, I read this article about the rambling incoherence of America's foremost anchorman, Walter Cronkite. His comments are too long winded and muddled to reproduce here at length but this summary will give you an idea:
OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today: "So, to sum up: 'Those Arabs,' who are at once 'dying of AIDS' and 'starving to death,' and who by the way get their electricity from 'a foot pump,' are 'mad at us' over the Kyoto accords and bejeweled TV 'doxies.' Ergo, we need 'true world government.' Such wisdom is the product of 65 years in the news business."
This is not a joke. Read it for yourself.
Life imitating art. Stay classy America!
Will Vietnam be the next Iraq?
OpinionJournal - Claudia Rosett: "Will Vietnam be the next Iraq?"
Maybe war, sometimes, is the answer.
Maybe war, sometimes, is the answer.
The Globe and Mail: Family movies outselling R-rated fare
The Globe and Mail: Family movies outselling R-rated fare: "LAS VEGAS -- Family crowds spoke louder than fans of racy stories or shoot-'em-up action flicks last year at U.S. movie theatres, with PG-rated films hauling in more money than those rated R in the United States (equivalent to 18A in most Canadian jurisdictions) for the first time in 20 years."
And this is in a year that included the most successful R rated film of all time: The Passion of the Christ
Dennis Prager has said for years that the reason Hollywood doesn't make more family films is not economic; clearly the money is there. It's that hollywood generally is not populated by families. R rated fare better reflects the demographic of hollywood.
And this is in a year that included the most successful R rated film of all time: The Passion of the Christ
Dennis Prager has said for years that the reason Hollywood doesn't make more family films is not economic; clearly the money is there. It's that hollywood generally is not populated by families. R rated fare better reflects the demographic of hollywood.
Academic Freedom; enemies and defenders
FrontPage magazine.com :: Correction: Some Of Our Facts Were Wrong; Our Point Was Right by David Horowitz:
"The problem being that many professors seem to regard their classrooms as political soapboxes and require one “correct” answer to questions that are controversial.
Since the intent of many of the critics of our story is to put this view of what is going in our universities in question, allow me to point out that the president of Harvard has just been publicly humiliated by his faculty for expressing a politically incorrect opinion on a controversial subject. If the president of Harvard – a former member of the Clinton cabinet and a distinguished scholar in his own right -- can be humiliated by out-of-control ideologues on his faculty, imagine what these same faculty members will do to students over whom they have authority and grading power. That – and not a particular exam at the University of Northern Colorado – is the basis for our academic freedom campaign."
Think of this when you are saving money for a college education that will make you a "free" thinker. It's not free in any sense of the word.
"The problem being that many professors seem to regard their classrooms as political soapboxes and require one “correct” answer to questions that are controversial.
Since the intent of many of the critics of our story is to put this view of what is going in our universities in question, allow me to point out that the president of Harvard has just been publicly humiliated by his faculty for expressing a politically incorrect opinion on a controversial subject. If the president of Harvard – a former member of the Clinton cabinet and a distinguished scholar in his own right -- can be humiliated by out-of-control ideologues on his faculty, imagine what these same faculty members will do to students over whom they have authority and grading power. That – and not a particular exam at the University of Northern Colorado – is the basis for our academic freedom campaign."
Think of this when you are saving money for a college education that will make you a "free" thinker. It's not free in any sense of the word.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Slow Phone Posts
Well I tried to post to the blog from my phone on Saturday afternoon. Apparently it takes days for the post to process and well, post.
I'm in AZ and found a sweet little coffee shop with free wi fi. Little time to post though, till Wednesday probably.
I'm in AZ and found a sweet little coffee shop with free wi fi. Little time to post though, till Wednesday probably.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Blogging Clicks With Colleges (washingtonpost.com)
Memo to Campus Ministry people: Figure out what Blogging is.
Blogging Clicks With Colleges (washingtonpost.com) (required Registration):
"Blogs already have seeped into everyday life on campus. At Johns Hopkins, two juniors just set up a service for students and faculty to start their own blogs. Georgetown University tinkered with software to make it easy for professors to create blogs. There are course blogs on religion, war, literature, even cattle, at Texas A&M University.
'It's more power to the student,' said junior John Dorman, whose Georgetown government class blog bubbled with a debate over morality and politics recently, with students posting comments from 7:30 p.m. until nearly 7:30 the next morning.
Students in sophomore Craig Kessler's English class got hooked, and he said they became closer and more engaged than in any class he has taken. When the semester ended this winter, students asked the professor, David Lipscomb: Could they keep writing the blog?"
Blogging Clicks With Colleges (washingtonpost.com) (required Registration):
"Blogs already have seeped into everyday life on campus. At Johns Hopkins, two juniors just set up a service for students and faculty to start their own blogs. Georgetown University tinkered with software to make it easy for professors to create blogs. There are course blogs on religion, war, literature, even cattle, at Texas A&M University.
'It's more power to the student,' said junior John Dorman, whose Georgetown government class blog bubbled with a debate over morality and politics recently, with students posting comments from 7:30 p.m. until nearly 7:30 the next morning.
Students in sophomore Craig Kessler's English class got hooked, and he said they became closer and more engaged than in any class he has taken. When the semester ended this winter, students asked the professor, David Lipscomb: Could they keep writing the blog?"
Friday, March 11, 2005
Home State of Rainy Seattle Declares Drought
Yahoo! News - Home State of Rainy Seattle Declares Drought
If these aren't the end times, they are end times kind of times.
(sarcastic pause)
If these aren't the end times, they are end times kind of times.
(sarcastic pause)
Blogads: reader survey for blog advertising.
Interesting data on Blogs
Blogads: reader survey for blog advertising.: "Last year, we got 17,159 responses. This year, 30,079 blog readers responded.
Last year, 61% of responding blog readers were over 30 years old. This year, 75% are over 30 years old.
Last year, 40% had family incomes greater than $90,000. This year, 43% exceed that figure."
Blogads: reader survey for blog advertising.: "Last year, we got 17,159 responses. This year, 30,079 blog readers responded.
Last year, 61% of responding blog readers were over 30 years old. This year, 75% are over 30 years old.
Last year, 40% had family incomes greater than $90,000. This year, 43% exceed that figure."
Thursday, March 10, 2005
A Large Regular for the Sox Fans in the House
A Large Regular: " some of the issues facing the Boston Globe today. And that's just the sports section."
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Fighting for a Generation
For all who work with Gen X and Y, some interesting observations.
The New Yorker: Fact: "There may be a generational explanation. While most high-ranking officers are baby boomers, most lieutenants and captains are of Generation X, born in the mid-sixties or after. Gen X officers, often the product of single-parent homes or homes in which both parents worked, are markedly more self-reliant and confident of their abilities than their baby-boomer superiors, according to Army surveys of both groups. Baby boomers moved up the ranks during the comfortable clarity of the Cold War, but the Gen Xers came of age during messy peacekeeping missions in Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, and Haiti. Gen Xers are notoriously unimpressed by rank, as Donald Rumsfeld discovered in December, when enlisted soldiers questioned him sharply about the lack of armor on their vehicles. This turns out to be a positive development for the Army, because the exigencies of the Iraq war are forcing the decision-making downward"
The New Yorker: Fact: "There may be a generational explanation. While most high-ranking officers are baby boomers, most lieutenants and captains are of Generation X, born in the mid-sixties or after. Gen X officers, often the product of single-parent homes or homes in which both parents worked, are markedly more self-reliant and confident of their abilities than their baby-boomer superiors, according to Army surveys of both groups. Baby boomers moved up the ranks during the comfortable clarity of the Cold War, but the Gen Xers came of age during messy peacekeeping missions in Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, and Haiti. Gen Xers are notoriously unimpressed by rank, as Donald Rumsfeld discovered in December, when enlisted soldiers questioned him sharply about the lack of armor on their vehicles. This turns out to be a positive development for the Army, because the exigencies of the Iraq war are forcing the decision-making downward"
Monday, March 07, 2005
Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 911
Fifty-nine Deceits in Fahrenheit 911, by Dave Kopel, Independence Institute
If you have not read this article, then you have not "seen" the film. Minute by minute, scene by scene, Kopel, a Nader voter, takes apart the unethical propaganda of Moore.
What I learned from this is a great respect for the integrity of George W. Bush. If you spend two hours of film cramming in one deceit for every two minutes of the film, doesn't that mean that you don't have anything really damning to spend your time on?
There's no there, there.
You may not agree with Bush's policies, but if Michael Moore can't make a better argument than this, then Bush has to be a pretty sound guy as politicians go.
I am going to buy this film soon. I've read that it's a primer on the ethics of documentary film making. So much so that it could be a "text" for any media studies class.
If you have not read this article, then you have not "seen" the film. Minute by minute, scene by scene, Kopel, a Nader voter, takes apart the unethical propaganda of Moore.
What I learned from this is a great respect for the integrity of George W. Bush. If you spend two hours of film cramming in one deceit for every two minutes of the film, doesn't that mean that you don't have anything really damning to spend your time on?
There's no there, there.
You may not agree with Bush's policies, but if Michael Moore can't make a better argument than this, then Bush has to be a pretty sound guy as politicians go.
I am going to buy this film soon. I've read that it's a primer on the ethics of documentary film making. So much so that it could be a "text" for any media studies class.
How can I honor God with my work, and leisure?
This article changed my life.
It is in many ways the reason that I decided to go into ministry.
It is a jarring exploration of the significance of how we spend our waking hours.
It is a classic by Walt Henrichsen that I can't find anywhere else.
I read it in college and I've never been the same.
I've kept it for 15 years and now, through the miracle of blogging, make it available here.
I strongly urge you to read this and/or give it to students in High School or College who are approaching graduation.
Many thanks to Rebecca and her Mom for digitizing it for me.
It is in many ways the reason that I decided to go into ministry.
It is a jarring exploration of the significance of how we spend our waking hours.
It is a classic by Walt Henrichsen that I can't find anywhere else.
I read it in college and I've never been the same.
I've kept it for 15 years and now, through the miracle of blogging, make it available here.
I strongly urge you to read this and/or give it to students in High School or College who are approaching graduation.
Many thanks to Rebecca and her Mom for digitizing it for me.
Elizabeth Hoffman Resigns from CU
Ward Churchill Yes! Phil Mitchell No! Diversity (or it's lack) at CU
Denver Post writer David Harsanyi provides an invaluable service this morning by contrasting the fate of Ward Churchill and another, lesser known CU Professor, Phil Mitchell:
And so the sad saga of CU slouches from silly to sinister. I wonder if it's a coincidence that this article didn't come from a Boulder paper.
"Mitchell never refers to "actions" or "trigger fingers" and seldom calls anyone a Nazi.
Boring stuff.
As an alternative, Mitchell likes to employ facts in his history courses.
He teaches. He doesn't preach.
His reward? After more than 20 years, Mitchell may be out at CU."
Mitchell belongs to that hated sect, responsible for so many atrocities in the Middle East and around the world: Conservative Christianity?
Of course, as Harsanyi notes, this kind of "radical" agenda is not welcome at CU:
"...Mitchell had the audacity to use a book on liberal Protestantism in the late 19th century. So repulsed by the word "god" was one student, she complained, and the department chair fired him without a meeting, he said.
Was there a protest for academic freedom? Bullhorns? Power to the people?
Conceivably, if Mitchell would have used a less-offensive book - say the Churchill classic "Perversions of Justice" (Ward's hobby?) - he could have rallied the Kool-Aid brigade lickety split.
In time, Mitchell was reinstated but was never able to teach in the history department again."
Of course one thing we all know about conservatives of any stripe, they are racists right?
Mitchell taught at the Hallett Diversity Program for 24 straight semesters. That is, until he made the colossal error of actually presenting a (gasp!) diverse opinion, quoting respected conservative black intellectual Thomas Sowell in a discussion about affirmative action.
Sitting 5 feet from a pink triangle that read "Hate-Free Zone," the progressive head of the department berated Mitchell, calling him a racist.
"That would have come as a surprise to my black children," explains Mitchell, who has nine kids, as of last count, two of them adopted African-Americans.
There seems to be discrimination here, just not by the conservative.
And so the sad saga of CU slouches from silly to sinister. I wonder if it's a coincidence that this article didn't come from a Boulder paper.
BAPTISTS EXCLUDE MCLAREN
SmartChristian Blog brings us word that Brian McLaren of "emergent" fame has not endeared himself to baptists by saying you don't have to follow Jesus, to follow Jesus:
Jesus was so narrow minded.
He wrote that that not all people may need to be Christians to be followers of Jesus. Some people, he suggested, may be able to be "Buddhist … (or) Jewish or Hindu followers of Jesus.""I am the way, the truth, and the life."
Jesus was so narrow minded.
Dateline and Michael Horton drop the hammer on Benny Hinn
Since I'm an alum of WTSC, I heard that Michael Horton was going to be on Dateline (what a lame web page for their coverage) tonight for their story on televangelist Benny Hinn.
I Tivo'd it and just finished watching with my wife.
We were sickened.
Being in ministry ourselves, our revulsion is particularly violent upon seeing the shameless manipulation for personal gain that characterized Benny Hinn's "ministry".
Most painful were the shots of the lame and ill who wait in the back to experience healing at a Hinn event, and go away with nothing but crushed hopes and less money.
This juxtaposed with Hinn "laying over" at the most expensive hotel suites from Cancun to Europe.
I consoled myself with this though.
Hinn's ministry is not part of the ECFA which includes reputable Christian organizations like the one I work for.
Mike Horton looked good. Fatherhood seems to agree with him. He's apparently had 4 since I left the seminary in 2000. He obviously takes seriously the part about God's promises "for your children also."
They highlighted his book on televangelism on the show. His organizations web site is full of resources. No blog though, which is very disappointing for a guy who thinks so highly of the Reformation. I think I'll send him a copy of this.
I Tivo'd it and just finished watching with my wife.
We were sickened.
Being in ministry ourselves, our revulsion is particularly violent upon seeing the shameless manipulation for personal gain that characterized Benny Hinn's "ministry".
Most painful were the shots of the lame and ill who wait in the back to experience healing at a Hinn event, and go away with nothing but crushed hopes and less money.
This juxtaposed with Hinn "laying over" at the most expensive hotel suites from Cancun to Europe.
I consoled myself with this though.
Hinn's ministry is not part of the ECFA which includes reputable Christian organizations like the one I work for.
Mike Horton looked good. Fatherhood seems to agree with him. He's apparently had 4 since I left the seminary in 2000. He obviously takes seriously the part about God's promises "for your children also."
They highlighted his book on televangelism on the show. His organizations web site is full of resources. No blog though, which is very disappointing for a guy who thinks so highly of the Reformation. I think I'll send him a copy of this.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
Atheism Losing Believers
Science, 'frauds' trigger a decline in atheism - The Washington Times: World - March 04, 2005: "Two developments are plaguing atheism these days. One is that it appears to be losing its scientific underpinnings.
The other is the historical experience of hundreds of millions of people worldwide that atheists are in no position to claim the moral high ground. "
Someone tell our fine Universities.
The other is the historical experience of hundreds of millions of people worldwide that atheists are in no position to claim the moral high ground. "
Someone tell our fine Universities.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Velveteen Equations
Velveteen Equations is a blog from a student at South Carolina who is involved with Campus Crusade for Christ. I hope to begin to gather a list of Cru bloggers.
Krugman: Another casualty of the Blog Reformation
I was reading Linked, which on the whole is a fine book when I choked on a particular name:
From pg. 210: "Paul Krugman, professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton..."
5 years ago I would have been very impressed by this description. Princeton is where smart people of towering moral intellect like Peter Singer work, right?
But since I began to read Instapundit last year, I have read the name Paul Krugman again and again.
And his name is always mentioned with derision.
Examples are as fresh as today's headlines.
Blogs have made it possible for me to read, almost weekly, devastating critique of a New York Times economist.
I don't know anything about Economics. Heck I can barely balance a checkbook.
But I know from the withering accountability of blogs that Paul Krugman is usually wrong, and usually partisan. Never mind that he's featured in "the paper of record".
Speaking of which, the New York Times is regularly the object of derision. At least it's not the object of outrage (like the LA Times).
The emperor has no clothes.
Thanks Blogosphere: Reformed and always reforming.
From pg. 210: "Paul Krugman, professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton..."
5 years ago I would have been very impressed by this description. Princeton is where smart people of towering moral intellect like Peter Singer work, right?
But since I began to read Instapundit last year, I have read the name Paul Krugman again and again.
And his name is always mentioned with derision.
Examples are as fresh as today's headlines.
Blogs have made it possible for me to read, almost weekly, devastating critique of a New York Times economist.
I don't know anything about Economics. Heck I can barely balance a checkbook.
But I know from the withering accountability of blogs that Paul Krugman is usually wrong, and usually partisan. Never mind that he's featured in "the paper of record".
Speaking of which, the New York Times is regularly the object of derision. At least it's not the object of outrage (like the LA Times).
The emperor has no clothes.
Thanks Blogosphere: Reformed and always reforming.
Dennis Prager: The case for Judeo-Christian values
I realized the other night after hearing Dennis Prager at CU that I ought to link to his series on Judeo-Christian Values.
I heard someone say years ago that an evangelical Protestant like me has more in common with a Roman Catholic than a liberal Protestant. I think that's true.
The reason hinges on the question of whether the text of Scripture is Divine and infallible.
I think the same could be said about Jews like Prager. Prager has more in common with evangelical Protestants like me than he does with secular Jews.
Here's the first installment.
Dennis Prager: Better answers: The case for Judeo-Christian values: "Better answers: The case for Judeo-Christian values"
Here's a juicy quote:
"The oft cited charge that religion has led to more wars and evil than anything else is a widely believed lie. Secular successors to Christianity have slaughtered and enslaved more people than all religions in history (though significant elements within a non-Judeo-Christian religion, Islam, slaughter and enslave today, and if not stopped in Sudan and elsewhere could match Nazism or Communism)."
I heard someone say years ago that an evangelical Protestant like me has more in common with a Roman Catholic than a liberal Protestant. I think that's true.
The reason hinges on the question of whether the text of Scripture is Divine and infallible.
I think the same could be said about Jews like Prager. Prager has more in common with evangelical Protestants like me than he does with secular Jews.
Here's the first installment.
Dennis Prager: Better answers: The case for Judeo-Christian values: "Better answers: The case for Judeo-Christian values"
Here's a juicy quote:
"The oft cited charge that religion has led to more wars and evil than anything else is a widely believed lie. Secular successors to Christianity have slaughtered and enslaved more people than all religions in history (though significant elements within a non-Judeo-Christian religion, Islam, slaughter and enslave today, and if not stopped in Sudan and elsewhere could match Nazism or Communism)."
Von Trier: Death Penalty for Donkeys
Death Penalty opponent Lars Von Trier who made the powerful film Dancer in the Dark, apparently doesn't extend his mercy to those further down the food chain:
"Maverick Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier will cut scenes of a donkey being butchered from his film about slavery in the U.S. South after protests from animal rights activists who said he killed the animal for entertainment."
Von Trier denied the donkey was killed for entertainment. He said the political and social content of the film, "Manderlay," was so important that it would be unfortunate if it was rejected or ignored because of the donkey.
"My personal feeling is that I acted conscientiously, and I don't suppose we'll ever agree on that."
"Maverick Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier will cut scenes of a donkey being butchered from his film about slavery in the U.S. South after protests from animal rights activists who said he killed the animal for entertainment."
Von Trier denied the donkey was killed for entertainment. He said the political and social content of the film, "Manderlay," was so important that it would be unfortunate if it was rejected or ignored because of the donkey.
"My personal feeling is that I acted conscientiously, and I don't suppose we'll ever agree on that."
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Thank You Hillel for inviting Dennis Prager to CU
Here's a slightly blurry picture of Dennis Prager, taken at a reception after the talk. Major kudos to Hillel at CU Boulder for making it possible for Dennis to speak.
Dennis Prager Spoke at CU Boulder - 7 Should Israel Exist
Dennis responded to the claim that Israel has no right to exist by asking why one would single out Israel. Every country was founded by war and conflict and yet Israel is singled out as the one that is not legitimate.
He said that compared to the founding of Pakistan out of India, the founding of Israel was like a square dance.
He recommended Freedom at Midnight to prove the massive death and strife that accompanied the founding of Pakistan.
He said that compared to the founding of Pakistan out of India, the founding of Israel was like a square dance.
He recommended Freedom at Midnight to prove the massive death and strife that accompanied the founding of Pakistan.
Dennis Prager Spoke at CU Boulder - 6 Save Money on College, don't send your kids.
I've heard Dennis Prager on the radio for 14 years and until last night, I've never heard him so forcefully suggest that you might be better off not sending your kids to college.
He used to say that college was not as important as most people make it out to be.
Last night he actually said that unless your child is going into the hard sciences, you would be better off giving your child $15,000 a year for four years and lettting them travel or do as they will with it.
His argument is that a liberal arts education is so foolish, that just living in the real world, is better than recovering from 4 years of disinformation and propaganda.
His famous quip is, "whenever I hear something particularly stupid, I know the person speaking must have gone to graduate school".
He used to say that college was not as important as most people make it out to be.
Last night he actually said that unless your child is going into the hard sciences, you would be better off giving your child $15,000 a year for four years and lettting them travel or do as they will with it.
His argument is that a liberal arts education is so foolish, that just living in the real world, is better than recovering from 4 years of disinformation and propaganda.
His famous quip is, "whenever I hear something particularly stupid, I know the person speaking must have gone to graduate school".
Dennis Prager spoke at CU - 5 America is good for Jews
One of the classic moments from last night's talk by Dennis Prager was when two students asked Dennis about how he can say that America is Judeo-Christian and good for Jews and that Europe is bad.
The two of them, in turn, read a list of examples of anti-Semitism in America. They questioned whether America could be described as Judeo-Christian.
They thought Dennis was too dismissive of Europe.
They said, in effect, that actions are more important than beliefs to judge a person or country and the anti-Semitic actions of Americans are more indicative than any Judeo-Christian values.
Prager's response was overpowering.
He said that he had written a book on anti-Semitism and he was familiar with the examples they gave. He asked them why they didn't include several other famous examples.
One of the students asked how he could dismiss Europe when it produced the likes of Einstein. To which Prager responded that Einstein fled Europe.
The crowd roared.
Prager then said that despite all of their examples, he could prove that America was the best country in history for Jews.
He asked the two students at the microphone if they were both Jewish. They said they were.
Prager then asked them why they would choose to live in America, when there is a Jewish state, if they really believed that America is so bad for Jews.
"Talked about your actions betraying your beliefs", Prager quipped. The crowd bellowed in uproarious laughter.
Checkmate.
These two students slowly returned to their seats, encouraging one another and obviously licking their wounds.
The two of them, in turn, read a list of examples of anti-Semitism in America. They questioned whether America could be described as Judeo-Christian.
They thought Dennis was too dismissive of Europe.
They said, in effect, that actions are more important than beliefs to judge a person or country and the anti-Semitic actions of Americans are more indicative than any Judeo-Christian values.
Prager's response was overpowering.
He said that he had written a book on anti-Semitism and he was familiar with the examples they gave. He asked them why they didn't include several other famous examples.
One of the students asked how he could dismiss Europe when it produced the likes of Einstein. To which Prager responded that Einstein fled Europe.
The crowd roared.
Prager then said that despite all of their examples, he could prove that America was the best country in history for Jews.
He asked the two students at the microphone if they were both Jewish. They said they were.
Prager then asked them why they would choose to live in America, when there is a Jewish state, if they really believed that America is so bad for Jews.
"Talked about your actions betraying your beliefs", Prager quipped. The crowd bellowed in uproarious laughter.
Checkmate.
These two students slowly returned to their seats, encouraging one another and obviously licking their wounds.
Boker tov, on Prager, CU, the media and free speech
Boker tov, Boulder! got up this morning and did as I did.
He looked for news coverage of Dennis Prager's talk at CU last night.
What he found was that tolerance and free speech only go so far at CU, depending on what your politics are:
Strong words. Read the whole thing.
He looked for news coverage of Dennis Prager's talk at CU last night.
What he found was that tolerance and free speech only go so far at CU, depending on what your politics are:
"When someone is called a N----- [the N-word], no one talks about Free Speech.
It's Free Speech to degrade and defame thousands of innocents murdered in a terrorist attack by calling them 'little Eichmanns.' It's Free Speech when you trivialize the Holocaust, or -as Prager said last night- make it seem silly. It's Free Speech when Ward Churchill publicly laments that 9/11 proved 'insufficient to accomplish its purpose' and says, 'What the hell? It was worth a try.'
Nearly 200 CU faculty took the time and trouble to to sign and publish an ad in the local paper (Daily Camera) to the effect that these statements by Ward Churchill fall under the protection of Free Speech and as such, do not warrant a formal investigation by the University. Do you think they would sign and publish a statement saying that one student calling another a nigger is a matter of Free Speech? No way.
So what do we learn from this? One thing I've learned is that the ethical stance being applied to the 'recent wave of racism' is a sham, differentially applied, based not on timeless principle but on fleeting popularity and utility. What kind of ethical code is it that only applies to some of the people some of the time? Certainly not one you can count on.
The public's responsibility 'for doing something' of which the Vice Provost spoke --the responsibility that 'shouldn't rest solely on the people victimized'-- is not applied equally across the board. Look at it this way. This responsibility to 'do something' is vehemently invoked in this case where folks have been insulted, but is not being invoked where folks have been incinerated ... Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust, passengers on hijacked planes and so-called 'technocrats' working in the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
That's some standard they've got going.
While I started out this morning wishing that Jewish concerns might receive the same level and kind of response as Black concerns, I don't anymore. We may not be supported at all, but any sense of security felt by the Black community could be false. Anyone can, and the Black community may yet, have the rug of support pulled out from under them, should the political wind shift.
At least as a Jew I know where I really stand. There are limits to what people will tolerate, but the lines are drawn in shifting sand. I know I cannot assume that my people will be included, considered or respected at any given time or place. I cannot necessarily expect protection, equal or otherwise. But at least I am not being fooled.
The other thing I learned was that Churchill won't have truly gone over the top until he calls someone a N----- [the N-word]."
Strong words. Read the whole thing.
Ward Churchill, The Nazi's and Godwin's Law
How to post about Nazis and get away with it - the Godwin's Law FAQ includes some interesting guidelines about refererring to the Nazi's:
"1. If someone brings up Nazis in general conversation when it wasn't necessary or germane without it necessarily being an insult, it's probably about time for the thread to end.
2. If someone brings up Nazis in general conversation when it was vaguely related but is basically being used as an insult, the speaker can be considered to be flaming and not debating.
3. If someone brings up Nazis in any conversation that has been going on too long for one of the parties, it can be used as a fair excuse to end the thread and declare victory for the other side."
Does this mean the conversation was over as soon as Churchill began it?
"1. If someone brings up Nazis in general conversation when it wasn't necessary or germane without it necessarily being an insult, it's probably about time for the thread to end.
2. If someone brings up Nazis in general conversation when it was vaguely related but is basically being used as an insult, the speaker can be considered to be flaming and not debating.
3. If someone brings up Nazis in any conversation that has been going on too long for one of the parties, it can be used as a fair excuse to end the thread and declare victory for the other side."
Does this mean the conversation was over as soon as Churchill began it?
Dennis Prager Spoke at CU Boulder - 4 Jews and Christians
Dennis Prager said that there is an alliance of Jews and Christians in America today that is unlike anything in history.
Jews protested for the cross to remain on the seal of LA County.
Christians are working for the good of Israel.
Dennis sees this as a powerful alliance. I remember Dennis talking about dialogue that occurred between Jews and Christians following the release of The Passion. He said it was very positive. Wouldn't it be ironic if a movie that was described by the ADL as anti-Semitic was a cause of greater unity between Jews and Christians?
Dennis asked last night why the leaders of the ADL shouldn't be fired for being so wrong about The Passion. He accused them of slandering Christians by accusing them of the possibility of violence accompanying the release of the film. Prager also asked why the ADL doesn't condemn people like Ward Churchill who trivialize the holocaust by improperly citing Adolph Eichmann.
Maybe the ADL is growing in their moral acuity.
Jews protested for the cross to remain on the seal of LA County.
Christians are working for the good of Israel.
Dennis sees this as a powerful alliance. I remember Dennis talking about dialogue that occurred between Jews and Christians following the release of The Passion. He said it was very positive. Wouldn't it be ironic if a movie that was described by the ADL as anti-Semitic was a cause of greater unity between Jews and Christians?
Dennis asked last night why the leaders of the ADL shouldn't be fired for being so wrong about The Passion. He accused them of slandering Christians by accusing them of the possibility of violence accompanying the release of the film. Prager also asked why the ADL doesn't condemn people like Ward Churchill who trivialize the holocaust by improperly citing Adolph Eichmann.
Maybe the ADL is growing in their moral acuity.
Dennis Prager Spoke at CU Boulder - 3
Dennis Prager said regarding the question of whether to fire Ward Churchill: "Do not fire him, he is our ally".
Prager views Churchill as a poster boy for the moral bankruptcy of the University. His views are helpful to clarify the low intellectual state of the professoriate.
He said if Prager could be fired it should be by the left and not by conservatives. If conservatives are behind it it will confirm the propaganda of the left that conservatives are bullies.
Prager views Churchill as a poster boy for the moral bankruptcy of the University. His views are helpful to clarify the low intellectual state of the professoriate.
He said if Prager could be fired it should be by the left and not by conservatives. If conservatives are behind it it will confirm the propaganda of the left that conservatives are bullies.
A Kerry Democrat: What happened to my party?
Dennis is playing a clip from last night from a CU student who worked for the Kerry campaign. I'll reproduce a paraphrase:
Dennis' response spoke about how he was caught between the amoral left that ignored the evils of Communism, and the propaganda that Republicans are evil.
"Your party is lost", Prager said. He referred to Martin Peretz (hat tip The Belmont Club) as saying this as well.
He also talked about how as an observant Jew who went through a non-kosher period, that it was much harder to vote republican the first time than it was to eat pork the first time.
A black woman is calling Dennis right now talking about how she was shaking in November when she voted republican the first time. She said her mother would be rolling in her grave.
I don't like Michael Moore, I don't like Howard Dean and I don't agree with what Ward Churchill said. Those people in the world trade center just got up and went to work.
I don't know if I'm a Democrat any more because I can't hang out with people like this. I don't know if if I'm a Republican either. I don't know if you are my people.
Dennis' response spoke about how he was caught between the amoral left that ignored the evils of Communism, and the propaganda that Republicans are evil.
"Your party is lost", Prager said. He referred to Martin Peretz (hat tip The Belmont Club) as saying this as well.
He also talked about how as an observant Jew who went through a non-kosher period, that it was much harder to vote republican the first time than it was to eat pork the first time.
A black woman is calling Dennis right now talking about how she was shaking in November when she voted republican the first time. She said her mother would be rolling in her grave.
A CU Student comments on Dennis Prager at CU
Here's a commentary from a CU student who was at the talk by Dennis Prager:
"I don't understand why none of you guys went or why you don't go to any of these speakers. Even if you don't agree with them, most are world famous and if nothing else worth going to see just as celebrities. And don't say you didn't know about it, Prager was advertised in the Buff Bulletin and in the CRs email, as well as the newspaper and on fliers all around campus. These speakers are the best part of being in college. When else in you life will you have the chance to go to hear someone like this, especially for free.
His talk was probably the best that has been at CU in the past two years (I go to most of them), and that includes Desmond Tutu and Salmon Rushdie."
Dennis Prager Spoke at CU Boulder - 2
Here's some highlights recreated from my notes during the talk:
Dennis began by saying "God has certainly seemed to have chosen CU". Dennis didn't spend very much time talking about the specific topic which was: "Why are America and Israel the Two Most Hated Nations?"
He did spend a lot of time speaking about the issues of Ward Churchill and the radicalized nature of Academia.
Dennis called Churchill's "little Eichmanns" comment "sick" and the equivalent of saying that blacks who were lynched deserved to be so.
More interesting was Prager's question regarding the response of faculty at Universities. He said in effect , what would be the reaction of faculty if a professor at CU said that blacks deserved to be lynched. The outcry would be great, as it should be. And so the deafening silence of faculty regarding "little Eichmanns" is as morally repugnant as silence in the face of racist comments. But the faculty on university campuses like CU can only muster outrage at sickening comments from the right, and ignore sickening comments from the left.
Dennis began by saying "God has certainly seemed to have chosen CU". Dennis didn't spend very much time talking about the specific topic which was: "Why are America and Israel the Two Most Hated Nations?"
He did spend a lot of time speaking about the issues of Ward Churchill and the radicalized nature of Academia.
Dennis called Churchill's "little Eichmanns" comment "sick" and the equivalent of saying that blacks who were lynched deserved to be so.
More interesting was Prager's question regarding the response of faculty at Universities. He said in effect , what would be the reaction of faculty if a professor at CU said that blacks deserved to be lynched. The outcry would be great, as it should be. And so the deafening silence of faculty regarding "little Eichmanns" is as morally repugnant as silence in the face of racist comments. But the faculty on university campuses like CU can only muster outrage at sickening comments from the right, and ignore sickening comments from the left.
Dennis Prager Spoke at CU Boulder - 1
Dennis is on KNUS right now talking about his speech at CU last night. Go to www.dennisprager.com right now and click on listen now or find a local station to hear recordings from last night and his life comments.
I'm going to be posting pictures and reports about last nights speech throughout the day.
I'm going to be posting pictures and reports about last nights speech throughout the day.
Truth in Blogging: Full Disclosure
Before I post on Dennis Prager at CU last night. I need to reshape my blog and blogging life.
I have been reading Blog by Hugh Hewitt. It is a harbinger of change to alert the masses of information users that a new day has dawned in the world. The Information Reformation has reappeared, this time with a press that operates at the speed of light, that is available to anyone with a computer and access. The implications may make the Protestant Reformation look like minor episode in the story of the modern era.
I was struck by one idea in particular:
I realized that I have not created my blog to build trust and create trust. That will change now.
I have changed my "about me" information to more clearly reflect who I am. I will now make my blog a reflection of my life and work, which happens to be Christian campus ministry.
I have feared being fully honest about who I am for a number of reason: mainly cowardice and a desire to control perceptions about me.
Yet in the blogosphere, the truth will come out. If someone wants to find out who I am, they probably can. If I'm not honest and forthright about who I am then I mortgage any trust that might be possible otherwise.
I am what I am. Me and Popeye. I hope you will help me correct the errors in my thinking. I hope I will earn your trust and add to the value of your life.
I have been reading Blog by Hugh Hewitt. It is a harbinger of change to alert the masses of information users that a new day has dawned in the world. The Information Reformation has reappeared, this time with a press that operates at the speed of light, that is available to anyone with a computer and access. The implications may make the Protestant Reformation look like minor episode in the story of the modern era.
I was struck by one idea in particular:
"The key to keep in mind is that trust drives everything. To build and maintain trust is a tremendously difficult thing, requiring patient attention to detail and discipline over long periods of time. Mistakes by bloggers will be forgiven, but not deception and certainly not stubborn attachment to falsehood...
"In a world changing as rapidly as ours is, only those who have earned and continue to earn trust will be in a position to influence the choices of third parties." pg. 155
I realized that I have not created my blog to build trust and create trust. That will change now.
I have changed my "about me" information to more clearly reflect who I am. I will now make my blog a reflection of my life and work, which happens to be Christian campus ministry.
I have feared being fully honest about who I am for a number of reason: mainly cowardice and a desire to control perceptions about me.
Yet in the blogosphere, the truth will come out. If someone wants to find out who I am, they probably can. If I'm not honest and forthright about who I am then I mortgage any trust that might be possible otherwise.
I am what I am. Me and Popeye. I hope you will help me correct the errors in my thinking. I hope I will earn your trust and add to the value of your life.
Fight Club?: Teens Leaping For Thrills In 'Garage Jumping' Trend
local6.com - Problem Solvers - Teens Leaping For Thrills In 'Garage Jumping' Trend: "ORLANDO, Fla. -- Teenagers in Orlando, Fla., are leaping between 80-foot high public parking garages in a new trend called 'garage jumping,' according to a Local 6 News investigation.
Local 6 News reported that the thrill seekers are vaulting themselves between garages in downtown Orlando.
Tim Bargfrede told Local 6 News that he was following friends when he attempted to garage jump and did not make it to the other side. Bargfrede fell six stories and was knocked unconscious on impact.
'I just didn't make it,' Bargfrede said.
Bargfrede survived the 80-foot fall but was injured.
'The first time I came to the garage after my son's accident, I looked over and I just about broke out in tears,' the boy's father Tim Bargfrede said. 'I can't believe he actually survived. He looked like he was near death.'
'He (Bargfrede) is not he first person, he is not the second person, there have been four or five other individuals before him that did this,' family's attorney Vincent D'Assaro said."
I've said for years that Fight Club is the most profound film ever made on modern masculinity and it's problems. Young men with no purpose for their manhood will find foolish places to deposit their courage and strength. I think this story illustrates the point of the film:
" We're the middle children of history.... no purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives."
I think 9-11 may have changed this condition for some but clearly not for all.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Blogging Dennis Prager
I'm going to leave in a few minutes to go see Dennis Prager at CU Boulder. After a lovely dinner with my wife we'll go hear Dennis from the home of Ward Churchill. I got an invite to a special after event reception so hopefully I'll get a chance to meet Dennis tonight. I'll post pictures and thoughts on the lecture later tonight or tomorrow.
Chrenkoff asks Victor Davis Hanson about Iraq and the World
Arthur Chrenkoff posts a fine blog interview with Victor Davis Hanson. I've become a huge fan of VDH because of his immense grasp of History, particularly Military History:
"Look at the unrest in Lebanon, the voting in the West Bank, fear in Libya, pressure to reform from the Gulf to Egypt—all impossible without the removal and humiliation of Saddam Hussein, who, had he remained in power, would be nursing Arab pride by blaming us while he recycled petro-dollars, hand in glove with corrupt UN officials and Euros, for more weapons and his own debauchery..."
"The other scenario that a China or the Arab world, like the Ottomans of old, can cherry-pick Western technology and add its veneer to their own unfree societies to defeat us with our weaponry and their numbers and fanaticism, doesn't have a lot of historical precedent. The key is not 'them,' but us—to what degree will we continue to value freedom, invest rather than merely spend, and pass on stern values not just sensuality to our children?..."
"Thucydides reminds us that, contrary to modern behavioralists, human nature is constant and thus predictable, and thus as well history is useful and not like 19th-century biology that is rendered obsolete by a radically changing technology that allows the discovery of the cell or atom. And he warns us that no people, however wealthy and free, get a pass from history, that they don't have to struggle daily to ensure that they do not lose what was given to them."
mtv.com -- Brian 'Head' Welch of KORN has decided to follow Jesus
mtv.com: "Two months after his first visit to the Valley Bible Fellowship, Brian 'Head' Welch, who announced his departure from Korn last week (see 'Brian 'Head' Welch Explains Why He Left Korn'), held a sort of Christian coming-out party here Sunday in front of an estimated 10,000 churchgoers in three separate services. (Check out photos of Welch at the event.)"
Monday, February 28, 2005
Thomas and his Influence
That's what I figured:
"Naturally I taught my students Thomas Aquinas, but I found it difficult to do so. The problem was that his arguments presented such a strong appearance of truth. For the very beauty of this appearance, I had to exercise strong discipline not to weep. One of my students in those days asked permission to put a personal question. "I’ve been listening carefully," he said, "and I figure that you’re either an atheist or a Roman Catholic. Which one is it?"
You can see why, when I finally returned to Christian faith, I wanted that one foot in Catholic tradition."
And the rest as they say, is history. Aquinas may be among the most underrated thinkers in the minds of modern folk. Oh that's right, we're "enlightened". Calvin runs a very close second.
"Naturally I taught my students Thomas Aquinas, but I found it difficult to do so. The problem was that his arguments presented such a strong appearance of truth. For the very beauty of this appearance, I had to exercise strong discipline not to weep. One of my students in those days asked permission to put a personal question. "I’ve been listening carefully," he said, "and I figure that you’re either an atheist or a Roman Catholic. Which one is it?"
You can see why, when I finally returned to Christian faith, I wanted that one foot in Catholic tradition."
And the rest as they say, is history. Aquinas may be among the most underrated thinkers in the minds of modern folk. Oh that's right, we're "enlightened". Calvin runs a very close second.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
A suprising conversion
This is interesting:
From relapsed catholic : "'During the 1990s, J. Budziszewski rose to prominence as one of the leading intellectual lights among Evangelical Christians in America. A political theorist with a special interest in the natural-law tradition, he was highly sought as a speaker at conferences organized by groups such as the InterVarsity Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ. (...) 'For some Evangelical Protestants, then, it came as a jolt when, on Easter Sunday 2004, Budziszewski was received into the Catholic Church. After maintaining a public silence about his conversion for several months, Budziszewski agreed to tell the story to CWR...'"
I'll bet it was Aquinas that moved him across the goal line.
From relapsed catholic : "'During the 1990s, J. Budziszewski rose to prominence as one of the leading intellectual lights among Evangelical Christians in America. A political theorist with a special interest in the natural-law tradition, he was highly sought as a speaker at conferences organized by groups such as the InterVarsity Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ. (...) 'For some Evangelical Protestants, then, it came as a jolt when, on Easter Sunday 2004, Budziszewski was received into the Catholic Church. After maintaining a public silence about his conversion for several months, Budziszewski agreed to tell the story to CWR...'"
I'll bet it was Aquinas that moved him across the goal line.
Lame
I've been away at a conference that tragically offered no internet access. I'm getting on a plane this morning but I'll be back blogging soon.
Friday, February 18, 2005
Prager comes to CU
If you live in Colorado, you should mark your calendar and come to CU Boulder to hear Dennis Prager on March 2.
He will be speaking on the topic: "Why are America and Israel the Two Most Hated Nations?"
I feel pretty confident that he will comment on Ward Churchill at some point in the evening.
Should be worth $10. Heck, I'd pay per view.
See you there. I'll post pictures if they let me take them.
He will be speaking on the topic: "Why are America and Israel the Two Most Hated Nations?"
I feel pretty confident that he will comment on Ward Churchill at some point in the evening.
Should be worth $10. Heck, I'd pay per view.
See you there. I'll post pictures if they let me take them.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
The New York Newsprint
Jay Rosen has a great take on the way mainstream media like the New York Times, look down their nose at Blogs:
"The Guardian weighs in: 'Jordan's demise may be much more significant than it first appears.'
The Guardian piece has Steve Lovelady's remarks about 'salivating morons' originating in what he told the New York Times, but of course the Times got them from PressThink, a blog that it failed to name. It's happened before: the Times will say 'online' rather than 'PressThink,' as it did Feb. 14: 'The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail,' he lamented online after Mr. Jordan's resignation. (Another example.) Next time I quote the New York Times I think I will do it this way: 'As Paul Krugman said in newsprint last week...'"
Corporate Blogs
I find that as I explain what blogs are to people, it seems that blogging is a fringe activity more similar to bomb making than using a cell phone or fax machine. Well in case you needed more proof that blogs are mainstream, behold this blog from General Motors written by the Vice Chairman of GM. There's probably something to learn from this for every organization, whether for profit or otherwise.
I learned about this blog from a great interview with Hugh Hewitt on the second hour of Dennis Prager's radio show.
I just bought Hewitt's book, Blog. I couldn't stand it anymore so it will come tomorrow probably and i'll dive into it.
I learned about this blog from a great interview with Hugh Hewitt on the second hour of Dennis Prager's radio show.
I just bought Hewitt's book, Blog. I couldn't stand it anymore so it will come tomorrow probably and i'll dive into it.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
How to make your Blog popular?
Seth's Blog: "step 3: be controversial. Try to get a CNN VP to resign under pressure. Yell when you can speak, scream when you can whisper. "
Here's a better idea Seth: When you use your blog to make thinly veiled accusations and disparaging remarks about blogs that hurt your philosophical allies, include links to those you are heckling so that people don't assume that your analysis is just bigotry and falsehood.
Oh, and writing stuff worth reading is important too (like you said). Or at least linking to stuff worth reading.
Here's a better idea Seth: When you use your blog to make thinly veiled accusations and disparaging remarks about blogs that hurt your philosophical allies, include links to those you are heckling so that people don't assume that your analysis is just bigotry and falsehood.
Oh, and writing stuff worth reading is important too (like you said). Or at least linking to stuff worth reading.
A CU Professor weighs in on Churchill
CU Professor Paul Campos brings candor to CU and Churchill and the culture of Affirmative Action:
"The privileges created by tenure are supposed to insulate faculty from political pressures in general and censorship in particular. Yet those of us in the academy, if we were candid, would have to admit that few places are more riddled with the distorting effects of politics and censorship than university faculties.
Academics claim to despise censorship, but the truth is we do a remarkably good job of censoring ourselves. This is especially true in regard to affirmative action. Who among us can claim to have spoken up every time a job candidate almost as preposterous as Churchill was submitted for our consideration? Things like the Churchill fiasco are made possible by a web of lies kept intact by a conspiracy of silence.
The University of Colorado hired Churchill onto its faculty because he claimed to be an American Indian. Anyone who has the slightest familiarity with research universities can glance at his resume and state this with something close to complete confidence.
Churchill thus represents the reductio ad absurdum of the contemporary university's willingness to subordinate all other values to affirmative action. When such a grotesque fraud - a white man pretending to be an Indian, an intellectual charlatan spewing polemical garbage festooned with phony footnotes, a shameless demagogue fabricating imaginary historical incidents to justify his pathological hatreds, an apparent plagiarist who steals and distorts the work of real scholars - manages to scam his way into a full professorship at what is still a serious research university, we know the practice of affirmative action has hit rock bottom. Or at least we can hope so.
As someone of generally liberal political inclinations, I support affirmative action in principle. (And I have surely benefited from it in practice: My parents came to this country from Mexico in the year of my birth, and I spoke no English when I started school.) In theory, the argument that aggressively seeking out persons of diverse backgrounds can enrich the intellectual life of the university has great force.
Affirmative action is based, in part, on the idea that it will help us understand the viewpoints of the conquered as well as those of the conqueror, of the weak as well as the strong, of those far from power as well as those who wield it.
Too often, these sentiments are abused by those who sacrifice intellectual integrity while engaging in the most extreme forms of preferential hiring. Ward Churchill's career provides a lurid illustration of what can happen - indeed, of what we know will happen - when academic standards are prostituted in the name of increasing diversity. "
Wow! That was bracing.
"The privileges created by tenure are supposed to insulate faculty from political pressures in general and censorship in particular. Yet those of us in the academy, if we were candid, would have to admit that few places are more riddled with the distorting effects of politics and censorship than university faculties.
Academics claim to despise censorship, but the truth is we do a remarkably good job of censoring ourselves. This is especially true in regard to affirmative action. Who among us can claim to have spoken up every time a job candidate almost as preposterous as Churchill was submitted for our consideration? Things like the Churchill fiasco are made possible by a web of lies kept intact by a conspiracy of silence.
The University of Colorado hired Churchill onto its faculty because he claimed to be an American Indian. Anyone who has the slightest familiarity with research universities can glance at his resume and state this with something close to complete confidence.
Churchill thus represents the reductio ad absurdum of the contemporary university's willingness to subordinate all other values to affirmative action. When such a grotesque fraud - a white man pretending to be an Indian, an intellectual charlatan spewing polemical garbage festooned with phony footnotes, a shameless demagogue fabricating imaginary historical incidents to justify his pathological hatreds, an apparent plagiarist who steals and distorts the work of real scholars - manages to scam his way into a full professorship at what is still a serious research university, we know the practice of affirmative action has hit rock bottom. Or at least we can hope so.
As someone of generally liberal political inclinations, I support affirmative action in principle. (And I have surely benefited from it in practice: My parents came to this country from Mexico in the year of my birth, and I spoke no English when I started school.) In theory, the argument that aggressively seeking out persons of diverse backgrounds can enrich the intellectual life of the university has great force.
Affirmative action is based, in part, on the idea that it will help us understand the viewpoints of the conquered as well as those of the conqueror, of the weak as well as the strong, of those far from power as well as those who wield it.
Too often, these sentiments are abused by those who sacrifice intellectual integrity while engaging in the most extreme forms of preferential hiring. Ward Churchill's career provides a lurid illustration of what can happen - indeed, of what we know will happen - when academic standards are prostituted in the name of increasing diversity. "
Wow! That was bracing.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Treason?
Rocky Mountain News: David Kopel: "The radio pair have done superb work on the Churchill controversy; among their contributions are playing excerpts from Churchill's CD, Pacifism as Pathology, in which he explicitly urges his audience to perpetrate more 9/11-type attacks in the United States."
That's treason isn't it?
That's treason isn't it?
It's a joke!
ScrappleFace: Little Eichmanns Group Celebrates Prof's Free Speech: "(2005-02-10) -- In a celebration of free speech inspired by a University of Colorado professor who compared America's 9/11 victims to Nazis, an ad hoc consortium of business leaders announced today that it would fund an endowed professorship in honor of Professor Ward Churchill.
The business group, Little Eichmanns for Free Speech, said it 'rejoices in Mr. Churchill's efforts to open a fresh dialogue between America's businesspeople and the academics whose important work is funded by the overflow of our insatiable greed.'
The group said it would donate a 'substantial sum' to create an endowment with the condition that 'Mr. Churchill be appointed as the Little Goebbels Professor of Ethics, in recognition of his efforts to establish the reputation of businesspeople in a fashion reminiscent of what Joseph Goebbels did for the Jews.'
Under the terms of endowment, university news releases about Mr. Churchill's research and public speaking must always identify him with the phrase 'the Little Goebbels Professor of Ethics.'
A spokesman for the university's board of regents said it 'welcomes expressions of free speech, especially when they're written in the memo field of a personal check.'"
You gotta love Scrappleface.
The business group, Little Eichmanns for Free Speech, said it 'rejoices in Mr. Churchill's efforts to open a fresh dialogue between America's businesspeople and the academics whose important work is funded by the overflow of our insatiable greed.'
The group said it would donate a 'substantial sum' to create an endowment with the condition that 'Mr. Churchill be appointed as the Little Goebbels Professor of Ethics, in recognition of his efforts to establish the reputation of businesspeople in a fashion reminiscent of what Joseph Goebbels did for the Jews.'
Under the terms of endowment, university news releases about Mr. Churchill's research and public speaking must always identify him with the phrase 'the Little Goebbels Professor of Ethics.'
A spokesman for the university's board of regents said it 'welcomes expressions of free speech, especially when they're written in the memo field of a personal check.'"
You gotta love Scrappleface.
Saturday, February 12, 2005
From Dan Rather to Eason Jordan
I don't know if you have been following the Eason Jordan (CNN Executive) scandal. I've been loosely following it via my favorite blogs. Why is it important? It is another milestone in the new era of media and information.
HughHewitt sums up the sea change:
"In Thursday's WeeklyStandard.com column I detailed how the blogs beat MSM on the story like a bongo drum. At this hour, if you type 'Eason Jordan' into the search engine of the Los Angeles Times, there will be no matches. None. The Times is not alone in having utterly failed its readers. A senior news executive has been forced to resign from an international news powerhouse for remarks he made about the military, the story is two weeks old, and the 'paper of record' of the West Coast does not have story on it in its archives, which probably means no stories at all, though search engines do sometimes fail.
The Times is not alone for demonstrating again a 'news judgment' hopelessly skewed by liberal bias. Some big papers got a 'just-in-time' treatment of the story into their pages, but most of those gave no hint that a real opinion storm had developed around Jordan, and none of them pushed the story along. It was new media's work, and only new media's that brought accountability to Eason Jordan and CNN."
HughHewitt sums up the sea change:
"In Thursday's WeeklyStandard.com column I detailed how the blogs beat MSM on the story like a bongo drum. At this hour, if you type 'Eason Jordan' into the search engine of the Los Angeles Times, there will be no matches. None. The Times is not alone in having utterly failed its readers. A senior news executive has been forced to resign from an international news powerhouse for remarks he made about the military, the story is two weeks old, and the 'paper of record' of the West Coast does not have story on it in its archives, which probably means no stories at all, though search engines do sometimes fail.
The Times is not alone for demonstrating again a 'news judgment' hopelessly skewed by liberal bias. Some big papers got a 'just-in-time' treatment of the story into their pages, but most of those gave no hint that a real opinion storm had developed around Jordan, and none of them pushed the story along. It was new media's work, and only new media's that brought accountability to Eason Jordan and CNN."
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Sex Blogging 3
Following up on my earlier sex blogging posts here and here...
John Leo explains what Lawrence Summers could have said:
John Leo explains what Lawrence Summers could have said:
"Yesterday I spoke bluntly at a closed academic conference and offered some possible explanations of why women are less represented than men in the upper reaches of math and science. In addition to the cost of the time women spend in bearing and raising children, I said that innate sexual differences may be playing a role.
"This was a politically incorrect thing to say, but I believe it is true. An enormous literature on sexual differences has been piling up for 30 years or more. Everybody knows about this work, but it is one of the large elephants in the academic living room that nobody is supposed to notice. It is officially invisible. Careers can end if you see it.
"The literature points to one conclusion: The sexes are different. Males and females have different aptitudes, and they make choices based on those aptitudes. Males tend to outperform females on mathematical reasoning, mechanical comprehension and spatial ability, while females tend to outperform males in such areas as language use, reading comprehension, verbal fluency, verbal memory, spelling and mathematical calculations. On many verbal tasks, women as a group are decisively better than men and remain so all their lives.
"In addition, there is a persistent finding that men tend to prefer to work with 'things,' while women, more than men, prefer to work with people. This may sound like a stereotype to you. It is certainly true that when the doors to high-paying professions were closed to women, females gravitated, by necessity, to valuable but lower-paying 'people' fields like nursing and teaching. But now that the barriers are finally coming down, women are still opting in great numbers for 'people' fields. We have seen a great surge of women into law and medicine but far less female interest in engineering, math and the hard sciences.
"On the whole, women tend to avoid fields with a low social component -- mechanical engineering, particle physics and entomology, for example. Women tend to favor fields with a high social dimension -- anthropology, sociology, psychology (particularly developmental and child psychology but not physiological psychology). Even within scientific fields, women lean toward more 'social' areas such as medicine, nutritional science, environmental health, biology and bioengineering.
"In his book 'Biology at Work: Rethinking Sexual Equality,' Kingsley Browne says that one important reason why girls turn away from science is that they tend to find it 'boring,' not a 'fun puzzle to study,' or to conclude that 'science breaks down people's ideas of right and wrong.'
"Camilla Benbow and David Lubinski, well-known researchers at Vanderbilt University, have spent more than 20 years tracking a group of 5,000 males and females who had been identified as mathematically gifted when they were 12 to 14 years old. Eight percent of the males, but only 1 percent of the females, pursued doctorates in math, engineering or physical science. More females than males received degrees in the life sciences, health or medicine. The females did not veer away from the hard sciences out of lack of opportunity, doubts about competence or fear of failure. The 5,000 gifted children knew they were good, but the females had different values and many made different choices.
"What is the lesson here? That it may be a great mistake to insist on equal male-female representation in every area of academia. The social sciences are now heavily female. Law and medicine may well become predominantly female too, while the hard sciences stay mostly male. Is there anything wrong with that? Benbow and Lubinski say frankly that 'there may be a need to consider a degree of unequal representation' in certain fields. 'Unequal representation' is threatening only if we think that respect for the choices made by our young people is less important than worrying about a perfect gender balance."
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Jason Mitchener ~ Biography
Sure enough, the Jason from the post below is the Jason that I knew in college. I was first involved with Campus Crusade at ASU and that's where Jason's life was changed:
Jason Mitchener was born with a rare neuromuscular disease that now confines him to an electric wheelchair and requires him to use a ventilator to breathe. His body may be confined, but his spirit soars free.
Raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Jason spent his childhood chasing after academic success and popularity. He desired to be noticed for something other than his disability. Jason achieved academic success and was quite popular in school, but when he started college at Arizona State University in 1988, something was missing.In the second semester of his freshman year, Jason was invited to the weekly meeting of Campus Crusade for Christ. Religion wasn't new to him, as he had been a member of an Eastern religion called the Baha'i Faith, but these young Christians helped Jason see that he needed a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jason had been chasing after everything except what he needed most... Jesus.
After giving his life to the Lord, Jason got involved in many Christian activities on the college campus. He thought he had his life planned out and looked forward to perhaps starting a
performing arts ministry. All that changed suddenly in December of 1991 when he was admitted to the hospital with major breathing difficulty. A few weeks later, he was in a long-term care facility and connected to a portable ventilator that
was breathing for him.Jason thought his dreams had ended and gave up on God. But God didn't give up on him. After six months of not wanting to live but fearing death, Jason finally reached out to the Father for help. God helped him and told
Jason to share his comfort with others.With newfound hope, Jason turned his attention to writing and preaching. His song lyrics and devotional writing inspire and encourage Christians to draw closer to God. Jason has had his songs released on three CDs by Christian independent artists. In 2003, he published his devotional book "Just Passing Through: Notes from a Fellow Traveler." Later that year, Jason released a music CD also titled “Just Passing Through: Notes
from a Fellow Traveler” which is a collection of ten contemporary Christian songs written or co-written by Jason but performed by talented studio musicians. Jason is also an accomplished digital artist using 3D software to create vibrant
images. Finally, Jason is a Christian speaker sharing his testimony "Power in Weakness" whenever and wherever he has the opportunity.Jason currently lives in Phoenix and attends Crossroads Christian Fellowship.
You can read Jason's Testimony here.
Million Dollar Death
I haven't yet seen the movie but I got this interesting email from an aquaintance who has a critically disabled family member:
I need to do some research but I think I actually went to school with Jason Michener at Arizona State. He was already disabled, and already a fighter.
"Dear Friends,
It's time for academy awards again. "Million Dollar Baby" has been nominated. We'd just like to tell all our friends out there (and actor/director Mr. Eastwood) that not all disabled Americans are ready to be euthanized.
Our Matt started college last week, taking one class on Thursday afternoons -- Art of the Cinema. (chosen because it meets general ed requirements and transfers to all UC's, CSU's & USC's, a four-year degree being one future goal). Matt continues to work out a Project Walk 3 days a week in addition to doing some outpatient PT/OT to work on his deltoids.
As soon as the authorized rehab sessions are over, it will be back to PW 4
times a week. If anyone felt bummed after seeing "Million Dollar Baby," and needs an antidote for despair, read Jason Mitchener's testimony below, and/or click on the URL below and see how REAL fighters face adversity.
Thanks to you all for your ongoing love, support, & encouragement,
the Wilds
http://www.projectwalk.org/ProjectWalk_gaitCenter/theBuzz/theBuzz.htm
Disabled Christian Author Speaks
Against “Million Dollar Baby” Movie
Ventilator-dependent, confined to a wheelchair, and living in a rehabilitation center, Christian author and speaker Jason Mitchener has much in common with Hilary Swank’s character Maggie at the end of Clint Eastwood’s boxing movie “Million Dollar Baby.” The difference is that Mitchener is a true fighter.
(PRWEB) February 1, 2005 -- “I wanted to stop the moviegoers as they left the theater to tell them Maggie wasn’t the typical ventilator-dependent, disabled person. Most of us want to live.”For Christian author and speaker, Jason Mitchener, Clint Eastwood’s film “Million Dollar Baby” was just another inspirational boxing movie until the surprise third act when Hilary Swank’s character Maggie ends up as a quadriplegic and ventilator-dependent. Mitchener, who is also confined to a wheelchair and ventilator dependent, was at first excited to see a movie portray someone similar to him. “But when I saw Maggie asking Clint Eastwood’s character to end her life, I wanted to scream, ‘Don’t do it! Life is worth living.’”
In 1991, Mitchener was admitted to a rehabilitation center at the age of 21. He couldn’t bathe, feed, or dress himself. Paralyzed from the shoulders down due to a rare neuromuscular disease, he now required a ventilator to help him breathe. “At first, I felt useless, like my life was over. But I knew God had bigger plans for me.” Those plans included the publication of his devotional book “Just Passing Through: Notes from a Fellow Traveler” which he typed with a stick held between his teeth.“Eastwood’s film shook me to the core,” Mitchener says. “It was yet another attempt to show that the life of a disabled person has no value.” Mitchener proves his value every day by ministering daily to the hundreds of people who subscribe to his e-mail devotional messages. He is also a talented digital artist
and songwriter who has had songs recorded on CDs by three Christian music artists.“I couldn’t understand Maggie’s wish to end her life. She was a boxer, but she stopped fighting,” Mitchener says.
With his fierce desire to encourage others through his love for life, Mitchener is the true fighter.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
More on the subject? Did Eastwood choose to direct this film as a vendetta
against the suit filed against him for violating the ADA act?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Why 'Million Dollar Baby' infuriates the disabled
By Lennard J. Davis. (excerpted)
Lennard J. Davis teaches English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also professor of Disability and Human Development at UIC's School of Applied Health Sciences.
Although Clint Eastwood's film "Million Dollar Baby" continues to garner
praise and awards -- a Director's Guild Award for Eastwood, seven Oscar
nominations, as well as best actress and director for the Golden Globes --
a mounting furor around the film accompanies these kudos.In Chicago last week, Not Dead Yet, a group of people with disabilities,
assembled at night to protest what they say is the anti-disability stance of the film. A demonstration also was held in Berkeley, Calif., and more are planned in other cities. How can there be such a wide gap between the critics and the disability activists' point of view?
(Note to readers: This story reveals a key plot twist in "Million Dollar Baby.")
The film tells us the story of a poor but feisty young woman, Maggie (Hilary Swank), who wants Frankie (Clint Eastwood) to train her to be a boxer. Initially he refuses, but when he gives in, she becomes an unbeatable opponent in the ring -- until she breaks her neck and becomes a quadriplegic. At that point, the film throws a left hook and switches from a Rocky-themed plot to a disability tragedy. When Maggie loses a leg to bedsores, she gives up her wish to live and begs to be euthanized by Frankie. And with a little soul searching, he agrees.
Many people with disabilities, including the National Spinal Cord Injury
Association, a national advocacy group with 13,000 members, see the
film as one that uncritically advocates euthanasia for quadriplegics.
There are no scenes in which anyone at the hospital tries to deal with Maggie's depression or offers her counseling or at the least an anti-depressant. And the feisty girl who would stop at nothing to fight in the ring, who after the accident musters the energy to tell her hillbilly family to bugger off, strangely changes character and becomes someone who gives up her ghost rather quickly -- even refusing Eastwood's offer of sending her to college (his one attempt to affect her despair).
Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times that, "The characters in movies do not always do what we would do. That is their right. It is our right to disagree with them." He added, "What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" Ebert's right that freedom of expression and creative license are valuable things and every right-minded person should fight to preserve this right. But he's wrong if he thinks that films don't have a powerful influence on how we think about ourselves and the world.
Not an impartial artist
In this story, it is important to know that Eastwood isn't just any impartial artist in the area of disability. In fact, he has actively testified before the House Judiciary Committee against the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Eastwood is the owner of the Mission Ranch Inn in Carmel, Calif. A patron with disabilities had sued under the ADA claiming that the hotel restrooms were inaccessible and the only accessible guest room was more than double the price of other rooms in the hotel.
Eastwood was cited for some of these violations, although the major claims in the case were dismissed.
Angered by the ruling, Eastwood went to Congress to lobby for a bill that would have substantially weakened the ADA by requiring a 90-day notification of violations. At that time, Eastwood said that the ADA amounted to "a form of extortion."Although Eastwood didn't write the script, he did select it, act in it, direct and co-produce it. Is it surprising that "Million Dollar Baby" isn't particularly sympathetic to the views of people with disabilities? If a film were obviously anti-gay, or anti-women or anti-abortion -- would all the film critics rally around it and tell us what a great film it was?
So why do so many critics like this film? Could it be because they actually have very little knowledge or contact with people with disabilities, deaf people, blind people, quadriplegics -- except through the media? Many people, critics included, know very little about them or their issues. While it is rare to find a college student who isn't well versed in race, class, gender and sexuality -- few if any know about their fellow Americans with disabilities.Ironically, one of the ways that many people do actually know about this group is through movies. Think of all the films that have been made about people with disabilities: "The Miracle Worker," "Johnny Belinda," "My Left Foot," "Children of a Lesser God," "Rain Man," "Elephant Man," "A Beautiful Mind" and many more.
And this year's crop are close to garnering awards -- "Ray," "Aviator,"
"The Sea Inside" and "Million Dollar Baby." Come to think of it, if you want to be nominated for an award, you might just want to do a disability movie.
These films generally show us people with disabilities triumphing over their "handicap" or living the tragedy of the disease. Great themes for an uplifting feel-good film or a tearjerker. These films, for the most part, are made by abled people who are using the issue of disability to rally the forces of hope and pity. People with disabilities in film tend to be lionized or thrown to the lions. But they almost never are made or written by people with disabilities -- so the actual life experience of people who have walked the walk, tapped the cane, or wheeled the chair, isn't really reflected in many of these works.
F.X. Toole, who wrote the story on which "Million Dollar Baby" was based, had a heart condition throughout his life, his son said, and "had strong feelings about not wanting to live in a reduced state."
So-called normal people are fascinated and haunted by the person with a
disability, probably because, unlike any other identity, one can go from being a normal to a quadriplegic in a matter of seconds. Most white people aren't going to become black in their lifetimes, and most men (with a few exceptions) aren't going to become women in the near future -- but the shaky and uncertain position of being normal can easily convert by a simple medical report into a state of being disabled overnight. That's why most film viewers are so quick to either idolize or pity the disabled person (almost always played by a normal actor), and are so quick to acknowledge euthanasia as a quick fix to the as-yet unfixable condition of quadriplegia.
Inaccuracies portrayed
One of the areas of distress to people with disabilities is that "Million Dollar Baby" is so inaccurate and unnuanced about life with quadriplegia.
Eastwood wasn't interested in reality, like other normal filmmakers who make movies about the disabled, they are dealing in the grand myths and legends that surround the idea of disability rather than the reality of living with a disability.
It is true that "Million Dollar Baby" is only a film, but when it comes time for many people to make health decisions about themselves or a loved one's future, what experience or knowledge will they fall back on? Few people have personal experience with severe disabilities, and few will take the time to find out about what life is like living with deafness, blindness or disability. No, most people will fall back on what they know -- which is what they have garnered from novels, plays, films and television shows. So, it's only when such art forms begin to reflect the real lives of people with disabilities, will most folks get a better understanding of the 15 to 20 percent of Americans who live and cope daily with disabilities."
I need to do some research but I think I actually went to school with Jason Michener at Arizona State. He was already disabled, and already a fighter.
FIRE's Torch
FIRE's Torch:
"America's colleges and universities are, in theory, indispensable institutions in the development of critical minds and the furthering of individual rights, honest inquiry, and the core values of liberty, legal equality, and dignity. Instead, they often are the enemies of those qualities and pursuits, denying students and faculty their voices, their fundamental rights, and even their individual humanity. The university setting is where students are most subject to the assignment of group identity, to indoctrination of radical political orthodoxies, to legal inequality, to intrusion into private conscience, and to assaults upon the moral reality of individual rights and responsibilities. Illiberal university policies and practices must be exposed to public criticism and scrutiny so that the public is made aware of the violations of basic rights that occur every day on college campuses."
Check out this blog devoted to exposing the death of free speech on campus.
"America's colleges and universities are, in theory, indispensable institutions in the development of critical minds and the furthering of individual rights, honest inquiry, and the core values of liberty, legal equality, and dignity. Instead, they often are the enemies of those qualities and pursuits, denying students and faculty their voices, their fundamental rights, and even their individual humanity. The university setting is where students are most subject to the assignment of group identity, to indoctrination of radical political orthodoxies, to legal inequality, to intrusion into private conscience, and to assaults upon the moral reality of individual rights and responsibilities. Illiberal university policies and practices must be exposed to public criticism and scrutiny so that the public is made aware of the violations of basic rights that occur every day on college campuses."
Check out this blog devoted to exposing the death of free speech on campus.
Only Offensive?
Nelson Archer via Instapundit.com -:
This may explain why Micheal Moore, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, et al. have much critique and little alternative.
"Those whom the fall of the Berlin Wall had left orphans of a cause, spent the next decade plotting the containment of the US. It was a complex operation that involved the (in many cases state-sponsored) mushrooming of NGOs, Kyoto, the creation of the ICC, the salami tactics applied against America’s main strategic ally in the Middle-East, Israel, through the Trojan Horse of the Oslo agreements, the subversion of the sanctions against Iraq etc. I’m not as conspiratorially-minded as to think that all these efforts were in any way centralized or that they had some kind of master-plan behind them. It was above all the case of the spirit of the times converging, through many independent manifestations, towards a single goal. Nonetheless we can be sure that, after those manifestations reached a critical mass, there has been no lack of efforts to coordinate them.
And so, spontaneously up to a point, anti-Americanism became the alternative ideology that came to fill in the vacuum left by the failure of traditional, USSR-based communism and its Maoist or Trotskyite satellites. Before 1989, the global left had something to fight for: either the strengthening of the communist states or the correction of what they called their bureaucratic distortions. To fight for something is simultaneously to fight against whatever threatens it, and thus, the leftists were anti-Western and anti-Americans too, anti-capitalistic in short.
Now, whatever they wanted to defend or protect doesn’t exist anymore. They have only things to destroy, and all those things are personified in the US, in its very existence."
This may explain why Micheal Moore, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, et al. have much critique and little alternative.
Murder
Human remains found in house: "Kenneth Lee Allen, 29, and his sister, Kari A. Allen, 18, confessed to St. Charles County, Mo., investigators that they were involved in the deaths of their mother and two grandparents, authorities said."
I'm speechless.
I'm speechless.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Burt's Face
ThisisLondon: "Plastic surgeon Alex Karidis, who regularly treats celebrity clients at his central London practice, said: 'The problem with Burt is that his skin has suffered an awful lot of sun damage, which has made it look crepey and lined."
Either this is a misprint or there's a new adjective that is even worse than creepy: being compared to french food. Poor Burt Reynolds. It seems the beauty myth is not just for women any more.
Either this is a misprint or there's a new adjective that is even worse than creepy: being compared to french food. Poor Burt Reynolds. It seems the beauty myth is not just for women any more.
Monday, February 07, 2005
Linked
Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means: This might just be one of the most interesting, thought provoking books I've ever read. And I'm only half way through it.
Friday, February 04, 2005
Instapundit.com - Ward Churchill/Leftists in the Academy round up.
Instapundit.com - has a round up of left wing hatred for America and Jews found on your local Univeristy faculty.
I bet with a little effort and digging a round up like this could be posted every week.
I bet with a little effort and digging a round up like this could be posted every week.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
TIME: 25 Most Influential Evangelicals Photo Essay
TIME: 25 Most Influential Evangelicals Photo Essay: Provides an interesting secular take on Evangelicals.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Pursue 'safe and tried path' to success
From xelns:
Pursue 'safe and tried path' to success
Pursue 'safe and tried path' to success
"If you haven't been to a college campus lately, here's a quick primer on the current freshman/1st year class:
• 26 percent frequently talk about politics.
• 48 percent had 'A' averages in high school.
• 33 percent say the death penalty should be abolished.
• 23 percent say racial discrimination is no longer a problem in America (though at historically black colleges, that figure drops to 14 percent).
• 51 percent spent less than an hour per week reading for pleasure in their senior year of high school.
Each fall since 1965, first-year students at more than 400 four-year colleges and universities sit down to a massive survey developed by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. It asks about everything from their intended majors to their political and spiritual values.
The participants probably don't realize that they are throwing their mite into a treasure trove. For college administrators, the survey results can be a road map for future course offerings, financial aid, and counseling services. For social scientists, it's a chance to explore a nearly 40-year arc of shifting values.
From her vantage point as dean of first-year students at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, Voncile White says that students in recent years have become much more worried about choosing the "right major" and boosting their résumés with community service.
"I find them a lot more reluctant to explore something they haven't done before - they'd rather take a safe and tried path," Ms. White says. "We're engaged in a struggle to try to get them to become educated individuals rather than just people who know a lot of stuff."
Her observations follow some of the trend lines in "The American Freshman/1st year students" the annual report by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). Results were released Monday from the fall of 2004, the 39th year of the survey. The nearly 290,000 responses were statistically adjusted to reflect the nation's 1.3 million full-time freshmen.
For the past 25 years, there's been an increase in the percentage of students who place a high value on "being very well off financially," and a parallel decline in the importance of "developing a meaningful philosophy of life".
When the survey started in the 1960s, focus groups insisted that the "philosophy of life" choice be added to the list of important goals students could check off. "That was the most popular value," says Alexander Astin, founding director of HERI, who has been involved with the project from its inception. "Most of the decline occurred during the '80s - the Reagan era, the 'Me' era."
Other changes help explain students' concerns about their financial futures. With rising college costs, for instance, the portion of students who plan to work full time while in school has more than doubled since 1980, to 6.3 percent.
There was a slight uptick in favor of developing a meaningful philosophy of life, but researchers won't call it a reversal of the trend unless it continues for another year or two.
The overall pull of materialism in society is prompting many colleges to do more "to encourage exploration of the inner life," Mr. Astin says.
Some campuses are reviving Western Civilization and Great Books courses, which send the message "Know thyself," he says. The trend of service-learning also requires self-reflection. And many colleges now have "Freshmen 101" programs. "The best are an attempt to get the students to look at what the college is offering and to make sense out of it in terms of their own values and aspirations and hopes," Astin says.
A spinoff project on spirituality in higher education is also in the works at HERI, tracking students all the way through college to explore the interaction of academics, religion, spirituality, and other aspects of college life. A pilot study found that by junior year, church attendance drops off significantly, but more students place importance on integrating spirituality into their lives (58 percent of juniors, compared with 51 percent of freshmen).
When it comes to political engagement, first-year students don't come close to their 1960s counterparts, but one-third still say it's very important to keep up with political affairs.
Nearly half consider themselves "middle of the road" politically, but the numbers are growing on the far right (2.2 percent) and far left (3.4 percent). Those extremes saw the biggest single-year increase in the 35 years the question has been on the survey, perhaps because of the polarized presidential election season of 2004, says Linda Sax, a UCLA professor of education and director of the survey.
Some of the most noticeable changes over the life of the survey have been prompted by the women's movement, Astin says. Women and men are much more similar now than in the 1960s and '70s, in everything from their career interests to their values. One notable difference this year, however: More women (36 percent) than men (16 percent) say they frequently feel overwhelmed by all they have to do."
xelns: Pursue 'safe and tried path' to success
xelns: Pursue 'safe and tried path' to success
Pursue 'safe and tried path' to success
If you haven't been to a college campus lately, here's a quick primer on the current freshman/1st year class:
• 26 percent frequently talk about politics.
• 48 percent had 'A' averages in high school.
• 33 percent say the death penalty should be abolished.
• 23 percent say racial discrimination is no longer a problem in America (though at historically black colleges, that figure drops to 14 percent).
• 51 percent spent less than an hour per week reading for pleasure in their senior year of high school.
Each fall since 1965, first-year students at more than 400 four-year colleges and universities sit down to a massive survey developed by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. It asks about everything from their intended majors to their political and spiritual values.
The participants probably don't realize that they are throwing their mite into a treasure trove. For college administrators, the survey results can be a road map for future course offerings, financial aid, and counseling services. For social scientists, it's a chance to explore a nearly 40-year arc of shifting values.
From her vantage point as dean of first-year students at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, Voncile White says that students in recent years have become much more worried about choosing the "right major" and boosting their résumés with community service.
"I find them a lot more reluctant to explore something they haven't done before - they'd rather take a safe and tried path," Ms. White says. "We're engaged in a struggle to try to get them to become educated individuals rather than just people who know a lot of stuff."
Her observations follow some of the trend lines in "The American Freshman/1st year students" the annual report by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). Results were released Monday from the fall of 2004, the 39th year of the survey. The nearly 290,000 responses were statistically adjusted to reflect the nation's 1.3 million full-time freshmen.
For the past 25 years, there's been an increase in the percentage of students who place a high value on "being very well off financially," and a parallel decline in the importance of "developing a meaningful philosophy of life".
When the survey started in the 1960s, focus groups insisted that the "philosophy of life" choice be added to the list of important goals students could check off. "That was the most popular value," says Alexander Astin, founding director of HERI, who has been involved with the project from its inception. "Most of the decline occurred during the '80s - the Reagan era, the 'Me' era."
Other changes help explain students' concerns about their financial futures. With rising college costs, for instance, the portion of students who plan to work full time while in school has more than doubled since 1980, to 6.3 percent.
There was a slight uptick in favor of developing a meaningful philosophy of life, but researchers won't call it a reversal of the trend unless it continues for another year or two.
The overall pull of materialism in society is prompting many colleges to do more "to encourage exploration of the inner life," Mr. Astin says.
Some campuses are reviving Western Civilization and Great Books courses, which send the message "Know thyself," he says. The trend of service-learning also requires self-reflection. And many colleges now have "Freshmen 101" programs. "The best are an attempt to get the students to look at what the college is offering and to make sense out of it in terms of their own values and aspirations and hopes," Astin says.
A spinoff project on spirituality in higher education is also in the works at HERI, tracking students all the way through college to explore the interaction of academics, religion, spirituality, and other aspects of college life. A pilot study found that by junior year, church attendance drops off significantly, but more students place importance on integrating spirituality into their lives (58 percent of juniors, compared with 51 percent of freshmen).
When it comes to political engagement, first-year students don't come close to their 1960s counterparts, but one-third still say it's very important to keep up with political affairs.
Nearly half consider themselves "middle of the road" politically, but the numbers are growing on the far right (2.2 percent) and far left (3.4 percent). Those extremes saw the biggest single-year increase in the 35 years the question has been on the survey, perhaps because of the polarized presidential election season of 2004, says Linda Sax, a UCLA professor of education and director of the survey.
Some of the most noticeable changes over the life of the survey have been prompted by the women's movement, Astin says. Women and men are much more similar now than in the 1960s and '70s, in everything from their career interests to their values. One notable difference this year, however: More women (36 percent) than men (16 percent) say they frequently feel overwhelmed by all they have to do.
Pursue 'safe and tried path' to success
If you haven't been to a college campus lately, here's a quick primer on the current freshman/1st year class:
• 26 percent frequently talk about politics.
• 48 percent had 'A' averages in high school.
• 33 percent say the death penalty should be abolished.
• 23 percent say racial discrimination is no longer a problem in America (though at historically black colleges, that figure drops to 14 percent).
• 51 percent spent less than an hour per week reading for pleasure in their senior year of high school.
Each fall since 1965, first-year students at more than 400 four-year colleges and universities sit down to a massive survey developed by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles. It asks about everything from their intended majors to their political and spiritual values.
The participants probably don't realize that they are throwing their mite into a treasure trove. For college administrators, the survey results can be a road map for future course offerings, financial aid, and counseling services. For social scientists, it's a chance to explore a nearly 40-year arc of shifting values.
From her vantage point as dean of first-year students at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, Voncile White says that students in recent years have become much more worried about choosing the "right major" and boosting their résumés with community service.
"I find them a lot more reluctant to explore something they haven't done before - they'd rather take a safe and tried path," Ms. White says. "We're engaged in a struggle to try to get them to become educated individuals rather than just people who know a lot of stuff."
Her observations follow some of the trend lines in "The American Freshman/1st year students" the annual report by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). Results were released Monday from the fall of 2004, the 39th year of the survey. The nearly 290,000 responses were statistically adjusted to reflect the nation's 1.3 million full-time freshmen.
For the past 25 years, there's been an increase in the percentage of students who place a high value on "being very well off financially," and a parallel decline in the importance of "developing a meaningful philosophy of life".
When the survey started in the 1960s, focus groups insisted that the "philosophy of life" choice be added to the list of important goals students could check off. "That was the most popular value," says Alexander Astin, founding director of HERI, who has been involved with the project from its inception. "Most of the decline occurred during the '80s - the Reagan era, the 'Me' era."
Other changes help explain students' concerns about their financial futures. With rising college costs, for instance, the portion of students who plan to work full time while in school has more than doubled since 1980, to 6.3 percent.
There was a slight uptick in favor of developing a meaningful philosophy of life, but researchers won't call it a reversal of the trend unless it continues for another year or two.
The overall pull of materialism in society is prompting many colleges to do more "to encourage exploration of the inner life," Mr. Astin says.
Some campuses are reviving Western Civilization and Great Books courses, which send the message "Know thyself," he says. The trend of service-learning also requires self-reflection. And many colleges now have "Freshmen 101" programs. "The best are an attempt to get the students to look at what the college is offering and to make sense out of it in terms of their own values and aspirations and hopes," Astin says.
A spinoff project on spirituality in higher education is also in the works at HERI, tracking students all the way through college to explore the interaction of academics, religion, spirituality, and other aspects of college life. A pilot study found that by junior year, church attendance drops off significantly, but more students place importance on integrating spirituality into their lives (58 percent of juniors, compared with 51 percent of freshmen).
When it comes to political engagement, first-year students don't come close to their 1960s counterparts, but one-third still say it's very important to keep up with political affairs.
Nearly half consider themselves "middle of the road" politically, but the numbers are growing on the far right (2.2 percent) and far left (3.4 percent). Those extremes saw the biggest single-year increase in the 35 years the question has been on the survey, perhaps because of the polarized presidential election season of 2004, says Linda Sax, a UCLA professor of education and director of the survey.
Some of the most noticeable changes over the life of the survey have been prompted by the women's movement, Astin says. Women and men are much more similar now than in the 1960s and '70s, in everything from their career interests to their values. One notable difference this year, however: More women (36 percent) than men (16 percent) say they frequently feel overwhelmed by all they have to do.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
normblog: Sunday, Sunday
normblog: Sunday, Sunday: "Indeed. But there is joy and there is illusion, and the two don't have to be shackled together. Liberals, democrats, people on the left, who could not yesterday, and cannot today, find it in themselves to rejoice about what Iraqis, in their millions and after all they've been through, bravely did... how miserable, what unfortunates. Just think how many of these same people would have been overjoyed had, say, George Bush lost last November to John Kerry. Would they have foregone immediate expressions of that joy for cautious, hard-headed analysis of the upcoming Kerry presidency? Would they hell. They would have been whooping it up from New York to San Francisco, from Auckland and Sydney to Berlin. The analysis, in that event, would have waited until tomorrow or the day after, or else been allowed to stand side by side with fulsome sentiments of celebration. But for the people of Iraq, different rules.
No, the truth, the thing that so many cannot digest or stomach, is that the road to what happened yesterday was opened by a Republican US president whom they despise and a New Labour prime minister whom they hold in only slightly higher regard than that, while they themselves were marching and otherwise disporting themselves in a way that would have closed off that road for who knows how long. Well, if you could not take pleasure from what happened in Iraq yesterday, I extend my commiserations. For Iraqis and a lot of other people who felt able to share in their celebration it was a very good day."
No, the truth, the thing that so many cannot digest or stomach, is that the road to what happened yesterday was opened by a Republican US president whom they despise and a New Labour prime minister whom they hold in only slightly higher regard than that, while they themselves were marching and otherwise disporting themselves in a way that would have closed off that road for who knows how long. Well, if you could not take pleasure from what happened in Iraq yesterday, I extend my commiserations. For Iraqis and a lot of other people who felt able to share in their celebration it was a very good day."
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