fishing

this should get a response

YHWH

Since it is the season of lent, we said the decalogue during the liturgy this morning. The third commandment is translated like this: "Thou shalt not invoke with malice the name of the Lord thy God." (The answer, of course, is "Amen. Lord have mercy.") Now, my fundigelical upbringing ingrained it into my head that the third commandment (always given as not taking the Lord's name in vain) means essentially "don't curse, don't use profanity" (or, since I was raised in west Texas, "don't cuss" would be more verbatim). Invoking God's name with malice sounds like something quite different. It sounds more like, "We need to make sure that homosexuals can't get married in this country because God said marriage is a man and a woman." It sounds, in short, like using God's name as an excuse to follow your malicious heart and not welcome your neighbor. Less an arbitrary restriction of personal piety and more the royal law of love that commands love your enemy, welcome the alien, I have washed your feet (next Thursday) go and do likewise. Just a thought, but a hospitable thought.

The Importance of State's Rights

You might recall that last year an international group of astronomers concluded that our solar system does not have nine planets as was previously thought, but eight, plus a whole bunch of sub-planetary detrius floating around. This was particularly bad news for the space-object-formerly-known-as-Pluto (SOFKAP), which was reclassified by this body of astronomers as nothing more than a big rock and is no longer considered a planet. My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas, indeed!

For concerned fans of the planet Pluto, it seemed that nothing could be done to save the little fellow from demotion. Science had spoken. All was lost.

Until now. The state of New Mexico, in a courageous assertion of state's rights, has decided to thwart scientific opinion by recognizing Pluto as a planet while SOFKAP is in its jurisdiction. Forget gay marriage-- if the New Mexican legislature has its way, the SOFKAP scandal will become the biggest issue in state's rights for a long time to come. As the Las Cruces Sun-News reports, "Under a measure approved by the House on Tuesday, Pluto will regain its status as a planet as it passes through New Mexico skies. The joint memorial also declared March 13 as "Pluto Planet Day."" That's right, whenever SOFKAP, the little planet that could, finds itself over the New Mexican skies, it can hold its head up high, a planet once again. And I, for one, am glad that New Mexico has taken a position on this issue. When will other states, or even the federal government, stop wasting time with absolutely pointless legislation and get on with the important work of governing? Thanks to New Mexico, planets of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Bravo!

Living on a Prayer

So I'm watching George Mason play in the Colonial Athletic Association basketball final. If they win, GMU gets to dance again. It's fun being a student at a D1 school. As for further school, I still don't know if I get to go on for more school. Hopefully, I will know soon.

Happy Birthday, Steve!

Happy Birthday, Stephen!

As you creep ever closer to your late twenties, keep in mind some of the people who died at twenty-seven (Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain) and get everything you can out of twenty-six. Suck life from the marrow bones.

Sake wa doko desko.


and then there's this...

Believing Scripture but Playing by Science's Rules

Today’s New York Times has an interesting article about Marcus Ross, a paleontologist who earned his degree at the University of Rhode Island, Believing Scripture but Playing by Science’s Rules. There’s nothing particularly interesting about his dissertation (at least to me), but what is generating some controversy is his methodology—you see, he wrote a perfectly normal thesis about paleontology, separated from his religious beliefs. Or, as the NYT tagline puts it: “As a paleontologist and a creationist, Marcus R. Ross has produced academic work that contradicts his own beliefs.” I wonder if this article raises any thoughts for us about the ethics of positioning ourselves in academic discourses, of “passing,” to borrow a term from critical race studies, in order to get degrees, jobs, grants, promotions, etc. when we know that full disclosure (i.e. “I graduated from Wheaton College”) would be, as they say, the kiss of death.

Some excerpts:

“Dr. Ross is hardly a conventional paleontologist. He is a “young earth creationist” — he believes that the Bible is a literally true account of the creation of the universe, and that the earth is at most 10,000 years old.

“For him, Dr. Ross said, the methods and theories of paleontology are one “paradigm” for studying the past, and Scripture is another. In the paleontological paradigm, he said, the dates in his dissertation are entirely appropriate. The fact that as a young earth creationist he has a different view just means, he said, “that I am separating the different paradigms.”

“He likened his situation to that of a socialist studying economics in a department with a supply-side bent. “People hold all sorts of opinions different from the department in which they graduate,” he said. “What’s that to anybody else?””

from Tyler

Hey, who wants to go canoeing?

The coolest thing EVER!

You must see this skateboarding bulldog! I'll never be half this cool.

Traber611 Online is dead! Long live Traber611 Online!

Wow. This new format looks great. It's almost as good looking as... oh, never mind. You guys wouldn't want to hear about that sort of thing.

Aeijtzsche Update

Well, Coye sort of asked how I was doing in another thread, so I thought I'd do an official update.

As many of you may or may not know/remember, last April I moved from Grand Rapids to Los Angeles to start working with a small company that handled the Beach Boys archival library. All was well for a time, and getting to know the culture of LA has been fun. What kind of place is this? It's like another country in some ways, or perhaps another universe. For instance, the phrase "no, you can't bring your dog in here" is not understood by naitive Angelinos. A mile in the rest of the country is equal to roughly 2.7 miles here when using powered transportation. People don't understand the concept of "snow".

On the other hand, LA is a place like any other, with lots of completely regular people and such.

It ended up being kind of a tough experience for me in the end now, about a month before Christmas, it became apparent that the company I was working for was about to break up. And, just after the new year, the company formally split up and became a non-entity, and I essentially lost my job, though I still am on call for the occasional errand from my former bosses.

All of that kind of took the wind out of my sails. I don't really feel like living here anymore. I like the area a lot in terms of geography and weather and interest, but I just don't want to be here right now.

I sold some guitars and am living off of the money from those sales. Contemplating my next move. As much as I dislike academia (sorry, Dr. everybody) I'm pretty close to trying to get some degrees and some qualifications. One problem with that is I still don't really have any idea what I want to do with my life, making any sort of specific pursuit difficult to choose.

Anyway, I think I may return to Grand Rapids for a while, do some music-related recording, and whatnot. We'll see.

Any of you DC guys know somebody in the FBI? I wouldn't mind being an elite special agent if somebody could hook that up.

Peace out.

Wilfred Owen

The Parable of the Old Man and the Young

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?
Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
And builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an Angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.
But the old man would not so, but slew his son...

The DC Informant

Sometimes, people seem to forget that there is a T6 enclave here in DC (among all of the talk of reestablishing a physical T6 community). I'm going to take the liberty of providing a post Morehouse wedding update since they haven't been active bloggers. We (Luke, Brett, DeGroot and myself) were all together last night along with DeGroot's girlfriend for Emily Tangen's birthday dinner at a Moroccan restaurant. Luke, Brett, and Dave all see each other on a very regular basis since they all share an apartment. The hang out of choice is Mario Kart for the GameCube at their place, but Luke and Dave are also big into going to a local soccer bar on weekends and do not discourage Brett and me from joining them. Unfortunately, Dave can't do the athletic stuff much these days, because he is in need of knee surgery and will be out of commission for a couple of weeks after the surgery. Please keep him in your prayers.

It looks like I will be the one most likely to depart from the T6 fellowship first. Brett was considering applying to law school, but he decided not to because working to save his boss's job ate considerably into his LSAT study time. I'm currently waiting to hear back from econ Ph.D. programs after applying to 8 of them. None of the schools are in the DC area. I've been asked a few times if I could go anywhere, where would I go, but I'm trying to avoid answering that question until I really know my choices. Plus, if all continues to be going well, I'm hopeful to be taking someone else's opinion into consideration besides my own. Yes, if any of you are thinking it and don't already know it, I have a girlfriend, who I think is very special. I like talking about her, but if anyone wants to hear more, I'd prefer to fill you in further some way other than the blog. I will say one more thing though that when I went out to Chicago to visit her for a post Christmas vacation I got to see Brad Kaspar. It was very encouraging to hear how his missions work in the Czech Republic is going.

Congratulations!!

AAAHHHH!!! Hearty congratulations to our collegue and friend Coye, who passed his qualifying exam yesterday (no doubt with the flyingest of colours!!!)!!! Although both his and Andy's intelligence pale in comparison to my staggering cognitive faculties (after all, the whole concept of instutionalized hazing...er, qualifying examinations... was my doing!!!), his success is yet worthy of high accolades and much praise.

William Butler Yeats

"Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy, kind delight.
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost."

Games, boys. Games.

New Website Up

Finally.

www.davidnathanaeljones.com

I hear you Strauss

I won't switch over until everyone has been given the option to switch on their dashboard. Please let comment here and let me know when you have the ability to switch. Once I have Andy, Strauss, Coye, Stephen, Ryan, Adam, and--of course--TEFKAMS (i.e. the folks who post semi-regularly) I'll make the switch with my account.

dave

Today's Second Lesson

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

librarything

Anyone else have their library organized on librarything? I am still in the process of completing mine. I will post the link soon.

Switching to Blogger Beta

My account wizard informs me that I can now switch my blogs over to bloggerBeta. After I research to make sure that group-blogs will still work the same way, I'm going to do it. We're going 2.0 baby! Consider yourselves told.

-The Managment

TWO YEARS!!! and Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everybody... almost. I hope you're all having a blessed advent, anyways. My life at the moment is better than it's been for... well, let's just say I can't really remember things being quite this good. My first year on T6 is, of course, a close second. Maybe a distant second. Medium range? Anyhow, I'm sitting in my appartment, supposedly writing my last paper of the semester (Joseph Conrad, ethics, aesthetics, dangerous books, etc... damn fine work, if I say so myself), and I decided to take a "break" from "writing" and check the old blog. I realized that it's been two years since Dave stuck that first, hopeful post out into the cold vacuum of electronic space. One small step for Dave, we might say. Thanks, Dave. I love this place; I love you guys. I haven't been around much for a the last couple of months, but I hope to show up a little more in the spring. It's great to know that I can find you guys, your lives and your crazy schemes whenever I want to... so thanks everyone who has kept this thing moving along for two, count 'em TWO, trips around the sun. So, I should get back to work, but Merry Christmas, everyone, and a very special Merry Christmas to Dusty, as always.
Peace

Commune musings

Rachel and I were on a road trip to Phoenix a few weeks ago and got into a brainstorming session about the commune-in-planning. Here's a few notes for discussion about what it might actually LOOK like, in no particular order...

- We should be thinking about doing this in phases, something that's already been discussed a little bit. It might be something along these lines... Phase 1) Getting into the same time zone or zip code with outside employment. Phase 2) Intentionally spending more time together in fellowship. Phase 3) Evaluate our gifts and skills; begin to find ways to be co-dependant and supportive of each other. Phase 4) Develop a plan for outward ministry... Etc.

- We may want to have a sort of formal "steering committee", one that would provide initial leadership and help choose a church and community.

- We may want to commit to each attending the same church (of course, not an easy proposition due to variety of faith backgrounds). This would reinforce our internal community, and that relationship would also support the church. Having everyone at different churches might drain our ability to minister to each other if we are also being involved in the local church body.

- Understand that WE would not be a church to ourselves. We don't have the church-planting experience, and I think that we would still need to be a part of a larger body of Christ for accountability and support. It would also be a lot to bite off if we tried to make this community living thing work and start a church at the same time.

- Seek out remote or on-site community advisors (elder mentors) in order to have wisdom from older generation.

- For participation in this community, have a clear agreement on what is expected as well as how and why someone may have to leave. Participation is based on willingness to sacrifice some of your own preferences and comfort for the sake of the body, not based on an enforced commitment.

- At a later phase of the community, we'd have to have an idea of whether there would be financial sharing. This brings up possibility of establishing a formal non-profit status.

- We were thinking that it would be helpful to have some sort of leadership group at a minimum, with input from all adults of the community. Think of maybe a rotating headship, with a president-sort of position to handle day-to-day admin decisions. That position would be part of a committee with the last pres and next pres in order to preserve continuity.

Anybody have comments or other thoughts?

Technology Updates

1. Blogger Beta: too bad we're not able to switch over yet. Tags are nice.
2. Google personized home page: super cool, especially with well ordered tabs
3. Google Notebook: super cool, useful for research
4. Google spreadsheets, docs, calendar, email: googleGooglegoogle
5. YouTube.com

No Links because I'm bored and you're smart enough.

Ok, that's all. You can go back to work now.

Voting Data from the Onion

It turns out, there were plenty of good reasons not to vote this year!! AAHHHH!! I voted 17 times!!!! Vote early, vote often...that's my motto!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Foreshadowing of Dave’s Retirement Years, or, Sarah’s Nightmare

Mr. and Mrs. Fenton are retired, and Mrs. Fenton insists her husband go with her to Wal-mart, but he gets bored with all the shopping trips. He prefers to get in and get out, but Mrs. Fenton loves to browse. Here's a letter sent to Mrs. Fenton:

Dear Mrs. Fenton,

Over the past six months, your husband has been causing quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and may ban both of you from our stores. We have documented all incidents on our video surveillance equipment. All complaints against Mr. Fenton are listed below.

Things Mr. Bill Fenton has done while his spouse was shopping in Wal-mart:

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in people's carts when they weren't looking.
2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.
3. July 7: Made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the restrooms.
4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official one, 'Code 3' in housewares..... and watched what happened.
5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and asked to put a bag of M&M's on layaway.
6. September 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.
7. September 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told other shoppers he'd invite them in if they'll bring pillows from the bedding department.
8. September 23: When a clerk asks if they can help him, he begins to cry and asks, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?'
9. October 4: Looked right into the security camera; used it as a mirror, and picked his nose.
10. November 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, asked the clerk if he knows where the antidepressants are.
11. December 3: Darted around the store suspiciously loudly humming the "Mission Impossible" theme.
12. December 6: In the auto department, practiced his "Madonna look" using different size funnels.
13. December 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browse through, yelled "PICK ME!" "PICK ME!"
14. December 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumes the fetal position and screams "NO ! NO! It's those voices again!!!!"
December 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, then yelled very loudly, "There is no toilet paper in here!"

Another Student Story

A long time ago I started a series on funny student stories, and even though it’s been awhile, my experiences of the last 24 hours have made it necessary to resurrect this series for your amusement. Our story begins three weeks ago, when, out of the kindness of my heart, I elected to make an extra credit opportunity available to the students in my professional writing class. I distain waste-of-time extra credit assignments (and extra credit in general—but until you have tenure, you are a slave to student evaluations and must give the little people what they want to some extent), so when I do offer such opportunities, I try to design the assignment in such a way that the student will 1) have to do a fair bit of work, and 2) will learn something in spite of themselves. In this case, I had them find any piece of professional communication and write me a 500-word report analyzing the design of the document. But that’s not the amusing part. Not even close.

This week I reminded them that the deadline was Thursday, and that I would accept the extra credit during our class period (in the morning) or during my office hours (from 10:00-11:30). After 11:30 on Thursday, they were out of luck. Seems pretty clear, right?

So, at 10:00, right at the beginning of my office hours, I get an email from one of my lower-performing students. We’ll call him Stan. Stan writes:

Could you tell me where you hold your office hours. I cannot find TR anywhere on the campus map. Please be very specific.

Now, as Katie pointed out, the very fact that he has no idea where I hold office hours at this late date in the semester speaks volumes. More amusing, however, is the fact that TR is a common abbreviation on this campus for Tuesday/Thursday, with which he must be familiar because our class has met on TR every week of the semester. I should also point out that the very top of my syllabus contains this very clear notice: “Office Hours: TR 10:00-11:30: Art Museum Angles Café and by appointment.” Unfortunately for Stan, I was meeting with groups of students during my office hours and not checking my email. So I reply at 11:30:

Hi Stan,

TR refers to the days of the week (Tuesday and Thursday). My office hours are held in the Art Museum Angles Cafe (the building with the large orange circle in front of it, across from Woodburn Hall).

Stan replies a few minutes later:

Thank you, but your office hours are now over. It would be great if you could wait for me there or let me know where you will be next. I will be checking my email about every thirty seconds. Please respond as soon as possible.

So, feeling bad for this student who has ostensibly been wandering the campus looking for the mysterious “TR” building, I cut him some slack and tell him I’ll stick around until noon to wait for him. But after that, I have meetings and my own work to do, so I’m leaving (I said this much more politely, of course). Stan doesn’t show up, so I eat lunch and head off to the library.

At 1:30, I receive yet another message from Stan:

Wow, I feel like such an idiot. First I try to meet you at the Tuesday Thursday building and now I've been freaking out for the past hour because I sent my last email to the wrong address. Please respond as quickly as possible. I will do anything within my power to get this assignment to you.

He also forwarded that misdirected email for my reading pleasure:

I arrived at the art museum as quickly as I could. My cell phone read 12:08 upon my arrival at the cafe. I realize that you try to stress the importance of punctuality. However, I am going to need more than fourteen minutes to make it from my apartment on East 20th Street to the other side of campus. I do not know how I could have made it to the art museum any sooner. I am sorry if I am inconveniencing you in any way. Please let me know as soon as possible where I can meet you to turn in my extra credit.

That is actually my favorite of the messages, for the way he implies that it is my fault that he waited until the last possible moment to submit his extra credit (how could I be so inconsiderate?). I am also at this point amazed at the level of effort he is putting into submitting this extra credit assignment, which is worth a mere 1 or 2 percent of his grade. If he had put half of this effort into doing his actual work for the class, he would be an A student. But I digress.

For me, the matter is closed. I gave the students 3 weeks to submit the assignment, I made the logistics of submission crystal clear, and I even waited around an extra half hour for Stan. For Stan, however, the game is not yet lost. Apparently, he tried to look up my address (information that is not available to him from the University), and found a listing for me at the apartment complex where I lived more than 2 years ago. I know this because I received an email from the apartment manager around 5:00:

Andrew-

Stan just dropped off some items for you, thinking you still lived at Meadow Park Apartments. We did not catch it until after he had left. He tried to call you but got no answer. Please call him or us as soon as possible so one of you can pick up the items.

Katie and I arrive home at 5:30, and find 5 messages on our answering machine. Who could they be from? You guessed it: my best pal Stan. Now, if I wanted my students to call me at home, I would put my phone number on the syllabus. If I wanted my students to show up at my home (or former home) unannounced, I would put my home address on my syllabus. I do neither, and am starting to get annoyed with Stan. Sometimes, you just need to let it go.

This, however, is not in Stan’s nature. Around 7:30, Katie and I are at home when an extremely loud truck drives up our street and seems to stop in front of our house. It’s dark, and we don’t know who it is. But we have an idea. We are also starting to question the mental stability of Stan (how much do I really know about this guy who shows up late to most of my classes and sits quietly? Is he just a well-meaning, but misguided, kid? A serial killer? An insurance salesman?), and don’t really want to have an evening conversation with him about his late assignment. He knocks on the door. We’re upstairs, so there’s no way he can know that we’re home. We don’t go to the door. He rings the doorbell. We elect to stay put and let him solve his own problem—outside of our house. Then he walks back to his car. The phone starts ringing. It’s Stan. We don’t answer. Stan leaves a message on the answering machine letting me know that he thinks he found my current address and is leaving his assignment in my mailbox. Crazy. Then he drives away.

My advice for Stan: instead of investing several hours and driving all over town for the possibility of a 1 or 2 percent increase in your grade, pour all of that effort into the regular work for the semester, and you’ll no longer be a D student. And don't be so creepy. Teachers don't respond well to stalking. Just a thought.

Alive... if you want to call it a life

I know this will come as a dissappointment to some of you, but, yes, I am still alive (sorry, Ryan). I don't want to subject anyone to a rant/moan/pity-party about how busy I am, so I just won't mention what exactly life is like at the moment. It's good, though. I'm sorry that I missed all you guys at Adam's wedding. Come to find out, Katie has a restraining order out on me (or, to be exact, Andy has an order out restraining me from being anywhere near Katie). Ok, so maybe that isn't exactly true, but it makes a better story than my real excuse.

I don't have much time to post today. I just wanted to jump on, say hello, laugh a satisfied chuckle about the Republicans loosing both houses of congress, tell everyone that I look forward to the days when I can post at least as regularly as TEFKAMS, and then sign off.

By the way, I took the personality test, and it said I was an SOB. Does anybody have any idea what that means? I'm stumped.

Wedding Photos Forthcoming

Are there wedding photos out there yet? I didn't bring a camera.

Personality Questions

Just for fun, and because I had never done it before and had always wondered just what sort of person I am (you’d think by this point in my life that I’d have some idea, but then again, who knows? Maybe I would be more fulfilled as a rock star or a maker of scrimshaw art for tourists. Or maybe I just need to nail down my dissertation topic. Any suggestions?), I took this online version of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test. As with most people, the test largely confirmed some things I already knew about myself, but came with a few surprises. It turns out that I am an INTJ, otherwise classified as a pragmatist or mastermind (sounds impressive, doesn’t it?) It also appears that my personality type is fairly rare, shared by only 2% of the population.

According to the article to which the test results link, “INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. What prevents them from becoming chronically bogged down in this pursuit of perfection is the pragmatism so characteristic of the type: INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "Does it work?" to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake.” Some of that is true of me, I think—actually I think the pragmatism toward which I tend is part of the problem that Dave and I have been talking about recently. The short version is this: I can see and appreciate the pragmatics of teaching college students to think clearly and write effectively. This activity involves an obvious social good, both to the students and to the professional and social communities they will eventually join. Therefore, I have no trouble seeing myself doing it for the next 20 or 30 years. I am having a more difficult time understanding the pragmatics of doing research in literature (though Dave’s advice and encouragement has been helpful). Particularly, I want to know how best to use the abilities I have to serve the church and participate meaningfully in the society to which God has called me. Is writing articles that will be read by an average of 2 people the best way to accomplish these things? Is spending hundreds and hundreds of hours writing a dissertation (again, read by few, if any, people not on my committee)? Maybe. Stanley Fish, for example, has said recently in his NYT Blog (and in contrast, though not direct contradiction, to my efforts to find value in my work) that the whole point of academic work is that it cannot, and should not, be justified in anyone else’s terms:

If the point of liberal arts education is what I say it is – to lay out the history and structure of political and ethical dilemmas without saying yes or no to any of the proposed courses of action – what is the yield that justifies the enormous expenditure of funds and energies? Beats me! I don’t think that the liberal arts can be justified and, furthermore, I believe that the demand for justification should be resisted because it is always the demand that you account for what you do in someone else’s terms, be they the terms of the state, or of the economy, or of the project of democracy. “Tell me, why should I as a businessman or a governor or a preacher of the Word, value what you do?” There is no answer to this question that does not involve preferring the values of the person who asks it to yours. The moment you acquiesce to the demand for justification, you have lost the game, because even if you succeed, what you will have done is acknowledge that your efforts are instrumental to some external purpose; and if you fail, as is more likely, you leave yourself open to the conclusion that what you do is really not needed. The spectacle of departments of French or Byzantine Studies or Classics attempting to demonstrate that the state or society or the world order benefits from their existence is embarrassing and pathetic. These and other programs are in decline not because they have failed to justify themselves, but because they have tried to.

Interesting to think about… though it doesn't solve the problem, exactly, of justifying it to myself. But I'll save that for another day.

Anyway, since we seem to be too busy to post much these days, why not spend five minutes taking the online knock-off of the Myers Briggs? We could learn something about each other, and what’s easier to talk about than yourself?

Other highlights from my new-found “Mastermind” self:

“INTJs are known as the "Systems Builders" of the types, perhaps in part because they possess the unusual trait combination of imagination and reliability. Whatever system an INTJ happens to be working on is for them the equivalent of a moral cause to an INFJ; both perfectionism and disregard for authority may come into play, as INTJs can be unsparing of both themselves and the others on the project. Anyone considered to be "slacking," including superiors, will lose their respect…” [Hmmm… reminds me of that song Steve wrote about my Kodon experience]

“Probably the strongest INTJ assets in the interpersonal area are their intuitive abilities and their willingness to "work at" a relationship.”

Other Famous INTJs

Jane Austen
Peter Jennings
C. S. Lewis
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Rudy Giuliani
Donald Rumsfeld
Colin Powell
Lance Armstrong
John F. Kennedy

Fictional INTJs

Gandalf the Grey
Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs) [hmmm… is this a good sign?]
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Hamlet)

Glossolalia and the Brain

The New York Times published this interesting summary article today on a study published in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. In the study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania took brain scans of several women while they participated in religious activities like singing hymns and speaking in tongues. According to the article, the researchers found “that their frontal lobes — the thinking, willful part of the brain through which people control what they do — were relatively quiet," while they spoke in tongues, "as were the language centers. The regions involved in maintaining self-consciousness were active. The women were not in blind trances, and it was unclear which region was driving the behavior.” In other words, the glossolalia does not come from the area of the brain that typically controls linguistic activity—it comes from somewhere else. Interesting.

Whats does a T6 ECLAD look like?

T stands for tons of fun... S stands for sleep next door. What should a T6 ECLAD look like? Share your vision. If it involves seizing every single government position in the local government, I'm not coming. (Note this is not for place discussions. Logemann has establisted that post already.)

T6 ECLAD in North Carolina

This post is mostly for my friend Steve, who is convinced of (but has little data to support) the idea that North Carolina is a bad state for single people, and thus would make a poor site for the hypothetical T6 Experiment in Communal Living and Discipleship (or T6 ECLAD, for short). “The Triangle” area of North Carolina (comprised of the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) boasts the many elements vital to the T6 economy: major research universities for the academics like UNC, Duke and NC State; high tech (and high-paying, no doubt) companies for those more practically inclined (for example, those with *ahem* computer science degrees, perhaps?) including Cisco, DuPont, Freescale Semiconductor, GE, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, Sony Ericsson, and Verizon, among numerous others; several NPR stations; throngs of smart, interesting and available young women (some probably even with southern accents); and inexpensive real estate. You can read a little more (but really not much more) in this Wikipedia article.

Also of interest, the Triangle's population is the most educated in the United States, with the highest number of Ph.D.s per capita. Sounds like an interesting place to me... how about you?

A Link

The following information will be presented in the form of a cheezy radio commercial.

[Cheezy radio commercial music- dee de deee dip daaa!]
"Hi Marshall!"
"Oh, Hi Jenny; wow, you look excited!"
"Well, I just found out about this exciting new website called Library Thing!"
"Library Thing? What's Library Thing?"
"Library Thing is a wonderful online application that allows serious book-owners like me to enter my whole library to my own online database—it's an easy, library-quality catalog!"
"Wow, that does sound exciting, tell me more!!!"
"I'd be glad to, LibraryThing also connects you with people who read the same things; I've already met over FIFTY PEOPLE who love differnt books that I love!"
"Wow! . . .wow wow wow wow WOW!"
"I know! And signing up is easy! Just go to http://web1.librarything.com/ to start your account today!"
"Wow! That's great, I will."
"Hurray!"

[Da dee Daa [pause] Library Thing!]

Goodbye Denny

Resign, Mr. Speaker
TODAY'S EDITORIALOctober 3, 2006
The facts of the disgrace of Mark Foley, who was a Republican member of the House from a Florida district until he resigned last week, constitute a disgrace for every Republican member of Congress. Red flags emerged in late 2005, perhaps even earlier, in suggestive and wholly inappropriate e-mail messages to underage congressional pages. His aberrant, predatory -- and possibly criminal -- behavior was an open secret among the pages who were his prey. The evidence was strong enough long enough ago that the speaker should have relieved Mr. Foley of his committee responsibilities contingent on a full investigation to learn what had taken place, whether any laws had been violated and what action, up to and including prosecution, were warranted by the facts. This never happened. Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois, the Republican chairman of the House Page Board, said he learned about the Foley e-mail messages "in late 2005." Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the leader of the Republican majority, said he was informed of the e-mail messages earlier this year. On Friday, Mr. Hastert dissembled, to put it charitably, before conceding that he, too, learned about the e-mail messages sometime earlier this year. Late yesterday afternoon, Mr. Hastert insisted that he learned of the most flagrant instant-message exchange from 2003 only last Friday, when it was reported by ABC News. This is irrelevant. The original e-mail messages were warning enough that a predator -- and, incredibly, the co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children -- could be prowling the halls of Congress. The matter wasn't pursued aggressively. It was barely pursued at all. Moreover, all available evidence suggests that the Republican leadership did not share anything related to this matter with any Democrat. Now the scandal must unfold on the front pages of the newspapers and on the television screens, as transcripts of lewd messages emerge and doubts are rightly raised about the forthrightness of the Republican stewards of the 109th Congress. Some Democrats are attempting to make this "a Republican scandal," and they shouldn't; Democrats have contributed more than their share of characters in the tawdry history of congressional sexual scandals. Sexual predators come in all shapes, sizes and partisan hues, in institutions within and without government. When predators are found they must be dealt with, forcefully and swiftly. This time the offender is a Republican, and Republicans can't simply "get ahead" of the scandal by competing to make the most noise in calls for a full investigation. The time for that is long past. House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance. A special, one-day congressional session should elect a successor. We nominate Rep. Henry Hyde, also of Illinois, the chairman of the House International Relations Committee whose approaching retirement ensures that he has no dog in this fight. He has a long and principled career, and is respected on both sides of the aisle. Mr. Hyde would preside over the remaining three months of the 109th Congress in a manner best suited for a full and exhaustive investigation until a new speaker for the 110th Congress is elected in January, who can assume responsibility for the investigation.

bored of brad's gorgeous photos

It's been so long since any sort of post I just thought I'd add some comic relief. Rachel and I had this done in Tombstone, AZ, about 90 years ago... I mean, a month ago. Comments? Let a new debate arise!

Brad Kaspar's Vacation

For those of you who know him, the photos from his vacation are incredible. No passwords needed.

http://gregstrock.typepad.com/photos/hiking_in_the_alps

If you ever want to email him, I can send you his email address.

Hunter Adam Plano Plano Yoda

Steve, still gallavanting around the US? Can we have a report on your stay in America?

I have nothing to report.

Is there word yet on a date and place for the wedding, Adam?

Discourse

"This nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation." Controlling the terms of discourse controls the conversation. It takes control in advance of what will be said because it determines what can be said. Such control takes place in various ways under various names (ideology, hegemony, etc), and it takes its power from going unnoticed: it appears to be natural, the only way a topic can be discussed. Take, for example, our President's speech yesterday in Wisconsin (quoted above). He implies a rationale for anyone who wants to attack the US: they hate us only because we "love freedom" or, even more simply, because we are who we are ("our nation"). Strictly speaking, this is not a rationale because it denies any rational process/motivation. What it does is rule out any possibility that US economic and foreign policies play any role in motivating terrorism. If they hate us merely because we enjoy freedom, then there is no reason for us to examine our imbalanced policies towards the Palestinians, our support of dictators in oil-producing Arab states or the ways and degrees to which our government supports the global actions of primarily American multinational corporations. If our enemies are irrational or simply evil, then we are targeted arbitrarily (or because we are a beacon of goodness) and there is nothing we can do to prevent the spread of terrorism short of killing everyone who might want to hurt us. Now, I don't claim that terrorists have such universably defensible grievances with the US that we would be compelled to agree with them and their methods. I do think that in order to address a problem we have to understand it first, and labeling our enemies as evil and/or irrational does not begin to comprehend the problem. If US foreign policy contributes to terrorist recruitment-- and US foreign policy DOES contribute to terrorist recruitment-- then we need to carefully examine whether the offending parts of our policy are absolutely necessary or whether we can ammend our policies to minimize the violence we attract to ourselves. There are many possible reasons for denying the possibility of a logical connection between our global policies and our enemies' motivations for hating us-- emotional connections to September 11, economic interests, militaristic neocon ideology, political expediency, etc.-- but closing our eyes and ears to critical self-examination and blindly labelling terrorists as irrationally evil cannot help and often wrecks our efforts to protect ourselves and our national interest. We need to be engaged in a serious conversation about our nation's place and role in the world, but we cannot make progress on this front as long as we claim to be a target only because we "love freedom." We need to listen to both Sun-tzu and the oracle at Delphi: the first teaches "Know your enemy" and the second "Know thyself."

Urban Stronghold

I now own a house. That is, I now own a huge loan for a house, and the bank is letting me live there. It a 1350 sq. foot, three bedroom, ranch-style house directly adjacent to my own "Good Shepherd Reformed Episcopal Church and School" in Tyler. I intend to put it to heavy use as a gathering place for friends and allies, much like Steve and Adam's Traber 611, but rather less relaxed and more like a neighborhood intelligence and command center.

My first maneuvers from home will constitute planting two fruit-bearing plum trees in my front yard.

Richard M. Daley, Mayor

Just in case anyone is in striking distance, I will be in sweet home Chicago from August 17-21 (Th-Mon) to see Josh and hopefully Jordan, Ryan (Shifty) and whoever else I can dig up in or lure to the windy city. I'll buy you a pint if you can make it!

New Urbanism

I remember Dave mentioning new urbanism not too long ago. All Things Considered had a story about it today, so I thought I'd post it. Enjoy.

Kids and Madison Ave, or Why Capitalism is Evil

Indulging once again in my summer fling with NPR, I heard this piece about children and commercial advertising: All Things Considered July 31, 2006. I thought I should share it with everyone here since we have already touched on the topic of children, television and commercials. The billions of advertising dollars aimed at preschoolers and toddlers give us one more example-- and a particulary insidious one at that-- of what capitalism is really about. Capitalism is not about meeting needs; it is about creating them. It is not about fulfilling the demands of people in the system; rather, it is the strategic destruction of fulfillment in consumers in order to meet the corporate need to sell more and more units. Why supply what people demand when you can get them to demand what you supply? After all, if you supply what people demand, they might be satisfied, and satisfaction is bad for the bottom line. It's better business to sell desire, and start as young as possible...

My Ugly Mug

Stop playing games with my face.

Why We Fight

I just finished watching a documentary titled Why We Fight (2005). Has anyone else seen it? If so, I would love to hear what you think. If not, then watch it now. Put it in your Netflix queue or spend three bucks at Blockbuster or whatever, but watch it. I don't have words right now, so I'll talk to you guys later.

Congress Ave

I found this scene reflected in a downtown window.

Get Your Kicks

One of my favorites from the last roll I developed.

In America

I'm In America.
I'd like to get together with whoever can, which might mean making a trip to Arizona, Tyler, and/or D.C. Anybody in the mood? Please? Pretty please?

Sometime between Aug 6 - 16

Get your tickets while they're hot!

In full support of our new plan to make crazy delicious money with off-the-wall ideas, I've decided to sell tickets to my wedding.

Dude... I'm getting married. That's stinking weird... and crazy delicious. So yes, I have bit the dust so to speak, and asked Rachel to marry me. After a cute pause, she said yes and sealed the deal. So... I'm excited! That's certainly the second most scary time I've ever had. Second only to almost getting blown up in Iraq. Either one is about as life-changing, but the marriage thing has gotta be WAY more fun. We're thinking of getting married sometime between the end of October and the New Year, but the earlier the better! I would fully accept comments in the nature of congratulations but more importantly, TELL ME WHAT THE HECK I'M SUPPOSED TO DO NOW! Advice from married and single alike are welcome. Peace, love, and all that gushy stuff.

Naseous Anger

I am so angry today with the state of Israel, but it is not a "righteous indignation"; it is anger mixed with dread and an unsettling guilt. I cry for the Israeli dead and hate the violence backed by Hamas and Syria and Hezzbollah. I also weep for the dead in Gaza and Lebanon, and as I weep I see their blood on my hands. Our country has entwined itself with Israel in such a way that their sins cannot but fall on our heads. I feel this in my bones. The billions of dollars, the machines of war and death, our omnipotent veto that silences every censure from the United Nations all offer material support to our tacit approval of whatever Israel does-- no matter how unjust or immoral. But how could we do otherwise? Could we censure the Israeli government for collectively punishing civilian populations when we have murdered tens of thousands in our own "war against terror"? (Yes, "collateral damage" is nothing but a pretty word for murder.) But surely if given the choice between hypocrisy and murder we must choose to be hypocrites and then work to amend our own lives. But our President is silent; our ambassadors protect the "rights" of Israel to destroy Lebanon and Gaza; and we do nothing for those in Beirut who have died, are dying and will die tommorow. God save them, and God save us from their blood which cries out from the ground that soaks it up. In His mercy, let us hear the cry for justice. What twists the knife in my chest is knowing that the vast majority of evangelicals will line up in support of Israel as though that country were established by Divine fiat and not by proclamation of the Bristish empire. Apologizing in the name of God for war waged on civilians is a heresy if ever anything was heretical. I fear that we won't escape from wrath. Lord, have mercy.

One Red Paperclip

So a few weeks ago, Dave and I were talking and we figured that, in light of the fact that we have contributing to this blog a group of very intelligent human beings, we might be able to turn it into a venture that would make us all fabulously rich. And once that happens, we can start solving the problems of the world instead of just talking about them. We figured that Strauss, with his economic know-how and ability to do complex math, would be the source of this amazing idea. But I just read about this blog today where Kyle MacDonald, a random 27-year old from Canada, in the course of a year, managed to trade one red paperclip for an entire house. All on his blog, appropriately named oneredpaperclip. The moral of the story: anyone can come up with an idea that is just so crazy that it might work. Even people who can’t do complex math. So, since we don’t seem to have anything more to talk about during these quiet summer months than… grass… this is your chance to offer up your ideas for our collective online business venture. The winning idea will receive a silver-colored paper clip. Hey, it’s more valuable than you think…

Is our archive being destroyed?

What's happening to the early months of our blog? Is it being eaten alive? I know we started this thing before December 04. For example, where is the lovely picture I took of Logemann's house burning down???!!!

Maybe we should rethink moving to a private space where we have more control of the content.

Too Much Grass, Not Enough Green

Why do we have so much grass in America? It was hardly used at all in Japan, and I admit I missed it. But here there is such an awful excess in lawns, parks, sports fields, etc that I am beginning to loathe it. Why grass over every other plant on the earth?

Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!

On a more serious note, here's a review of the new Pirates movie delivered by a ninja. The kind of high quality, hard hitting journalism we expect from NPR. Seriously, though, it's great.

Happy Independence Day

Happy 4th, everybody! Enjoy the grillin' and the chillin' (that's "chilling" for those of us without progeny and "children" for the breeders in our midst). But don't forget what the day's all about: the perfect mixture of alchohol, water sports and explosives. It's amazing that there are any Americans left alive (or at least with all our fingers). Excercise your freedom to choose between hot dogs and fried chicken, or eat them both and wash it all down with a cold Sam Adams. To paraphrase Patrick Henry: Give me a beer, or give me death! And be careful!

(You could also watch Germany play Italy at 3pm eastern... in honor of our German extraction.)

Cubicle Wars

All the talk about online games sparked my memory about playing "Lycos Fight Club" back on the Floor. Unfortunately, that game is no longer available, but Adam, Andy and I have been playing its replacement, "The Office." I'm ashamed to admit how thoroughly Adam has been humiliating me. Play with us. Drink the Kool-aid.

Voting Rights Act

Do we need more evidence that the House Republicans are fascists?

Bush pledges vigilance in war on rain

In a statement made from the White House rose garden earlier today, President George W. Bush promised that he and his administration would exercise the full authority of the executive to defend the cause of liberty against the rising flood waters that have terrorized the east coast over the past two weeks. "The American people need to understand," said the President beneath a large umbrella bearing the seal of his office, "that whether these showers are coming from off-shore weather systems or home-grown thunderstorms, we will do whatever it takes to protect Americans from the threat of radical precipitation."

Asked whether or not he plans to use military action against this meteorological threat, Bush replied that, "All options are still on the table."

Denying rumors that federal agents have been checking the rain gauges of private citizens, he added that a recent New York Times expose on doplar radar could "only help out the bad low pressure systems." This as the administration, still reeling from last year's hurricane disasters on the gulf coast, tries to downplay what is seen as a long string of intelligence failures by NOAA and the Naitonal Weather Service.

The cloud cover began to break near the end of the press conference and the sun was momentarily visible from the soggy White House lawn, a development that Bush described as "a major turning point in the war on water."

More rain is expected through the end of the week.

Pregnant!!!

No, this is not a mistaken repetition regarding Brett's eccentric lady friend. But I would like to announce, on behalf of one of our own, that Traber 611 will soon be welcoming a new family member.

Abe Young's wife Gabe is 3 months pregnant! So in a short 6 months there will be another whistling, violin playing, curb-jumping-mountain-biking, classical music-loving T6er amongst us. Cheers and blessings to Abe and Gabes for their reproductory success :-)

To the Students at Wheaton College…

The June 23rd issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education has a very interesting article by Randall Balmer, who Coye mentioned last week in connection with his soon-to-be-issued book, Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America: An Evangelical's Lament. The article is available here: Jesus Is Not a Republican. He begins the article by mentioning that his last visit to Wheaton, which happens to have been while we were students there (believe it or not, you can even listen to that chapel address at wetn's archive):

“In November 2002, 30 years after my previous visit to Wheaton College to hear George McGovern, I approached the podium in Edman Chapel to address the student body. At evangelical colleges like Wheaton, in Illinois, there are two kinds of required gatherings: chapel and convocation. The former is religious in nature, whereas a speaker at convocation has the license to be far more discursive, even secular — or political. The college's chaplain, however, had invited me to preach in chapel, not convocation, and so, despite temptation, I delivered a homily that was, as I recall, not overly long, appropriate to the occasion, and reasonably well received.

“I doubt very much that I will be invited back to Edman Chapel. One of the benefits of being reared within evangelicalism, I suppose, is that you understand the workings of the evangelical subculture. I know, for example, that when my new book on evangelicals appears, the minions of the religious right will seek to discredit me rather than engage the substance of my arguments. […]

“The evangelical subculture, which prizes conformity above all else, doesn't suffer rebels gladly, and it is especially intolerant of anyone with the temerity to challenge the shibboleths of the religious right. I understand that. Despite their putative claims to the faith, the leaders of the religious right are vicious toward anyone who refuses to kowtow to their version of orthodoxy, and their machinery of vilification strikes with ruthless, dispassionate efficiency. Longtime friends (and not a few family members) will shuffle uneasily around me and studiously avoid any sort of substantive conversation about the issues I raise — and then quietly strike my name from their Christmas-card lists. Circle the wagons. Brook no dissent.

“And so, since my chances of being invited back to Edman Chapel have dropped from slim to none, I offer here an outline of what I would like to say to the students at Wheaton and, by extension, to evangelicals everywhere.[…]”

Our Evangelical tradition and more Michael Gerson

Here's a piece about our evangelical tradition and the religious right that I think just about all of us here will find interesting. It's an interview with Randall Balmer, professor of religious history at Barnard College, about his new book Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical's Lament. He speaks a lot of my heart about the movement. It's often hard to see much that is Christian in the supposedly evangelical religious right, especially when we view it in persepective of evangelicalism's progressive origins (abolitionism, universal education, etc). I know I'm largely preaching to the choir here, so I'll just shut up now.

I also found this NPR interview with Michael Gerson. The web page also has transcripts of several important speeches that Gerson wrote and some non-broadcast portions of his Morning Edition interview (including his ideas about "compassionate conservatism" and the current direction of the evangelical movement). I found this really interesting because I had previously only heard Gerson's words coming out of Bush's mouth, and at that point it is difficult to determine whose words we are hearing. My opinion of Gerson rose considerably through listening to him here.

Some things never get old, and other rumors

I was glancing back over some of the archived posts today. We've written a lot in the last year and a half. Impressive. Anyways, I couldn't resist linking to this at least one more time from Dusty's name.

he he he.

Is this really my voice?


From "All Things Considered": June 20, 2006
According to a study published in Education Week, no more than 70% of current 9th graders will graduate from high school. Only 75% of white students, who have the highest rate of graduation, will receive a diplomma; black students graduate from high school at a rate closer to 50%, and latino/a students do slightly better than their African American peers. Graduation rates are lower for boys than for girls, and (of course) they are significanly lower for children from lower economic classes.

This is huge. We're not talking about "higher education" here; this is high school diplommas. What kind of work can a person get in the States without a high school diplomma? Not much. You can't even enlist in the army without a high school diplomma or GED. And they definitely won't have jobs that provide healthcare benefits, childcare, retirement. That means an increase in the problems we currently have with healthcare, education, and social security. Not to mention the increased difficulty of civic responsibility (voting etc) for a person without a basic educataion. Quoting the constitution of the State of Texas (1866): "A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of this State to make suitable provisions for the support and maintenance of public schools. " The State of Texas, along with its 49 peers, is currently failing this task that is essential to the preservation of its citizens' rights and liberties.

Why isn't education a "moral issue" or a "family value"? Why are our legistatures spending their time debating same-sex marriage and flag burning? It's absurd. It's immoral. It's ineffective. If you want to protect families, educate their children. If you want to protect a country, educate its citizens.

Fresh Air, etc.

You really NEED to listen to this first-hand account of a 1930 Indiana lynching told by James Cameron, who was 16 at the time and was almost hanged along with his two friends. The story is amazing, and Cameron is an incredibly talented story teller. He was an author and founder of the Black Holocaust Museum in Milwakee, and he died last week at age 92. He tells one of the most powerful stories I've heard in a long time. WHYY


Also, the US national team is playing Italy on Saturday at 2.30 Eastern time, and don't forget to call your father on Sunday and tell him you love him.

Goodbye Michael

Bush's Favorite Author Leaving The White HouseTop Aide Michael Gerson Knew Just How to Address the President
By Peter BakerWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, June 15, 2006; A03
Michael J. Gerson, one of President Bush's most trusted advisers and the author of nearly all of his most famous public words over the past seven years, plans to step down in the next couple of weeks in a decision that colleagues believe will leave a hole in the White House at a critical period.
Gerson said in an interview that he has been talking with Bush for many months about leaving for writing and other opportunities but waited until the White House political situation stabilized somewhat. "It seemed like a good time," he said. "Things are back on track a little. Some of the things I care about are on a good trajectory."
Since first joining the presidential campaign as chief speechwriter in 1999, Gerson has evolved into one of the most central figures in Bush's inner circle, often considered among the three or four aides closest to the president. Beyond shaping the language of the Bush presidency, Gerson helped set its broader direction.
He was a formulator of the Bush doctrine making the spread of democracy the fundamental goal of U.S. foreign policy, a policy hailed as revolutionary by some and criticized as unrealistic by others. He led a personal crusade to make unprecedented multibillion-dollar investments in fighting AIDS, malaria and poverty around the globe. He became one of the few voices pressing for a more aggressive policy to stop genocide in Darfur, even as critics complained of U.S. inaction.
"He might have had more influence than any White House staffer who wasn't chief of staff or national security adviser" in modern times, said William Kristol, who was top aide to Vice President Dan Quayle and now edits the Weekly Standard. "Mike was substantively influential, not just a wordsmith, not just a crafter of language for other people's policies, but he influenced policy itself."
"He is the best and most influential presidential speechwriter since Ted Sorenson," said Peter H. Wehner, director of White House strategic initiatives, referring to the adviser to President John F. Kennedy. "Mike is one of the key intellectual architects of the Bush presidency, whether we're talking about compassionate conservatism at home or the freedom agenda abroad."
Gerson is the latest in a series of longtime Bush aides to leave, following White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., press secretary Scott McClellan and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow. But newly installed Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten said in an interview that the departure is not part of his broader shakeup of the president's operation. No one is being tapped to take Gerson's most recent assignment as senior adviser.
"He's one of the few people who is irreplaceable," Bolten said. "He's a policy provoker, a grand strategist and a conscience who in many cases has not only articulated but reflected the president's heart."
Gerson, 42, said he had originally planned to leave after Bush's 2004 reelection but decided to stay when he was asked to shift from chief speechwriter to senior adviser with an office a few doors from the Oval Office. He had a heart attack in December 2004 but said his health is now fine and was not an issue in his decision. "It was never my intention to stay to the end," Gerson said.
He plans to look at writing, speaking and think-tank opportunities, with help from Robert B. Barnett, the high-powered lawyer who represents major figures such as former president Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Gerson stood out in a White House known for swagger. A somewhat slight, pale, bespectacled and soft-spoken Midwesterner, he nonetheless forged a strong bond with the outgoing, backslapping Texan president, in part through their shared conservative Christian faith. He found a way to channel Bush's thoughts, colleagues said, transforming a sometimes inarticulate president into an occasionally memorable speaker.
Gerson wrote or co-wrote every major speech Bush gave since announcing his candidacy, including convention and inaugural addresses and State of the Union messages. He crafted the two speeches after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that will probably be recorded as Bush's signal moments of national leadership: the service at the Washington National Cathedral and the address to Congress.
He crafted the State of the Union language that labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea an "axis of evil" and the inaugural address that committed the United States to "ending tyranny in our world." He came up with the phrase "soft bigotry of low expectations" to focus on minority education problems.
Gerson believed strongly in the "compassionate" part of Bush's "compassionate conservatism," saying he wanted to pursue liberal goals through conservative means. To that end, he helped promote the president's No Child Left Behind education initiative, the Medicare prescription drug program and grants to faith-based charities. "It's a more activist approach," Gerson said. "That was a major change from what came before."
He also pushed for a $15 billion program to combat HIV and AIDS worldwide, telling Bush in the Oval Office that they would never be forgiven if they passed up the chance. Although he kept a hand in major speeches during the second term, he became increasingly focused on Africa and traveled there four times to see Darfur and other places firsthand, returning to describe searing scenes to his White House colleagues.
While toiling for an uncommonly polarizing president, he made few, if any, enemies, even finding admirers in circles often not friendly to Republicans.
"Mike Gerson has been an important voice," said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a global anti-poverty organization.
Although groups have grievances about how some programs have been administered, it did not redound on Gerson, said David Gartner, policy director for the Global AIDS Alliance. "He's been committed and effective," Gartner said. "To get a moral issue the kind of attention it deserves, I'm sure is not easy to do."

My beloved public broadcasting

I've found another reason to hate this Congress. A House subcommittee just voted to eliminate an enormous chunk of public funding for PBS and NPR. Not only does this mean that our children won't have access to any educational programming without an incessant stream of advertisements aimed at corrupting them into mindless consumers before they can read, it also means no Fresh Air, no All Things Considered, no News Hour-- in general, no broadcast journalism that isn't an entertainment product sculpted by multinational corporations with vested political interests. There is a petition protesting this and asking the legislature to continue funding public broadcasting (it is providing an invaluable public service, after all). I will be happy to send you the petition in an email if you email me and/or ask me to send it to you in a comment (if you don't have my email, you can get it from Andy or Dave). Here is a link with more info about the issue ( http://www.freepress.net/publicbroadcasting/ ). I don't understand how people can hate Grover and Jim Lehrer. They're both so huggable.

Tyler Thwarts Dallas

I don't know if I've ever said this before and really meant it, but Hurrah for the Feds! They have stepped in and overruled to great effect both state and local government in this fight near and dear to Tyler, and now we are going to have a national wildlife refuge!

Canoeing, anyone?

Mundial

In honor of the World Cup... the 611 national team of bygone days.

Games

I was just thinking... I'd love to play Hitman (the gateway drug that turned logemann into a raving game-aholic) again right about now. Or original battle mode mario! Oh yeah.

Anybody know of an online game we could all play together. Maybe something turn-based so we don't have to all be on at the same time. Maybe online Risk or something.

Cynical Questions

If they're so concerned about the sanctity of marriage, why don't they propose a Constitutional amendment banning no-fault divorce?

And if Canada's full of terrorists, why don't we build a giant fence along that border?

Pointless Poll Post (we needed a June entry)

On a scale of 1-10, where 1 equals having a fingerprint on your rearview mirror and 10 is being turned into a nosferatu by the un-dead, how much does it suck to get someone's voicemail the first time you call them to set up a date? You have to leave a message that sounds excited-but-not-desperate, and then you sit around wondering if she's going to call you back and how long you have to wait until you try calling again (excited-but-not-desperate, remember). How much does it suck? (The judges will aslo except answers in the form of "it's better than__ but worse than__.")

Yeah, I know. It's a terribly intellectual post, and it just oozes self-confidence.

Boston reunion

Sunday, June 25th is Wheatie Annalisa Walker's wedding in Boston, which I am planning to attend. Would any of you Bostonians be able to put me up for Saturday and Sunday night? I would be very much obliged,

Ryan Banek of Tyler

Everyday a vacation: Reality in Hollywood

So here I am, kicking back in my sweet apartment looking at the Hollywood sign. I've just come back from a tasty chinese lunch at a place called "the most likely place to see a celebrity" by the Los Angeles Times. No dice, not a celebrity to be seen. That I recognized, at least.

It's been great out here. There is a surreal quality to everyday; Because I'm living in a tower, have a fountain right outside this tower, and can walk to any possible thing I'd want to, it seems like I'm on an extended vacation. I've been out here a month, but I can't help but wonder if it will always feel a little bit like that.

I'm working at what could potentially be my dream job, which is archiving the Beach Boys tape library.

And I'll slowly try to break into the music biz, but that's not something that is hurried.

There's my update for now.

Austin Alley

a pic from that roll of FILM I shot the other day 

Fun with Current Events

Take a break from your crazy runnings to and fro and join me for a little [music cue] Fun with Current Events.

OK, so here's a new method of doing government we could start applying here: if you don't like the Bills Congregress is sending out, just send them a Czech! You could call it the system of Czechs and balances...
As Emeril on the Food Network says "BAM!"; now that's the way to get things done!

OK, well, moving on. Who knows, the Catholic Church might be the biggest criminal in the world? And what's the crime? More abuse scandals? A priest run drug ring? A secret movement to destroy the world? No; these are not so serious as the crime here! The plaintiff, Italian Luigi Cascioli (I know, by the name I thought he was French too) is charging that the Church's teaching that Jesus was a real person is a crime against the Italian people. That could get interesting, especially once the court allows The Divinci Code to be taken as part of the evidence for the case.

If it weren't for the fact that Coye isn't 41, I would have thought he might have changed his name and gone on a little Lithuanian vacation during his summer break under the name Vidmantas Sungaila. Dang.

Well, that's been a fresh batch of Fun with Current Events; we're committed to keeping you afloat in the wide ocean of news related materals.

another jewel from Fresh Air

May 18, 2006 · Linguist GEOFF NUNBERG comments on the recent controversy surrounding the Spanish-language version of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

If I keep on this track, I'll have to join NPR anonymous:

"My name is Coye, and I'm an NPR-aholic."


But I'm not driving a Volvo.

Spiritual Progressives

I was watching a local PBS production (Austin Now) today, and saw an interview with Rabbi Michael Lerner (editor of Tikkun). He was mainly talking about his new book The Left Hand of God (which sounds quite interesting), but he also touched on the Network of Spiritual Progressives, something potentially meaningful to all of us and the things we discuss here. (There's a conference thing this month in D.C., if anyone in that part of the world finds it terribly interesting and immediately relevant.) They even have local chapters. I think it's worth taking a look at (as are Lerner and/or his new book).

(By the way, when I grow up, I want to be Charlie Rose.)

A Personal Post (since they seem to be popular)

Yesterday (actually last night... round about 9.30pm) I turned in my last paper for the semester, and now I have a few days off before my students take their final exam (leaving me with 2 days of frantic grading before final grades are due). I think I'm a workaholic. I expected to wake up this morning with feelings of great release and joy and jubilation and all of that. Instead, I got up and wandered anxiously around my living room trying to find something to do that resembles work. I'm still trying to find something to do that resembles work. Maybe it's just a paper-halo that will wear off a little later when I realize that I did, in fact, get everything turned in already. Or maybe I'm a workaholic.

I'm driving up to the panhandle in a few days to see my youngest cousin graduate from high school, and I'm going to hang out in Amarillo until Memorial Day. After that, I'm coming back down to Austin and (for the moment) I'm planning on taking a French course over the summer (perhaps as much from wanting to be busy as from needing the class right now-- although I do need it eventually). I guess I should also try relaxing a bit over the summer. A little tubing on the river. A little local music. A little hanging out at the local swimming hole. A little revising papers and reading books for my qualifying exam.

You're all welcome-- no not welcome, invited!-- to stop by Austin and join in on any of the above activities. (I should also add "A little beer" to that list.) I realize that Austin isn't the cultural center that Tyler is (a little Texas humor), but I'm sure we could find something to do. Well, I've decided that I'm not as good at these personal posts as I am at being contentious or ridiculous, so I'm going to sign off now and think of something stupid to write later. Remember to call your mother this Sunday and tell her you love her.

More Wheaton News

I glanced over the "ballot" for alumni board representatives (though I don't apparently have a representative), and noticed at the bottom of the email, these few lines:

"We look forward to hosting nearly 800 of you during Alumni Weekend, May 5-7. View the full schedule of events, which includes a lecture by Dr. Mark Noll on the intellectual history of the College during the last 50 years. This month marks the end of Dr. Noll's tenure at Wheaton College; beginning in July he will become the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana."

So, there goes Wheaton's most respected scholar. To a Catholic university. To the same Catholic university that granted Joshua Hochschield his Doctoral degree in philosophy. It should be an interesting lecture, though-- especially if he still holds the same opinions as in his Scandal of the Evangelical Mind days (ah, the inspirational Duane Litfin).

Petition for T6 Marriage and Reunion

We, the former members of T6, being in sound mind and body (perhaps) petition the bachelor members of T6 who are not led to a life of singleness to pursue marriage (but not all simultaneously, let's space these suckers out) in order that we might reunite in raucous celebration. Send single-T6ers the message: "Get married, you know you want to." Here's to the future 2007 bash! Unless someone wants to step up and make it '06.


Petition drafted by Plankeye, Inc.

Dave Update

So, here I am in my apartment, sitting and typing on my mom-in-law's little white iBook. Sarah's making the rounds, turning off the lights and picking up the various and sundry things that the smallest member of our family left in his amazing wake. He's fast asleep now; he doesn't yet share his father's latest talent of lying in bed for hours without falling asleep.

This has been a hard semester. A hard last couple of months. Emotionally, it has reminded me of the times I used to lie stacked up near the ceiling of traber six, focusing on the simple action of breathing because any mental inch past that would hit the unstable complexity where things fall apart. Circumstantially, things are a bit more layered than they were back then. I am a father, a husband, a student. In those senses, it's a lot more scary when things don't hold together as neatly as I'd like them to.

Ok, Dave, enough poetics, what do you have to update?

Who are you?-- so rudely interrupting my descriptions-- I'm not sure I was finished.

I don't know, I just thought you actually might be getting to something that has anything to do with your title. Just a thought.

You're right--you know, that is my problem. It's my problem with the papers I try to write. It's the problem with the essay exams I try to compose. It's the problem with my grand schemes to change the way Churches operate in an urbanizing world. I've got a lot of grand ideas floating around in my head--then when I go to put them down in any logical order, all I do is start blabbering about obscure details which have little to do with....I'm doing it right now. Sorry.

Since I last wrote, I've completed another semester of terribly interesting but terribly confusing courses. Seminary definitely raises more questions than it answers. True, I knew this would be the case when I came; but simply cannot avoid the emotional process of actually walking through complex confusery, if you know what I mean.

I applied for a job that I knew was a bit out of my reach and made it to the first round of interviews but no further. Gordon College (not the seminary) has started a partnership with the city of Lynn through which they connect student interns with urban development opportunities. This is a growing program, and the woman who has developed it (through Gordon) has big visions for it--she hopes both to engage in wide scale urban development as well as wide scale educational reform (turning the current incubator model of education into a service-learning model). Anyway, it's a growing program, and they have just added an Associate Director position to it. This is the position to which I applied. So, on the one hand, it's been hard dealing with the disappointment of a dream job not working out. On the other hand, it's encouraging to know that there is a type of job out there that I can get really excited aobut.

This week, Sarah and I will be traveling with Andrew down to Florida to pick up my parent's car (long story) and slowly drive it back up to MA over the course of the week. I'm looking foward to spending some time just letting my system reboot (ha! the metaphors that emerge with technology!).

OK. I'm tired. I hope this hasn't been to confusing of a post for you to progress through.
I miss you guys. We should do more writing about our lives. It's hard to get things out in type, but I think it's worth it.
Anyway. Over-and-out. Until next time.

Bringin' in a couple o' keys

Well friends, did you know that at the time of Julius Caesar's famous quote "veni, vedi, vici" it would have been pronounced "weenie, weedie, weekie"?

That's totally beside the point. The Point, as Harry Nilsson might not say, is that Tomorrow morning, I will be embarking on a cross country drive that will consumate my move to Los Angeles. I've decided to move to LA for several reasons, most of which involve unbridled hedonism of the highest order.

As a footnote to my undoubtedly nightly romps, I also have the opportunity to be working doing something I really enjoy: researching the music of the Beach Boys. There's also a chance I could work at the TV station "The Style Network."

It will be interesting, to be sure. I've been wanting to move back to LA after moving away almost 16 years ago, so I'm really happy and excited. But it will be a new challenge that I'm not used to.

I'll let you all know how it goes, when I'm not floating on a raft in the waters of scandinavia, that is.

Has anyone heard from Aeijtzsche lately?

Because this sounds like it could be him...

well, it sounds like the kind of story he would tell the authorities, anyway.

A letter from A. Duane Litfin

So, I don't know whether or not the rest of you are receiving alumni emails from Wheaton (I assume that most of you probably are), but I thought I'd share this letter from Dr. Litfin just in case. I find the format interesting, though I'm trying to interpret exactly what some of the phrases mean and-- more importantly-- why THIS PARTICULAR event warrants an email to all the alumni of the college (and why the administration feels that they need prayers more at this moment than at others). I will be praying for Wheaton during this visit, but not the exact prayers that seem to be solicited by this email. I'm praying that the interaction will be free from condemnation, moral assuredness or closed-mindedness. I'm praying that there will be fear and trembling in the interaction and a genuine trepidation when speaking to people about something as central to character and identity as their sexuality. I'm praying that the encounters facilitated by this event will provide students with an opportunity to think-- not merely receive answers or reify prejudices-- and that, whatever tentative conclusions they come to, they will have thought carefully, seriously and openly (a prerequisite condition for the other two) about sexuality and about what their roles as Christians should be in a culture that often persecutes homosexuals.

I know that we do not all agree on all aspects of Christianity's prescriptions regarding sexuality, identity, community and other issues raised by this letter, but I do think that each of us here could gladly offer similar prayers for our alma mater (which, interestingly, means our "soul mother") at this time. I hope that we can all pray for a soul-birthing for Wheaton's students through this experience.


Dear [Coye],
I write to ask you for your prayers.
On Thursday and Friday of this week we will be visited by a group of homosexual activists traveling on a bus tour across the United States to various Christian college campuses. Their agenda is to draw negative media attention to institutions who maintain an historic biblical stand on the issue of homosexuality. This, of course, Wheaton does. (See Wheaton's Community Covenant) Hence our place on their list of targeted institutions.
We did not invite these visitors to our campus. But since they are intent on coming anyway, we decided to make a virtue out of a necessity by turning their coming into a teaching opportunity for our students. Given the ongoing changes in our culture, today’s students are potentially facing a lifetime of confrontations over the issue of homosexuality. What should be their Christian response? We have endeavored to prepare our students to respond to these visitors with the biblical balance captured in the injunction to “speak the truth in love.”
Wheaton’s provost, Dr. Stan Jones, a psychologist who has done extensive work in the area of human sexuality, has prepared a biblical rebuttal to the false teaching of this group. (See “CACE Resources on Homosexuality”) These and other written materials, along with various scheduled meetings and chapels, have been devoted to helping our students understand the many issues and shape a balanced Christian response. This process has been highly educational for all involved.
After this event is over, we will let you know how it went. In the meantime, please pray for us, asking that God will be glorified, His truth will be upheld with grace and humility, and our Christian witness to a watching world will be an effective one.
Thank you.
Duane LitfinPresidentWheaton College

Alan Jacobs Article

I stumbled across this article today from First Things.

new pics

Steve, those are some pretty sweet pics you posted. What software did you create your online gallery with? I now organize my pictures with coppermine. www.marlett.net/photos

I Dub Thee Judas the Good

Forget everything you’ve ever heard about Judas. You know, the treachery, the greediness, the betrayal. That whole, tired story was just a huge misunderstanding. It turns out that Judas was the confidant of Christ, and that Christ asked Judas to betray him to the Romans. In fact, Christ apparently said to Judas: “you will be cursed by the other generations, and you will come to rule over them."

Now, I know what you’re thinking. No, Dan Brown did not just finish a new novel. Actually, scholars have just rediscovered and translated the long-lost Gospel of Judas. Click here for the New York Times story, and here to take a look at the actual document on the National Geographic website.

Symbolic Action

There's plenty to be read here.