Dan's Musings (and other dangerous ideas)

An Advent homily

2012-01-11T12:48:00.001-05:00

Some of you may have heard that my local congregation, for some unfathomable reason, called on me to deliver a homily during the Advent season this year. For those interested in hearing my thoughts for a change rather than reading them, here's a link to an mp3 recording of said homily. (This is my first attempt at podcasting, such as it is, so please let me know if you have any problems

New Year's Resolutions, part one (a look back)

2012-01-04T11:40:00.000-05:00

As the Presidential campaign starts up, it’s time for the silly season of the confluence of religion and politics to begin. I might try to keep up with this throughout the campaign, but I fear it could be a full-time job, and until someone starts paying me to do so I won’t be able to devote the time necessary to cover the religion-and-politics silliness in full detail. Thus

Why People Pray

2011-07-07T13:34:00.001-04:00

Editor's Note: As some have already pointed out, I was not clear enough in this article about what kind of prayer I was referring to (see Michael's insightful comment below). Here I'm examining only the petitionary or supplicatory prayer, the one that asks the Divine for specific things. There are entire realms of meditative practices (including "relational" prayer, intended to bring one closer

Human Flourishing - What Is It?

2011-06-09T15:40:00.001-04:00

If I’m going to talk about human flourishing and even offer myself up as a “Human Flourishing Consultant,” I suppose I should start with some thoughts on what exactly this concept of human flourishing is. As with so many things philosophical, we can turn to the ancient Greeks for a bit of initial guidance. Eudaimonia is an ancient Greek word commonly mistranslated as “happiness,” but a more

An Open Letter To Rev. Jim Wallis and Sojourners

2011-05-10T13:23:00.000-04:00

There has been a great deal of controversy in the past few days over the progressive evangelical Christian magazine Sojourners' refusal to run a video advertisement from the interfaith group Believe Out Loud. In the video, a young child is shown walking down the aisle of a small church, holding the hands of his two parents while receiving stares and awkward looks from those

Courage and Risk

2011-05-01T16:35:00.000-04:00

This piece is the result of a rather mundane inspiration. I was updating my Facebook profile recently and I re-read some of my “favorite quotations” I had listed there. I found a couple that particularly struck me, and I realized that I had written a column about a year ago featuring those two quotes. They say it’s good to revisit previous teachings to see how you’re measuring up, so here goes.

Growing Older – It's Not For Girly Men!

2011-04-22T09:05:00.000-04:00

I recently read an amusing interview with outgoing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in which he bemoaned growing older. In his own words (add your own best Ah-nuld accent): "I feel terrific about where I am in my life, when I look back at what I've accomplished, but I feel shitty when I look at myself in the mirror...I'm not competing, I'm not ripping off my shirt

Dolphins Are People, Too

2011-04-12T11:32:00.000-04:00

The recent opening of the Georgia Aquarium's AT&T Dolphin Tales show has raised accompanying concerns about the captivity of dolphins and other cetaceans (marine mammals such as dolphins and whales). Defenders of the exhibit tout its educational benefits, while opponents cite studies demonstrating minimal educational results for attendees and argue that such exhibits are blatant exploitations of

Another published column

2010-03-21T21:58:00.002-04:00

Since Decatur News Online has started accepting my columns on a semi-regular basis, I'm posting on here less frequently - however, I wanted to inform those of you who might follow me on here but aren't necessarily keeping up with my Facebook or Twitter posts that I have another column published today, mostly about the recent brouhaha involving Glenn Beck and "social justice" minded Christians.

Rushdie and Hitchens at Emory, oh my!

2010-03-07T16:25:00.002-05:00

My article on the recent Emory University symposium featuring Salman Rushdie, Christopher Hitchens, and Deepa Mehta, with some additional thoughts of mine (of course!), is now up on Decatur News Online - please check it out - comments welcomed (on the Decatur News site, please)!

Bruery Beer Dinner @ Brick Store Pub

2010-03-01T16:47:00.006-05:00

Decatur News Online has now published my review of the Bruery Beer Dinner at the Brick Store Pub, so I encourage you to click through and read it on their site!

Giving Up and Taking On

2010-02-24T06:42:00.005-05:00

This is another post that I've revamped a bit for publication in Decatur News Online - I encourage you to click through and read it there. Thanks for your support of my fledgling publishing endeavors!

Inherently Violent?

2010-02-08T08:47:00.002-05:00

While I was watching the Super Bowl with some friends last night, I heard one friend remark something to the effect of “OK, enough testosterone already!” She was commenting on what she perceived to be the pervasive nature of violent or combative images throughout the evening – and not merely the sight of very large, very athletic men hitting each other as hard as they could on the playing field.

The Fame Monster In All of Us

2010-02-02T07:51:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm going to use the Grammys, and specifically Lady Gaga's performance with Sir Elton John, as a jumping-off point for this page of musings. For those of you who missed it, here are three separate links to various videos of the performance; I'm sure there are copyright issues with these being available on the web so they'll probably be taken down at some point, but I don't think you'll get

Cynicism Is SO Last Decade!

2010-01-29T08:26:00.002-05:00

Many have commented on Conan O'Brien's farewell speech on last Friday's Tonight Show (if you've been living on a desert island for the past month, NBC moved O'Brien out of his Tonight Show hosting gig to make room for Jay Leno to move back to the 11:30 p.m. slot). Despite having been treated rather shabbily (by most accounts) by NBC, O'Brien insisted on taking a very positive attitude toward the

Joseph Swan Wine Dinner @ Feast

2010-01-23T14:09:00.004-05:00

Shifting back to culinary delights, dear readers, it's time for you to once again vicariously enjoy my gourmet adventures. We returned to Feast Restaurant in Atlanta for a dinner featuring (mostly) the wines of Joseph Swan, a small family-owned winery in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. I say “mostly” because a couple of the offerings were from other nearby wineries, such as the

The End of Democracy?

2010-01-22T09:38:00.001-05:00

In a 5-4 decision this week, the Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot prevent corporations from spending money on behalf of political candidates. This decision overturned two longstanding precedents, and will have an enormous impact on future elections. As President Obama described it, the decision was “a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the

Brit Hume, Televangelist?

2010-01-15T07:59:00.002-05:00

There's been a good deal of brouhaha over Brit Hume's comments about Tiger Woods on this week's Fox News Sunday program. The show included a discussion about Woods' comeback to professional golf in light of the recent revelations about his recurring inability to keep his driver in the bag when prudent (sorry, I had to get one jibe in there). Anyway, Hume made a statement that has struck many

More wine stuff

2009-12-17T18:00:00.002-05:00

Forgot to mention that I chose the lineup at a recent wine tasting at one of my favorite local establishments. Check out a review here to see what was in the affordable, "go-to" wine list (with the disclaimer that I had to stick with said establishment's distributors, so a couple of wines I wanted didn't get on the list - check comments for that).

Food and wine inspiration

2009-12-16T12:25:00.010-05:00

Yeah, I know, where have I been? Acknowledging that I have nothing profound to say at the moment, and not wanting to speculate about whether obstructing health insurance reform, frustrating financial industry reform, or blocking the importation of inexpensive pharmaceuticals is the more egregious and cynical move by the Senate, I offer you this review of a fine wine dinner I enjoyed at Feast

Why Obama? Why now? Here's why...

2009-10-09T10:54:00.003-04:00

Like many of you, I awoke today to the surprising (to say the least) news that the Nobel Committee had chosen President Obama as the recipient of the 2009 Peace Prize. Once I got over the initial shock (and awe?) phase, I began to wonder, again no doubt like many of you, whether this honor hadn't come a tad early in Obama's career. After all, he's only been in office nine months, and the formal

Priorities in the church (or any other faith community)

2009-09-16T16:39:00.002-04:00

I've been doing some pondering (and writing) about my own faith community's priorities of late, and a couple of folks suggested I share my thoughts with the online community as well. What follows is a slightly modified version of an article I wrote for my congregation's upcoming newsletter, with a couple of additions to try to broaden the perspective beyond an exclusively Christian one (although

Flawed heroes, redemption, and forgiveness

2009-09-05T10:49:00.001-04:00

I've picked up on a recurring theme in certain current events of the past couple of months. What I've noticed are several instances of controversial figures eliciting very divided responses from the general public. Let me explain by way of offering a few examples. A few weeks ago, the Scottish government released Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, the only person ever convicted in connection with

Old World v. New World – wines, that is!

2009-08-20T23:19:00.001-04:00

Today I'm serving as substitute blogger for my good friend Cecilia Dominic the Random Oenophile, who decided to go chase tropical storms for her vacation. She will be cross-posting this entry on her blog, which you should read anyway because of its wealth of wine and food info. She usually recounts the fine bi-weekly wine tastings at one of our mutual favorite joints, JavaMonkey in Decatur, as

The only thing we have to fear is...that other guy!

2009-08-19T12:06:00.003-04:00

I know I've written about this before, but it's time once again to plumb the Jungian depths of the fear of the other, or maybe I should capitalize that: The Other. I'm referring to the virulently angry protesters at the various Congressional town hall meetings over the past few weeks. Of course, much of these protests are of the “Astroturf” variety (i.e., fake grass roots), and right-wing

Healthcare Boondoggle

2009-08-11T09:59:00.001-04:00

Most casual observers have no concept of the real cost of our current, primarily employer-based, health care system. There are the structural and competitive “costs”, such as the inability to change jobs without fear of losing coverage (or not having “pre-existing conditions” covered). This obviously limits our overall productivity as a society, because individuals are not always truly free to

Gog, Magog, and Bush

2009-08-09T09:25:00.002-04:00

I've been laying off of blogging, particularly political musings, for a while now, as I'm trying to work on a larger project. Of course, that's getting nowhere fast, and one astute observer has suggested that I ought to at least throw in a few smaller projects to keep my musing and writing skills at some level of competence. I had been uninspired about this possibility until very recently. So

WWJT (Who Would Jesus Torture)?

2009-05-06T16:25:00.004-04:00

Well, this is disturbing news: A recent Pew Research Center poll asked those surveyed, "Do you think the use of torture against suspected terrorists in order to gain important information can often be justified, sometimes be justified, rarely be justified, or never be justified?" The Center categorized the respondents by their primary religious affiliation and by their frequency of attending

How's your 20/40 Vision?

2009-04-09T09:58:00.002-04:00

As we near the end of Lent, I’d like you to take a moment to reflect back upon the season through which we have just traveled. For those in my own church in particular, I’d like to ask you how you did with that 20/40 Challenge I issued at the beginning of Lent – you remember, the challenge of “giving up” 20 minutes a day to be spent in prayer, meditation, or other contemplative practice. If

Where the hell have you been?

2009-04-02T16:21:00.001-04:00

By “you”, of course, I mean “me”, and that question is intended to be directed toward me from y’all (if there are still any of y’all reading this). I will dispense with useless excuses and simply plunge into some of those random musings you’ve come to expect of me.I’ve been spending some time in my garden these past few days. Looking at it, you might think that I’m using the word “garden” a bit

A Purpose Driven Inauguration?

2009-01-06T11:35:00.000-05:00

Many commentators have made much of President-elect Obama’s choice of Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church and best-selling author, to deliver the invocation at the Presidential inauguration later this month. The main issue, according to many who object to his selection, is that Warren has been an outspoken opponent of gay rights, adamantly campaigning in support of Proposition 8 in

Georgia runoff election December 2

2008-12-01T09:10:00.003-05:00

Remember that voting thing we did last month? Well, it's time to try it again, thanks to Georgia's antiquated election laws that require candidates to receive not just a plurality, but a majority of votes cast. In this case, however, I'm grateful for the chance to take another shot at a couple of offices. Here are the major races in Georgia for the December 2 runoff election, with my endorsements

Church marketing - what not to do

2008-11-19T16:59:00.002-05:00

Now this is funny.What if Starbucks marketed like the church? Click here to see this video parable, but be prepared to be needled.Not sure I agree with all of the theology on their original site, but you have to admit there's some cleverness afoot here.

Election post-mortem

2008-11-06T09:03:00.007-05:00

I sent in a portion of that prior post (Elections and the Church) to my local paper, and much to my surprise they accepted it for publication, so you can see me in print here once again. It definitely feels good to be done with the election season. It's as though I can get back to the rest of my life now. Does anyone else have similar feelings? And just to prove that everything is better under

Electoral predictions

2008-11-04T08:40:00.004-05:00

OK, I've been resisting this all election season, mostly out of superstitious fear. However, I am now going to follow the advice of Oscar Wilde, "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it". Thus, here are my predictions for the outcome of the Presidential race.Obama popular vote: 52%Obama electoral vote: 364McCain popular vote: 45%McCain electoral vote: 174If you really want to

Elections and the church

2008-11-02T07:08:00.002-05:00

The following is the text of a brief talk I'll be giving in my church this morning. If you like what it has to say (with the potential exception of specific denominational references, depending on your flavor of church), feel free to borrow excerpts for your own house of faith, especially the final paragraph. And one reference note - the phrase at the end is from RFK, quoting Aeschylus (and

Election recommendations (Georgia)

2008-10-29T11:54:00.003-04:00

Since I have received a few calls/texts/emails already asking my opinion on some of the candidates and questions on the ballot, I figured it might be helpful to list a few of my recommendations (I hesitate to call them "endorsements", since that implies someone in some position of authority might actually care what I think!). I welcome feedback, questions, follow-up comments, etc. I'm not going

Election info

2008-10-27T12:07:00.002-04:00

For those of you in DeKalb County who aren't sure about things like your State House and Senate and County Commission and School Board Districts, here's a helpful site from the County:https://dklbweb.dekalbga.org/voter/street.htmI'm considering posting a list of my "endorsements", and will hopefully have something up on that soon.And as you vote, keep in mind the words of that sage political/

A new candidate

2008-10-08T00:35:00.002-04:00

Consider this option (click here).Oh yes, and more serious posts to follow soon.

Bono on the bailout, and Al Gore the rabble-rouser?

2008-09-25T15:51:00.003-04:00

Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative today, Bono said:"It is extraordinary to me that you can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can't find $25 billion to save 25,000 children who die every day of preventable treatable disease and hunger."Meanwhile, Al Gore spoke about the severity of the climate crisis and called for an uprising of direct action protests against the

Truthiness, circa 2008

2008-09-14T01:42:00.001-04:00

I have been doing my best to resist commenting on the Presidential election news cycles, being dominated as they have been by such inanities as porcine makeup. Yet I no longer can resist the onslaught of truthiness brought to bear by the Republican candidates. Yes, truthiness. Those of you who are fans of the Colbert Report know whereof I write. On its premiere episode, Stephen Colbert proclaimed

Meteorological mischief

2008-08-27T16:14:00.001-04:00

I’m an avid hurricane watcher. It comes from growing up in the path of so many tropical storms down in south Florida (where I grew up, Miami was the big city to the north of us). As a young child, I would map the progress of storms across the Atlantic Ocean and into the Caribbean Sea, plotting their coordinates and tracking their barometric pressure and maximum sustained winds at each reading.

VP...Then again...

2008-08-22T00:37:00.002-04:00

You know what? I'm starting to think it's Hillary. Listen to Obama's tone of late, and his populist economic rhetoric. Who better to help him with that theme than Hillary? When was the economy better in the last 15 years than under Bill? (Of course, he can't really take a lot of credit for that, as no President actually has that much control over general economic health, but that's another post.)

Oh, why not – VP predictions

2008-08-19T22:55:00.001-04:00

Chances are, by the time you read this Barack Obama will have announced his Vice Presidential selection. Nevertheless, I figured I’d join the cacophony of online voices making predictions about whom he will choose, so here are my various levels of prediction:Most likely: Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE). Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, solid resume (now that it’s honest), adds

Missing your Musings?

2008-07-25T18:20:00.002-04:00

The lazy days of summer have been anything but for yours truly, and thus I must apologize for my absence from this blog. You’ll probably have to put up with further absences over the next fortnight or so, as I will be traveling abroad and most likely will not have much chance for blogging. However, I’ll try to take some gorgeous travel pics and post them for your viewing pleasure.I decided I

AC Day Two

2008-06-18T21:21:00.002-04:00

Wow, another relatively unremarkable day at AC. Here’s your recap:The morning session included a great presentation from Emory Healthcare (no, really!). Emory’s representative highlighted their advances in various medical research fields, and briefly discussed the plans to expand the clinical campus. Some of the research they’re doing there is quite remarkable, and it’s nice to know that we as

Beer and grub at the Brick Store Pub

2008-06-17T23:19:00.010-04:00

I had the pleasure of attending a beer dinner at the Brick Store Pub last week. This was a five-course affair with paired beers, with all the beers being from the Highland Brewing Company out of Asheville, NC. Highland’s owner, Oscar Wong, was in attendance to discuss his beers and generally hold court. The Executive Chef at the Brick Store Pub is Eric Ottensmeyer. (Notice also the cool keychain

Annual Conference, Day One

2008-06-17T21:24:00.002-04:00

Here’s your update on the North Georgia United Methodist Church's Annual Conference proceedings from the first day. If I were writing this based solely on the proceedings themselves, I probably wouldn’t have much to say. It’s a very low-key year, particularly in comparison with last year’s election of delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conferences in which I took part as a candidate. Perhaps

To your health!

2008-06-04T13:41:00.004-04:00

According to the latest research, "Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human lifespan"! Previous studies of resveratrol and other red wine polyphenols that found positive results in mice (e.g., anti-aging and athletic enhancement effects) administered levels of resveratrol that were the equivalent of an average person's consuming 100 bottles of red wine per day, an

Neuro-mystical brain insights?

2008-05-28T17:19:00.002-04:00

OK, I'm intrigued by this video of Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, the Harvard-trained neuroanatomist who has been making waves of late with her new book that describes her own massive stroke and its effects on her brain and her perceptions of reality (you can get the higher-def version of the video here, if you have a fast connection). In brief, she considers the left side of the brain to control logic,

Dining at Home – Home Restaurant, that is…

2008-05-15T15:42:00.005-04:00

In another departure for my blogging, I’m switching back to a foodie discussion. This is a review of my recent dinner at Home Restaurant (the link actually goes to the restaurant group that runs Home, and it’s an annoying website, but I figured I’d toss it in anyway), the newest workplace of Richard Blais. Aside from being a quirky pioneer in the realm of what’s popularly known as “molecular

The end of the Democratic primary season, at last

2008-05-14T17:33:00.002-04:00

That title may seem a bit provocative and overreaching to some, until you read this news story. That's right, John Edwards plans to make it official this evening that he is endorsing Barack Obama for the nomination. The timing of this endorsement is clearly set to take the last bit of wind out of Clinton's sails, coming as it does on the heels of Clinton's blowout win in West Virginia yesterday

Yet more self-promotion

2008-05-14T11:38:00.002-04:00

Following up on some of those happenings at the United Methodists' General Conference, I sent a letter to the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, our local Methodist newspaper (yes, there are such things). I'm a little surprised that it was published given the mostly conservative nature of our neck of the Methodist woods, so we'll see if it stirs up some responses in the next issue. I've reprinted the

And now for something completely different...

2008-05-01T09:33:00.002-04:00

Allow me to take a moment out of my Christian/United Methodist theological reflections to wish all my pagan/Wiccan friends a blessed Beltane! (And yes, I mostly put that in there just in case there are any conservative Christian types - IRD, anyone? - reading my blog, so as to thoroughly piss them off if I hadn't done so already...)Did you know that in days gone by in Ireland, people would

Disappointing news from UMC General Conference

2008-04-30T18:29:00.002-04:00

Bear with me on the technical procedural language here. This afternoon, the quadrennial General Conference of the United Methodist Church voted to adopt the alternate minority report from the Church & Society 2 Committee regarding Paragraph 161G of the Book of Discipline. In short, what this means is that the United Methodist Church Book of Discipline retains the language that calls the practice

Why not, indeed!

2008-04-28T18:08:00.001-04:00

Remember the end of my previous rant where I suggested that perhaps “there will be a backlash against the conservative agenda, and miracles of inclusion and grace will occur at this year’s General Conference”? Well, guess what? The General Conference voted on the new members of the Judicial Council today (again, that’s the UMC’s version of the Supreme Court). The GC elected candidates supported

Political bribery, sure, but in the church?

2008-04-26T23:40:00.002-04:00

OK, this is going to be a rant, with PG-13 language advisory and all that jazz. This is one of those news stories that got me so incensed I was literally shaking with rage (that usually occurs with respect to something the church has done, but occasionally I get it from the Bush Administration also). It has to do with the quadrennial United Methodist General Conference, so if you’re not

More shameless self-promotion

2008-04-26T23:06:00.003-04:00

Recall the op-ed piece I referenced in my previous post, and then go check out my response via a letter to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (scroll down a bit to get to mine). Basically, I thought that Merritt was somewhat dismissive in his treatment of the "social issues" such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, human rights and peace with justice. He was shocked that self-identified Christians might deign to

And another thing...

2008-04-22T23:44:00.003-04:00

Check out this op-ed piece in last Saturday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, wherein the spokesman for the Southern Baptist Environment and Climate Initiative notes that some younger evangelicals are actually turning away from the Republican Party (horrors!) and are voting Democratic (anathema!). While he does make a few good points and he is helping bring the Baptists around to the issue of

PA redux

2008-04-22T23:41:00.002-04:00

OK, so it looks like I was off by about 2%, as the current results have Clinton winning 55% to 45%. However, I may wind up being right about how close the actual delegate tally will be - we'll have to wait a while to see how those come out. In any event, it's clear that this primary fight will continue for quite some time - that is, assuming Clinton can continue to receive the requisite funding.

Quick PA prediction(s)

2008-04-21T16:47:00.003-04:00

Because everyone else is doing it, I figured it would make sense for me to toss my free predictions (and remember that you get what you pay for) for Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary. In case you've been living on the dark side of the moon the last few weeks, Clinton and Obama have been going at each other with increasing intensity, having nothing else to do since there hasn't been a primary in six

And also...

2008-04-17T00:11:00.002-04:00

Oh yeah, and I'm pondering/ruminating/beginning to work on a book proposal. Currently it could go one of two ways - either as a straight-up spiritual guidebook, or as a spiritual memoir with some more didactic elements included for good measure. Either way, the gist of it will be something befitting this title:The One Theory: An East/West Spirituality for the Quantum AgeMore to come...

No really, I'm here!

2008-04-16T23:58:00.002-04:00

Apologies again for my absence. I was away at various beaches recharging the batteries, and since I've been back I've been in the middle of an intense workload (still in it, in fact, through tomorrow - anyone want to join me for a wine tasting Thursday evening to put the week behind me?). However, I had to share this tidbit with you. My comments? OMGWTF!! Watch and be amazed...

We Heart Hypocrites

2008-03-10T23:28:00.001-04:00

(Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to make a “heart” symbol, so I wrote out the word instead…)In some of the most entertaining political scandal news to emerge in some time, Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) has apparently been caught up as an alleged client in a high-end prostitution sting. The highest irony of this situation is that during his tenure as attorney general of New York, Mr. Spitzer was

(LDL + HDL) X Big Pharma = BS

2008-03-04T12:01:00.003-05:00

First, a necessary disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. You should not take anything in this post to be accurate medical advice, and you should not act upon anything you read herein without consulting a competent medical professional.OK, now that that’s out of the way, let me issue another warning: This long-winded post is neither particularly spiritual nor particularly political,

Alternate realities: A thought experiment

2008-02-21T11:07:00.001-05:00

As promised, here are some further musings about all this vibrational energies stuff. I’m going to outline a few different explanations of reality, and you can ponder on these and see which one most appeals to you.1) The universe was created by a Divine Being or Intelligence (we’ll call said Divine Being “God” for short), and the universe operates according to laws that God established. God

Apologies for my absence

2008-02-20T15:56:00.000-05:00

Alas, I have been away from writing for too long, but work, that “real” work that allows me to pay the mortgage and other bills, has been too busy the past few weeks. However, I should be facing a welcome lull for a bit, so I promise to get back to you, dear readers, with the various thoughts I’ve put off blogging about for these past weeks.Here are a couple of quick notes, first political, then

Political potpourri

2008-01-31T09:25:00.000-05:00

Having a few varied comments on the current state of political events, I thought I’d use this entry to share those random thoughts.Issue #1: Politicus interruptusThe past two weeks have seen a bevy of withdrawals from the Presidential race. Fred Thompson’s was not particularly surprising, after his dismal showing in South Carolina. Rudy Giuliani’s was a little more surprising, if only for the

Is it vacation time yet?

2008-01-29T10:22:00.000-05:00

I have tried to craft my work schedule in the model of Travis McGee, the star of 21 wise and entertaining novels by the late John D. MacDonald. McGee was a self-styled “salvage consultant” who lived in Fort Lauderdale (mostly) on a 52-foot barge-style houseboat won in a poker game (thus the vessel’s name, The Busted Flush). He was part old-school private detective, part knight errant, part

More election stuff

2008-01-27T22:56:00.000-05:00

For a great endorsement article bridging the generations, look at this:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/opinion/27kennedy.htmlAnd if you want an inspiring speech, here's Obama's victory speech in South Carolina:http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/samgrahamfelsen/CGxdgEnjoy!

Clinton & Clinton’s stratagem

2008-01-22T13:09:00.000-05:00

Identity politics has once again reared its ugly head in the Democratic Party. Wikipedia defines this concept as follows:Identity politics is political action to advance the interests of members of a group supposed to be oppressed by virtue of a shared and marginalized identity (such as race, gender, or orientation). The term has been used principally in United States politics since the

Sermon from today

2008-01-20T15:07:00.000-05:00

Here's the sermon I delivered today, with more people in attendance than I expected given the weather. And this is a link to the lectionary scriptures of the day. Enjoy - feedback welcomed.There’s one thing today’s scripture passages have in common – there’s a lot of name calling in them. I know, you didn’t hear that in them. That’s because I’m not talking about the kind of name-calling you hear

Checking in and priming the pump

2008-01-19T12:04:00.000-05:00

I know, I’ve been away from this blog far too long, and now I’m returning merely for instrumental purposes. That’s right, dear readers, I’m going to use you. Here’s the story: I need to write a sermon today (it’s OK, I’ve been working on it in my head for some time), and one bit of writing advice I’ve often heard is that one should do a little bit of “warm-up” writing before embarking on a

Faith in America?

2007-12-07T11:09:00.000-05:00

That’s the title of Governor Mitt Romney’s speech yesterday, in which he defended his religion and argued that it should not be a hindrance to his being elected President. (For those of you who weren’t aware, Romney is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons.) Many commentators have drawn parallels to John F. Kennedy’s speech to a group

Oh, evolve already!

2007-12-04T12:33:00.000-05:00

Can this still be going on? In Texas, the state science curriculum director has resigned under pressure “after being accused of creating the appearance of bias against teaching intelligent design.” In late October, Ms. Chris Comer forwarded an email about an upcoming lecture by Professor Barbara Forrest, a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University and a co-author of Inside

The Burger King and his serfs

2007-11-29T12:32:00.000-05:00

Those of you familiar with the United Methodist Church’s social justice programs may recall a church-endorsed boycott of Taco Bell a little while ago, based on that restaurant chain’s refusal to pay migrant tomato farm workers in Florida an extra penny per pound of tomatoes they harvested. Taco Bell (and McDonald’s) eventually relented, and are now paying that extra penny per pound in a manner

Too easy, but I couldn't resist

2007-11-20T16:56:00.000-05:00

Today's puzzle: How many turkeys can you find in the following picture?

Food and wine blogging

2007-11-16T21:49:00.000-05:00

This segment will soon be known as “What I’m drinking right now”. FYI, that’s a 2005 chateau-bottled Bordeaux, Chateau Pierredon to be specific. I picked up a few of these in the $9 to $13 range recently, in response to my spouse’s desire to have more French wines on hand. We have been drinking a lot of California and Spanish reds of late, most of which tend to be somewhat fruit forward, and said

Rain of God, part deux

2007-11-16T21:38:00.001-05:00

So Wednesday night it rained in the Atlanta area. You may recall that Governor Sonny Perdue gathered a group of dignitaries on the Capitol lawn to pray for rain the day before, in an effort to relieve the severe drought conditions. That’s right, God answered Sonny’s prayers…with a third of an inch of rain. Not exactly enough to cure the drought, but it was enough to have Sonny proclaim the next

The rain of God

2007-11-13T11:47:00.000-05:00

As many of you are already aware, the state of Georgia is facing a record drought that has caused significant declines in the levels of reservoirs that supply metropolitan Atlanta. The worst-case estimates of the remaining available water describe a scenario wherein Atlanta would run out of water in 80 days if the reservoirs are not replenished with sizeable amounts of rain.Can you imagine a

Reverend Dollar and Bishop Moneybags

2007-11-12T16:46:00.000-05:00

Senator Chuck Grassley of the good state of Iowa has apparently decided that ministers of the Christian gospel shouldn’t be getting rich off the donations of their flocks, at least not if they’re going to maintain tax-exempt status for their congregations. According to Sen. Grassley’s press release of November 6:Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, has asked six

How to lose a “sure thing” election

2007-11-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

Today being Election Day 2007 (not that I have any races in which to vote), I thought it would be a good time to lay out a vision of how the Democrats could once again manage to shoot themselves in their collective feet and wind up on their collective posteriors come Election Day 2008.One would think that given approval ratings for President Bush in the low to mid 30% range and with over

Power going to my head

2007-10-29T10:09:00.000-04:00

In a truly Colbert Bump moment, I stand in awe of the influence of my previous post about Greg Ryan (et al.), formerly coach of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team. I say formerly because apparently someone on the U.S. Soccer executive committee saw my post and responded appropriately, as Ryan is now out as the coach. No word yet on the successor, but they haven't yet called me to ask my advice.I wonder

Living in the past or the future?

2007-10-16T17:18:00.000-04:00

As promised, here’s a rant on our tendency to live in the past. You’ve heard it said that too many generals prepare to fight the last war (see, e.g., the Maginot Line). When your star center fielder, who has been with your team since he was 19 years old, is now a 30 year old who just had his worst offensive season ever and is showing signs of defensive decline also, are you the kind of General

A Nobel Undertaking – and the Road Not Taken

2007-10-16T16:46:00.001-04:00

As you’ve probably heard by now, former Vice President Al Gore is the co-recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. In awarding the Prize, the Nobel Committee said,Al Gore has for a long time been one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians. He became aware at an early stage of the climatic challenges the world is facing. His strong commitment, reflected in political activity,

Patriotism as fashion statement

2007-10-05T16:04:00.000-04:00

There they go again. The pseudo-patriots are all up in arms over Barack Obama’s recent comments about why he no longer wears an American flag lapel pin. In a recent campaign stop, Obama noted that he had been wearing a pin soon after 9/11, but he had stopped doing so because such symbols “became a substitute for, I think, true patriotism.” In a speech about the appalling state of veterans’ health

Virtue ethics and the candidates

2007-09-27T00:25:00.000-04:00

My main philosopher-king man KA has put forth a hypothesis, based on virtue ethics theory, that John Edwards is the best candidate for President. While I think that Edwards is an excellent candidate (and I have posted about him previously, and have given him my hard-earned money), I think that perhaps there is a slightly better candidate from a virtue ethics perspective.I speak of Senator Barack

And you thought flying coach was bad…

2007-09-04T19:35:00.000-04:00

The state airline of Nepal, Nepal Airlines Corporation, had been having recurrent problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft (NAC flies the 757-200M); reports indicated that the de-icing device was repeatedly malfunctioning. The airline’s engineers were stumped, until the chief engineer, one PBS Kansakar, found inspiration in a dream. He discussed his proposed solution with top management, who

A call to arms (figuratively, that is)

2007-09-03T09:54:00.000-04:00

Prompted by my man Keith’s blog entry on the apparent run-up to a massive bombing campaign against Iran and my reading of the most recent analyses, I’ve been pondering what I, or any of us, can do about this.Were I a member of the inner sanctum of the White House, the closest of advisors to President Bush, surely I could persuade him that this would be a monumentally, historically stupid thing to

He's not gay...

2007-08-30T08:42:00.000-04:00

My spouse, who wishes to remain blogosphere-anonymous at this point, came up with a fine rejoinder to Senator Craig's protestation "I am not gay" (see previous post for more details).Simply put, he does have a wife and several children and grandchildren. We believe what he's telling us. He's not gay...he's bisexual! This is clearly a heartfelt plea from a conservative Republican Senator for

Sometimes it’s too easy…

2007-08-28T22:32:00.000-04:00

I could go on about this, but let’s try to do it in an efficient manner.Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) pleaded guilty earlier this month to charges arising out of his arrest at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. The official charges were “misdemeanor disorderly conduct” The circumstances, according to the Washington Post, are as follows:Craig was arrested June 11 in an undercover sting operation

A modest proposal

2007-08-26T22:43:00.000-04:00

Here’s a simple solution for a complex issue. First, some background: I watched the Democratic Presidential candidates’ debate on Logo (the “gay” cable TV channel) a couple of weeks ago. Well, OK, it wasn’t exactly a debate, as each of the candidates appeared sequentially rather than together. All of the front-runners and most of the others went a long way toward supporting same-sex partnerships,

More imagery

2007-07-26T22:42:00.000-04:00

Then again, if you really want to ponder political resemblances, there are these images to consider - more available here...

To the hottie belongs the spoils?

2007-07-26T21:27:00.000-04:00

Ever since the Kennedy-Nixon debates, popular pundits have pontificated on the merits of a good-looking candidate. (Obviously, this was not much of a consideration for the country in the Lincoln-Douglas election.) But is this the ultimate example of style over substance? Or, is it simply a reflection of the realities of our current media era? Does the best-looking guy (or gal) always win? Do I

Or maybe the answer is "no religion"...

2007-07-21T16:32:00.001-04:00

You'll recall from my last post (or if you don't recall, scroll down to read it first) that in response to the Vatican's recent machinations I challenged my readers to go out and prove that the antidote to bad religion is good religion, rather than no religion. Note that I didn't endorse that assertion; rather, I asked that others take up the challenge to prove it (admittedly, more by their

I’d hate to see the false churches…

2007-07-19T00:39:00.000-04:00

I know that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have both riffed on these topics already, but I can’t resist adding my $0.02 worth. In an ironic coincidence of events that have to make one believe in divine intervention, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles agreed to a monumental settlement of sexual abuse claims less than a week after the Roman Catholic Church reaffirmed its stance as

Gearing up for Pride

2007-06-19T23:54:00.000-04:00

By the way, if you're looking for me this weekend, chances are you'll find me at our church's booth at the Atlanta Pride Festival. Pride is always a big fun time, and this year should be no different (and when did Debbie Gibson start calling herself "Deborah"?).Doubtless there are several churches that would question our presence at such an event - after all, doesn't the Bible consider

Other random notes

2007-06-19T23:49:00.001-04:00

Among my other accomplishments at Annual Conference this year, I managed to get Rex to go to not one, but two vegetarian restaurants, as well as a Japanese restaurant. I wasn't with him the night he went out for wings, however, so no fault of mine there.Be sure to check out my good friend Keith's new blog, Philosophy and Hoops - you can find a link on the left side of this page.Finally, feel free