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Empty barrels make the most noise.

EMPTY BARRELS MAKE THE MOST NOISE

I grew up on a resort in the mountains, and we’d have a dozen barrel-sized trash cans filled with kitchen waste behind the dining hall building. There were always a few empty cans as well. We’d also be visited regularly by black bears in the middle of the night. When the bears tipped over the cans that were full, you would not be able to hear them because the contents of the can would muffle the sound. But when they...

МАТЬ РОССИЯ

Лидеры семи африканских стран призвали сегодня президента России Владимира Путина прекратить войну в Украине, ссылаясь на “большую нестабильность и вред для различных стран по всему миру”. Это происходит на фоне того, что президент Путин подтвердил начало размещения тактического ядерного оружия в Беларуси. Это не приближает мир к миру. Для большей части мира (включая Запад) нестабильность, о которой говорил президент ЮАР Сирил Рамафоса, исходит, я полагаю, от экономических санкций. Для Африки вред исходит от повсеместного голода. Сегодня я прочитал, что в...

DJT: Hammer of God?

THE HAMMER OF GOD?

Last weekend, Donald J. Trump, the forty-fifth President of the U.S. spoke at a scaled down annual convention of political conservatives.  Known as CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee), the one-time president had received warm welcomes there before.  Last weekend was no exception as candidate Trump was in fine form. Could this man really lead us? Is he a prophet? The hammer of God? If you expected that a leopard can readily change its spots (Jeremiah 13:23), you were likely disappointed.  Mr. Trump launched...

THE END OF INNOCENCE

You may have seen recent references to Winnie the Pooh or the early version of Mickey Mouse, known almost a century ago as Steamboat Willie.  These cultural icons are making the news because they are soon to be (if not already) in the public domain.  This means that within certain guidelines or restrictions, people can use these caricatures for their own private purposes. Perhaps someone may wish to advertise their day care center or babysitting service with a cartoon of Winnie the Pooh.  Someone...

48,000 B.C.

48,000 B.C.

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was visible from the Northern Lattitudes last night and Tuesday night as well, though the waxing gibbous moon may have made it more difficult to locate. It was particularly interesting because of its green tint. According to Time magazine, “Comets flare green when they carry diatomic carbon—two-atom carbon molecules—which reacts with the sun’s outgassing particles, the solar wind.” Because it passed so close to the sun, the color was more vivid than it might have been...

WE’RE ALL MAD HERE!!!

Lewis Carroll once wrote about a topsy-turvy world called “Wonderland,” where critical thinking, sanity, societal norms and human decency were in short supply. Alice was a young, naive, impressionable girl who one fine day curiously followed a strangely adorned white rabbit down its hole and from that point on, she seemed completely disoriented and lost her bearings. There, in Wonderland, she met such strange creatures as the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. She...

The Coming Storm

THE COMING STORM

This past summer, the elusive Q returned (or not, depending on who you ask.) If you missed his return, you might be excused, because a lot has happened to his community since December 2020 when he first disappeared. But Q’s presence is beginning to coalesce and gain critical mass once again thanks to the 45th President of the United States and his recent rally in Pennsylvania. Prepare for the coming storm. The illustration below is a rudimentary representation of the...

Men were born free

“MAN IS BORN FREE; AND EVERYWHERE HE IS IN CHAINS.”

These are the famous words of the great Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) writing in his best known book The Social Contract. And today, more than ever, these words are true. Rousseau, like other humanists of the eighteenth century envisioned the concept of a “noble savage,” though I’m not sure Rousseau ever used that particular term. But he pictured early man as wandering the earth free from all constraints (borders and fences, indentures and allegiances, taxes and so on) taking...

Mythology of War

THE MYTHOLOGY OF WAR

In a widely read interview with Politico Magazine, Dr. Fiona Hill, former Senior Director at the National Security Council and a Russian policy expert said of Vladimir Putin on the eve of his invasion of Ukraine: “I’ve kind of quipped about this but I also worry about it in all seriousness — that Putin’s been down in the archives of the Kremlin during Covid looking through old maps and treaties and all the different borders that Russia has had over...

The Church and the Charioteer

THE CHURCH AND THE CHARIOTEER

Once again, I’d like to borrow, perhaps misappropriate an allegory from Plato (this time from Phaedrus, sections 246a–254e). My readings many years ago of the early church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Eusebius, Augustine and others convinced me that there was a certain admiration for Plato back then and a usefulness in his writings when contrasted–or even compared–with the Gospel. In this post, I’d like to borrow Plato’s charioteer illustration. In so many words, Plato speaks of a charioteer driving...

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