wpeltz's blog

Rand Paul seems to be an innovator in religion, as well as in economics, sociology, and anthropology. His perceptions transcend the parochial traditionalism of religious icons like Jesus, not to mention the commonplaces of moral philosophers and economic analysts like Adam Smith or the cliches of Marxist analyses of alleged "classes".

Yesterday, gold futures hit $1300 per ounce for the first time ever. The investors and speculators known as "Gold Bugs" are thrilled, as are those who see this new record as an omen of impending economic and political disaster that will validate their criticisms of the vast Democrat-liberal-socialist-communist-fascist-Kenyan-Muslim-ObaMaoist America-hating conspiracy.

If the Holy Spirit spoke through Glenn Beck, or through any part of his "Restoring Honor" event, I didn't hear the words. Or the tune. Maybe others did.

Glenn Beck is certainly aiming high. Tonight, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, he will "help heal your soul" at his "America's Divine Destiny" event. Then tomorrow, at his "Restoring Honor" event at the Lincoln Memorial, he expects the Spirit to speak.

Jim asked, among other pertinent questions, "When will Crossleft users be let into the discussion?"  Why isn't this discussion taking place on Crossleft now?  I think it might generate interest and ideas.

Anyone who, like me, is signed up for news from a lot of political websites has been receiving many enthusiastic victory messages from supporters of Healthcare Reform, celebrating the House's actions yesterday. As a reality check, here's a statement from Physicians for A National Health program:

"As much as we would like to join the celebration of the House's passage of the health bill last night,
in good conscience we cannot. We take no comfort in seeing aspirin dispensed for the treatment of cancer.

Bud Stark has written several good blogs on issues of theology, designed universe, science, and first things. God vs Stephen Hawking's Unbound Theory, Richard Dawkins, Witness to Eden, and Weinberg vs a designed universe.

A fundamental point is that there's no good scientific explanation for why anything exists. But the problem extends farther than that.

My daughter expressed the issue in its most unsophisticated and unanswerable terms when she was 6 or 7. She was riding in the back seat with one of her brothers and with another in a child's car seat in the front (this was before child seats were mandated to go in the back seat). My wife, running late on errands, was making a left turn at rush hour at a particularly busy intersection (N. Mills, along the railroad tracks, and Fortification, for anyone who's familiar with Jackson MS). As she finally started to pull out into the intersection, Liz piped up, without any preliminaries, with "what I want to know is who made God?" Janet kept her eyes on the road and the oncoming traffic.

Today, a friend of mine posted a link to an article about an upcoming execution. It grabbed my attention for no particular reason and I looked up the case.

What I found is that yet another young black man is scheduled to be executed on dubious grounds, in Texas on October 27th. Reginald Blanton is 28 years old and has been in prison for the last 10 years and on Death Row for 8 years. He lost an appeal based on the exclusion ofl African-Americans from his jury. The evidence against him in the drug-related murder of one of his friends, however, is beyond shoddy.

Information about his case is at: http://www.everyonegroup.com/everyone/MainPage/Entries/2008/8/20_Campaig...

There's a link to a petition there, and there's also another petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/808096653. The two petitions have only 697 signatures at present. A support group in Austin TX is mobilizing for a call-in tomorrow: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=299865150353&ref=nf.

Originally published at Brother Billy's Bible Blog

"I could fly like a bird. I could bark like a big black dog. I could sleep like a baby in a crib."

Not much to this little song sung 50 years ago by my oldest son when he was three. It was, I think, the only song he ever made up, music not being his great gift. (Logic and computers are his major things.) The tune was simple and chant-like, with asymmetric accents on each indefinite article. And I still remember it. His song struck me at the time as a neat little expression of what people are looking for; a summary of what the child (and the child in us) feels and wants to keep feeling.

Stevie sang this as he and I walked east on W. 95th St. in Manhattan, towards Broadway, on a bright cool morning. A pigeon had fluttered up from the sidewalk in front of us and flew up and away over the brownstone rowhouses. Then a dog started barking quite cheerfully from a first floor window in a brownstone on the other side of the street. His tail was wagging; there was no hint of aggression in his tone. Just announcing his presence.

It was a good time to be out and about in the world with Daddy right there for protection.