Posted 10/12/2002 07:15:08 AM
Iraq War Not Justified, Church Leaders Say (washingtonpost.com)

why are American Evangelicals more likely to be pro-war than American Catholics or those from traditional denominations (Methodist, Episcopal, et al)?

last week we saw 450 clergy converge on D.C. to lobby against war. that same week we had Chuck Colson, James Kennedy, Bill Bright and a gaggle of other christpublicans writing to the White House to assure them that they are justified in going to war with Iraq. i understand that people disagree. i stand behind the right to. what i am wondering about is the propensity of a certain ilk of American Consumer Evangelical^TM (ACE) to be pro-war anytime America chooses to fight.

in the Washington Post article above, both the pro-war and the anti-war advocates use the Augustinian/Aquinian "just war" doctrine to make their case. the irony of the pro-war ACE men, who are themselves not big fans of the Catholic Church, using Augustine and Aquinas for their own political ends is amusing, but more to the point it is intriguing how these camps can exegete the same doctrine to, supposedly, bolster their side of this debate.

i am happy to see vocal disagreement. we need more of it. though, it is sad to say, this war seems all but paid for.

Posted 10/12/2002 06:41:07 AM
Bowling For Columbine : In Theaters October 2002

"Bowling for Columbine" was the first documentary film accepted into competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 46 years. It won the 55th Anniversary Special Jury Prize.

Posted 10/11/2002 11:29:55 PM
Tehran Times: Vatican Condemns Falwell's Anti-Islamic Remarks

i like Catholics when it comes to ecumenical issues. i like Iran when it comes to Islamic democracies. i find it fascinating that Iran has an ambassador to the Vatican. i've never really thought about that relationship before.

Posted 10/11/2002 11:01:08 PM

Posted 10/11/2002 08:58:36 PM
the laminar flow of isolationist communities is a thing of the past and perhaps the future. at this moment the mixing and impact between communities is a given.

Posted 10/11/2002 08:51:51 PM

The Lowest-Tech Atom Bomb

imagine the possibilities when the next rogue tyrant's bioweapons engineers have Microfluidics capabilities...

Posted 10/11/2002 05:14:49 PM

wow. google just impressed the socks off me yet again.

blinked in french!
blinked in spanish!

google's translation tools (beta).
the beta engine seems to stop translating about 3/4 of the way down the page.

this capability is very, very cool. it even translates links that you follow.
someone tell me how the translations are.

Posted 10/11/2002 02:41:51 PM
i just warchalked my condo.

Posted 10/11/2002 02:41:36 PM
spencer,

we need open 802.11b at soularize.

pretty please?

peace.d

_________________

in the likely event that spencer won't throw a wifi net together in three days...
wardriving Minneapolis...

Posted 10/11/2002 11:26:48 AM
{ when you can tell and keep secrets
when conversation is communion
when silence and speaking are one
when you see your children in their eyes
... }
this is love in our day

Posted 10/11/2002 11:01:06 AM
wow. i really need to finish getting my thoughts for soularize'02 on paper. it has proven harder than i expected. i generally work well without notes, but i am concerned that i will rabbit trail myself into not covering my topic ("authority, identity and the other kingdom") if i don't manuscript this puppy. anyway, the muse is dancing someplace else beacause this has become work... someone inspire me.

Posted 10/11/2002 10:58:30 AM
feeling uninspired
think i'll start a fire...

Posted 10/11/2002 10:57:33 AM
we saw the mask of beauty and the beast last night at the roberson. it was a well acted, 59 minute, one act play. sarah has the theatre bug ever more acutely now.

Posted 10/11/2002 10:16:26 AM

paymystudentloan.com

one more in the long line of "help me, i'm poor" sites. yeah, i know. me too. i expect some link love for this. i feel so dirty. what pushed me over the line to reference this? was it david's email asking for support? no. was it the many other's who have posted about this? no. was it my sick gut feeling that i will be doing something as aggresive as this soon? perhaps. was it watching david snatch high school girl's purses...oh yeah, that did it for me.

Posted 10/11/2002 10:15:45 AM
BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Father's surprise: call-girl daughter

like judah, like...

Posted 10/11/2002 09:20:37 AM
NYT: U.S. Has a Plan to Occupy Iraq, Officials Report
MSNBC: Report: U.S. mulls Iraq occupation

"A dabgum war ain't imminent. We need us some time to plan that their occupation." -w

I am viscerally opposed to a prolonged occupation of a Muslim country at the heart of the Muslim world by Western nations who proclaim the right to re-educate that country.
-Henry A. Kissinger, former USoA Secretary of State

Posted 10/11/2002 09:11:38 AM

Posted 10/11/2002 09:02:44 AM
i just got an email from Expedia that looks like an autoresponse from a online customer support ticket. the only thing is that i did not submit it... the reply includes the supposed request for support which was sent at 05:46am today, supposedly from my email account and supposedly regarding the Klez.E worm. interesting. i was not even awake at 05:46am, nor were any of my machines on. hmm.

the english on the faux support request is awkward in an ESL sense. there was no payload on the 3k email. and the only link was a Hotmail response URL. hmm.

Posted 10/10/2002 10:45:55 PM
odd google query of the week: "Jewish Anime" - blinked is #3... the log files never lie.

Posted 10/10/2002 10:24:15 PM
The Onion | Temp Hides Fun, Fulfilling Life From Rest Of Office

"They wanted to go for the brass ring and really live the good life," Braxton said. "What they don't seem to get is that the key to living the good life is to avoid that brass ring like the fucking plague."

nice. by way of sotto. of course.

Posted 10/10/2002 04:55:03 PM
It is not a victory to strike down one tyrant and breed 10,000 terrorists.
- Jay Inslee, Representative from Washington

Posted 10/10/2002 01:19:46 PM
current mp3:
apocalyptica::path

Posted 10/10/2002 11:49:52 AM
the cross and being right

ask most people who claim the word christian as a self designation and they will tell you that the cross is about being right. they are right and that is what it is all about. jesus died to be their personal lord and savior. they believe that sentence and repeated it with as much contrition as they could muster as they mouthed it in the prayer-speak vocabulary of the religious professional that was helping them get to heaven. now they are right. and that is what it is all about.

jesus didn't say believe in my cross. the cross was not jewelry or warm fuzzy political-religious symbolism to jesus. the cross was inefficient public death. carrying a cross was simply the final enactment of a life lived for others. jesus did not say believe in my cross. jesus said take up your own.

the cross is the symbolic and actual end of a life lived selflessly. the cross is more about the life that led up to it than it is about the last moments that it takes. the cross is about the how of our lives. the cross is about throwing out the money changers. the cross is about stopping an execution (she was guilty by the way). the cross is about telling the religious elite that they have to completely reawaken to life (you must be born again). the cross is about surrendering your right to strike back. the cross is about embracing the social pariah at the doorstep of the empowered. the cross is about living in ways that speak of the kingdom of the impossible and make those invested in the power structures of this world uncomfortable, angry and convicted.

when the cross became about being right it was emblazoned on the shields of christian rome as she carried out acts of domination.

we do not find the narrow way by being right. this path is about being right.

Posted 10/10/2002 11:05:09 AM
it is time.

one will never carry a cross
that does not live out
patterns of life
that privilege the oppressed.
these patterns
call into question the
structures that perpetuate
the status of the elite.
this is action worthy of a cross.

it is time.

Posted 10/10/2002 10:57:09 AM
proposition in idiosyncratic christianese:

Posted 10/10/2002 10:50:15 AM
slower, smaller, local... impact.

Posted 10/10/2002 10:04:00 AM
someone cut me off in traffic this morning.
maybe it was terrorism.
i think it was.

Posted 10/9/2002 07:58:04 PM
Salon.com closed at .01 USD on the 4th. it was up to .06 USD last i checked.

you could have bought a million shares for a mere 10K at close on the 4th or intraday (probably) any day between then and now and sold them today for a tidy 50K profit. hehe. if you could find a buyer... oh, the joys of penny stocks... soon to be delisted and bankrupt or scrapped to the highest bidder.

i'm taking TheyBlinked public at the end of our fiscal year.

maybe i'll have my attorneys put together an offer to buy Salon in exchange for ad space on Blinked. who knows, they might go for it. it would be nice to save one of the old, helpless dotcoms. kinda my random act of kindness for the evening. i'll let you know how it goes.

Posted 10/9/2002 07:03:22 PM
The Death Clock via indigo

i have been reading through some of indigo's heady writing tonight. i enjoy reading those who honor language with irony.

Posted 10/9/2002 06:28:35 PM
ayesha is in her physical/logical design period. everything is sculpture: her diet dr pepper can with metal inside--a pen top and pliers connected to the tab; her two tublas with light blue socks draped over them in the center of the room. and everything is patterns. she is loving set logic. we walk the aisles of target and she is creating logical arrays to hold the products. ayesh is 5, btw.

Posted 10/9/2002 05:44:39 PM
current.mp3:
trust.company::hover

Posted 10/9/2002 05:11:30 PM
we must forget

Posted 10/9/2002 12:48:35 PM

...all articulated knowledge is socially constructed. we bring our experience of authority structures (home, government, church, gang). we bring our secret fears of rejection and our unspoken hopes for acceptance. we all have our favorite metaphor for god--the loving father (jesus), the father who abandons (tyler durden), the passive santa claus (many mainstream denominations), the angry giant in the sky (jack in the bean stock), the lover (gibran, solomon, rumi), the unjust judge (jesus), the force (star wars), the vindictively holy avenger (jonathan edwards), et al.

there is no god-like perspective. we all dwell in the ever unfolding genealogy of knowledge/unknowing. this is the arena of faith.... our presuppositions matter. we cannot get outside of them, but we can begin to recognize them more fully and select them more intentionally.

from a post on the postmodern theology board today.

Posted 10/9/2002 12:37:31 PM
current mp3:
stavesacre::witch.trial

Posted 10/9/2002 11:14:18 AM
Sojourners: A World At Odds - Conscience in a Time of Terror

a fascinating collection of essays, interviews and dialogues around the topics of peace, war, belief and the economy.

karen armstrong participates in a dialogue on fundamentalism, pluralism, and the modern world in which she says, "every fundamentalist movement that I've studied—in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—is rooted in a profound fear. They are convinced, even here in the United States, that modern liberal secular society wants to wipe out religion in some way or is destructive to faith."

this is a rabbit trail, but that fear of which karen speaks is a profound critique of much that passes as religion in our time. her insights should not be brushed off lightly.

Posted 10/9/2002 08:38:21 AM
i'm calm like a bomb.
ignite.

Posted 10/8/2002 10:20:15 PM

"Unfamous Quotations" - Quotations by people who are not famous

Gary Turner is collecting quotes from those of us who didn't do something famous 300 years ago.

i like David Weinberger's reinvention of the old Andy Warhol classic:

In the future, everyone will be famous to 15 people on the Web.

Posted 10/8/2002 09:17:04 PM

pure evil or plain idiocy? Plain Humor
this is a very good farce... or perhaps not good enough as it was far too believable.

Homeland Security Cultural Bureau:
Securing the Homeland Through Culture

many thanks to the illustrious daniel.miller for a great email regarding a specific article that with the most knee-jerk "scholarship" implicates postmodern thought (which the author confuses with simple nihilism...) in 9/11! the article on cultural sabatoge intrigued me. it is as if Fight Club was just released into beltway theatres and it frightened some of the empowered who realized that they were the police commissioner on the floor in the men's room...

i hope that we will be laughing about this in ten years and not be in the midst of a guerilla campaign against the nuAmericana-KGB carrying out the Purpose and Activities of the HSCB.

PURPOSE: To protect the interests of the country's national security by employing efforts to direct and guide the parameters of cultural production.

ACTIVITIES: To explore issues, conduct studies and analysis, locate and eliminate projects and institutions which undermine national security....

Posted 10/8/2002 02:22:13 PM

from a letter to my Senators dated September 8, 2002

<snip>...
It is difficult to measure the outcomes of our national postures and actions, nonetheless, wise women and men from all quarters are warning that the Doctrine of Preemption in general and a war with Iraq, under the present circumstances, in particular will act as seedbed for future, more devastating, violence against the United States and her allies. Please hold high the Constitution of the United States of America and the opinions of these great men and women in all of your deliberations about whether to support the Preemptive Doctrine.
...</snip>

Posted 10/8/2002 01:28:28 PM

The real problem, I believe, is not weapons of mass destruction. Its the stories we tell ourselves. And by "we" I mean everybody. It is in pursuit of our stories that we use our weapons.

Posted 10/8/2002 12:49:47 PM

the idea of a portfolio of responsibility is appealing to me. i first came upon this idea in diplomatic circles. the work of diplomacy is a non-linear, incarnational work. the best diplomats are those for whom their work is their life. not in the old sense of life being truncated down to the time clock expectations of organizational work, but rather in a creative life of engagement that blows down the walls that define rigid patterns of busyness that have come to define work.

non-linear:: diplomacy has never moved to the rhythms of industrial sensibilities about work. there are no clocks or manufacturing assembly lines; nor clear delimitation of work from the rest of life. diplomacy is a living reimagining of work as cycles of responsibility that emerge from a life that is fully invested in what is around it. these cycles of responsibility are about new ways of seeing, dialoguing, meeting and publicly speaking about relationships between people, organizations and nations.

incarnation:: the best diplomats are fluid networkers, subtle change-agents, revolutionary listeners--none of which can be carried on, in a sustainable manner, without being a person of multiple worlds. a person who can, at once, live in the mental worlds of their home that they represent and that of their new home that they also represent. a diplomat without honor for some positive vision of the place from which she comes whores out her deepest values. a diplomat without an affinity for the country in which she works is a splinter in the eye of two nations.

diplomacy is asynchronous. it flows in multiple stops and starts without common clock. the only reference point in diplomacy is the diplomat herself and the relative ground realities of the communities in which she is invested. while a "portfolio of responsibility" may not be a compelling metaphor for the life and work of everyone, it seems to be a way of viewing life that at once sets one's identity outside of the mundane things that one must accomplish each day and yet requires that one be invested in the work they have chosen more fully than cubical dwellers.

i like it.

so, not being a diplomat for any particular national entity, i yet ask myself, "what is your portfolio of responsibility looking like?"

Posted 10/8/2002 11:57:45 AM
Amersham Biosciences

attempts to influence fascinate me. take this image to the left. ostensibly, this model is playing the role of a biosciences professional named "Natasha" (a wild guess from the .jpg filename). she appears on a page of the Amersham Biosciences site. she is a visual attempt to influence site visitors to "register now for the free... proteomics seminar in your town!"

wow! a proteomics seminar?!? only a certain geek demographic even finds sites like this--not to mention actually attends events of this nature. the fascinating thing is how body, youth and desire are used in an effort to influence decision.

Natasha is a very good looking scientist. i have been around a lab or two and i have yet to see Natasha waltz in. Natasha stands with a nonchalance that communicates informality and intimacy that is a common element in lifestyle product marketing, but until recently had very little currency in "life science advertising" (if there even was such a thing). Natasha is young. early twenties. and professional... she has a lab coat--despite the hip speckles--to prove it. what most fascinates me about the use of Natasha in this proteomics tour promotion is the slight abdominal skin that can be seen where her hand rests on her hip.

sex sells. even, or perhaps especially, in the biosciences. heck procreation is what bioscience is about, right?

Posted 10/8/2002 11:03:13 AM
New Scientist: Human handshake opens data stream

10 megabit over skin? wow. that is a breakthrough in so many areas...

Posted 10/8/2002 10:39:07 AM

September 27, 2002 - Freedom Plaza

two weeks ago i was illegally arrested... (more)

Posted 10/8/2002 10:34:42 AM
Jealous? Maybe It's Genetic. Maybe Not.

this is a fascinating NYTimes article that continues the debate regarding the possibility of innate differences between the sexes. i especially enjoyed the wrench of culture that was thrown into the works when these experiments were taken to China and other Asian lands. i think that, at the least, this potentially shows how mimetic evolution is as crucial (if not more crucial from where we are today) in determining transformative agency and predispositional causation as genetic-biological/chemical evolution.

Posted 10/8/2002 10:19:05 AM
Radiohead's Antivideos: Works of Art in the Age of Electronic Reproduction
via the tsk from the latest P M C issue.

Posted 10/8/2002 09:40:25 AM

Checklist For Active Resistance
To The Preemptive Doctrine

1. Understand the situation. Read Abraham Lincoln's thoughts on the preemption doctrine along with some other people's thoughts (one such person and another).
   
2. Call Senator Robert Byrd's Washington office at 202-224-3954. He is a lone voice in opposition to what is happening in both Congree and the White House with regard to Iraq and the Doctrine of Preemption. Ask Senator Byrd to continue his push to question this new doctrine on Constitutional grounds. No excuses--you can afford the 10 cents a minutes.
   
3. Contact your Senator/Congressperson. Writing hand written letters or calling their office directly is always best. Emails and faxes are ok, but not as powerful as letters or calls.
   
4. Call the White House's opinion hotline at 202-456-1111.
   
5. Should your conscience permit, consider signing these petitions or pledges:
   
   • MoveOn
     
   • Not In Our Name
     
   • Peace Pledge
     
   • Pledge of Resistance
     
   • NoVote
     
   
   
6. MARCH
   
7. organize, think, act
   

Posted 10/8/2002 08:49:59 AM

'Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure... The provision of the Constitution giving the war-making power to Congress, was dictated, as I understand it, by the following reasons: Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to frame the Constitution so that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us. But your view destroys the whole matter, and places our President where kings have always stood.'

- Abraham Lincoln

thank you Senator Byrd

Posted 10/7/2002 02:16:55 PM

DERRIDA {the movie}

i have been waiting to see this for two years.

Posted 10/7/2002 12:38:42 PM

"the mainstream is just ever
more costly,
more formulaic,
more cluttered with special effects."
-robert redford

true, so true. . . .

Posted 10/7/2002 06:24:14 AM

my name is dan hughes and i have too much stuff.

Storage units, the creeping menace

...suddenly everybody wanted not just a place to live but a lifestyle. People who once simply cooked started using words like “braise” and “lemongrass” and buying enameled French cookware and cappuccino makers.

And whether it was cooking, biking, gardening or yacht-building, the modern lifestyle demanded a certain amount of equipment. And the stuff needed a place to go. That’s when storage became linked with what SSA President Michael Kidd calls “lifestyle management.”

the hidden cost of too much stuff

Posted 10/6/2002 10:17:59 PM
better is one day...

Posted 10/6/2002 04:32:48 PM

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Theologian of the Year

Posted 10/6/2002 04:10:49 PM

bush doctrine of preemption = new world order of american imperialism

the presumption that underlies the posture of preemption articulated by george w. bush seems to speak to a dangerous misunderstanding/miscalculation at the base of the administration's assessment of the sources of what has been broadly termed terrorism. terrorism is more often than not a violent response to a sense of injustice. this explanation does not excuse those who act in such ways, but it should bring pause to those empowered to respond to terrorist situations. a response that is blindly unilateral from powers considered, in many quarters, to be abusive and more widely perceived as imperialistic will only foment a reaction in the world that will contribute toward creating the very outcome that is being thrown up as the justification for unilateral, undeclared war. this posture could prove to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. the attempt to suppress terrorist acts, by force before they happen, will create even more fertile ground from which violence against the united states will grow.

the USoA may not colonize like the former British Empire yet the imperial machinations of the way of the USoA at this moment are little different. under the rhetoric of "civilization against the barbarian" and simplistic "good versus evil" banners the rights of sovereign nations, the individual civil rights of citizens of the USoA and the collective human rights of citizens of the planet Earth are being trampled at will.

there is a fine line to walk. there are no easy answers. that is what concerns me the most about bush. he seems to think that he has easy answers.

empire is built on the backs of the oppressed. may we learn to truly embody, in the frightening details of real human living, liberty and justice for all.

America, America God shed his grace on thee.

Posted 10/6/2002 12:08:22 PM

toinspireratherthannumbtobeinspired
ratherthannumbstorieskeepusmoving
povertyoftheimaginationstallsthemove
mentsthatinspireourhumanitytofundthe
imaginationistherevelationandinspiration
ofahumanehumanityyetunborn

to inspire rather than numb
to be inspired rather than numb
stories keep us moving
poverty of the imagination
stalls the movements
that inspire our humanity
to fund the imagination
is the revelation and inspiration
of a humane humanity yet unborn

Posted 10/6/2002 11:40:36 AM

Posted 10/6/2002 08:33:20 AM

i read joho's blog entry from sunday this morning and was very happy to see him bring up the topic of tyrannical persecution in africa. africa's largest nation has been at war for over 45 years. the genocide in the Sudan has cost the lives of over 2 million people. genocide is not a word i use lightly. people are being exterminated or enslaved because they are black african christians or animists. villages have been trucked to the desert to die; leaders have been crucified; men have been slaughtered in mass and woman and children sold into slavery; gang rape has been common--where is the outcry?

especially among muslims??

Posted 10/6/2002 08:32:56 AM

The Case for a Religion Attaché

The U.S. needs to elevate the consideration of religious factors in foreign policy. Appointing religion attachés to gather information in key countries would be a key step toward this end.

via the USAID Islam and Conflict site.

Posted 10/6/2002 08:11:19 AM

beauty is the unusual; that which is near enough to be plausible yet far enough to be exotic.