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Social Sciences
March 18, 2010
Are Gay Bashers Hiding Something?
A friend directed my attention towards a very interesting and evocative letter to the editor in today’s Lancaster New Era (a local newspaper). The subject: Homophobia. I’ll get to the article quickly, but first, how about a clear, concise definition of homophobia? Here is one from Wikipedia:
Homophobia: Homophobia is a term for a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards homosexuality and people identified or perceived as being homosexual. Definitions of the term refer variably to antipathy, contempt, prejudice, aversion, and irrational fear. Homophobia is observable in critical and hostile behavior such as discrimination and violence on the basis of a non-heterosexual orientation. Read more…
March 14, 2010
The Death of Book Stores?
Will ereading devices like the Kindle and Nook kill bookstores as we presently know them? It’s an interesting question, is it not? It’s completely possible too. I am a serious aficionado of books, but my last two major relocation projects have softened my once staunch stance against the idea of electronic books. I used to be a die-hard defender of the romantic idea of a physical codex that I could actually rescue from its dusty and dormant existence on my unfinished pine book shelf, but if I ever have to move my massive collection of codices again, it will be too soon. I love collecting books; I hate moving them! The thought of owning and storing thousands of electronic books on a single hand-held device is an alluring one, for sure. So, I can’t help but imagine my future home library being stored on a Kindle or Nook or one of the many other ereading devices that are rapidly being introduced to the book buying world. Read more…
March 9, 2010
Military chaplain fights Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Violation
Seriously? The following story confuses and frustrates me on so many levels. Why are we still wrestling with this issue? Why is it still a question? Why are people, like Aris Fokas, who have shown that they are extremely competent and called, dismissed from their duties because of their sexual orientation? “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is wrong. Period. It should be repealed. Read more…
March 3, 2010
A Voluntary Euthanasian Ethic
I just found an old essay living an an even older hard drive that has been buried under a dusty pile of books in the attic. I wrote this essay way back in January of 2004. The topic: Voluntary Euthanasia. I’m not even sure I still hold the same views and opinions that I held concerning Euthanasia, but it is interesting to re-read old personal expressions and gauge just how much one’s expression has changed over time.
Note: My style has improved over the years too. I have neither the energy, nor the desire to edit the following essay properly, so it appears just as I wrote in 2004. Do forgive my past addiction to ellipses, mechanical verbiage, making up words and general wordiness. I exhaust myself reading myself in my former style. I apologize in advance. Read more…
January 13, 2010
The Venus Project
There is something extraordinary happening on a 21.5 acre Research Center located in Venus, Florida. It’s called The Venus Project. Read more…
November 14, 2009
A Joel Pett Cartoon
Abortion
By Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader
From the Cartoonist Group.
I advocate for and believe in the sanctity of life but the above cartoon raises a great point that should not be missed in the current debate concerning health-care reform.
October 24, 2009
Nonviolent Resistance as Third Way
Nonviolent Resistance
Walter Wink’s Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way is an excellent introduction to the social and spiritual ethic of nonviolence and nonviolent resistance.
Wink’s big picture focus in this little book is fixed upon coloring impossible the vain attempt to separate Jesus of Nazareth and his inspired expression from power politics and nonviolence. One cannot embrace Jesus’ program and simultaneously refuse the nonviolent requirements upon which it is inherently founded. Trying to do so makes about as much sense as attributing the nonviolent salvation Jesus proclaimed to a God who required violence before the salvation could be realized by those who are supposedly being saved. Read more…
October 11, 2009
U.S. Conservapedians Want to Rewrite the Bible
The American Jesus
Conservapedians have already translated over 10% of the New Testament: 1093 out of about 8000 verses. Participate in the Conservative Bible Project by translating the Conservative Bible while this project is still young!
That’s the headline proudly published at the right top of the front page over at Conservapedia, an online encyclopedia (ala Wikipedia) composed of articles written from a conservative viewpoint. The headline excerpted above is linked to a project that Conservapedians simply call the Conservative Bible Project. The Conservative Bible Project’s main goal is to create a truly conservative Bible by creating a translation that is free of liberal bias, wordiness, emasculation and the general dumbing down of the Old and New Testaments. Read more…