BOO!

This is the eve of All Saints Day.  In the middle ages, evidently the belief was that All Saints Day was an especially holy day.  The faithful throughout the world would be honoring the Saints and the Saints would be interceding for the faithful, and the powers of darkness would be banished, at least temporarily.  [...]

Ostracized

Usually Joe is the first to send me new archaeology finds, but this time my daughter Heidi beat him by a few minutes.  They both sent me a report that yesterday archaeologists in Israel reported finding the oldest Hebrew inscription to date, in the valley of Elah where David met Goliath.  (Click on the tab [...]

Sweet Lectures

Leonard Sweet was a guest lecturer on our campus the past two days.  Last night he spoke on facing storms.  He said the only way to survive a “perfect storm” is to head straight into it; ships that hug the harbor get smashed to pieces.
He wrote the book Soul Tsunami, by the way, ten years [...]

A Little Help from my Friends

Check out this clip on how we can stop Global Warming.  For more info, go to Green Peace.

Meanwhile, here are Garrison Keillor’s thoughts on the current election campaign.
I suspect the extra “Pages” on this site don’t get used often.  This is just a reminder that I have updated the “Friend’s Finds” [...]

Keeping a Perspective

In about a week I will be casting a vote that will influence this boy’s life, one way or another.  What kind of world will he grow up in?  Of course, many other factors will affect the world he grows up in, besides the election.
I may not post as often as I otherwise would, because [...]

Four Rules for Interpreting the Bible

Here are four rules for interpreting the Bible that I teach my students, along with the acronyms that help them remember them.
1.  Do No Harm (DNH).  This is the first rule of any profession, and the Bible itself warns against twisting its words in a way that causes harm.  Judaism taught this principle, based on [...]

The Metaphorically Challenged

Here is a quotation from an atheist, explaining why he decided Christian faith is nothing but superstition:
We now know that our brain is the seat of thinking and of our emotions.  Modern artificial heart transplants now adequately debunk these beliefs, for we can do just fine without our own hearts.  Therefore, it is nonsensical to [...]

A wee bit mair fonetiks

I’m enjoying my phonetics class.  This is an easy week for me; my students are giving reports.  Today we heard about Korean, Kiswahili, German, and Hindi.  Megan introduced us to an online tutorial from the University of Iowa.  It includes a graphic display of the organs of speech in action, plus audio and video of [...]

Still Learning to Speak

I’m teaching phonetics this semester, which is a new experience.  I have had some linguistics study in the past, and bits and pieces in the study of several ancient (and a few modern) languages–but I’ve never actually taken the course I’m teaching–so I’m learning from my students.  This week they are doing reports, so I’m [...]

Taxman (Voodoo Economics -4)

No one likes paying taxes–even the Beatles had a song against the “Taxman.”
Yet, someone has to pay for the services government provides.  Voodoo economics has waged a war against taxes for nearly thirty years.  It is now considered unpatriotic to pay taxes.  Taxes are called a penalty for success.

The rich should pay more taxes because [...]

A Reader Comments on Unions

(My friend Alex sent this response via email.  By the way, it is now easier to post a comment.  Just click on Comments, give an email address and a first name.)
Mark, a good blog about unions: My grandfather worked for link belt as a millwright for 30 some years, and six months before retirement [...]

Income Redistribution (Voodoo Economics -3)

In spite of the claim by advocates of Reaganomics that “the rising tide raises all ships,” the poor and middle class have seen their incomes fall during the recent economic boom.  Several policies of the “Reagan Revolution” have led to this kind of income redistribution from the poor to the rich.
The War on Unions:  Corporations [...]