Next Year’s Conference

Next year’s theology conference, the Western Fellowship of Professors and Scholars will be October 8-9, 2010, in Manhattan, Kansas.  We will be issuing a “Call for Papers” in a month or so.

Joe’s Finds

Joe sends two finds this week: An ancient wall discovered in Jerusalem, and a new fragment of Codex Sinaiticus).  I wrote a bit more about Codex Sinaiticus at Biblical Research.

A Supply Side Solution for Healthcare

Supply more healthcare and market forces will bring prices down.

Are There Too Many of Us?

Freedom not harsh laws reduces family size.

Pro Conscience

Comment on freedom of conscience protections.

Bridge over the Forth of Firth

It’s been almost a year since I traveled overseas, and its been almost a year since Berkely Scot joined as a reader.  See her comment below under “Free TV.”  She says she feels like a girder on the Forth Bridge, after a falling in December and having hardware installed to mend her bones.
(Click here for [...]

Friendship without Borders

My mother had heart surgery on December 23.  I have been mostly staying at my parent’s house while she recovers; so I haven’t posted anything in the last week.
My friend Charles sent this story about a group called Sojourners who visit persons detained under very bleak circumstances while appeals for asylum are being investigated.  The [...]

Third Sunday in Advent

Here are a couple of selections from Sundays Readings:
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year [...]

Advent Reading

November 30 was the first Sunday in Advent.  I meant to post an Advent reading, but I was out of town and away from a computer.  Here is a selection from next Sunday’s reading, from the prophet Isaiah:
Get you up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with [...]

Thankful Hearts

We are thankful for our family and health.
We are grateful for our grandchildren, and the opportunity for a second chance–to make up for some of our failings in raising our own kids.

If the Onion Says it, You Can Take it to the Bank

This just in from The Onion:

DAYTON, TN—A steady stream of devoted evolutionists continued to gather in this small Tennessee town today to witness what many believe is an image of Charles Darwin—author of The Origin Of Species and founder of the modern evolutionary movement—made manifest on a concrete wall in downtown Dayton.
“I brought my baby [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

How We Look to Outsiders

An Australian transplanted to Scotland, Michael Bird, takes a humorous look at American politics through imagining the reaction of ten of them upon arriving in heaven, here.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is not actually a day to pray for US troops who died in action, but rather a day set aside by Congress to pray for peace. The 1950 Joint Resolution of Congress, which created Memorial Day, says, “Requesting the President to issue a proclamation [...]

Did Environmentalists Cause the World Food Crisis?

A couple years ago, when you could buy a bushel of corn for about $2.00, I saw adds for corn-burning stoves. It didn’t seem right, burning food to keep warm.
Now we are burning corn in our automobiles, in the form of ethanol. The ditto heads are blaming it on the environmentalists. Those [...]

Bags Packed

(If you read my Theological German blog–I copied this from there.)
Well I’ve had a fabulous time here in Tuebingen. Tomorrow I fly to Vilnius, Lithuania, whence I will go on to Klaipeda. For three weeks I will be teaching a summer term class in Epic Poetry.
Arma virumque cano . . .
Today I taught a session [...]

from Malcom by George MacDonald

That night the weather changed, and grew cloudy and cold. Saturday morning broke drizzly and dismal. A north-east wind tore off the tops of the drearily tossing billows. All was gray–enduring, hopeless gray. Along the coast the waves kept roaring on the sands, persistent and fateful; the Scaurnose was one mass [...]

CLASSIC JAYHAWK VICTORY

Super Mario Chalmers
helped the Jayhawks come back from a 9-point disadvantage to  tie the score and then go on to an overtime victory over Memphis.
It was a great game, neither team gave up, they both fought bravely to the end.  Roy Williams showed up wearing his Jayhawk jersey and spoke at halftime.
There are other things [...]