Filed at 8:02 am, September 13, 2007 under by Satchel Pooch
Don’t forget to Talk Like a Pirate all day!
Filed at 11:09 am, May 10, 2007 under by Satchel Pooch
From your fellow geezers, and those too young to qualify!
Filed at 1:48 pm, April 28, 2007 under by Satchel Pooch
Sparks, PeaceBang, and other UU types are coming to Portland for their General Assembly June 20-24. I’m considering offering them this as a welcome present. What do you think?
Filed at 9:47 am, April 26, 2007 under by spideygirl
Ok, I saw this in the news this morning.
*grin*
Filed at 4:50 pm, April 2, 2007 under by spideygirl
Wednesday, April 4th will be Nerd’s 30th birthday. This is a momentous occasion!
Filed at 12:33 am, March 6, 2007 under by Jonah
This past Saturday, I bought Rickie Lee Jones’ latest album, the sermon on exposition boulevard. The lyrics are based on a project begun by Lee Cantelon, to present the words of Jesus in modern rendering.
This project is available on-line at The Words. This is not only a modern rendering, the text is arranged thematically. The first chapter, The Problem of Religion, is striking – especially when the words echo what I’m reading/hearing in other sources (e.g., Gary Wills’ What Jesus Meant).
Recommended.
Filed at 10:34 am, March 2, 2007 under by Satchel Pooch
I can’t explain why this story infuriates me so much. Maybe it’s the clueless dad making excuses for his son’s inexcusable behavior. Maybe it’s the fact that my daughter goes to middle school next year, and if any jackass ever did this to her, I would have to hunt him down and neuter him with my own hands. Maybe it’s the fact that, yes, what people, especially kids, entertain themselves with DOES affect their behavior. Garbage in, garbage out: it’s not rocket science, and yet mentioning it brands you a prude or a censor, or worse, unhip.
On the other hand, the young man quoted in the last paragraph deserves major kudos:
“When they do that ‘Jackass’ thing, they say it’s a joke,’ ” said Luna. “But if it’s a joke, and they were just playing around and everything, then it would end when people start crying. And if it was totally a joke, nobody should be crying.”
Amen, little brother, amen.
Filed at 3:37 pm, February 23, 2007 under by Satchel Pooch
There’s an interesting question over on RevGalBlogPals.
I’ve been cogitating on my own personal Dream Team, but haven’t settled yet. Check out the GalPals’ contributions, and post yours there, or here.
Filed at 7:49 am, February 3, 2007 under by JoKeR
After a little discussion I am adding a trivia contest to the web site. This has been set up using the same web site used for the Rev Gals Blog Pals Trivia Contest. I’ll get the link moved somewhere more permanent after a bit.
One thing I’ve noticed is that it might confuse your trivia accounts between the two trivia contests. I’m still figuring that out. The trivia web site uses cookies to remember who you are so if you use the same login name for both contests it might think that you’ve already played one contest when you actually played the other game. I’m still playing around with this to see what options there are for playing both games. You should be able to use different browsers (such as Firefox and Internet Explorer) so that different cookies will be kept. Or just use a different login for the two games (though this should mean you would need to logout and log back in to switch games). In any event, I hope the confusion between the two contests will not be too difficult to deal with.
Filed at 10:03 am, January 11, 2007 under by Satchel Pooch
Like many other good religious progressives, I read Michael Lerner’s “The Left Hand of God” when it first came out last year. My loaned-out copy recently wended its way back to me, and in re-reading (actually re-flipping-through), I came across the following passage:
There is an inherent problem for those who espouse a politics of hope and a vision of love: that achieving a world of love and kindness cannot be done using the tactics of power and domination. If the Right Hand of God seeks to “win,” the Left Hand of God seeks a world in which winning is no longer the appropriate category, a world in which the humanity of all has been validated, including those who position themselves as “our enemies.”
I think this says more elegantly and succinctly what I’ve often tried to say in this forum. There is another way, Jesus’ way: the problem is how I can apply it to my personal struggles, to local, national, and international struggles. Even the word “struggle” implies the categories of winning and losing. What can we, what should we do with this? Any ideas or insights very welcome.
Filed at 6:45 am, December 1, 2006 under by Jonah
Over on Slate is a series titled “Blogging the Bible“. David Plotz, a self-described “secular Jew” has set himself the task of seriously reading the Bible for the first time. The series began in October of last year, and Mr. Plotz is now up to first Kings.
I’ve been following the series since it began, and have found it to be fascinating, well-written, and informative.
Highly recommended.
Filed at 5:34 pm, November 3, 2006 under by spideygirl
Welcome to the craziest time of the year! We’ve all survived Halloween. Thanksgiving is coming. After that, the preacher types have Advent to deal with. Then there’s Christmas (and a variety of other variations on the winter holiday theme), New Years… Will it never end????
Seriously, though, the rest of the world doesn’t stop in the meantime. My brother and mom both have November birthdays, as do these very special people.
- Nov 10- Sparks!
- Nov 22- Jonah! (and my mom)
- Nov 29- Lorna! at See-Through Faith
Hey! They’re all three RevGalBlogPals, though *cough* I daresay it’s *cough* cooler to be a PIRATE!
Happy birthday, friends!
Filed at 10:06 am, October 24, 2006 under by Satchel Pooch
What’s going on? Do we need to have a pledge drive?
Filed at 3:43 am, October 10, 2006 under by Jonah
My friend and id-projection, Dr. Omed, sheds light on our quest to “Buy Armegeddon”:
Watch the video
Read the text
Filed at 11:09 am, October 5, 2006 under by spideygirl
Ok, pirates. October is a busy month!
- Oct 10- JoKeR
- Oct 11- RGeek
- Oct 21- aesc
- Oct 24- InTheWilderness
- Oct 27- susiederk
- Oct 30- tucker
- Oct 31- weeping_seraph
If your birthday is in October, and you aren’t on this list, add your name in the comments! (unless you’re Satchel, then email me and *I’ll* add you!)
Filed at 10:48 am, September 29, 2006 under by Satchel Pooch
I recently took an online beating from some atheists, one of whose beefs was (what they considered to be) the unwelcome role of religion in public policy. Their stance (which is supported, at least in part, by the principle of the separation of church and state) is that religion has no place in government. Period. Paragraph.
This stance is opposed by some on the religious right, who openly call for more religion in the public forum. An extreme form of this position was perhaps represented by Florida Senatorial candidate Katherine Harris, who recently said during a campaign appearance that “if you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin.” Many people quite rightly found these remarks objectionable.
So: we have to find the sweet spot on the continuum between no religion in government and a complete merge of religion and government (otherwise known as theocracy, which is antithetical to what most of us understand about democracy). I haven’t teased out all the issues for myself, because a lot of what I understand as my religious beliefs (e.g., Jesus’ instructions to help out the poor, hungry, naked, imprisoned, &c.) I also identify with my political (liberal) beliefs. So I ask the pirates: when someone asks you what you believe about the role of religion in politics, what do you say? Does religion need to play a stronger role in the public sphere? Which religion(s)? What would that look like? Does religion need to back the heck out of the public sphere? What would *that* look like? Any light you can shed on this conundrum gratefully received.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Update: This was a topic two days running on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation.” The first day was an interview with atheist activist Sam Harris, who has just released a book entitled “Letters to a Christian Nation” in which, among other things, he takes liberal Christians to task for providing “fig leaves” for [hateful] conservative Christians. I haven’t read it, but it is generating a lot of talk on the left.
The second day paired a conservative and, um, a less-conservative pastor’s take on the “government in religion” topic. The recurring theme of religion’s role in ending slavery was particularly interesting to me.
Give these a listen if you can, the discussion (including call-ins) is well-moderated and quite fascinating. From abortion to the stem-cell research to “death with dignity” (and I won’t even mention Republican Congressman Mark Foley’s recent antics — where, oh where, is the religious right on this?), the question of what role religion (and religious people) can and should play in politics and government is simply not going to go away. The forces on each end of the continuum are going to keep pushing their version, and the moderates (which probably include most of us) may end up having to take a stand sooner than we think. Let’s keep talking, and listening.
Filed at 6:39 pm, September 28, 2006 under by JoKeR
I built this after seeing the other contributions. The quotation means “They condemn what they do not understand” or “They condemn because they do not understand” (the quod is ambiguous) as can be seen on Wikipedia.
Just to make things easier so you don’t have to try to read the small print, you can make your own official seal here.
Filed at 6:57 pm, September 24, 2006 under by spideygirl
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Filed at 6:34 pm, under by revsparker
Filed at 2:31 pm, September 18, 2006 under by xyp
and once again, a damned fine black iced tea. i did, however, add 6 (yes, six) sugar in the raw. i must be a southerner at heart. i like my tea sweet. real sweet.
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