Do The Orwellian Police State Cha-Cha!!

Last week, like the careful student of political science I am, I was reading the full text of the Pledge to America, the new policy platform for the GOP’s Fall Election campaign… The thing that disturbed me the most is that the text so emphasizes the Constitution and a return to the Constitution, all this … Continue reading “Do The Orwellian Police State Cha-Cha!!”

Religious Literacy and Understanding, For Our Own Sake

You can’t really form productive relationships with many every day folk in the U.S. (nor Mexico, South America and Africa) if you’re completely ignorant of Christianity, and, increasingly, its more charismatic groups, which are seeing explosive growth. Unless you can *get* where people are “coming from,” you won’t understand them, and the spiritual is a … Continue reading “Religious Literacy and Understanding, For Our Own Sake”

Video Blog: Islamic Center on Park Place: Guy in Neighborhood Responds

I’m that guy in the neighborhood. Believe it or not, we live in an apartment only 6-8 blocks or so north of the disputed Park51 site, so this is about MY NEIGHBORHOOD and I feel I’m a direct stakeholder in this controversy, so I should weigh in. Knowledge of the neighborhood, and of the culture … Continue reading “Video Blog: Islamic Center on Park Place: Guy in Neighborhood Responds”

September 11: Also Very Far Away

An Addendum To My Previous 9/11 Blog In my last 9/11 blog, I commented on how raw the event still feels to me. How close it feels. How fresh the wound still is. But it is also so very far away. Isn’t it amazing that the second-graders who were reading “The Pet Goat” to the … Continue reading “September 11: Also Very Far Away”

September 11: Still Too Raw For Me

Anniversary of Terror September 11, 2001 my grandmother woke me up and told me the country was under attack. I turned on the TV and saw the replays of the second plane flying into the tower. It had just hit the tower — I SAW IT. I know what I saw; planes full of jet … Continue reading “September 11: Still Too Raw For Me”