He is quoted this way before his visit..During the 1930s, he briefly became a communist, or more precisely, a fellow traveler (he never formally joined the Communist Party). As a distinguished writer sympathizing with the cause of communism, he was invited to tour the Soviet Union as a guest of the Soviet Union of Writers. The tour disillusioned him and he subsequently became quite critical of Soviet Communism. This criticism of Communism caused him to lose socialist friends, especially when he made a clean break with it in Retour de L'U.R.S.S. in 1936.
My faith in communism is like my faith in religion: it is a promise of salvation for mankind. If I have to lay my life down that it may succeed, I would do so without hesitation..and this what he said after his visit to the Soviet Union:
It is impermissible under any circumstances for morals to sink as low as communism has done. No one can begin to imagine the tragedy of humanity, of morality, of religion and of freedoms in the land of communism, where man has been debased beyond belief.It struck me how Gide embraced an ideology before he really understood it. Also struck me how he was disillusioned when he saw how that that ideology affected humanity.
Today is another one of those fake holidays - this one seems to benefit places like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and other places that not only serve the brown stuff but also sell it in bean form. I am sitting and typing on my deck and just caught a whiff of coffee from the downtown KC Folgers plant.. aaah.. nothing like the aroma of coffee in the afternoon.. or anytime. Anywho, I present you this image to commemorate the day and advertise the stuff that I have been drinking since I retired - just can't handle pure high-test anymore.
Not sure that I will be buying anything like this anytime soon but I do like the idea that it works with an existing phone - at least you will not need to purchase phone service to access the net. What do you think about it?The PlayBook will have a 7-inch screen, making it half the size of the iPad, and weigh about to the iPad's . And unlike the iPad, it will have two cameras, front and back. RIM didn't say what it would cost, but said it would be in the same range as the iPad, which starts at $499.
The PlayBook will be able to act as a second, larger screen for a BlackBerry phone, through a secure short-range wireless link. When the connection is severed - perhaps because the user walks away with the phone - no sensitive data like company e-mails are left on the tablet. Outside of Wi-Fi range, it will be able to pick up cellular service to access the Web by linking to a BlackBerry.
One of my favorites newsy type of shows is 60 Minutes. I generally record it but sometimes the DVR does not get the whole show because of a sporting event like an NFL game or a PGA tournament has gone longer than expected. Such was the case last night when I missed the last fifteen minutes of the show and did not catch the whole segment on Drew Brees. 
"Vitality shows not only in the ability to persist, but the ability to start over."
Have you ever been faced with the challenge to start all over? Ever change jobs? Move to a new city? Get divorced? When I think about starting over I think about changes. So I thought that I might share a few of the times that I have started over and lessons that I learned along the way:
The word Americolatry comes from Timothy Dalrymple's blog where he asks "Are Conservative Christians Worshiping America?" - you can check out his thoughts here. I actually borrowed the blog title from Scot McKnight who is discussing this on his blog. Here are two of Dalrymple's questions that I would like to consider today:
Dr. Carver viewed faith in Jesus as a means of destroying both barriers of racial disharmony and social stratification. He was as concerned with his students' character development as he was with their intellectual development. He even compiled a list of eight cardinal virtues for his students to emulate and strive toward:I especially liked the thought provoking way that Carver expressed his virtues. They embody a morality that I can relate to. Numbers 6 and 7 especially speak to me. And I love the quote.
Unconventional in respect to both his scientific method and his ambition as a teacher, he inspired as much criticism as he did praise. Dr. Carver expressed this sentiment in response to this phenomenon: "When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."
- Be clean both inside and outside.
- Neither look up to the rich nor down on the poor.
- Lose, if need be, without squealing.
- Win without bragging.
- Always be considerate of women, children and old people.
- Be too brave to lie.
- Be too generous to cheat.
- Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.
I honestly cannot tell the difference between Kava and any other instant coffee. No doubt some people can, so it must be just me and my unsophisticated philistine taste.From what I remember.. and I am going back 30+ years.. Kava used to be some nasty tasting stuff.. but to be fair I think that all instant coffee is nasty. I posted a NY Daily News review about Starbucks Via here.. I have since tried and have been disappointed by Via.
It claims to use “premium” coffee beans, and I have no doubt that it does. It is unique in that it is “reduced acid”. Claims range from 50 to 90% less acid than regular coffee.
I am quite opinionated about stomach acid, having studied the subject in college, but perhaps it is suffice to say that the stomach naturally produces acid. (“Hydrochloric acid is a solution of hydrogen chloride (HCl) in water, that is a highly corrosive, strong mineral acid with many industrial uses. It is found naturally in gastric acid.”) The stomach needs acid to work properly. The acid found in a cup of coffee is just a drop in the bucket compared to stomach acid.
One objection I have to Kava is that the acid is removed using potassium hydroxide. (Potassium hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the formula KOH. Its common name is caustic potash.) I believe natural coffee, made by God, with all its acid, is quite alright with me. I say the same for oranges, lemonade, etc. Agricultural scientist and chemist frequently like to tamper with natural foods, and the results are not always beneficial. So will Kava with its caustic potash harm you? Most probably not, but I will continue to use my Italian instant espresso.
There is no charge for this evaluation.
Have you ever been conned in this way? Thinking that you were buying a Cadillac and getting a Chevy? Or even worse believing a lie that was just "too good to be true"? I think that most of have in our lifetimes - a 1979 oil-eating VW Rabbit comes to mind for me.. and don't ask me about that 1985 Plymouth minivan money pit.Pig-in-a-poke is an idiom that refers to a confidence trick originating in the Late Middle Ages, when meat was scarce but cats were not. The scheme entailed the sale of a suckling pig in a poke (bag). The wriggling bag would actually contain a cat (not particularly prized as a source of meat) that was sold to the victim in an unopened bag. A common colloquial expression in the English language, to buy a pig in a poke is to make a risky purchase without inspecting the item beforehand. The phrase can also be applied to accepting an idea or plan without a full understanding of its basis.
Not so with all Christians though. While most of us revere the words written in the bible we do not actually worship the bible to the point that we are ready to raise arms when it is defaced - actually many of us write in our bibles with highlighters, pens and pencils. Last year the US military burned donated bibles in Afghanistan because the Afghan government, and our military, did not want Christian soldiers giving them out. From what I remember the event did not cause a stir amongst Christians.What I heard as a young man was Bibliolatry. It’s a word that conservatives hate to hear, but we must hear it. The Bible is ours for dozens of good, God-inspired, Christ-exalting reasons. But we can exalt the Bible in the wrong way. We can go too far.My friend John and I have had many discussions over the term "bibliolatry" in part because John is offended by the term. It is not my point here to enter into a debate about the word but to rather say that religious people can be easily offended by the way that their scripture is being treated. The recent reactions to the Quran burnings is just one example of this.
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My “turning point” helped me to find the Bible as the Word that presents the Living Word, God’s mediator, given for us and for our salvation: Jesus Christ. I learned to listen for the difference between Jesus Christ and Holy Scripture, and to not equate God and His written word in ways that abuse both God and those who love scripture.
This image hangs framed in my dining area. One of the sweetest memories I have growing up in New York City is the view of the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry. Growing up, I lived on Staten Island and, for a few years, went to Brooklyn Technical High School, a magnet type of engineering school. I have vivid memories of seeing Lady Liberty as I traveled to school each day (I took a bus, ferry and subway) and think that she represents some of the best things about America.
Ms Ali goes on to speak of the current world situation:What do the controversies around the proposed mosque near Ground Zero, the eviction of American missionaries from Morocco earlier this year, the minaret ban in Switzerland last year, and the recent burka ban in France have in common? All four are framed in the Western media as issues of religious tolerance. But that is not their essence. Fundamentally, they are all symptoms of what the late Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington called the "Clash of Civilizations," particularly the clash between Islam and the West.
Huntington's argument is worth summarizing briefly for those who now only remember his striking title. The essential building block of the post-Cold War world, he wrote, are seven or eight historical civilizations of which the Western, the Muslim and the Confucian are the most important.
The balance of power among these civilizations, he argued, is shifting. The West is declining in relative power, Islam is exploding demographically, and Asian civilizations—especially China—are economically ascendant. Huntington also said that a civilization-based world order is emerging in which states that share cultural affinities will cooperate with each other and group themselves around the leading states of their civilization.
President Obama, in his own way, is a One Worlder. In his 2009 Cairo speech, he called for a new era of understanding between America and the Muslim world. It would be a world based on "mutual respect, and . . . upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles."I encourage you to read the whole article where Ms Ali describes the West's failed perception of Turkey and how "moderate" Turkey has allied itself with more extremist Muslim nations. Here is the way that she ends the piece:
The president's hope was that moderate Muslims would eagerly accept this invitation to be friends. The extremist minority—nonstate actors like al Qaeda—could then be picked off with drones.
Of course, this hasn't gone according to plan. And a perfect illustration of the futility of this approach, and the superiority of the Huntingtonian model, is the recent behavior of Turkey.
According to the One World view, Turkey is an island of Muslim moderation in a sea of extremism. Successive American presidents have urged the EU to accept Turkey as a member on this assumption. But the illusion of Turkey as the West's moderate friend in the Muslim world has been shattered.
Our civilization is not indestructible: It needs to be actively defended. This was perhaps Huntington's most important insight. The first step towards winning this clash of civilizations is to understand how the other side is waging it—and to rid ourselves of the One World illusion.That phrase "One World illusion" caught my attention. For much of my early religious life I heard a lot from fundamentalist pulpits about the evils of the Babylonian "One World Order", that some see described in the biblical book of Revelation. This article and the general cultural patterns I see these days make we wonder if this "One World" interpretation is based on anything substantial or if it is more based on a Western dominated paradigm of the world.
In light of all of the issues around illegal immigration I thought that it my be interesting to discuss something happening on the other side of the border. I sometimes wonder if the real issues around illegal immigration has more to do with Mexico than it does the United States. I am pretty sure that, if I lived in Mexico, I would be wanting to live somewhere else. And the contrast between our government and theirs.. the level of corruption there and here.. gives significant explanation for the one-way immigration phenomena.I’ve had a crazy week since I drew a cartoon of the Mexican flag, with the eagle shot dead by a stream of machine gun bullets. The cartoon illustrates the terrible violence in Mexico. Since President Felipe Calderón announced his war on the drug cartels, over 28,000 people have been killed in a civil war that shows no sign of easing. I got a spirited, angry reaction on my blog and in e-mails from Mexican readers who objected to my “desecration of the sacred Mexican flag.”
My cartoon appeared at the same time as Calderón‘s state of the union address to Mexico’s Congress in which Calderón claimed to be making progress in the worsening drug war. Mexico’s conservative, national newspaper Reforma, and other papers in their chain, published my cartoon at the top of their front pages. The convenient timing of my cartoon “scandal” was an opportunity for Reforma to make an effective front page dig at Calderón, and soon the cartoon was picked up by almost all of the other Mexican newspapers.
Now I am not, as they say, a "rocket scientist" and do not possess the brain power of Professor Hawking.. but I do think that when someone uses a term like "spontaneous creation" they are in effect saying that they do not know how the universe was created. Sad that such drivel gets passed off as science.Many people would like us to use these coincidences as evidence of the work of God. The idea that the universe was designed to accommodate mankind appears in theologies and mythologies dating from thousands of years ago. In Western culture the Old Testament contains the idea of providential design, but the traditional Christian viewpoint was also greatly influenced by Aristotle, who believed "in an intelligent natural world that functions according to some deliberate design."
That is not the answer of modern science. As recent advances in cosmology suggest, the laws of gravity and quantum theory allow universes to appear spontaneously from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.
Jury duty started on Monday and by Tuesday we were empaneled in the courtroom where we sat hearing the evidence for a few days. From what I remember the case was about a guy that was hit by a truck owned by a fairly large company - don't ask me who they were.. don't remember. If recollection serves me right the company's insurance company did not want to pay as they felt the truck driver was not at fault.I wonder how many trials are decided this way. Surely criminal cases are not. But I do wonder how many decisions by juries are rushed because of the schedules and priorities of the jurors. I know it shouldn't be that way but people can be pretty pragmatic.
The courtroom part was over on Wednesday and we were released to the jurors' room on Thursday morning where we began to discuss the merits of the case. From what I remember at least 11 of the 12 of us had to agree on the verdict.. one person could not hang the jury. Pretty quickly 10 had come to the decision that the truck driver was not at fault - I and one other person did not agree with the rest and would not be convinced other wise.. it is the way that we left the courthouse late Thursday.
Friday morning seemed a bit different.. jurors started saying things like "I can't get off work next week" or "My company isn't paying me for this" - and an odd shift of opinion began to occur.. by early Friday afternoon I watched all but one juror change their opinion about who was at fault in the accident. It was a very weird turn of events. By Friday afternoon we had decided against the trucker's company and we were dismissed by the judge. And no one had to come back on Monday.
Last night heaven became a bit more glorious. My cyber-friend Jill Hollis passed away and suffers no more from ALS. Jill is free of her wheelchair and now walks and runs on the streets of heaven. To commemorate her passing I thought that I would offer a few brief thoughts about a woman that I only knew through her blog writings and a few email messages that we exchanged.My greatest fear is not death; my greatest fear is that I will live a long time like this. My faith continues to sustain me, but it’s changed. I’ve gone from a “woo hoo” kind of faith to a deeper and more intense one. Cliff and I both strongly believe that our testimony in all of this is that you can love God (we do) and not like what you’re going through (we don’t).Every time I visited Jill's blog I came away inspired. Her courage, genuineness and transparency were so convicting. She never sugarcoated her pain but so reflected the glory of Christ as she walked through it. Jill's life so honored God. I was blessed to be her friend.
