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The view from my window
I think the metering was a bit off, but it’s hard to get it right when you shoot into the sun. Anyway, the coloring turned out well. The shot below is PhotoShopped very little. I have no idea why the blimp was there.
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Life, satire engage in passionate embrace
Via NRO comes this article
I am both Muslim and Christian
Shortly after noon on Fridays, the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding ties on a black headscarf, preparing to pray with her Muslim group on First Hill.On Sunday mornings, Redding puts on the white collar of an Episcopal priest.
She does both, she says, because she’s Christian and Muslim.
Redding, who until recently was director of faith formation at St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, has been a priest for more than 20 years. Now she’s ready to tell people that, for the last 15 months, she’s also been a Muslim — drawn to the faith after an introduction to Islamic prayers left her profoundly moved.
I suppose she’s a vegetarian that eats veal as well. If an atheist is some who believes in no God, then what do you call someone who believes in all available Gods? Judaism and Zoroasterism await I suppose.
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The Tree
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Department of horrible statistics
Case in point today, Jay Bookman of the AJC
the influx of good-paying, high-tech jobs has had an enormous impact. Twenty years ago, per capita income in Ireland was 60 percent of the average in the European Union. Today, on a per capita basis, Ireland is the second-richest nation in the EU.
Think of how meaningless that is. Were they already the second richest country per capita? Did they have a meager rate of growth and the rest of Europe went down? Who can tell?
Bookman goes on cite things he approves of (of course) but doesn’t anyone edit these things?
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Quote of the moment
“That’s the problem with religion: you beat your way past the clerics, fight your way through the demons, stand before the holy of holies, and when you rip away the veil, there’s nothing there but a mirror.”
— Owen Rowley
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The first meaningful, non scandalous news from the Catholic church in a while
From Time.com
Joe Kennedy’s First Marriage: Still On
The most controversial “marriage that never was” in recent U.S. political history is back. Sources tell TIME that the Vatican has reversed the annulment of Joseph P. Kennedy II’s marriage to Sheila Rauch. The annulment had been granted in secrecy by the Catholic Church after the couple’s 1991 no-fault civil divorce. Rauch found out about the de-sanctification of their marriage only in 1996, after Kennedy had been wedded to his former Congressional aide, Beth Kelly, for three years.The annulment was the subject of Rauch’s 1997 book Shattered Faith, which lambasted her ex-husband and was severely critical of the Catholic Church’s proceedings, which made the marriage (which had produced twin boys) null and void in the eyes of the church. Rauch argued that Kennedy was able to unilaterally “cancel” nearly 12 years of marriage because of his clan’s influence in the church. Kennedy argued at the time that the annulment was the right thing to do in religious terms.
Now that I think about it, it’s been a couple of years since any Catholic priest molestation revelations have come to light.
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Quick roundup while uploading
- A nice article on the Golden Section in design
- China and Demography from Coming Anarchy
- Making engines more efficient – using steam of all things – very cool
- Cutting Edge Designers
- Prediction Markets – nice graphics
- Woman jailed for testicle attack
Amanda Monti, 24, flew into a rage when Geoffrey Jones, 37, rejected her advances at the end of a house party, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
She pulled off his left testicle and tried to swallow it, before spitting it out. A friend handed it back to Mr Jones saying: “That’s yours.”
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An interesting article from Zakaria
It meanders a bit, but Fareed Zakaria makes a good case for optimism in this Newsweek article. One bit that caught my eye was
To recover its place in the world, America first needs to recover its confidence. For those who look at the future and see challenges, competition and threats, keep in mind that this new world has been forming over the last 20 years, and the United States has forged ahead amid all the turmoil. In 1980, the U.S. share of global GDP was 20 percent. Today it is 29 percent.
It’s a staggering thought. 20% is a huge chunk relative to population, and for that to increase is massive. It’s an interesting tidbit.
We should be more confident; America has never been strong because of political leadership, but the average person here has room to excel. 15 million illegal immigrants can’t be wrong!
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The headstone is in
I got back yesterday from the headstone commemoration ceremony. It was good to see everyone, and the headstone is very nice. The stone from the military (featured below) was a pleasant surprise.Sad reminders of things gone.
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Back from the old country
I’m back, photos to come.
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I blog from the old country
I finally make it up to Kentucky, after a detour into the ugly side of Chattanooga. Surprisingly there was very little Bonaroo traffic.