Subscribe:
RSS feed
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." (Is.30:21)
Browsing All Posts filed under »Politics & Government«
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
http://praythedevilbacktohell.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pray_the_Devil_Back_to_Hell Liberia, a West African country of 3 million people, was founded in 1847 by freed American slaves. Their descendants formed an elite class which dominated indigenous ethnic groups for more than a century. Rising tensions finally erupted into civil war in 1989. From then on, Liberians suffered a prolonged period of violence. At […]
TED | Jonathan Haidt on the Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives
April 14, 2012
Suppose that two American friends are traveling together in Italy. They go to see Michelangelo’s “David,” and when they finally come face to face with the statue, they both freeze dead in their tracks. The first guy — we’ll call him Adam — is transfixed by the beauty of the perfect human form. The second […]
California Listening Tour Education Forums
March 23, 2012
California Listening Tour Education Forums (in Partnership with StudentsFirst) [VIA: I have striven to be as accurate as possible in this summary. I take responsibility for any misrepresentions. The quotes that follow are not exact.] The main speaker was Michelle Rhee, introduced and hosted by her husband and Sacramento Mayor, Kevin Johnson. Michelle began by […]
TED | Bryan Stevenson: We Need to Talk About an Injustice
March 5, 2012
http://www.eji.org/eji/ | http://jjie.org/founder-of-equal-justice-initiative-greeted-standing-ovation-at-ted/76755 Bryan Stevenson spends most of his time in jails and prisons and on death row. He’s a lawyer, and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. So he’s found it very energizing at TED, and wanted to start by pointing out that there is a distinct identity here. Things said here have a power […]
Milk | Notes & Review
February 25, 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_%28film%29 Here is the closing line of the movie: If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door… And that’s all. I ask for the movement to continue. Because it’s not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power… it’s about the “us’s” out there. Not only gays, but […]
“The Man Who Knew” | Notes & Review
September 3, 2011
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/ “…the old-timers have seen it all before.” “Don’t kill your mavericks. They might save your life one day. And they’re the ones with all the great ideas. So try and take care of them. John was a maverick. A brilliant maverick.” August, 2011, John O’Neill leaves the FBI. September, 2011, John O’Neil, chief of […]
Son of Hamas | Notes & Revew
June 28, 2010
Mosab Hassan Yousef. Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices. Salt River, 2010 (265 pages) Visit also: http://sonofhamas.com/ A few intriguing quotes from the entirety of the story: Without a constitution to maintain some semblance of order, religious law becomes the highest authority. And when everyone is free […]
The Women’s Crusade
August 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html Nicholas Kristof, NYTimes.com, 2009-08-17. Kristof’s journalism continues to inspire me, and this article is up there on the top (see also the Girl Effect). The following are a few poignant quotes. I recommend reading the whole article, however, because in it, the substance of this article is in the stories that he tells. “Women […]
Ten Trillion and Counting
July 4, 2009
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tentrillion/view/ A few select quotes that stood out to me in the program: When choosing between what is politically right, and what is economically right, they chose what is politically right at the expense of the economy. The “starve the beast” notion, that when you cut taxes you are forced to cut spending, though ideal, […]
The Electronic Wasteland
July 3, 2009
Where do the millions of computer monitors, cell phones and other electronic refuse our society generates end up? In places like Guiyu, China. There are similar places in other countries like India, and it’s unseen, underground, and highly toxic to the local residents. 60 Minute’s “The Electronic Wasteland” program (transcript: Following the Trail of Toxic […]
The Story of Stuff
May 12, 2009
Website: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ NYTimes.com article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/education/11stuff.html This ~20 min. video and connected website is a captivating production of consumption in America. Key words: Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, Disposal. — VIA — In my estimation and observation, the heart of this particular subject the mindset, the ideologies, the biases, and the a priori assertions and assumptions of […]
Time to Reboot America
December 26, 2008
Another thought provoking Op-Ed article from Thomas Friedman. Here’s the brunt of his rant: My fellow Americans, we can’t continue in this mode of “Dumb as we wanna be.” We’ve indulged ourselves for too long with tax cuts that we can’t afford, bailouts of auto companies that have become giant wealth-destruction machines, energy prices that […]
The Religious Case For/Against Gay Marriage | Saying A Lot About So Little
December 12, 2008
While reading the current Newsweek cover article (“The Religious Case for Gay Marriage” by Lisa Miller), it struck me how much we say about how little the Bible mentions. The summation of the Newsweek article is found, really, in one sentence, The practice of inclusion, even in defiance of social convention, the reaching out to […]
California’s Proposition 8 | Reasoning Through the Rhetoric of Same-Sex Marriage
December 12, 2008
I received an email from a family member from the Courage Campaign to repeal proposition 8. There’s also a new post at Out of Ur entitled “A Win-Win on Same-Sex Marriage.” By now, everyone is well aware of the emotional and contentious nature of same-sex marriage (SSM) and there are thousands of posts/links regarding the […]
Books Not Bombs
November 27, 2008
(This is the second of two posts that highlight the endeavors that are helping to change the world through creative and contrarian ways of thinking.) This video on The Developments In Literacy programs is of a similar vein to one of Kristof’s previous articles, “It Takes A School, Not Missiles” in the NYTimes.com. The video […]
Our Financial Crisis – Money is Truly About Behavior and Discipline
October 1, 2008
My second post of Lencioni’s commentary. This is the closing paragraph from “The Financial Crisis.” And so the lesson that comes from all of this, or at least one of the most important ones, has nothing to do with legislation or economic policy or oversight. It is a personal lesson that each of us can […]
It Takes a School, Not Missiles
July 13, 2008
There are some articles that just need to be widely promulgated. This is one of them. I commend it to you to think in small local ways where you are, where you live. While everyone cannot necessarily go where Mortenson goes, I believe, in big and small ways, we all can do what he does, […]
A Not-So-Public Man: The Private Character of John McCain
July 1, 2008
The following article from JPost.com (full text below) was a delightful read. While there is a bent towards political favoritism towards the end (yes the article is biased), I want to make it clear that I am sharing this for the value of the sentimentality of the article, not for its endorsement. I simply find […]
Evangelical Politics
June 20, 2008
Krista Tippet from American Public Media mediated a fascinating multi-generation discussion between Chuck Colson, Greg Boyd, and Shane Claiborne on the subject, “Evangelical Politics” at the National Pastors Conference in San Diego, April 2008. You can see the transcript here, (and photos here). For anyone wrestling with what it means to be a follower of […]
Hamas & Al Fatah
June 17, 2008
This is just a point of education for me on this post. While I’ve heard much about the Palestinian political parties, I actually know very little about them. These “Times Topic” explanations were helpful. HAMAS Hamas, one of the two main Palestinian political groups, derives its name from an acronym for the Arabic words ”Harakat […]
Encounter Point – What To Do With The Pain
May 14, 2008
Encounter Point is an 85-minute feature documentary film that follows a former Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk their lives and public standing to promote a nonviolent end to the conflict. Their journeys lead them to the unlikeliest places to confront hatred within their […]
RELEVANT’s Burning Issues: War
April 27, 2008
The May_June 2008 edition of Relevant Magazine posted 7 burning issues: Injustice, Homosexuality, Faith, Politics, Culture, Consumerism, and War. WAR: How Should We Respond? 1. Jim Wallis – Followers of the Prince of Peace should be the hardest to convince to go to war, never the easiest…The real problem here is the cultural captivity of […]
RELEVANT’s Burning Issues: Politics
April 23, 2008
The May_June 2008 edition of Relevant Magazine posted 7 burning issues: Injustice, Homosexuality, Faith, Politics, Culture, Consumerism, and War. POLITICS: Is Either Party Right? 1. Brian McLaren: We need to get beyond the idea that Christians should be in one party and not the other. We need committed Christians in each party, calling their political […]
May 17, 2012
0