Clipmarks | baydawg's clips

Interpretation and Canonical Texts

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 21:28:20 GMT

clipped by: baydawg

Speaking of Biblical interpretation, via Raspberry Rabbit comes this review of R. Crumb's illustrated version of Genesis. Already I want to find room on the masthead for Gershom Scholem's observation "that the imperative for interpretation is the hallmark of all canonical texts."

"The imperative for interpretation." What a wonderful phrase....

And then we could have an interesting discussion about Crumb's interpretations. If only this were a book club, and we all had copies of the text....

Tags: religion, canon, interpretation

Christ and Culture

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:11:33 GMT

clipped by: baydawg

Clip Source: rmadisonj.blogspot.com

Christ and Culture. Niebuhr

The chapter titles provide helpful handles. In order, the five types are labeled:

1) Christ Against Culture
2) The Christ of Culture
3) Christ Above Culture
4) Christ and Culture in Paradox

5) Christ the Transformer of Culture

Tags: christ, christianity, culture, niebuhr

The Religious Drug Cartel

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:45:55 GMT

clipped by: baydawg
clipper's remarks: in Mexico, coming to a town near you soon.

Clip Source: www.d-n-i.net

Mexico’s third-largest drug gang, La Familia.

Unlike the state, La Familia actually provides services for the province’s people

The group has a strong religious background and proclaims it is doing God’s work, passing out money and Bibles to poor people

A DEA agent…said cartel leader Nazario Moreno Gonzales sees his drug dealing as serving the best interests of the people of Michoacan.

The agent said Mr. Moreno doesn’t want meth users among his people (meth is La Familia’s specialty) and will take users off the street and pay for their rehabilitation…

La Familia has won the loyalty of the people of Michoacan. According to the DEA, the group…now gives some of the proceeds of its drug trafficking to schools and local officials.

La Familia has replaced the Mexican state in Michoacan.

it deploys one of the most powerful claims to legitimacy, religion

This model

illegal

profitable local economy + social services + religion

will

spread widely.

Tags: religion, drugs, mexico, cartel

America's Founders: Anti-Government

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:25:02 GMT

clipped by: baydawg
clipper's remarks: Criticizing and protesting is THE AMERICAN WAY. At least for the founders.

Clip Source: thecynicaleconomist.com

At the heart of the American idea is the deep distrust and suspicion the founders of our nation had for government, distrust and suspicion not shared as much by today’s Americans. Some of the founders’ distrust is seen in our Constitution’s language such as Congress shall not: abridge, infringe, deny, disparage, violate and deny. If the founders did not believe Congress would abuse our God-given rights, they would not have provided those protections. After all, one would not expect to find a Bill of Rights in Heaven; it would be an affront to God. Other founder distrust for government is found in the Constitution’s separation of powers, checks and balances and the several anti-majoritarian provisions such as the Electoral College and the requirement that three-quarters of state legislatures ratify changes in the Constitution.

Tags: dissent, freedom, government, suspicion

On Income Inequality: the US sucks

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:22:59 GMT

clipped by: baydawg
clipper's remarks: The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett

Clip Source: rmadisonj.blogspot.com

among rich countries, the more unequal ones do worse according to almost every quality of life indicator you can imagine. They do worse even if they are richer overall, so that per capita GDP turns out to be much less significant for general wellbeing than the size of the gap between the richest and poorest 20 per cent of the population (the basic measure of inequality the authors use).

measuring various welfare functions, the authors show that the best predictor of how countries will rank is not the differences in wealth between them

but the differences in wealth within them (so the US, as the most unequal society, comes last on many measures

this pattern holds inside the US as well, where states with high levels of income inequality also tend to have the greatest social problems.

Tags: income inequality, quality of life

War on the Middle Class: Cartoon

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:50:04 GMT

clipped by: baydawg
clipper's remarks: and explanation

Clip Source: smartpei.typepad.com

Themis and Nemisis

Let's start with the "Losers".

So they support their union if they have one. They get excited about sports, hobbies, their families, life outside work. They do their time at work.

The saddest group, and the most foolish are the managers - the Clueless.

They think that if they work hard, if they get results, if they sacrifice, they will get to join the club at the top and participate in the pot.

They have been suckered.

For the club at the top is very small. Less than 1% of America owns most of the wealth.

This is now a hereditary system. Where more gets more. Where more marries more. This is France of 1780.

Themis will be the issue when the American middle class see they they have been taken for a ride.

Themis' sister will arrive. And her name? Nemisis.

When the middle class sees clearly what has happened, watch out.

Tags: war on the middle class, firebomb the casino, planned demolition

Another Thought on Afghanistan

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:39:18 GMT

clipped by: baydawg

Clip Source: www.d-n-i.net

Army Major Jeremy Kotkin

calls for a reassessment of US foreign policy as fundamental as that which led to NSC-68:

What is a vital national interest and what is existential to our way of life, is the credibility and influence we must maintain as a world power to pursue other policies of vital interest. We must achieve a positive result in Afghanistan and not be seen to run from adopted partners in Kabul in a fit of capriciousness. To do this, we must understand two lessons: 1) to learn the 5 critical differences regarding national interests so we again do not allow ourselves to think we can force non-vital socio-economic change in another country, and 2) realize that the largely unilateral efforts of the U.S. military are not the solution to a non-military problem.

Tags: war on afghanistan

A Real Afghanistan Strategy

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:37:06 GMT

clipped by: baydawg

Clip Source: www.d-n-i.net

Retired Army COL Doug Macgregor’s latest take on what we should do in Afghanistan (500 KB PPT):

The best we can do is withdraw our forces with the publicly stated understanding that how the Afghans govern themselves is their business.

However, if the Afghans harbor anyone—al Qaeda or anyone else who threatens the United States and its allies—we must state clearly we will annihilate those who threaten us without concern for the welfare of those Afghans who harbor them.

Tags: war on afghanistan

Elizabeth Warren

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:34:37 GMT

clipped by: baydawg
clipper's remarks: for a real change

Clip Source: trueslant.com

Barack Obama

inherited a terrible financial crisis and he completely whiffed on it, siding with the financial status quo, who happen to be the bad guys. And in general, policywise, he has turned out to be eerily in sync with the previous administration, even down to some of the more obvious and egregious stuff, like the Guantanamo business and his amazing, perhaps illegal, and completely inexplicable refusal to investigate the ICRC (Red Cross) claims of systematic torture there.

And because of that, he can now be attacked on the iconic level just as he as once elevated there, made now into a symbol of anti-change — which in fact is beginning to be what he represents.

We need someone who will run on one very basic principle — the refusal to accept corporate money.

someone like Elizabeth Warren

what’s the alternative? How can we keep voting for these guys, when they never, ever deliver?

Tags: obama, elizabeth warren, change

Our Enemies: US Oil Companies

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:30:00 GMT

clipped by: baydawg
clipper's remarks: at least with the Chinese companies you know where you stand

Clip Source: globalguerrillas.typepad.com

Frankly, I see little difference between "Chinese" oil companies and "US" oil companies or super weathies like T. Boone. They both are aggressively antagonist to your and my future prosperity.

So, if push came to shove and I had to decide, I think I'd conclude that US oil companies and super wealthies may actually be worse. Why? Simply, due to the financial burden of welfare for the rich and the role they play in distorting US governance.

At least with the Chinese companies, you know where they are coming from and can act accordingly.

Tags: oil, plutocracy

Atheists and Republicans

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:15:20 GMT

clipped by: baydawg
clipper's remarks: purity of ideology and attack mentality::atheists = republicans

Clip Source: rmadisonj.blogspot.com

Little wonder the "old atheists" in that report refer to the "new atheists" as "fundamentalist atheists." It is one thing to thinks science as a method of reasoning, another to think if it has having independent value, and another thing again to set up shrines in its name, and worship at them. But this doesn't answer why atheists feel the need to identify as atheists, other than the very human need to belong to a community, to something larger than themselves (a need we all feel

the "new atheists"

the "old atheists"

intent are they in establishing either ideological purity, or simply in attacking religion as they (poorly) understand it.

Tags: humor, conservatives, atheists, paradox

Where's the rage? part 2

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:57:48 GMT

clipped by: baydawg

Clip Source: thecynicaleconomist.com

Hooverville 2009: Where’s the Anger, America? - The signs that we are slowly sinking into an economic depression are becoming rapidly evident. Lets get real for a second: Most of the middle class in this country live paycheck to paycheck. Perhaps some have a few thousand squirreled away in the bank. This might buy them a month or so…nothing more.

Tags: summer of rage, war on the middle class

Where's the Rage?

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:56:00 GMT

clipped by: baydawg
clipper's remarks: Freakin' banks

Clip Source: thecynicaleconomist.com

Let’s face it folks, when your financial institutions refinance all their debt at anywhere from 0.5% to 0.015% via the government/taxpayer loans/bailouts, and then re-loan that money out to taxpayers at 5% or don’t refinance existing taxpayers loans from their 6-10%, it becomes a built in profit that borders on criminal. Until the public realizes that this simple concept: I owe the bank money. I’m now going to take money from other parts of my paycheck, and give it to the government, so the government can loan it to the bank I owe at a really cheap rate… Just so that the bank I owe, can make a larger profit margin on the money I still owe them. …and after they make a larger profit, they can give themselves a bonus above and beyond the addition profits they made by cutting costs through layoffs.

Tags: banks, summer of rage, fraud

Revolution Brewing in The Banana Republic

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:52:29 GMT

clipped by: baydawg

Clip Source: smartpei.typepad.com

I have had some well connected readers tell of story ideas that they served up in some detail that the media would not touch out of fear of alienating their sources. This is the sort of thing that one associates with banana republics, but we have been operating on that level for quite some time.

Now America does not have a tradition of taking to the streets; demonstrations and rallies historically are working class affairs. But the middle class is on a path of downward mobility while the elites continue to take the cream. The widening gap might waken some impulses that have been dormant in the American psyche.

Tags: media, banana republic, summer of rage

Cob Cottages

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:39:25 GMT

clipped by: baydawg

Clip Source: www.cobcottage.com

Earth is probably still the world's commonest building material. The word cob comes from an old English root meaning a lump or rounded mass. Cob building uses hands and feet to form lumps of earth mixed with sand and straw, a sensory and aesthetic experience similar to sculpting with clay. Cob is easy to learn and inexpensive to build. Because there are no forms, ramming, cement or rectilinear bricks, cob lends itself to organic shapes: curved walls, arches and niches. Earth homes are cool in summer, warm in winter. Cob's resistance to rain and cold makes it ideally suited to cold climates like the Pacific Northwest, and to desert conditions.

Cob has been used for millennia even in the harsh climates of coastal Britain, at the latitude of the Aleutians.

Tags: construction, techniques