1. What’s worse than poverty?
2. Tracking Mr Obama’s views on wiretapping.
3. Hunting for a reasonable explanation for Mr Obama’s wish to require people to do that which they think immoral.
4. The history of the synodikon.
5. The rabbit and Lent.
6. This may get discussed this week, and our prayers will be with the family.
7. Undercounting liberals in academia.
8. The Obama administration and the general lack of epistemological humility.
9. Friday’s Akathist ..  a preview.
10. Art and work.
11. Newsprint and trends.
12. Just move along.
13. A book offer.
14. Links from Brandon at Siris.
15. That unreasonably horrible treatment of prisoner.
16. When editing video.
17. Lending, borrowing and morality.
18. What the world needs, a bathing suit that doesn’t get wet.
19. Verse and the bike.

An engaging study of Revelation is going on at my home church, every Wednesday night. Our pastor, a New Testament scholar, who wrote his dissertation on Revelation 19, is providing for us an in-depth analysis of the context of Revelation, including educating us on the genres it’s comprised of, as well as the cultural meaning of the imagery described. Suffice it to say, this ain’t no Left Behind series!

Last Wednesday, we began Revelation 5. Here is the text, per ESV,

5:1 Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the
twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying,

11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the
throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Note that the scroll, referred to in verse 1, was being held by God the Father (ref. chapter 4), who was given his due worship. He is seated on the throne and is holding the scroll in his right hand. While it appears that no one is found worthy to open the scroll, one of the elders states that the Lion has conquered, so that he can open the scroll. Yet we see a sort of juxtaposition taking place when John sees not a Lion appear, but a Lamb – that had been slain.

Lion / Lamb, conquered / slain.

The Lamb then approaches God, on the throne, and does not ask to be given the scroll, but he takes “the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne”! The elders and all creatures then confirm that Jesus is worthy to receive worship.

The Lion who has conquered is the Lamb who was slain, and he is worthy of that which is only allowed to be given to God – worship.

The prisoners don’t want to leave.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — An increasing number of Iraqi detainees are refusing to leave detention centres despite being eligible for release because they want to complete studies begun behind bars, a US general said on Sunday.

“In the last three or four months we have begun seeing detainees asking to stay in detention, usually to complete their studies,” Major General Douglas Stone told a news conference in Baghdad.

The US military offers a wide range of educational programmes to the 23,000 or so detainees — adults and juveniles — being held at its two detention facilities, Camp Cropper near Baghdad’s international airport and Camp Bucca near the southern port city of Basra.

Some parents of juvenile detainees, too, have asked that their children remain behind bars so they can continue their schooling, said Stone, the commanding general for US detainee operations in Iraq.

The US military, he added, was not encouraging the trend.

“We don’t want them to remain in detention,” he said. “When they are no longer considered a threat we want them to go home.”

(Hat tip: Betsy Newmark.)  Just keep this in mind when human rights groups complain about how bad the place is.  What kinds of a “concentration camp” educates its own prisoners to the point that they’d rather not leave?

1. In brief, stimulus. And the multipliers might not be what is expected.
2. Unimpressed with a meeting.
3. The economy and some criticism of the popularized viewpoint.
4. A speech, and some changes in a man.
5. Continuing discussion on theodicy.
6. St. Theodora.
7. Tartars in Russia.
8. Of Eucharist and frequency.
9. Contra the prosperity Gospel (cue background music Truly Scrumptious from Chitty Chitty).
10. A prayer request.
11. Depression and the Christian life.
12. A thought for the day.
13. Professional speechwriter blog on Mr Obama’s teleprompter addiction.
14. Demonizing the rich.
15. Heh. (HT: Mad Minerva)
16. Wrestling, sex and a bad idea noted.
17. Values and development.
18. An interesting new development.
19. Mr Freeman.

David Brooks is shocked — SHOCKED — that Barack Obama tuned out to be liberal! 

You wouldn’t know it some days, but there are moderates in this country — moderate conservatives, moderate liberals, just plain moderates. We sympathize with a lot of the things that President Obama is trying to do. We like his investments in education and energy innovation. We support health care reform that expands coverage while reducing costs.

But the Obama budget is more than just the sum of its parts. There is, entailed in it, a promiscuous unwillingness to set priorities and accept trade-offs. There is evidence of a party swept up in its own revolutionary fervor — caught up in the self-flattering belief that history has called upon it to solve all problems at once.

So programs are piled on top of each other and we wind up with a gargantuan $3.6 trillion budget. We end up with deficits that, when considered realistically, are $1 trillion a year and stretch as far as the eye can see. We end up with an agenda that is unexceptional in its parts but that, when taken as a whole, represents a social-engineering experiment that is entirely new.

And the real kicker:

Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice. As Clive Crook, an Obama admirer, wrote in The Financial Times, the Obama budget “contains no trace of compromise. It makes no gesture, however small, however costless to its larger agenda, of a bipartisan approach to the great questions it addresses. It is a liberal’s dream of a new New Deal.”

Emphasis mine.  Well, actually, emphasis of this was made by Republicans long before election day.  One only had to look at his record, such as it was, to know this.  And yet these "Brooks Moderates" were so caught up in the words and the history of it all that they apparently turned off those parts of their brains responsible for critical thinking.

Looks like the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune did the same thing.

Whoa!

The Obama administration and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate are blowing the lid off of spending restraint. But they’re finally meeting some resistance within their own party.

Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), in an essay published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, ripped a spending bill passed by the House last week as "a sprawling $410 billion compilation of nine spending measures that lacks the slightest hint of austerity from the federal government or the recipients of its largesse."

He said he will vote against it, and he urged President Barack Obama to veto it if it passes the Senate. We second that motion.

(Hat tip: Don Surber)  The Tribune endorsed Obama, and now they’re thinking they can pull back the reigns.  They sound like they’re saying, "Obama’s a big spender?  Who knew?"

I will heartily agree that Republicans spent very irresponsibly during their tenure with control of the Legislative and Executive branches.  But Democrats, true to their ever-constant form (a form that moderates like Brooks should have look to history, even recent history, to confirm), have outspent Republicans by a huge, huge margin.  "Tax and spend" wasn’t a catchphrase made up by Ronald Reagan; it’s a description of their MO.

The Democrats who "rediscovered" fiscal responsibility during the Dubya years have shown that outrage to be mere window dressing than principle.  There are indeed Republicans who had the same problem during the Clinton years and while Democrats held Congress.  But there is simply no real equivalence here. 

While it is still true that Republicans will overspend less than Democrats, it pains me to have to put it that way.  Nonetheless, if you value fiscal responsibility, convincing Republicans to slow down on spending seems to me to have a far better chance of success than convincing Democrats of that.  Mr. Brooks, please take note.

Much ink, likely some of still non-virtual, has been spilled over the Democrats framing Mr Limbaugh as a leader of the GOP and Conservative movement. As to this topic I’d like to frame a question, which will take a bit of setup.

Obama and the liberal media punditry are framing and identifying Mr Limbaugh as the leading light of the Conservative/GOP. If we examine, what effect does this have and who, besides Mr Limbaugh, benefits then a problem arises. Clearly there is a partisan benefit. Democrats will glean a tactical advantage via this identification. However, looking at the slightly wider picture,  the real question is is how does that benefit the nation at large to identify Mr Limbaugh as a leading speaker for the loyal opposition? It seems to me quite clear that the nation is not aided by this identification.

It seems clear that a strong principled loyal opposition is a clear benefit to the nation. Given that, the best thing for the President to do is to identify the best people within his party and the opposition and ensure the people who are framing the debate(s) over policies are principled and well spoken. The best of us on either side of the aisle. That ensures lively and healthy discussion and ultimately is the best for the nation.

Mr Obama as a point man who is doing exactly not what is clearly in the best interest of the nation. Isolating and focusing on Limbaugh (arguably not the best and brightest of the loyal opposition) is clearly running counter to this idea. So if this is right, he then faces the “stupid or evil” accusation with respect to this matter. Either he is not intelligent enough to realize the implications of what he is doing or he is evil, i.e., working to further partisan/personal factions over and above a clear national interest.

1. One view of the ecnomic problems facing the world today. Another, with an Asian focus, here.
2. Good advice. I need to work on the reading slow part … although a busy life helps there.
3. Hmmm.
4. A post I disagree with at On the Square, the First Things blog … although I think the conclusion of the post disagrees with the content.
5. The desire of Mr Obama to fail meme disabused.
6. When not studying (Greek?).
7. Plugging lefse and a kitchen toy.
8. Considering peer review.
9. Bad pictoral pun.
10. Confucious and … the Desert?
11. A poll (cricket race?) in Pakistan.
12. Hmm, I’m guessing a good peaty single malt isn’t on the ticket either.
13. A suggestion for banking.
14. A two parter of advice for the lay detection of junk science, part one and part two.
15. Stranger than fiction.
16. A series begins … Diesels you can’t get in the US but should be able to … and I too am a fan of the modern small diesel engine as one of our families cars is a VW TDI Golf.
17. Teaching and a problem … which in a sane world would not be a problem at all.
18. Does the bill rejecting the fairness doctrine contains seeds of the same.

Jason Kuznicki has some remarks spinning from a previous post of mine on Jim Anderson extended blog-based discussions on the ethics of vigilante activity. Here is Mr Kuznicki’s post. Here’s the post of Mr Anderson’s to which he refers and the original proposition and … for completeness my first post on this matter.

Mr Kuznicki offers:

To the extent that there must be laws (and only to that extent), the laws should be clearly expressed and regularly enforced. Laws that are unclear in their expression or irregular in their enforcement allow the legislators and law enforcement agents too much leeway. They give the state too much power. They also sap private initiative, because it’s important for private actors to have some reasonable expectations of how the state will behave in the future.

What this leaves out, and what one might have expected to have been the case in part in the Western folkway, is what is the case (even in the idealized “paradise” situation) in which the state has laws which it expects citizens to enforce. Consider the example of personal assaults in an idealization of the Western folkway. In the first case, of personal assaults such as battery or rape, the statutes and penalties against such things were minimal. A likely reason for this is that it was expected that individuals and their families would “take care” of such insults themselves. Now this led on occasion of course to the much celebrated mountain feuds between Western folkway clans in which the insult to one family matter would be “handed” in a way that the original injured party found excessive and responded in kind … leading to a never ending chain of responses. However, my guess would be, not having studied the matter, that feuds of that type were the exception not the rule. That most of the time the culture/society had a shared understanding within the society of a reasonable response and meeting that was the norm. Read the rest of this entry

After President Obama’s inaugural speech, when he said, "We will restore science to its rightful place", I wondered aloud (as did others, see that post’s comments) if this had anything to do with his stance on embryonic stem cell research.  Well, it looks like we’ll find out soon enough.

A new way has been found to create stem cells like embryonic ones.

Scientists have developed what appears to be a safer way to create a promising alternative to embryonic stem cells, boosting hopes that such cells could sidestep the moral and political quagmire that has hindered the development of a new generation of cures.

The researchers produced the cells by using strands of genetic material, instead of potentially dangerous genetically engineered viruses, to coax skin cells into a state that appears biologically identical to embryonic stem cells.

"It’s a leap forward in the safe application of these cells," said Andras Nagy of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, who helped lead the international team of researchers that described the work in two papers being published online today by the journal Nature. "We expect this to have a massive impact on this field."

Click here to see all the posts just from us on this issue, and how many alternatives to embryonic stem cells there are (include the hundreds of successful uses for adult stem cells).  All of these methods sidestep completely the ethical question surrounding the use of embryos.  You’d get no hollering from religious conservatives over the possible use of embryonic stem cells as an incentive for, or at least a slight guilt relief from, having an abortion.  That question goes right out the window.

But the scientific and the religious communities hold their breath.

In addition to the scientific implications, the work comes at a politically sensitive moment. Scientists are anxiously waiting for President Obama to follow through on his promise to lift restrictions on federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells. Critics of such a move immediately pointed to the work as the latest evidence that the alternative cells make such research unnecessary.

"Stem cell research that requires destroying embryos is going the way of the Model T," Richard M. Doerflinger of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said. "No administration that values science and medical progress over politics will want to divert funds now toward that increasingly obsolete and needlessly divisive approach."

We will see soon enough where Obama thinks that science’s rightful place is.

1. Of fools and money.
2. Lent and Job.
3. Whence the inflation?
4. Niceness.
5. Beatitude and blessing.
6. When rational … isn’t.
7. In which I get mentioned … in a somewhat confusing manner, as Mr Kuznicki is labeling “not libertarian” a place and time (the 18th century Western backwoods “folkway”) which he has in the past admitted as libertarian. I’ll work on a more substantive reply to this tonight. I wonder if Mr Kuznicki read my original essay at all and not just Mr Anderson’s summation.
8. Tabular awesome inspired by elemental patterns.
9. Bond. Inspired by “M?”
10. That pene-enclave thing.
11. Gay rights or something else?
12. Mr Obama and company channeling Nero?
13. “Obama thinks it’s time to get back in the market” … from a man (Obama) who never bought stocks even with a 6 figure salary and 7 figure book sales.
14. And they want free money and a pony in their backyard too.
15. Anti-semitism and anti-immigration bias on the rise in Europe?
16. Unhappy moderates.
17. Ms Sebellus … catholic?
18. A trend to give atheist libertarians and believing big-government people pause.
19. Looking at “stimulus”.
20. Well, one reason is that is ignored, is that informing people that Joe Biden is not the sharpest tool in the shed isn’t news.

Duality is a mathematical property linking structures through transformations. One of the simplest duality transformations for illustration are the Platonic solids (tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron). The simple transformation one performs on these solids is to “exchange” corners and faces.  A cube transforms into an octahedron … which is simple enough to imagine in one’s head. The icosahedron and dodecahedron also exchange through this transform. The tetrahedron, mathematically speaking, is special as it is “self-dual” and under the same transformation is unchanged.

Similarly in emotional contexts, various emotions and other notions are thought dual. The yin-yang of Taoist Chinese thought brings up a host of dual concepts and emotions: good/evil, love/hate, strong/weak, male/female and so on. The eight(seven) cardinal sins and virtues of Evagrius (Pope Gregory) also have a parallel structure.

Tonight, in as part of the Compline service after the second night of reading the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete we said the (famous) “Great Lenten” prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian:

O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despondency, lust for power and idle talk.
(Prostration)

But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love.
(Prostration)

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters. For blessed art Thou unto ages of ages. Amen.
(Prostration)

O God, cleanse Thou me a sinner (12 times, with as many bows, and then again the whole prayer from the beginning throughout, and after that one great prostration)

This prayer also has a duality construct as noted above, but the pairings are not traditional to our ways of thinking. Sloth/chastity, despondency/humility, patience/lust for power, and love/idle talk. One has two options when considering this pairing. One is that the pairing is mistaken that the author, St. Ephrem, did not mean for the connection to be made. However the monastic and meditative life that was much more common in the times in which St. Ephrem lived and for that reason I think that it is more likely than not that the connection was intended.

So with that in mind, consider that one might need to counter those sins of sloth with chastity, despondency with humility, lust for power with patience, and idle talk with love.

Democrats are poised to kill an educational program that has shown results for those who otherwise couldn’t afford to take their kids out of failing public schools.  The Washington Post editorializes:

Last week, the Democrat-controlled House passed a spending bill that spells the end, after the 2009-10 school year, of the federally funded program that enables poor students to attend private schools with scholarships of up to $7,500. A statement signed by [Rep. David] Obey as Appropriations Committee chairman that accompanied the $410 billion spending package directs D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee to "promptly take steps to minimize potential disruption and ensure smooth transition" for students forced back into the public schools.

We would like Mr. Obey and his colleagues to talk about possible "disruption" with Deborah Parker, mother of two children who attend Sidwell Friends School because of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. "The mere thought of returning to public school frightens me," Ms. Parker told us as she related the opportunities — such as a trip to China for her son — made possible by the program. Tell her, as critics claim, that vouchers don’t work, and she’ll list her children’s improved test scores, feeling of safety and improved motivation.

As I said 9  years ago, while keeping money in people’s pockets is the best way to deal with school choice, vouchers are a good fall-back position.  (The moment money touches the hands of the government, the use of it on religious schools becomes an issue.  I don’t think it should be, but that’s the way it currently is.)  But why would Washington Democrats not even want this proven program removed?  The Post continues.

But the debate unfolding on Capitol Hill isn’t about facts. It’s about politics and the stranglehold the teachers unions have on the Democratic Party. Why else has so much time and effort gone into trying to kill off what, in the grand scheme of government spending, is a tiny program? Why wouldn’t Congress want to get the results of a carefully calibrated scientific study before pulling the plug on a program that has proved to be enormously popular? Could the real fear be that school vouchers might actually be shown to be effective in leveling the academic playing field?

Why must the government be the be-all, end-all solution to these guys?  They proclaim that they care about the poor and about education, and then then kill a popular and successful education program for the poor.  Which are we to believe; their words or their actions?

And if public schools can’t handle the competition, they should be the ones feeling the pinch, not the private schools.

1. Waiting for God’s justice.
2. What the Left won’t admit, “It is becoming increasingly clear that Obama’s proposed policies go well beyond what we might need just to respond to the economic crisis; he’s making a bid for great changes in national policy.”
3. On the “hoping he’ll fail” meme.
4. For those who claim the Pope is “out of touch” … a comparison.
5. As one who thinks that there should be a Constitutional barrier preventing the government to provide insurance (because politicians ignore actuarial data to get votes) … perhaps they should get out of the loan business too for much the same reason.
6. Housing bubble.
7. Payroll spending.
8. Boing.
9. Wall street, global warming science, likely just a few of many casualties of “over-reliance” on computer modeling.
10. A question.
11. Reading in Job for Lent.
12. A problem with captalism, the productive and competent people are all busy doing things leaving government to the ninnyhammers.
13. Global warming taking a nap?
14. Theodicy.
15. Fasting from idle talk and a few other things.
16. Sudan.
17. Markets and the Ukraine.
18. Coffee and the endurance athlete.
19. Math links.
20. Now and then, a quote.

From the book on Father Arseny, a Russian priest who suffered decades of inhumane treatment in the Stalinist gulags and “special camps” for being an active member of a subversive organization (the Christian church).

I remember the visit of Bishop N. in 1962. He was a serious theologian, a philosopher, and many said, a good confessor. He came to have Father Arseny hear his confession. Many spiritual children of Father Arseny were going to the church where Bishop N. served.

He stayed for two days, during which time he confessed to Father Arseny and also heard his confession. They talked about the fate and the future of the Church in the Soviet Union and about what was important for the believers. Looking at Father Arseny’s library he pronounced, “The faithful one needs only the Gospel, the Bible, and the works of the Holy Fathers. All the rest isn’t worthy of attention.”

Father Arseny remained silent for a few moments and answered, “You are right, Your Holiness, the most important things are in those books, but we must remember that man as he develops nowadays is very different from man in the fourth century. The horizon of knowledge has become wider and science can now explain what couldn’t be understood then. The priests today must know a great deal in order to be able to help believers make sense of the contradictions he sees. A priest has to understand the theory of relativity, passionate atheism, the newest discoveries in biology, medicine and most of all modern philosophy. He gets visited by students of medicine, chemistry, physics, as well as by blue collar workers, and each one of them has to be given an answer to his or her questions such that religion doesn’t sound anachronistic or just a half-answer.”

1. Running downhill.
2. Left and jihad … common goals?
3. Sex and marriage.
4. Modern heroes.
5. Verse.
6. Stuck on stupid.
7. A Lenten podcast on a great prayer.
8. “All conservative variants of …”, hmm, I’m not sure I buy that.
9. A Lenten meditation (HT: Mark D Roberts)
10. Bank crises and policy.
11. A fisking.
12. 10 tips for life.
13. Seeking a wise materialist.
14. Anti-Semitism in London.
15. In the government must be all things to all people category.