tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52389642009-08-29T11:49:12.306-04:00Imagine the QuakerMirror of newquaker.com weblog.Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comBlogger289125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1105023340491709512005-01-06T08:30:00.000-05:002005-01-06T09:55:40.493-05:00I am no longer maintaining this page as a mirror for the New Quaker Notebook at newquaker.com. If you link to imagine the quaker, please update your link to my weblog at newquaker.com.
Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104653867412906052005-01-02T03:10:00.000-05:002005-01-02T03:17:47.413-05:00My new web portal, Radical Christian Information [radicalchristian.info] is up and working at last, and I'm submitting to the search engines and soliciting submissions and URL recommendations.
After watching the format behavior of the site's HTML tables under a variety of browsers, I'm rethinking my plans to move its format to 100% CSS. Tables have been unjustly maligned, I think. (Oh, excuse Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104652596951740572005-01-02T02:45:00.000-05:002005-01-02T02:56:36.953-05:00Oh, we spent our tithe at the race track. Last Monday, in response to the Bush administration's initial pledge of $15 million to help Asian nations hit by the devastating tsunami, Jan Egeland, UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, called the gift stingy and complained about the level of assistance by Western nations in general. The initial US giftMerlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104649338115150702005-01-02T01:50:00.000-05:002005-01-02T02:02:18.116-05:00Hmm, I just discovered that my 1999 review of Caught in Between, by the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, is featured at the UCC Palestine Solidarity Campaign at University College Cork, Ireland. The group has affiliation with the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. I hope this doesn't mean that I'll be swept up in the Patriot Act II, or will find my name on a no-fly list.
I found (and still Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104218649702980502004-12-28T02:07:00.000-05:002005-01-02T03:08:34.036-05:00I just finished the .info web setup for a new website for committed Christians with a steadfast faith in the radical, transforming love of Jesus Christ. The web portal, Radical Christian Information [radicalchristian.info], will share like-minded sites and information and will post approved user-submitted sites.
I've used straightforward HTML tables for the preliminary layout, but plan to move Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104036424905186882004-12-25T23:45:00.000-05:002004-12-26T00:00:03.510-05:00Who is Ty, you ask? Ty is the monkey off my back. My mother gave him to me many years ago and he's still hanging around.
Here he is reading E.F. Schumacher's classic Small is Beautiful, because I re-read it every now and then, too.
Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104034524883758162004-12-25T23:10:00.000-05:002004-12-25T23:15:24.883-05:00I have to get off this Bush jag. I'm now having Bush episodes in the way I used to get Nixon episodes: they weren't healthy or productive for me then and probably aren't now. Besides, I'm reaching a point where I just end up repeating myself, or at least start saying the same thing in different, creative termsbut that's only because the Bush administration is consistent, just as the Nixon Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1104032973108645932004-12-25T22:30:00.000-05:002004-12-25T22:58:33.386-05:00"Everywhere peace is needed!" As rescuers finish digging up bodies from the truck bomb attack on the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad today, I have to reflect on the stark differences between two world leaders and their markedly different Christmas messages.
On the one hand is a man I admire very much, Pope John Paul II, who now can't walk, suffers from Parkinson's Disease, can barely talk or sit Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1103868351093346432004-12-24T00:55:00.000-05:002005-02-13T00:39:16.306-05:00Well, I finally got to the post office in Herkimer and picked up my copy of Time magazine with the romantic cover featuring as "Person of the Year" President George W. Bush, American Revolutionary. How did he get this ridiculous honor? What were they thinking? Says Time in the frontpiece: "For sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1103318554416353862004-12-17T16:35:00.000-05:002004-12-17T16:22:34.416-05:00One of my favorite Bob Newhart gags has him as a psychotherapist with a sure-fire technique for fixing his patients' psychological problems: No matter what problem they bring to him, his prescription is "Just stop it!" You have a drinking problem? "Just stop it!" he says. Anxious about things? "Just stop it!" And so on. Well, at least it's funny when he delivers it. But this isn't about Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1103147342856406932004-12-15T16:44:00.000-05:002004-12-15T19:47:24.453-05:00Sometime in 1996, around the time of my separation and divorce, I gave up on radio, TV, and all forms of media news. I did that for about a year and a half. I suppose I could have done something else, like maybe not speaking for a year, walking around with chalk and a small chalkboard to use for communication, but the divorce made me want to scream a lotthe scary, primal kind, which comes fromMerlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1103083426211162272004-12-14T22:30:00.000-05:002004-12-15T12:52:51.710-05:00Correcting the Duke. I got a comment today from someone in the UK regarding one of last year's blogs about David Duke and correcting my reference to the institution from which he received his honorary doctorate. Alas, one of my sources was The Village Voice, but, hey, I can't use that as an excuse. Rent (the commenter) says that Duke was given his doctorate by "a private organization with Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1102997435070634892004-12-13T22:50:00.000-05:002004-12-13T23:10:35.070-05:00Well, it's been close to two weeks now with Pepe, my daughter L's new chihuahua puppy. Here's a picture. His ears haven't perked up yet, but when they do, I'm sure his first words will be "Yokiro Taco Bell!"
Again I'm captured by the thought that animals occupy a special place for us on earth, and that the difference between us and them has nothing whatsoever to do with any special Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1102745783852139612004-12-11T01:10:00.000-05:002004-12-15T19:44:20.670-05:00On going in the out exit. I don't see it mentioned often that the American model of democracy is difficult to reproduce, although our current President seems to think that it's darn easy to do.[1] When we look at efforts to create a democratic representative government in countries previously governed by despots, dictators, or monarchs, we ought to see results that look pretty much like what Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1102300731406424892004-12-05T21:28:00.000-05:002004-12-05T22:51:49.703-05:00On disciplining Bush and Cheney. Consider the following four contemporary events.November 20, 2004: Bush Arrested. Canada charges president for war crimes. US President George W. Bush was taken into custody this morning by Canadian authorities during his two day visit with Prime Minister Paul Martin.A lesbian pastor was found guilty and defrocked on December 2nd when a jury of United Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1101936215673099812004-12-01T16:15:00.000-05:002004-12-01T16:33:00.610-05:00International credit terrorism. A recent NPR report on the decline of the US dollar against the euro, the yen, and the Canadian dollar brought out this interesting answer to a simple question on what the US Treasury does with foreign investment. The interlocutor in the center of this is Mark Zandi, chief economist for Economy.com, a consulting firm, and he has just finished telling NPR that Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1101666505305493622004-11-28T13:25:00.000-05:002004-11-29T09:36:45.506-05:00Since 2005 is only a month away, it's time to think about ordering the new Friends Calendar from the Tract Association of Friends. I mean, hey, it's only a $1.50. They also have a cool pocket version of the calendar for 50 cents less. The order form (listing the calendars and all of their books, pamphlets, and tracts) is available here. This is another good way to support the work of your Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1101543025346108322004-11-26T23:06:00.000-05:002004-11-27T03:34:38.986-05:00The how of thanksgiving. My daughter and I ate Thanksgiving dinner yesterday at the house of a friend from the Caribbean island of Nevis; we were joined during the meal by her cousins who were living and working in Ottawa, Canada. We ate split pea soup, curried lamb, buttered rolls, sweet potatoes, vegetable casserole, turkey, collard greens, mashed potatoes, and any of several pies (pumpkin, Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1101366745919350462004-11-25T02:05:00.000-05:002004-11-26T19:07:32.093-05:00Steven Williams, a Christian public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay area, is suing the Cupertino Unified School District over what he says are acts of religious discrimination and violations of his First Amendment right to free speech. Williams, who teaches fifth grade at the suburban Stevens Creek School, apparently has been discussing the beginning of the United States in his classes Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1101072536337167072004-11-21T15:28:00.000-05:002004-11-21T16:28:56.336-05:00My fiction collection The Man Who Rowed Lake Pontchartrain and Other Stories (New York, 2004) is now available at Amazon.com. You can also get more information about it here.
Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1100927459711307492004-11-20T01:10:00.000-05:002004-11-20T18:29:18.300-05:00In the light our vision of the US-led invasion of Iraq becomes much clearer and the truth of the situation there is finely elucidated. The scales fall from the eyes. We know now that if you are in Iraq and oppose what the US, the coalition, and the unelected US-appointed government of Iraq are doing in that country, you are what we call an insurgentand you will be either killed, maimed by Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1100837854958307662004-11-18T23:10:00.000-05:002004-11-19T21:07:13.426-05:00From my philosophy class.
Dear Teacher:
Question: We have to discuss the continued indentity of the self. Does that mean a philosopher's view on the self while a person is still alive and then the self after the person dies?
Answer: Do you really understand the question you just asked? I think many issues of so-called "life after death" can be answered by clarifying just what we mean when we Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1100660555480770462004-11-16T12:55:00.000-05:002004-11-16T22:02:35.480-05:00Pardon our tax dollars at work. At the request of my friends at Sojourners, I sent the following letter to my elected representatives in support of HR 1258 to close the US Army School of the Americas, renamed in 2001 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation as a cosmetic reform:I write to urge you to co-sponsor HR 1258, a bill to close the Western Hemisphere Institute for Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1099845963034098452004-11-07T11:35:00.000-05:002004-11-07T14:42:10.756-05:00Yesterday I received a letter from Friend Bill Martin in Venice, FL, who had just read my January 7 post in which I reported (with a smile) on his Christian nudist project Natura. Since he wrote directly to me, not as a comment to the blog, I won't reprint his letter, but will report that he started Natura in part as a Christian social effort to reduce improper sexual activities, to lower teen Merlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5238964.post-1099767555928037882004-11-06T13:35:00.000-05:002004-11-06T13:59:15.926-05:00The next four years are going to be difficult times for Americansfor Christians and non-Christians alike. Like a maelstrom, the focus of the 2004 election centered on the events of 9/11 and the counterfeit link between the invasion of Iraq and the so-called war on terrorism. Should this be a surprise? America really can't go a year without calling out its armed forces for some combat missionMerlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17070405811841267432noreply@blogger.com