The Expendability of Children – Who Cares? 2 Very Short Poems, CS Lewis, Wendell Berry
She was beautifully, delicately made, So small, so unafraid, Till the bomb came. Bombs are the...
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Category: Global Crises
Stand With Israel? Not When Israel Stands Against God.
We are often told we must love Israel – which is true – we are to love all...
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A Few Chips Must Fly / Gaza & Israel
This lists casualties of the Israeli efforts to subdue the Palestinians in two recent months....
Read MoreEisenhower on Security – and Moral Bankruptcy
there is no way in which a country can satisfy the craving for absolute security “No way.” No way. As in not possible in this world. but it can easily bankrupt itself, morally and economically, in attempting to reach...
Read MoreHeat Makes Things More Complicated – That’s One Reason Global Warming is Dangerous
How many times this winter did you witness something like this: you’re watching the snow fall straight east instead of to the ground and someone says, “Wow, that’s a hot batch of global warming isn’t...
Read MoreOn War – and Its Effects on Humans
Quotes from the e-newsletter I get from Information Clearing House. … the United States, for generations, has sustained two parallel but opposed states of mind about military atrocities and human rights: one of U.S....
Read MoreBiden: Our Values Demand BOTH Security and Liberty
Senator Joe Biden can speak English. Is this clear enough? … there is no daylight between President Bush and Sen. McCain … Like President Bush, Sen. McCain is presenting the American people with a false choice...
Read MoreSupport the Troops. Of Course!
It’s just simple truth. Of course we honor those who serve or have served in uniform. We honor them directly, and also we will insist that they be treated decently by the powers that send them into conflict. That is just...
Read MoreThree Strikes, & It’s Somebody Else’s Turn – My LTE on Iraq War
During the first week of February, McCook NE (pop 8000) lost a 20-year-old guard specialist (post-humously promoted to Sgt) to an IED in Iraq. I wanted to try to put a little blame for that loss where it really belongs, but...
Read MoreIs That Us? – a Navajo Critique of Christianity – “part-time religion”
These are the thoughts of Raymond Friday Locke, from his The Book of the Navajo, Mankind Pub Co, 2001 edition, p5. His take on Navajo culture and perspectives is widely respected. The Navajos for the most part have long resisted...
Read MoreThe (Poor) Community College Kids – And War
Where’s the outrage?A real antiwar movement would end our Iraq disaster. But the middle class doesn’t care enough to protest, so the kids who go to community college will keep dying. “The kids who go to...
Read MoreOp-Ed & Editorial in Rural Nebraska Rip Bush Escalation Plan, Call for Support for the Troops
Wow. Two on the same page. The McCook Daily Gazette (my hometown paper, on Thu Jan 11) ran an op-ed critical of Bush’s escalation in Iraq that said, among other things, “It’s unacceptable.” [to many...
Read MoreBorrowed Earth
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors,we borrow it from our children. Those two perspectives are both true, seems to me. But the second one is “truer” in the sense that it carries a lot more practical...
Read MoreDenial, the March of Folly (w/ Hitler & others)
There can be no graceful exit from Iraq … already “split into parts”. The fracture of Iraq is virtually complete, its chasms sucking in corpses at the rate of up to a thousand a day. -Robert Fisk I know...
Read MoreAnteaters Use AND Preserve Their Crucial Resources – Unlike Humans
I’m not interested in imitating their diet or lifestyle. But they act like they’re disciplining their appetites in the interests of thinking ahead. What a way to live. I presume these little dudes are not very good...
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The Civilized Are Responsible
Originally published in 1976. My how times have not changed. The civilized have created the...
Read MoreIn the “Not the Voice of Experience” Category
“Today is Veteran’s Day, so that won’t affect anyone in the White House.” —Seth Meyers Thanks to Bill in Portland Maine …
Read MoreTwo 5th Anniversaries Compared. 9-11 and Pearl Harbor. Different Results.
5th Anniversay of 9/11, Sep 11, 2006 Iraq is a major quagmire with no plan or end in sight. Civil war is well under way, and the vision of democracy is now so faint as to be undiscernible. Afghanistan is collapsing back into...
Read MoreWhat Difference Does It Make to the Orphans? – Gandhi
What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? from Gandhi...
Read MoreLTE About Iraq Vet’s Nice Vibes [w/Update]
A recent letter in the McCook Daily Gazette said nice things about certain Iraqis that the author knows personally, and then concludes we need to stay the course. Here is my response: We dropped the Egg on the Floor One has to...
Read MoreThe Self-Destruction of Empires
What is a prophet? Do you qualify if you explain what a nation is doing to itself and what the consequences will be if it continues in that course? If so, we have many worthy prophets in our land. This is from one of those...
Read MoreThe Imperial President – the Hunger to Have One Unrestrained Sinner Calling All the Shots
Sometimes even the journalistic mainstream gets it. It is only now, nearly five years after Sept. 11, that the full picture of the Bush administration’s response to the terror attacks is becoming clear. Much of it, we can...
Read MoreA Very Good Question About Israel, Lebanon, Iran, the US
A very good question: As Israeli firepower rained down on Lebanon last week, pundits here in the West wasted no time pinning the blame on – Iran … Is it really Iran that is pushing for war? Think about it. Why would...
Read MoreSecurity At Any Price? Not According to Habakkuk.
We’ve all heard it, and it is a major theme of the Bush Administration and its many popular media outlets. What if somebody tries to HURT us? What if somebody kills some of us even? We can’t risk it. We just...
Read MoreAmerica Dreams of Empire – A Comment from Germany
Have you read the new comment by Martin on yesterday’s post? I’m reproducing most of it here. This is obviously a very literate, concerned, and attentive fellow. He’s talking about a strong American tendency...
Read MoreOfficer Believes US War-Making Makes Us Like Nazis
It’s sickening to make such comparisons, even implicitly. But I’m not the only one who sees some significant parallels. (See related PublicChristian posts here.) Can we marvel that Christians did not resist more back...
Read MoreMarine Speaks of Our Ignorant “Casualness and Swagger”
Remember that old line from the ancient TV show “Dragnet”? “Just the facts, M’am.” Well, the facts keep being spoken. Are we listening? “My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to...
Read MoreThe Integrity of the Right-Wing Media Elite – MIA
Vince Powers of Lincoln, NE posted this awesome list of quotes from the ranting rightists. Oops, these are the true media elite speaking, so I guess we have to call them “the liberal media elite” if we want to be...
Read MoreHabakkuk: Guilty Men Worshipping Their Own Strength
Tom Tomorrow’s “This Modern World” is not one of my favorite cartoons – after all, there’s no visual art involved. But this is sickeningly wise and prescient. This cartoon was done three years ago....
Read MoreWhite House: Don’t Worry – We Should All Be Scared to Death!
Markos brings us up to date. So what have we learned the last 24 hours? One mind of the White House – We Should All Be Scared to Death! Terrorism is such a horrific danger to the very existence of our republic that we must...
Read MoreHow To Behave At Funerals, Part II: A Place for Truth-Telling
Thanks to Hamil Harris at the Washington Post for more on Rev. Joseph Lowery’s remarks at Coretta King’s funeral. (See prior post on this site.) … the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery said yesterday that his conservative...
Read MoreHabakkuk for Today? The Arrogance of Power.
There are some parts of the Bible, even the “Old Testament,” that need very little adjustment in order to have clear and direct meaning to today. What do you think of this from Habakkuk, ch 1? 2 How long, O LORD,...
Read MoreThings Are Going “Just Fine” in Iraq?
HBK gave us a good list of quick links about how “well” things are going in Iraq. I looked them all up to provide headlines. Notice that this quick survey of world press reports on events related to our war are all...
Read MoreHow To Behave At Funerals (w/ Update)
Here’s an awesome little video clip of Dr. Joseph Lowery’s mini-sermon at Mrs. King’s funeral. This is not my style of preaching, but I love it. I love seeing someone hit the right tone, get in profound and...
Read MoreM L King Opposed Our Vietnam War. What About Iraq? Juan Cole.
Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan, has done excellent work (as is his reputation) in compiling this list of “10 Things Martin Luther King Would Have Done about Iraq”. He analyzes...
Read MoreThe Amazing Disappearing (Borrowed) Dollars
Former President Clinton, in an interview on ABC (as reported in Common Dreams): “What Americans need to understand is that … every single day of the year, our government goes into the market and borrows money from...
Read MoreIf We Try to Kill All Our Enemies – We Just Make More
You may see Bill Clinton as “the enemy” or as your enemy. I think you would be wrong, but if you haven’t actually listened you don’t actually know. Please ‘listen’ to these brief sentences....
Read MoreBig Government, & Punishing Innocents for the Crimes of the Guilty
Information Clearing House has this article by Mike Whitney complaining about the new repressive measures dictated in Britain by Prime Minister Blair. In case you can’t tell, Whitney likes George Galloway’s courage...
Read MoreSome Dare Call It Treason – Bush Sr Does
These are remarks made in 1999 by George Bush, the father of our current President, speaking at the CIA. I have added emphasis to parts of this. Some people think, “what do we need intelligence for?” My answer to...
Read MoreShame on Promoters of Corrupt War-making – Personal Story
[This recent comment speaks for itself.] My son is one of those kids deployed in Afghanistan. In his letters he tells me of the futility of the effort and of the contractors living well and making money left and right. He is...
Read MoreMorality: WHICH Kids Do We Send To Their Deaths?
Bob Herbert, in his opinion columns for the NYT, tends regularly to pin things down to moral basics, as in this recent example. From the very start of this war the loudest of the flag-waving hawks were those who were safely...
Read MoreMark Twain: “We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem”
Mark Twain, 100 years ago: “I have read carefully the Treaty … and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem … It...
Read More“Family Values” Force Working People Into the Military.
(Yesterday afternoon Connie and I were discussing how many more troops would be necessary to fulfill the administration’s apparent desire to dominate the world. We thought it interesting how a need for (low-paying) jobs...
Read MoreWas It A Lack In My Faith? A Christian Very Puzzled by His Church.
(Here’s a comment recently added to A Lament for the American Church. It speaks for itself.) Thank you for finally putting into words what I have been feeling all along! I have often wondered if it was just me that saw all...
Read MoreRemembering Martin Luther King Jr – Moral & Intellectual Integrity
On this, the anniversary of the murder of Dr. King, let me commend to you the recent post by Rob Couto. It has excerpts from a speech King gave in New York City, one year before his murder, laying out very clearly and powerfully...
Read MoreMartin Luther King on War: “A Time Comes When Silence is Betrayal”
“For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.”
Read MoreWhy Do They Hate Us? An African Writer & a US Bishop Give Prophetic Answers
(Thanks to Rob Couto – no relation to Mia Couto – for bringing this to our attention.) Mia (Antonio Emilio L). Couto, one of Mozambique’s most prolific and best known authors, is the author of this open letter...
Read MoreThe Sabbath: From Money, From Injustice, From Cultural Craziness, TO God
An email came to us declaring inauguration day to be “Not One Damn Dime Day” in the face of religious and political leaders failing to speak out against the war in Iraq. To condense the well-written email, it called...
Read More“My Friends Are Dead” and I Wonder …
This is almost verbatim from a diary by soonergrunt at dailykos with some comments from me at the bottom. First soonergrunt quotes from the Associated Press: “BAGHDAD, Iraq – The number of U.S. military deaths in...
Read MoreCheney’s Reasons for Invading Iraq – According to Cheney Himself
Some of us in the church have begun to feel like captives on an Alfred Hitchcock movie set — so many fellow believers are putting stock in every word the Bush Administration is saying! The following can be useful in...
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