01.26.07
Love it
One of my favorite Library moments ever just happened:
I was browsing the magazines making sure they were in their correct places and I found the Natural History magazine out of place. On the cover is a very realistic digital image of what Neanderthal man might have looked like.
It was in the slot reserved for “Glamour”.
01.25.07
Ahh…Columbus
I’m sure many of you saw this forward, but I thought it was funny enough to put a portion of it on here:
Upper Arlington-Grandview Barbie
This princess Barbie is sold only in Upper Arlington. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade Handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey and a cookie-cutter house. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented version.
West Side Barbie
This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a chevy with dark tinted windows, and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills). Unless you are a cop, then we don’t know what you are talking about.
Dublin Barbie
This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, credit card and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won’t be able to afford any of them.
Clintonville Barbie
This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Willow. She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Highland Square Barbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free.
Grove City Barbie
This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans two sizes too small, a NASCAR t-shirt and tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud Light and a Hank Williams Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5 feet and kick mullet-haired Ken’s butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free
Short North Barbie/Ken
This versatile doll can be easily converted from Barbie to Ken by simply adding or subtracting the multiple snap-on parts.
01.24.07
Dodging investors angry over the pay received by Home Depot chairman and CEO Robert Nardelli, who took home at least $120 million over five years as the company’s stock price dropped 12 percent, Home Depot’s board fails to show up at its annual shareholders meeting.The session is presided over solely by Nardelli, who sidesteps all questions (“This is not the forum in which we would address your comment”) and cuts the meeting short after half an hour. The event’s negative fallout, highlighted by demonstrators wearing chicken costumes and orange Home Depot aprons, leads Nardelli to announce days later that, for next year’s meeting, “we will return to our traditional format … with the board of directors in attendance.”
Nardelli resigns in early January, walking away with another $210 million in severance.
To see more wonderful stories, go here:
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/biz2/0701/gallery.101dumbest_bosses/index.html?cnn=yes
What strikes me as odd is that somehow we’ve privileged these people above and beyond others in our community who are being dishonest, selfish and uncaring. Technically, this guy didn’t break the law, but are we still beholden to the letter of the law, or the spirit of the law? I think Jesus may have had something to say about that.
How is it that people in California end up with 25 years to life for nonviolent crimes simply because it’s their third time around? (forgive 70 times 7)
Eddie Jordan stole a new shirt from a J.C. Penney’s store that he intended to wear at a job interview. Juan Muro attempted to steal wooden pallets from a parking lot to burn at a beach bonfire for the birthday party of a friend’s son. Vincent Delgado and Clarence Malbrough stole less than $90 worth of items from chain stores; both had longtime heroin addictions. Duane Silva and Ricky Spahn are both borderline mentally retarded defendants charged with property crimes. Michael Garcia stole a package of chuck steaks to feed his family. And Kendall Cooke shoplifted one can of beer from a 7-Eleven store.
Together, these eight defendants stole $8,000 in goods. It will take only 15 days before the taxpayers’ bill for their collective imprisonment exceeds that amount. Each of the 10 defendants profiled in this report is facing a life sentence. None of the 10 men was ever accused of physically harming a victim.
Click here for their whole stories.
In the meantime, those who have had the wealth and opportunity to be trained in the halls of power and deception are able to steal without a weapon or in desperation.
The former Tyco exec stole hundreds of millions and will probably serve less than 15 years.
What is justice anyway?
01.17.07
A little too much…or not enough
So, as I begin some heavy reading for my trip this summer and my classes that begin today, I will also try and read something that’s a bit easier on the brain…but maybe harder on the soul.
After recommendations from numerous friends I trust, I picked up and read “The Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne. I read it in four sittings.
At the same time I was reading that book, I was reading “Sweet Relief”, the biography about Marla Ruzicka written by Jennifer Abrahamson.
On its own, the book on Marla may have simply reminded me why it so impacted me when I heard about her death, even though I knew nothing about her before that day. It gives a good picture of her struggles externally and within herself as she worked to ease the heartache of civilian victims of warfare and acquire some compensation from our government for their loss. Incidentally, in World War I, 95% of the casualties were military. Today, 95% of the casualties are civilians. If the weaponry is smart…who are the ignorant ones?
But the fact that I was reading these two at the same time made it difficult not to juxtapose my very easy, academic pursuit of nonviolence against the kind of sacrifice shown by Marla and Shane Claiborne. Shane lives in a community in Philadelphia that has planted itself among the poor and violent, the outcasts of our suburban dream. His story is a lot like mine, except I’ve only gone halfway. He came from the same kind of evangelical teenage experience I did, went to a Christian school and “did some time” at a megachurch which will remain nameless (Willow Creek). Since then however, he has made intentional decisions about living among the poor and suffering.
What am I to do with my passion for nonviolence and reconciliation (reiterated by Abrahamson) in the midst of a guy telling me to let go of my comforts? Granted, Missy and I don’t have a lot of comforts compared to many in our American Christian culture. But if we’re gonna do comparison, we should be comparing ourselves to those at the bottom.
Last night I had my first session of THEO 610, “Globalization and Christian Ethics.” Someone in the class asked how we were supposed to break through what he called “the culture of anemia in regards to empathy for others.” He talked about the need for us to care for the poor but that this is often thwarted by…what? He couldn’t put a finger on it.
Distance. We are too far removed from those who are suffering. Shane makes the point in his book that many in the social justice, non-profit field are still far removed from those they serve. Am I headed towards an academic and vocational care for those impacted by violence that will never allow me to share life with them? I hope not.
I also found a lot of damning and encouraging words in regards to the conversation found here. Shane is convinced the radicals need the church and vice versa. Walter Rauschenbusch talks about the idea of “Super-personal” entities that need conversion as much as individuals. Our churches and governments and corporations (in order of current world influence and power) need converted under the banner of the Kingdom of God. The book on Marla reminded me again just how pervasive support for these acts of war was among Christians in this country. More perhaps later on what reading these books did to clarify my discussion in the above mentioned post.
01.04.07
Holiness Unto The Lord!
So, as I promised, some stuff about the good ol Nazarene church that I’m encouraged about:
I want to say that my greatest spiritual growth over the past couple years has not been due primarily to Xavier and my education there. While that has been incredibly beneficial, my greatest growth has happened because of the community of faith I am involved with right now.
Not only have I truly experienced community, but I have grown to be encouraged by that community – even the larger community called the Nazarene denomination. I know a lot of people who talk about loving their enemies and truly engaging someone who is different from you. But these same people don’t have the same patience for evangelical Christians or conservative politicians. In fact, they deride them with the same vitriol they condemn in others. I know, I used to be one. But that’s very different now. And that’s where I have grown. That growth can be precisely pointed to the fact that I have remained in the Nazarene church and what I have learned from a very good professor about the reality and beauty of dialogue with others.
With all that in mind, some excellent things our denomination (or its members) are involved in:
The General Superintendents (the popes) have been talking over the past year at various assemblies, etc. about the need to reevaluate the role of the church. They are convinced that those who have been in the church for generations and are set in the pattern of legalism are creating a spiritual atmosphere very much unlike what Jesus was trying to do. This is good stuff.
http://www.emergentnazarenes.blogspot.com/ - A group of Nazarenes identifying with the emergent movement.
http://www.pointloma.edu/JusticeandReconciliation.htm - A department within Point Loma Nazarene that engages social justice issues.
http://www.ncm.org/ed_socjustice.aspx - the COTN site devoted to social justice. Read through the articles, they are pretty good.
Above and through all of this, there is a great amount of dialogue occurring about the future role of the denomination. Many are realizing the errors of legalism and the slipping towards fundamentalism that has been occurring. There is a great deal of anxiety and a great deal of hope about what could happen in the church. I’m happy to be in the middle of that tension.
01.03.07
Bummer
As I really get into the muck of planning this trip to overseas this year, I’m finding I may have to cut the trip in half.
I had hoped, and still do, to travel both to Northern Ireland and the Balkans for the research on religious violence and reconciliation. But I’m not sure the $2500 stipend they give will cover everything.
Flights have gone up in the last couple months. They’re hovering about $900-$1000. Then I have to pay my way down to Bosnia and back via plane, train, or automobile – all costing between $400 and $600. That leaves me about $800-$1000 for 25 days of lodging and food. Lodging is no problem (I’m hoping….if I don’t end up with a place to stay for free, which I typically do, it’s hostels all the way) but I’m guessing at $20 a day for food – another $400 to $500 dollars. And if I have to pay for hostels, that’s another few hundred total.
That whole budget may work as long as nothing unexpected occurs, but it’s cutting it real close.
What do you think? Do I make the big effort to go to both places or play it safe and stay in Northern Ireland?
01.01.07
So apologies for not posting what I promised. I’ll get there, be patient with me.
For now though, here is a portion of a song that just hit me as I was browsing some blogs:
I became a thin blue stream The smoke between asleep and dreams And in that clear blue undertow I saw Royal City far below Borders soft with refugees Streets a¹swimming with amputees It¹s a Bible or a bullet they put over your heart It¹s getting harder and harder to tell them apart Days are nights and the nights are long Beating hearts blossom into walking bombs And those still looking in the clear blue sky for a sign Get missiles from so high they might as well be divine Now the wolves are howling at our door Singing bout vengeance like it¹s the joy of the Lord Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round They¹re guilty when killed and they¹re killed where they¹re found If what¹s loosed on earth will be loosed up on high It¹s a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please The fat man is crying on his hands and his knees Back in the peacetime he caught roses on the stage Now he twists indecision takes bourbon for rage Lead pellets peppering aluminum Halcyon, laudanum and Opium Sings kiss thee hardy this poisoned cup His winding sheet is busy winding up In darkness he looks for the light that has died But you need faith for the same reasons that it¹s so hard to find And this whole thing is headed for a terrible wreck And like good tragedy that¹s what we expect
From Josh Ritter’s “Thin Blue Flame”
Now if you’ll excuse me. I apparently need to read some Levitical passages and Romans 13.
