Search Results for:

24XO7 = 1 800-299-7264 Alaska Airlines Phone Number F0r Flight Reservations

Promise Keepers 2.0: Women and Jews Invited

…f evangelical-minded men. The budget dropped from a peak of $117 million in 1997 to about $34 million in 2001. Gone were the stadium rallies, replaced by much smaller arena events. There was a grandiose plan to extend the success of the DC rally through millennial marches to all 50 state capitals, but that plan faltered big-time. PK limped along, largely unfocused. In 2003, Coach Mac stepped down, a major blow to an organization built largely on h…

Read More

Defying Gravity Defies Sci-Fi Conventions

In a 1972 speech, science fiction author Philip K. Dick expressed his concern over the increasing dehumanization that 20th century culture forced upon its inhabitants. He feared that, just as we were beginning to reach toward the stars, we were becoming emotional androids. “Our flight must be not only to the stars but into the nature of our own beings,” Dick wrote. “Because it is not merely where we go, to Alpha Centauri or Betelgeuse, but what w…

Read More

That Mercenary Feeling: What the Apparently Unlimited Use of “Contractors” Says About American Empire in Afghanistan and Iraq

…In it Jim Glanz points out that Pentagon-employed contractors not only outnumber uniformed U.S. troops in Afghanistan but also that the ratio of contractors to military personnel there is the highest of any war in U.S. history. In a new study, the Congressional Research Service reports that contractors make up 65% of the Pentagon’s overall forces in Afghanistan over the past two years. And this is just for the Pentagon: the new CRS report does no…

Read More

The Sacred and the Dead: ‘Friend of the Devil’ is a Love Song

…life in jail.” The theme of alienation is expressed in the song’s focus on flight—from the law, from society, even from friends. And yet we are drawn to identification with an outlaw so alienated from the rest of the world, he believes the Devil is his only friend. In my ministry as an Anglican deacon, leading ministries that offer food, clothing and, most important of all, fellowship to homeless folks living on the streets of Vancouver’s West Sid…

Read More

Does Liberal Theology Profane God?

…l stewards of the earth. The impoverished: The denomination pledged back in 1972 to “support federal welfare reform legislation” to help the poor. Violence: Also in the 1970s, Baptists supported an end to violence, “not only physical acts of violence but also psychological violence such as racism, chauvinism, and economic discrimination.” Women: Back in 1983, the denomination even passed a resolution that urged “all employers, including those Sout…

Read More

Getting Back into Blogging

…atable Eiffel tower. That’s how I knew it was partially about the hajj. My flight itinerary is set. I fly directly from San Francisco to Paris, and then from Paris to Jeddah, which is like the port city for hajjis. Apparently in the dream, someone was so anxious to show they had gone through Paris, they sort of took anything—because, clearly in the dream, no merit was ascribed to that particular choice. It was worse than my stop at the tourist kio…

Read More

Capricology: Divine Madness

…s the ability to instantly acquire the skills she needs to get through the flight simulator. She argues in effect that she doesn’t want to do things the easy way; she wants to earn her way through the virtual world. I am reminded of the ongoing debates around multiplayer games about what constitutes cheating and whether it is appropriate for a character to pay real cash to buy a ready-made avatar which can function at higher levels than they have…

Read More

Pope Francis Dismisses Condoms in AIDS Fight

…no such compassion for those living with HIV/AIDS when asked on his return flight from his African visit if the church should change its prohibition on condom use given the continued spread of the virus. Francis replied with an obtuse mixture of parable and exegesis that made it clear he saw little flexibility in the teaching: The question seems too small to me. It seems to me also like a partial question. The morality of the church is found on th…

Read More

“We Found My Father, Except for His Hand”

…y of their places of murder. What would I have found in Srebrenica? But my flight arrived too late. Although we had access, we would’ve arrived well after the commemorations, and may have missed the chance to meet the people who needed to be talked to—by then many would’ve been on the return trip to Sarajevo. More than that, in the face of the thousands making the return trip before nightfall, we may have been forced to spend the night. Bosnia has…

Read More

Mitt Romney At Value Voters Summit

…ancy Pelosi’s numbers have being going down a chute faster than a Jet Blue flight attendant” and  “President Obama’s idea of a rogue state is Arizona.”   As for the substance of Romney’s speech, what was most notable was the absence of talk about values, let alone religion.  Instead, Romney sounded every bit the corporate buyout and turnaround specialist, criticizing the “anti-growth,” “anti-investment” Obama administration for forgetting the priv…

Read More