Occupation of Independence

  Quite a few Christmas movies have been made.  Most are pure schlock of course, but there is a noble exception.   E very year I like to give an advertisement for the Christmas movie,  "Joyeux Noel."   Its combination of hope and tragedy is quite touching.  A feeling of Hope seems to persist after you see the movie.  It seems especially timely with my own country responsible for two murderous wars right now.  But I don't expect the change of administration to improve the situation. What a shock the Great War must have been to people who believed in the automatic increase of Progress!  And what does the same person think today when they see Israel acting like genocidal German Nazis of World War II?  What was the old saying -- 'Never Again?'

I admit to being a man of the Hinterlands.  When I encounter people from the Left Coast, camping in the desert during winter, they don't seem like they are from the same country as me.   That in itself is not a bad thing.  But it seems like every topic, no matter how mundane, becomes a chance for them to intrude their fanatical ideology. At times it seems like we couldn't discuss the best shoestrings for hiking boots without hearing their tendentious preaching about racism, Trump, fascism, the next Hitler, what happened to the Native Americans, abortion, capitalism, or Climate Change.  They are emotionally addicted to moral indignation and moral posturing, as if screaming at somebody else long enough proves them to be a good person -- at least better than the person they are screaming at.  How do you tell them politely, "Let's just discuss shoestrings, shall we?" from abc.net.au This can get so frustrating.  But maybe that suggests an opportunity.  Tha...

  The recent invasion, conquest, and chaos in Syria seem to have taken the world by surprise.  I think I am using this event in a good way: as a spur to learn something about Islamic history.  Without a newsy and timely spur, it is too easy to put off such a project. I read a couple previews on Amazon.  It was disgusting how obsequious the authors were.  What a double standard!   Western intellectuals hold nothing back when it comes to "higher criticism" of the Bible and Christian traditions.  This seems like a mistake.  A person can be skeptical about a theology without 'throwing the baby out with the bath water.' And then they talk about Islam like they are walking on eggs.  One way to look at that is to call it condescending.   So I bounced around on Amazon and Kobo until I found a book that was rationally critical of the Islamic tradition.  The book was "Did Muhammad Exist?" by Robert Spencer.  It is refreshing to...

Lake Mead.  People have always been fascinated by eclipses, and rightly so.  I felt a different kind of eclipse the other day.   In mid-winter the mighty sun, Sol Invictus, weakens.  You can experience it but you still hardly believe it. High filmy clouds happen in the winter in the Southwestern states.  The sky is bright and cheerful.  But something is missing.  It is a little bit scary. Such clouds are not my favorite.  Recently I had a chance to experience puffy cumulus clouds in the tri-state, time-zone whiplash hell of Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. These photos might appear to show a freakishly variegated geology.  Believe it or not, it is just the lucky lining-up of shadows and mountains.