Daily Archives: May 17, 2009

Barack Obama on Doubt

Damn, President Barack Obama is good. This from him today at Notre Dame: In this world of competing claims about what is right and what is true, have confidence in the values with which you’ve been raised and educated. Be unafraid … Continue reading

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“A Brief for the Defense”: Jack Gilbert’s Great Theodicy Poem

A Brief for the Defense Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that’s what God wants. Otherwise the mornings before summer … Continue reading

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Great Short Story Beginnings Watch: Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

Damn, this is some good writing! I’m hooked from the get-go. And I like the description of the mother with the “green head-kerchief.” The beginning of Flannery O’Connor’s classic, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”: The grandmother didn’t want to … Continue reading

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A Quote for Sunday: Barack Obama on Abortion

Barack Obama: “The reason I’m pro-choice is because I don’t think women take [abortion] casually. I think they struggle with these decisions each and every day. And I think they are in a better position to make these decisions ultimately … Continue reading

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Randall Terry for Beginners

What President Obama faces at Notre Dame today is embodied by Randall Terry, a leading figure in the protests. Salon.com describes Terry’s anti-abortion activism history this way: The Operation Rescue zealot turned off a lot of working-class people who were nervous about … Continue reading

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British Scientist, Lord Robert Winston, Writes a Children’s Evolution Book

After explaining evolution to kids, Lord Winston ends his little talk here with a eugenics kicker about what might be in store for human evolution as we increase our ability to manipulate the genome. I actually found his tag-on last … Continue reading

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Quote of the Day: A Very Brief Parable by Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka’s “Give It Up”: “It was very early in the morning, the streets clean and deserted, and I was on my way to the railroad station. As I compared the tower clock with my watch I realized that it … Continue reading

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Creation v. Evolution Watch: The “Archaeopteryx of Primate Evolution” Found, Says New York Times Today

Yet another primate “missing link” showing evidence of the types of evolved characteristics that ultimately led to the appearance of humans. The small mammal is, apparently, exquisitely preserved, looks like a cross between a lemur and a monkey, and lived 47 million … Continue reading

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