progressive involvement

Back to business as usual

2012-02-10T10:04:28-07:00

The banksters had to pay $25 billion because of their over-zealous foreclosures, but they're happy to pay it because, now that the suit is over, they can go back to seizing peoples' homes.

The Deuteronomist was wrong

2012-02-10T09:44:19-07:00

The "Deuteronomist historian" is one of the four major sources of the Hebrew Bible, and is responsible for the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and parts of Jeremiah. Rather than being a single person, it is more likely that...

2012-02-08T12:04:59-07:00

Click to enlarge. HT: Mark Cortez

2012-02-08T10:58:21-07:00

ht: ASBO Jesus

Ginned up

2012-02-08T10:42:15-07:00

George Weigel, known now as a "Catholic scholar," was the official biographer for John Paul II, his hero. In regard to the ginned up controversy over Catholic hospitals offering contraception coverage for non-Catholic employees--that's all it's about, folks--Weigel said: "This...

Oldie, but goodie

2012-02-07T15:00:33-07:00

Why you can't trust ideologues

2012-02-07T09:03:42-07:00

The Susan B. Komen Foundation has been in a week-long frenzy of attempted damage control, desperately trying to, as they say, save its "brand," and all because of an ideologue who got herself into a powerful position within the organization...

Random factoid

2012-02-06T20:56:25-07:00

The submarine was invented by Rev. George Garrett, an Anglican clergyman in Manchester, England. It was named Resurgam, which means: "I shall rise again." Unfortunately, it sunk in the Irish Sea about three months after being built, and did not...

"Who gets saved?"

2012-02-06T12:28:08-07:00

Who Gets Saved? from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

Diamond Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth

2012-02-06T09:54:22-07:00

On February 6, 1952, King George VI died making Princess Elizabeth Queen. See "The Moment a Princess Became a Queen."

Two plays determined Super Bowl

2012-02-06T09:42:27-07:00

Patriots' receiver Wes Welker dropped a pass, while the Giants' Mario Manningham caught one.

Lectionary blogging: Mark 1: 40-45

2012-02-06T09:20:25-07:00

40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ 41Moved with pity Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose....

@%#*&%$

2012-02-03T16:54:35-07:00

In their TV advertising, Christianmingle.com claims to help you "find God's match for you." In other words, God works through them to help you find a mate. Second commandment alert! The second commandment is: "You shall not take the name...

Good thing they're infallible

2012-02-02T09:46:29-07:00

Otherwise, they'd seem ridiculous. Catholic bishops are way out-of-step with their flock on many issues. To take merely two of them, they're out-of-step, first of all, on homosexuality and gays. The most gay-friendly people on earth are Catholic and mainline...

Two cheers for religion

2012-02-01T09:24:41-07:00

Is the universe kind? That was Einstein's great question. Do, ultimately, things turn out in a way that we humans would consider good and benign--or not? Certainly Christianity, but pretty much every other religion as well, asserts an ultimate universal...

Quote of the Day

2012-02-01T09:17:16-07:00

"The church is Paul. Those outside the church are Jesus." Johannes de Silentio

Partial list of progressive accomplishments over the past 100 years

2012-01-31T18:09:45-07:00

Publicly regulated or owned transportation, sanitation and utilities systems, antitrust laws, increased fairness in taxation, expansion of the public education and juvenile justice systems, safer workplaces, workmens' compensation, oversight of the purity of water, medicines and foods. Conservation of the...

Openings words of the Populist Party platform, issued July 4, 1892

2012-01-31T17:52:48-07:00

"We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political and material ruin....Corruption dominates the ballot box, the [state] legislatures and the Congress and touches even the bench.....The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public...

Habitat for Humanity expands its mission

2012-01-30T16:06:45-07:00

Habitat for Humanity is expanding its mission beyond building houses. The Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (NRI) will help existing homeowners to repair and enhance their homes, sometimes with paint, sometimes with weatherization, sometimes with a smidgen of plain old elbow-grease. The...

Lectionary blogging: Mark 1: 29-39

2012-01-30T11:15:52-07:00

As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31He came and took...