The Things I Have to Put Up With

“Since we know that the need to frequent museums or churches is conditional on frequenting museums and churches, and that assiduous frequentation supposes the need to frequent, it is clear that breaking the circle of the first entry into a church or museum requires a predisposition towards frequentation which, short of a miraculous predestination, can [...]

Slashes

I’m playing with a free jazz/noise/experimental/etc. group called Diva Abrasiva. Two drummers, two guitars, and a bassist/electronics dude. It’s pretty cool. Anyway, for the one person out there who might find this interesting, here’s a recording of our recent concert in Glasgow.

Two Things Which Please Me

(1) The new Star Trek trailer. Okay, maybe it’s not that new, but today was my first time to see it. It was also my first time to click on an advertisement embedded in a website; well, sometimes I click on them if I think it will help keep a site running, but it was [...]

Larry, You Cynical Bastard

This quote is old, but still….
Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging more migration of dirty industries to the LDCs [less developed countries]? I can think of three reasons: 1) The measurement of the costs of health-impairing pollution depends on the forgone earnings from increased morbidity and mortality. From this point [...]

Rick, My Alma Frater

Rick Warren and I went to the same seminary, so I guess that makes us alma fratris. Indeed, watching his inaugural prayer was not unlike visiting friends from my evangelical past, friends I still consider family. His demeanor and oratorical style were pure Southern California mega-pastor–though I recognize his pronunciation of “Malia and…SASHA!” was hilarious, [...]

Ravel and the Scherzo

I know very little about classical music, but I’ve been waking up to BBC 3 (the classical music station here in Britain) for the last week or so. Most of the music on their “Breakfast” program is pretty innocuous, which makes it nice to wake up to, read the paper to, etc. But yesterday my [...]

Zonks

I’ve been at this “Adam Smith as a Theologian” conference for the last two days. Incredibly frustrating but also great. This guy rules. This guy is pretty awesome, but often wrong. Have we really been discussing this book for two days? No, we’ve discussed more interesting topics and then some. Anyway, I’m supposed to give [...]

How to Recruit Terrorists

Israel is currently doing a wonderful job at recruiting the next generation of Palestinian terrorists, as the front page video from El País demonstrates.* By wounding and killing Palestinian children all over Gaza, Israel is sure to inspire legions of young Palestinians with a virulent hatred that will extend the conflict for many years to [...]

Smith, Bourdieu and Yoder on Postlapsarian Morality

The paper I’m presenting at the “Adam Smith as a Theologian” Conference is entitled “On Not Over- or Underestimating the Fall: Prospects for a Moral Economy in Smith, Bourdieu and Yoder.” I’m about half-way through, but decided to go ahead and start posting some of the sections. Here’s the introduction:
“The realization of a moral economy [...]

The Dugg

Virginia Military Institute, my maternal grandfather’s alma mater, has a men’s basketball coach named Duggar Baucom. That is all. Oh, and he has a very thick neck.