I wonder how Lt. Walsh reacts to this after a lifetime of thinking his dip into the Challenger Deep was a big deal.
(AP reporting on the Japan aftershock): Officials said the aftershock hit 30 miles (50 kilometers) under the water and off the coast of Miyagi prefecture.
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cc: Multiple layers of fact-checking (etc.) file
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Apr 7, 2011
"Strangest Theology"
That phrase, used two TMR posts back, requires sturdier support than my neurological innards.
It also needs careful separation from the private religious practices of people who thoughtfully work out their personal relationships with Eternity and who feel no compulsion to force others to adopt their spiritual conclusions.
Kevin Phillips was far from the first to recognize that pentecostalism and premillenial dispensationalism* -- in their various forms -- drive the political behavior of vast swathes of people. But he was among the first to offer a comprehensive look at how modern vote whores exploit masses who derive their deepest beliefs from unusual and unverifiable interpretation of scriptures, Christian and otherwise.
His book on the subject is "American Theocracy" (2006). His research data and conclusions are likely to please no political partisans.
To summarize, perhaps dangerously so, Phillips suggests that the behavior of right-wing religio-statists can be explained by their broad constituency of people convinced that we live in end times, on the Rapture's verge. Planning for any sort of future other than that detailed by St. John the Divine therefore becomes unnecessary and perhaps even anti-God.
Phillips refuses to absolve secular statists of the left.
"Conservatives fixate on the provocations (vulgar popular culture, e.g.) and ignore the excesses visible in in the neo-puritan and rightest countertide, and liberals have reversed the error; keening over the religious threat while ignoring the secular provocation." (p. 209)
The excesses of state religiosity could include such things as recriminalizing private sexual behavior, transferring general tax revenues to religious bodies, and restricting the private spiritual practices of believers unfavored by the state.
The leftist secular excesses would continue the protracted fraud of free everything for all who "need" it, a Long March to the rule of the proletariat, supervised only by the new priesthood of selfless commissars.
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"American Theocracy" is useful in a number of ways, particularly in the demographic maps and charts relating religious beliefs to voting behavior. It would be easy to disagree with some Phillips conclusions, but there's no denying that he brought an impressive amount of information to the table.
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* That mouthful can be explained as the view that God has gone through several periods of relating more or less benignly to His human creatures but that He's now fed up and will, quite soon, implement the horrors and joys of Revelations.
It also needs careful separation from the private religious practices of people who thoughtfully work out their personal relationships with Eternity and who feel no compulsion to force others to adopt their spiritual conclusions.
Kevin Phillips was far from the first to recognize that pentecostalism and premillenial dispensationalism* -- in their various forms -- drive the political behavior of vast swathes of people. But he was among the first to offer a comprehensive look at how modern vote whores exploit masses who derive their deepest beliefs from unusual and unverifiable interpretation of scriptures, Christian and otherwise.
His book on the subject is "American Theocracy" (2006). His research data and conclusions are likely to please no political partisans.
To summarize, perhaps dangerously so, Phillips suggests that the behavior of right-wing religio-statists can be explained by their broad constituency of people convinced that we live in end times, on the Rapture's verge. Planning for any sort of future other than that detailed by St. John the Divine therefore becomes unnecessary and perhaps even anti-God.
Phillips refuses to absolve secular statists of the left.
"Conservatives fixate on the provocations (vulgar popular culture, e.g.) and ignore the excesses visible in in the neo-puritan and rightest countertide, and liberals have reversed the error; keening over the religious threat while ignoring the secular provocation." (p. 209)
The excesses of state religiosity could include such things as recriminalizing private sexual behavior, transferring general tax revenues to religious bodies, and restricting the private spiritual practices of believers unfavored by the state.
The leftist secular excesses would continue the protracted fraud of free everything for all who "need" it, a Long March to the rule of the proletariat, supervised only by the new priesthood of selfless commissars.
---
"American Theocracy" is useful in a number of ways, particularly in the demographic maps and charts relating religious beliefs to voting behavior. It would be easy to disagree with some Phillips conclusions, but there's no denying that he brought an impressive amount of information to the table.
---
* That mouthful can be explained as the view that God has gone through several periods of relating more or less benignly to His human creatures but that He's now fed up and will, quite soon, implement the horrors and joys of Revelations.
Apr 6, 2011
The looming government shutdown
I used "looming" because AP did. Pretty scary word. Anything that will loom over you will crap on you, eh?
But not too much. The National Journall adds color to to the notion that "OMG! A Shutdown!" is mostly hot halitosis designed to scare Hell out of you.
It also offers a tidy affirmation of what we've been saying around here forever:
"Executive agencies must submit lists of essential employees and "plans for an orderly shutdown in the event of the absence of appropriations" to OMB. But the contingency plans are difficult to come by, possibly because of the political implications of classifying government employees as 'nonessential.' "
That should be about all the illustration anyone needs that government as we know it makes sense only as a gigantic jobs program.
I'm not necessarily for a Washington shutdown, but a Washington shut up would be welcome.
But not too much. The National Journall adds color to to the notion that "OMG! A Shutdown!" is mostly hot halitosis designed to scare Hell out of you.
It also offers a tidy affirmation of what we've been saying around here forever:
"Executive agencies must submit lists of essential employees and "plans for an orderly shutdown in the event of the absence of appropriations" to OMB. But the contingency plans are difficult to come by, possibly because of the political implications of classifying government employees as 'nonessential.' "
That should be about all the illustration anyone needs that government as we know it makes sense only as a gigantic jobs program.
I'm not necessarily for a Washington shutdown, but a Washington shut up would be welcome.
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