Beholding the Beauty

All formatting and spelling (or lack thereof) intentional. And if it turns out something wasn't -- well that just proves the point, I guess..... Life is messy  -- No doubt about it! Some of it can be UNmessed, Organized, packt up in Neat little boxes  -- With straight sides and Square corners flush and Trim -- Nary a slot for Carbon paper a-'tween 'em! Some of the boxes, on the other Hand, bulge a little bit, And the neat little grid Begins to drift.  The Yarn loosens, Unravels a tad, and Next thing you know you've got a Hair-Ball on the carpet and no idea Where the cat went.

I have an idea on how to solve immigration, and I'd like y'all's feedback: 1) Put protections in place for employers who hire illegal immigrants into this program, and for the illegal immigrants volunteering for this system as well. 2) Allow any foreigner who passes muster (normal background checks, not on terrorist watchlist, etc.) to enter this program. 3) Give anyone who completes this path full citizenship upon completion, assuming certain minimums of behavior in the interim (i.e. annual background checks, drug testing, etc., including a final comprehensive review at the end) 4) To prevent abuse by both the employers and the employees, set certain reasonable minimums on the contracts involved in this program.  These limits would initially be set by Congress, but the State Legislatures could amend these on an ongoing bases at will. 5) Tax Credits may or may not be offered by the States or the Congress for participation in the program. 6) The system is propose...

In this excellent romp through Church History, Khomiakov elucidates the impetus and disease underlying the Western Schism, and the means of its healing, clearly identifying the core values of the Western Schism in its two halves (Romanism and Protestantism [and touching on the two further halves of this as well]). Highly accessible to both scholar and layperson alike, this article includes a brilliant (and I dare say holy) description of the Orthodox Church, and a careful but direct demarcation of the ground it stands on (and a critical comparison of that solid rock to the shifting sands of the West). The reader will also have obtained, by the end of the piece, a clear understanding of the reason that the filioque  controversy is such a touchstone, and was the watershed of the schism, without having to melt his or her brain by touching (beyond the broad ecclesiological considerations being discussed, of course) on the particulars of the doctrine and/or the specific th...

Today, I sent the following to Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA): Senator Boxer, You worked tirelessly to end the ill-conceived War in Iraq, and I applaud your efforts on the front. I write to you now because I am concerned that the U.S. is about to get itself involved in yet another ill-conceived conflict, spending yet more money that we don't have to support the perpetrators of unspeakable atrocities, and harm the cause of democracy world-wide by encouraging even more sectarian, religiously oppressive, anti-freedom activities. I'm referring specifically to the statements coming from President Obama and others indicating that the U.S. will be sending military assistance to the rebels opposing Syrian President Bashar Assad. The line of reasoning in support of the rebels has been the reports (unlikely and unconfirmed, but let's assume for the sake of discussion that they are accurate) that Assad has used chemical weapons, which is against international law, and so sho...

What happened last night in the gallery of the Texas Senate is ATROCIOUS, and should be considered so regardless of your standpoint on the bill in question. First off, neither we as a nation, nor Texas as a State, are a "democracy". In fact, the Constitution of the United States specifically requires all participant States to have be republics, not democracies, and the Constitution of Texas explicitly states that Texas is, in fact, a Republic. That means representative government. What is so atrocious about what happened last night, is that rather than allowing the rule of law (including filibusters) to work, the so-called "people" simply overrode the law. I say "so-called" because the people shouting in the gallery were NOT elected. They (illegally, in my opinion) inserted themselves (via their voices) in the place of the ELECTED representatives (on both sides!) in the Senate well. I say it is atrocious because this sets a precedent of "barroom...

Context matters.  A lot. Case in point: the Protestant notion of "faith vs. works". http://onbehalfofall.org/2012/06/23/st-paul-and-the-works-of-the-law/

I just noticed it's been a month and a day since I posted last!  Man, how time flies! Anyway, I've been (as usual) super busy, and will remain so through the end of next week, so here's a quick quick rundown of some things I've been up to lately.  I'll expand on a couple of these after next week, when I have more time:  * Went to a Four-Day Defensive Handgun Course at Front Sight, and passed the skills test with a "Distinguished Graduate" level, which is the highest you can get.  To receive a "DG", you must "shoot down" 0-13 points.  That is, your points must be with 13 of the maximum possible.  I "shot down" 9.   In other words, I missed 3 shots, but they were still in the "body" on the target -- they weren't complete misses, just outside the "optimal" area.  (Complete misses are -5 each.)  I was one of two people in a class of 39 to receive a DG.  * Been working on some super secret projects tha...