Wonderful Matters

This Tom Toles cartoon appeared in today's Los Angeles Times, and it deftly elucidates a critical truth that seems to frequently elude so many. That truth is Everything anyone does is rational. It is veritable. There is not a single thing that anyone does that is irrational. In fact popular web pundit Vox Day has a fine new book out shredding the silly blitherings of "new" atheists such as Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris, and Day makes the following point. It is not the irrational atheists we must concern ourselves with, it is the rational ones, they're the most dangerous. Uh, excuse me, but there are no irrational anyones. There is nothing that is irrational. The reason this is so is because of a simple corollary to this, something which only makes sense with a grounded understanding of God in truth , that is, not in some convoluted World conception of Him. That corollary: While everything is rational, not everything is righteous . People do very rational things...

Just wanted to direct you to another wonderful episode of Opus , from which you may gather a great gob of understanding about how the world works. It's here . It appeared in papers around the nation last Sunday, the 9th, and the week that followed presented a fine smattering of proofs. Fed comes out of lenders' anxiety closets to trade government securities for bad loans, Fed swoops out of anxiety closet (with big "S" on shirt) to rescue Bear Stearns, the Feds (no relation to the Fed, mind you) vote to keep listening to the American public's whisperings by refusing to put a moratorium on earmarks... Oh! But those virtuously wholesome presidential candidates, Senators McCain, Obama, and Clinton were among the 20-some senators who voted for it! My faith is restored! The American Civil Religion is still going strong! Thank goodness, because I'll certainly want my heaven filled with 72 Kansas City Chiefs cheerleaders, all with small noses and deep dimples. And of ...

Yesterday I wrote a blog post about more happenings in the "housing crisis" crisis, namely that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke wagged his finger at lenders about their questionable business practices, namely continuing to lend gobs of cash to borrowers who simply cannot pay it back. After I'd made the post I felt really weird, and I went over and over in my mind what I wrote. Something in me was pulling at my soul somehow, and I just have a feeling that God was moving me to consider what I'd written. As I went over it again, I think it may have been a couple of things. They are both tied together, and as I think about it more I can see why it is reasonable He spoke to my heart. (I will also add here parenthetically that I'm not one to boast about spiritual movings in my being and that God tells me what's what after I throw a fleece over things. I'm simply pointing out that I felt a certain way about something I did, and there is no doubt God speaks ...

It seems Fed Chair Ben Bernanke yesterday got a little more testy with lenders, asking them to knock it off with the huge mortgages. Essentially: "Hey you guys, I'm goin' crazy here cutting rates and you're off on a shopping binge. What gives?" What gives is simple. Investing in people with no value is risky . It's tough when you're relying on people who by the ton say foolish things like "I thought we could pay back our loan with the increased value of our home, and, now, well, our home didn't go up like we thought and, ahem, the payments are more than the home is worth, so, well... there ya go." The whole lot of them schlurping the dregs that they can, extracting value . It's all just human sacrifice, really. All of the World inhabitants doing it, from Great Lord Fed himself to the itty-bittiest debtor. I speak a bit about it a bit more at my webzine, here .

Superstar Superactor Superhunk Super-bring-attention-to-bad-things-in-really-rotten-places-across-the-globe-guy George Clooney had his superpersona splashed all over the cover of this week's Time magazine. Inside was a full spread about him, some more of him, and a few other things about him. As I make a feeble attempt at humor here, please know that I don't dislike Clooney at all. I actually like his movies, I do think he's a fine performer, and all the rest of it. In fact, with the wife and kids out seeing the grandfolks and me with a league basketball game late tonight, I rented Michael Clayton which my wife had already seen with a friend. I haven't seen it yet but I plan to just before my game. I get the idea this is about a lawyer who gets mixed up in some kind of shenanigans that high level people get mixed up in, and he's looking for the truth that others don't want him to see, and there are some twists and thrills and all that. I also know about the tag...