The Nation explains that Ned Lamont was successful tonight because he was much more than an anti-war candidate. Lamont continually pointed to the domestic losses caused by the diversion of big money to finance the Iraq occupation: How did Lamont succeed where others – including 2004 presidential contender and current Democratic…
[Note: I wrote this piece in 2003, shortly before the U.S. invaded Iraq].
The trouble with writing these opinion pieces is they require such intense emotional energy to write. It’s a very exhausting business. But then, so is life these days. We all go about our lives quite admirably, but the low hum of threat, the “war and rumors of war” is wearing on us all.
The intense emotion that I’m experiencing these days is sadness, produced by the news, produced by the innocence of so many of our students who are willing to fling themselves into the fray in the name of God, president and country. It’s all too reminiscent of those equally innocent boys who threw themselves, during my parents’ lifetimes, into the defense of God, king and country. One way or another, those boys were not innocent for long.
What amazes me is how surprised some of us are by all this, and I’m including myself in the “us.” I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, my parents survived two world wars in Great Britain and described the horrors of the second in vivid detail. I think, though, it’s only been since September 11, 2001, I’ve truly understood what my parents experienced. The stories they told me when I was a child enthralled me, kept me spellbound as they recounted them to me. But I, too, was innocent. The stories were family saga, not reality, shrouded in the mists of mythology for me.
My parents described the adventure …
This is a plug for Bill Moyers' PBS program 'Faith & Reason.' The byline for the program reads, "In a world where religion is poison to some and salvation to others, how do we live together?" It features interviews with renowned authors, scientists and religious leaders, talking about the intersection (and…
I didn’t know that they had amusement parks like this, until I recently saw this advertisement . . .
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Yes, these are giddy and unnerving times, but it’s also time to bring out popcorn and balloons. It’s time to celebrate the end of the world!
You can hear it 24/7 on evangelical radio, (I’ve been listening to radio station KJSL, based in St. Louis). Each passing month, the voices of those radio preachers are getting faster and higher-pitched. It’s all intensely festive, in a macabre sort of way. All the signs are there, the preachers proclaim. This is really “it.”
Syndicated talk show host Paul McGuire is among the many radio preachers leading the cheers with their own gnashing teeth. McGuire just wrote a book entitled ARE YOU READY? WELCOME TO THE END OF THE WORLD. What’s his new book about? Check out McGuire’s website:
A NUCLEAR ATTACK ON AMERICA; THE COMING MEXICO, U.S. & CANADIAN MERGER; ISRAEL & THE PALESTINIAN STATE; GLOBAL GOVERNMENT; TERRORISM; HURRICANES, FREAK WEATHER & EPIDEMICS; PREDICTIONS OF THE ANCIENT HEBREW PROPHETS; SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Any time the radical Christ crowd gets this excited (excited enough to use the Caps Lock key so extensively), it’s worth checking out. Just because they’ve been wrong about the end of the world so often before doesn’t mean that they aren’t on target this time.
But there’s this other thing on my mind—why have those evangelicals gotten so enamored about protecting their very very very good friend, Israel? It turns out that these two things—the end of the world and the existence of Israel–are connected.
Remember Pat …