Drop Me a Line!

You know that little link at the bottom of all the posts that says "Comments" next to the little envelope icon? Click it! Then you too can be published on this very site. It's quick, it's easy and most of all it let's me know who's actually taking a look at stuff. I wanna know - really.

You can type anything you want there and if it's germane to the post, even better. If you agree, disagree, think I'm smoking crack, have a witty aside, it doesn't really matter. I'll even respond - we can have a conversation. It's neat.

I'm trying to write more and more often, your comments are very helpful to that end. Have a topic request? Want to know what Avi was for Halloween (Big, Fat W, BTW)? Post a comment. I see the web stats but they're so cold and anonymous. Until you comment, you're just an IP address and who wants to be known as 68.163.255.174 (Mrs. Burns!)

That is all.

Follow Up: Hunger

Some Americans Lack Food, but USDA Won't Call Them Hungry - washingtonpost.com

WaPo does an article on the USDA report. It appears that the word "hunger" is not being used:

Mark Nord, the lead author of the report, said "hungry" is "not a scientifically accurate term for the specific phenomenon being measured in the food security survey." Nord, a USDA sociologist, said, "We don't have a measure of that condition."

I'm lost and I'm found, I smell like I sound and I'm food-insecure like the wolf...

Hunger in America: Good News and Bad News

First the good news - Hunger in the United States declined in 2005 to 11 percent from 11.9 percent in 2004.

Now the bad news - there are still 35 million hungry people in one of the most affluent countries in the world. 12 million of those 35 million were "food insecure" meaning problems getting enough food throughout the year.

How to deal with the problem is certainly a quandary and I'll be the first to admit that I don't do enough to help the poor - and I would extend that onus onto the church, at least given my reading of the scriptures. That's not to say that the Church isn't doing much already - it is - but we should be on the front lines and this should be a big deal.

I would also say that there is a role for the government as well, especially as it pertains to institutional problems (wage fairness, racism, food stamps, unemployment.) I think we need to raise the minimum wage and revive the Public Works Project. The government has plenty to do (infrastructure projects in particular) but do we have the will to offer everyone a job who wants one? Training, wages and benefits are all expensive and would certainly require additional taxation, at least at first. Those employed by the PWP would be paying taxes, however, as well as having income to spend in their communities. Health benefits would also be net beneficial with fewer visits to the emergency room and preventive care heading off catastrophic illness.

There will always be those unwilling or unable to work, but a public/private partnership could, if we had the will to do it, go a long way toward alleviating hunger and poverty in the US.

SOURCE: USDA says 12 mln Americans faced hunger in 2005 (Reuters)

Isaiah on Tuesday - Conan, Judgement, Mercy, Grace: a mystery

Every once in a while I read something in the Bible and think it could be pulled right out of a pulp adventure story. Today I'm looking at Isaiah 34 and it seems like Isaiah was trying his hand at this genre. Conan the Barbarian seems to fit. It's not that the content is devalued in any way, it's just the language as translated into english seems very...descriptive. I've written about Isaiah's prose in the past and I think he really did have a gift for writing. I bet he was an amazing story teller. Check this out:

1 Come near, you nations, and listen;
pay attention, you peoples!
Let the earth hear, and all that is in it,
the world, and all that comes out of it!

2 The LORD is angry with all nations;
his wrath is upon all their armies.
He will totally destroy ^[a] them,
he will give them over to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be thrown out,
their dead bodies will send up a stench;
the mountains will be soaked with their blood.

4 All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved
and the sky rolled up like a scroll;
all the starry host will fall
like withered leaves from the vine,
like shriveled figs from the fig tree.

5 My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens;
see, it descends in judgment on Edom,
the people I have totally destroyed.

6 The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood,
it is covered with fat—
the blood of lambs and goats,
fat from the kidneys of rams.
For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah
and a great slaughter in Edom.

It's an amazingly descriptive and evocative chapter and this is just the beginning.

I try to look for the spiritual truths that Isaiah is trying to communicate, but I think this chapter is one of Isaiah's manifestations of justice. The reason I think that is verse 8 "For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion's cause." Somehow this is a righting of wrongs done to Israel. I don't really know how to hold that violence in my head and reconcile it with the God of mercy and grace, yet somehow it is the same God. That is one of the vast mysteries of faith and if I ever say that I have a full understanding of God, then I know I'm speaking rubbish. We finite creatures can only begin to understand the infinite.

I think that is one of the reasons Jesus had to show up - it allowed us a glimpse at the infinite in a finite time in space, held in one man. The ultimate sacrifice at one moment, to allow for eternal salvation for all time. Now we see through a glass darkly, then we shall see in full...

Good Eeeevening...

Theo does his "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" imitation on a recent beach trip.

Air Guitar No Longer Vicarious!

Yes! A T-shirt invented by Australian scientists is actually an instrument. The future of music is here - today!

Australian air guitar T-shirt actually rocks (Reuters)