Mark Kleiman: Concerning the Word “Christian”

Mark Kleiman says this about as clearly as it can be said. When I was growing up fundamentalist in the 1960s, though, this was already the attitude: Not just Catholics & Mormons were beyond the pale, but also what we then called “nominal Christians,” or sometimes “church-going Christians,” who, because they were not “born again” [...]

Don’t be Alarmed

The sandbox is being renovated. Things will be shifting around a bit as I work on the new design, but this is the basic look I think I’ve been after for a while — clean design & better use of screen real estate. Thanks again to Andru Matthews for handing all the technical parts of [...]

Twisted: Chiral Forms

I’ve known since my first biology class in college that organic molecules come in right- & left-handed versions that are otherwise identical, but I hadn’t been aware of the various speculations regarding how they came to be that way in our neighborhood of the universe. It’s wonderful to think that our proteins & sugars might [...]

Politics & Fantasy

I want to point to this note by Josh Marshall not so much because of the (valid & insightful) analysis of current politics, but because of his use of the word fantasy to describe George W. Bush’s view of the world. It’s interesting, in a Freudian sense, that Bush’s father was known as a political [...]

The Culture Wars Have Moved into Physics

I’m about as far from being a physicist as it is possible to be, though I am fascinated by the history of science & the way it works within Western culture. I am, however, a veteran of the culture ward wars (if only a foot soldier), and I can tell you that the conservatives in [...]

Putting a Course On-line

I’ve mentioned before that I am in the process of putting one of my courses, Understanding Vietnam, entirely online for the coming Summer Session. It has been a frustrating & difficult process so far, though I think I am about to break through into understanding. Because I am used to the continuous scroll of blogging, [...]

Spring Chores

Haven’t been playing here in the sandbox all that much lately. I think grading 115 student papers online over the last two weeks made me less than eager to sit down at the keyboard, thus the few posts, mainly reactions to political stories from the NY Times. That, & something that looks strangely like spring [...]

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