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Website of the Week
Another great movie from the BBC.
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last modified Jul 8, 2008 at 22:33
I hope Franklin-Covey does not sue me, but their quote of the day today from Pearl S. Buck demonstrates some keen insight on her part and reveals a bit about her work and life ethos.
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.
And another gem, found online:
I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.
Sometimes the smug smarminess of NPR just oozes out of the radio dials. Sometimes it gushes. If there is one thing that gets my gander, it's the ignorant way in which they acknowledge appreciation.
For instance, in interview segments where the host is talking with some author about her book on, say, the health benefits of eating tofu.
Host: Jane Foodall, the author of Tofu Fo' You, it's been a very enlightening visit today. THANKyouverymuch!
Jane Foodall: THANKyouverymuch!
Okay, did you catch that? While it is proper for the host to emphasize the word "Thank" in the phrase "Thank you very much", it is not appropriate for the guest to respond in kind. Rather, the guest is supposed to say something like, "Thank YOU very much!" or "Don't mention it!" or "You're welcome" or "The pleasure has been all mine!"
Before I watched this movie, I tried to remember what I could about the Rwandan genocide or what my reaction was when I heard news of it during the mid-90s. I do not remember getting up in arms when I heard that the Hutus were slaughtering the Tutsis by the hundreds of thousands. It just seemed like some bloody civil war that was occuring halfway around the world in some backward African country that I probably could not easily find on the map. If this movie teaches anything, it's man's depravity in action and inaction.
From the website:
Over the course of 100 days, almost one million people were killed in Rwanda. The streets of the capital city of Kigali ran red with rivers of blood, but no one came to help. There was no international intervention in Rwanda, no expeditionary forces, no coalition of the willing. There was no international aid for Rwanda. Rwanda's Hutu extremists slaughtered their Tutsi neighbors and any moderate Hutus who stood in their way, and the world left them to it...
Wars have always provided fertile ground for the emergence of heroes and supreme acts of heroism by ordinary people. Rwanda was no exception. Amidst the horrendous violence and chaos that swept the country, one of the many heroes to emerge was Paul Rusesabagina, an ordinary man who, out of love and compassion, managed to save the lives of 1268 people.
I am supremely interested in the scale of Protestant reaction to JPII's death and the subsequent conclave to elect a new pope. Maybe I'm looking in all the wrong places, but I've heard nothing but magnaminous statements of respect and admiration for JPII from Protestant circles. I imagine that most Protestant Christians might even believe that JPII went to Heaven.
Protestants have not always felt so kindly toward the pope. Fox's Book of Martyrs documents thousands of Protestant martyrdoms suffered at the hands of Roman popes, their conclaves, and Roman Catholic kings. Since it was published in 1554, it has been one of the most popular books of all time.
The Westminister Confession of Faith states,
Chapter XXIII. IV. It is the duty of the people to pray for magistrates, to honor their persons, to pay them tribute and other dues, to obey their lawful commands, and to be subject to their authority, for conscience' sake. Infidelity, or difference in religion, doth not make boid the magistrate's just and legal authority, nor free the people from their obedience to him: from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted; much less hath the Pope any power or jurisdiction over them in their dominions, or over any of their people; and least of all to deprive them of their dominions or lives, if he shall judge them to be heretics, or upon any other pretense whatsoever.
and...
Chapter XXV. VI. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ, and all that is called God.
In her piece on Rembrandt's Portrait of the Christ, Carol Iannone sees a portrait of Christ that is unlike many of His depictions in historic art.
There is no halo of course, no artificial glow, no effeminate aspect, no gushing compassion, no indiscriminate forgiveness pouring forth in unconditional love. This was not the Jesus who, as one Episcopal bishop insisted, accepts us even in our "fat slobby selves." This Jesus is rather more challenging than comforting. This is a Christ with standards, I thought half jokingly, a Christ for conservatives! A Christ who sized you up, maybe the way he sized up the chatty Samaritan woman at Jacob's well or the rich young man who thought so well of himself. Where are you now, viewer, he might be saying, what's going on in you, are you ready for me? What are you holding onto, what worthless baggage are you carrying so that you can't come my narrow way? You couldn't think of anything petty while in the purview of that calm, knowing, intelligent, and potentially redemptive gaze.
Scott's back and the world rejoices. Welcome back, buddy, we've missed having you around.
In a recent report on possible hidden health effects of getting stunned by a Taser, NPR's Laura Sullivan puts herself under the gun, literally and figuratively speaking. You have to give her credit in taking one for the team.
In another piece, Daniel Pinkwater tells about a run-in with the animal police when he leaves his dogs in his car for a few minutes. This is pretty funny to me since I have had a similar experience with animal whackos at a Humane Society animal shelter.
Senator Bill Frist decided to kill off his Presidential aspirations for good yesterday. Not that there was really a snow flake's chance in fiery Hades in the middle of summer. Sen. Frist also illustrated why he may outdo former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott in political pandering to the left. How so? you ask.
Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Frist (ugh! it makes me sick to say it) declared in such a Southern gentlemanly sort-of-way that the courts "acted in a fair and independent way" in regard to their handling of Terri Schiavo's case. What planet is he living on? Our courts allow a man who has found a new 'fiance', fathered two children with her, and for all intents and purposes, moved on with his life (in adultery, I might add) to make a life-and-death decision for his incapacitated "ex"-wife based upon a vague recollection of a conversation 15 years ago. Does the Senator have all his wits about him? Should he be locked up in the looney house?
Terri's family wanted to care for their girl but somehow, the judges in their "fair and independent way" allowed the murder by intentional negligence of this woman because her estranged husband suddenly remembered one day, long after he had won a huge court settlement for her rehabilitation, that Terri had actually not wanted to live this way.
Appeasement never wins, Senator; it just prolongs victory, at best, and provides opportunity for defeat, at worse.
Now, that white boy can dance. Of course, this adds new meaning to the phrase "dance like no one is watching". (Thanks to NRO's Jonah Goldberg, from whom I ripped this gem.)
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