Some how ended up with this sweet song in our itunes, the lyrics sounded good so I looked up more info, here’s a great music video of the song, Camilo, by State Radio, about Camilo Ernesto Mejía

A funny comedian, Louis CK, on Conan discussing modern conveniences

And if stand-up isn’t your thing, you’ll definitely enjoy this BEE-Boy Video, seriously, watch this now.

(the website is actually about the disappearing Honey bee population, it’s sponsored by an ice cream company, but it’s at least a worthy topic)

I just read through Terrorism and War by Howard Zinn, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to hear a brilliant mind on the current issues of war and terror. The whole book is just over one hundred pages and it’s in an interview format, as it basically is a compilation of a series of interviews Zinn gave around 2002, just after 9/11 and the Afghanistan war and just before the Iraq war. Zinn is a truly brilliant mind and I feel makes a decent case that war is …

Just one video today. It’s fifteen minutes long, but worth the watch.

About four years ago I was reading the paper in a small town in Minnesota. I read an article by Congressman Mark Kennedy entitled: “The Great Experiment” which discussed the sacrifices many soldiers had made to make this country what it is today. I felt the need to reply in this letter to the editor that you see below. I’ve left it unedited, but I’ll include further thoughts at the end. Surprisingly, the local paper published my letter the following week:
The Failing Experiment
I want to first of all thank Congressman …

War is deviltry. It calls for sacrifices indeed, but not at the altar of love. “Greater love hath no man than this.” A great blasphemy this, to use Christ’s words in connection with men going to war. They go because they are drafted, because they are afraid of what their neighbors will say, because the pay is good, because the benefits accruing afterward (the G.I. Bill of Rights) are great. And they are told by the press and the pulpit that they are going because they …

It’s the age old question of pacifist, last January I gave my spin on it:
It’s the typical question that get’s asked of anyone who declares themselves a “pacifist.”
What would you do if someone was attacking your family (loved ones)?
It’s the magic card up someones sleeve to stump that said pacifist into agreeing that sometimes violence, and war, is okay and necessary. I’ll be honest this was a difficult question to handle when I first started thinking about pacifism. What made it difficult was the passage we talked about previously, …

For this week’s Flashback I thought I’d compile small collection of posts from January of ‘06 that created some interesting conversation. Here they are.
A short lived, but extremely popular podcasting series called Ask Mindy:
That’s right folks, after much begging, appealing and convincing, Mindy has reluctantly agreed to give us a few minutes of her time each week.
ASK MINDY will feature a three minute podcast with Mindy where she will answer a question presented by her husband Ariah, or maybe even emailed in by a listener. She’ll share her brilliance with …

A while back I entered into a great discussion on the topic of war and pacifism. It sort of fizzled out, but the dialog is still there to continue. I think Brain has since left the readership of this blog, but maybe a comment or two will stir him back. Below is a quote from the blog post I wrote, but please stop by the old one to read the further discussion on the topic of Do Not Resist…
38″You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth …

My brother put together this provocative piece a while back. I don’t think there is much more needed to begin the conversation:

I know this is an old video but I find it disturbing nonetheless.

Bush’s fear-mongering tactics are troublesome. It’s even more troublesome that he actually believes in what he’s doing, regardless of what countless polls and voices are telling him.
There is a lot to be said for this video: from the standing up interview full of intimidating fingerprinting to the avoiding of accusations of water boarding (torture). I just watched Road to Guantanamo the other night and seeing this sure lends evidence to how we got ourselves in this human rights …

I’ve been meaning to talk about this issue for quite a while. One of the main hesitations I have in discussing the issues of non-violence and pacifism, is people’s immediate disgust with the idea that I don’t “Support Our Troops.” We actually used to have one of those yellow ribbons on the back of our car; along side a bumper sticker that said, “War is Not the Answer.” I’m very much a believer in the support and love of “our troops,” in the same way I’m in support of loving …

“The Myth of Redemptive Violence is the story of the victory of order over chaos by means of violence.” It was through my reading of Christ’s teachings to “Love your enemies” and the idea of overcoming evil with good, that I began to realize that there must be another road to victory than violence. Quite simply, I found I could not support a culture of war and violence and still claim to follow Christ’s teachings, I could not rationalize it.After coming to that conclusion I picked up Walter Wink’s book, …

If your a Bush fan try and ignore the first part, I really enjoy the second part of the guy giving a Speech on MLK Day.

9/11/06 is a memorable day for many. Anyone who has the access to technology that would allow them to read this blog probably knows exactly where they were on that day.
Regardless of your thoughts now, perspectives on the war, politics, etc. There is no denying that 9/11/06 had a major effect on many of our lives, our way of thinking, the issues we thought through, etc.
I want to make this an open thread for readers to share briefly how 9/11 shaped them, but to encourage that I’ll start with a …

This date will go down in history as a tragic one for our world. The cold heartedness that could bring such atrocity to mankind makes ones heart tremble. We pause in remembrance of the tragedy that has occurred. We look forward, gaining strength from those who have been an example of heroism in the past.
The evil of hunger claimed the lives of 40,000 children on 9/10 that did not need to die. They were little ones to whom belongs the kingdom. Their death was not due to the overt hatred …

I feel like we’ve failed sometimes. All the blogging, letter writing, phone calling, and people are still being slaughtered. And yet, the urgency of doing something is no less important today then it was yesterday, or two years ago. Darfur shifted through our minds as it shifted from front page news to back page to only google searches.
I wish I could say a magic word and make all the injustice in the world disappear. But I can’t. I wish I could tell you that if we all band together and …

This was my response to my friend Gustave’s letter about high gas prices:

Goose,
my dear and wonderful friend. Let me start by saying I am quite naive to the large ramifications you’ve talked about here. I completely agree with you on everything you shared here.
Just so we get some clarifications on all this here is the basic jist of what happened:
I wrote off-handedly once about enjoying the fact that High gas prices has created a much greater interest and demand for fuel efficient cars, more people out biking to work, and …

Joel directed me to this series of articles regarding the Lebanon-Israel Conflict:
David Gushee’s Original article The first article to be postedA Lebanese Perspective on the Conflict and a disappointed response to David GusheeAn Open Letter to Martin Accad in response to his articleFurther Reflections by Martin Accad
Here is a paragraph from the last one I found extremely intriguing (but not specifically about the conflict in any way):
“And who is my neighbor?” an expert of the law asks in fury, annoyed with Jesus’ message and behavior that frustrates every notion of …

From
Warship built out of Twin Towers wreckage - World - Times Online

Mr Clement said it would be fitting if USS New York’s first mission was to capture Osama bin Laden. He said: “They hit us first, but out of a tragedy a good thing has come, in that we’re building a ship which can help take those people out.”

What do you think of something like this? Basically they’ve taken the remains of the World Trade Center towers and are now using them to construct a giant Navy vessel.
Your thoughts?