More or less at the same time Your Humble Blogger was writing about religious exceptionalists and pluralists, the indispensable Nathan Newman was writing about secularism and religion, and bringing his usual historical light to it. One quote I’ll pull out:…
Well, and I’m sure by now all you Gentle Readers know that our very own Tom DeLay, the only House Majority Leader we have, showed remarkable taste in choosing Matthew 7:21-27 for last week’s Congressional Prayer Service. Now, most of…
Just a thought—um, I’m glad about GLAAD, and all, and I like the Media Awards, but does it strike anyone that when the top underwriter of your awards ceremony is Absolut, that it’s a little … I don’t know, when…
Your Humble Blogger is home again, home again, and will start blogging soon. Without blogging the actual vacation, let me just point out how terribly poignant it is to be newspaperless for a week, and then on Dec. 29th pick…
Your Humble Blogger is back on-line for a day, to catch up on book reports and take care of other such business as exists. While I’m here, I can report on a curious effect of special relativity: on long car…
Your Humble Blogger is hitting the road soon—sooner than I expected, actually, as evidently Virginians cannot function in temperatures below zero Celsius. So, although it is just possible I will be able to post a note or two over the…
The mini-fooforah rising out of Bill O’Reilly recently telling a caller who identified himself as Jewish that if he was really offended by … um … a variety of aspects of the ways Christmas dominates American culture, he “gotta” go…
I hate to blog about things I really don’t understand, but what the heck is going on with the public discussion of Social Security? I mean, I heard Atrios on NPR the other day, for cryin’ out loud. Look, and…
I know a very very small amount of Hebrew. My vocabulary is miniscule, and I have only the vaguest sense of the rules. So when I’m following the reading from the Torah, I have the choice between following the sounds…
There was no discussion during last week’s service, as we were celebrating the bar mitzvah of one of our congregation. He’s a good kid, and he reminds me a lot of myself at that age (poor sap), and I felt…