Error always contains the seeds of its own demise: the feminist movement is tripping over itself. (PjM)

LVMI on the economics of immigration.

MercatorNet reviews two historical works: one a young girl's private perspective on communist Russia, the other a chronicle of a Jew's search for his great-uncle's family, who were murdered during the Holocaust. The second seems a particularly poignant look into some of the deeper themes of existence:

Mendelsohn’s quest to recreate the lives of his six lost relatives, now no more than “minor characters in someone else’s tale”, takes him to the Ukraine, Australia, Prague, Vienna, Israel, Denmark and Sweden. One person leads to another, thousands of miles distant; one clue leads to another, which then illuminates an anecdotal fragment which has got blurred in the telling. So urgent is the author’s need to know, “to have facts and dates and details” and to impose order on this chaos of facts, by “assembling them into a story that has a beginning, a middle and an end”, that the reader, too, becomes absorbed in the search. Five years in the making and 500 pages long, Mendelsohn’s passionate tale makes his own family tragedy our tragedy too; indeed, the tragedy of mankind.

There is no half-way house and there is no parallel in other religions. If you had gone to Buddha and asked him 'Are you the son of Bramah?' he would have said, 'My son, you are still in the vale of illusion.' If you had gone to Socrates and asked, 'Are you Zeus?' he would have laughed at you. If you had gone to Mohammed and asked 'Are you Allah?' he would first have rent his clothes and then cut your head off. If you had asked Confucius, 'Are you Heaven?' I think he would have probably replied, 'Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste.'

The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which undermines the whole mind of man. If you think you are a poached egg, when you are looking for a piece of toast to suit you, you may be sane, but if you think you are God, there is no chance for you.

We may note in passing that He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three effects - Hatred - Terror - Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval.

Go Zoho!

You know, some of this is just a wee bit... silly. (PjM)

All right, this is really, really cool. Introducing pandora.com, personalized internet radio that assimilates your preferences and locates music that you don't know about but already like. The best part? No DJ's!

(Thanks Garrett!)

It's testimony to the widespread respect for the resource that Wikipedia is now being incorporated - cautiously - into judicial decisions. (PjM)

Go Wiki!

Interesting idea for a list: the top 10 books people lie about having read.

I'm 0 for 10, and mostly proud of it. (#1 and #2 are imminent reads and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World should cover for #5.)

The Northern Gleaner: good thoughts on prayer, positivism, and [looks sheepish] fellow bloggers.

LVMI: on the (non-)correlation between wealth and happiness.

Libertarianism definitely suffers from at least some degree of Ivory Tower syndrome. It seems the facts are that many people throughout the last century have been forced to choose between food and freedom. That's not an easy choice.

Daily Kos links to a video of the recreational violence that is plaguing Baghdad. (Older viewers only please.)

Wait a minute: isn't the ISF supposed to be a non-sectarian representation of a stable, democratic Iraq? What's with all the Sunni/Shiite animosity within the force? Someone help me out here.



And yes, keep praying.

Free speech? This seems to be taking things a bit too far. (PjM)

UPDATE: Another report on this sorry mess, via Instapundit.

MercatorNet with another report on the negative fallout of China's one-child policy. (Earlier article here.)

Well, Bloglines was looking like a go until it started missing new posts. Not good. I mean, that's sort of the point.

I've been throwing OPML's around like frisbees, trying to find a reader that would import my feed file because I was getting really tired of rounding them up every time. Gritwire flunked, along with Sage and NewsAlloy. Google Reader was having trouble recognizing and reading feeds. FeedLounge is a paid service: no thanks. Rojo was not too bad, but it seemed to me that the developers used so many toppings on the pizza that they forgot the dough.

There was only one left: NewsGator. Nervously, I loaded the home page, registered for the umpteenth time, and found the import tab. Presto! It loaded my opml from Bloglines seamlessly and won me over with its crisp, intuitive interface.

The only significant drawback is that it's a bit slow, but hey, it works, and that's all I'm asking right now.

(In case anyone is interested, here is the article that Garrett linked to in his comment below. It's a good summary of what's available. Also see Garrett's RSS post from October.)

Postscript: If you manage RSS content, be sure to add the feedbutton - a nifty little java widget - to your site to simplify the subscription process for your readers. I've had one on Sojourner's Song for awhile: Green Coffee gets one today.

Israel has approved a Muslim as a cabinet minister. (Daily Kos)

Muslims need the Lord, just like the rest of us. But it's always heartening to see some sense and sanity in politics, an arena that could really use a little ecumenism.

Baghdad: Mortar explodes at girl's school; five dead.

It seems the extremists have been targeting the education system in a mindless slaughter of the innocents. Lord, how long?

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is throwing his hat in the presidential ring. The more the merrier I guess. (Daily Kos)

UPDATE: You guessed it: Charlie Rose interview.

I was somewhat disturbed the other day to see The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins, ranking #25 on Amazon. Currently, it's at #16; apparently it peaked at #2. This is an unsettling measure of society's collective fist in God's face.

MercatorNet has posted an excellent article about the book, with lots of sagacious commentary, along with a comprehensive roundup of links and resources for further analysis.

I'm not counting my chickens just yet, but it seems I've found a workable RSS solution, at least for the short term, or until I get a Mac. I'm using Bloglines, which isn't bad, although there are a few things I would change.

I'm using this post to test the notifier.


UPDATE: Bloglines checks... once an HOUR? You've got to be kidding me! That is soooo 20th century!

Hmmmm.

A lot of my work on the web relies on my ability to efficiently monitor RSS feeds. The last couple of days my computer has been crashing (yes, it's a PC) and clearing my feed lists. If you have a reliable solution that has worked well for you I'm all ears.

VOM, Ethiopia:

On January 8, the homes of three Christian families were burned by Muslims in the village of Begge. Even though the family belongings were burnt, no one was injured in the attack. At last report, the police had not yet investigated the incident or taken any action to bring the arsonists to justice. In the same area, 10 Christian youths have been living in a church building in Begge three months after fleeing from their homes. They were chased from their homes after their families threatened to execute them for converting from Islam. In a separate incident, a Christian man was killed by an unknown person in the town of Kofele. The father of five was hit on the head with a metal iron rod. His family believes he was killed by Muslims, since the Kofele area is dominated by Muslims. Pray God will comfort this brother's family in their grief. Ask God to encourage the Christian families who are homeless, so they can have deep assurance of God's love in the midst of tough times.

Keeping a finger on the Caedmon's pulse. "There's a stirring..."

I love political satire: LVMI just posted this livid-libertarian gem that is actually written very entertainingly.