The Pope, religion, and the founding of the US...I was impressed:

“Therefore it was a state that was intentionally secular. It was the exact opposite of state religion, but it was secular out of love for religion and for an authenticity that can only be lived freely.”

I got me a ship out of San Diego. USS Kidd, DDG 100. "On to victory." Here's to my first post in well over a year.


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Sweet, the author I was researching this spring was on the main page of nytimes.com. He's the author of the book my turkish prof translated....and the guy who was charged by hardline nationalists with denigrating Turkey in some comments a year or so ago...

Orhan Pamuk Video on nytimes.com!

We had the Sean Hannity Freedom Concert here in San Diego on Wednesday. There was some country music, but mainly ridiculous far-right rhetoric. Here are some key quotes:

"The liberals don't hold rallies like this, do they?" one of the featured guests, radio talk show host Mark Levin, asked the audience of 13,000. "We raise the flag. They burn ( Read more... )

Re: Iraq on the brink of civil war:

Mr. Rumsfeld counseled patience, from the lawmakers and their constituents. “Americans didn’t cross oceans and settle a wilderness and build history’s greatest democracy only to run away from a bunch of murderers and extremists who try to kill everyone that they cannot convert, and to tear down what they could ( Read more... )

Department of Labor Job Description list excerpt ( Read more... )

Dear Vatican,

This whole "Excommunication is sought for stem cell researchers" thing is really encouraging me to attend mass. People who have committed their lives to helping people...yeah, those bastards should be excommunicated. Really, I applaud you guys. You've really outdone yourselves.

Fondly,

Me

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An excerpt from Colbert Shocks the Media Silent, by Greg Mitchell ( Read more... )