May 2012
4 posts
Dan Harmon Poops: HEY, DID I MISS ANYTHING? →
Well that’s bullshit. I love Community—scratch that, I lovED Community.
danharmon:
Kids:
A few hours ago, I landed in Los Angeles, turned on my phone, and confirmed what you already know. Sony Pictures Television is replacing me as showrunner on Community, with two seasoned fellows that I’m sure are quite nice - actually, I have it on good authority they’re quite nice, because…
Occupy Movement Wins Spate of Legal Battles →
jeffbridges: Police arresting political protesters under demonstrably false charges, threatening physical violence, and “disappearing” people for 12 hours—in Chicago. When this happens anywhere else in the world, the US demands economic sanctions. What’s happening to my country?
Watchjeffbridges: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Chris Matthews, for sharing your progressive Christian take on this wonderful news. Absolutely right on.
February 2012
3 posts
Cop spends weeks to trick an 18-year-old into... →
Way to give an honors student serious trust issues.
More fun from the self-loathing society: This American Life had a show about how young female undercover cops infiltrated a high school and flirted with boys to entrap them into selling pot, so they could charge them with felonies and destroy their lives at an early age.
Last year in three high schools in Florida, several undercover police...
“Rebellion without a rigorous alternative vision is just a feeble spasm. If I...”
– David Brooks, “How to Fight the Man,” New York Times, 2/2/2012.
January 2012
1 post
Duke professor wants to replace term papers with... →
Having written both myself, this is totally absurd. The academy exists to teach people how to think critically and express those thoughts in a clear, nuanced way. Blogs exist to persuade and convince through rhetorical force. Clear and nuanced arguments can contribute to this end, but rarely constitute the core of a post. From the article:
Because, say defenders of rigorous writing, the brief,...
December 2011
2 posts
“The officer repeatedly punched the left side of my face for long enough that I...”
– Rev. John Helmiere, on his encounter with Seattle Police at an Occupy protest earlier this week. (via jeffbridges)
From an interview this afternoon with my friend...
October 2011
5 posts
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever...”
– Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech, 2005. Godspeed. (via jeffbridges)
September 2011
5 posts
“The American Academy of Pediatrics would like to correct false statements made...”
– American Academy of Pediatrics Press Release (via stfuconservatives)
CNN sit-down with Obama
BLITZER: “If you're reelected, the last time you were elected, you got Sasha and Malia a cute little puppy. … What are you going to get them the next time, if you're reelected?”
OBAMA: “When I'm reelected, what I'll be getting them is a continuation of Secret Service so that when boys want to start dating them they are going to be surrounded by men with guns. That's their gift.”
1 tag
August 2011
1 post
2 tags
July 2011
4 posts
Is My Friend Nietzsche's Last Man?
John: I don't get it. How did the cavemen maintain a sense of self-worth and emotional stability without lawnmowers?
John: Not to mention snow-throwers. . .
David: Two words: Stone Axes
Erich: When you can kill a Sabetooth Tiger with a stone spear, who needs a lawn mower?
John: But a stoned tiger is all messy and chaotic. A freshly mowed lawn, on the other hand. . .
making a list of the hottest people on capitol... →
morninggloria:
“DC Hot” is a phrase that I use to describe extremely average looking yet stuck up jerks who may have at one time been “Cambridge hot” (as in Harvard). They’re not even big fish in a small pond; they’re average sized fish in a puddle.
[See also: UChigoggles, the state of being surrounded by UChicago students (who are often so unconcerned with looking physically attractive that...
June 2011
1 post
May 2011
3 posts
Bookmark on Delicious on iPad
Super helpful for getting the most out of my new iPad! shaldybina:
When I see something on web I want to save I add it to my Delicious. As I browse more often using my iPad I needed a way to bookmark on Delicious. The process of adding this bookmarking is similar as described for Instappaper but different javascript.
- Click on + to add current page to Bookmarks. Change the title to “Bookmark...
April 2011
3 posts
March 2011
4 posts
“There is no regret. We should look forward. How many days do each of us have in...”
– Wang Xing, founder of the Chinese social network Renren, in Fast Company, The Facebook of China, January 2011.
I’m currently writing a paper on Pascal’s Pensées, exegeting a passage on the “brief span of my life absorbed into the eternity which comes before and after” (#68 in the Penguin...
“The question should not be “What would Jesus do?” but rather, more dangerously,...”
– Rev. Peter J. Gomes, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What’s So Good About the Good News (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 69.
February 2011
3 posts
“Humiliation is the single most powerful human emotion, and overcoming it is the...”
– —Thomas Friedman, Out of Touch, Out of Time, New York Times, Feb. 10, 2011.
I’m not entirely sure Friedman is right on this one, but humiliation certainly counts as one of the more powerful human motivators—a lesson American foreign policy makers would do well to remember, especially in Israel.
...
On Vocation—Jesus Was a Carpenter First
jeffbridges:
During this season of Epiphany we celebrate the manifestation of Christ on Earth, and in particular the visit of the foreign Magi with their three—mostly impractical—gifts to the infant Jesus. Also during this time, Eastern churches celebrate Jesus’ baptism. Both of these moments mark the manifestation, or “epiphany,” of the second person of the Trinity as a human being in Jesus...
The Limits of Science
jeffbridges:
I’m not one of those Christians who condemns evolution, or thinks that God put dinosaur bones in the ground to test our faith—I don’t think humans ever ran screaming from a T-Rex. However, I think it’s important to consider the limits to the kind of knowledge we get from various ways of knowing, including science.
Take, for instance, the edges of our universe. As Columbia professor...
December 2010
2 posts
WatchJesus Is a Liberal Democrat
The best four minutes on religion and politics I’ve ever seen. Thank you, Stephen Colbert.
Key Quote: “If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we’ve got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that...
November 2010
4 posts
Petition to Fly with Dignity →
While there’s not much we can do as individuals to stop the inane, invasive, and unconstitutional TSA full body scans and pat-downs, we can sign a petition and join a Facebook group.
Facebook Groups: Fly With Dignity, We Won’t Fly
(via jeffbridges)
Pilate's Hand Washing Stopped More than Just Germs
I’ve always felt a bit odd about the part of the Nicene Creed where we single out Pontius Pilate for his involvement in the crucifixion. According to most traditional readings of the Gospel, Pilate actually tried to stop the whole thing. In any case, he literally washed his hands and declared himself “innocent” (ἀθῷος) of the act before handing Jesus over to be crucified (Matt. 27:24).
While the...
“By the time terrorist plotters make it to the airport, it is, generally...”
– Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic, “For the First Time, the TSA Meets Resistance,” 10/29/2010.
Another great argument against “security theater.”
(via jeffbridges)
October 2010
3 posts
“What are [the Bible’s] underlying values? I would argue that they are...”
– Michael Coogan, Harvard Divinity School lecturer on the Hebrew Bible-Old Testament and Editor of The New Oxford Annotated Bible, in “Bible has some shocking ‘family values’,” CNN Opinion, 10/26/10.
This is why I love my school. We’re people of deep faith, but not the kind of faith you usually see...
Most Confusing Ad Ever
I worked in political communications for years, so I’ve seen my fair share of bad advertising. This, however, is by far the most confusing ad I’ve ever seen. Is it for Iron Man? Is it for the Wall Street Journal? Does Oracle want readers of the WSJ to watch Iron Man 2, but not until it’s available on the iPad? Wait, no, they should buy it from iTunes… Oh bother.
(from: jeffbridges)
“Socializing on the internet is to socializing what reality TV is to reality.”
– Aaron Sorkin, creator of The West Wing and screenwriter for just-released The Social Network, during an interview on The Colbert Report last night. I wonder what he’d think about Tworship—how is a prayer said online like a prayer said in church? (via jeffbridges)
“Greedy people, competing, make the world go round.”
– Paul Krugman at the 2009 Ig Nobel Awards, giving his seven word description of economics. I just got back from this year’s ceremony, and the 2010 seven word lectures—sadly—weren’t nearly as good. (via jeffbridges)
September 2010
3 posts
WatchIn this Daily Show clip, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf makes a very good point: if, after all of this controversy, he backs down from building the so-called “9/11 Mosque,”* then the radicals on both sides will have won. More importantly, “the headlines in the Muslim world will be that Islam is under attack.” This would further endanger Americans both abroad and here at home, meaning at this point the...