I recently read Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility. Then today I saw a review in the July 15 Atlantic. It is titled “The Dehumanizing Condescension of White Fragility.” Its author is John McWhorter, a professor at Columbia University and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. As a Black man, MacWhorter is not the intended reader ofContinue reading “John McWhorter’s hatchet job on Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility”
Category Archives: Faith and politics
Two pathologies of loyalty
Loyalty is a good thing, right? Word history that I did not know until just now (thank you, Merriam-Webster): English “loyal” derives from Old French leel or leial, which in turn derives from Latin legalis. How do you get from “legal” to “loyal”? Apparently the oldest sense of “loyalty” has to do with unswerving allegianceContinue reading “Two pathologies of loyalty”
Fauci, Trump, and the possibility of progress in knowledge and in morals
See the Washington Post article linked and excerpted below. It demonstrates, again, that the whimperer has no brains, no morals, and bad ratings. Thank heaven he has clothes. (I apologize for whatever mental image I just caused you to glimpse.) I like Fauci more and more. See the last two of the paragraphs I haveContinue reading “Fauci, Trump, and the possibility of progress in knowledge and in morals”
Mask politics
Share my opinion? I think wearing a mask in public spaces is a good idea under our current circumstances. Why should expressing my opinion on this question feel political? In the sense of political = partisan/pushy. It shouldn’t, but it does. And why should we think “partisan/pushy” when we hear the word “political”? We areContinue reading “Mask politics”
America, be what you are!
I am appalled but not surprised when President Trump asserts that people who want to make America live up to its promise are people who hate America and want to destroy it. After all, he himself, after his own perverse understanding of the definition of good, wants to “make America great again,” which inevitably impliesContinue reading “America, be what you are!”
God gets refractory, haughty brought down
I really admire people who are always on an even keel, don’t you? They are grounded, centered. They know who they are, which means they know where they stand vis-à-vis God: lower, but accepted and loved. They tend to know, as well as any of us can, where they stand with other people, and theyContinue reading “God gets refractory, haughty brought down”
The year of f/u
When I was a kid, we had Nixon. His first election was 1968, when I was 10. His reelection was 1972. Of course after that he went down because the Watergate event ended up unwrapping him and putting his deeper character on display. We thought he was one thing—a bulwark against communism abroad, a bulwarkContinue reading “The year of f/u”
Our wonderful president’s inspiringly patriotic Independence Day speech
Read it. The most dishonest speech since the last time this lying, hate-mongering moron opened his mouth. Not that he could have written a word of it himself, apart from the grunts and glitches that he inserted on the fly. Summary: The Democrats in general, and BLM protestors en masse, are out to destroy America’sContinue reading “Our wonderful president’s inspiringly patriotic Independence Day speech”
On electing a president not a pastor
“I am indeed the shepherd who brings peace, whose scepter is just. My benevolent shade was spread over my city, I held the people of the lands of Sumer and Akkad safely on my lap… May any wronged man who has a case come before my statue as king of justice, and may he haveContinue reading “On electing a president not a pastor”
Peace, peace: Nice prophets and slight healing
Of all the biblical prophets, the one who received the most hostile reception was . . . well, I was going to say Jeremiah, but actually it would have to be Jesus, wouldn’t it? We so easily and persistently forget that when the moment of truth arrived, nearly all his followers abandoned him. Some ofContinue reading “Peace, peace: Nice prophets and slight healing”
Verba Sparsa 