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Rev. Donald Sensing, SundaySermons: Tsunamis and the presence of God

I am struck by how this 2,500-year-old prophecy fits to what is happening in the countries stricken by the earthquake and tsunami. I don't think Isaiah had in mind the disaster and the international relief efforts being mounted. I do think the word of God is often multivalent and speaks to many more aspects of the human experience than its narrow, original context. Listen again to this part:

    "Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you ... the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you."

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Critical Section - Home

Here are some pictures from the Tropical Island dome; a converted zeppelin hanger which is now a beach resort in Eastern Germany. This building is three football fields long, and taller than the Statue of Liberty.

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VDARE.com: 01/02/05 - Tom Wolfe—Clear Eye For The Different Human

With the 1979 publication of The Right Stuff, a brilliant non-fiction account of the men involved in the Mercury program, Tom Wolfe completed a titanic decade and a half in which he revolutionized American journalism.

He then set off to become the greatest satirical-realist novelist in the English language since his idol, Evelyn Waugh. With his third novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons, he has attained that goal.

It’s the story of a brilliant hillbilly virgin's first half year at Dupont U. (primarily Duke U., where Wolfe's daughter Alexandra graduated in 2002) and the three seniors she attracts—Hoyt, the George W. Bush-like alcoholic frat boy; Adam, the nice but dorky intellectual; and JoJo, the only white starter on the NCAA champion basketball team.

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The Diplomad: More UNreality . . . But the Dutch Get It

Well, dear friends, we're now into the tenth day of the tsunami crisis and in this battered corner of Asia, the UN is nowhere to be seen -- unless you count at meetings, in five-star hotels, and holding press conferences.

Aussies and Yanks continue to carry the overwhelming bulk of the burden, but some other fine folks also have jumped in: e.g., the New Zealanders have provided C-130 lift and an excellent and much-needed potable water distribution system; the Singaporeans have provided great helo support; the Indians have a hospital ship taking position off Sumatra. Spain and Netherlands have sent aircraft with supplies.

The UN continues to send its best product, bureaucrats. Just today the city's Embassies got a letter from the local UN representative requesting a meeting for "Ms. Margareeta Wahlstrom, United Nations Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator and the Secretary-General's Special Coordinator for Humanitarian Assistance in Tsunami-afected countries." Wow! Put that on a business card! And she must be really, really special because she has the word "coordinator" twice in her title!

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VDH's Private Papers

China's navy is readying deployment of ballistic missile submarines. Although I do not believe they are out to destroy Western civilization, as are the Islamic fascists, I do expect them to rise and challenge US power, at least in Asia. Our strategy with China has been to pursue trade and business in order to export democracy and hope the population tastes some perestroika and glasnost. Do you think this is working? Will it be another twenty years before the hard-line government softens?

Hanson: A billion people with $500 billion in reserves will find military power commensurate with their economic and regional power. You are astute in describing current US policy, that a volatile China will liberalize under the weight of consumerism and economic freedom before turning imperial and using the lucre against its neighbors. The jury is out. What is not out--is the need to reassure Japan that we are behind it no matter what. If Taiwan, Japan and the Koreas go nuclear, then the China Sea will be the most dangerous place in the world. A final note: someone in China isn't very bright; someone allowed on its immediate or nearby borders the following: nuclear India, nuclear Russia, nuclear Pakistan, nuclear American bases, nuclear North Korea, and if it is not careful far more to come. So I don't see the Chinese running rough-shod all over the Pacific, like the old Japanese. But no doubt, in the immediate area and in certain resource rich areas of the globe, the US is going to have to be wary of a new Chinese military presence.

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An Eye for the World: American Museum of Photography

Shotaro Shimomura XXI (1883-1944) was Chairman of The Daimaru Inc., a department store chain that traces its roots to a single store opened in Kyoto in 1717. Mr. Shimomura was named President of the company in 1907 and toured Europe and the United States the following year to study the management of department stores. He took these photographs on a subsequent trip around the world in 1934 and 1935, prior to establishing a subsidiary trading company.

Blogged Down

George Will on the blowback from Blogs: As an afterthought, I sent copies to a couple of blogs (kausfiles.com and andrewsulllivan.com). What happened next was unnerving.

A few days later, most of the big shots hadn't replied. But overnight I had dozens of responses from the blogosphere. They're still pouring in. And that's just direct e-mail to me. Within hours, there were discussions going on in a dozen blogs, all hyperlinking to one another like rabbits.

Just so I don't sound too naive: I am familiar with the blog phenomenon, and I worked at a Web site for eight years. Some of my best friends are bloggers. Still, it's different when you purposely drop an idea into this bubbling cauldron and watch the reaction. What floored me was not just the volume and speed of the feedback but its seriousness and sophistication. Sure, there were some simpletons and some name-calling nasties echoing rote-learned propa- ganda. But we get those in letters to the editor. What we don't get, nearly as much, is smart and sincere intellectual engagement -- mostly from people who are not intellectuals by profes- sion -- with obscure and tedious, but important, issues.