1. A book reviewed.
2. VAT considered. The bigger problem with VAT is that the Congress critters considering VAT aren’t thinking of it as a replacement but an addition.
3. A book list.
4. Clunkers. A bad idea then, worse in retrospect.
5. Oil in them thar hills.
6. What airline I wonder?
7. Beslan.
8. Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
9. Weather is not climate. Climate is not climate. 
10. The Administration and yet-another-broken-promise.
11. Another look at unemployment numbers. 
12. Prayer as image.
13. The Discovery nut as right winger meme.
14. Statistics and schools. 

1. Satan and cinema.
2. Another view of the POTUS speech. I think the right was not his intended audience. I’m not sure who was.
3. Thoughts on marriage, mostly from the left. I’d offer that if you’re considering marriage and want to pretend to live the self-examined life, this resource is indispensable (Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar).
4. Ahhhhh. 
5. Occupied territory.
6. Why is this even a question? 
7. Thought and sin.
8. Liberal caricature.
9. Comments of note.
10. Of rest and restlessness.
11. Noetic processes.

1. Son of a great man.
2. On the POTUS address.
3. Verse.
4. Huh, the average male has a GPS these days.
5. France and the Roma.
6. Hmm, in a search for a less substantial less vapid political post … this might be in the list. My wife lists here occupation on our 10-40 as “domestic goddess.” 
7. Male midlife crisis … a temporary one.
8. Mr Assange.
9. About those free riders.
10. I think that assessment is right, although I doubt my own ability to judge the motives of liberal/progressives.

David, blogging at the Thirsty Theologian, aims at the Roman Catholic dogmas on the Theotokos (I’m guessing the title is one to which he’d admit she has claim). Now … I’ve only got half a dog in this fight, as the Eastern and Roman beliefs about the Theotokos differ somewhat, although their overlap is far more than of that with the Evangelical. I’m not going to claim she never sinned or that she was immaculately conceived. But still … 

The point is making silly claims about marital duty/bed and so on is irrelevant, consider 1st Kings 1:1-4. The teaching is that Joseph was elderly when he married a very young Mary and never had relations with her, as this was just a few centuries before the population was sex obsessed and email spam about little blue pills became inescapable. Tradition holds as well that the brothers of Jesus were by Joseph’s first wife. David might also wonder, or confront, why both John Calvin and Martin Luther affirmed that she remained virgin throughout her life. These were and are not inconsequential protestant theologians

I will not attempt to give all the reasons and argument for why her continued virginity is believed, but just one might be exemplary. In our recent feast of the Dormition (the Roman feast of the Assumption) we read this Old Testament lesson (Ezekiel 43:27-44:4). Why? The Theotokos is a type of the Mercy seat (by her womb where God “sat”). By bearing Christ she became a symbol/type of the mercy seat or the holy of holies. This door of which we read in Ezekiel, “shall remain shut, it shall not be opened.” and so on. I’m hoping that the clear connection that can be made from that to her virginity is clear. This is not the only Scriptural reference which the early church used which points clearly to her virginity. 

The early church affirmation of her continued virginity prior to and after her birth were based on this and testimony (oral not in Scripture) traced to Luke who tradition holds has the Mary/Virgin story on account via an extended interview he had with her prior to her Dormition (falling asleep). 

Look, it’s easy to fall into the trap of arguing against straw men instead of the more difficult task of addressing their actual teaching and beliefs. I’m pretty sure I fall into that trap all the time. So, don’t be shy about pointing it out when I do it and I’ll continue to do it when I see it as well. I would recommend if you want to tilt against Roman’s that this should be a required reference: Catechism of the Catholic Church, Alas, if you want to tilt against the East there is no such thing. 

1. Of Beck and Obama.
2. A man shot and consequence.
3. Two Gulf disasters, two Presidents, and a cricket race.
4. One post which clearly shows Mr Krugman and his ilk are non-serious about economy and politics.
5. And lo and behold, he shows the origins of his fantasy.
6. A big bubble?
7. The continuation of the lying to Congress charge … one wonders how actual real-live you-can-tell-they’re-lying-because-their-lips-are-moving Congress-critters make such charges with straight faces.
8. Appeasement.
9. A challenge.
10. Just get on your bike and ride, dude.
11. Shotgun tracts.
12. Contra smut.

For myself, the matter comes down to a question of local vs national control. Local zoning boards control what gets built where, yet the site of the WTC attack is no longer just a local affair. So here we have two conflicting authorities. How far out from the WTC site does the WTC memorial committee hold sway? Does the fact that the Park51 group has selected that site on account of its proximity to the WTC mean that the more global WTC committee might be consulted and in that case … might the religious nature of the 9/11 attack which is exactly the same as the religion to be practiced at the Cordoba House have impact. On these sorts of questions I don’t think the default notion that the Constitutional notion of separation of church/state necessarily holds sway. Certainly these questions could and should allow for differences of opinion and the discussions should not be as dismissed out of bounds purely on a Constitutional basis.

If the WTC commission is the one making the zoning decision on the Park51 project, I’d be curious to hear their reasoning for why that project can is given its blessing and the St. Nicholas (the church actually destroyed by the event) cannot be restored. Mr Bloomberg has offered the opinion that both projects should go forward. 

But the interested observer has noted, I have not given my opinion about whether or not I think Park51 should be allowed and have been dancing around the question. I think that the project should be given the OK, but my reasoning is admittedly convoluted, but I will attempt to give it. 

In the Orthodox liturgical practice in either the Great Vigil (on Saturday evening in the Slavic tradition) or Sunday morning Matins service in the Greek tradition there is a part of the service known as the Resurrection canon. These canons are meditations on eight of the nine “Odes” which were important liturgical poems from Scripture (for example the ninth ode is the Magnifcat + Benedictus from Luke’s gospel and the third is Hannah’s poem from 1st Kings (1st Samuel for the protestant readers)). The canon grew to replace the readings of the odes over the centuries and are poetic reflections on those verses and their connection to Christ. In several of those odes we find adamant and definitive phrases against the “sons of Ishmael” which is to say Islam. These Odes were written and composed and passed into liturgical concrete during the seven or so centuries in which the Roman empire (Eastern) struggled against the rise of Islam. The initial thrust of Islam west was halted in three crucial battles, of which the battle of Tours and Charles Martel is the one typically remembered in the West as that occurred in Spain and was instrumental in making Charlemagne place and time on the world stage possible. The other two battles were between fleets and armies of the (Eastern) Roman empire in Greece. 

The point of this digression is that there is precedent and reason for a principled stand for Christianity against Islam. So why then should this Cordoba house be built by the Saudi’s? Because I think the proximity to the WTC memorial of this building will serve as an irritant not as an easement. It will stiffen not weaken our resolve to oppose the spread of Islam.

1. Some with Nixie tubes. 
2. The VP and those pesky details.
3. Going up?
4. Setting aside the (excessive) sarcasm, I think the question of how to treat differently talented kids in school to optimize goals is a valid question. And “making things equal” is not necessarily the best answer.
5. Stupid liberal tricks … now bullets.
6. That’s what we need more, bigger deficits.
7. Extreme airport.
8. Friendship.
9. Mr Obama goes on the offensive against misinformation, with hyperbole and misinformation.
10. Great photo anyhow.
11. Reading on the Mosque. 
12. 2-d time.
13. Iraq.
14. A photo.
15. Norman and virtue.

1. Church and state and Turkey.
2. Market in Poland, a photo-essay.
3. Vindictiveness and the Admin.
4. On that hard pullout date and strategy.
5. More on Park51.
6. A conservative surprised at epistemic closure from the left.
7. I have yet to see mention of this from the left. Odd that. And this is spot on … the concept of hate crimes are an outrage.
8. Somebody somewhere didn’t like Wall-E.
9. Fun with banks.
10. 100 years, and some shared thoughts.
11. Bike tech lust.
12. Weight loss tips that beat licking raw eggs all hollow.

1. Divination.
2. For those that need a Bastiat clobbering.
3. An economically well modeled computer game played (HT: CT).
4. Talking beer.
5. More on the Koyzis essay I wrote about last night … for my reading it seems that what is presented as Koyzis ‘reading” of Mills is better than Mr Nivens. 
6. The jam ends, the cause … regulation?
7. H-Fit?
8. Our President in a nutshell.
9. Firestorm.
10. Criticism of the right from the right.
11. Sex and the single life.