Just thought that I would post that sweet hunter pic.
C, thanks for the links on the matter. the ninnies quote was good. I agree that the motions of the religious right to take over the government are only possible through big government. and that their takeover (or, as things stand right now, their attempt) is only a reflection of what "left wing ninnies" have been doing for years - making non-religion the law. I mean, the issue of pressing your opinions on others through laws is not a new one. and I agree that radicals will probably be squashed and things will become more even keel again.
however, these people are engaging in brainwashing that scares the bejeezus out of me, see link to the Reclaiming America website: http://www.reclaimamerica.org/
look around a little.
I don't think that the left brainwashes to this extent. at least I think they don't.
how do YOU feel about this. should abortion be legal? should democrats be able to filibuster judicial nominees? shoud delay be investigated.
all very polarizing issues.
JP, your thoughts. Dad is in deutschland by now so we have the blog to ourselves for a while.
love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 4/28/2005 06:43:00 PM

 

one for me and one for a friend 
- posted by H @ 4/28/2005 06:42:00 PM

 
H: interesting article from Rolling Stone. There's been more talk about church and state lately, and the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constituion. What I had forgotten was that the idea of separation of church and state is not found in the Constituion, but was proposed by Jefferson in some of his letters. Pat Boone has an article today on a San Diego paper's website citing Jefferson:

Even Thomas Jefferson, whose invocation about the "separation of church and state" is cited at every opportunity by some, made clear that he was not proposing that government divorce itself from spiritual matters. As Jefferson put it in 1798, "No power over the freedom of religion is delegated to the United States by the Constitution."

Indeed, the same Thomas Jefferson, then our third president, said just four years later – "with solemn reverence" – in his famous letter to the Danbury Baptists, the purpose of the Constitution's freedom of religion clause was not to interfere with the exercise of religion but to assure Americans there would be no official, or state-sponsored church, such as the Church of England. The Constitution, he told them was clear, Congress shall "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

So there can't be a Church of America, like there is a Church of England.

I don't have too strong an opinion on this, as I think the inherent checks and balances of American culture will stop any radicals from gaining too much power.
Speaking as someone who considers himself a libertarian, I love this quote by a contributor to Samizdata, a British blog which describes itself as "A blog for people with a critically rational individualist perspective". I don't agree with using the word "ninnies" though.

The various left-wing ninnies who are running around bleating about theocracy are, in effect, hoist on their own petard. Having spent generations destroying the idea of limited government and creating an all-powerful national state, it ill becomes them to complain now that their tool is being turned to different ends. Even so, it is astonishing that virtually none of them realize that the uses to which the Republicans want to put federal power are inevitable, once you establish an all-powerful state in a country that is actually quite Christian and conservative, all told. It is sad but unsurprising that none of them are willing to attack the problem at its root by calling for limited government. No, the only solution the statists can imagine is seizing power again, themselves.

Heh.
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 4/28/2005 03:59:00 PM

 
Here's an interesting article from Rollingstone.com, not the most prestigious of news sources, but I have a certain affinity towards RS because of HST.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7235393?pageid=rs.Politics&pageregion=single1
Freaked me the hell out.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 4/27/2005 04:45:00 PM

 
C, thanks for your summary of some of B16's views on the hot issues in the catholic church for people here in the US. I like the quote "no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination to women." what a cop out. who has authority then? are they waiting for God to call em up and give em the ok? are the expecting the people who made these laws out of fear and power hunger and chauvinism all those years ago to come back from the dead and say they changed their minds? what's the deal? it's a well known fact that Jesus didn't discriminate. mary magdalene was in his inner circle.
Liberation theology is an interesting point as well. what was jesus if not someone who freed people from various oppressive forces, be they illness, guilt or their mental constraints that can come with poverty (the last shall be first)? My sense is that he was really all for the underdogs in society. The J2P2 quote in Wikipedia is interesting... "this conception of Christ as a political figure, a revolutionary, as the subversive of Nazareth, deos not tally with the Church's teachings." More like the Catholic Church's interpretation and picking and choosing of teachings that fit a picture they are trying to paint. he was thumbing his nose at authority from an early age when he was debating with the rabbis at the temple. he broke off from judaism and had his own following and was considering an outlaw. stories of his teachings are the basis of one of the strongest religions in the history of man. are those the actions of someone who was following the rules? at least B16 sees some truth in liberation theology. but how can you not?
all ranting aside, I just don't get it.
Some newsy stuff from here...
Dad, Amy had Chester, and everyone is doing fine, home from the hospital. we are going over there today to see little Chester and maybe do some cigar smoking with Dave. and some beer drinking probably.
Ebony has been sick for the last couple of days, with some diarrhea and vomiting. we are hoping it will resolve itself, as she has been eating, but are watching her closely. yumm.
Dad, hope your ribs are better. C, hope the sinus thing is gone. it's probably all the crazy changes in temperature going on here on teh east coast.
JP, hope you are well.
love to all,
H

- posted by H @ 4/23/2005 11:46:00 AM

 
More thoughts on Pope Benedict XVI...
A Wall Street Journal opinion piece linked to a 1999 book review of Ratzinger's Milestones: Memoirs 1927–1977 entitled Joseph Ratzinger, Christ’s Donkey. One interesting quote on the subject of ecumenism is here, with my emphasis in bold:

Later, during the student turmoil of 1968, the entirety of the Christian tradition came under scathing attack from Marxist ideologists in the university. Ratzinger suggests that he was naive in assuming that the theology faculties would be a bastion of sanity: quite the opposite turned out to be the case. While his own lectures continued to be well attended and well received, many of his theological colleagues were all too eager to get on the good side of the putative revolution. At this point he began to discover what would later be called "the ecumenism of the trenches," as he made alliances with Evangelical (Lutheran) colleagues who appreciated what was at stake. "We saw that the confessional controversies we had engaged in up until now were small indeed in the face of the challenge we now confronted, which put us in a position of having to bear common witness to our common faith in the living God and in Christ, the incarnate Word."

I'd be interested in hearing more of Benedict's "ecumenism of the trenches" and his relationship with the Evangelical Lutheran church.
Well, we all can read German - we should each pick one of Benedict's writings and read it!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 4/22/2005 05:15:00 PM

 
"HABEMUS PAPAM!" "It's the German!"
Yesterday I was at home, sick with a sinus infection (or maybe just a cold), when just before noon, ABC's broadcast switched to Rome. It looked like white smoke, but since there was a false alarm on Monday, people were uncertain what was up. The bells were supposed to ring if there indeed was a new pope, but they were silent. At 6 pm Rome time, they rang; the crowd cheered; the bells stopped and the crowd went quiet again. At around 10 minutes after 6, the bells started ringing and didn't stop. The smoke remained white. The conclave had lasted only about 24 hours, and the Roman Catholic Church had a new pope. When they announced his name, I opened my window and shouted, "It's the German!", somewhat in reference to the shouts in 1978, "It's the Pole!"

That was my experience of the start of the time of Benedict XVI as pope. My reactions: I'm happy it's a German, if no reason other than that it has been hundreds of years since a German was pope. Adrian VI (Wikipedia entry here) who was pope in 1522, is considered by some to be the last German pope, but if you look at his biography, he really seems more Dutch. The German pope before that dates back to the 1100s, from what I've heard.

The Carpe Bonum blog (with which I'm not very familiar) has a round-up on Benedict's stance on a number of issues here.
I'll copy it below - I hope the hyperlinks still work...

- Abortion and Euthanasia: "Grave sin"
- Priestly Celibacy: Perhaps at odds with John Paul's strong view, Pope Benedict XVI says priestly celibacy is, "Not a dogma of the faith." (Ref or Google cache)
- Sex-Abuse Scandal: Appointed by John Paul II to investigate the scandal. Called for day of penance in May 2002, but victims' advocates not satisfied with the Church's response.
- Vocations: Cautioned against the Protestant view of a, "Priesthood of all believers," which can dilute the attraction of priestly vocation (Ref or Google cache)
- Women Priests: Enforced John Paul II's uncompromising view ("no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women") in 1995 and 2002.
- Homosexuality: Not equivalent to heterosexuality (Ref or Google cache). Labeled by some, of course, as homophobic.
- Liberation Theology: "Constitutes a fundamental threat to the faith of the Church," but contains "a grain of truth." (Ref)
- Feminism: Responsible for a Letter to Bishops seen as denouncing feminism while ignoring its positive contributions

The most interesting to me is the priestly celibacy bit. I personally think a lot of good would result in allowing priests to marry.

Notable to me is the speed in which the conclave made its decision - it seems that the cardinals want to send a clear message that they are not interested in modernizing the Catholic Church right now.

Also notable is that it is an open question whether it is a good idea to moderize the church. As Mike Novak noted in the NYTimes today, "the parishes and dioceses that choose 'modernization' usually end up losing numbers, while the more serious churches grow mightily."
Other authors have noted that modernization is a losing game for a church or even a population - the European countries and religions that have modernized the most seem to have the biggest drop-off in population growth and membership numbers (I don't have a cite for this, but I've seen the argument in a few places). So modernization could be the beginning of the end of a church.

Another argument against modernization I've read is that only a small number of Catholics want it. The wealthy, elite Westerners want to change the church, while the vast majority of the world's one billion Catholics have no interest in this change. According to this argument, it is arrogant for the privileged, rich Catholics to demand that changes of thousands of years of tradition be forced on the entire church, while the vast, vast majority of Catholics do not want this change. Why does a tiny minority of members feel it is entitled to force substantial change upon everyone else?

My final note on modernity is an excellent quote from James Lileks, whom I read every day:

Habeum pap. Note: every era is the modern era to the people who inhabit it; a “modern” pope in 1937 would have announced that godless collectivism was the wave of the future, and ridden the trains to Auschwitz standing on top, holding gilded reins, whooping like Slim Pickens. The defining quality of 20th century modernity is impatience, I think – the nervous, irritated, aggravated impulse to get on with the new now, and be done with those old tiresome constraints. We’re still in that 20th century dynamic, I think, and we will be held to it until something shocks us to our core. Say what you will about Benedict v.16, but he wants there to be a core to which we can be shocked. And I prefer that to a tepid slurry of happy-clappy relativism that leads to animists consecrating geodes beneath the dome of St. Peter's. That will probably happen eventually, but if we can push it off for a century or two, good.

I love Lileks.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on B16. (That, of course, is a reference to Dad's use of the nickname J2P2.)
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 4/20/2005 05:24:00 PM

 
this picture posting is kind of a mistake: was trying to upload picture for my blogger profile. things went awry.it's a nice picture though, I think...
H
- posted by H @ 4/19/2005 10:48:00 PM

 

me
- posted by H @ 4/19/2005 10:02:00 PM

 
so old benedict the 16th (really rolls off the tongue) is an oberbayer? but is he from OBERFRANKEN?? only then would he be a true holy man. I was wondering when the last time was that we had a german pope - I thought maybe it was back during the brief time when there were two popes, one in Lyon and one in Rome. Dad, could you fill in my hazy gaps regarding this recollection? am not sure of the details.
I am not surprised by the choice, as he is a conservative guy and the church apparently wanted to keep that going. considering the fact that they let that guy from boston who helped cover up so many abuse scandals hold mass just before the conclave, I am asssuming that they are not really trying to gear much towards changing tradition. I guess women will always be unworthy of being priests. ho hum. we'll just watch them scramble to get priests into the churches to hold mass.
not to taunt or anything, but you can't help but criticize their choices.
anyway, am I wrong in thinking that they like to choose older men as popes so that they will die sooner and not be able to build an overly strong and secure hold on power? people keep asking me why they would choose such an old guy, and that's the only answer I can come up with, besides the whole wisdom coming with age thing.
anyway.
Dad, I am sorry to hear about your fall - you didn't even mention it on the phone on saturday! please don't wait too long to see a doctor if it continues to bother you.
C, thanks for the calls today, they added to the excitement.
JP, hope you are doing okay.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 4/19/2005 09:42:00 PM

 
Yikes. its interesting that apparently the chinese government officials are not discouraging this because it serves them politically, but chinese media has no coverage of this at all. The government doesn't want to validate it publicly in any way because that might make people think that it is okay to protest, and we all know what can happen in china when people protest. I have to email my friend dan who lives in tokyo, see what his experience of this has been.
One side note about the chinese students not knowing much about history outside of their country's: I think you could say of the average american student as well. but we really have no excuse; we are after all, a democracy and enjoy a certain freedom of education, while china is not and doesn't have a bill of rights.
going to get off of this machine and go hiking in fairmount park - the trees are in bloom (JP you're missing out) and ebony wants to go for a swim.
love,
H
- posted by H @ 4/17/2005 02:43:00 PM

 
Whew.
Tax day is over, so I can get back to blogging!
H: on Saturday, Instapundit linked to a story about anti-Japan protests in Shanghai on 4/16, with a crowd estimated at about 10,000 very angry Chinese. If you click on the link, you see a photo from the crowd where a protestor is holding a sign reading, "Kill Japanese".
I think this kind of thing is going to get bigger before it gets smaller. The animosity between the Chinese, the Japanese and the Koreans goes back hundreds, even thousands of years.
When I lived in Hong Kong, I found out how little the students learn about history, even local (Asian) history. When I taught English to Hong Kong seventh-grade students, I asked them about their curriculum. They learned a little about Chinese history, but not much more than that. Ignorance is easy to exploit.
That being said, the Japanese forces did truly rape Nanking; the stories about the event are simply horrible. So this could become a big problem in the future.

One opinion piece I read not too long ago suggested the next significant alliance will be of countries trying to contain China. The big four would be the U.S., Japan, India and Australia. If the Europeans cozy up to China (they want to sell weapons to China - obviously China does not need these for self-defense purposes!), they could be on the other side of the alliance...
Interesting times ahead...
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 4/17/2005 12:12:00 PM

 
has anyone been following the protests in china over the japanese textbooks that minimize the atrocities that Japan committed during WWII? the bbc has an article on it - check it out, it has some detail on what actually has been altered (whitewashed is the word people are using). check it out:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4439923.stm
C, what are the bloggers saying about this??
H
- posted by H @ 4/14/2005 10:58:00 AM

 
Good to hear from Jah Pizzle again. Doing yoga will definitely help with the no smoking thing. that's what houdini did ;) (trying to use some of JP's little smiley things).
I am also trying to relate as many things to houdini as possible.
Not much to report here. truckin along, spring is here in philly and the trees are blooming. been working pretty hard after coming back from the conference, the show must go on, as they say.
I know we're not supposed to talk about car things on teh blog, but this is info is pretty safe, as far as I can tell:
Dad, the other insurance company is still trying to get statements from the guy who hit me. I called USAA to try to change the status of the pontiac and they told me that you are the only person authorized to do that. Hence, you would have to call them and work out some other insurance option. The next court date for the accident will be in June, so it will be a few months until things get close to being resolved.
hope all is well with everyone. Dad, say hi to the deer im Friedentahl (or die Schneyer Botschaft?).
Love,
H
- posted by H @ 4/13/2005 08:28:00 AM

 
definitely interesting stuff on that blog. When I was in school in germany I always kind of felt like the germans were ashamed of their history (at least my generation was), and ashamed of being german. WW II was pounded into our heads every year (rightfully so) and was never swept under the table. hence it is interesting to me that people are saying that the germans are coloring WW II in a way that makes them seem just as much victims as anyone else. I hesitate to believe that. I'll have to go to the website to find some stories on what is being said.
in regards to an earlier blog from you, C, philly is currently in the throes of a huge city hall financial scandal with FBI investigation, mostly surrounding an official receiving monies from several prominent business owners for no "real" reason. The mayor of philly is trying to distance himself from the whole thing and act like nothing is going on. he kind of reminds me of the mayor of townsville (from the Powerpuff girls). considering how mismanaged philly is and the huge financial problems the city has, this is really disgusting.
on another philly downer note, legislation baning cigarette smoking in bars and restaurants failed to be decided on, and is on the back burner. basically it was withdrawn after the vote began and the backers realized that it would not pass. ho hum. guess we'll still have to breathe cancer here in philly when we got out. YAH!
otherwise, things are good. weather is AWESOME!
love,
H
- posted by H @ 4/07/2005 04:29:00 PM

 
Hey, everyone. Keep posting!
Interesting discussion of Germany, from WWII through today, over at David's Medienkritik, here. What's more interesting than the article at the top is the back-and-forth in the comments below. A gentleman named Peter Haase talks about being a soldier in the German Army in WWII, then being a refugee from Ostpreussen, and eventually settling in Florida, working for NASA. He has some strong opinions as a result, and the discussion gets quite interesting...
Blog more!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 4/07/2005 02:30:00 PM

 
While I was writing my post below on Canada's AdScam, Hideki Matsui hit another 2-run homer, following his home run during the Yankees' Sunday night victory over the Boston Red Sox. MATSUI! HOME RUN! MATSUI! (Paraphrasing Japanese fans in last year's MLB opener in Tokyo...)
2003 - Yankees home opener - Matsui, in his first game in Yankee Stadium, hits a Grand Slam home run in front of a sell-out crowd and his proud parents.
2004 - MLB season opener in the stadium of the Tokyo Giants, Matsui's old team - Matsui hits a double in the Yankees' loss to the Devil Rays. The next night, Matsui puts the 55,000 fans in the Tokyo Dome "in a frenzy" with his home run in the 12-1 Yankee victory. Story here.
2005 - After losing 4 straight to the hated Red Sox in the American League Championship Series, and watching the Red Sox go on to win the World Series for the 1st time since 1918, the Yankees pound the Sox 9-2 in MLB's season opener in Yankee Stadium, where Matsui robs Boston of the first home run of the season (he reaches over the left-field wall to pluck the ball from the air before it hits the stands). In the eighth inning, Matsui himself scores the first home run of the MLB season.
MATSUI! HOME RUN! MATSUI!
Godzilla is here!
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 4/05/2005 02:22:00 PM

 
Well, again its been a while since I've posted, but there's a lot going on, in general. It was sad to learn of the death of Terri Schiavo and J2P2, a.k.a. Karol Wojtyla. The papal funeral is on Friday at 4 a.m. our time, and it is said that some 2 billion people will be watching...

This post is my observation that there seem to be many free speech issues in the works.

The most interesting one, I think, is the massive financial scandal that is currently threatening to bring down the Canadian government. The way I understand it, tremendous amounts (in the hundreds of millions of dollars) were spent by the Liberal Party (the governing party in Canada) on non-existent advertising projects. A majority of this (tax-payer!) money was kicked back by the advertisers to the Liberal Party, which used it as campaign funds, among other things.
Witnesses are being questioned, and a publication ban has been placed on their testimony. There is a fear that if these details get out to the public, finding an impartial jury to try these witnesses will be impossible.
An American blogger, at Captain's Quarters, is receiving summaries of the witnesses' testimony, and is posting this information on his blog. His summary of events so far is here. (The April 2nd entry is a good place to start reading.)
Canadian sources who have linked to this American blog may be dragged into court, accused of violating the publication ban.
The Canadian bloggers have become so afraid, many won't even refer to the Captain's Quarters blog by name!
The scandal has been dubbed AdScam, and a very long list of blogs discussing AdScam can be found here.

JP's signature in his email is something like, "Information wants you to pay me a dollar," which is a spoof of the classic line, "Information wants to be free."
Wretchard of Belmont Club, in examining AdScam, has some thoughts I found interesting:
"My own view is that as the world becomes more dependent on information, the cost of purposely maintaining error grows ever higher. It is becoming too expensive to maintain an elaborate lie. The effort necessary to maintain apparent consistency with verifiable information simply grows to high too be worth it."

Other free speech news includes the possibility that the Federal Election Commission may regulate blogs with regard to political speech (relevant article in the National Journal: 'Blog Swarm' Stings the FEC) and the proposed regulation on blogs by the city of San Fransisco (Instapundit notes this here and here). In addition, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments about peer-to-peer file sharing systems.

Interesting times, these.
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 4/05/2005 01:28:00 PM

 
hey all,
I wrote a post earlier today and it shows up on my dashboard screen but not on the view blog page. weird.
anyway, I was just posting from the pain desk at the sheraton in boston, not commenting on much. just been going to lots of talks, watching powerpoint presentations, listening to the occasional weak joke thrown in (imagine pictures of lab mice with thought bubbles thanking the attendees for their time). that kind of stuff. I have also been playing "pick out the drug rep," which provides some fun. as this is the american pain society, you can imagine that the drug companies have some vested interest in courting people here. endo pharmaceuticals sent every attendee godiva chocolate to the room, i've gotten a free mouse pad and several pens. the drugs reps are pretty easy to spot: imagine women in business suits, highly styled and manicured, hair and makeup, and then some frumpy scientist type guy, balding with a dr. seuss tie. hmmm.
JP, thanks for the props for my work. it is very exciting. and this is only the beginning! one quick side note, after being at this conference especially, I have realized that pain research definitely not what I am interested in, at least not in the kind of context that most of this is presented. good to know.
JP, I am glad that you like the yoga. we will discuss it more soon. I feel yoga is one of the essentials in life for health maintenance and disease prevention and treatment. regarding treatment, over in india people come from all over the world to be treated by BKS Iyengar, the guy who created the style that i practice. he has cancer patients, pain patients, etc, in all sorts of yogic poses to help treat their illnesses. and it helps!
all from me.
oh yeah, i am glad Terry Shiavo is finally at peace.
love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 4/01/2005 04:10:00 PM

 
a quick note from the pain desk here in the sheraton in boston...before I write anything though, why is boston called bean town?? it keeps coming up in conversation and I can't figure the origin out.
conference is going well, learning a lot and meeting interesting people. I'll shake hands with some old dude and jessica (my boss) will lean into me and say "that's one of the grandfathers of pain research still alive today!" and I'll be glad I didn't say anything about how much his lecture sucked the day before. seriously though, it's been fun. today there is a semi full day and I will be learning a little bit more about neonatal pain sensitivity, and dad, I will also make a point of finding some people who can help me with the in utero surgery pain questions.
JP, I am glad you liked your class. did you tell the teacher about the eyes? she (or he) might be able to help you with that. maybe you are breathing funny or have some sort of weird straining thing going on.
who knows. I agree with the old bro dog though...yoga is great and is definitely one of those things that I think one MUST do in order to maintain health - a flexible and open body is a body that does not retain toxins and that functions properly. just think about how well your body would function if your spine were in line, with all organs receiving optimal innervation from the spinal nerves.
gotta go. love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 4/01/2005 10:08:00 AM