Sherry writes about secret places in stories. I enjoy these places too. I’ve always loved the idea of a secret room in a large house. Of course, I’d want to go into it often–the kids would too–so the secret or secluded part of being in the room would wear out soon. But true stories like this one of a man finding a hidden room while renovating a 120-year-old house are so cool–unless you balance them with stories about hidden rooms with notes (“I owned this house for a short while, and it was discovered to have a serious mold problem.”).
All posts by Phil
If It Was Made by Slaves, Would You Buy it?
As I understand it, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is required by Congress (Trafficking Victims’ Protection Act (TVPA) of 2005) to list the goods produced by forced labor or child labor and the countries which produced those things. At the end of last year, Congress told the DOL to issue that list by the end of 2009 (William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008). Change.org and Polaris Project are asking us to write the DOL to encourage it to make it’s deadline.
I’d think a list like this would be very difficult to compile, even if you did not have businesses arguing against it (which I assume some lobbyist or two is actually doing). There was an informational meeting held on May 28, 2008. Perhaps now, almost five years later, the DOL is ready to finger the companies and products made in unjust conditions. You can join the effort here.
Christ-Centered Worship
“Christ-Centered Worship calls people to go beyond ‘contemporary worship’ without being polemical in spirit. It takes historic worship traditions very seriously but uses the gospel itself as the way to critique and design orders of worship. It is full, balanced, and extremely practical. This will now be the first book I give people–or turn to myself–on the practice of understanding, planning, and leading in corporate worship.”–Tim Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church; author of The Reason for God
This Labor Day, Read About Suicide
Cal Thomas praises “a must-read for people who are sick of the way government operates.” It’s Martin L. Gross’ book National Suicide: How Washington Is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z. This isn’t about health care or terrorism. It’s about politicians and the system they have worked up in Washington D.C. that has little to do with serving the public.
The current administration has a projected budget deficit of $9 trillion over ten years. I can only assume that’s because very few congressmen use calculators when considering budget proposals. Do any living congressmen ask about current revenues or unreasonable tax burdens for legitimate reasons, not political points? Do they care about the limitations put on them by the constitution?
Thomas describes some of the problems recorded in National Suicide:
The Alternative Minimum Tax, which he says is “based on an accounting lie,” will cost taxpayers $1 trillion over the next 10 years. America, he writes, spends $700 billion a year on various welfare programs, amounting to $65,000 for each poor family of four, yet we still have the poor with us. Both political parties, Gross charges, secretly encourage illegal immigration (the Democrats for votes, the Republicans for cheap labor) and then reward the immigrants’ children with automatic U.S. citizenship.
Care to guess how many government programs deal with “disappearing rural areas”? 89, 200, 500? It’s much higher than that.
Before the next election, we may want to think through what has brought us to the point of national suicide and ask ourselves who we can trust to serve the country with humility, loving mercy, and acting justly.
Getting Outside Oneself
Writing good fiction is hard because it must be outside the writer, not focused on him. If he can define something of the larger world, his work may live beyond his memory. (HT: Frank Wilson)
End is Near
Yesterday, I received my copy of Hunter Baker’s The End of Secularism. I’ll fill you in on the yummy details when I can. You can listen to him on Moody’s Prime Time America from a link on his blog.
Two Millions
Congratulations to The Millions blog on their new design–very nice.
Embrace the Future
Terry Teachout writes about new media: “Everybody in America was talking about TV early in 1949, though comparatively few Americans owned a set of their own. Network radio was still the dominant mass entertainment medium.” There are lessons for today, but they aren’t detailed. Making money by reporting news or providing entertainment online is still a pioneer territory. The old ad model may not do the job anymore.
Tickling Ears
Frank Wilson describes The Da Vinci Code‘s reception as I have always understood it.
We’re Watching What You Say So You Won’t Have To
In Britain, you will no longer be “blackballed,” encounter a “black day,” or find anyone’s “right-hand man.” Those words and phrases have been deemed offensive and banned from use by public servants. If you travel to that still beautiful country, get everything in writing because you will not find a “gentleman’s agreement” anywhere. From the article:
Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider children’s spy books, said: “A great deal of our modern language is based on traditions which have now gone but it would be silly — and extremely inconvenient — to replace them all. A ‘white collar worker’, for example, probably doesn’t wear one. An ‘able seaman’, under new regulations, could well be neither. ‘Spanish practices’ can happen all over Europe. We know what these phrases mean and we can find out from where they were derived. Banning them is just unnecessary.”
Unnecessary? Come, come. We all know that when one corrects one’s speech, one corrects one’s heart. If you look good on the outside, you will be good on the inside. Whitewash the sepulcre without, and it is cleansed within. We all know this, so of course it’s necessary.