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- @JoeyMcAllister Something bigger indeed. *WINK WINK* in reply to JoeyMcAllister 2 hrs ago
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Blog Archives
Blogroll
Archive for January, 2010
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Losing old gods, finding nature
Posted on January 26, 2010 | View Comments
I recently headed back to Colorado for a wonderful weekend of R&R with my girlfriend and her family. We went skiing at Crested Butte, an absolutely amazing mountain way out in the center of the state. Here’s what happens when I ski:1. I fall down. This happens a handful of times. During this particular trip, I managed to stay vertical 95% of the day, even completing a blue square run without dropping.2. I come closer to completion. Allow me to explain: When I’m sliding down the side of a mountain fast as hell, staring out into the distance where other peaks look back at me, feeling the warmth of the sun and listening to the whoosh of air past my ears, I really do find a little slice of heaven.I’m guessing that this is a not-too-foreign experience for those familiar to strapping slippery boards to their feet and shooting down a hill. I relish these moments as I coast towards the base of the mountain. I use religious language to describe these times. Increasingly, I am not alone.Bron Taylor’s “Dark Green Religion: Nature, Spirituality, and the Planetary Future” describes the “replacement” or at least supplementation of traditional religions by more sensory forms of spirituality. I want to read this book. I grew up around trees and I feel a very deep connection to nature. Here’s a very important piece of an interview with Bron Taylor on Religion Dispatches: -
Terrorism, poverty, and violence
Posted on January 25, 2010 | View CommentsIt’s not that poverty doesn’t move them, but more correctly it is an interpretation of poverty that radicalizes (and is itself radical).
When I started my studies at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies, I made the mistake of joking with a German colleague. We were discussing “terrorism” as a theoretical construct and I parroted the oft-repeated line that views terrorism as an outlet to poverty. This particular interpretation (which, I must be clear, I do not believe), is that for people living in poverty, the promise of money, power, and most importantly, food, can drive people to do horrific things. My colleague’s response to my joke: “That’s bulls***. It’s a fortune-cookie truism, Tim. Too simple.”
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My Del.icio.us links Dec 13-Jan 23
Posted on January 23, 2010 | View Comments -
Religious literacy
Posted on January 23, 2010 | View CommentsUS Airways flight diverted after passenger “caught” praying.
How’s that for a headline? Let’s go with our gut reaction – it was a Muslim, wasn’t it?
Wrong.
Those lines are lifted from the news story. What kind of a person wraps straps around his head to pray? Jews, that’s who. Observe:
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Five myths around disaster relief
Posted on January 19, 2010 | View CommentsEdward Brown, relief director for World Vision, debunks five myths around disaster relief. I offer my thoughts on each point in place of Brown’s remarks. This came in the form of a Facebook note:
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Philanthrocapitalism – The Year of Giving Dangerously
Posted on January 5, 2010 | View CommentsI saw this exciting piece over at Philanthrocapitalism about…philanthrocapitalism, of all things, in 2010. Here’s a super-good thing to put at #3:
3) Malaria will be the cause of the year, centered on the World Cup in South Africa. The Malaria No More campaign, backed by Bill Gates and a bunch of corporate sponsors including Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp, has been gathering momentum in 2009 and its publicity is due to peak around the global media event of the year in the summer of 2010. With the world focused on Africa, political leaders and the continent’s super-rich will be under pressure to show that they are committed to the fight to stop this preventable disease that kills a million people a year.
via Philanthrocapitalism » The Year of Giving Dangerously.
Read more on Philanthrocapitalism – The Year of Giving Dangerously…
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Poorism
Posted on January 4, 2010 | View Comments
Ode Magazine, which I once subscribed to, ran a story this past April called “Slum tours: Traveling off the beaten path” detailing the rise of what some have dubbed “poorism”, or traipsing through the slums of this planet for an alternative travel experience. Coming from Ode, I figured that this would be a hit piece – I was wrong. The author actually did some “pooring” in the favelas of Rio. According to the article: