Pontius Pilate’s cryptic question “What is truth?” is a phrase that launched a thousand sermons, maybe millions, over the intervening centuries. It also haunts any attempt to discuss the volatile questions asked about Christians and other religiously motivated citizens when they take their faith into politics. For the followers of Jesus, he is the “Truth,” which converts an abstract answer Read More ›
Let’s not hear any more about “character’, okay? This country is moving to a values neutral, non-judgmental consciousness in which such outdated concepts are irrelevant. “Character” is just another device by which the power elite seek to instill guilt in the masses and bring everyone under the control of old fogies and their retrograde values system. Character is not an Read More ›
If you contribute to your church or synagogue, the arts, charities to help the poor, civic or environmental groups, dear old alma mater or any number of public causes, you are supporting the so-called “independent” sector of society. Because more people are doing the same, that sector is growing faster than either government or business. Hundreds of thousands of new Read More ›
Garry Trudeau, creator of the comic-strip Doonesbury, is one of your star Boomer celebrities, a self-appointed guru of perpetual ’60s cool. It was Trudeau who invented the jaunty Mr. Butts character that mocks the tobacco companies and the politicians who take their contributions. Today Mr. Butts figures haunt only Republican rallies, despite the annoying fact from the National Library on Read More ›
Ted Van Dyk is a former Washington State resident and a Democrat of national pedigree, who once served as an aide to Vice President Hubert Humphrey, later ran a Democratic policy center and advised Sen. Paul Tsongas in his 1992 presidential bid. These days he gazes balefully over developments in the Whitewater scandal as described in the newspapers that arrive Read More ›
Scott Klug, clean cut and earnest, used to be a reporter for KING-TV in Seattle. He liked to investigate politicians. You would not have suspected that he would wind up in Congress himself one day, but that is what happened. Having returned home to Madison, Wisconsin, Klug got elected as a Republican to the House of Representatives. Now in Washington, Read More ›
Here is a test of common sense opinions on contemporary politics. Write true or false next to each item and, at the end, see how you scored, Results: The correct answer for each question is “True,” except for the last, number 10-, which is definitely false (Tsk, tsk. Common sense must hold to standard English, even in vernacular speech–just assign Read More ›
The Seattle Bid Committe that is spearheading the drive to bring the Olympics to Seattle and the Northwest in 2008 has entered a new, post-Atlanta phase. First, the organizational effort is about to be intensified. Entrepreneur Clark Kokich will operate as chairman of the committee, and internationally known events impressario Bob Walsh will lead planning, as before. But to provide Read More ›
Like many children, C. S. Lewis suffered from nightmares; his were often about giant insects. Like many creative writers, Lewis continued to have an active dream life and took an interest in it. He likened the pruning and polishing of creative ideas from his unconscious to waking evaluation of dreams. Some elements from his dreams found their way into his Read More ›
In addition to referring to Dante occasionally in his scholarly books, Lewis published three essays specifically about Dante: “Dante’s Similes,” “Imagery in the Last Eleven Cantos of Dante’s Comedy,” and “Dante’s Statius” (available in Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature). Readers unacquainted with The Divine Comedy can’t realize how much it influenced Lewis. Those well acquainted with it are apt Read More ›