First Word

The rumor mill has it that some of our jewed preachers are already starting to broach that idea.

Think about it.  The Cherokee braves are holding council to elect their new chief upon the death of the previous one.  Someone suggests an Apache fellow should be elected, and a brave murmurs, “we don’t need no stinkin’ Apache as our chief.”

Comes our preacher and says, “that brave is in sin!”

Guess which of the following are honored at Westminster Theological Seminary with a day off. You may select more than one of course. (Note: you may regard one of the selections as a joke.) Continue reading…

George Mitchell has finally issued his report on the use of “performance enhancing drugs” or PEDs in Major League Baseball (MLB). Predictably, this has set the nattering talking heads into a new buzz, some defending this or that of the accused, but most just tutt-tutting. It is hard to find anyone actually discussing the question, “what’s wrong with using PEDs?” So, like the Little Red Hen, but more importantly: in keeping with First Word’s mission, I will set out to do so. Continue reading…

but for a reason opposite to that of the Semite-worshippers that are also seen to be grabbing their pistols.

My thesis is very simple: the term anti-semitism exploits an equivocation between race and religion that sets up the discourse for fallacious inferences. Moreover, the privileged status that this term has over others in its genre is itself an indication of the racism of those that recklessly purvey it. Continue reading…

It is often thought, to borrow from Shaw, that Christianity and Judaism are two religions separated by a common Continue reading…

Normally, one assumes the Atlanta Braves will win the National East. This year, they fumbled. But the Mets were ready Continue reading…

This quote is from Keith Olbermann on the October 12 broadcast of MSNBC’s Countdown. In a report that featured excerpts from the soon to be released book, Tempting Faith, by the former number-two man in Bush’s office of “faith-based initiatives,” David Kuo, Olbermann reveals what should have been obvious Continue reading…

There are reasons to restore baseball as the National Pastime. These Continue reading…

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.

– Aristotle

In the end, more than [the Athenians] wanted freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free.

– Edward Gibbon

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary

– H. L. Mencken

Since we are well into another tedious election cycle and are subjected to non-stop political propaganda some wisdom concerning an overused and often misused word is refreshing.

 “My country, right or wrong” is a thing no patriot would ever think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying “My mother, drunk or sober.”

– G.K. Chesterton Continue reading…

(1) The metric system is statist.  It was imposed during the French Revolution.  Almost every other country in the world was “forced” to accept the metric system over its indigenous units of measurement.

(2) The Revolutionaries knew what there were doing.  They knew that the way a society measures things is very much a religious practice.  Look at the attempted calendar reforms of tyrannous governments.  The Soviets moved away from a seven-day week.  The French revolutionaries did something similar (each 30 day month had three ten-day weeks ending with a rest-day, the decadi).  The calendar was revised to begin the year count with the beginning of the Revolution.  Look at the use of “CE” and “BCE” in academic literature.

(3) Aside from religious motivations, centralized states used imposed “systems” to rule over their serfs more efficiently.  They love numbers and statistics and use these to further enslave their populations.  The bureaucratic state must be resisted at every level. Continue reading…

Today marks the fifth anniversary of 9-11. The main stream news media and talk shows Continue reading…