Hey there! You’ve found the very beginning of this site! Not that there’s anything of great importance on this page, though if you’re curious about me you can click here. Otherwise, check out my blog or portfolio, or drop me a note and say hi.
Or just enjoy the first-ever Easter egg from a video game (below). It’s entirely up to you.
I used to think questions were meant to be answered . . .
I started this blog in 2013 as a way to record my thoughts on a variety of topics—the right way of thinking about things, as I then perceived it. My perspective was just far enough off the beaten track of generally accepted opinion that it seemed rather treasonous, and I had just enough hubris to think someone might stumble upon this little corner of the blogosphere and care what I thought.
What makes war quite possibly the subject of more films than any other single topic? What makes one film staunchly anti-war and another unabashedly pro-war? Is there really any way to spin hell on earth in a positive light on the silver screen?
A friend of mine recently commented, “The world just looks better through a camera, crisper, better-ordered, with tidy moral delineations and people of agency and action. Film can make anything look great.”[mfn]Unless otherwise noted, quotes throughout should be attributed to my friend Hannah.[/mfn]
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What people used to call liberty and freedom, we now call privacy. And we say, in the same breath, that privacy is dead….I think we should consider that when we lose privacy, we lose agency, we lose liberty itself, because we no longer feel free to express what we think. – Jacob Applebaum
In June 2013, what was labeled then as “the spy story of the age” broke when reporter Glenn Greenwald released United States government documents that revealed perhaps the largest breach of privacy by a government in recent history.
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. – Isaiah 9:6
Tomorrow is Christmas, the day we celebrate the most miraculous and mind-boggling event in the history of the world: when God became a man and stepped into our world, with all its sinful filth, to live as one of us. To be born, not among kings, as was His right, but among animals in a filthy, stinky stable. It’s both amazing and humbling to consider.
Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you’d like most not to lose. – Neil Gaiman
In case you haven’t noticed, Christmas is less than a scant fortnight away. You might have also noticed that this blog has been silent for a while. I’ve decided to ease back into blogging while helping you with your Christmas shopping for the bookworm on your list, by listing fifteen of my favorite books and writing a line or two about each of them. This list is in no particular order, and is not necessarily an all-encompassing “top fifteen”—just fifteen books that have impacted me in some way over the years.
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence—it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” – George Washington, attributed
In my last post we explored the principle of Natural Law, and concluded that since our Creator had placed certain laws in nature, these laws bind all men equally. We ended by asking two questions: can any other law or piece of legislation be legitimate in the face of Natural Law, and who should enforce Natural Law? At first glance, these two questions may seem only marginally related, but closer examination will reveal that to answer one leads into the next.
“To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider what state all men are naturally in, and that is a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any man.
In 1948, as part of an anti-communism/socialism campaign, Harding College (now Harding University) produced a 10-minute cartoon titled, “Make Mine Freedom.”[mfn](As closely as I can discover, this video made its internet splash in September 2009, when it was posted on the National Juggernaut…where, four years later, it continues to garner comments.[/mfn] Its message, however, is just as applicable to America in 2013 as it was when it first aired 65 years ago.
A week ago we celebrated the 237th birthday of the United States of America, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed.[mfn]By two people. Yes, I know, most delegates didn’t sign until August.[/mfn] For liberty-lovers across the country, it’s a day to remember the great principles this country was founded upon, yet the remembering is starkly contrasted by the reality of just how our nation has strayed from those principles.[mfn]Even more sobering are the numbers of people who don’t have a clue why we celebrate Independence Day[/mfn]
In amongst eating fabulous food and fellowshipping with family and friends, I had a few minutes to stop and reflect upon the importance of the day. And while the question often crops up, “Would you have signed the Declaration?” I realized that before answering that question I needed to ask another: why did they sign?