Osler's Razor

How much do I hate having my picture taken?

Ronald Reagan speaking truth.

Cooties!

Here was John Oliver's take last weekend on… well, all the stuff I care about. It was fascinating to work with them on this, and I am glad that they included my client Weldon Angelos (and used the George H.W. Bush with crack clip I love so much):

You can read my take on clemency written with Doug Berman.

I loved a lot of the haiku last week (and identified most with Jill's), but this one told such a great story:

The eye of the lens
Captures the ball in flight
A moment in sport.

Well done, Mrs. Kontos! Just one of our quality haiku-ers in or from North Carolina...

"Dream job" was the topic for haiku Friday, and the idea has been in my mind the past few days. The truth is that I have my dream job-- a vocation so fulfilling that I couldn't have imagined it when I was a student at law school.

In short, I get to teach smart students, write about things I care about, and try to change the world in those ways compelled by my faith. I am constantly in contact with brilliant people, some of whom agree with me, and others who don't. Every day, I am in contact with one collaborator or another, and that is one of the great joys of my life.

When I was interviewing at law firms back when I was in law school, I pondered long and hard the question of how to find out the truth about work conditions at a particular big law firm. After all, an associate or partner was not going to tell someone being recruited the whole truth, at least not in any clear or obvious way. Their job was to accentuate the positive. I developed a technique that seemed to really work: When I was interviewing, I asked the lawyer I was talking to what they would do if they didn't have this job. Some people perked up and described wholly-formed schemes to be a store owner or a comedian or a screenwriter or a professional sailor. They had an escape fantasy. The (fewer) people, genuinely happy as  a lawyer at a big firm, had to think about it for a while-- they didn't spend their time imagining a different existence.

I have no escape fantasies. And I give thanks for that.

This piece probably won't get a lot of hits, but it was good to work through writing it.

God, or Not, on the F train

Hi, Razor friends! I am pretty happy that I have had a number of dream jobs-- including my current one.  When I was a kid, I thought a dream job might be driving a cookie truck, and I still think it sounds pretty appealing.

Let's haiku about dream jobs, present, past, or future. You can write about a childhood dream, or the one you have now.

Here, I will go first:

I'd be a bad king
Or sous chef or male model
I got lucky, huh?

Now it is your turn! Just make it 5/7/5 on the syllable count and have some fun!

Something very strange has happened in the presidential race, even as an intriguing candidate (John Kasich) entered the race: Pretty much everyone seems obsessed with Donald Trump. This is probably not a good thing for America, but people seem unable to look away.

In the New York Times, Frank Bruni put it well:


If we don’t discuss him, we ignore something real, in a fashion that’s irresponsible.

Is it wrong that I like this so much?

As pretty much everyone expected, re-alignment of college football conferences has not finished, even after a raft of moves, including the following:

Nebraska from the Big 12 to the Big 10
Missouri and Texas A & M from the Big 12 to the SEC
Rutgers from the Big East to the Big 10
Maryland from the ACC to the Big 10
Colorado from the Big 12 to the PAC-12
West Virginia and TCU into the Big 12

Now the Big 12 finds itself as the smallest of the major conferences, with only 10 teams-- not enough to split into divisions and host a championship game. Estimable Kansas State Coach Bill Snyder recently weighed in to support expanding the league by two more teams. At least then, the name would fit!

Because the members of the "Power 5" conferences are locked in by TV contracts, newcomers to the Big 12 would probably have to come from the pool of schools outside of those conferences. Here are the teams that might be considered for such a move:

BYU
Cincinnati
Boise State
UConn
Univ. of Houston
Memphis
University of Southern Florida
University of Central Florida

To my mind, only one of those schools has the combination of size, athletic ability, and academic reputation to fit into a league like the Big 12-- BYU. But, adding just one school doesn't help much. What should the other addition be?

Crikeys! IPLG just was on a roll last week. The subject was ice cream. Check out all of his entries, but my favorite was this one:

My Mom still recalls
Clinton, Iowa childhood
A & W.

Then there was this one, based on a true story (he needed to have at least one hand on the wheel:

Marfa Dairy Queen
Osler would not let me drive
while eating Blizzard.

Renee was drawn back in by IPLG's fine work, I think:

She herself is a
Peach,this bud,this seedling child.
Tastes,wants another

Of the cold yum that
Swirls to her lips.it is her
First cogniscent joy.

Yesterday I was walking down Michigan Avenue near the Water Tower, and saw an older man sitting on a lawn chair handing out religious tracts. I reached out for one (I love reading religious tracts), and for some reason he snatched back the one he had been proffering to the crowd and instead handed me another. Titled, "The Pilgrimage," the pamphlet was produced by Battle-Axe Ministry of Gary, Indiana in 1999.

"The Pilgrimage" centers on one Dr. Abdul Ali, an older Muslim man who is shown returning from Mecca. He has completed his tenth Hajj, and has paid for several young men to make the journey with him. His wife waits for him at the airport, proud of his generous support of his faith and the less affluent men he has helped.

As his wife watches in horror from the terminal, the plane crashes nose-first into the runway (a disaster blamed on a failed landing gear, which seems a little odd). 247 people die, including Dr. Ali.

Next thing we know, Dr. Ali is shown meeting an angel, who takes him to visit with Jesus. Jesus informs Dr. Ali that not only is he not going to heaven, but Muhammed is not their, either. Jesus then closes the deal by informing Dr. Ali that "Allah is a satanic counterfeit." When Dr. Ali protests that he "was a very sincere Muslim," Jesus tells him that "you were sincerely wrong."

I can't believe that this is an effective way to reach out to Muslims, even if your goal is to convert them. It's not only offensive, it's just bad evangelism.

 It reflects a theology that is alien to me, too-- one that disclaims good works by people of faith, asserting that faith alone is enough to get to heaven. (Obviously, Dr. Ali's good works were the ones being diminished here, but the quotations-- i.e., to Ephesians 2:8-9-- make it clear that this tenet is important to  Battle-Axe Ministry. This claim is important to a large swath of Christians who argue against the importance of good works in the present day and attack the social gospel and the idea of social justice.

Jesus directed us to do good works, unambiguously: To feed the poor, to heal the sick, and to visit those in prison. More directly, we have him instructing a virtuous young man who comes to him and specifically asks what he must do to get to heaven. The answer, famously, is that the rich man must sell what he has and give it to the poor. He must do a good work, and be generous. Does it get clearer than that?

Jesus gave us two great commandments: To love God, and to love our neighbor. Neither commandment can be fulfilled without action. If you doubt that, consider what Christ taught when he was asked "who is my neighbor-- the one we must love?" Jesus answers that with the parable of the Good Samaritan, which reveals two things. First, that our neighbor may be those we revile or distrust. Second, that love requires action, as the Good Samaritan's love wasn't good thoughts-- it was saving the wounded traveler.

Maybe I need to stop trying to get tracts….

I really love ice cream… probably more than I should. Especially in the summer, it's safe to say it is my favorite food, and I love summer food.

It can mean a lot of things… but I love every permutation (except bacon ice cream-- that's just gross). Hard, soft, plain or fancy, it all is good to me.

Let's haiku about that this week!

Here, I will go first:

Up North, Michigan
A joint called the Pine Cone
Lives on in my dreams.

Now it is your turn! Just make it 5 syllables, then 7, then 5, and have some fun!

A deal got done, between several nations and Iran, to limit Iran's nuclear capabilities. The best explanation of the deal was in the New York Times yesterday.

Politically, here is what happens next: The Congress can vote to approve it, disapprove it, or take no position. If they disapprove it, President Obama can veto that legislation, meaning it can only be over-ridden by a supermajority 2/3ds vote.

My initial inclination is to embrace this agreement. A negotiated outcome is the best of three possible choices, the others being to do nothing or take pre-emptive military action.

Doing nothing is to simply forfeit our influence and allow Iran to continue towards development of nuclear weapons.

Taking military action would likely lead to disaster and another lengthy foreign war.

Of the three options, which do you think is best?

Where DID your family go on vacation, resulting in this haiku?

This trip, we walked
Step after step, forever
Behind us, just flames.

This week, I was in New York for work (more on that in a few days-- a big announcement!). I was working in Manhattan and staying in Brooklyn. I traveled back and forth on the F train.

I like to have something to read on the train, so I stopped into a beautiful little bookstore called Terrace Books. For three dollars I bought a used copy of Elie Wiesel's Night, a memoir of his time in Nazi concentration camps. I had read the book before, when I found it in a "free book" box in the Baylor philosophy department, and decided to read it again.

Of course, it is not an easy book. "Unbearably painful" was part of a blurb on the back, and the cover blurb described the "terrifying power" of the story within.

On the train, I found myself sitting next to a Hasidic man who was also reading. Next to him was an Indian woman reading a book, and next to her was an elderly Chinese man reading a book. The train wends through Brooklyn's neighborhood-- Coney Island, Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Midwood, Borough Park, Kensington, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and DUMBO-- so the train carried a remarkable variety of people. Just as remarkable was that it seems to be a last vestige of book-reading in the US. Sure, a lot of people were staring at their phone, but the lack of service seems to have driven others to the old-school ways.

Wiesel was 15 when the Hungarians turned over half a million Jews to the German machinery of death. He traveled through several concentration and extermination camps with his father, only to have his father die after months of torment. The horrors he witnessed are nearly unspeakable, but it is important and remarkable that he spoke them.

In the course of the book, Wiesel sees the worst of humanity, and it leads him away from the God that had been at the center of his life: "But now, I no longer pleaded for anything. I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. My eyes had opened and I was alone, terribly alone in a world without God, without man. Without love or mercy."

Many have read Night,  but fewer know that the autobiographical book (Wiesel calls it his "deposition") is the first in a trilogy. The second book, Dawn, is a novel which carries the story in a fictional direction during and after the holocaust. The third book, Day, is also a fictional account of the same person, who is now in New York City and is hit by a cab. It is an odd trajectory, to go from truth in such a grounded, horrifying way, on to imagined, later outcomes. Or maybe it isn't. Don't we all do that, at times? We process the worst things by imagining not a remaking of the core event, but ourselves. It is a way of survival, of coming out to meaning. We cannot deny that there was a Holocaust, but we sometimes imagine ways we could transcend the horrors that people-- even ourselves-- can do. It is a way of finding hope. When I arrived in Manhattan, I set to my work with greater focus.

As I finished a particularly grueling passage of the book, I wanted to turn to the Hasidic man next to me and hear his thoughts. He was two inches away, his tall black hat inclined towards his own book. How could his book about God co-exist with this one? He had a way. But I did not ask.

Here in Minnesota, the lakes are sparkling, and throngs of people will soon be flying around them on bikes. The rains have brought everything to a brilliant green, and there is a faint scent of smoke from barbecues over the lawns. How do these go together under one God?

That, I don't know.

On Thursday of next week, President Obama is going to visit the federal prison in El Reno, Oklahoma, according to Politico:

President Barack Obama will become the first sitting chief executive to visit a federal prison when he goes to El Reno, Oklahoma, next week to meet with law enforcement officials and inmates as part of the administration’s push for criminal-justice reform.

“Next week, the president will underscore the administration’s focus on the need to reform and improve America’s criminal justice system,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said during Friday’s news briefing.

What is more of a memorable event than a summer car trip? Let's haiku about those today. Here, I will go first:

We didn't always have
An actual destination,
The road just took us.

Now it is your turn! Make it 5 syllables/7syllables/5 syllables, and have some fun!

It seems that when the economy is down, we worry about the national debt, but when it is doing better we forget about it. Of course, a good economy also increases tax receipts, which makes people more hopeful about solving the debt problem. Still, it remains a structural issue that needs to be addressed by higher taxes, less government spending, or some combination thereof. We aren't Greece… but we don't want to be in that position, ever.

In listening to the candidates, here is what I hear them talking about:

Democrats: Income inequality.
Republicans: Immigration, Obamacare, less government interference with people and individuals.

Admittedly, doing health care better and shrinking government in some specific way might affect the debt, but I don't see specifics that are tied to hitting that goal.

Am I missing it?

On the 4th of July, James Dunn died in North Carolina. Here is part of what the Winston-Salem paper had to say:

In Winston-Salem, James Dunn will be remembered for the generosity, extensive knowledge and unwavering convictions on display during his 16 years as an adjunct professor of Christianity and public policy at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity.
That was just his retirement, though.

I first went to New York City on my own in 1981 or 1982, and stayed at the home of a friend of a friend near St. Mark's Place.

This video was then, and there:

My dad wrote a poem on Friday, and sent me a song on Sunday. Here is the poem:

All the juices from
buttered corn and plump burgers
end up on my chin

And here is the song:



What gifts!

When I lived in Michigan, I lived near a Unitarian church that closed for the summer. That always seemed odd to me, since faith did not seem like a seasonal thing to me at that time. I was pretty dismissive of that policy.

On reflection, though, I am more understanding. I don't think it is for me-- I wouldn't want to go that long without a faith community-- but there is, in fact, a seasonal aspect to Congregational life. The liturgical calendar is one manifestation of that.

And I have to confess that I do treat summer differently. I don't take summer off from church, but I do take the opportunity to stay home some mornings, and (more often) visit other churches. I love the experience of walking in someplace where I am unknown and becoming a part of it. In the summer, many churches are less formal, and it is a better time to do this.

At Seventh and James in Waco, we had "Chattaqua" in the summer, which was a series of Sunday School classes on topics that ranged all over the place. I loved it, and learned a lot. It made summer different, and more interesting. In fact, this was the birthplace of the Trial of Jesus, some 14 years ago.

So, I'm ok with summer being different. Are you?

Happy 4th of July! It's pretty great that it falls on a Saturday this weekend.

Speaking of freedom, the New York Times reports that President Obama has freedom on his mind:


As some of you know, I have gotten a grant to start a major new project on this, which I will start working on next week.  It's a one-year pop-up non-profit, so there are a lot of hyphens involved. And a little stress...

I had this piece, which is about football. I'm ready for that to start already.

I had this piece in Thursday's Waco Trib, about football and college…

Hey! It's time for a great holiday: Independence Day. This is one of my favorites.

Like all great American holidays, it has classic food that will always be associated with mid-summer. Good stuff you can eat with your hands or cook on a grill-- a treat for all of the senses.

When I lived in Texas, I loved getting breakfast tacos from Rudy's for the morning of 4th of July.  I'm not sure why; it's one of those personal traditions whose origins are lost in the mists of time (or something like that).

Let's haiku about the food of the season! I will go first:

Eggs? yes. Bacon? yes.
Chorizo? yes. Cheese? yes, please!
Warm pocket of yum.

Now it is your turn! Just make it five syllables for the first line, seven for the second, five for the third, and make sure it is in Spanish! Wait, no, it doesn't have to be in Spanish, but it's ok if it is. I'll figure it out.

In a column in the New York Times earlier this week, David Brooks took note of the reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling in favor of same-sex marriage among some social conservatives such as Robert P. George, who "argued that just as Lincoln persistently rejected the Dred Scott decision, so 'we must reject and resist an egregious act of judicial usurpation.'" I've heard similar reactions from many others in the Christian community.

Brooks has an interesting take on it all:

Social conservatives could be the people who help reweave the sinews of society. They already subscribe to a faith built on selfless love. They can serve as examples of commitment. They are equipped with a vocabulary to distinguish right from wrong, what dignifies and what demeans. They already, but in private, tithe to the poor and nurture the lonely.

The defining face of social conservatism could be this: Those are the people who go into underprivileged areas and form organizations to help nurture stable families. Those are the people who build community institutions in places where they are sparse. Those are the people who can help us think about how economic joblessness and spiritual poverty reinforce each other. Those are the people who converse with us about the transcendent in everyday life.

This culture war is more Albert Schweitzer and Dorothy Day than Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham; more Salvation Army than Moral Majority. It’s doing purposefully in public what social conservatives already do in private.


What do you think? Could that happen?

Yesterday, the United States beat Germany in the semifinals of the Women's World Cup, 2-0.  Next up is the final on Sunday, which could be a rematch from 2011 with Japan, who won that final in a shootout.

This Women's World Cup has been more closely watched than previous versions all over the world as the sport has developed an international following despite a continuing bias against women's sports in some countries, including many where soccer is a huge sport.

For whatever reason, I find this kind of competition a lot easier to care about than, say, the British Premier League, which has a big following at the bar down the street from my school. Perhaps that's because of the national identities in play, or the rarity of it.

Did anyone see the semifinal game?