In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

How are government theologians, on contract or on the payroll , not a violation of the Establishment Clause of the US First Amendment? NASA is looking to the heavens for help with assessing how humans will react if alien life is found on other planets and how the discovery could impact our ideas of gods [sic] and creation. The agency hired 24 theologians to take part in its program at the Center for Theological Inquiry (CTI) at Princeton University in New Jersey, which NASA gave a $1.1 million grant to in 2014. CTI is described as building 'bridges of under understanding by convening theologians, scientists, scholars, and policymakers to think together - and inform public thinking - on global concerns.' So let's back up. Theology is literally the "study of God". As even our Hollywood Episcopalian rector explained back in the day, it isn't the study of whether there's a God, it's the study of the God Who exists, and as a practical matter in the...

I guess everyone was on holiday when President Brandon made his remark, and so far, I've seen little worthwhile commentary. The best was COVID has not been shut down as he promised. And his Build Back Better agenda has been torched as well. So, yes—'let's go Brandon’ and Merry Christmas. Biden agreeing that he should go screw himself is probably the greatest Christmas gift of all time. But does this say anything about Brandon's mental condition? It was a complete, coherent statement generally reflective of context. If the caller had said, "Let's go, Yankees!" And Brandon had agreed, there would have been absolutely nothing notable about it. On the other hand, if the president had been muttering about spiders creeping up his arms, that would have been something more clearly indicative of a problem. But we didn't see anything like that. I think it was simply a gaffe, something Biden has been known for throughout his career. Granted it was a gaffe...

I tried to watch Biden's latest COVID speech on the web, but it became plain after just a few minutes that it was flat, listless, and desultory. I think it's fair that he himself may have been tired and worried, but the country at large was busy with Christmas and fairly confident that Biden would be too terrified to try to lock anything serious down, so nobody actually paid much attention. I looked at Politico's account of the speech : But even he must know he faces a near-impossible task, as he tries to glue back together some sense of unity in a Humpty Dumpty of a nation consumed by disease, division and distrust. The combination of a worn-out public, mixed messaging from health officials and stiff skepticism from large swathes of the country mean the president will struggle to break through. . . . But restoring trust, and his own political sheen, is difficult when Biden is also the de facto voice of pandemic response at a time of plummeting trust in science and ex...

With a great deal happening but no news, I figured I'd turn to a subject I've intended to cover for some time anyhow, the Oak Island treasure and the current status of the search. We went to cable in 2012, not long after the Curse of Oak Island series started on the History Channel, and for several years I didn't bother with it, taking what I now recognize is the elitist approach that the whole thing is a fraud. It wasn't until about season 5 that I started paying attention, and after several years, it's become our must-watch show above all others. The YouTube link above consists of a university-educated toff from the UK sneering at the whole enterprise, which for me is an indication that he simply doesn't watch the show. He does mention the current main players, the brothers Rick and Marty Lagina -- he mispronounces their names, which are spoken with a hard "g", another clear indication that he's probably never watched the show, and he basicall...

The heretofore unmentioned circumstance is entering public discourse: Vice President Harris asserted that Joe Biden is president — not Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — during a tense exchange on Charlamagne Tha God's Comedy Central show. Charlamagne asked Harris to name the country's "real president." "It's Joe Biden. And don't start talking like a Republican about asking whether or not he's president," Harris told the host of "Tha God's Honest Truth" on Friday in an interview on the weekly late-night program. More remarkable is an op-ed in The Hill that suggests -- for the first time I'm aware in polite discussion -- that the Spiro Agnew option is potentially on the table. The last vice president of the United States to resign was Spiro Agnew in October 1973. Should Vice President Harris be the next? . . . Ironically, as more and more Republicans hope that Harris remains on the ticket — especially as the candidate ...

According to the UK Daily Mail, US Omicron cases have doubled overnight : The number of confirmed Omicron cases in the U.S. has nearly doubled in a period of 24 hours, and six Northeastern states saw a record number of daily COVID cases this week as the variant is now confirmed in 44 states, with New York hit the hardest. As of Saturday morning, there were 830 cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant confirmed by DNA sequencing across the country, a 97 percent increase from Friday morning's tally. In reality, the true number of Omicron cases is much higher, as only 1 to 2 percent of all cases are sequenced for variant markers, but the testing data shows a disturbing national trend. The problem is that as is increasingly reported from Europe, the Omicron variant is far milder. The Daily Mail story continues at length to conflate Delta with Omicron, but its graphs simply illustrate another point I've been making: There's little difference between the late 2020 peak...