Spectator to Genocide

Brian Steidle's only weapons against mass killing were his pen, paper, and camera. The former Marine captain catalogs what they caught in Darfur, Sudan, with quick-fire urgency: toddlers with their faces smashed in, men castrated and left to bleed to death, charred bodies of villagers locked in huts later burned down. Charged only with monitoring ceasefire violations in the war-wracked region, he soon grew weary of playing spectator to genocide.

So after six months, the 28-year-old Mr. Steidle returned to the United States a month ago and launched his own offensive to stop the killing. In mid-March he criss-crossed Washington, meeting with lawmakers and Bush administration officials and sandwiching media appearances in between. His eyewitness accounts—bolstered by hundreds of photographs—provide some of the most damning evidence yet of the Sudanese government's murderous campaign against the Darfuris.

Read the rest.

Cancelled Crucifixion

Rusty noted seeing an ad for a 'drive-through crucifixion.' I'm not sure if it is the same church or not, but while driving in North Laurel I saw this on a church sign: 'Drive-Through Crucifixion Cancelled.' Surreal.

The Selfless, Self-Forgetting God

Fr. Seraphim Rose once wrote that "nothingness," in the meaning that Lao Tzu gives it, is the "point of convergence" or axis of the universe. This recalls Lao Tzu's words:

"Thirty spokes join in a single hub;
It is the center hole (the space where there is nothing) that makes the wheel useful."

If nothingness or self-emptying is the axis of the universe, then the Cross of Christ, the greatest sign to man of the self-empyting of God, now becomes that axis. Christ the Tao/Logos stands at the axis; and there, in the "space where there is nothing," we find not an impersonal void, but the personal heart of the selfless, self-forgetting God.'

Hieromonk Damascene, Christ the Eternal Tao

Protectionism is Stupid

This article in World Magazine reminded me of that fact. Unfortunately, there are plenty of Republicans- the party of smaller government, remember?- who are all for a less than free and fair market, at least in some cases. Hey, you have to keep the folks back at home happy, right? I very much doubt my state's senators and representatives will be fighting too hard for a truly free market any time soon. Pork may clog your arteries, but it sure tastes good. . .