Who Am I?

Weekend Update 09-24-2011

Posted: September 24th, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Weekend Update | Comments Off on Weekend Update 09-24-2011

What we need is not a change in behavior (morality) but a change in who we are (ontology). Christ came to change us, not reform us.” This post is an excellent reflection by Fr. Stephen on the nature of things.

This Hold the Gluten podcast (celebrating Celiac Awareness Day) is a really good one. Even if you don’t have celiac disease, check this one out. You’ll understand it better. Our family is a bit different. At first, when I was the only one diagnosed, I had my own little enclave of food. Family meals were generally gluten free, but there was a lot of food that wasn’t. Then when our younger two kids were diagnosed with celiac disease, there was a shift. With my wife as the only non-celiac in the house, virtually everything we have in the house is gluten free. My wife will order gluten-containing meals when she goes out to eat (with us or with friends), but our home has almost become a gluten free zone. It’s even more difficult at meals because I can’t tolerate dairy or oats anymore. That annoys us all (especially me), but it’s life, I guess.

The Bleeding Cure. Krugman compares the current irrational rash of austerity measures to the economic version of the medieval medical technique of bleeding the patient to drain the evil humors. It strikes me as an apt metaphor.

This Meatless Monday post contains some sobering facts on the impact livestock farming the way we do it today has on our environment.

The Google chairman, Eric Schmidt, pulls no punches when he calls the current government approach to the economic crisis “ludicrous”. He thoroughly debunks the current myths being propagated.

Undiagnosed gluten intolerance a cause of depression. This is certainly an established fact for celiac disease. It’s one of the possible symptoms in every list of symptoms I’ve seen. It also explains the general ineffectiveness of medication for many people.

Taxes and the wealthy. Good article, but I’m starting to believe there’s no way anymore to teach basic math to Americans. It seems like a lost cause. The process C.S. Lewis foretold in The Abolition of Man has arrived.

Amazingly, we’re having the same crisis and making the same mistakes as we did in the 30s.

GOP politicizing the Fed (a conservative organization currently led by a Bush appointee, no less) in a fairly blatant effort to continue to make the American economy worse. The only possible agenda for such an action is because they believe that’s how they’ll win next year. Basically, it’s a cynical move that says if we do everything we can to make things as bad as possible in the US, then the America people will reward us for our efforts by giving us more power. The worst part? Their analysis may be right.

Spiritual, but not religious? It’s a good article. And I appreciate the observation that those who are spiritual but not wedded to any tradition tend to explore more deeply and more thoroughly looking for something they can believe. I certainly lived and still live that dynamic.

The social contract. Indeed, we’ve had three decades of aggressive class warfare against the middle class. And now they are trying to maintain those gains by pitting different middle class groups against each and against the poor. Meanwhile, the rich get richer. We’re idiots.