Another Word on Short Selling

I'm on a business trip so I haven't had time to write much in the last week. But I ran across this little tidbit about short selling the stock market. I mention it because there is a lot of confusion about both short selling and speculators; as a result both get blamed for many evils …

Evil Commodity Speculators Continue Their Market Mischief

The high commodity prices of last summer were blamed mostly on those evil speculators who were driving up prices. (Remember the rants of the financial reporters on the evening news? They and the politicians were beside themselves with hatred for the speculators.) Okay, turnabout is fair play. Oil broke through a very significant downside resistance …

Chamber Music and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

It's always been a joke in our family, whenever we saw a "motorcycle gang" (as we called them in my childhood), someone commented that they were probably a bunch of doctors, dentists, or preachers letting their hair down. Turns out they might be classical musicians as well. [...]

Another thought on “Revelation” and “Unraveling”

Yesterday I wrote an essay about how the revelation of God's presence in Jesus Christ unraveled the world as we knew it. It occurs to me that a revelation in a very different place is causing a different sort of unraveling right now. It finally "dawned on" the SEC, the Treasury Department, the talking heads on CNBC, and the financial leaders around the world just how out of control the financial markets have been over the last decade and that "revelation" has led to an honest-to-goodness market panic and an "unraveling" of financial markets that is breathtaking in its scope. In the first draft of yesterday's essay I mentioned that the Greek word for "sight" or "seeing" is horao, while the Greek word for "revealed" is apokalypto. In yesterday's essay that just seemed too geeky so I deleted that paragraph. In light of today's 676 point drop in the DJIA, it suddenly becomes an interesting observation that an apokalypto leads to an "unraveling." [...]

St Thomas on Sight and Revelation

Monday, Oct 6, was the feast of St. Thomas, the patron saint of our parish. Of course the Gospel lesson was from John 20, where Thomas misses the first resurrection appearance, then demands proof at the second. Jesus says, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and …

To the Relief of Shelob and Aragog

I washed windows today. But when I came to the window where my favorite spider has its web spread, I couldn't bring myself to destroy the web just to wash a window that is three quarters covered on the inside (because it's in the bathroom). No doubt to the great relief of Shelob, Aragog and …

Happy Birthday Mr. President

First, a disclaimer: I've never been impressed with Jimmy Carter the politician. I think Habitat for Humanity is a great organization. I also think he's a stand-up guy and a fine Christian, but when it comes to Presidential effectiveness, his administration has to be near the bottom of the list. But, whether it's part of …