T-S ends long theological debate

A snow angel

Buried in the Op-Ed section of today’s Times-Standard is this stunning, er, revelation from contributor Dave Stancliff: Angels exist! This will no doubt be shocking news to the 17 percent of (hell-bound) Americans who have until now denied the existence “God’s Ambassadors.”

“These blessed spirits are armed with the authority and might of paradise,” Stancliff evangelizes. “Angels bring healing, perseverance, creativity, joy, and solutions to the problems and circumstances of our human condition.” After checking the masthead to make sure I hadn’t picked up an extra-large issue of Watchtower by mistake, relief washed over me. Did you hear that, economic crisis? I’ll mail you a copy, Afghanistan. Any other problems or circumstances care to step up? The T-S has a message for your ass: “[T]he universality of angels cannot be denied.” Booya!

CORRECTION: It was Sunday’s edition, appropriately.

 

The Pope and the Professor

As long as we’ve got you reading the College of the Redwood’s Board of Directors’ agenda for Feb. 3, you may have noticed in the documents packet (p. 42) that CR prof Dr. Jon Pedicino is asking for a little out-of-country travel cash ($1,800) so he can go to the Pope’s summer digs at Castel Gandolfo, Italy, this June.

There, he intends to hobnob with likeminded starry eyed folks at the Vatican Observatory.

Yes, the Vatican Observatory — an old-timer of an astronomical research institution that’s connected these days to the  Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona.

The affair? The Vatican Observatory’s Summer Symposium.

OK, so you’re hung up on the whole Galileo thing — how the Roman Catholic Church condemned and arrested him in 1633 for saying the Earth moves around the Sun. Let that burden go:  The Church did, when John Paul II forgave Sir Galileo Galilei in 1992, saying the poor man had been ahead of his time.

In fact, the Vatican and others are going all out this year to celebrate astronomy and the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of the telescope to study the sky, with  a big bang of events planned for The International Year of Astronomy 2009.

So there. Vai con Dio, Pedicino.

 

Frank Rich on K-SLUG Wed. morn

This just in from the folks at Lost Coast Communications:

New York Times Columnist, Frank Rich with John Matthews on KSLG 94.1 FM

On Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 9:15 AM, KSLG morning host, John Matthews will speak with New York Times columnist Frank Rich about Barack Obama’s decision to have Reverend Rick Warren perform the invocation at his inauguration. Reverend Warren is a California-based megachurch preacher who has likened committed gay relationships to incest, polygamy and “an older guy marrying a child.”

In addition to Mr Rich’s work at The New York Times, he has written about politics and culture for many other publications. His latest book, The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth From 9/11 to Katrina, was published by Penguin Press in 2006.

Listeners can tune in on the dial at 94.1 KSLG FM or on the web stream at kslg.com

 

Can you hear me now?

Neighbors of Eureka church protest planned cell tower

A couple dozen picket sign-packing protesters lined the 200 block of Harris St. Friday, expressing their civic outrage over a proposed cell phone tower set to rise from the grounds of the Apostolic Faith Church that occupies the block. The church pastor allegedly requested the tower from Verizon to compensate for measly tithing. “We’re the neighbors, and we’re mad,” said Henderson Center resident Thao Le Khac. “There are all kinds of unknown health hazards. Plus, the aesthetics hurt our resale values. And we don’t even need it!” Le Khac said.

She and other church neighbors claim they were not given proper notice of the proposed 60 ft. communication beacon, which would be disguised as a bell tower. Eureka City Council candidate George Clark was on hand, showing sympathy and concern. “I heard only five people were notified,” Clark told one protester as passing motorists offered honks of support. “The city council doesn’t have an ordinance to regulate cell towers. It needs one. We have to make sure there’s a thorough notification process,” he said.

Oh, but there is, said Eureka Director of Community Development Kevin Hamblin. Speaking from his office Friday, Hamblin said “the notification requirement is that notice be mailed (to every resident) within 300 feet.” And it was. To prove as much to incredulous residents at a recent city council meeting, the planning staff produced a photocopied list of the mailed address labels and a printout from the department’s postage meter.

“The city council determined that the notification was correct and that it did meet the City’s code,” Hamblin said. “But you can’t always guarantee that someone will take notice of the notice.” Protesters say, bottom line, if none of them heard about it, not enough notice was given. They plan to return to church grounds every Friday at 1 p.m. until they are appeased.

 

Who would Jesus vote for?

Is this what Jesus looked like?

The guys in Everclear don’t actually say who they think Jesus would vote for, but their new song is called “Jesus Was a Democrat,” and they say, “he wouldn’t vote for John McCain.”

By the way, they’re giving the song away for free.

“Jesus Was a Democrat”

Jesus Christ didn’t have blue eyes or blond hair
He looked just like all those people that you want to kill
Spin your hell into a heaven you can sell
Make it look like California with a bible belt
Jesus didn’t look like the boy next door
Unless you live in Palestine
I wonder what you mean by the golden rule
I think it is a scary play on words
I wonder what they taught you back in Sunday school

I bet you think of him
As a nice clean long haired Republican, nah
He would be all locked up in Guantanamo Bay
If he were alive today
He would have been a revolutionary
Wanted by the CIA

I picture him in all the wrong places
Finding diamonds in the dirt
A star of David tattoo
And a Che t-shirt
Jesus Christ was a left wing radical Jew
Murdered by people like you

 

Believers and knowers unite!

Well, we don’t really know, do we? Bigfoot? No Bigfoot? Bigfatliars? Bigmisunderstoods? And in the spirit of open, collegial debate — indeed, in the interest of unfettered investigation by believers, if not scientists — U.C. Berkeley’s Hearst Museum of Anthropology has put on display the plaster casts of tracks that some say were made by a real Bigfoot nicknamed “Cripplefoot” because of a gimpy tread. And a Berkeley philosophy prof is defending the right of people to believe, or at least consider without having others bust up laughing hard-heartedly in their face, that there are Bigfoots. Yes!

 

Morning Papers

Two Peoples, One Place, the new Humboldt County history by Ray Raphael and Freeman House,  gets a great review in the San Francisco Chronicle. (The NCJ had the honor of launching the book last month.)

Balloon Track East? Local kazillionaire Rob Arkley’s company, Security National, is developing a 130-acre industrial park in Plympton, Mass., according to the Boston Globe. The project contrasts with Arkley’s Home Depot-anchored Marina Center project in several interesting ways. First: It’s much huger. Second: Though the project includes a restaurant, a hotel and a good deal of “general business” space — retail? — it’s mostly all about industry. Third: In stark contrast to the way things have gone down in Eureka, the townfolk of Plympton have been actively involved in designs for the site.

The Wall Street Journal reports on an anti-tithing movement that’s taking root amongst the nation’s faithful. Reporter Suzanne Sataline talks with Fortuna resident Kirk Cesaretti, who, as we reported in June, has been protesting pressure to tithe from the Hydesville Community Church.