Monday, February 28, 2011

Here's a short video about Rob Bell's forthcoming book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived, which touches on universalism (h/t A Thinking Reed) ....



There's also a post about the book at Christianity Today - Rob Bell's Upcoming Book on Heaven & Hell Stirs Blog, Twitter Backlash on Universalism.

Universalism isn't just a Protestant thing, of course. Guys like the past Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, and Russian Orthodox bishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Vienna have stated they don't believe anyone ends up in an everlasting hell,. Pperhaps Hans Urs von Balthasar is one of the most well known advocates for the idea that if hell does exist, it's empty (Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved? With a Short Discourse on Hell). Here are a couple of related articles ... one by Regis Scanlon O.F.M. Cap. blasting Balthasar's view on hell - The Inflated Reputation of Hans Urs von Balthasar, and one by Richard John Neuhaus, defending Balthasar against Scanlon - Will All Be Saved?

My own hope is that there is no hell. I don't want to go to the place where we decide there is a hell but no one goes there, and much less do I like the the idea that people are not sent to hell by God, but that they freely choose it, like Milton's Satan - talk about blaming the victim! :)


I saw mention in a comment to a post at Women in Theology of an upcoming book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer which asserts that he was not, after all, linked to attempts to kill Hitler. You can listen to a podcast lecture on the subject by Mark Thiessen Nation, professor of theology at Eastern Mennonite University, here (scroll to the bottom of the post)

I find this pretty interesting - I have a past post, Bonhoeffer was wrong, in which I argue that he disregarded the pacifism of the sermon on the mount by advocating a murder attempt and I quote an article by Raymond A. Schroth SJ - Bonhoeffer was wrong.

When I think of Bonhoeffer I think of Alfred Delp SJ, a German Jesuit also executed for his resistance to the Nazi régime. I wonder if they knew each other. Mary Frances Coady writes in With Bound Hands: A Jesuit in Nazi Germany : The Life and Selected Prison Letters of Alfred Delp ..... He also shared Tegel [prison] with Dietrich Bonhoeffer for the last twelve days of the latter's stay there; Bonhoeffer's cell was in another part of the prison where more privileges were granted, so the two most likely never met.

You can download an interesting article on Delp and Karl Rahner - 'A Symbol Perfected in Death: Rahner's Theology and Alfred Delp (1907-1945)', The Way, 43/4 (October 2004), 67-82 - by Philip Endean SJ at his website under the heading 'publications'.


Oh, how I welcome 2011's Spring with open arms! I adore Spring, I always have. I love the idea of rebirth and regrowth, and of course, my birthday! This Spring, unlike any other, welcomes colour back to our fashion forecast! This season's Spring collections did showcase the typical soft, pastel colours but also an introduction of neon and brights occurred. 2011 is the year to have fun with your clothes, and to try something new! Ease yourself into the neon trend, by wearing it in small and simple doses (e.g a neon lipstick, a bright scarf) or if you're adventurous enough, invest in a statement jumper or skirt and wear with block colours. Keep it simple, and wear one neon piece with white/black pieces. Clash patterns and colours all you wish, but be wary, as you don't want to end up looking like a Saved By The Bell reject!


A GAY REPUBLICAN…A NAZI JEW…A BLACK KLAN MEMBER…A MUSLIM POPE…A SMART TEAHADIST…A COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE

Why do gays vote for the Republican Party? Come to think of it, why do poor people, unemployed people, old people, single parents, minimum-wage workers, and anybody else who's not a fucking millionaire, vote for the GOP? The party of Sally Kern, Sarah Palin, and John "Filibuster" McCain, to name but a few.

The Texas GOP, like that of many other states, actually wants to recriminalize sodomy, among other choice proposals.

Did any Jews vote for Hitler? Did any blacks vote for George Wallace? Given that the river of human stupidity is an ever-flowing stream, I sure wonder.

Sigh. Kinda makes you feel like just giving up on the human race sometimes, ya know what I mean?

Your Head Trucker now believes it will be twenty years before we see equality all across the nation: DADT was repealed, but we have a long way to go yet... DOMA. ENDA enacted, and UAFA, and marriage equality in every state.

Twenty years: remember you heard it from Russ right here. Mark your calendars, and drop me a postcard when 2030 rolls around. If the gay Republican kapos will let you have a postage stamp.

Tell me I'm wrong. Please.

SOURCE: http://bluetruckredstate.blogspot.com/




title: Wuthering Heights


author: Emily Brontë


published: 1847


pages: 415


genre: gothic romance/classic


first line: I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.


source: personal copy/re-read


rated: 5 out of 5 stars







"It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands..."




Ahhhhh.....Wuthering Heights. I really enjoyed re-visiting this old favorite cuddled up on my couch during these past cold winter evenings. It was a perfect time for me to re-read this book.





This book has always been a favorite classic of mine and I am glad I re-read it. The ironic thing about it is that I don't particularly like any of these characters except for Heathcliff. I like his passion, he is a great anti-hero. Selfish, brooding, manipulative, vengeful, spiteful; yet despite all these character flaws his fierce love for Cathy lasts a lifetime.



Actually, I do like Linton. His love for Cathy is pure and he doesn't have ulterior motives like most of the other characters in the story.




It's the depth of love that I really like in the book, that timeless love that Heathcliff and Catherine possess. The woman is dead for God's sake, and Heathcliff continues to love her and she haunts the Heights unwilling to leave her soulmate behind. That's what I call true, enduring love.
Catherine and Heathcliff's love affair affects everyone they come in contact with. There's no escaping it.




About the story:

The book is mainly narrated by Mr. Lockwood and Ellen Dean.



Mr. Lockwood is renting Thrushcross Grange near Wuthering Heights. A man named Heathcliff is his mysterious and rude landlord. Lockwood asks the housekeeper, Ellen Dean, to tell him the story of Wuthering Heights and its inhabitants.


She goes on to tell him the story of Heathcliff and Catherine and Wuthering Heights.
The first part of her story is of how Heathcliff came to live at the Heights, the seond half of the story is about how Heathcliff takes his revenge as an adult.




Heathcliff was brought to Wuthering Heights as a child by Mr. Earnshaw. He was raised by the family and Earnshaw treated him as a son.
There is an air of mystery to Heathcliff since no one really knows where he came from.


Catherine Earnshaw is the spoiled daughter of the house, yet she and Heathcliff become inseparable from a young age, eventually falling in love.
Hindley Earnshaw is Catherine's older brother. Hindley has a deep hatred and resentment for Healthcliff as soon as he meets him.
Years pass and when Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley is left as head of household and he has even more power to humiliate Heathcliff as he pleases.



The Linton's live at nearby Thrushgrove Range and the wealthy Edgar Linton proposes to Catherine. When Heathcliff overhears Cathy talking to the housekeeper Ellen about Edgars proposal and her intention of accepting, he disappears that very night. Catherine is heartbroken. She marries Edgar Linton and three years pass when one day a completely transformed Heathcliff appears at her doorstep.



Heathcliff's hell bent on revenge and he doesn't care what he has to do or who he has to hurt in order to get it. His cold heartedness affects all he comes in contact with, including his own son.









Heathcliff loves Catherine from the start, the two are bound to each other. He is jealous of Edgar's wealth and class, and his hatred and anger drive him to go away and come back a rich man himself. His quest for revenge is what fuels him.
After Catherine's death, he begins to manipulate those around him for his own gain and vengeance.

And lets not forget the paranormal elements to the story. Catherine haunting the moors. The mystery surrounding Heathcliff's death. His admitting to digging up her grave to see her once more.






Heathcliff becomes nasty and cold hearted with age, it is hard to believe he could love anyone at at all, but he does, until the day he dies.

Here's one of his meaner moments:

"Put your trash away, and find something to do. You shall pay me for the plague of having you eternally in my sight - do you hear, damnable jade?"
-Heathcliff to Catherine's daughter





He has a lot of anger inside him, and there is no hope of his ever letting that go. Heathcliff begins to use his son, Cathy's daughter and Hindley's son like pawns in a chess game. You would think he would love Cathy's daughter, since she is her flesh and blood, but he hates her.








I'll finish my review off with a few favorite scenes:


When Heathcliff comes back to Thrushcross Grange and appears at Cathy's front steps, a different man than when he left three years ago. It's so dramatic.

Now, fully revealed by the fire and candlelight, I was amazed, more than ever, to behold the transformation of Heathcliff. He had grown a tall, athletic, well-formed man; beside whom my master seemed quite slender and youth-like. His upright carriage suggested the idea of his having been in the army. His countenance was much older in expression and decision of feature than Mr. Linton's; it looked intelligent, and retained no marks of former degradation. A half- civilised ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued; and his manner was even dignified: quite divested of roughness, though stern for grace.






When Catherine dies and Heathcliff dares her spirit to haunt him for the rest of his life.

'May she wake in torment!' he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. 'Why, she's a liar to the end! Where is she? Not THERE - not in heaven - not perished - where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer - I repeat it till my tongue stiffens - Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you - haunt me, then! The murdered DO haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts HAVE wandered on earth. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only DO not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I CANNOT live without my life! I CANNOT live without my soul!'




Catherine speaking about Heathcliff and Linton:


My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.



Brontë creates these imperfect and passionate characters, some of whom are borderline evil. I love the drama within the story, the setting of the dark and stormy Yorkshire moors sets the mood just right. This is a story about love, revenge, family and grief. It's a classic gothic love story that is not soon forgotten. Thank you Emily Brontë for creating one of my favorite anti-heroes in literature.






You can read Wuthering Heights free online here.










Do we understand what the Teahadist-Republicans want? How about what the American people want?

What I gather is that they want:

1. Social Security reform that guarantees the current level of benefits, alters someone else's, and cuts everyone's Social Security taxes to boot, perhaps

2. A world-class national infrastructure that can be built and maintained without tax dollars.

3. A balanced budget that doesn't sacrifice any of the government programs – especially the sacred military-industrial complex and the various old age benefits – that we like, while maintaining ridiculous low tax rates for the very rich and the corporations.

4. Clean air without pollution controls, clean water with a neutered and underfunded EPA, and businesses that do socially responsible things without any regulation whatsoever like BP and Halliburton.

5. Consumer goods at “Made in China” prices that create high-paying jobs in America and these are manufactured with the highest degree of quality and craftsmanship..

6. Giant trucks and SUVs that drive like Formula One race cars, look cool, fit into small parking spaces, cost under $18,000, and get the fuel economy of a Toyota Prius.

7. Complete freedom and complete security at the same time; but not for Blacks, Latinos or gays and women must relinquish control of their own bodies to government..

8. An America that acts like a swaggering, sociopathic asshole on the global stage yet is beloved by all the nations of the world. We must maintain that arrogance and apologize to nobody.

9. Wars against every enemy, real or imagined, all of the time, with no U.S. casualties and no effect on the budget and doing it without a formal declaration of war.

10. Incredibly rich and rewarding professional lives while supporting our employers' right to do whatever they want to us without recourse while blaming the LABOR UNIONS for any sputtering of the economy.

11. A vibrant, consumption-based U.S. economy with good jobs for anyone willing to look for one resulting from free trade policies that encourage money and capital flows to cheap labor markets. They do have a lot of job openings at Burger King.

12. A highly educated workforce produced by a school system that requires no tax dollars to achieve excellence, students who have no interest in learning, and a virulently anti-intellectual society. Complete denial of science and a perverted revisionist history course.

13. Closed borders and an endless supply of cheap labor to keep prices low.

14. To buy whatever we want irrespective of what we can afford while maintaining the drumbeat of personal responsibility.

15. Health care that is cheap, superior, and readily available to them without the danger of the same being enjoyed by anyone they deem undeserving. The enhancement of the stranglehold of Health Insurance Companies so they can continue to milk the American cow and retain their parasite status.

I don’t know how all this can be accomplished if you start with the premise that GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM and it can’t do anything right. It couldn't be any clearer: we want a government that will resolve every problem we currently face with solutions that require no effort, no sacrifices, and no money. And I have no doubt that we have elected a group of people brave enough to promise exactly that. Where are the jobs Mr. Boehner? …He says: What if a few million people lose their jobs? SO BE IT.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Jennifer Hudson Son David Wallpapers and Photos

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