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grim reaper

Posted on April 20, 2007 | Filed Under terrorism, war

I heard a report today on NPR about the next generation Predator, a military drone called the MQ-9 Reaper. The Defense Update website says of the Reaper:

The availability of high performance sensors and large capacity of precision guided weapons enable the new Predator to operate as an efficient “Hunter-Killer” platform, seeking and engaging targets at high probability of success.

It is, in short, a highly effective killing machine … operable from a comfortable desk chair in Nevada. You go to work, kill a few terrorists by remote control, then go home for dinner with your wife.

A colonel interviewed by …

a tragedy of monumental proportion

Posted on April 17, 2007 | Filed Under general

It is …

I can only imagine the agony of being a parent of a Virginia Tech student, waiting to hear if your child is safe … or not.

It is not right. It is not fair. It makes no sense. There is nothing — no hurt, no injury, no frustration, no injustice, no rage — that can justify, or even account for, the blasphemous act of ceding to oneself the right to take another human life.

It is a tragedy of monumental proportion …

… the slaying of thirty-three human beings in Blacksburg, Virginia, no more able to enrich the beauty of the …

some thoughts on terrorism

Posted on April 12, 2007 | Filed Under politics, terrorism

Some thoughts provoked by a lecture I heard last Monday evening delivered by Dr. Louise Richardson. Her latest book: What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat

Dr. Richardson spoke of the importance of “following our own rules.” I agree. It is beyond foolish to jettison our highest principles — our esteem for the rule of law and our commitment to human rights for all people — for the sake of protecting ourselves and “our way of life.” We are only dooming our way of life in the process, as well as severely undermining any international credibility we might …

happy easter!

Posted on April 7, 2007 | Filed Under church

a prayer for good friday

Posted on April 6, 2007 | Filed Under death penalty, justice, spirituality

Lord Jesus, forgive us for all the ways we deny you …

… by remaining quiet in the shadows, not daring to speak our faith in the public arena
… by quietly going about our own business, while neglecting to wonder what your business might be
… by being more American than Christian, more the children of our culture than the children of God
… by adopting a lifestyle and a system of values that are indistinguishable from the rest of the world, pursuing wealth instead of justice, accumulating things instead of sharing generously, protecting ourselves whatever the cost instead of showing mercy whatever …

considering the cross

Posted on April 6, 2007 | Filed Under grace, spirituality

Either God was not in Christ and the cross is the ultimate symbol of all the meaninglessness that can destroy us, the absence of God, the triumph of the secular powers. Or God was in Christ and the cross is the final word of a God who shares the pain and the dirt, the loneliness and the weakness, even the frightening sense of desolation and the death we may be called upon to experience ourselves. That was the audacious claim of the first Christians, that God is now revealed as the one who pours himself out in love, a serving, …

andrew sullivan on torture

Posted on April 5, 2007 | Filed Under torture

We are in a propaganda war as well as a military one. In fact, the war of ideas may well be more important in this war than in previous ones, since our only long-term hope of prevailing is talking the majority of Muslims out of the Islamist camp. The damage that legalizing torture has done to this effort and therefore to the war against Islamist terror is incalculable …

Andrew Sullivan explaining his opposition to the Military Commissions Act and to any official sanction of torture in any form. Read the rest of his response to Andy McCarthy.

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