Posterous
Brandon is using Posterous to post everything online. Shouldn't you?
Madmen_icon_thumb
Brandon Jones
owns this site
9
subscribers
 

mbjones

and his random musings...

Abraham Lincoln, on a Crisis he Foresaw


“We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood… . It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.” 

— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   economics   politics  
Posted December 12, 2009 by Brandon Jones 
// 0 Comments

House subcommittee pass college football playoff bill - ESPN

"What can we say -- it's December and the BCS is in chaos again," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He said the BCS system is unfair and won't change unless prompted by Congress.

The legislation, which goes to the full committee, would make it illegal to promote a national championship game "or make a similar representation," unless it results from a playoff.

There is no Senate version, although Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has pressed for a Justice Department antitrust investigation into the BCS.

via sports.espn.go.com

So wait...the Republicans are spending incredible amounts of time complaining about government intervention and regulation and then waste the taxpayers time with something like this?

I think I have to agree with Rep. John Barrow, D-GA in saying that while the BCS might be quite broken, "With all due respect, I really think we have more important things to spend our time on."

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   college football   politics  
Posted December 9, 2009 by Brandon Jones 
// 0 Comments

Fox News: Faking Video Yet Again

This is pretty amusing. Fox, covering health care reform protests last week, use footage from several months ago (different event/much bigger crowd) instead of the footage from the actual, less attended, event. Have some integrity!

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   news   politics   video  
Posted November 11, 2009 by Brandon Jones 
// 0 Comments

The Plight of the Eritreans

This is a heartbreaking article on the problems facing people of the country of Eritrea. I'd honestly never heard of this country until reading this article. It borders the Red Sea, Ethiopia and Sudan and has struggles greatly. Disappearance and torture are common problems for its inhabitants and they have trouble finding any escape whatsoever. Again, this is why Africa needs discipleship.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   africa   politics   refugees  
Posted October 30, 2009 by Brandon Jones 
// 0 Comments

Cornel West from Democracy Matters

“I speak as a Christian- one whose commitment to democracy is very deep but whose Christian convictions are deeper. Democracy is not my faith. And American democracy is not my idol. To see the gospel of Jesus Christ bastardized by imperial Christians and pulverized by Constantinian believers and then exploited by nihilistic elites of the American empire makes my blood boil. To be a Christian- a follower of Jesus Christ- is to love wisdom, love justice, and love freedom. This is the radical love in Christian freedom and the radical freedom in Christian love that embraces socratic questioning, prophetic witness, and tragicomic hope.

If Christians do not exemplify this love and freedom, then we side with the nihilists of the Roman empire (cowardly elite Romans and subjugated Jews) who put Jesus to a humiliating death. Instead of receiving his love in freedom as a life-enhancing gift of grace, we end up believing in the idols of the empire that nailed him to the cross. I do not want to be numbered among those who sold their souls for a mess of pottage- who surrendered their democratic Christian identity for a comfortable place at the table of the American empire while, like Lazarus, the least of these cried out and I was too intoxicated with worldly power and might to hear, beckon, and heed their cries.

To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely- to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep on stepping because the something that sustains you no empire can give you and no empire can take away. This is the kind of vision and courage required to enable the renewal of prophetic, democratic Christian identity in the age of the American empire.”

Emphasis mine. Found here.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   faith   politics   quotes  
Posted October 18, 2009 by Brandon Jones 
// 0 Comments

Insider Look At Wall Street

This is a pretty incredible look at the workings in Wall Street around the time of the crash. I'd never heard of such things as naked short-selling but am slightly disturbed we let people get away with it (let alone just regular short-selling). What is the love of money again?

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   economics   politics   recession  
Posted October 18, 2009 by Brandon Jones 
// 0 Comments

Tertullian Speaks

The divine banner and the human banner do not go together,
nor the standard of Christ and the standard of the Devil. Only
without the sword can the Christian wage war: the Lord has abolished
the sword. ~Tertullian

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   church fathers   faith   politics   quote  
Posted October 16, 2009 by Brandon Jones 
// 0 Comments

John Stewart on Craziness in Congress

A good example of why I enjoy John Stewart. The juxtaposition he makes is needed. Why won't traditional news outlets do the same?

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   politics  
Posted October 15, 2009 by Brandon Jones 
// 0 Comments

Another Cog In The Health Care Debate

This is why the health care reform debates must happen. It's ludicrous to think that the insurance companies can deny coverage to an infant because they are in the 99th percentile of height and weight. An infant. Who lives on breast milk alone. Talk about making it real to people.

Rocky Mountain Health Plans medical director Dr. Doug
Speedie explained that their decision was based on current industry
standards. " If health care reform occurs, underwriting will go away,"
he said, referring to the process that insurers go through when they
decide whether to accept or deny someone for coverage. "We do it
because everybody else in the industry does it."

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   health care   politics  
Posted October 13, 2009 by Brandon Jones 
// 2 Comments

Prison Profiteering

Nice article on how prison privatization is crippling communities.
I've said it once and I'll say it again: not everything should be
privatized.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   neoliberalism   politics  
Posted October 12, 2009 by Brandon Jones 
// 0 Comments