September 2011
15 posts
2 tags
She is Not Going to Kill Herself for You: An...
Anyone who knows me and knows my wife knows that she is all class and I am all ass. It’s not that I’m self-centered, it’s just that I am always, always, always going to consider myself first. Class requires that you consider others first. That’s what Erin does. One of my good friend’s mom died recently. Erin asked if I wanted to send flowers; I considered it and said no. She considered me and my...
9 tags
Eat the Young: Our Politics and the War on My...
The recent debate over the debt ceiling has highlighted a broader theme in American politics, one that I don’t hear a lot of other people talking about. Republicans accuse Democrats of attempting to wage class warfare (poor versus rich) while Democrats accuse Republicans of attempting (to my mind, more successfully) to wage class warfare (rich versus poor). What is happening in America today,...
“Believing that we’re defined by what we have, what we make, where we’re born—we...”
– Sermon Podcast: Wanting What You’ve Got (Matthew 20:1–6) | Douglass Boulevard Christian Church
2 tags
The Chains We Wrap Around Ourselves are Soft, but...
Each morning for the last 30 days I have gotten up at 4 a.m. to write. This has never happened before. I have written all my life, but what I have are notebooks–lots of them–filled up 5%. I fizzle. My interests are too intense and too fleeting.
This time, waking up at 4:00 has been easy. Not easy physically, but easy because I have been excited by the prospect of finally living out my best...
6 tags
Republicans:Government:: Atheists:Church
Electing a Republican to run your government is like electing an atheist to be your minister: fundamentally, they’re just not fit for the job. I don’t want a member of the Flat Earth Society piloting my cruise ship. And that’s what we’ve got with Republicans in government.
Republicans believe that government is the problem, not the solution. They abhor government so deeply,...
6 tags
A Few Words for Addison Parker
Because we don’t say enough about people who matter to us, because we don’t celebrate people who live principled lives, because we should praise people like Addison Parker, I’m posting the letter I wrote to support Addison’s nomination for the Kentucky Justice Association’s Consumer Safety Award. The Kentucky Justice Association honored Addison last week with the award. I missed it, but I am told...
6 tags
My Fake Law School Commencement Address
Here’s a speech I’ll never be allowed to give, but that law students desperately need to hear:
Good morning, thank you for inviting me to give the commencement address to the University of Kentucky College of Law’s class of 2012. This is going to be a real downer.
I don’t want to be this guy. 90% of this speech is just going to be bleak. I can’t help it. most of what’s happened to you and...
7 tags
A New Quality of Life
People in the chattering class are finally starting to realize what my generation has known for a few years now: young people today will not have the same quality of life as older Americans enjoyed and are enjoying.
When people fret over some future quality of life benchmark we are supposed to achieve, it is clear that what they envision is “more of what we’ve got.” They want my generation to...
4 tags
Acting Faithful: The Only Way I Know to Become...
I cannot escape the notion that what we do matters far more than what we believe. This is an old debate. As far as I can tell, it’s one of the primary reasons[1] Protestantism exists today.
Sure, having both faith and works is optimal–two of the Buddha’s eight big things (known formally as the Noble Eightfold Path) are right understanding and right action. Martin Luther, the man largely...
“I do not pretend to know whether any of what I have just attributed to Aristotle...”
– Nature, Chance, and Fate « Thought Required; Pants Optional.
Brian Cubbage, showing it’s possible to be completely heady and completely raw simultaneously.
The Decibel Tolls for Thee →
In case you were wondering who the best writer in Louisville is, turns out, it’s Kenny Bloggins:
Just 15 minutes in, Chasny already removed some of the big toys from the chest, using “Bless Your Blood” (from The Sun Awakens) to rip a hole in the sky six, nay, five feet above the audience’s heads, all while clandestinely changing the shape of Uncle Slayton’s from a shotgun style listening...
3 tags
Withdrawing from JPMorgan Chase: An Exercise
Here’s what I’m ashamed of: Chase Bank. More specifically, I’m ashamed of my continuing relationship with Chase.
When I was sixteen or seventeen, my dad got me a credit card from Bank One to help me “build my credit.” JPMorgan Chase bought Bank One in 2004, which was fine with me, because at that point I already had a mortgage with Chase–all my accounts were now with Chase, which makes online...
Wendell Berry's "The Nature Consumers" and the...
This fall, my friend Tim is teaching an English class called “The Contemplative Life” to his high school seniors. We discussed the class during a round of frisbee golf and I promised to send him an essay by Wendell Berry called, “The Nature Consumers.” I sent him that essay and this:
Tim, here is a copy of Wendell Berry’s essay, “The Nature Consumers.”
I read this essay at the exact right...
“DBCC is a community unafraid to take a chance on following Jesus down a dark...”
– http://douglassblvdcc.com/453/im-a-minister/
“Sometimes you have a hard time figuring out where your speaker is coming from....”
– —The moderator following my Kentucky Law Update foreclosure defense presentation
Future KLU attendees: you have been warned…
August 2011
2 posts
1 tag
No one needs permission to be awesome →
A lesson from Steve Jobs and @hotdogsladies.
Yo, yo, yo! @douglassblvdcc’s weekly sermon podcast is out. It’s a good one. Rev. Mary Ann Lewis’s “What If…” http://ow.ly/5XfQs
