I am looking forward to your take on Skyfall. I saw it on Sunday and loved it--until the bitter end. But I'll be interested to hear what you have to say before saying more.

I grew Black Krims last year and I can tell you they were pretty amazing. Black Krim will be a new one for me. Can't wait to taste them! Hope your garden is doing well!

I love the Japanese Tea Garden! I need to go back there someday soon.

Came here via Andrew Root's twitter feed. Mostly wanted to give you a head's up that the link appears to be broken. But seeing as I'm commenting, here's a thumbs up from me. Children and youth are segregated enough as it is and are "targeted" as "demographics." The church can be proud of its unique quality of bringing diverse groups together rather than parcel people out into discrete clusters.

Salmon is not the only person saying this. See also http://blog.givewell.org/ and http://goodintents.org/blog who have a more nuanced take on the subject.

I like the teaser and the title. My teaser is here.

That sure leaves a lot of unanswered questions! Your comment about Wake is interesting; people seem to either love it or hate it. I think I'll wait until the hubbub dies down before checking it out. My teaser is here: http://teabagsinfusion.blogspot.com/2010/04/teaser-tuesday-april-13.html

Wow! Thanks for posting that. I love reading obituaries for that very reason: the stories are incredible. I had become fascinated with WWII books in the past few months and only recently realized it was due to these amazing people I'd been reading about, having lost my chance to talk to them in person. Your suggestion to hear their stories now while we can is an excellent one.

I also am amused by the presumption of where I am located in space. I mean, we're all commenting ON A BLOG!

@North has given an excellent example of what I mentioned, "when people who feel they are enlightened try to tell me how it ought to be without ever finding out what it is I actually think and believe." It looks so simple and straightforward from the outside (and also I appreciate that the arguments look ridiculous when you look at them from the outside), but on the inside it is something different entirely. Again, I don't mean to make this about the Episcopal Church. It's been very enlightening for me, though, to think of Iran through that personal lens and get a greater appreciation of how little I know of what is going on there. And how I dare not presume to give what seems to me to be a very obvious answer.

Yeees, I was happily following your argument until you brought up a topic about which I know a great deal: the discussion of gay marriage within the Christian tradition. I'm an Episcopal priest and I'm here to tell you that even within the Christian tradition it is well nigh impossible to talk about this. Even though I have absolutely no problem with the Nicene Creed (which is pretty remarkable, actually), I have been called a heretic--quite literally--for the sole reason that I think homosexuality is not a sin. The support many of us feel for GLBT people is branded "revisionism" and discounted as an abandoning of the faith rather than a conversation or strand within it. So. Getting back to Iran and Islam. There is no guarantee that the discussion even within the narrative will bring about the changes we think are happening when we look at it from the outside. Even within the narrative there will be friction and factions and fault lines. I think the point here may be listen and learn, listen and learn. Again, using your example, I am not best pleased when people who feel they are enlightened try to tell me how it ought to be without ever finding out what it is I actually think and believe. Never assume that the label means everyone agrees on one particular party line.

I thought it was a terrific speech, covering all the bases, plus some I didn't expect. The women's rights issue was a surprising and welcome note.

I note that the Methodist bishops cut back their salaries by $4K a piece. I'm not sure that was a HUGE sacrifice on their part. They're still getting far, far more than the local ministers, I imagine. It seems a bit of a token gesture to me. As for Church Publishing, although I'm put off by the tone in their release when they blithely announce the cut of nine jobs, I can also appreciate that it makes no sense to continue a division that consistently loses money. I would be willing to bet that books run at a loss for them year after year. The problem with a press release is that there's no way to know how much thought/planning/creativity/agony/ruthlessness is behind it. Were the bishops saying amongst themselves, "Either we take a pay cut or a couple of us is out of a job and the rest of us have to do more work"? Did Church Publishing try to make up the difference for their print division? I'm sure there are people who know the inside scoop. The truth is out there, but it's probably not in a press release. I think both the Methodist bishops and Church Publishing are acting in a way they think is in the financial best interest of their respective organizations. Whether it's a virtuous way or not is less clear. I'd like to think the good, the bad, and the ugly were easy to discern, but I'm just not sure it's true. Playing devil's advocate, Laura

Then there's the deadly definition 7: "when your head is full of poopy in your brain and it begins to come out of your ears so you therefore have poopy around your head."