http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/ Marriage, birth, divorce, transitions, widowed, career, retirement, transitions, death, moving, rules of life, aging, caregiving, life events, life changes http://www.estatevaults.com/images/bol_banner_thumb.jpg http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/ 92 40 en-us jillfallon@gmail.com Jill Fallon Copyright 2010 Jill Fallon 2010-03-15T01:56:18-05:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/15/a_war_of_religi.html Jill Fallon Culture and Society 2010-03-15T01:56:18-05:00 Richard Fernandez on The Age of Faith. One factor driving Islamic militancy in many nations is the sense that Christianity is growing. Outside of the West, evangelism and conversion are two of the most sensitive issues in the modern... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/15/a_war_of_religi.html Richard Fernandez on The Age of Faith. One factor driving Islamic militancy in many nations is the sense that Christianity is growing. Outside of the West, evangelism and conversion are two of the most sensitive issues in the modern world.” He quotes Philip Jenkins who wrote in the Third World War. Christianity, which a century ago was overwhelmingly the religion of Europe and the Americas, has undertaken a historic advance into Africa and Asia. In 1900, Africa had just 10 million Christians, representing around 10 percent of the continental population. By 2000, that figure had swollen to over 360 million, or 46 percent of the population. Over the course of the 20th century, millions of Africans transferred their allegiance from traditional primal faiths to one of the two great world religions, Christianity or Islam—but they demonstrated an overwhelming preference for the former. Around 40 percent of Africa’s population became Christian, compared to just 10 percent who chose Islam. Fernandez continues With the numbers between Christians and Muslims equalizing in the region of the 10th degree of latitude, many places formerly dominated by Islam are now doubtful ground. It’s upsetting the equilibrium. Jenkins thinks the Third World populations can work out a modus vivendi, “if only Washington and Riyadh can refrain from pouring fuel on the hostilities”.  And probably they can, but the professor may be mistaken in believing Washington is pouring fuel on anything. There is no Western Christian equivalent of Saudi-sponsored “anti-Christian propaganda across the Global South”. Consequently the Christian response to Islam will increasingly be independent of the West because the West has dealt itself out of the game. If the Western intelligensia takes any side in this fight it is likely to be Islam’s. But in all probability the sophisticates will continue to think that all religions save “Imagine” are equally worthless superstitions and remain aloof; disdainful of taking the religious issues seriously. In posting about The Scene of Insurmountable Grief  about the massacres at Jos over at Legacy Matters, I  quoted Jenkins as well. In Jos, as in countless other regions across Africa and Asia, violence between Christians and Muslims can erupt at any time, with the potential to detonate riots, civil wars, and persecutions. While these events are poorly reported in the West, they matter profoundly -- Uncomfortably for American policymakers, it is a war of religions and beliefs—a battle not for hearts and minds but for souls. Unfortunately too many in the mainstream media "Just don't get religion", maybe worse they can't imagine the experience of a lived faith and so don't even see the events at Jos or indeed the religious wars in Africa as worthy of coverage. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/15/a_war_of_religi.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/14/boston_seasons.html Jill Fallon Just for Fun 2010-03-14T16:57:36-05:00 This beautiful visualization of the ebb and flow of color over the seasons of he year based on photographs of the Boston Common posted to Flickr and using an algorithm developed by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg whose medium... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/14/boston_seasons.html This beautiful visualization of the ebb and flow of color over the seasons of he year based on photographs of the Boston Common posted to Flickr and using an algorithm developed by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg whose medium is data visualization.  Summer is at the top, winter on the bottom.  HT Jason Kottke. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/14/boston_seasons.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/09/i_like_this_mes.html Jill Fallon 2010-03-09T10:44:12-05:00 Mark Krikorian tells us how to Send a Message with the Census Fully one-quarter of the space on this year's form is taken up with questions of race and ethnicity, which are clearly illegitimate and none of the government's... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/09/i_like_this_mes.html Mark Krikorian tells us how to Send a Message with the Census Fully one-quarter of the space on this year's form is taken up with questions of race and ethnicity, which are clearly illegitimate and none of the government's business (despite the New York Times' assurances to the contrary on today's editorial page). ... Question 9 on the census form asks "What is Person 1's race?" (and so on, for other members of the household). My initial impulse was simply to misidentify my race so as to throw a monkey wrench into the statistics; I had fun doing this on the personal-information form my college required every semester, where I was a Puerto Rican Muslim one semester, and a Samoan Buddhist the next. But lying in this constitutionally mandated process is wrong. Really — don't do it. Instead, we should answer Question 9 by checking the last option — "Some other race" — and writing in "American." It's a truthful answer but at the same time is a way for ordinary citizens to express their rejection of unconstitutional racial classification schemes. In fact, "American" was the plurality ancestry selection for respondents to the 2000 census in four states and several hundred counties. So remember: Question 9 — "Some other race" — "American". Pass it on. I'm going to do it. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/09/i_like_this_mes.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/09/as_projected_by.html Jill Fallon Economy 2010-03-09T10:23:10-05:00 A chart by Veronique de Rugy who says, "This is what unsustainability looks like."  Based on figures from the CBO, the chart reveals the long term trend of entitlements. As Dennis Prager summarizes As reported by the Washington Post:... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/09/as_projected_by.html A chart by Veronique de Rugy who says, "This is what unsustainability looks like."  Based on figures from the CBO, the chart reveals the long term trend of entitlements. As Dennis Prager summarizes As reported by the Washington Post: “President Obama’s proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.” CNN adds, “Of that amount, an estimated $5.6 trillion will be in interest alone.” “Deficits of that magnitude would force the Treasury to continue borrowing at prodigious rates, sending the national debt soaring to 90 percent of the economy by 2020, the CBO said.” CNN notes this particularly chilling prediction from the CBO: “By 2020 . . . debt held by the public would reach $20.3 trillion, or 90% of GDP. That’s up from 53% of GDP in 2009.” http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/09/as_projected_by.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/09/from_jihad_to_j.html Jill Fallon Books 2010-03-09T09:41:34-05:00 A most remarkable interview in the Wall St Journal over the weekend of the 'Son of Hamas', "They Need to Be Liberated From Their God'.  Mosab Hassan (Joseph) Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding leader... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/09/from_jihad_to_j.html A most remarkable interview in the Wall St Journal over the weekend of the 'Son of Hamas', "They Need to Be Liberated From Their God'.  Mosab Hassan (Joseph) Yousef is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding leader of Hamas, the terrorist organization, and he tells his story of how he went from Jihad to Jesus while spying for Israel and shaming his family. Mr. Yousef tells me that he was horrified by the pointless violence unleashed by politicians willing to climb "on the shoulders of poor, religious people." He says Palestinians who heeded the call "were going like a cow to the slaughterhouse, and they thought they were going to heaven." So, as he writes in the book, "At the age of twenty-two, I became the Shin Bet's only Hamas insider who could infiltrate Hamas's military and political wings, as well as other Palestinian factions." -- "I converted to Christianity because I was convinced by Jesus Christ as a character, as a personality. I loved him, his wisdom, his love, his unconditional love. I didn't leave [the Islamic] religion to put myself in another box of religion. At the same time it's a beautiful thing to see my God exist in my life and see the change in my life. I see that when he does exist in other Middle Easterners there will be a change. -- As the son of a Muslim cleric, he says he had reached the conclusion that terrorism can't be defeated without a new understanding of Islam. Here he echoes other defectors from Islam such as the former Dutch parliamentarian and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Do you consider your father a fanatic? "He's not a fanatic," says Mr. Yousef. "He's a very moderate, logical person. What matters is not whether my father is a fanatic or not, he's doing the will of a fanatic God. It doesn't matter if he's a terrorist or a traditional Muslim. At the end of the day a traditional Muslim is doing the will of a fanatic, fundamentalist, terrorist God. I know this is harsh to say. Most governments avoid this subject. They don't want to admit this is an ideological war. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/09/from_jihad_to_j.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/08/the_saints_vs_t.html Jill Fallon Wise Words and Quotations 2010-03-08T11:50:23-05:00 The Catholic idea of saints and martyrs has nothing to do with public policy. Each is, in his or her own nature, the exact opposite of the Pyramids of Egypt -- perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the statist mind.... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/08/the_saints_vs_t.html The Catholic idea of saints and martyrs has nothing to do with public policy. Each is, in his or her own nature, the exact opposite of the Pyramids of Egypt -- perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the statist mind. Each man and woman among the saints is held up as an individual example, different in kind from each of the others. Each has, from a unique point of departure -- the peculiar, given circumstances of a life -- consciously, and in freedom, bought into the wild notion of personal sanctity. Their faith, and not their compulsion, moved our mountains. But likewise, in all other areas of human enterprise: in the great achievements of business, of literature and music and art, of sciences and education, there was some understanding that we had nothing without manifestations of the individual human will. David Warren asks the question on Does freedom matter? and gets the answer Yes, but which leads to The Tyranny of But. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/08/the_saints_vs_t.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/08/the_patient_doe.html Jill Fallon Health 2010-03-08T11:45:56-05:00 “The patient doesn’t seem to be in the picture.” It adds: “We were struck by the virtual absence of mention of patients and families ... whether we were discussing aims and ambition for improvement, measurement of progress or any... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/08/the_patient_doe.html “The patient doesn’t seem to be in the picture.” It adds: “We were struck by the virtual absence of mention of patients and families ... whether we were discussing aims and ambition for improvement, measurement of progress or any other topic relevant to quality. “Most targets and standards appear to be defined in professional, organisational and political terms, not in terms of patients’ experience of care.” The above quote is from a report by the Massachusetts-based Institute for Healthcare Improvements on Great Britain's National Health Care Service. Not so hard to believe when read Neglected by 'lazy' nurses, man, 22, dying of thirst rang the police to beg for water. Told by the doctors that everything was under control, the police left and the man died the next day. Sources say they are investigating the possibility of a corporate manslaughter charge against St George's Hospital in Tooting, South London. Mr Gorny, from Balham, worked for Waitrose and had been a keen footballer and runner until he was diagnosed with a brain tumour the year before his death. The medication he took caused his bones to weaken and he was admitted to St George's for a hip replacement in May last year. The operation left him immobile and unable to get out of bed. His 50-year-old mother says that he needed to take drugs three times a day to regulate his hormones. Doctors had told him that without the drugs he would die. Although he had stressed to staff how important his medication was, she said, no one gave him the drugs. She said that two days after his hip operation, while Miss Cronin was at work, he became severely dehydrated but his requests for water were refused. He became aggressive and nurses called in security guards to restrain him.  After they had left, he rang the police from his bed to demand their help. Back to the report on the NHS from the London Times which reports were suppressed by the government. Lord Darzi, the former health minister, commissioned the three reports from international consultancies to assess the progress of the NHS as it approached its 60th anniversary in 2008. They have come to light after a freedom of information request. -- They diagnose a blind pursuit of political and managerial targets as the root cause of a string of hospital scandals that have cost thousands of lives. That's the basic core problem of nationalized health care.  When the government takes over management, politics and managerial targets become more important than patient care. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/08/the_patient_doe.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/06/atheists_the_re.html Jill Fallon Spirituality, religion and rituals 2010-03-06T17:33:42-05:00 From the New Scientist, an editorial Time to accept that atheism, not God, is odd. HERE's a fact to flatter the unbelievers among you: the bright young things at the University of Oxford are among the most godless groups... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/06/atheists_the_re.html From the New Scientist, an editorial Time to accept that atheism, not God, is odd. HERE's a fact to flatter the unbelievers among you: the bright young things at the University of Oxford are among the most godless groups ever studied in the UK. Of 728 students surveyed in 2007, 48.9 per cent claimed not to believe in any god, with 49.6 per cent claiming no religious affiliation. And while a very small number of Britons typically label themselves as "atheist" or "agnostic" (most surveys put it at about 5 per cent), an astonishing 57.3 per cent of the Oxford sample did. This may come as no surprise. After all, atheism is the natural stance of the educated and the informed, is it not? ...Of course, things are never quite that simple. Within the sample, for instance, the postgraduates (that is, the even-better educated) were notably more religious than the undergraduates, in terms of both belief in God and self-description. -- We, and the scholars who gathered in December last year for a conference at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, think we may have the answer. The problems stem from a long-term, collective blind spot in research: atheism itself. This oversight might seem remarkable (or remarkably obtuse on the part of the social scientists) but it is one with deep historical roots. Many of social science's 19th-century founders, including Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, Auguste Comte and Max Weber, were unbelievers, or "religiously unmusical", as Weber memorably put it. For them, religion was the great explicandum: how, they wondered, could so many people believe in something so absurd? What they failed to recognise was that their own, taken-for-granted, "lack" of belief might itself be amenable to inquiry. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/06/atheists_the_re.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/06/gotta_get_back.html Jill Fallon Economy 2010-03-06T12:06:57-05:00 The Blue Plate Special at the Belmont Club. Matthews shrewdly asks Ryan why he thinks he can persuade voters that they can no longer have something for nothing when nobody else has before.  And for a moment we catch... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/06/gotta_get_back.html The Blue Plate Special at the Belmont Club. Matthews shrewdly asks Ryan why he thinks he can persuade voters that they can no longer have something for nothing when nobody else has before.  And for a moment we catch a glimpse of a much more formidable Chris Matthews, a man who seems to have come to liberalism in part because he’s seen conservatism fail to sell.  And the congressman’s riposte is simple: ‘Chris, it will sell now because the voters have no choice. The party’s over and sooner or later everyone who isn’t brain-dead has to see that.’ Entitlements have drained the treasury dry. An entire generation has blown its wad and doesn’t even have enough kids to borrow from.  And as any who’s ever shaken his wallet and seen only old ATM receipts flutter out of it, the message is signally clear. Gotta get back to work. http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/06/gotta_get_back.html#comments http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/06/no_more_anonymi.html Jill Fallon 2010-03-06T12:03:19-05:00 DNA testing makes it easy to find the identity of anonymous sperm donors In an age of sophisticated genetic testing, the concept of anonymity is rapidly fading. With some clever sleuthing—tests that can track down ancestral origins, donor numbers,... http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/06/no_more_anonymi.html DNA testing makes it easy to find the identity of anonymous sperm donors In an age of sophisticated genetic testing, the concept of anonymity is rapidly fading. With some clever sleuthing—tests that can track down ancestral origins, donor numbers, and bits of biographical information—parents and offspring can find out the donors. "With DNA testing and Google, there's no such thing as anonymity anymore," says Wendy Kramer, the founder of the Donor Sibling Registry. "Donors are choosing anonymity because they're not educated," adds Kramer. "If they were properly educated on the consequences, then many would choose not to donate." http://www.estatevaults.com/bol/archives/2010/03/06/no_more_anonymi.html#comments