Category Archives: Uncategorized

For now, a somewhat arbitrary list of titles that floated into awareness.Many of these were listed on the September 2022 Ministry Fair “Faith and Film” flyer.Standing invitation to suggest others, add dates and directors, and importantly, to prune the list.One model: Identify a set of themes/topics of common interest and then match films that correspondContinue reading “Candidate films / directors”

In science prison for decades, I have not spent much time watching films. This is a chance to catch up a bit, and learn from participants about things that make films memorable. I may try to map to films a dozen characteristics of art, as outlined in The Art Instinct (2009) by Denis Dutton. Note:Continue reading “Film group: personal interest”

A place to collect website links, such as for film review sites, book titles, relevant podcasts.September 2022 Ministry Fair “Faith and Film” flyer. For now, only a few sources with some relevance.To recall or discover titles: Various lists of top 10, 50 or 100, “All Time” (now over a century) or by genres or byContinue reading “Film group resources”

America’s right wing intellectuals undergo illiberal transformation By Marc-Olivier Bherer (South Bend, Indiana; Steubenville, Ohio; and Washington, DC, special correspondent)Published on November 5, 2022 at 12h00 14 min. InvestigationA nexus of American Catholic intellectuals are advocating a regime change to end abortion and fight the increased focus on identity issues, which they associate with liberalContinue reading “America’s right wing intellectuals undergo illiberal transformation”

A recent coincidence: On the same day the NY Times reported that NYU ousted an adjunct professor after students’ complained that his organic chemistry class was too hard, my director summoned me, also now with adjunct status, to share the scuttlebutt on my teaching. NYT editors solicited comments from students and profs, and published aContinue reading “Credible Skills, or Hollow Credentials?”

Thomas Piketty Professor at EHESS (Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) and the Paris School of Economics According to the French economist, rebuilding a left-right divide centred on questions of redistribution and social inequality is the central issue of France’s legislative elections. Moving away from three-tier democracy Published on June 11, 2022 atContinue reading “Piketty: Moving away from three-tier democracy”

2020 Vyrus Vyrus, binding tight,To our tissue day and night;What immortal hand or eye,Could frame thy fearful symmetry? And what bellows, & what wants,Could twist thine host’s primed response?A gentle furnace, why requireSuch sight unkind, a storm of fire? Whence thy bloom, pressed to selectA deathless force to infect?What dread hand? & Who to blame?AsContinue reading “The Vyrus”

During the forum on Pentecost, June 5, 2022, eight of these poems were presented by several volunteer readers, in the Parish Hall or via Zoom. The request for readers:If you would like to participate as a reader, please choose one or two from this list or suggest other poems.The poem titles are links to webContinue reading “Pentecost Poems / Christian Poets”

As you recite the Creed, experiment with variations in mind.

Jason Stanley, Yale philosophy professor, author of How Propaganda Works and How Fascism Works, unpacks “deNazification”. JS interviewed by Brooke Gladstone in the final segment of an On the Media podcast – excerpt of transcript below.https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/antisemitism-behind-putins-denazification-on-the-media      4 March 2022 Brooke G  37:29This is on the media. I’m Brooke Gladstone. When Putin declared war on UkraineContinue reading “Denazify signals anti-Semitism”

October 2, 2021 In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and the widespread BLM protests, the leadership of my Christian congregation considered various programs that would both boost the awareness of the persistent systemic racism throughout the United States, and ideally, motivate members to engage locally in activities that address social injustices, especiallyContinue reading “Reflections on Implicit Bias Training”

Rationale for canvassing: Admission: I was not a faithful student with suggested homework, for example, journaling. So, it would not be in good faith to claim that my views are representative of other participants.             Several people attended some early sessions and then dropped, for reasons unknown to me. Spectrum of conjectured reasons: From aContinue reading “Annex 1: Canvas method and validity”

Until recently, racial literacy was the core of IBT; racial healing is more recent.FW Twine, A White Side of Black Britain 2010:  Racial literacy includes: 1. recognition of racism as a contemporary rather than historical problem, 2. consideration of the ways in which race and racism are influenced by other factors such as class, gender,Continue reading “Annex 2. Racial Literacy”

Julia Galef is a leader among those promoting a revival of rationality in private discussion and public discourse. Like IBT aiming at sub-conscious attitudes, Galef urges us to be alert to our universally shared cognitive biases. A central theme in her book “The Scout Mindset” is that we would do well on occasion to “hideContinue reading “Annex 5. Risk of weakening the guide’s influence”

When and in what contexts does an increase in the personal awareness of systemic racism matter?     Suggested texts: – IX Kendi 2006 Stamped From the Beginning, a history of racist policies and crimes from Aristotle to today. A key message: Racist policies precede development and rationalization of racist ideologies. – Eric Foner   1988:  ReconstructionContinue reading “Annex 3. Other ways to invest effort and resources”

Some MGH content/quotes, often paraphrased, that were presented during the sessions, with comments: “In the aftermath of highly stressful or traumatic situations, our soul nerve [vagus] and lizard brain may embed a reflexive trauma response in our bodies.” (“lizard brain” is no longer an accepted concept) “… form of racialized trauma lives in the bodiesContinue reading “Annex 4. Flawed notions of biological intergenerational transmission of trauma in MGH.”

Along with the unconfirmed notion that bodies are born with inherited trauma, MGH’s author emphasizes the practices of somatic therapy for traumatic stress, “body work,” approaches that are not yet among those that enjoy the greatest level of evidential support.A cursory survey in Google Scholar reveals that even the most widely used treatments for trauma,Continue reading “Methods of clinical trauma management”