Squish Like Grape

In the summer of 2016 our extended family went to Lahaina to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. One night we attended the Kupanaha Magic Dinner Theater, where magician Jody Baran did numerous tricks, including one in which he walked out into the audience and handed out balloon animals to a few lucky kids. As he neared our table, he made eye contact with my then 5-year-old son J-, who was sitting on my lap.

I've written a lot about science here, and a lot about theology, and occasionally about the intersection of the two. Astrophysicist Hugh Ross also writes about this intersection, but with a different take.

At his Reasons to Believe website, Ross makes the claim that the Bible teaches four core concepts of Big Bang cosmology:

MLK and Malcolm X were more alike than we thought. Here's why.

Advice for Democrats

Democrats have the presidency and a slim majority in both houses of Congress. They can control the agenda, but they'll need either full cooperation from their own party, or help from across the aisle, if they want to enact any new legislation. The two previous Democratic presidents pushed ahead with an agenda that apppealed to liberals. In both cases Republicans spent two whole years trying to stall or block all legislative progress. And as a result, the Republicans won a majority of seats in the midterm congressional elections.

Biden warns of challenges ahead as he rolls out new vaccine plan

Yet the plan depends on convincing a divided and shellshocked Congress to quickly approve tens of billions more dollars for the effort. State and federal officials are also already grappling with a litany of challenges, including broad confusion among Americans over who is eligible and where to obtain the shots — as well as pockets of vaccine hesitancy.

Storming The U.S. Capitol Was About Maintaining White Power In America

A resolution for 2021: Be a better ancestor

“What I’ve found is that the language of legacy seems to motivate people across different social realms with different backgrounds,” he said. (A small study from 2015 found that prompting people to think about how they’ll be remembered made them more likely to support personal and political action to cut carbon emissions.)

Congress scrambles to avert shutdown after Trump’s stimulus demands

My soul magnifies the Lord,
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of
       his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call
       me blessed; 
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name. 
His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation. 
He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of
       their hearts.