mayra_balance

Yes, I’m off to speak at Acton Institute

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Technically, I leave around midnight. I’m speaking at this event. I’m looking forward to it. We’ll be just across the 495, on the Jersey side. Close enough to the carnage at AIG, Lehman, and Wall Street. And I’ll be lecturing on how free market economic thinking and approaches can benefit urban ministers.

posted Sep 17, 2008, 5:05pm by Rodolpho Carrasco








425_sam_amens_desk

Samuel Carrasco, cancer survivor

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Here’s my 8-year-old son, Samuel (light blue shirt), with his uncles (back row) and his cousin (next to him). New Jersey, August 2008. It’s so good to see him growing tall and strong, especially after his ordeal fighting leukemia.

posted Sep 12, 2008, 10:59am by Rodolpho Carrasco








victor_baptized800

A word for fatherless boys

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Psalm 32:8

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.

God is your father, for real.

posted Sep 10, 2008, 2:49pm by Rodolpho Carrasco








gabrielle275

This one is making the rounds in urban ministry circles

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New York Times: “The Great Seduction” by David Brooks:

Sixty-two scholars have signed on to a report by the Institute for American Values and other think tanks called, “For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture,” examining the results of all this. This may be damning with faint praise, but it’s one of the most important think-tank reports you’ll read this year….

The loosening of financial inhibition has meant more options for the well-educated but more temptation and chaos for the most vulnerable. Social norms, the invisible threads that guide behavior, have deteriorated. Over the past years, Americans have been more socially conscious about protecting the environment and inhaling tobacco. They have become less socially conscious about money and debt….

The list could go on. But the report, which is nicely summarized by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead in The American Interest (available free online), also has some recommendations. First, raise public consciousness about debt the way the anti-smoking activists did with their campaign. Second, create institutions that encourage thrift….

Raising public consciousness about debt the way anti-smoking folks did — where is Jeremy Del Rio when you really need him?

posted Sep 9, 2008, 5:50am by Rodolpho Carrasco








donald_hodges_rudy300

Latin America wants free trade

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Mary Anastasia O’Grady at the WSJ reports on policy differences:

Of the two U.S. presidential candidates, one promises to expand international trading opportunities for American producers and consumers. The other pledges to raise the barriers that Americans already face in global commerce.

posted Sep 8, 2008, 12:13am by Rodolpho Carrasco








micah_pose350

Yes, it’s been a busy week. Now just give me a moment while I find my talking points memo…

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(Where is that memo…)

• The next 60 days will not be dull.
• Here’s our latest Harambee newsletter. If you are looking to fulfill your tithe, may I suggest you help a child receive a quality education at Harambee Prep by making a contribution today?
• This weekend I’ll be in Flagstaff, Arizona, attending the Young Life Arizona all-staff conference. They say there will be about 400-500 people there. I’m the main speaker (Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday morning) plus I’ll lead a fundraising workshop sometime Saturday morning.
• I’m twittering as we drive on I-40 through the California desert.

UPDATE: I’m twittering from the PASSENGER seat.

posted Sep 5, 2008, 8:28am by Rodolpho Carrasco








victor_baptized525

“President Bush is interested — as no other occupant of the White House has been for quite a long time — in how the past can provide guidance for the future.”

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So says John Lewis Gaddis, the Robert A. Lovett Professor of Military and Naval History at Yale University, in The American Interest:

George W. Bush, whatever else one might say about him, has been a most remarkable President: Historians will be debating his legacy for decades to come. If past patterns hold, their conclusions will not necessarily correspond to the views of current critics. Consider how little is now remembered, for example, of President Clinton’s impeachment, only the second in American history. Or how President Reagan’s reputation has shifted from that of a movie-star lightweight to that of a grand strategic heavyweight. Or how Eisenhower was once believed to be incapable of constructing an intelligible sentence. Or how Truman was down to a 26 percent approval rating at the time he left office but is now seen as having presided over a golden age in grand strategy—even a kind of genesis, Dean Acheson suggested, when he titled his memoir Present at the Creation.

Presidential revisionism tends to begin with small surprises. How, for instance, could a Missouri politician like Truman who never went to college get along so well with a Yale-educated dandy like Acheson? How could Eisenhower, who spoke so poorly, write so well? How could Reagan, the prototypical hawk, want to abolish nuclear weapons? Answering such questions caused historians to challenge conventional wisdom about these Presidents, revealing the extent to which stereotypes had misled their contemporaries.

So what might shift contemporary impressions of President Bush? I can only speak for myself here, but something I did not expect was the discovery that he reads more history and talks with more historians than any of his predecessors since at least John F. Kennedy. The President has surprised me more than once with comments on my own books soon after they’ve appeared, and I’m hardly the only historian who has had this experience. I’ve found myself improvising excuses to him, in Oval Office seminars, as to why I hadn’t read the latest book on Lincoln, or on—as Bush refers to him—the “first George W.” I’ve even assigned books to Yale students on his recommendation, with excellent results.

“Well, so Bush reads history”, one might reasonably observe at this point. “Isn’t it more important to find out how he uses it?” It is indeed, and I doubt that anybody will be in a position to answer that question definitively until the oral histories get recorded, the memoirs get written, and the archives open. But I can say this on the basis of direct observation: President Bush is interested—as no other occupant of the White House has been for quite a long time—in how the past can provide guidance for the future.

Interesting.

posted Aug 27, 2008, 2:59pm by Rodolpho Carrasco








flying_pig

I love this photo

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I am praying for the Obama family. An election is grueling, and at the end of the day they are a father, a mother, and two small children. Also, Barack and Michelle are in positions that no others in American history have ever been in. I speak, specifically, of being a Black man and a Black woman in the run for the presidency. It’s a lonely place. Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Great are the expectations. All that pressure can negatively impact a marriage, a family. I pray that they are strengthened in Christ and thrive through this experience.

In this photo, I really like the little girl at the podium. That blank look on the face, trying to take in the enormity of the scene. I’ve seen that look many a time on the faces of Harambee children, my own included.

posted Aug 27, 2008, 7:09am by Rodolpho Carrasco








900_sam_amens_desk

U2 Academic Conference, May 2009, NYC

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Yes, kiddies, it’s true:

The Hype and the Feedback: A conference exploring the music, work, and influence of U2

Hosted by Cedarville University. In New York City. May 13-15

If I submitted a paper, it wouldn’t be much more than channeling Chris Farley: “Remember when you sang, ‘Bad,’ at Wembley Stadium and you just went on and on? That was awesome.” Or, “Remember when you did the Zoo TV outdoor concert at Dodger Stadium? I was with my girlfriend, who is now my wife. That was awesome.” So I’ll let the scholars do their scholar thing. But I’d sure love to be a fly on the wall at this one.

UPDATE: The “U2 in Paris” album (via iTunes) is awesome.

posted Aug 25, 2008, 10:26am by Rodolpho Carrasco








rudy_kafi145

Fresno One Step Closer to Going Nuclear

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Aug. 19 — Channel 24 News (Central Valley):

The Fresno Nuclear Energy Group and the Westlands Water District signed a “letter of intent.” This paves the way for exploring options that would bring two 1,600 megawatt facilities to west Fresno.

“Low cost energy will be an economic boom to this area like this place has never seen before,” said John Hutson of the Fresno Nuclear Energy Group.

The state of California has a current moratorium on building new nuclear plants. The two plants are expected between Mendota and Kettleman City.

The nuclear project could also make way for desalinization plants to the area. That process cleans up the water for farmers.

“We are unable to produce a vast majority of crops. We have land that went fallow,” said Sarah Woolf of Westlands Water District.

“What do you need to clean water?, heat and electricity. What’s more abundant at a power plant than heat and electricity?,” said Huston.

Signing the letters of intent are just the beginning stages. If all goes by plan, the energy group expects construction of the two nuclear plants to begin in 2017.

Huh.

posted Aug 25, 2008, 10:18am by Rodolpho Carrasco








harambee_institute_keith375

Rip a DVD to Your iPhone

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A Wired wiki article has the details. Handbrake is involved.

posted Aug 23, 2008, 8:11pm by Rodolpho Carrasco








bruderhof_onion

news from my blogroll

4 comments

So I just clicked a bunch of the links in my blogroll (see left column) and here’s what’s up:

  • The Emerging Church is like a box of chocolates: My guy Andrew Jones will present on this topic at Greenbelt Festival 2008
  • Jordon Cooper has kind thoughts about my study guide/book dealie. I plan to expand this with a few more articles. Expansion to be completed by Christmas-time.
  • GAFCON videos over at Anglican Mainstream
  • LaShawn Barber is moving to Southern Cal.
  • John Liotti is now living in East Palo Alto.
  • Elizabeth Rios quotes Nelson Mandela: “…knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make.” That’s what’s up.
  • Ed Gilbreath says the Obama-Biden ticket is an example of racial reconciliation.
  • Christine Scheller’s thoughts on the Saddleback Civil Forum are worth pondering.
  • Chris Brooks is now full-time at Willow Creek Association, in the Student Ministries division.
  • Bob Carlton is down with the Biden pick.
  • The author of the book “Freakanomics” visited Arloa Sutter’s ministry.
  • Anthony Bradley says there is no proof that recycling makes a difference at all.
  • Andy Crouch’s Culture Making Blog is up.
  • Aaron Gallegos is reading The Grapes of Wrath.

    • posted Aug 23, 2008, 8:09pm by Rodolpho Carrasco








    dime

    I’m going to tattoo this article about Rick Warren to my forehead

    2 comments

    So to speak, of course: WSJ: What Saddleback’s Pastor Really Thinks About Politics

    We need to invite him to the Acton Institute’s Toward a Free and Virtuous City conference. As a guest lecturer.

    posted Aug 22, 2008, 9:49pm by Rodolpho Carrasco








    kafi_mar08_475

    Yes, it’s been a busy week over here in nw ‘dena

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    Links! Like Sausages! Only better:

  • Apple’s Ambitious iPhone 3G Plans: Yes, I’m still trying to get my hands on one of these.
  • My Slanted Eyes Are Beautiful sez Eugene Cho, in response to all those Olympics athletes making slit-eyes gestures
  • A Tax Revolt Is Quietly Brewing In Some States: Massachusetts might eliminate the state income tax
  • Slump Squeezes Enrollment at Private Schools: in the DC area
  • George Skelton, a known offshore drilling opponent, writes in the Los Angeles Times: Let go of the past and allow offshore oil drilling
  • “Childhood’s End” por este Theodore Dalrymple in City Journal: Dude starts by saying, “Britain is the worst country in the Western world in which to be a child, according to a recent UNICEF report.” It goes downhill from there.
  • Hindsight isn’t 20/20: I can see this guy’s point of view.
  • By the way, there was this kind of important debate last Saturday: Among the points Peggy Noonan gets across in Today’s WSJ
  • A shot across the bow: Doherty: New scientific data justifies repealing Global Warming Act response
  • There’s what you believe, then there’s what is possible: The Great Energy Confusion by Robert J. Samuelson in the Washington Post
  • Big Waves! Really big waves. Scary, swallow you without a trace big. Cape Town, South Africa

    • posted Aug 22, 2008, 10:41am by Rodolpho Carrasco








    gabba400

    So I’m riding the FlyAway bus to LAX right now

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    Tonight I fly to New York City, to see my family, at last. Vacation is ending. The kiddies and Kafi have been back East for a while. I went, then returned so that I could keep going on Harambee stuff. We’ll all be back home in Pasadena in just a few days. I’m on the FlyAway bus that moves between Union Station and LAX. It’s almost completely full. Go figure. Most of the folks seem to be in their twenties and thirties, too. I fly Virgin America, again. The price was right, again. I’ll hit the ground at JFK right at 6am. Not sure if I’ll ride the A train into Bed-Stuy or if I’ll get picked up. Either way is fine with me. I think it’s going to be a good weekend.

    posted Aug 15, 2008, 7:16pm by Rodolpho Carrasco








    punk_careaga

    High abortion rate worries NY experts

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    Crain’s New York reports on some heavy findings in New York City:

    In most of the United States, 24 abortions are carried out for every 100 live births. In New York, 72 abortions occur for every 100 live births.

    The continuing boom in abortions—90,157 were performed in the city in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available—apparently means that many women are using abortion as their birth control method of choice. That concerns health advocates, who point out that the procedure sometimes causes complications and is more expensive than contraception. The high rate also shows that these women are not protected against AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

    Some interesting tidbits, from the article:

  • “Years ago, most abortions in the city—up to two-thirds in some years—were performed on women from out of town who flocked to New York because of its liberal abortion policies. Now, however, 93% of the abortions in New York City are performed on city residents.”
  • 250 abortions are performed each day in NYC.
  • “In a time of fiscal constraints, abortion is costing the state at least $16 million in Medicaid spending annually, and city taxpayers still more through a city Health and Hospitals Corp. policy that provides free abortions to poor women at its facilities. The surgical costs alone are between $1,000 and $1,800 per abortion, compared with the $425 average annual cost for birth control pills.
  • There is an “ongoing debate about the emotional consequences of abortion.”
  • Black women: “Though blacks make up about 24% of the city’s population, black women were responsible for 45% of the abortions in the city in 2006. That mirrors a national trend, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion numbers and found that the rate among black women is twice the national average.”
  • Only about 1/3 use condoms: “But DOHMH statistics show that condom use is falling, with only 35% to 40% of men using them in their most recent sexual encounter.”

    • posted Aug 14, 2008, 12:29pm by Rodolpho Carrasco





     
      
     
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