Anti-Abortion Dems: Is There a Big Enough Tent?

Wall Street Journal suggests the Democrats may be shifting to the right on reproductive rights. There have always been anti-abortion Democrats, and many more that don’t “personally agree” with it but support it as a legal right (even Hillary Clinton had something to say on the subject). The problem will always be point-of-view: pro-choicers believe abortion is about the woman’s rights, anti-abortioners believe it is about the baby’s rights. As long as these contrary viewpoints are held (and argued from – disregarding the other’s viewpoint entirely) the discussion will always end in fisticuffs.

The biggest shift, if the Democrats shifted to the right on abortion: christians would have no moral ground to stand on any longer in their desperate union with the Republican party.

You’re an Atheist: Now What?

According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the fastest growing faith in America is No Faith At All. New York magazine looks at next-steps for atheism’s great awakening. Problem is, they’re already sounding like culture-war Fundamentalists: “In the larger war against supernaturalism, it doesn’t help to fraternize with the enemy.”

Reinventing the Sacred

Scientist Stuart Kauffman attacks the worldview of Reductionism saying that not everything is reducible to pure physics.

“particles in motion allow only happenings. There are no meanings, no values, no doings.”

Kauffman replaces old-school Reductionism with Emergence. A couple in love, says Kauffman, is not reducible to particles in motion. They simply Are. Consciousness, agency, creativity, all are impossible to explain with the “standard model.” Emergence states that the whole is greater than (even very different from) the sum of its parts – when complex systems self-organize, unique and unpredictable qualities emerge. Another way to look at it: “At each level of complexity entirely new properties appear. Psychology is not applied biology, nor is biology applied chemistry.” On a practical level “no physical property of an individual molecule of air would lead one to think that a large collection of them will transmit sound.” But, warns Kauffman, we need not invoke a supernatural God to explain the unexplainable: it all just Emerges on its own. Intelligence and Agency emerge from the connections of neurons even though neurons themselves have no intelligence.

Frankly I’m skeptical. Sounds like having your cake and eating it too. The Age of Reason may be dying, but this “radical new worldview” seems to lack substance. There’s a fine line between “it just happens” and “God makes it happen” and they both sound like Faith to me.

Graffiti Debate – La Michoacana

The Journal-Sentinel reports that graffiti is on the upswing on the near south side. The culprit? A mural on the side of La Michoacana’s headquarters. (They sell ice cream from pushcarts with honky-horns or bells attached)

Is it art? This is. Most definitely. It’s not gang graffiti, it’s not tagging, and it was painted with the blessing of the business owner. Check it out next time you’re on 2nd and National.

Hip-hop Culture in Milwaukee

True Skool is a Milwaukee group that “[explores] the cultural and historical ties of [hip-hop]; DJ, BBoy, MC, Graffiti, Knowledge through interactive workshops, events, lectures, projects and classes.” While I don’t necessarily agree that hip hop has historically been “a tool and a culture that allows for positive change in one’s life and promotes the true meaning of community”, I think it certainly can be that. And should be.

This mural by True Skool extends across the west face of the Centrobrook Church building on 12th and National. Go check it out.