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prophetic heretic
28 November 2025 @ 08:21 pm
toothpaste for dinner
toothpastefordinner.com
 
 
prophetic heretic
22 April 2008 @ 09:20 pm
Recently there's been a big deal all over the intarwebs about an artist who allegedly starved a dog to death as part of an exhibition, and is supposedly going to re-create the spectacle at another exhibit. The artist in question is Guillermo Vargas, also known as "Habacuc", and as one might imagine petitions abound DEMANDING!!!! that people take action to put pressure on the event to nix the new exhibit (for example, here). The artist has recently acknowledged that he has received death threats.

I do not wish to defend the attempt to re-create the exhibit, I don't know enough about that to comment intelligently, but I can say for sure that what happened earlier with the dog has not been reported accurately. Vargas did not starve the dog, the dog was in a state of starvation when he found it. The gallery has reported that the dog was fed outside of the exhibit, which was only open 3 hours a day.

The artist has gone on record saying his intent was to show that people would ignore the animal unless something was specifically done to call their attention to him, and that in effect what they were doing was saving his life and bringing the plight of animals on the street to people in a public forum. The dog was not being starved, it was already starved and they fed it. The dog was untied except for the 3 hours the exhibit was open. Vargas said that the piece meant to test the public and that none of the exhibition's visitors intervened to help the animal. Furthermore, it was reported that the dog escaped while the exhibit was still ongoing, so no one really knows what happened to the dog. It is apparently not the case that Vargas killed it or starved it to death, and in fact had the dog not escaped it is likely that it would have ended up in better shape than it was in when it was discovered.

The ethics of using any living creature as part of an artistic exhibit are debatable, as are the ethics of intentionally recreating the spectacle, but it is patently not true that the artist killed or starved to death an animal, and to the contrary it appears that his intent was to promote awareness of human cruelty to animals by neglecting them. Because of that, I find it doubtful that he would intentionally commit cruel acts towards another dog.

Perhaps one good thing that could come out of this is that, regardless of how the artist is publicly portrayed, people might become more aware of animal rights issues and the plight of stray and feral animals in urban areas. That would be a cause worth getting involved in.

Story from The Guardian

x-posted to my blog.
 
 
prophetic heretic
16 December 2007 @ 03:16 am
Iz mah kitteh!

 
 
prophetic heretic
28 November 2007 @ 08:20 pm
I've decided to make my journal friends-only by default from here on out. I might occasionally make public posts, but if you read me and you don't have an LJ account and you want to keep reading you should register just so I can friend you and you can read me.

I decided to do this because I'm already writing most of the stuff I want to put out in public on Absolution Revolution, and since I'm thinking about things related to academia and possibly pursuing ordained ministry (Episcopalian) I think it would be good to keep my more personal matters at least somewhat less "out there".

That doesn't mean I won't still post silly quizzes and pictures, it just means that if you're not on my f-list you won't be able to see them. ;-)
 
 
prophetic heretic
28 November 2007 @ 04:17 pm
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
 
 
prophetic heretic
28 November 2007 @ 03:47 am
Sometimes these are just so.... something. I don't know how to explain it. Funny isn't exactly the right word... and yet it's perfect.

There's something wrong with your inner child. )
 
 
prophetic heretic
28 November 2007 @ 02:56 am

I just spent like 4 hours redoing the layout of my blog.

Tell me what you think, especially of the header image - that took most of the time, mostly because I made a bunch of stupid tired mistakes. It really wasn't that difficult a job.

 
 
prophetic heretic
28 November 2007 @ 12:42 am


x-posted to An Absolution Revolution.
 
 
prophetic heretic
27 November 2007 @ 09:19 pm
64%

Dallas Dating

 
 
prophetic heretic
27 November 2007 @ 12:38 am


Top Commenters on [info]orpheus42's LiveJournal
(Self and anonymous comments excluded from rankings)
1[info]wings_unfurling781 781
2[info]awhiteshimmer400 400
3[info]npicklegrl245 245
4[info]d_chron243 243
5[info]undiluted_one200 200
6[info]sparkythejester182 182
7[info]phebes_legacy166 166
8[info]igina155 155
9[info]katie_lee126 126
10[info]masticatus125 125
11-100 )
Total Commenters: 163 (63 not shown)
Total Comments: 7059

Report generated 11/27/2007 12:33:31 AM by [info]scrapdog's LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.7

 
 
prophetic heretic
25 November 2007 @ 10:16 am
I was checking my blog stats before going off to church. One of the categories I can check is the search terms used to find my blog. Apparently some intext service or another has decided I'm notable enough to link my name to the blog (which is interesting since on Google it's the 4th hit under the name "Jason Barr", after a Rutgers economics prof, a skateboarder, and an inner-city Pittsburgh pastor).

But there it is under search terms - "intext: Jason Barr".

I've also joined the Amazon affiliates program, so that way on the very off chance someone actually decides to buy a book I discuss from a link on one of my pages I get anywhere from 4-10% of the purchase price.
 
 
prophetic heretic
24 November 2007 @ 04:44 am
I made a post on the Bible and gender equality on Absolution Revolution.
 
 
prophetic heretic
23 November 2007 @ 10:13 pm
I got a couple of "oh wow that's good" comments, and a couple of "OHMYGODTHAT'SHOT!!!"s.

There's plenty left if anyone in the area wants some. ;-)
 
 
prophetic heretic
23 November 2007 @ 04:06 pm
I have a nice pot of vegetarian red beans and rice (that traditional Thanksgiving food) simmering on the stove for the potluck our cooperative houses are having tonight.

It's going to be a bit spicy, which is what I like but hopefully it won't be too much for the crowd...

2 lbs. red beans
1 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. black pepper
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 large onions, chopped
6 bay leaves
4 tsp. thyme
2 tsp. oregano
4 chopped chipolte peppers (yes, I know, that's not traditional but I'm trying to approximate the smoky flavor without using ham)
1 tbsp. Tobasco sauce
6 stalks celery chopped
2 large bell peppers chopped

will add salt to taste, and am cooking about a pound of rice with it.

I feel so domestic. *LOL*
 
 
prophetic heretic
21 November 2007 @ 05:53 am

What's your eschatology?
created with QuizFarm.com
You scored as Moltmannian Eschatology

Jürgen Moltmann is one of the key eschatological thinkers of the 20th Century. Eschatology is not only about heaven and hell, but God's plan to make all things new. This should spur us on to political and social action in the present.

Moltmannian Eschatology

80%

Amillenialist

75%

Preterist

65%

Postmillenialist

40%

Dispensationalist

20%

Premillenialist

15%

Left Behind

0%
 
 
prophetic heretic
19 November 2007 @ 05:12 pm
Not, mind you, that I would compare myself to Wright, but... there's something awfully familiar about this.

from interview )

My oh my can I ever identify with that. Maybe there's hope for me yet... after all, he's done alright for himself so far.</p>
 
 
prophetic heretic
17 November 2007 @ 02:06 pm
Send Dubya a copy of the Constitution for Christmas

Now granted I don't really think of the Constitution as this great equalizer of the people or guarantor of law and order (unless your ideal order happens to involve property ownership and maleness as a qualification for holding office and choosing those who hold office, often including slaves, and the taking away of farmers' land who served in the Revolution because during that time they couldn't pay their mortgages because you had drafted them to go to war whether they wanted to or not with no provisions for taking care of their land and families, which sparked a major revolt during the Articles of Confederation period and provoked the calling of the Constitutional convention - no wonder they never teach us anything about the years between the Revolution and the Constitution except to say the Articles were "ineffective"), but it certainly is... interesting.

Not that Dubya will ever see any of those, they probably won't even make it to his mailbox before the Executive Office trashes them, but...

Beginning a new series on Caputo's new book, What Would Jesus Deconstruct? The Good News of Postmodernism for the Church at the blog if anyone's interested.
 
 
prophetic heretic
15 November 2007 @ 02:45 pm
Anyone who cares about anything pertaining to the issues of terrorism, nuclear weapons, and Bush's "you're for us or you're against us" and pre-emptive war doctrine should read this article.

And if you haven't read Chalmers Johnson's excellent book Blowback (which basically predicted a 9/11-like event in 1999) you should - this is exactly an illustration of the potential unintended consequences cause by the course of American foreign relations with developing countries in the 20th-21st centuries
 
 
prophetic heretic
14 November 2007 @ 05:40 pm
 
 
prophetic heretic
14 November 2007 @ 02:18 pm
An audio recording of my session at the Cynicism and Hope conference a couple of weeks ago will be up soon on the conference web site, if it isn't already. Just a heads-up!