random Tillich quote

We'll likely be moving soon so we've been going through our stuff and throwing junk out. I have Paul Tillich's A History of Christian Thought in paperback and it's literally falling apart. A random quote someone had underlined before it goes:

The churches were the representatives of the ideologies which kept the ruling classes in power over against the working masses. This was the tragic situation. It is a great thing that in America this tragedy has happened on a much smaller scale. But in Europe it has led to the radical antireligious and anti-Christian attitudes of all labor movements, not only of the Communists but also of the social democrats. It was not the "bad athiests" --as propagandists call them-- who were responsible for this; it was the fact that the European churches, Orthodox, Lutheran, and Episcopalian, were without social sensitivity and direction. They were directed toward their own actualization; they were directed toward liturgical or dogmatic efforts and refinements, but the social problem was left to divine providence.

p. 483 - ISBN: 0-671-21426-8

google books integrating with creative commons

Here. One of the books recently made available is a quirky graphic novel written by a friend's former prof at UC Davis--

the chain email means of political education

These sorts of things aren't making us too popular with our allies.

on love

Love can sweep you off your feet and carry you along in a way you've never known before. But the ride always ends, and you end up feeling lonely and bitter.

Wait. . .

It's not love I'm describing. I'm thinking of a monorail.

Jack Handey

In case you need more Jack.

the mystical Wittgenstein

Another scathing NDPR review here. The small audience that reads contemporary academic philosophy is difficult to please.

h/t Methods of Projection

Update: more discussion at Strange Doctrines

what i've been reading

Project Management: Scrum, Timeboxing (wikipedia)

How to Start a Startup by Paul Graham (2005)

I'll get back to philosophy at some point. In the meantime, here's Paul Graham's take on philosophy (2007).