Just making the rounds of the blogosphere. I’ll divide it into Ortho and non-Ortho, for your discerning reading pleasure:

Ortho and Christian

• Is it okay to admit that sometimes I haven’t the faintest idea what’s going on? Huw is about to break a comment record with a post about The Emergent Movement and I still can’t figure out what it is. If someone wants to try to fill me in, have at it. But please, use smalllll words.
• So timely I can’t stand it. I just started reading Frederica’s First “Fruits of Prayer: A Forty-Day Journey Through the Canon of St. Andrew” and Orthodixie has a National Review Online interview on the book. FWIW, it seems to me that the book’s first chapter answers all the background that the NRO interviewer poses, but if you want to try before you buy, it might be worth reading the NRO piece.
• One catechuman has finished her walk! Many years, Erica. But now your blog needs a name-change!
• Via GetReligion — This ought to seal the case that there’s a double standard when it comes to the idea of religious tolerance and sensitivity.

  Exhibit A: A university student does an ongoing cartoon called “Christ on Campus” that many Christians would find offensive. Result: He is given a mild talking-to:

  “I think that it went pretty well,” he said. “There were some early tense moments but the tensions eased by the middle of the conversation. They never pushed for censorship. . . . It’s going to be business as usual, at least for now.”

  Exhibit B: A university student reprints six of the same! stupid! Danish cartoons that everyone has downloaded off the internet by now, which many Muslims would find offensive. Result: Two student editors have been suspended and may be fired. The newspaper apologized and called the editor’s decision “a blatant abuse of power.” At an ensuing protest by Muslims, one local librarian expresses concern over our insensitivity post 9/11:

  “Our government has been violating the civil liberties of Muslims living in our country and increasing this climate of stereotyping,” Inskeep said. “We need to stop sowing hatred and misunderstanding and think about what’s actually going to promote education and the public good.”

  So, to recap: If the subject is Christian, then spoofing = good fun and censorship is a bad thing. If the subject is Islam, then spoofing = hate and censorship is a very, very good thing.

• And lastly, can someone please tell Jerry Falwell to shut up?
  

  “Earlier today, reports began circulating across the globe that I have recently stated that Jews can go to heaven without being converted to Jesus Christ. This is categorically untrue.”

Non-Ortho

• Via Drudge: Under the category “Mainstream Media Pundits Who Haven’t Realized that in the Age of the Blogosphere, They Can Become the News” (a long category, but a good one) — we have a winner in David Gregory, NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent, who childishly stomped around at a White House press conference back here. And now, he called into MSNBC’s IMUS show this morning from India to cover the president’s visit, and was so drunk he could hardly talk:
  

  IMUS: Are you all right David?

  GREGORY: India is a wonderful language and I’ve been learning, where’s my little sheet here. I’ve been learning some new phrases to come home. But any way, that being one of them and i just think it’s nice.

  IMUS: It is.

  GREGORY: Thank you.

  IMUS: Having a lot of fun there. What’s wrong with you?

  GREGORY: I just think it’s funny. [Laughter] [Laughter] [Laughter]

• This one has been all over alt-media:
  

  AURORA, Colo. — A Colorado high school teacher was on administrative leave Thursday after he criticized President George W. Bush, capitalism and the United States’ foreign policy in his geography class at Overland High School.

  Sound like an overreaction? Sound like the teacher was just doing his job, or maybe just slightly expressing an opinion? That’s what you would be bound to think based on news write-ups like this one. But when you look at the transcript (from the recording made by a student for his notes), you realize it was a lot more than that. Here’s a sample from the teacher’s 20-minute rant:

  “[Bush] started off his [State of the Union] speech talking about how America should be the country that dominates the world. That we have been blessed essentially by God to have the most civilized, most advanced, best system and that it is our duty as Americans to use the military to go out into the world and make the whole world like us.

  “Sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler use to say.

  “We’re the only ones who are right. Everyone else is backwards. And it’s our job to conquer the world and make sure they live just like we want them to.

  “Now, I’m not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same. Obviously, they are not. Ok. But there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use. Very, very “ethnocentric.” We’re right. You’re all wrong.”

  Still sound like he’s just doing a good job in his Social Studies class, or Poli Sci, or even American history? But that’s the problem. He’s teaching geography. What does any of this have to do with the location of Argentina or the source of the Nile?

  I remember teachers like this, and in that way we could all sigh and say that nothing has changed. But I’m glad this student spoke up, because it’s been almost 30 years since I was in a high school classroom, and if they’re still a constant source of liberal opinion being passed off as objective knowledge, then it’s time to put an end to it.