books | Reading Henry, Thinking Barth

If God is Life, then the first results of the phenomenological analysis of life make it possible to understand the fundamental arguments of Christianity. Life never being shown in the world, as we have just recalled, it is therefore impossible to perceive it there, unless in the form of illusory significations coupled to objective processes, significations whose origin remains unexplained as long as one sticks to the appearance of the world and seeks this origin there. Absent from the world, life is thus also absent from the field of biology, which is a worldly one. Hence the question arises: Is it still possible to have access to Life, that is to say, to the essence of God himself? And if so, where and how?

The answer, according to the phenomenology of life we have sketched here, is as follows: we do have access to Life itself. Where? In Life. How? Through Life. That it is only in Life and through it that we can accede to Life implies a decisive presupposition: it is Life itself that comes forth in itself. This was precisely our first phenomenological approach to life, its definition as truth, or rather the definition of Truth as Life: life is self-revelation. Within life, it is life itself that achieves revelation; and itself that is revealed. This is because it is life itself that originally comes forth by itself, inasmuch as it is self-revelation and it comes first. Nothing and no one could ever come forth if its coming forth in Life did not depend on the very coming forth of Life itself--and, beyond that, if its coming forth in life were not identified with the original coming forth of Life in itself.

Michel Henry, I Am the Truth: Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, 54-55.

If you replace 'Life' with 'God,' a valid substitution on Henry's terms, it ends up sounding a lot like Karl Barth.

link | On Dinner Tables and Executive Lying

Two things happened:

1. My mother brought up a George W. Bush biography for children at the dinner table. I asked if it showed him standing at the head of the 4380 military graves of US soldiers that have died in Iraq...maybe with a thought bubble pondering the cost of a few lies.

2. I learned that in his soon-to-be-released book, Karl Rove says Bush didn't lie.

Well, sorry Karl, here's a timeline of the false Bush administration assertions and an article that begs to differ.

I'm quite glad to have not seen much of W for the last year. I'd prefer to not have to listen to goons patch his legacy.

video | On Leaving Behind No Child Left Behind

I'm always interested in education both theory and practice. Found this discussion with Diane Ravitch interesting.

As the Obama administration touts No Child Left Behind and the “Race to the Top” competition for school grants, we speak to leading education scholar and former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch. She’s long been known as an advocate of No Child Left Behind, charter schools, standardized testing, and using the free market to improve schools. But she’s had a radical change of heart, as chronicled in her latest book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education. Ravitch says, “The evidence says No Child Left Behind was a failure, and charter schools aren’t going to be any better.