1. Sandhill Scot shares why they dress plain

    we wear plain clothing, and engage in an alternative economy as much as we can, in order to promote what we believe are the values that best reflect the character of Jesus and early Christ-centered communities. It is a voluntary public witness to our Quaker testimonies. We hope not to inspire others to dress plain, but to think seriously about the world around them, and develop their own community driven public witness to peace, justice, and the salvific character of Jesus the messiah.

  2. Alice M Yaxley: Sustainable economy for the future?

    If we experience such a leading and gathering, can our communities reach out to convince others of the joy and liberation that comes from living God’s way, in such numbers that we can choose life for…

  3. Camden Diocese mega high school project on hold

    Like so much else in the slow economy, a regional Catholic high school for Gloucester County is going to have to wait. “The project is on hold because of the recession,” said Andrew Walton, spokesman…

  4. MSFT Bing ad blames GOOG for economy, promises better times if we search for stuff we can't afford

    Who’s behind corporate fraud on Wall Street?
    [√] Google!
    Who’s behind the real estate bubble?
    [√] Google!
    Who’s behind high gas prices?
    [√] Google!


    Microsoft new Bing.com search engine is here to help us “feel right” again. They will help freckled-faced red-headed twelve year old girls buy expensive video cameras and freckled-faced red-headed nine year old boys purchase plane tickets (the black amputee doesn’t seem to need a computer but maybe it’s sufficient that he looks so hot working out at the gym!!!).

    All those things we WANT and we DESERVE that we can’t afford because GOOGLE ruined our WAY OF LIFE by giving us the WRONG search results can be OURS again if we put our trust in Microsoft.

    Yes, you see rising gas prices have nothing to do with dwindling reserves, over-consumption and spending of trillions of dollars in wars to get our oil out from under their sand. Detroit isn’t in trouble because of two decades of crappy cars with terrible mileage that people didn’t want. Real estate prices haven’t fallen because of vaporous numbers games played by Wall Street insiders and Americans who thought their $25,000/year jobs entitled them to half-million dollar McMansions. The real reason is that too many Americans have spent too much time typing search queries into Google, which sometimes returned humorous viral videos.

    In past economic crashes it’s usually been the Jews that get scapegoated for being at the root of the problem. Microsoft is clearly (and rather ridiculously) blaming Google for just about everything. The ad is certainly of the genre of old-fashioned scapegoating. The ad is totally tone-deaf but it’s disturbing that Microsoft thinks it will motivate people. Surely, they’ve done the requisit consumer testing?

    AnxietyIndex at JWT AnxietyIndex: Brand Answers for an Anxious WorldThe Microsoft commercial was created by JWT, maintainers of the Anxiety Index and purveyors of “Brand Answers for an Anxious World”. Fear sells.


    Personally, I think it’d be refreshing if Microsoft brought back the old gonzo style that  current CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated back in 1986:

  5. NYTimes: The Economy Intrudes on a Haven of Faith

    The anecdotal evidence collected by the Association of Theological Schools, which covers 250 graduate institutions in the United States and Canada, has found job listings for ministerial positions down by about one-third at major seminaries serving both evangelical and mainstream Protestant denominations. The Jewish newspaper The Forward reported last month that Jewish seminaries accustomed to placing nearly all their newly minted rabbis were finding jobs this year for only about half.

  6. Cry me a river: Chrysler dealership that refused to let us buy out our lease at stated terms is among those closing

    I know it’s tough on employees, but Chrysler and Chrysler Financial alienated us so much I can’t feel too sorry about this.

    Learner's permit

    Francis trying out the newly-leased Chrysler Pacifica in 2006. In March 2009 we tried to buy it out and even got a bank loan but were stymied by ever-shifting buy-out numbers.

  7. Great behind-the-scenes of fired New Yorker writer in 140-character installments!

    “People often ask why I left the New Yorker. After all, I had a staff writer job. Isn’t that the best job in journalism? Yes.

    “Nobody leaves a New Yorker job voluntarily. I was fired. And over the next few days, I’ll tell that story here, in 140

    “Character chunks”

  8. "Plenty of other laid-off workers across the country, burned out by a merciless job market, are building business plans instead of sending out résumés. For these people, recession has become the mother of invention. Economists say that when the economy takes a dive, it is common for people to turn to their inner entrepreneur to try to make their own work. But they say that it takes months for that mentality to sink in, and that this is about the time in the economic cycle when it really starts to happen — when the formerly employed realize that traditional job searches are not working, and that they are running out of time and money."

  9. "Mr. Young, an author, a television host and the pastor of the evangelical Fellowship Church, issued his call for a week of “congregational copulation” among married couples on Nov. 16, while pacing in front of a large bed. Sometimes he reclined on the paisley coverlet while flipping through a Bible, emphasizing his point that it is time for the church to put God back in the bed. “Today we’re beginning this sexperiment, seven days of sex,” he said, with his characteristic mix of humor, showmanship and Scripture. “How to move from whining about the economy to whoopee!"

  10. With economy this flucked up, with war this frucked up, I’m pissed this is even close. Obama, this should be easy. #current #debate08

  11. Going lowercase christian with Thomas Clarkson

    Visting 1806’s “A portraiture of Quakerism: Taken from a view of the education and discipline, social manners, civil and political economy, religious principles and character, of the Society of…