Monthly Archives: December 2009

December 31, 2009

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Apologies For Server Difficulties

The servers at the humming headquarters of The American Interest collapsed for about 12 hours yesterday, perhaps overcome with excitement that as Christine Russell points out today, New Year’s Eve this year falls on a blue moon. However, not to … Continue reading →

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Meaning in Three Dimensions

Now it gets tough.  That little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying so cutely in the manger is the biggest trouble maker in world history, and the shocking claims that Christianity makes about who he is and what he … Continue reading →

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December 30, 2009

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Personal Meaning

Yesterday I blogged about how theists and atheists are the same; we are almost all transcendentalists in the sense that almost all of us find some kind of moral, ethical and even spiritual meaning in life.  Human life amounts to … Continue reading →

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December 29, 2009

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The White House and the Christmas Bomber

[While I'm mostly staying away from politics over Christmas break, here are some thoughts on the White House reaction to the attempted bombing of the Detroit flight last week. ] A lot of the things that presidents have to do … Continue reading →

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The Meaning of Christmas

Yesterday King Herod’s massacre of every child in Bethlehem under the age of two shocked us out of the idea that Christmas is basically a pretty holiday about presents and elves.  Christmas is serious business, at least as Christians understand … Continue reading →

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December 28, 2009

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The Hinge of Fate

Manger is the French word meaning “to eat”; a manger is a place where you put hay and similar things for the animals in a barn to eat. The swaddling clothes, as in ‘wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid … Continue reading →

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December 27, 2009

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Born of a WHAT?!

It is not quite the most controversial verse in the Bible, but Luke 1:35 comes close.  Mary has just replied to the angel Gabriel’s statement that she will be the mother of the Messiah with a question of her own:  … Continue reading →

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December 26, 2009

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The Real Story of Christmas: Rolling the Credits

For all the attention it gets in the world today, Christmas is not that big of a deal in the Bible.  The New Revised Standard Version that I mostly use is 1270 pages long; about one half of one percent of … Continue reading →

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December 25, 2009

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Christmas Gift!

Merry Christmas and happy holiday to all!  We are having a tense morning at the ancestral Mead home today, jumping whenever the telephone rings.  There’s an old South Carolina custom that when two friends or relations greet one another on … Continue reading →

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December 24, 2009

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The Thirteen Blogs of Christmas

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care at the ancestral Mead mansion; and as I settle down for a long winter’s rest I am taking a break from politics and war, sort of, to do some good old … Continue reading →

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Yuletide Blogging Begins

Merry Christmas to those who feel so inclined and Season’s Greetings to the rest! Team Mead moves into holiday mode today; the halls are decked with holly and the wreath is on the door.

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Ex-Mead Associate Rhodes Scholar Blogs Niebuhr

Scott Erwin, a former Team Mead associate, ditched his old friends at Team Mead and threw away a brilliant future as a lifetime Mead minion simply to chase after the illusory ‘prestige’ of a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford.  After several … Continue reading →

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December 23, 2009

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Hitler Invades Hell: Blowback Reconsidered

Today as we observe the 30th anniversary of the Soviet move into Kabul, it’s useful to think about the concept of ‘blowback’: a term that originally referred to the unwanted consequences of covert action and is now often used to … Continue reading →

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December 22, 2009

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Annals of Disaster: The Embargo Act

Today is not one of the great days in the history of American foreign policy. In fact it’s the 202nd anniversary of one of the stupidest things we ever did. On this day in 1807 a besotted Congress passed a … Continue reading →

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December 21, 2009

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Auschwitz and Me

The infamous Arbeit Macht Frei (work will make you free) sign over the main gate of the original Auschwitz camp has, it appears this morning, been found in Poland.  It had been reported stolen over the weekend.  As far as … Continue reading →

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