Commutation Support Letter for Darryl Blackwell

December 23, 2021
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T’ao Ch’ien, Wang Wei and Li Po Drop by the Coffee House

November 20, 2021

Courtesy of translator David Hinton, three more Chinese poets, dating from 365 A.D. to 761, have arrived for tea and poetry readings in my Coffee House of faith.  The years are distant, the geography is distant, but for just such reasons, the dialogue has substance.  Their images and observations, their collective plights and pleasures, present a clean palate, an unmarked canvas, on which to taste, to paint.  Like royal characters in a Shakespearean play, we will conduct our debate in […]

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A Coffee House Debate with Hsieh Ling-yun, Mountain Poet

August 14, 2021

After my encounter with the Chinese Poet, Tu Fu, of the 8th century A.D., courtesy of translator extraordinaire David Hinton, I found ancient Chinese poetry rather habit-forming. One of the great things about creating an imaginary coffee house like mine is its flexibility – anyone interested or interesting can be invited in. As it turns out, a mere four hundred years before Tu Fu, there was a poet, named Hsieh Ling-yun, again introduced to us by David Hinton through his […]

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Back to the Coffee House with Tu Fu

May 28, 2021

My self-assigned duty to write the next and final post on Citizens United has expanded into a major project. Like all such projects, it’s taking way longer than expected. In the interim, my daughter Elise married Alex at Auburn Valley State Park in Delaware, my son Nathan and daughter-in-law Rochelle brought Roslyn into the world in Downingtown, my daughter Laurie married Matt in West Chester and my daughter Amy moved in with us after her affairs in the state of […]

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A Devotional Intermission on Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2021

While I’m preparing the next post on Citizens United, which I suppose in its own way is devotional also, it seems appropriate to present a different type of devotional.  Certainly it’s shorter and easier to read. This reflects love also, but directed in a less traditional way. Pass-Marked for Thee Oh my soul, such experiences, so passing strange – Where are your startled thoughts flying to? My soul-thoughts are flying to the Lord, to reach his fountained-translucent, triple-dimensioned city. And […]

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A Christian Idealist’s Guide to Citizens United (Part 5)

January 22, 2021

In July, September, October and December, 2020, expressing my postmillennial idealism, I posted commentaries on the case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310, with further commentaries on related cases. Citizens United, its antecedents and its progeny, deal with political and election finance, but more broadly with self-government in the real world. This is a continuation of those commentaries, addressing three cases which preceded the Citizens United decision in the […]

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A Christian Idealist’s Guide to Citizens United (Part 4)

December 2, 2020

On July 24, September 26 and October 27, 2020, expressing my postmillennial idealism, I posted commentaries on the case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310, with further commentaries on related cases. Citizens United, its judicial antecedents and its progeny, most specifically deal with the regulation of election finance.  But the cases and the opinions of the Justices more broadly interact with self-government in our nation, in the real world. […]

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A Christian Idealist’s Guide to Citizens United (Part 3)

October 27, 2020

A Christian Idealist’s Guide to Election Finance Cases  (Part 3) On July 24 and September 26, 2020, I posted commentaries on the case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), and related cases about election finance issues. This is a continuation of that commentary, dealing with four cases which preceded the Citizens United decision in the years 2000 to 2009. As in the previous commentaries, questions I explore include: […]

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