While the Catholic Pope is visiting Turkey trying to mend inter-faith relations there, the Tennessean’s current top story is about a religious conference held at Lipscomb University. The two stories are parallel. (more…)

Would anyone from Highland Street Church of Christ care to explain why your church is moving to Cordova, to the intersection of Houston Levee and Walnut Grove, when Woodland Hills Church of Christ is fewer than two miles down the road? (more…)

It might be still too early for this sort of thing, but I’ve skimmed the Fishkite archives to find the best posts, most discussed topics, best comments, and best hatemail of 2006. Also, some of the top stories not blogged in 2006. (more…)

I hate to be a little jerk, especially to someone directing traffic my way, but I find this promo from The Church Report funny, in light of their current issue on plagiarism:

Operated by Mick Wright, this “blog between church and state” eschews propaganda in favor of exploring the seams and testing its hypotheses. Fishkite makes a real effort to round up fresh material from a conservative point of view.

Which is lifted almost word for word from a Memphis Flyer article a year ago:

Operated by one Mick Wright, this “blog between church and state” is another conservative-oriented blog, but it eschews propaganda in favor of exploring the seams and testing its hypotheses… Fishkite seems to make a real effort to round up fresh material, whether or not it corresponds with some pre-ordained point of view.

Notice how CR changes the wording, making Fishkite’s POV more partisan… which is probably closer to the truth, anyway. Still, funny.

The magazine looks interesting; I’ve never heard of it before.

My apologies to the readers who visit, only to see posts from September showing up as the most recent entries, or other such circumstances. I just fixed a comment I posted below that was automatically timestamped January of 2007. I’m not sure what is causing these problems. Could be Wordpress. Could be the database. Could be the hosting server. Could be black magic and voodoo. Could be the Bush Administration. Whatever it is, I hope it goes away before the next election.

CA:

The Memphis Chapter of Hadassah Jewish Educator’s Council will present “Creation, Evolution and Intelligent Design,” a panel discussion at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Benjamin L. Hooks library at 3030 Poplar.

Featured panelists include Dr. Keith Pecor, author and faculty fellow at Rhodes College; Rabbi Aaron Rubinstein of Beth Sholom Synagogue; and Dr. Thomas Lindberg of First Assembly of God Church. Dr. Cynthia Gingold, a member of Hadassah’s Leadership Academy and the Jewish Educator’s Council, will serve as moderator.

The program is free and open to the public. For more information, call 624-7307.

– James Dowd

Dr. Pecor calls evolution “the most important topic in biology” and quotes someone saying that the whole branch of science is impossible to study without the lens of evolution. All of his published articles are about crayfish.

I find very little on Rabbi Aaron Rubinstein’s views outside of his participation in a “forty hour fast” for an increase in the minimum wage.

Same goes for Dr. Thomas Lindberg; Google notes little other than his pro-life and pro-marriage activity.

Sitemeter says Fishkite is averaging one reader a day. Thank you for your patronage, oh faithful reader.

Sitemeter also says Fishkite got zero visits all this week. I guess my one reader was out shopping.

I love this illustration on the lid of a tin, which contained a very strong, spice-scented candle. In a recent cleaning, I was finally able to let go of the candle, but couldn’t quite allow myself to ditch the lid and this comforting artwork. But now that I’ve captured the image and have shared it with you, perhaps we can be rid of the thing altogether. So, Happy Thanksgiving! With an emphasis, maybe, on the giving this year. Or, at least, the letting go of.

Now, about those high school letter jackets…

Did you catch the throwaway line in paragraph six of today’s editorial on lobbyists registered with the state?

But if the threat of stiffer fines can get the attention of the lobbying corps, one has to wonder what impact higher financial penalties might have on, say, those who violate open meetings or open records laws.

It seems to be a passive aggressive shot at Shelby County Commissioner Deidre Malone, who yesterday penned a guest editorial arguing (after the fact) for the creation a second judgeship for the Juvenile Court, and who recently admitted to having violated the open meetings law in the process.

Malone defended the vote, in part, by citing its “bipartisan” appeal — the support of a somewhat coerced Republican Commissioner Mike Carpenter helped provide cover for what otherwise would be seen clearly as a botched plan to rush through a political crony’s appointment.

Carpenter did his own explaining in the comments at the Smart City Memphis blog, as did Democratic Commissioner Steven Mulroy. But Carpenter is now taking a good deal of heat from his right flank, if posts by Republican maverick John Harvey and his comedian accomplice Tom Guleff are any indication.

Guleff’s posts, by the way, have only gotten funnier since his failed (though CA-endorsed) bid to represent Republicans in District 9 last August. His latest was picked up by reporter/blogger Blake Fontenay, who is absolutely on to something: “[I]magine how much more lively the summer’s candidate forums might have been in a three-way race with Cohen, Ford and Guleff.”

Though in Memphis, the jokes pretty much write themselves.