Yeah, remember those guys? I do. I remember someone quoting a line from…I think it was Jonathan Kozol: “The cure for homelessness is housing.”
Well. We know it’s a bit more complicated than that now. But the homeless are still out there, and I recommend this post from Detroitblog, an anonymous site run by a local journalist and urban explorer. He walks the reader through his experience with finding homeless squats in local buildings, complete with pictures.
I wonder if this guy works for one of the local dailies (I strongly suspect he does). And I wonder, again, why I can’t read stuff like this there.
Danny said on April 17, 2006 at 2:22 pm
Nance, I decided not to post this below because I am not sure Jeff or anyone else would be scrolling down enough to see it.
I take it from your comments that you are a fellow traveller with Jeff and about everyone else on this blog regarding the evolution-origin-of-life-theory-of-everything debate. In fact, it seems that everyone is entrenched to such a degree that they are not willing to countenance the slightest possibility that a naturalistic explanantion does not exist for everything nor to admit that a great deal of what passes as “facts” are merely non-falsifiable statements of fancy.
I truly am puzzled by this reluctance to engage on a reasonable level by those of you whom otherwise seem intelligent.
Here is an excerpt from a Biochemistry texbook, Devlin, T.M. (editor) (1997) Textbook of Biochemistry with Clinical Correlations. Wiley-Liss, New York, 4th ed.
“By a process not entirely understood and in a time span that is difficult to comprehend, elements such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus combined, dispersed, and recombined to form a variety of molecules until a combination was achieved that was capable of replicating itself. With continued evolution and the formation of ever more complex molecules, the environment around some of these self-replicating molecules was enclosed by a membrane. This development gave these primordial molecules a significant advantage in that they could control to some extent their own environment. A form of life had evolved and a unit of space, the cell, had been established. With the passing of time a diversity of life evolved, and their chemistry and structures became more complex. Eventually, they were capable of extracting nutrients from the environment, chemically converting these nutrients to either sources of energy or to complex molecules, of controlling chemical processes they catalyzed, and of replicating themselves into other cells. The challenge of biochemical research is to unravel the chemical mechanisms behind the organized and controlled manner in which cells carry out their function.”
Alex, speaking of mythology, it is mystifying that no one here can read something like the above and not see this for what it is: at best, a hat-tip to a philospohical argument that usually never gets made because no one wants to admit that it is philosphy and not “cold, hard fact,” or, at worst a statement of utter fancy relying on so many if-thens and maybe’s as to be a precarious house of cards, indeed.
Simply, amazing.
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brian stouder said on April 17, 2006 at 3:28 pm
In all honesty – and with no intention of being smarmy or argumentative –
it bothers me much more when a high school junior or senior never learned BIG things such as that the US war effort in Vietnam lasted 3 times (or 4, depending how you figure it) longer than the US war effort in the Second World War (to take a recent NN.C example); or who the president is, or why the Civil War was fought.
If they slept through the part of biology class where the teacher gingerly touches on the origins of life – it doesn’t bother me one scintilla. Evolution IS a settled fact, even as the origin of life resides within the realm of faith and philosophy
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ashley said on April 17, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Funny, I didn’t see mold crawling every wall in the Detroit squatter homesteads. Or maybe, it’s just that mold is something I automatically look for nowadays.
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alex said on April 17, 2006 at 6:58 pm
There was some orange spewage on the wall at the head of one bed, Ashley; I’ll bet human filth is so awful even the lichens no like it.
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Jeff said on April 17, 2006 at 10:33 pm
I’m not entrenched, i’m waiting for data (which a wise head said earlier “is not the plural of anecdote”) as to why i should consider “intelligent design” (sic) anything other than a theological argument.
Danny, i believe in a doctrinal point referred to this past weekend as “The Resurrection.” I am woefully unable to account for this stance scientifically, and it doesn’t cause me much concern or to hang my head in shame — and it doesn’t make me want to ask that biology or history courses in the Great State of Ohio include “The Resurrection” in proficiency standards.
My question, as a Christian pastor, is why do the ID folk want to fight a battle in state legislative arenas that they can’t find any grounds to advance scientifically? That is poor evangelism, bad science, and disastrous public policy.
In my opinion.
In Grace & Peace,
Jeff (yes, the pastor one)
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Jeff said on April 17, 2006 at 10:38 pm
Oh, and since my main minsitry field these days is, in fact, housing issues (see http://www.lcchousing.org, and feel free to send us checks, that will be well used and matched, no less!), i think that was Alex Kotlowitz, wasn’t it? But he and Kozol (and Barbara Ehrenreich) have some very useful perspective between them in the low income housing crisis building — or actually, not-building — in America right now.
Increasing the minimum wage will help middle class kids pay for college, but what we need governmental assistance with right now is support of building housing for $10-14 an hour workers with small kids. Habitat for Humanity is doing great, effective work (support them wherever you live, please!), but they are not nearly enough . . .
pax, jeff
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Danny said on April 18, 2006 at 10:10 am
My question, as a Christian pastor, is why do the ID folk want to fight a battle in state legislative arenas that they can’t find any grounds to advance scientifically? That is poor evangelism, bad science, and disastrous public policy.
Jeff, I agree completely with that and have always argued that ID belongs in philosophy class with a footnote mention in science class as do other philosophies of the origin of life. My point is that no one is willing to admit that the “experts” in evolutionary theory have cavalierly extended the theory to include a naturalistic explanantion for both the origins of life and the origins of the universe. This is philosophy too, but no one on this blog has indicated that they understand or agree to this distinction and the general public discourse across the nation is muddling this point badly.
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harry near indy said on April 20, 2006 at 1:17 pm
back to the subject at hand, which is below-average housing for the homeless …
nancy, i think one reason the detroit papers don’t run a story like that is this: it’s a pretty good service feature, but one aimed at the less upscale readers.
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