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Christopher Alexander: Finding patterns, and God, in urban design
From the BatesLine Bookshelf, a very occasional feature on authors and books that have influenced me: Christopher Alexander was an architect, but he might more appropriately have been called a philosopher of the built environment. He spent his career trying to describe and name the qualities that make a place...
2023 Tulsa sales tax and bond issues: Seven reasons to vote NO
Here are seven reasons to vote no on <a href="https://www.batesline.com/archives/2023/07/2023-tulsa-sales-tax-bond-issue.html">all four City of Tulsa ballot propositions at the special election next Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Tulsa's Gathering Place sues Shawnee coffeehouse
See the end of this post for an update with the lawsuit's resolution. Tulsa's Gathering Place, LLC, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against a family-owned coffeehouse in Shawnee, Oklahoma, 90 miles away. The trademark complaint, filed on Friday, September 24, 2021, in the Western District of Oklahoma, claims...
Saint Francis parental access policy: An open letter to Bishop Konderla
Saint Francis Health System is cutting off access for parents of teenagers to their children's medical records as of June 15. Why is a Catholic Christian organization taking these steps intended to enable teen experimentation with sex, drugs, and gender identity?
Oklahoma SQ 805: Lighter sentences for career criminals
Oklahoma State Question 805 would insert a new article into the Oklahoma Constitution to ban longer sentences for repeat felony offenders. The question arises from an initiative petition. (UPDATE: On October 30, 2020, I spoke with Jeremie Poplin, filling in for Pat Campbell on Talk Radio 1170 KFAQ, about both...
Tulsa Election 2020: Mayoral candidate questionnaire
Last Wednesday, BatesLine sent a questionnaire to the six serious candidates for Mayor of Tulsa, using the email addresses provided in their declarations of candidacy or on their websites. We sent two reminders. We received replies from three candidates: Craig Immel, Ken Reddick, and Ty Walker. The survey consists of...
Cheryl Baber for State Senate District 35
Cheryl Baber is the conservative choice in the Oklahoma Senate District 35 race to replace term-limited Sen. Gary Stanislawski.
Will Boris's Brexit deal pass? Should it?
Just two weeks ahead of the October 31, 2019, date of the UK's departure from the European Union, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come back from Brussels with a new treaty that removes indefinite EU control over UK regulations and customs, eliminates fears of a hard border between the UK...
New hymnal: <em>Hymns to the Living God</em>
Religious Affections Ministries has published a new hymnal, and it's available for free download. Hymns to the Living God is notable for its slim size and the scarcity of copyright notices. Only 294 hymns were selected for inclusion, and nearly all of them are in the public domain. Scott Aniol,...
Flashback: Ayatollah Drew Edmondson shackles petitioners
In 2007, Attorney General Drew Edmondson made national headlines -- embarrassing headlines -- when he indicted three leaders of a petition effort to protect taxpayers and property owners against government-backed greed and then had them shackled and perp-walked out of the courtroom. The spectacle caused publisher and erstwhile presidential candidate...
Gov. Fallin signs law to protect Oklahoma adoption agencies from leftist fascists
UPDATED: Gov. Fallin signed SB1140 on Friday evening, May 11, 2018. The Oklahoma legislature has approved (UPDATE: and Gov. Fallin has signed) a bill, SB1140, protecting the rights of an adoption agency to use its own judgment and principles in finding the best home for a child. That seems like...
Notes on the Oklahoma teachers' strike
I'll be on 1170 KFAQ with Pat Campbell Wednesday morning, April 11, 2018, just after the 8:00 am news to discuss the teachers' strike, the race for governor and other political topics. Listen at 1170 on the AM dial, online, or on the Tune In app. A collection of notes...
Does the "Swedish economic model" even work in Sweden?
An interview with Swedish author Johan Norberg explores the reality behind the Left's fantasies about Nordic socialism. Read the whole thing, but notice below the historical context that preceded the Swedish welfare state and the effect it had on the Swedish work ethic. To borrow Ronald Reagan's phrase, the safety...
Billy Graham at MIT
In April 1982, during my second semester at MIT, Billy Graham came to speak at the invitation of the evangelical Christian groups on campus, including Campus Crusade for Christ, United Christian Fellowship (the MIT affiliate of Intervarsity), the Chinese Bible Study, and the MIT Seekers, affiliated with Park Street Church....
Liberty requires virtue
From an essay in The Public Discourse by Robert R. Reilly, replying to an essay by Patrick Deneen, who claims that the Founders created a Hobbesian republic containing the individualistic, antinomian seeds of its own destruction. However, he fails to mention that Madison, like almost all of the Founders, makes...
Oklahoma Bar Association subsidizes repressive Communist regime
The Oklahoma Bar Association, the leftist monopoly guild that has an effective veto over judicial appointments in our state, will be funneling money to the totalitarian Communist Castro regime with the organization's "President's Cruise" to Cuba this summer. Linda Thomas, mentioned in the flyer, is the current OBA president. At...
The purpose of a political party
We are at interesting point in Oklahoma's political history. Never before has the Republican Party ever been so dominant, but never before has it been in such danger of betraying the ideals that won it its dominant position. The task of the moment is not merely to win elections, but...
Akkadian dictionary published, available free online
A dictionary of the ancient Akkadian language, the language of Assyria and Babylon, has been completed after 90 years and published by the University of Chicago. "This is a heroic and significant moment in history," beamed Dr Irving Finkel of the British Museum's Middle East department. As a young man...
NSU Women's Studies is an evangelistic enterprise, not an academic discipline
Here is a press release from a month ago about the Center for Women's Studies at Northeastern State University. NSU is funded by the taxpayers of Oklahoma (with additional subsidies from people who shop in Broken Arrow) and governed by the board of regents of the Regional University System of...
9/11, 15 years on
Time flies. The five-year-old boy I took to the zoo -- and kept away from the TV and the radio -- the day the terrorists flew planes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center is on his way back to college after a short visit home. Sonia Shah was...
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