Three newsworthy items

In a throwback to the early days of blogs, here are three things I've stumbled upon recently that I wanted to spread around.

1. Gordon Fellman is a Brandeis University professor, chair of their undergraduate Peace and Conflict Studies Program, who I heard recently talk on the construction of enemies. His book is Rambo and the Dalai Lama: The Compulsion to Win and Its Threat to Human Survival (Albany: SUNY Press. 1999).
   
   Okay, so it's not news, but it's good. His academic home page is here.
   

   Quote: "The central question I pose... [is]: What are the sources, in history and in the self's development and inner workings, of unnecessary human suffering? How can it be thoughtfully, carefully, mindfully reduced?
   

   
   Found via the Pacifica radio show Against the Grain with C.S. Soong.
   


2. Beatitudes Society in San Francisco --
   "Social Progress: What's Christianity Got to Do with It?"
   A conversation between Marcus Borg and Christine Pelosi (filmmaker, and yes, daughter of Rep. N. Pelosi)
   

   Thurs, Feb 28 2008
   6:30 public reception
   7:00-8:00 pm Program
   Book signing and dessert to follow
   Bay School of The Presidio San Francisco

   
   
   via a US Postal Service-mailed postcard from Beatitudes Society
   


3. Poverty 101: Several universities are now offering courses on poverty in America. They include Washington & Lee University's Shepherd Program for the Interdisciplinary Study of Poverty and Human Capability; Baylor University - launching in 2008-09 school year; and Rice University.
   
   According to the Shepherd Program: "The academic study of poverty from an interdisciplinary perspective enables students to pursue professional careers with a critical social consciousness, prepares students for objective analysis of ethics and poverty, and inspires a commitment to addressing human capabilities in the community."
   
   From the San Mateo Daily News, off the wire from a story in the Waco Tribune-Herald -- hence the focus on Texas schools.