Congratulations, Shawn and Shawnee!

My old friend Shawn is a bachelor no more - as of 3:45 yesterday afternoon, Shawn and his new wife Shawnee had finally tied the knot. The service was beautiful (and I'm not just saying that because it was my honor to co-preside!), and the reception was more fun than I can remember having in ages. Most important of all, Shawn and Shawnee seemed truly happy, and the hundreds of family and friends there seemed delighted to celebrate such a special moment with them. I know I was!

So congratulations, Shawn and Shawnee. God's blessings on each of you, and on your new life together!

Please leave your congratulations and well-wishing in the comments section - I'll be sure Shawn and Shawnee see them... when they get back from the honeymoon. ;)

To Hutchinson, and beyond!

I'll be more or less blogless for the next ten days or so. I'm staying this weekend at my parents' house in Hutchinson so I can co-officiate at my friends Shawn and Shawnee's wedding. On Sunday or Monday I'll be leaving with my friend Michael for a week camping, probably on the north shore of Lake Superior. We're hoping to put our cameras to good use. I'll have my laptop with for storing and previewing the photos, of course, but I doubt that I'll have any Internet access from Monday through Friday.

If you're lost and lonely without me around blogging for you, (1) that's really sad, but I'm strangely flattered; and (2) try taking a look at the blogs and news feeds in my Blogroll in the right hand margin of this page. They're all interesting and worth a read. Hey, you can tell me what I miss! ;)

American Prospect: TBN's Paul Crouch - a homosexual fling?

Frankly, I couldn't care less whether Paul Crouch did or did not shag former Trinity Broadcasting Network employee and frequent jailbird Enoch Lonnie Ford back in 1996. If he did, all it reveals is another facet of the hypocrisy that clings to this behemoth "Christian" corporation like stink to a donkey. No big revelation there - TBN is corrupt, through and through.

It's facts like the following, and not some sex scandal, that really cheese me off:

Nor is it easy to ignore the Crouches' gaudy set, which fuses the kitschy style of a 1950s suburban living room with that of a royalty-themed Las Vegas motel. To watch the Crouches is an exercise in visual overstimulation.

For their devoted viewers, their appearance carries a deeper significance. Every aspect of the Crouches' look is carefully calculated as an aesthetic accompaniment to their Dominionist theology, which urges Christians to acquire as much wealth, power, and influence as possible in order to put the world's secular institutions under the control of biblical law.

To earn the blind loyalty of their viewers, who are often poor or working class and whom Jan Crouch routinely calls 'you little people,' the Crouches have cast themselves as spiritual aristocrats entrusted with handling God's riches. Seated on purple thrones like the king and queen of an alternate universe, the Crouches plead with viewers for their 'seed money,' reassuring them that their donations will be planted in heaven and blossom into anything they seek, from material wealth to eternal salvation.

Though it's hard to know how much of this money has actually made it to heaven (especially because the TBN keeps its financial records secret), a good chunk of it has made the Crouches wealthy; in 2001, they bought a $5 million home in Orange County, California, described by real-estate agents as 'a palatial estate with ocean and city views.'

"The Last Starfighter: The Musical"?

The best sci-fi flick you never saw, and a pioneer in computer graphics comes to the Broadway stage this fall. The Last Starfighter, an 80s sleeper, is one of those movies that I just had to get on DVD, because I had such fuzzy memories of it as a kid. That, and the starships were just about the coolest spaceship design I have ever seen, before or since. They make X-wing fighters look wussy.

You can visit the Storm Theatre's site for official information on this unlikely musical, coming in October to a galaxy near you.

Tip of the hat to Slashdot

NYT - "Deal in Congress to Keep Tax Cuts, Widening Deficit"

Why is it that all our politicians assume that the majority of Americans wants to send our nation disastrously into debt in order to preserve Bush's ridiculous tax cuts? Isn't there just an off chance that a very large number of Americans would find it a sane position to oppose extending these cuts when we have no plan to pay for them; that it would be a breath of fresh air in an administration gone awry?

Putting aside efforts to control the federal deficit before the elections, Republican and Democratic leaders agreed Wednesday to extend $145 billion worth of tax cuts sought by President Bush without trying to pay for them.

At a House-Senate conference committee, Democratic lawmakers abandoned efforts to pay for the measures by either imposing a surcharge on wealthy families or closing corporate tax shelters.

'I wish we could pay for them, but this is a political problem and we have people up for re-election,'' said Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York, the senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

What cowards. I'm even more ashamed of the Democrats than I am outraged at the Republicans. That such an absurd tax cut could be a "bipartisan" effort is sickening.

NYT - "U.S. to Free 'Enemy Combatant,' Bowing to Supreme Court Ruling"

Remember Yasser Hamdi? He's the American citizen who was captured in Afghanistan and held incommunicado by the American military for more than two years, because the Bush administration deemed him a highly dangerous "enemy combatant."

The Supreme Court ruled in June that Hamdi and other enemy combatants must be given access to the legal system, so that they can challenge their status. Rather than allow Yasser Hamdi his day in court, however, it appears the Bush administration prefers to simply let him go! That's right - this man who was supposedly so dangerous to us that he couldn't see a lawyer or anyone else for years is now being allowed to leave the country a free man, because the Bushies know he's no danger at all... except in a courtroom, where he has the power to inflict the worst kind of political damage on them.

Writes the Times:

The agreement was driven by a Supreme Court decision in June. In the ruling, a major setback for the Bush administration, the court found that Mr. Hamdi and enemy combatants like him had to be given the chance to challenge their detention. The court declared that 'a state of war is not a blank check for the president.' The administration decided that rather than give Mr. Hamdi a hearing, it would simply negotiate his release.

Mr. Hamdi will probably be flown back to Saudi Arabia on an American military aircraft by early next week, said a government official who asked not to be identified.

You can bet Mr. Hamdi is not long for this world. Ten bucks says he's dead at the hands of special forces snipers before the year's out - or as soon as he opens his mouth to talk to the media about his experiences as an "enemy combatant." No way is Yasser Hamdi going to have the opportunity to try his case on Al Jazeera before a world of angry Muslims.

If the Bush administration can't lock Yasser Hamdi away for life without a trial, it will do the next best thing: release him into the dangerous world where "accidents" happen, where small, powerless people die all the time, and wait for Yasser Hamdi to "disappear."

20 Questions - Man vs. Machine

Think you can outsmart 20Q? It's a free online game of twenty questions, powered by a neural network. Neural nets are the same sort of interrelated structures that the neurons in your brain form, and are on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence.

Beliefnet - "Christianity Has Left the Public Square"

First we had a scathing indictment of the modern neoconservative; now comes this hard assessment of American civil religion:

America may be brimming with religion, but it is a kind that generally has little to do with the traditions and teachings that underlie it. It has become, for the most part, yet another servant of the economic and social order that sets the real priorities: success and material comfort. The prophets Jeremiah and Amos, who regularly scolded ancient Israel for crushing the poor, have been sent to the woodshed.

In the process, Christianity has become a private concern, a rescue squad to revive those crippled in free enterprise combat. It has taken on the functions of therapy and self-help, preaching its own version of self-centeredness that leaves political matters such as "justice" far behind. Religion hasn't been booted out of the public arena by mean-spirited secularists; it has largely quit going out in public to bring the full message of its heritage.

Rather than looking critically at social policy, in the manner of the prophets, Christians ignore or passively accept it at a time when prophets are so urgently needed.

Garrison Keillor: "We're Not in Lake Wobegon Anymore"

Garrison Keillor - Lutheran, liberal, Minnesotan - lets loose with both barrels in a remarkably angry piece:

The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong's moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt's evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we're deaf, dumb and dangerous.

Wow. Now I have some dear Republican friends, but I have to say that my Republican friends, whom I respect, tend to be the sort that Keillor also extolls, the "50s Republicans," a party of "good -hearted people" who "decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships."

The New Conservative movement - neocons, for those of you who know the lingo - is what Keillor's blasting away at, and I understand his anger. The neocons in control of our government are the farthest thing from upstanding 50s-style Republicanism this country has yet seen in power. They are not for fiscal responsibility. They are not for small government. They are not for a cautious foreign policy. Neocons like Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rummy, and their ilk give a very bad name to true conservatives - folks like my Republican friends.

NYT - "Banks and the College Loan Loophole"

And I thought faceless banks like Wells Fargo abused the student loan system through abominations like the single lender rule! Turns out they've also got a nice Congress-endorsed loophole that nets them billions of dollars in taxpayer money by charging the government rates three times the going one on student loans, in very particular circumstances.

How like our government to turn a system of financial aid designed to encourage and support education into just another way for megabanks to screw over their customers and the taxpayers.

Reuters: "Jesus loves you but not your cell phone"

Amen to this!

State-of-the-art technology developed by Israeli electronic-warfare experts is being used by some Mexican churches to silence cell phones that ring during mass, church officials said Tuesday.

Anne Lamott: "Loving Bush: Day 2"

One of the most honest liberal Christian reflections on Bush, and the hating thereof. Worth a read, even considering you need to look at an ad from Salon to see the whole thing. I'm impressed with Lamott's candor.

Everything was so sweet at church, the singing, the kindness, the plain old grief, and then the pastor had to go and ruin it all by giving the sermon -- on loving our enemies.

It was like being in the Twilight Zone. It was a nightmare. It was clear that the pastor, Veronica, was speaking directly to me. She said that Christians have a very bad reputation in the world, because we have earned it, with our hate and self-righteousness. We speak in reverent terms of grace, justice, equality, mercy, and then we despise people who were also created in God's image, who are Her children too. She said that if George Bush had been the only person on earth, Jesus would still have come down and died for him.

This drives me crazy. That God seems to have no taste, and no standards. Of course, by the same token, on most days, this is what gives some of us hope.

Shocking Stats - September 2004

Holy smoke! So far this month I've blogged up over 12,000 words! That's got to be some sort of record for me.

What's a Blogroll?

You may have noticed the expanding list of links on this page called the "Blogroll." Maybe you've even wondered what that's all about. ;)

A blogroll is simply a list of blogs or news feeds that a person reads regularly or subscribes to. You can usually learn a lot about that person's interests and passions by perusing the blogs linked in their blogroll.

Currently I've got nearly 50 blogs "rolled"... do I really read them all? Yep. I use a handy tool called Bloglines to aggregate them for me. Basically, every time a new post is made to one of my watched blogs, I get a little notification on my desktop. When I go to Bloglines, I can see all of the new posts to all of my blogs at the same time - all in one web page. It sucks them all in like a giant vacuum cleaner, and presents only the new stuff to me, so that I don't have to constantly surf from one blog to the next, looking for new stuff.

A lot of times I skim through the entries, only reading the stuff that looks the most interesting. But all of these blogs are interesting enough to me to make it on my "watch list." I would recommend them to you, too, if you're looking for some interesting reading.

CNN - "Slutwear goes out of fashion"

Thank God for small favors!

A full day of gabbing

I spent the whole day talking.

Really, I pretty much did. Lucinda hosted the text study at her house this morning, and it was only her and one other of our colleagues there. We talked a bit about the texts for next Sunday, and a lot about the ups and downs of financing a seminary education. Susan, our newest colleague, has a really wonderful story of God's providence, leading to her finishing sem with a credit rather than a balance of student loans. Many, if not most seminarians, have a sadly different experience, though.

After the text study, Cinda and I got caught up. We seem to do this every few weeks to few months - sit down, start talking about everything under the sun, and discover we need to eat because we've talked right through mealtime. Then we continue to talk for another few hours. =) It was very good and helpful visiting with her today. She's got a good sense for the way things work around here, and has been an excellent resource and source of encouragement when things in my own ministry have been difficult. Very good conversation... we just need to do this more often, so it doesn't have to take all day!

Then I visited the sewing ladies and had coffee. Afterwards I hunted for possible storage places with two of them (the church is filling up, and I firmly believe that with a little willpower and a weekend we could free up fully half of our cluttered storage spaces). I talked about my desire for a youth room at the church, and we wrestled a bit over why the "lounge" upstairs is sacrosanct - it's used only three or four times a year for anything "loungelike" (when we have funerals), and is essentially a wasted space the rest of the year. Yet it is emotionally beyond touch in our church. If there is anything about the church (the people or the building) that is not service Christ and his gospel, but could be, then we should be bold enough and faithful enough to put it to use. Protecting a room because "it's special" or "we've always had it" is silly if that room sits empty and doesn't serve the needs of the church.

Well, we went around in circles a little over that. ;) I want to understand why that room is so sacrosanct, but I also want to challenge people a little bit. In many churches, there are lots of things like that - gifts of God that are being wasted out of laziness, sentimentality, fear, and a host of other excuses. Our churches are no better or worse than most in this area. But just because we're no worse than most doesn't mean we should be content with that fact! We have no excuse not to try and use whatever we have here in Hastings and Litchville to serve Christ. We're called to do no less.

So now when I get home from a day full of gabbing, what do I do? I sit down at the computer, get caught up on the blogs and news I read, and then gab away on my own blog. =) Life is funny that way.

WatchBlog - "The First Meme War?"

This is a really fascinating way to look at the seemingly irrational behavior of the terrorists we are now at war with.

For those that haven't hear the term, 'memes' are contagious ideas that, like viruses, replicate by passing from mind to mind. The term was coined by Richard Dawkins. Memes can be harmless (like a catchy tune), valuable (like a new scientific technique) or harmful (like the 'smoking is cool' meme, which often kills off its host). One key to understanding memes is to view them as independent entities, not just as 'ideas'. Like viruses, memes can mutate, and like viruses, the memes that spread rapidly and persistently survive the best.

I believe that we are now fighting an extremely wily, dangerous and harmful meme: wily, because it has subverted the minds of its hosts so fully that it has some degree of intelligence; dangerous, because it is fighting for its life; and harmful, both to its hosts and to others. I'll call it RI, for radical Islam, but don't be confused into thinking that I'm talking about a set of countries, or individual people, or even a community of people. I'm talking about a different of creature: an more-or-less living entity that is encoded as set of ideas that propogates like a virus, and that subverts the minds and bodies of its hosts in order to spread and survive.

Just in the nick of time

Just as I was starting to get discouraged at all the bad news I've blogged on this evening, I come across this beautiful and sweet slice of life from Wil Wheaton's blog. I feel better about life in a world where little moments like this still happen. =)

NYT - How Tax Cuts Feed the Beast

The financial future of America looks pretty grim for me and for my kids.

Washington has historically engaged in immense wealth redistribution from younger to older generations, mainly through Social Security and Medicare. Those programs' benefits were essentially provided free to the first groups of eligible retirees (in the 1930's for Social Security and the 1960's for Medicare), and then expanded over the years without the government's demanding matching contributions from recipients. The younger generations keep having to pick up the tab for the older generations' expanding benefits.

The second major point is that, as even the president's 2005 budget admits, our current tax and spending policies are unsustainable. We face a long-term fiscal gap that is almost unimaginable: the total difference between the cost of all promised benefits and the revenues to pay for them is about $70 trillion.

The root causes of this gap are that Americans are living longer and that health care costs are growing far faster than inflation, making Social Security and Medicare more expensive. But the Bush administration has added immensely to the gap: the Medicare prescription drug benefit enacted last year amounts to a $16.6 trillion increase over the very long term, according to the Medicare trustees. That is a straight tax increase on future generations.

Against this background, how should we think about the huge Bush tax cuts? They greatly increase the already huge redistribution of wealth from younger to older generations, because the younger generations will have to pay off the bonds that are being floated to finance the current federal spending, as well as the Social Security and Medicare expenses of older generations. On top of this, the Bush tax cuts are likely over time to increase, not reduce, government's effect on the economy.

The growing federal debt is virtually certain to lead to offsetting tax increases down the road. Does anyone really believe that in 10 years, when Social Security and Medicare benefits are imminently threatened, Congress will not try to increase revenues to keep the benefits flowing a bit longer?

Slate - Why are protesters treated as threats?

A disturbing trend - protesters at presidential events are being singled out by law enforcement as "threats" against the president's safety and being forcibly removed, or even arrested:

On Friday, the antiwar-T-shirt-clad mother of a slain soldier was pulled out of a Laura Bush speech in New Jersey and threatened with arrest. A West Virginia couple was detained by the Secret Service for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts at a July 4 rally - they filed a lawsuit last week - and AIDS activists were removed and kept away from reporters at a Sept. 9 presidential event in Pennsylvania. Most notably, some 1,800 protesters, monitors, and passersby were jailed in indiscriminate raids during the Republican Convention in New York, while several hecklers were dragged off the Madison Square Garden convention floor. All were arrested or threatened with arrest, and hundreds expect to stand trial....

Because this is the 'age of suicide bombers,' the Secret Service should have latitude to get rid of anyone suspicious who is standing near the president's route, [Judge] Marchant said. Fair enough. But [this protester] could only have been singled out for suspicion by one thing - the slogan on his sign. Even allowing the strange notion that the Secret Service expects terrorists to begin their assassination plot by carrying a noticeable antiwar placard, it's enough to make anyone with a dissenting view think twice before deciding to stand out from a crowd.

Slate: Bush's U.N. speech offers platitudes instead of solutions

Fred Kaplan reflects on Bush's speech today at the UN.

It was a puzzling speech from start to finish. Near its beginning, when Bush said, 'We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace,' was there a delegate in the chamber who didn't wonder at the irony? It was Bush himself, after all, who was quick to choose war in Iraq - insiders' chronicles agree that he decided on that path in early 2002, over a year before the U.N. debates - while the vast majority of the body's members, free and unfree, were striving for a resolution short of conflict.

Slashdot: Will Google Launch A Browser?

Now this would be an interesting development...

Congrats, Twins!

The Minnesota Twins continue their string of championship seasons, caliming the AL Central pennant for the third straight year. Way to go! Now they can gear up for the postseason. Looking forward to fall baseball from the Metrodome. =)

HAL 9000 for sale on eBay

Engadget passes on a Slashdotted item - anyone with $150,000 or so to spare has a shot at owning HAL 9000, the homicidal computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Christmas present for your favorite pastor's study, perhaps?

Beliefnet - GOP Mailing Warns Liberals Will Ban Bibles

Not only is this sad, it's offensive to me as a liberal who cherishes the Word of God. The only thing sadder than the fact that the Republican Party sent this junk is that some people really believe it.

NYT Magazine - Who Was Abused?

This is a terribly important article. As we struggle with child abuse and accusations of abuse, it's so important that we know all sides of the story. This article is an honest attempt to ask, "Are we wrong to believe accusations out of hand?"

The article is long, registration is required - and yes, it's still more than worth the trouble. Please read it.

Windy sermon prep

No, not prepping for a windy sermon! Prepping for a sermon in the wind. =) It's warm and breezey out, the screen tent is swaying all around me, the candle is burning warmly in its lantern, and I've got Baroque streaming on the laptop... life is good.

Glorious day

What a fabulous day it's been here today. The thermometer's a bit high, into the 80s, but the wind has been roaring all afternoon, averaging 25mph, and gusting up to 40mph. That's kept it cool enough to be pleasant, and the sound of the wind whipping through the trees and the windows has been wonderful. Hard to ask for a better fall afternoon.

Scary stuff

What is the single most deadly infectious disease in the history of humanity? AIDS? Ebola? Smallpox? Bubonic plague? No. None of these comes close to...

The strain of influenza that devastated the world in 1918.

Over 40 million people died that year in the worst pandemic the world has ever seen. Experts agree that we are overdue for another influenza pandemic, and the changes in global culture that have occurred in the last 85 years could make the next superbug a plague of unimaginable proportions. With our ability to travel and conduct business anywhere in the world on a moment's notice comes the ability to spread a killer virus planetwide with speeds reminiscent of the worst Internet viruses.

Scientists are painfully aware of our vulnerability (remember the great lengths taken to contain "chicken flu"?), and are looking for ways to battle the next big pandemic. One group is looking to the past to protect the future.

A group of researchers is planning to resurrect the 1918 flu within the confines of the laboratory, in an effort to understand what made it so infectious and so lethal. The plan is to infect a particular species of monkey with a similar response to such diseases as humans have, in order to observe the virus at work. Since the influenza virus has only eight genes, the scientists hope to be able to use combinations of the 1918 bug's genes with modern strains to see which parts make it the killer it is.

Needless to say, there is some concern about the level of containment that will be applied to these experiments. If the 1918 bug were to get loose, the results could be devastating. Even worse, a new and more lethal strain might be created and accidentally released into the wild. The Biosafety Level chosen by the team for their laboratory could have worldwide consequences.

Research like this is essential. Let's hope that the scientists take every precaution in handling this killer. Their lives and ours may well depend on their caution. Scary stuff.

MSNBC: Film showing Hitler's soft side stirs controversy

It has long been understood in Germany the importance of speaking the truth about Adolph Hitler. As the nation has struggled to come to terms with the darker moments of its past, Germans have felt a strong need to speak the truth about Hitler, lest such a thing ever happen again on German soil.

Up until now, however, "speaking the truth about Hitler" has meant that any depictions of his charm, appeal, and positive attributes have been taboo in Germany. The nation fears that to present him as anything but a monster would be to encourage the miscreant neo-Nazis and Holocaust-deniers who perversely adulate Hitler to this very day. The recent film "The Downfall" has broken that taboo, stirring up a cloud of controversy in its wake.

The film certainly depicts Hitler as a madman, by all accounts. The creative talent behind "The Downfall," however, chose to also present Adolph Hitler as distinctly human - frail, suffering from illness, yet charismatic and even showing glimpses of kindness. The Hitler presented is far more complex than anything seen on German screens - or, I dare say, in theaters anywhere in the world.

Is it going too far to show Hitler in any kind of positive light at all? I think not. In fact, it's dangerous to present him merely as a beast, while ignoring the very appealing qualities that seduced a nation. While we must not ever forget the monstrosities Hitler committed, we must also be brave enough to cast a clear eye on this complex man, searching for what it was within him that could so appeal to an entire nation.

It's often observed that no one is tempted to something that is evil on the face of it; the devil's greatest trick is to wrap sin in the clothes of virtue, so that we are seduced by the grain of goodness in it even as our conscience protests that something is deeply wrong here. If we are to resist such sly efforts by the tempter, we need first to understand that this is his best method - to twist God's good gifts into something perverse yet appealing.

Adolph Hitler personifies this work of the tempter. If we are to fight the purveyors of genocide, we need to understand not only that they are monsters, but that they are tremendously appealing monsters. Their appeal is their great strength, their great deception. Perhaps "The Downfall" and the works that will certainly follow it can be a first small step toward understanding the monster within the human being Hitler - and slaying the one within our own selves.

LAPTOP UPDATE

Things are progressing well. I've got most of my main software installed, and I'm now copying my Bible study software over. Hard to believe, but I've got somewhere around a gig and a half of Bibles, commentaries, journals, dictionaries, and other theological resources! Fortunately for me, I was smart enough to back the files up to my external hard drive, so that I can just copy them back over. In the past i've needed to feed the computer aroud a dozen CDs, and wait while it slowly gets what it needs... today I was able to grab the old Bible resources, drag them to their new home, and amuse myself by blogging while I waited. =)

Oh! They're done. Time to move on to the next step in my list. I've got about 35 done, and have around 30 left to go before things will be the way I want them.

Bush's Star Wars fantasy

While the US economy languishes and schools get "left behind" in the Bush budget, our president has somehow managed to eke out almost $11 billion (that's billion with a B) this year alone to fund and deploy a missile defense system that's so full of glitches and problems that its technicians don't know what's wrong with it or how to make it work. No matter - it doesn't make a difference whether it works or is worth $11 billion... as long as it's in place before election day. From Slate:

Back in the early 1980s, after some scandals involving major weapons systems that were deployed before they'd been adequately tested, the Pentagon adopted a policy of 'fly before buy.' No system would graduate from research and development to procurement until it had passed a series of tests - not just 'development tests,' in which a weapon demonstrates certain technical milestones, but 'operational tests,' in which the weapon demonstrates it can do what it's supposed to do in an environment simulating combat.

The interceptors at Fort Greely haven't passed development tests, much less operational tests. Yet they're being hoisted into their silos as we speak - 10 in the coming weeks, 10 more scheduled for next year.

This is so boneheaded that it never ceases to amaze me. Whatever the merits of a missile defense system may be, you don't spend billions of dollars to manufacture and deploy it until you've got the technology worked out and know it will perform as advertised. Why do you do this? (1) So that you don't waste oodles of dollars on a project that won't actually get the job done, and (2) so that you don't have a false sense of security about a technology that may well fail, when other avenues might have been pursued that actually would provide you with some protection.

The Americans who believe Bush's sales pitch on Star Wars are the same types who really do believe that the Ginsu knife will never need sharpening, even if you cut through pop cans and footballs with it. Wishful thinking is what it is... only we're talking wishful thinking that will cost us our economic future, and not just a crappy $20 set of Ginsu knives.

Slate: Bush lets down his Guard

Bush has some answering to do to the National Guard. An insightful analysis:

Bush has pulled Guard troops away from their homeland security duties to fight and die in a war unrelated to the service for which they enlisted. A Guardsman who did less than he signed up for is coercing other Guardsmen to do more than they signed up for...

Those brave, loyal, hoodwinked Guardsmen. They think Bush is one of them. They don't understand that the only presidential candidate who's done the job they're doing now - risking life and shedding blood - is the guy on the other side.

Slate: "What Is an Assault Weapon?"

So, now the federal ban on assault weapons has been allowed by Congress to expire. What sort of goodies can Americans (excepting residents of California, Connecticut, Maryland, Hawaii, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and New York, which have statewide bans) now add to their personal amories?

In addition to purchasing semiautomatic rifles with bayonet mounts and grenade launchers, consumers may also outfit their new firearms with newly affordable 100-round clips.

This was all for hunting, right, Mr. Heston? Nothing like bayonetting a dear to death. Once you've sprayed it with twenty or thirty rounds in rapid succession, that is.

Boston archdiocese seeks to close churches

Part of the fallout from the sickening failures of leadership in the Boston archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church? The archdiocese is attempting to close congregations in order to recover financially from the massive payouts stemming from the sexual abuse of parishioners by their clergy, and the wink-wink handling of the whole sordid affair by higher-ups. Reports MSNBC:

The parishes - St. Albert the Great in Weymouth, St. Anselm in Sudbury and St. Bernard in Newton - are among 82 that Bishop Sean P. O'Malley ordered shut by year's end in a restructuring prompted by falling attendance and economic woes caused partly by the clergy sex abuse scandal that began in Boston.

St. Albert parishioners, who have occupied that church since Aug. 29, went to court seeking an injunction to stop the archdiocese from selling church buildings and other assets, arguing that the church belongs to them, not the archdiocese. They also argue that St. Albert's, with 1,600 families, a paid-off mortgage and renovated buildings, fits none of the criteria O'Malley said would be used to decide which churches would be shuttered.

LAPTOP UPDATE

Windows is installed and running well. I've got the Compaq drivers for the laptop installed, and my laptop is once again on the wireless network. I'm now able to surf and post from the laptop, so updates will be easier (and therefore more frequent). I've still got over 40 items on my "Restore To-Do" list, so I'm far from done for the day. But just getting to the point where I'm in Windows and online is a good thing.

I want to emphasize that I haven't lost any data at all... I'm just giving my laptop a fresh start again. Once everything is set up, the next step will be to do a full image to my external hard drive.

On to Windows Update...

LAPTOP UPDATE

Laptop died. Using Pocket PC to post. Writing is tedious - this will be short. Will be spending all day tomorrow restoring laptop. Will update blog if possible with progress.

Another theory on the Killian memos

Blogger Steve Smith weighs in on the Killian memos regarding Bush's TANG service, with a rather persuasive argument: The White House has never denied the validity of the memos, even after they have been dissected by bloggers everywhere. Perhaps that's because they are recently-typed doppelgangers of original memos that the President knows to exist and be accurate? Worth taking a look at, and quite a bit less paranoid than my conspiracy theory. ;)

What are you looking for?

Wondering what people are searching for when they land on my web site? Here's a list of the latest search queries that have led people here. (I'm mortified to note that the large number of people looking for information on the assault weapons ban found my blog because both they and I happened to misspell "assault" as "assualt." The typo has since been corrected, but the typo search results continue to come in, since the search engines haven't reindexed that page yet. Doh!) Anyway, here are the results... *drumroll*

• >http://www.planetdan.net/junk/seniors/index.htm
  
• assualt weapons ban
  
• assualt weapons ban
  
• metaphor fall off the wagon
  
• assualt ban expire
  
• setting up birthday party for pa
  
• rick foss elca
  
• >http://www.planetdan.net/junk/seniors/index.htm
  
• pastor blog
  
• assualt weapons
  
• giuliani assualt weapons
  
• bush speech ob-gyn popular bluff
  
• assualt weapons ban expires
  
• assualt weapons ban
  
• changes by assualt weapon ban
  
• how do i describe a room

If Jesus were running against Dub...

What if Jesus were running for President as an independent? What would the Bush campaign's ads look like? A graphic that's making its rounds on the web takes a stab at that fascinating question.

Tip of the hat to Mary Hess at Tensegrities for the link.

Daily Mislead: "Report Shows Bush Neglecting Hunt for al Qaeda"

Today's "Daily Mislead" from www.Misleader.org:

In the months after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush promised America he would make the hunt for al Qaeda the number one objective of his administration. "[We] do everything we can to chase [al Qaeda] down and bring them to justice," Bush said. "That's a key priority, obviously, for me and my administration."[1] But according to a new report, the President has dangerously underfunded and understaffed the intelligence unit charged with tracking down al Qaeda's leader.

The New York Times reports "Three years after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency has fewer experienced case officers assigned to its headquarters unit dealing with Osama bin Laden than it did at the time of the attacks." The bin Laden unit is "stretched so thin that it relies on inexperienced officers rotated in and out every 60 to 90 days, and they leave before they know enough to be able to perform any meaningful work."[2]

The revelation comes months after the Associated Press reported the Bush Treasury Department "has assigned five times as many agents to investigate Cuban embargo violations as it has to track Osama bin Laden's" financial infrastructure.[3] It also comes after USA Today reported that the President shifted "resources from the bin Laden hunt to the war in Iraq" in 2002.

Specifically, Bush moved special forces tracking al Qaeda out of Afghanistan and into Iraq war preparations. He also left the CIA "stretched badly in its capacity to collect, translate and analyze information coming from Afghanistan."[4] That has allowed these terrorists to regroup: according to the senior intelligence officials in July of this year, bin Laden and other top al Qaeda leaders are now directing a plot "to carry out a large-scale terror attack against the United States" and are overseeing the plan "from their remote hideouts somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border."[5]

Sources:

1. "President Calls for Ticket to Independence in Welfare Reform," WhiteHouse.gov, 5/10/02, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1350268&l=55681.
2. "C.I.A. Unit on bin Laden Is Understaffed, a Senior Official Tells Lawmakers," New York Times, 9/15/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1350268&l=55682.
3. "More Agents Track Castro Than Bin Laden," Common Dreams News Center, 4/29/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1350268&l=55683.
4. "Shifts from bin Laden hunt evoke questions," USA Today, 3/28/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1350268&l=55684.
5. "Officials: Bin Laden guiding plots against U.S.," CNN.com, 7/08/04, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1350268&l=55685.

Christian Spam: Christian Mortgage USA

Several months back I posted a rant against "Christian" spammers in this blog. While the tide of spam from supposedly Christian organizations seems to have turned back for now, I received a particularly odious one this morning: It's spamvertizing a company called Christian Mortgage USA.

What is so noxious about this particular spam? It's that mortgage spam is one of your three or four main spam food groups. The previous "Christian" spam I was getting at least promoted Christian tools and services. This spam, on the other hand, has sunk to the new low of merely baptizing the shameless mortgage spam, turning it into a cynically capitalistic attempt to cash in on Christian recipients.

Of course, as with any spam, the proper thing to do is to delete it and never, ever purchase spamvertized goods or services, even if they do happen to mention Jesus. Spam is bad. Jesus is not. Do you really want to financially aid someone who is essentially making the name of Jesus into a sleazy marketing technique? I didn't think so.

Another morning, another headache

Yuck... two in a row. Right off the bat this morning I had a headache. I'm pretty sure this one's not a migraine - it's more the kind where you're kinda OK if you sit still, but it flares up when you move... it's not a searing pain, so much as the feeling that your head is being scrunched under something heavy enough that you should know better than to have your head under it in the first place.

Well, I scarfed two Aleves first thing after getting up, and am now drinking some kona blend coffee. Just because I don't think it's a migraine doesn't mean I'm not going to try the usual remedy... besides, it's really good coffee, and I'm out of milk.

It's a rainy, cold day here - a good one for laying low. I think I'll do some reading, and maybe put in "The Passion of the Christ" or the "Jesus: Fact or Fiction?" DVD I got free with it. As a pastor, I want to watch "Passion" again, to view it with fresh eyes. I also want to watch the other disc to see whether it might be useful for an adult forum or movie night at some point. And since watching DVDs doesn't require any real motion (unless you're watching "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"), I should be OK for that much at least.

We'll see how it goes. I'm not dying or anything, but it's sure not how I'd planned on these few days going!

Of aching brains and memory errors

Today has not been the productive day I had hoped for.

Almost immediately after waking up, I realized I had a migraine coming on strong. I'm one of the "fortunate" migraine sufferers who has the classic symptom: auras. Before a migraine sets in and the pain gets to me, my vision becomes shimmery. It starts in the periphery, so subtle at first that I wonder whether I'm just imagining it. But as it begins to creep toward the center, and more and more of my field of vision is dancing, there's no doubt left. I've got an hour at most before the pain begins.

I've learned that if I act quickly once the auras set in, I can usually head the headache off. The normal treatment of choice? Two Aleve tablets and a can of whatever's in the fridge that's got plenty of caffeine. If there's no caffeine handy, I've even ODed on Aleve (three tablets on the day of my graduation from Concordia) once or twice, when I absolutely couldn't be crippled by a headache.

Today I was able to dodge the bullet in my head, but I wasn't so lucky with the one on my laptop. Upon waking it up from hibernation, the hard drive whirred away while the screen remained blank, except for a blinking white cursor. Never a good sign.

After several reboots, I was able to get to the WinXP logon screen, but immediately an error would pop up, reporting that SVCHOST.EXE was attempting to write to an invalid memory address. After two of these errors, the computer became immobilized. Great. This happened repeatedly.

I was able to boot into Safe Mode, and ran a full virus scan and two full spyware scans. (SVCHOST errors often are related to worms or spyware, and although I'm pretty obsessive about computer security, I figured it was the obvious thing to investigate first.) Nothing, of course. No hardware issues reported by the Device Manager. Nothing to go on.

I Googled around looking for answers, but finally gave up and gave the system a reboot. It fired up just fine, and I've been able to use it all day.

I immediately went to work backing up all my files. (Ximeta's NetDisk external hard drive is a highly recommended tool for your kit, along with a copy of Acronis True Image.) I've now got everything backed up, and should be able to deal if the computer is screwy again the next time I reboot it.

Between headache and hardware-ache, I didn't get a lot accomplished that I'd intended. That's how it goes some days. I'm just happy not to have spent the day clutching my head, moaning, and restoring my laptop from scratch.

You see? There's always a silver lining.

Twin Cities Babelogue

Who knew? Back on March 3, my blog was featured on City Pages' "Twin Cities Babelogue" as the Minnesota Blog of the Day:

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY
Concordia graduate Bob Schaefer is a Lutheran pastor. Read his review of 'The Passion' at his blog.

I've had a few hits from TCB, but I hadn't realized that I was featured until this very afternoon. Thanks for the link!

Good God, do we really need this?

Behold the new Navistar CXT sport utility vehicle, and shudder:

At 258 inches, or 21-1/2 feet long, the CXT is about 4-1/2 feet longer than the new Hummer H2 pickup, and about 2 inches longer than the F-350 Crew Cab.

But the way it really towers over what's on the road now is in height. At 108 inches, or 9 feet, the CXT stands only a foot below a basketball rim and more than two feet above the Hummer or the F-350.

'It's not going to fit into the standard garage,' said Mark Oberle, a spokesman for Navistar, based in Warrenville, Ill., outside Chicago.

Slate: Does God endorse George Bush?

An interesting and timely question. I honestly wrestle with this. As a Lutheran, I believe strongly that everyone is called by God - that they have a "vocation" (from the Latin vocatio, or "call"). My vocation or calling at this moment is to be a minister of Word and Sacrament. But I believe that my calling is more specific than that, even - that I'm called to be the pastor here, in Litchville and Hastings, ND.

The Bible, and old Saint Martin himself, assert in numerous places that the rulers of this world have no power except what God gives them. God uses them to build up his people, or to punish them, but the rulers are always understood as under the control of the divine hand. Luther went so far as to argue that a Christian ought not rise up against his ruler, even if a tyrant, because God has many ways to handle a despot if he so chooses. The Christian's calling, Luther claims, is to pray for those above him, to obey insofar as faithfulness to the Gospel allows, and to correct insofar as is called for by the Gospel, in a spirit of humility.

Which brings us back to Bush.

Allowing that even despots might be guided by the hand of God, is it possible that Bush - who received no electoral mandate - has nevertheless been given some sort of divine mandate? (Slate quotes Gen William "Jerry" Boykin, in a marvelous example of spin control: "Why is this man in the White House? The majority of America did not vote for him. He's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this.")

OK, so I could grudgingly accept the notion that Bush has been called to some sort of public service, that his vocation is to be a leader of some kind in this country.

But why do I resist the idea that he might have been called to the presidency (if not in 2004, then perhaps in 2000)? Because my own calling is not a general one, simply "to be a pastor." As I've mentioned, I find my own calling to be very specific: "To be a pastor in this place at this time." There seems a layer of hypocrisy in expecting people to accept my own specific calling, while challenging what George W. Bush clearly understands to be his vocation: "To serve the public as President of the the United States at this time in history."

A few things to keep in mind:

(1) If Bush was indeed called in 2000, that does not necessarily mean, as the article points out, that he is called to a second term.

(2) God has a history of calling bad leaders as a punishment on his people for falling away. What if the great punishment on America that the religious right is sure God has sent against us was not AIDS or the attacks of Sep. 11, but the presidency of George W. Bush? If America has lost its way, could our current president be God's judgment against us rather than God's "messiah" for us? The Bible would certainly allow either understanding of his calling to lead.

(3) I believe that we are capable of mishearing God's call... or, more accurately, of hearing our own desires and assuming that they are God's call. I'm with Luther here - when a person is living at odds with their vocation, the result will be strife all around. It could be possible that GWB has allowed his desire for the most powerful office in the world to lead him away from God's true calling for him. Vocation must always be pursued in humility, a trait I have not seen much of in this president.

I still don't know what to think of this issue. It's hard to pass judgment on another person's sense of call. I'm interested in your thoughts on the matter - please post them (anonymously, if you like) in the comments section below.

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Jason is 30 today, everybody! =) You can leave him birthday wishes by clicking on the comments button for this post.

Cookie crumbs

Turns out I'll be here in Litchville the next few days after all. Ellie hadn't had her kennel cough vaccination (not part of the standard package, I guess), and it turns out Animal Acres requires it. I found this out calling on my cell phone on the way in. =(

I could have looked for a kennel that doesn't require that vaccination, but even if I found one, is that someplace I'd want Ellie to stay? As I understand it, the reason kennels have a vaccination requirement is because kennel cough is very contagious and can run rampant without them. I couldn't just put Ellie someplace where she'd have a high risk of catching something that's unpleasant at best and potential life-threatening at worst.

Since she and I were on the road, we did stop at our vet's to get the vaccine for the future. It takes two weeks for immunity to develop, so that doesn't help us for the Fair Hills conference, unfortunately. But she'll be OK if we need to kennel her unexpectedly down the road.

So it turns out that I'll be here in town doing the normal pastor routine. I'm taking all of the setbacks with the Fair Hills conference as perhaps a sign that there's important stuff here for me to be doing. I've got a baptism on Sunday to prepare for, and Shawn's wedding a week after that I need to start looking at, so there's certainly stuff for me to do. But I think I'm going to work hard to get some visiting done. I wasn't expecting to have this time, so that seems to be a good way to put it to use.

And that, as they say, is just how the cookie crumbles.

Google Search: "assault weapons ban" petition

I've noticed quite a few more hits from search engines today than normal on my site, and one particular blog entry seems to be drawing them. Turns out that if you search Google for "assault weapons ban" petition you'll find my blog entry in the top ten. =) I'm guessing that it's that search, or some similar combination, that's been driving a bit more traffic to my blog today, since the ban expired this morning and is in the news.

Out of town through Wednesday...

Every year the Eastern North Dakota Synod holds a three-day retreat/conference for its clergy and other professional leaders at the Fair Hills Resort in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. The event is a mandatory one, but worthwhile, and the expenses are to be covered by the congregations.

I'll be leaving for Fair Hills shortly, and won't have Internet access until I return to Litchville on Wednesday afternoon.

I can be reached in an emergency at my cell phone, or by contacting the resort at the number listed on their page.

For those of you wondering what's happening to Ellie while I'm gone, she's getting a vacation at Animal Acres in Fargo. I wasn't able to find someone to take care of her around town this time, so she'll have her own 5x10 kennel there, complete with treats, food, water, toys, bedding, and playtime in the yard with other dogs. And "Dad" will only be set back $10/night... that's a help. ;)

Time to get moving - registration is from 1:00-3:00, and I've got some driving to do. Back on Wednesday!

NYT: Putin Seeks to Increase Power, Citing Effort to Fight Terror

Now who do you think Putin learned this trick from?

Putin explained his move by the need to streamline and strengthen the executive branch to make it more capable of combating terror.

While Putin's proposals are more radical affronts to the notion of democracy than George Bush's have been (Bush, at least, hasn't suggested doing away with the election of state governors so that he can appoint them himself), they are qualitatively the same. In a country with no real democratic tradition, a man like Putin can get away with much greater power grabs in times of crisis than can George Bush in a nation with a vital democratic tradition.

I wonder whether the Bushies will have the cojones to condemn this, or if they will realize their own hypocrisy in doing so, if it comes to it?

Raise your Ebenezer?

Today, at both churches, we sang "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing." A good hymn, and appropriate for the texts. Still, there's that one weird line - "Here I raise my Ebenezer..." now what on earth could that mean?

Here with the answer is Bob Prichard:

When we sing, 'Here I raise my Ebenezer,' we are poetically quoting Samuel, who raised the Ebenezer stone to remind the Israelites of God’s help for them in their time of trouble.

Check out the whole article.

Photo of the Day

Credit AP photog Fabrice Coffrini with an outstanding shot - this image of an F-16 fighter jet making a pass by the moon at a Swiss airshow. The sized-down version here isn't as clear as the larger version I first saw, but this is still a brilliant image. At the focal length involved, the tiny window of opportunity to grab the image, and the small field of view at that focal length, the odds of coming home with this image, even with the best planning and the best equipment, are pretty slim. Wonderful! I hope it wins an award.

The Gender Genie

What does your writing say about you? If the thinkers behind The Gender Genie are correct, it can predict with reasonable accuracy whether you are a man or a woman. Copy and paste a sample of your writing (fiction, nonfiction, or a blog entry) into the box and hit the button... see what the Genie concludes.

Try not to stay up all night copying and pasting. ;)

What's with that NavBar?

First a banner ad, and now a Blogger navbar on the top of my blog? What's with the clutter?

Although I'm not excited about the look of having Blogger's navbar on top of my page, I'm giving it a try for one reason - exposure. You'll notice the "NEXT BLOG" button on the right-hand side of it. If you click there, you'll be taken to the next random blog that has a navbar. Likewise, I'll get new visitors by people clicking on someone else's "NEXT BLOG" button. In fact, since I added it an hour ago, I've already had nearly half a dozen new visitors coming from other blogs. Most of them will click right on by, but maybe some of them will find my musings worth coming back for a second look.

As for the ads, I decided -"What the heck? Why not?" If a whole bunch of people click on them, maybe someday I'll see some cash from it. And they're kinda amusing... since they're provided by Google, they're dished out based on the content of the page they're on. In other words, by looking at the ads Google serves up for my blog pages, you get a (quite often humorous) insight into what the search engine thinks I'm blogging about. Try clicking back through my archives, and you'll see what I mean. =)

See for yourself - "Bush Guard Documents: Forged"

For those who still need convincing that the newly-surfaced Bush documents are phony, take a gander at this entry at the blog of Little Green Footballs Web Design. They've typed up the text of the memos using Microsoft Word - and they used the default settings. In other words, they fired up Word, and started typing, without changing anything at all. The result? Well, you can see for yourself in their illustrations - it's a 100% match.

(For the skeptics who might wish to repeat the experiment, the original faxes from CBS can be viewed here.)

Slate: Wrong-Way Bush

An excellent comparison!

When Roy Riegels was heading the wrong way, one of his teammates chased him and pleaded with him to stop. Riegels blew him off. 'Get away from me,' he said. 'This is my touchdown.' So at the 3-yard-line, the teammate did the only thing he could: He grabbed Riegels and held him until Riegels was tackled, 1 yard shy of the end zone.

There isn't much we can do now about the damage the Iraq war has done to our campaigns against al-Qaida and WMD proliferation. But there is something we can do at election time about a president who persists in running the wrong way despite all pleas and evidence: We can tackle him.

On further reflection - a conspiracy afoot?

The more I think about the now likely-fraudulent documents on Bush's military service used by CBS News, the more something smells fishy. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you will, but I'm beginning to wonder about the true source of these documents.

Consider: If you were going to manufacture fraudulent evidence bearing the signature of a man whose wife is still living, and then submit your forged documents to a national news agency, you would put some care into the crafting of those papers, wouldn't you? Of course you would!

Even a rank amateur like me (who has never forged a document in his life) knows enough to realize that 1970s memos were typed on typewriters and not word processors. Only the most hamhanded forger would sit down at Microsoft Word and start typing a memo "from" the 70s using Times Roman as the font. There are countless fonts that emulate the look of a typewriter - do you really suppose the brazen forger didn't have the brains to figure this out before he sent the papers off to the news?

In fact, what even a moderately competent forger would do is to find out what sort of typewriters were commonly used by the US government in the 1970s, obtain one through an auction or on eBay, and type the fraudulent memo using the authentic hardware.

If you can accept that a forger with such ambition thought of none of this, then it's clear that these papers were produced by the most grossly incompetent forger of all time - someone who failed to do even the minimal amount of research to make his forgeries appear authentic.

Another possibility comes to mind, however: Perhaps these documents were forged not by someone opposed to President Bush, but by someone wishing that the whole issue of Bush's service record would go away in a cloud of disgrace?

If the purpose of the forgeries is not to discredit Bush, but rather to discredit the evidence against Bush by casting it into doubt and disrepute, suddenly their cartoony amateurishness makes sense - perhaps these documents were intended all along to be outed as forgeries. Perhaps their author hopes that, in the fallout from their exposure as fakes, the public will grow skeptical of the large body of evidence that contradicts Bush's claims regarding his service. Perhaps the pall that these likely frauds will cast on the quest for truth is fully intentional, and not the accidental result produced by some anti-Bush bozo with Word and a laser printer.

I'm not usually prone to wacky conspiracy theories. I don't believe there are UFOs being hidden at Roswell. I don't believe the CIA assassinated John F. Kennedy. I certainly don't believe that an evil cabal of Jews is secretly running the world!

But this...? This is just a little too fishy for me. Something stinks here, and it's not just those smelly CBS documents.

My prediction: These documents were produced by someone very close to the Bush campaign, in an effort to put the issue of Bush's service to bed once and for all.

Washington Post: Authenticity of Bush memos questioned

While I can understand the outrage of many Americans over George Bush's questionable record of service and the fact that he has largely gotten away with it, is it possible that someone has crossed the line from speaking the truth to manufacturing a lie?

New evidence cited in today's Washington Post seems to suggest that is indeed the case. The documents in question were aired as part of a CBS News investigative report, and are purportedly memoranda of Bush's commanding office while in the Air National Guard.

(These are, incidentally, not the same documents as form the basis for the recent Boston Globe article which I referenced here on Wednesday. Those documents have not been challenged, and bear Bush's own signature.)

Regarding the now-likely forgeries, the Post reports:

William Flynn, a forensic document specialist with 35 years of experience in police crime labs and private practice, said the CBS documents raise suspicions because of their use of proportional spacing techniques. Documents generated by the kind of typewriters that were widely used in 1972 space letters evenly across the page, so that an 'i' uses as much space as an 'm.' In the CBS documents, by contrast, each letter uses a different amount of space.

While IBM had introduced an electric typewriter that used proportional spacing by the early 1970s, it was not widely used in government. In addition, Flynn said, the CBS documents appear to use proportional spacing both across and down the page, a relatively recent innovation. Other anomalies in the documents include the use of the superscripted letters 'th' in phrases such as '111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron,' Bush's unit.

'It would be nearly impossible for all this technology to have existed at that time,' said Flynn, who runs a document authentication company in Phoenix.

Other experts largely concurred. Phil Bouffard, a forensic document examiner from Cleveland, said the font used in the CBS documents appeared to be Times Roman, which is widely used by word-processing programs but was not common on typewriters.

If this is true, these documents represent a shameful attempt to manipulate a real issue into just more cannon fodder against the president. These documents hurt the cause of truth by casting the entire truth-seeking endeavor in a bleak light. If the CBS documents are frauds, their author should step forward at once, admit the deception, and face whatever fair and reasonable penalties may come for such reprehensible acts.

The quest for Bush's military records has its foundation in the desire for the truth to be known - NOT in the desire to see John Kerry elected.

While many who look for the truth of this matter may indeed believe that it points to John Kerry as the better man, that can never excuse prostituting the desire for the facts into an act of political fraud.

New York Times: Effort to Renew Weapons Ban Falters on Hill

Common sense fails once again, thanks to the almighty National Rifle Association and a Capitol full of spineless or shameless legislators. Says the Times: "Despite widespread popular support, the federal law banning the sale of 19 kinds of semiautomatic assault weapons is almost certain to expire on Monday, the result of intense lobbying by the National Rifle Association and the complicated election-year politics of Washington."

Boston Globe: Bush fell short on duty at Guard

The great under-reported story of Bush's career - how the "wartime president" whose allies question his decorated opponent's valor, didn't even manage to fulfill his plush assignment with a stateside guard unit. The Globe, which originally broke the woefully overlooked flap, has given the latest documents to military experts to examine. Their conclusions? Despite Bush's assertions that he served honorably and met all his obligations to the Texas Air National Guard...

'He broke his contract with the United States government -- without any adverse consequences. And the Texas Air National Guard was complicit in allowing this to happen,' [retired Army General] Lechliter said in an interview yesterday. 'He was a pilot. It cost the government a million dollars to train him to fly. So he should have been held to an even higher standard.'

Even retired Lieutenant Colonel Albert C. Lloyd Jr., a former Texas Air National Guard personnel chief who vouched for Bush at the White House's request in February, agreed that Bush walked away from his obligation to join a reserve unit in the Boston area when he moved to Cambridge in September 1973. By not joining a unit in Massachusetts, Lloyd said in an interview last month, Bush 'took a chance that he could be called up for active duty. But the war was winding down, and he probably knew that the Air Force was not enforcing the penalty.'

How dare a president who dodged his own military obligations and then lied about it question John Kerry's military record? How dare he send over a thousand American soldiers to their deaths in Iraq, when he himself was not only willing to take no risks, but couldn't even be troubled to show up for a physical examination? And, perhaps most importantly, why does America seem to be willing to give Bush a pass on this one? George W. Bush has been given free passes all his life, because of being a child of privilege and power. The fact that the American people have been conned into giving him one on this issue is an outrage.

Preacher's Corner

Changes are coming over at Preacher's Corner... click the link above to read the new game plan.

"Praying For Peace" - Ron DiCianni

As the photographer whose site I linked in my last post put it: "Get ready to want to barf." I think I like him already. =)

Senior Photo Tragedies

An old pal writes:

A few words of wisdom from a photo critic...

http://www.planetdan.net/junk/seniors/index.htm

David.

Thanks, Dave that's great! =)

Opposing Bush becomes unpatriotic

On of the more disturbing trends in national politics, as William Saletan observes, is the Republican argument that questioning the president in any way is somehow "unpatriotic." Challenging the war in Iraq is equated with treason. Writes Saletan:

If the convention speeches are any guide, Republicans have run out of excuses for blowing the economy, blowing the surplus, and blowing our military resources and moral capital in the wrong country. So they're going after the patriotism of their opponents.

In a democracy, the commander in chief works for you. You hire him when you elect him. You watch him do the job. If he makes good decisions and serves your interests, you rehire him. If he doesn't, you fire him by voting for his opponent in the next election.

Not every country works this way. In some countries, the commander in chief builds a propaganda apparatus that equates him with the military and the nation. If you object that he's making bad decisions and disserving the national interest, you're accused of weakening the nation, undermining its security, sabotaging the commander in chief, and serving a foreign power—the very charges Miller leveled tonight against Bush's critics.

Are you prepared to become one of those countries?

Bushism of the Day

Bushism of the Day by Jacob Weisberg: "Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country." - Sept. 6, 2004, Poplar Bluff, Mo.

Petition: Don't Let the Assault Weapons Ban Expire

Please take a moment to sign this petition to extend the national ban on assault weapons. Your signature will be forwarded to President Bush and Congress, urging them to renew the ban before it expires on Monday, Sep. 13.

The ban on assault weapons is not a partisan issue - the assault weapons ban was supported by Presidents Reagan, Ford, Carter, and Clinton, and by Republicans Tom Ridge and Rudy Giuliani. The ban is supported by 74 percent of American voters, by Republicans and Democrats on the committees that investigated 9/11, and by virtually every police officers' association including the Major Cities Chiefs Association, International Brotherhood of Police Officers , National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), National Black Police Association, and Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association.

News of the Weird - "Make Me a Mum"

From Chuck Shepherd's "News of the Weird" column:

Among the reality-TV series being batted around in London, according to recent reports in the Daily Telegraph and The Independent, is "Make Me a Mum," in which a woman reduces a field of men to the two whom she believes will make her the genetically best offspring. At that point, producers will inseminate the woman with sperm from both men and, using intravaginal micro technology, will attempt to record a "race" to see which sperm gets to the egg first. Said Remy Blumenfeld, the creative director for the Brighter Pictures production house, "(This show is) much more about the rule of science than the rules of attraction." [The Independent (London), 8-7-04]

All I can say is, wow. The ways in which that is messed up are too staggering to enumerate. For some poor child to be conceived as part of a televised contest... *sigh* And you thought your high school years were tough! Try having your classmates buying the DVD set documenting the "race" to conceive you.

A glimpse of light

MSNBC reports on a day of rare self-criticism in the Arab media following the school siege in Russia. Columnists find themselves wrestling with this knowledge: "Muslims worldwide are the main perpetrators of terrorism, a humiliating and painful truth that must be acknowledged," according to one.

Clearly not all of our Muslim brothers and sisters are terrorists, but any moment of self-reflection and grappling with the very real phenomenon of Muslim terrorism is a welcome step in the right direction. Perhaps those in the Muslim world who love peace as their faith teaches will finally find some way to exorcise the demons within their tradition.

MSNBC - More than 340 killed in Russian school siege

Please pray for the loved ones of the more than 340 hostages killed in Russia yesterday, including over 150 children. Pray also for the hundreds more injured and in the hospital, and for the people and leaders of Russia. God be with them in this tragedy.

Lucy, the Space Diamond

Looking for the perfect way to say "I love you" this Valentine's Day? Look no farther. Nothing can convey your love for your sweetie like Lucy the Space Diamond.

"Lucy" (so named by scientists with a sense of humor and a penchant for the Beatles) is a massive diamond found in the constellation Centaurus, 50 light years from earth. Unfortunately for your local jeweler, Lucy's not just floating around in deep space - she is being formed at the heart of a degenerate star. You'll have a tough time getting near her.

Assuming you manage to make the 100-year light-speed journey to bring Lucy home to your beloved, you'll need to consider a larger ring, as well: Lucy is estimated at a mindboggling 10 billion trillion trillion carats - she's roughly 2,500 miles in diameter.

A diamond may not be forever, contrary to the De Beers ads, but Lucy is probably the next closest thing to it!

Excerpts from Kerry's speech

For as much as I dislike the current administration, I haven't been very keen on the challenger the Democratic Party has put up. Kerry hasn't impressed me much since he hit the campaign trail.

These excerpts from his speech in Ohio last night have left me with some hope. Kerry has some fire in his belly. He's perhaps got a vision for this country, and the words to articulate it. He's willing to take on the ones slandering him in the Republican Party. Maybe he really does have what it takes to win this race after all.

The election comes down to this. If you believe this country is heading in the right direction, you should support George Bush. But if you believe America needs to move in a new direction, join with us. John and I offer a better plan that will make us stronger at home and more respected in the world. And we need your help to do that.

For three days in New York, instead of talking about jobs and the economy, we heard anger and insults from the Republicans. And I'll tell you why. It's because they can't talk about the real issues facing Americans. They can't talk about their record because it's a record of failure.

We all saw the anger and distortion of the Republican Convention. For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as commander in chief. Well, here's my answer. I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq.

The vice president even called me unfit for office last night. I guess I'll leave it up to the voters whether five deferments makes someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty.

Let me tell you what I think makes someone unfit for duty. Misleading our nation into war in Iraq makes you unfit to lead this nation. Doing nothing while this nation loses millions of jobs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting 45 million Americans go without health care makes you unfit to lead this nation. Letting the Saudi royal family control our energy costs makes you unfit to lead this nation. Handing out billions of government contracts to Halliburton while you're still on their payroll makes you unfit. That's the record of George Bush and Dick Cheney. And it's not going to change. I believe it's time to move America in a new direction; I believe it's time to set a new course for America.

And we have a specific plan to do just that. So tomorrow morning, John and Elizabeth and Teresa and I are hitting the road across America's heartland. From here, we'll go out and talk with Americans in towns across Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan. And because a stronger America begins at home, we'll talk about our plan to create jobs, cut taxes for the middle class, lower health care costs, and make America safer and more secure.

Blog changes

I've made some major improvements to my blogs. I've gone with a predesigned blog template from Blogger.com for the look-and-feel part of it, and chosen a design that goes well with the design of my main site. But that's just the start.

Beneath each post, you'll now notice a "Comments" link. Click there to post your own comments on any post you happen to be reading. It's a chance to make this blog more interactive. Keep it clean, but feel free to let your voice be a part of this blog, too!

Also, you'll find an e-mail icon. If you come across something that you think is especially funny or insightful and you want to share it, just click that link to e-mail it to your friends and family.

As always, I'm interested in knowing what you think. Post your comments here, or send me an e-mail with your feedback. =)

Topic of Terror Overshadowing All Others (washingtonpost.com)

It's very upsetting to me to see the Bush administration attempting to overwhelm dozens of important issues by painting everything in the light of the so-called "war on terror." It's becoming clear to me that there is no such thing as the "war on terror" - it is a fiction that the president has used as a blank check to advance a wide variety of policy changes. With no electoral mandate (a majority of Americans voted against Bush) and a candidate who had promised to "be a uniter, not a divider," Bush needed some sort of cloak to wrap his aggressive neocon agenda inside. While "compassionate conservatism" went nowhere for him, the "war" he manufactured against "terror" has been just the snake oil Dr. Bush was looking for.

The Bush administration doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to the economy, civil liberties, education, the environment, foreign policy, and the federal deficit. How does a president with such an abysmal record campaign for reelection, you ask? He turns everything into a facet of the one issue where he is (inexplicably) popular - the "war on terror" that, as a piece of administration propaganda, is his signature "issue":

Topic of Terror Overshadowing All Others (washingtonpost.com)

Of course I'm not suggesting that America has not been savagely attacked by terrorists, nor am I such a Polyanna to believe that those enemies are not actively plotting against us, to strike again and again. I am not such a peacnik that I believe we should take no action against them.

But in creating a "war" against an ill-defined and open-ended concept (as opposed to a specific organization or state), the Bush administration has launched us into a conflict that can never be won, and must by its very nature continue forever. Terrorism cannot be ended - although there are many things to be done to thwart it. Wars continue until one side or the other prevails, and a truce is called. Nothing of the sort can possibly happen in this "war on terror": We clearly cannot allow the terrorists to prevail. The terrorists, however, will never admit that we have prevailed. (Besides, any kook can commit an act of terrorism - in order for us to prevail in our war, we would need to rid the world of kooks for all time... not going to happen.) No truce will be called between America and the terrorists, and no side will dominate the other into submission. To use the "war" metaphor here is to commit this nation to a military commitment that stretches as far as the eye can see.

This suits the administration, because it keeps the population in a state of constant fear. As long as Americans can be told "we're at war," they'll be willing to make "sacrifices" in the name of security. "We need to check your library records, in order to keep you safe." "We need to read your e-mail, in order to keep you safe." "We need to drill into the ANWAR refuge for oil, in order to keep you safe." "We need to give tax cuts to the millionaires, in order to keep you safe." Ad nauseum.

The Bush administration has taken an actual concern (terrorist attacks against American targets) and created a fictional "war," complete with fictional targets (Iraq, which never had any involvement in Sept. 11, although Bush administration officials STILL conflate Saddam and Osama). All the while the administration has used their "war" as a tool to advance a radical neoconservative agenda with no electoral mandate, and to twist the real electoral issues into convenient propaganda pieces.

Bush has got to go. This country cannot endure another four years with this administration at the helm.

The New York Times: When E-Mail Points the Way Down the Rabbit Hole

This is why I love to read the Times: an article that contemplates the rising of artificial intelligence out of spam and spam filters - "If a deep-think computer consciousness like Hal from '2001' somehow evolved from the ashes of the spam wars, it might very well be obsessed by the coarse and grubby issues from which it arose: penis size, cheap pharmaceuticals, debt consolidation and online gambling." =)