Happy Halloween!

Left to right: Shannon, Sisy, Shannon's pumpkin, Sean, Dave, Sean's pumpkin, Bob, Bob's pumpkin.

MSNBC: "Ancient hobbit-sized human species discovered"

In an astonishing discovery that could rewrite the history of human evolution, scientists say they have found the skeleton of a new human species, a dwarf, marooned for eons in a tropical Lost World while modern humans rapidly colonized the rest of the planet.

The finding on a remote Indonesian island has stunned anthropologists like no other in recent memory. It is a fundamentally new creature that bears more of a resemblance to fictional, barefooted hobbits than modern humans.

Great price on phenomenal Bible software!

Sorry for the commercial, but if you're a Christian who uses Windows, this is a package you just can't pass up. The Nelson eBible Standard package is based on the Libronix Digital Library System and integrates with any Logos Bible Software package - put simply, that means it uses the best Bible software system out there. You can see a demo of Logos in action here.

The Nelson package is being sold new at this closeout site for $19.99, 75% off the list price. It includes the following resources:

Bible Versions
King James Version
New King James Version
New Revised Std w Apocrypha
New Living Translation
New American Bible
New Century Version
Revised Standard Version

Cross Referencing
New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
New Nave's Topical Bible
Where to Find It in the Bible
Find It Fast in the Bible
I Never Knew That Was in the Bible
How to Get Into the Bible

Word Studies
Strong's Enhanced Lexicon
Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words
Vine's Topical Index - W.E. Vine

Background Information
Illustrated Manners and Customs of the Bible
Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Manners & Customs
Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
Nelson's New Christian Dictionary
Smith's Bible Dictionary
Talk Thru the Bible

Commentary/Study Bibles
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, Complete and Unabridged
Believer's Bible Commentary
With the Word Bible Commentary
King James Bible Commentary
Nelson Study Bible
NKJV The Woman's Study Bible

Maps and Charts
Nelson's 3-D Bible Mapbook
Nelson's Map Collection
Nelson's Complete Book of Bible Maps and Charts
Visual Survey of the Bible

Pastor / Teacher Helps
On This Day
Speaker's Sourcebook of New Illustrations

Theology / Church History
Exploring Church History
Church History in Plain Language

Worship Resources
100 MIDI Hymns

Devotional / Classics
Morning and Evening

Other Content
Help Guide

Spirit-Filled Life Library
Hayford's Bible Handbook

This is a remarkable package for just twenty smackers. I'm half considering ordering it, even though I already have many of the books on the list, just because getting the ones I don't have for that price might just be worth it.

If you don't have any Bible software, and you have a relatively recent computer, you owe it to yourself to look into this. I promise you, eBible and Logos will be one purchase you won't regret.

Sojourners: "American Mythology"

Sojourners applies Girardian analysis to Americans' self-delusion on Iraq:

In developing a theory of the origins of violence and culture, French intellectual Rene Girard discovered that in order to manage the violence and instability that arise within them, all societies blame (and then sacrifice) arbitrarily chosen scapegoats, a process that generates the needed social solidarity among those remaining. In other words, cultures keep the peace by projecting their evil onto specific individuals or groups, dividing the world into good and evil, and expelling (or killing) the 'evil ones.' This scapegoating violence can be as awful as the Holocaust or as banal as children excluding a playmate for the day....

The current deceptions around Iraq, in other words, are part of a powerful myth-making process to which human beings are particularly prone.

Doh!

My previous post on Luther's commode contained the following unfortunate typo:

Tip of the hate to Intollerant Elle for the link!

Clearly I meant to write: "Tip of the hat!" Sorry, Elle - I really don't hate you. ;)

*fires personal secretary*

Clinton as Secretary General of the U.N.?

From the Third Party & Independents bloggers at WatchBlog:

A vote for Bush is a vote for Koffi Annan remaining the head of the U.N. or his being replaced by another nation's nominee. A vote for Kerry is a vote that opens the potential of former President Bill Clinton being nominated to lead the United Nations as its new Secretary General. I have had a hard time finding any really important reason for supporting Kerry aside from sending Bush back to Crawford. But, now that there is some reliable scuttlebutt from United Press International about Clinton going for the U.N. position, supporting Kerry just got a whole lot more palatable.

BBC News: "Luther's lavatory thrills experts"

This just in:

Archaeologists in Germany say they may have found a lavatory where Martin Luther launched the Reformation of the Christian church in the 16th Century.

The stone room is in a newly-unearthed annex to Luther's house in Wittenberg.

Luther is quoted as saying he was 'in cloaca', or in the sewer, when he was inspired to argue that salvation is granted because of faith, not deeds.

The scholar suffered from constipation and spent many hours in contemplation on the toilet seat.

That is just too cool for words! *LOL* I can't even say how much this makes my little day. =)

Tip of the hat to Intollerant Elle for the link!

NYT: "The Health of Nations"

How mucked up is our health care system? Pretty darn mucked up:

Two decades ago, when Washington embraced the for-profit model to curb escalating charges, health care spending represented 10.5 percent of gross domestic product. Now it is approaching 16 percent. We spend more per capita on health care than any other developed country. Yet on the important yardsticks, like life expectancy measured in healthy years, we don't even rank among the top 20 nations. In fact, according to the World Health Organization, we come in an embarrassing 29th, sandwiched between Slovenia and Portugal.

The explanation for this abysmal record is one that politicians decline to discuss. The market functions wonderfully when we want to sell more cereals, cosmetics, cars, computers or any other consumer product. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in health care, where the goal should hardly be selling more heart bypass operations. Instead, the goal should be to prevent disease and illness. But the money is in the treatment - not prevention - so the market and good health care are at odds. Just how much at odds is seen in the current shortage of flu vaccine, as men and women in their 80's and 90's line up for hours at a time, hoping to get the shot they have been told they need, but may not receive because not nearly enough has been manufactured.

The reason for the shortage is this: Preventing a flu epidemic that could kill thousands is not nearly as profitable as making pills for something like erectile dysfunction, a decidedly non-fatal condition.

Brain in a dish - no joke!

Holy schnikies, Batman!

A University of Florida scientist has grown a living "brain" that can fly a simulated plane, giving scientists a novel way to observe how brain cells function as a network.

The "brain" - a collection of 25,000 living neurons, or nerve cells, taken from a rat's brain and cultured inside a glass dish - gives scientists a unique real-time window into the brain at the cellular level. By watching the brain cells interact, scientists hope to understand what causes neural disorders such as epilepsy and to determine noninvasive ways to intervene....

Although the brain currently is able to control the pitch and roll of the simulated aircraft in weather conditions ranging from blue skies to stormy, hurricane-force winds, the underlying goal is a more fundamental understanding of how neurons interact as a network.

"Control tower, this is Flight 108... um, the plane is requesting a nip of mozerella. Please advise. Over."

A bit of Pi

Don't wait for this page to finish loading unless you have a lot of time on your hands. As in, all of eternity. Those of you who are math geeks will love this. =)

Poll: Bush supporters show disconnect with reality

My apologies to all the intelligent Bush supporters out there who actually do read the news and turn a critical eye toward their candidate from time to time - you are clearly not the people this poll is highlighting!

Still - just look at these numbers, taken from a survey of around 2500 people:

Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying that Iraq did not have a significant WMD program, 72% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47%) or a major program for developing them (25%). Fifty-six percent assume that most experts believe Iraq had actual WMD and 57% also assume, incorrectly, that Duelfer concluded Iraq had at least a major WMD program. Kerry supporters hold opposite beliefs on all these points.

Similarly, 75% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda, and 63% believe that clear evidence of this support has been found. Sixty percent of Bush supporters assume that this is also the conclusion of most experts, and 55% assume, incorrectly, that this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission. Here again, large majorities of Kerry supporters have exactly opposite perceptions.

The press release concludes:

'The roots of the Bush supporters' resistance to information,' according to Steven Kull, 'very likely lie in the traumatic experience of 9/11 and equally in the near pitch-perfect leadership that President Bush showed in its immediate wake. This appears to have created a powerful bond between Bush and his supporters--and an idealized image of the President that makes it difficult for his supporters to imagine that he could have made incorrect judgments before the war, that world public opinion could be critical of his policies or that the President could hold foreign policy positions that are at odds with his supporters.

The items above aren't differences of opinion - they're concrete, demonstrable facts. They can be measured. They can be tested. And Bush supporters are overwhelming choosing to believe things that are clearly, provably contrary to the real world. That's a scary thing.

Yes, there are thinking people who support Bush out there. I know and love some of them. But we need to ask ourselves how so many of the president's boosters can be so misguided on these important issues. And, as Salon wonders aloud, "How can arguments based on fact prevail in a nation where so many people know so little?"

Good question.

Wired 12.10: Would You Buy the Future of Radio From This Man?

Another one for Dad, but worth a read for all the rest of you. ;)

Wired 12.10: The Long Tail

This one's for Dad - here's the article I was telling you about. (It's interesting for the rest of you, too, though.)

Bush Relatives for Kerry

You're going to read about this site sooner or later - you might as well read about it here. =)

'Bush Relatives for Kerry' grew out of a series of conversations that took place between a group of people that have two things in common: they are all related to George Walker Bush, and they are all voting for John Kerry. As the election approaches, we feel it is our responsibility to speak out about why we are voting for John Kerry, and to do our small part to help America heal from the sickness it has suffered since George Bush was appointed President in 2000. We invite you to read our stories, and please, don't vote for our cousin!

And you thought the Iconoclast endorsement was bizarre!

NYT: Crawford residents threatening violence over endorsement

You knew it was going to happen. The conservative backlash against Bush's hometown Lone Star Iconoclast of Crawford, Texas, which renounced its 2000 endorsement of George Bush and instead "wholeheartedly" endorsed John Kerry earlier this month, has been savage:

Mr. Smith, 51, the Iconoclast's snowy-bearded majority owner and fervid Ronald Reagan admirer, said in his cluttered office in nearby Clifton that all three of the newspaper's outlets in Crawford had stopped selling it and that a readers' boycott had cut newsstand and subscription sales to 482 copies a week from 920.

In a note to readers in the Oct. 6 issue, he also said, 'Unfortunately, for The Iconoclast and its publishers there have been threats - big ones including physical harm.'

Death threats for endorsing someone other than the hometown boy... and motivated as much by greed (think tourism dollars) as by politics. It's sad, but predictable.

Slate: "Minnesota - The only state to oppose Reagan flirts with conservatism"

A look at my home state's perplexing transition from progressive bastion to soccer-mom swing state. I've always been proud to call myself a Minnesotan... what a shame if the state of Humphrey, Mondale and Wellstone were to become one more red blotch on the map.

Bush's drooping mouth = a stroke?

First there it was suggested that perhaps George W. Bush is suffering from presenile dementia. Now debate observers are suggesting that a suspicious droop on one side of the president's face in the third debate might indicate he has suffered a stroke.

The evidence is certainly circumstancial, but many interesting pieces do come together under such a hypothesis:

(1) Bush skipped his annual exam this year, just weeks before the election. Why?

(2) The president having suffered a stroke could explain his loss of verbal agility over the course of his presidency.

(3) Remember the strange bulge often seen on Bush's back (including in the first debate)? Daily Kos argues intriguingly that it may well have been a medical device to help the president's symptoms:

Now if you look at video from the FIRST debate, there is no droop. The right side of his face is pretty animated. Why? The thing on his back. Listen, I've put wireless mics and wireless IFBs (2 way transceivers) on talent for years. They're the size of credit cards now. That wasn't a transceiver on Bush's back. It was some kind of medical device. He wasn't wearing it last night, and that's why he was forcing himself to stand with such a rigid expression. The best he could muster.

So here's the thing - no one knows what the bulge is, or what specifically may be wrong with the president. But there's growing reason for concern that something's not right. The president should go in for his physical, and the White House should come clean on the bulge, which is so plainly visible. Is it a receiver? Is it a device to help control a medical condition? It's time to stop hiding this from the public, to end the speculation in the blogosphere, and to admit whatever is up.

What are pro-life policies?

My friend Sarah Isaacson passes along this insightful article. The author is a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, which Sarah is attending. The article was originally published in Sojourners, but I was unable to find a link to it. (If you know of one, I'd be glad to link to it instead of publishing the full text... that's better as far as the copyright police are concerned, but this is too good an article not to share for lack of a link.)

Thanks, Sarah!

---

Pro-life? Look at the fruits
by Dr. Glen Harold Stassen

I am a Christian ethicist, and trained in statistical analysis. I am consistently pro-life. My son David is one witness. For my family, "pro-life" is personal. My wife caught rubella in the eighth week of her pregnancy. We decided not to terminate, to love and raise our baby. David is legally blind and severely handicapped; he also is a blessing to us and to the world.

I look at the fruits of political policies more than words. I analyzed the data on abortion during the George W. Bush presidency. There is no single source for this information - federal reports go only to 2000, and many states do not report - but I found enough data to identify trends. My findings are counterintuitive and disturbing.

Abortion was decreasing. When President Bush took office, the nation's abortion rates were at a 24-year low, after a 17.4% decline during the 1990s. This was an average decrease of 1.7% per year, mostly during the latter part of the decade. (This data comes from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life using the Guttmacher Institute's studies).

Enter George W. Bush in 2001. One would expect the abortion rate to continue its consistent course downward, if not plunge. Instead, the opposite happened.

I found three states that have posted multi-year statistics through 2003, and abortion rates have risen in all three: Kentucky's increased by 3.2% from 2000 to 2003. Michigan's increased by 11.3% from 2000 to 2003. Pennsylvania's increased by 1.9% from 1999 to 2002. I found 13 additional states that reported statistics for 2001 and 2002. Eight states saw an increase in abortion rates (14.6% average increase), and five saw a decrease (4.3% average decrease).

Under President Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed. Given the trends of the 1990s, 52,000 more abortions occurred in the United States in 2002 than would have been expected before this change of direction.

How could this be? I see three contributing factors:

First, two thirds of women who abort say they cannot afford a child (Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Web site). In the past three years, unemployment rates increased half again. Not since Hoover had there been a net loss of jobs during a presidency until the current administration. Average real incomes decreased, and for seven years the minimum wage has not been raised to match inflation. With less income, many prospective mothers fear another mouth to feed.

Second, half of all women who abort say they do not have a reliable mate (Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life). Men who are jobless usually do not marry. Only three of the 16 states had more marriages in 2002 than in 2001, and in those states abortion rates decreased. In the 16 states overall, there were 16,392 fewer marriages than the year before, and 7,869 more abortions. As male unemployment increases, marriages fall and abortion rises.

Third, women worry about health care for themselves and their children. Since 5.2 million more people have no health insurance now than before this presidency - with women of childbearing age overrepresented in those 5.2 million - abortion increases.

The U.S. Catholic Bishops warned of this likely outcome if support for families with children was cut back. My wife and I know - as does my son David - that doctors, nurses, hospitals, medical insurance, special schooling, and parental employment are crucial for a special child. David attended the Kentucky School for the Blind, as well as several schools for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. He was mainstreamed in public schools as well. We have two other sons and five grandchildren, and we know that every mother, father, and child needs public and family support.

What does this tell us? Economic policy and abortion are not separate issues; they form one moral imperative. Rhetoric is hollow, mere tinkling brass, without health care, health insurance, jobs, child care, and a living wage. Pro-life in deed, not merely in word, means we need policies that provide jobs and health insurance and support for prospective mothers.

Glen Stassen is the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, and the co-author of Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, Christianity Today's Book of the Year in theology or ethics.

Black Horse Regiment to Iraq

How thin is the Army stretched by its current military obligations? Consider that the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (the "Black Horse") is being shipped out to Iraq. The Black Horse is the unit that serves as the opposing force ("OPFOR" in military speak) at the Army's National Training Center. They're the ones responsible for making the fresh meat feel what war is like, giving new recruits the most realistic simulation and challenging training possible, to prepare them for actual combat.

The specialist Black Horse Regiment will be replaced by a National Guard unit in their OPFOR duties while in Iraq.

As the INTEL DUMP blog points out:

That's like replacing the Dodgers with a high school baseball team. Sure, they can both play baseball and wear the uniform — but one is a whole lot more proficient and experienced at its job. The OPFOR has a reputation as a tough enemy, and that's a good thing because it forces units training at the NTC to become better themselves. By replacing this unit with National Guard troops, the Army has hurt its ability to produce good units for Iraq in the future. Suffice to say, National Guard and active units that go through Fort Irwin aren't going to get the same tough experience they would have with the Blackhorse regiment as OPFOR — and that means they'll be less ready for combat when they get to Iraq.

And it's little things like this that lead people to think that no matter how truly Bush may not want to reinstate a draft, the policy's he's committed this country to may well make conscription inevitable.

The scary part? Not only would future draftees frequently be disgruntled and unmotivated, but with the Guardsmen pinch hitting for Black Horse, the new conscripts sent off to fight would be far less capably trained.

This is an issue to watch.

Beliefnet: "Sunday Halloween Irks Some in Bible Belt"

You just don't do it on Sunday. That's Christ's day. You go to church on Sunday, you don't go out and celebrate the devil. That'll confuse a child.

- Sandra Hulsey of Greenville, GA, on why she supports moving Halloween to Saturday, Oct. 30 this year

Oh, please. All those little trick-or-treaters are celebrating nothing more than the joys of sugar. Take a deep breath, Sandra, and get a grip.

Bush's hometown paper endorses Kerry

The Lone Star Iconoclast of Crawford, Texas, has renounced its 2000 endorsement of George Bush and, in a scathing editorial, given its "wholehearted" endorsement to Democrat John Kerry:

The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised, not on this smoke-screened agenda.

Today, we are endorsing his opponent, John Kerry, based not only on the things that Bush has delivered, but also on the vision of a return to normality that Kerry says our country needs.

Four items trouble us the most about the Bush administration: his initiatives to disable the Social Security system, the deteriorating state of the American economy, a dangerous shift away from the basic freedoms established by our founding fathers, and his continuous mistakes regarding terrorism and Iraq. . . .

The Iconoclast urges Texans not to rate the candidate by his hometown or even his political party, but instead by where he intends to take the country.

The Iconoclast wholeheartedly endorses John Kerry. [emphasis mine]

Let's just all say it together - WOW.

Thank you to the Iconoclast for living up to its name and calling this election as it sees it. When the editors of the president's hometown paper admit they were wrong to endorse him last time and refuse to be fooled again, America should sit up and take notice.

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly: Sexual Harasser?

Holy smoke. Bill O'Reilly is going down in a serious way. The entire complaint is posted on this site, and from the extensive quotations, it's clear that the plaintiff, producer Andrea Mackris, has her boss on tape saying all kinds of crude things. Mackris appears to have O'Reilly dead to rights on objectionable comments that cover practically every sexual pecadillo you can name:

[Mackris claims O'Reilly] subjected her to repeated instances of sexual harassment and spoke often, and explicitly, to her about phone sex, vibrators, threesomes, masturbation, the loss of his virginity, and sexual fantasies.

I'll be very curious how O'Reilly spins his way out of this one. Bill O'Reilly is one twisted man if this complaint is even half true (check out his travels abroad as a sex tourist), and no way is he going to be able to remain posterboy for the angry right if any of this sticks.

Clever terrorists and American schools

Eduwonk links to a Washington Times article on possible terror threats to US schools, and follows up with a reader analysis of schools' vulnerability as potential targets. Troubling, to say the least...

Woo-hoo! Google launches desktop search program!

I've waited a long time for this - today Google launched its Desktop Search program. This little download (less than a minute on most connections) will allow you to search your own computer as easily as you search the Internet. In fact, through a neat little programming trick, your Google search results will now also show your local files:



Of course, you can still search your computer even if you're not connected to the Internet, and Desktop Search doesn't send any info to Google - it all takes place on your local computer.

Google Desktop search indexes all the words in your Outlook/Outlook Express e-mail, AOL Instant Messenger conversations, recently viewed web pages, and text, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

This is an immediate addition to Bob's Must-Have list. Team it up with the invaluable Google Toolbar and you've got one spiffy searching solution. Now if it can just look in more files than the ones mentioned above, I'll be in hog heaven. =)

CherryOS

Macintosh users have long been able to run software that emulates a Windows computer within their Mac, allowing them to run Windows and all the applications that go with it. Here's an interesting Macintosh emulator. For $50, you can allow your PC to run Mac OS X at G4 speeds. You still need to purchase the Macintosh system software and applications, of course, but the idea is still intriguing. One of the arguments for software like this? It allows users to use the excellent Mac OS on cheaper PC hardware.

I'll be curious to see if this goes anywhere outside of the software and web development worlds.

Just for Mom

Enjoy. =)

Watch out for those rampantly lesbian OK schoolgirls!

A rather remarkable quote from Tom Coburn, Oklahoma's Republican candidate for the US Senate:

Lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened to us?

Oklahoma educators, when they aren't laughing hysterically at Coburn, point out that this is news to them.

Perhaps Tom Coburn should spend less time indulging his strange fantasies of crazy schoolgirl sex in the lavatories of Oklahoma, and more time thinking about the real issues this country faces. Just a thought!

Matthew Yglesias: "It's Drafty in Here"

The American Prospect's Matthew Yglesias comments on the likely necessity of a draft in a second Bush administration... whether the president wishes for one or not. Hard to argue with his logic.

Christian Mortgage USA at it again

Last month I received spam from a company with the stomach-turning name "Christian Mortgage USA". I posted to my blog about it, since I've been a vocal critic of spam in general and "Christian" spam in particular for some time.

It looks as though CM-USA is conducting another spam campaign. My site is in the top ten search results for "Christian Mortgage USA" on pretty much every search engine, and I've been receiving a lot more hits from people searching for this company's name the last day or so than normal. Today alone I had four or five visitors in a row arriving on my site via a search for more info about CM-USA.

The best way to handle spam of any kind? DELETE IT. Don't reply to it, because that's often a way to confirm your address. Same goes for clicking the "remove me" link. In addition, there are now hacker exploits that take advantage of the "remove me" link as a way to crack your computer.

Whatever you do, don't purchase any spamvertized product or service. That's why spam works - because a very tiny percentage gets hooked by any given spam, even though 99+% are livid.

Christian spam is the lowest of the low, and Christian Mortgage USA is among the Net's bottom-dwellers. Please read my earlier thoughts on this company and Christian spam, and then delete anything you get from them. Maybe enough people will figure this out to put these yutzes out of business.

Reader thoughts on our "enemies" in the Muslim world

Strong Bad makes an especially helpful observation in response to my article on the Bush administration's utter lack of understanding of Muslim culture and the nature of our "enemy" in the "war on terror." Excellent - thanks!

Ladybugs are stupid

Although I'm still plenty annoyed with the dozens of ladybugs invading my house this week, I now have a strategy to deal with them. Seems the little stinkers are attracted to my ceiling light in the evening. They're all circled up, worshiping it right now, with the exception of a few atheists and stragglers in the far corners of the ceiling. Time to introduce them to Mr. Vacuum...

Um...?

In case you need to shop in a real hurry - the red-hot, jet powered shopping cart. I kid you not. (It goes up to 50 mph before becoming "unstable"...)

A plague of ladybugs!

As I write, the walls and ceiling of my living room and dining room are the temporary home to some 75-100 ladybugs.

Many parts of the country experience this sort of plague in the fall. An article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review sounds the alarm on the invasion going on in Pennsylvania. A particularly apt quote: "This migration [from fields into buildings] usually takes place on warm days in October, often around Columbus Day."

Warm days around Columbus Day. Check and check. Grrrrrr.

Unfortunately for me, there's nothing to do except attempt to vacuum them up with the hose and extension tubes day after day. According to the article, the only way to prevent the invasion is to weatherproof your house. I live in an almost-100 year old parsonage belonging to a cash-strapped congregation. Good luck talking the council into spending all kinds of dollars sealing the house up tight for me.

*sigh* I used to like ladybugs...

Popular Photography: The digital drawback

As gung-ho as I am about digital photography, there remains one issue that truly troubles me. Popular Photography takes up the question of long-term storage and viability of digital picture files, and their conclusions are not cheery.

NYT: An Inexplicable Vote for Death

Scary "justice."

WatchBlog: The Enemy Bush Fails To Understand

It is human nature to change and adapt and even overcome and reshape adverse situations and conditions. The peoples of the East and Middle East are not opposed to change that comes from their own determination of how to adapt, how to overcome, and how to reshape the inadequacies of their own cultures and societies to survive in the modern world. But, many will fight to the death and with a sense of martyrdom and pride, attempts by the West to force changes upon them motivated by needs of those in the West. The greatest mistake President Bush made was to turn a deaf ear and rein in the decision making ability of our own State Department. Our State Department employs people who are trained and educated in cultural values, paradigms, and fundamental structures of foreign nations. Our State Department was very likely capable of designing a strategy for pursuing terrorists against us which would not increase their armies, entrench anti-American hostility, and protract indefinitely our pursuit of growing numbers opposing us.

This opinion piece is insightful. America does not face an evil, irrational, hate-filled, monolithic "enemy" in fundamentalist Islam. We have misunderstood our "enemies" from the beginning - or, rather, we have never bothered to understand them in the first place.

Understanding one's "enemies" needn't be merely some mushy call for love, sympathy, and brotherhood (although each of those may indeed be a wise, enlightened, and faithful response); a crucial part of winning any conflict is knowing one's enemy better than he knows himself. Know what motivates him. Know what scares him. Know what he can accept, and what he will fight to the death for.

And then understand that even as you exploit this knowledge militarily, the ultimate goal is peace with the enemy, not military victory. Let your military strategy be guided by your knowledge, driving your enemy toward a resolution you know he will be able to accept. Recognize that as long as he is scared and defiant, he will continue to fight to the last man; even as you work to defeat him with military strength, mobilize your diplomatic corps, using all your knowledge of the enemy to address those fears and that defiance.

Above all, recognize that your enemy is different from you, and quite likely does not want to be similar to you. In a cultural war as we are in now, there is no insight more instructive than this. As long as we continue to assume that Iraqis and other middle-easterners have always wanted to be secular American capitalist consumers, if they only had the chance, we're going to accomplish little more than stoking the fires of terrorism.

The piece wisely notes:

President Bush would have us believe it is hatred and terrorism that we are fighting. These are the weapons of our enemy, not their cause. It is an adamant defense of tradition, culture, religion, and law honored for thousands of years as set down in the Koran and generational history in song, story, and folklore, that is their cause, and that cause is what we in the West face as our enemy. Failure to recognize our enemy and why it exists and what motivates it, is begging for a multi-generational war based on the domination of some cultures by others.

Confidential to Anna

Welcome to the blog - it was so good to talk to you again tonight! Take care, and stay in touch. You've got my prayers. =)

UVA Computer Science: Star Links

If you've ever played the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, you know how this site works already. The premise is that any two people can be linked in six steps or less. This page uses the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) to link any two celebrities you choose.

The fun part is if you already know you can be linked to a celebrity yourself - then it becomes your own six degrees! And since you know me, you are now linked to Josh Hartnett in four degrees. So just add four to the number of links it takes to get from Josh to any other celebrity, and that's your link to them.

For example, I can be linked to John Kerry, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Princess Diana, Anne Hathaway, and Oprah Winfrey in five links. (Don't ask.)

Try it out! It's addictive when you're involved personally.

Bob and Mike's Camping Adventure

I've posted a photo album with some of the 400 or so pics I took while Mike and I were camping last week. Some of them have more artistic merit, while others are just there to give you a sense of the place - Gooseberry Falls State Park on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Please let me know what you think of the pics - what are your favorites? Did I succeed in my artistic ambitions? Or should I go back to being a pastor? ;) Comments accepted below...

Beliefnet: Greek Orthodox, Franciscan Priests Brawl at Basilica

What an embarassment, particularly at one of the Church's holiest places.

Beliefnet: Anglican archbishop says Episcopal Church cannot be trusted

The most influential Anglican leader in Africa - home to nearly half the world's Anglicans - said Thursday that the U.S. Episcopal Church has created a 'new religion'' by confirming a gay bishop in New Hampshire, breaking the bonds between the denominations with roots in the Church of England.

The leaders of the ELCA should pay close attention to the meltdown of the Episcopal Church over this issue. Regardless of what position a person takes on the issue of homosexuality in the church, it seems obvious that the damage being done to God's people as we fight these battles is great indeed.

Though it saddens me to say so, I fully expect a schism within the ELCA if changes are made to make provision for homosexual marriage and non-celibate homosexual clergy. Congregations and members are leaving already, before any proposal has even been made, much less voted on! How much more when everything finally hits the fan.

If the ELCA is going to go the route I suspect we will, we had better be sure we learn the lessons of our full communion partners in the EC-USA, or we will go through the painful experience of watching our fellowship split into a dozen little Lutheran churches - ending this grand experiment in Lutheran unity in America.

Yankee snobbery

Bad enough that Minnesota lost to the hated Yankees once again last night, ending their season humiliated by the best team money can buy. How would you like some insult to go with your injury?

Sid Hartman reports: "The Yankees sent their chief groundskeeper to the Metrodome to make sure that the infield, the mound and everything else was up to the standards of major league baseball."

The Metrodome, a stadium where two World Series have been played, dozens of postseason games, and where the Yankees have played the Twins too many times to count? The Metrodome is and always has been a major league stadium. It may not be the biggest, newest, or fanciest stadium, nor the one with the most history, but it has been home to Major League Baseball in Minnesota for as long as I've been old enough to pay attention.

I resent the fact that the Yankees would even suggest that the Metrodome was not up to snuff, never mind actually sending their own groundskeeper out to double check.

The Yankee players played well, but management clearly has neither class nor tact.

Happy Birthday, Nancy!

Hope it was great! Love ya!

Diagnosis: Presenile Dementia?

Ira at Daily Kos quotes a letter published recently in The Atlantic Monthly:

Bush's problem cannot be 'a learning disability, a reading problem, [or] dyslexia,' because patients with those problems have always had them. Slowly developing cognitive deficits, as demonstrated so clearly by the President, can represent only one diagnosis, and that is 'presenile dementia'! Presenile dementia is best described to nonmedical persons as a fairly typical Alzheimer's situation that develops significantly earlier in life, well before what is usually considered old age. It runs about the same course as typical senile dementias, such as classical Alzheimer's -- to incapacitation and, eventually, death, as with President Ronald Reagan, but at a relatively earlier age. President Bush's 'mangled' words are a demonstration of what physicians call 'confabulation,' and are almost specific to the diagnosis of a true dementia. Bush should immediately be given the advantage of a considered professional diagnosis, and started on drugs that offer the possibility of retarding the slow but inexorable course of the disease.

Joseph M. Price, M.D.
Carsonville, Mich.

Could there be something to this? The argument is that the president was actually an articulate, skilled debater and public speaker in his forties, but his skills have deteriorated since that time.

It's a sad and scary thought. Sadder and scarier might be that something like this could be known to the president and kept hidden. FDR and JFK both hid serious illness from the American public in order to present images of vitality and strength and to maintain their power in office. Hiding a debilitating illness, however, should never be in the presidential playbook.

If the president is truly ailing, he should be given the best care immediately, as Dr. Price urges. If there's even any question, he should be given a complete medical examination. He owes it to himself, his family and his country to tend to his health before politics.

And if he is truly suffering from presenile dementia, President Bush owes it to himself, his family and his country to step aside, ask for our understanding and our prayers, and take care of himself. There is no weakness in seeking medical care for such an illness.

Please, Mr. President, at least visit a doctor. Find out for sure. Be healthy. Politics can wait. Election or not, this is the most important thing for you right now.

Sinclair Broadcasting has no shame

Writes the Washington Monthly:

Remember Sinclair, the conservative TV chain that refused to air the Nightline segment in which Ted Koppel recited the names of the war dead in Iraq? Guess what they're up to now?

Sinclair has told its stations - many of them in political swing states such as Ohio and Florida - to air 'Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal,' sources said. The film, funded by Pennsylvania veterans and produced by a veteran and former Washington Times reporter, features former POWs accusing Kerry - a decorated Navy veteran turned war protester - of worsening their ordeal by prolonging the war. Sinclair will preempt regular prime-time programming from the networks to show the film, which may be classified as news programming, according to TV executives familiar with the plan.

The kicker? Sinclair is considering labeling the braodcast as "news." That would be like airing Michael Moore's "Farenheit 9/11" the day before the election in prime time and saying it's "news programming." It's not. It's propaganda.

Follow the links on WM's post to contact your local Sinclair station (in the Twin Cities, it's WB23) and let them know you won't stand for such crass manipulation... nor will you watch their programming.

Thank you, Kyle

One of my parishioners, Lance Cpl. Kyle Froemke of the USMC is home from Iraq for another week. He returned from his first tour of duty there last month, and after some debriefing time at Twentynine Palms, CA, he's got a total of two weeks to catch up with his family. Then it's back to the base in California, and off to Iraq again next summer after further training.

I just got back from a welcome home/thank you party for Kyle at the Rib Rack. It was good to talk with him and see his pictures of life in the desert of Iraq. He's got a hard job - Marines aren't trained primarily to be police officers and peacekeepers, but that's what their mission requires of them. And Marines get the job done, even if it means learning new skills day by day.

Kyle was asked by The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, California, why he joined the Marines:

A sense of duty. I felt like somebody had to do it. It might as well be me.

Thank you, Kyle. We're proud of you, and we are in your debt. God bless you and protect you as you serve all of us in the most difficult of situations.

An end and a beginning - the exodus of Marble Lutheran Church

When I was a counselor at Shores of St. Andrew Bible Camp in New London, MN, we often wished for a chapel like our neighbors at Green Lake Bible Camp had. GLBC's chapel was beautiful, but the best we could offer our campers for indoor worship was the upstairs of our lodge. But money was (and is) tight, and building a chapel was a luxury that we could not afford - not when buildings were being grandfathered in under the fire code.

Through the working of the Holy Spirit, the creativity of my friend Sara Larson, and the generosity of a tiny congregation, the church building of Marble Lutheran in Canby, MN, is now making the journey of a lifetime - 100 miles to Shores on the backs of two trucks. The dwindling membership of Marble made the painful yet hopeful decision to close their church's doors in Canby and donate its building to the camp, fulfilling a long-time dream.

When Marble arrives on the shores of Lake Andrew, it will be installed on a new foundation. The parishioners of Marble Lutheran donated $70,000 to cover the moving and on-site expenses, making their church building an outright gift to Shores, its staff and the children it serves.

Shores' parent ministry, Green Lake Lutheran Ministries, has set up a special site commemorating Marble's exodus across rural Minnesota.

As a past counselor, I want to offer my sincere thanks to the people of Marble Lutheran Church in Canby for their amazing generosity. I can't even say what a blessing your gift will be to the ministry of Shores. May you find joy and peace in the countless voices that will be lifted up in praise within those old walls each and every summer. I can't wait to see your beautiful building standing tall and proud at its new home next summer, gazing out over the lake, glowing gentle pink with the sunset.