Kid's shows: Imagination Movers

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I grew up watching HR Puff 'n Stuff. If you can't do a little then you can't do enough. Thinking back on that show, I wonder how many points my IQ suffered as my gray matter oozed out my ears. It's equally inane spin-off, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, also sucked the marrow from my melon. But, oh, I loved 'em. Then.

As a parent now for twenty-one-plus years, I've let my kids watch some equally disturbing stuff. Barney rockets to the top of the list. The Wiggles are way up there, too (though their era was pretty much in the gap between my boys and my girls). The Doodle-Bops come to mind as well. Kids love them as much as I loved HRPnS and SatSM.

The thing that rankles me about those shows as I look back on them is condescension. The producers have the idea that little kids need something bizarre or absurd or cultic or effeminate to capture their attention. I don't think it has to be that way, and a recent bit of Saturday morning fare shows the way.

I love the Imagination Movers. It's four dudes in blue coveralls who work in the Imagination Warehouse. But they are dudes. No compromise apparent San Francisco ties like some y-chromosomes on kids shows. And they have fun cutting up like guys do. They are good friends like guys need. And they play fun music.

Each episode they solve some problem without the excessive condescension in typical fare. No cultic mysticism. It is targeted to younger kids, yes, but as a parent sitting on the periphery, I don't have the need to tote a barf bucket, and I occasionally find myself sitting beside them enjoying the delight of my kids and the delight of the musicians.

Understand this. It's secular television. Christ is nowhere named. At the same time, I would not be surprised if these four guys are Christian because the things lauded and praised are things that honor God. It wouldn't seem out of place to have them break into prayer in the middle of an episode to ask God help them solve some predicament. They exemplify the fruit of the Spirit.

Two thumbs up to Rich, Scott, Dave, and Smitty for cranking out Kids TV that I don't have to be embarrassed letting my children watch. Or watching myself.

You guessed it

Gallup recently did a poll asking folks the importance of religion in their daily lives. Take a look at the United States map below.

Now, go back to your days in kindergarten. Take up the blue crayon in you minds eye and color those states blue that you think are chillier toward religion. Then take up a red crayon, you're getting it, and color those states red that you think to care more deeply about religion.

I have no doubt you know exactly how the map will look. Check out the Gallup results here.

Musings of a madman

It's getting late, but I've come across some rich reads over the last few days that I wanted to get in your hands. Away we go!

• The Three-letter word. I have been teaching on events during the end-times in my church's adult Sunday school class, and one key principle during this time will be God's focus on national Israel, a final plea that they might turn toward their Messiah. With great interest, I read this article in the Jerusalem Post. In it, Emanuel Feldman laments over how Israel has evicted God from the public square, how they have evicted God from their lives. He states,

  "But there seems to be a certain self-consciousness about God on the part of our politicians, our intellectual elite, our media personalities, our cultural spokesmen - a certain anxiety and unease about the public use of His name. They are going well beyond the letter of the law in the second commandment, Thou shalt not utter the name of God in vain. Not only are they not uttering God's name in vain; they are not uttering God's name, period."

• Education without its Source. In an attempt to be unoffensive to any by not permitting God in the public school, we offend those who desire God and His influence in that setting. This troubling truth was recognized also in the Jerusalem Post by columnist David Benkof (here). A great read. He knocks away any distractions and avers:

  "RIGHT NOW, if you're secular and want to educate your children with your values, you can do it for free. But if you're religious, you have to pay thousands of dollars to do it... What's worse, you still have to pay the government an annual fee - sometimes based on the value of your property - to educate other people's children with values you don't agree with."

He tackles it from an observant Jew in Israel. Change it to Christian in America and you get the same deal.

• NBC draws the line. Well, it's nice to know they have some standards. It's just sad that their standards turn good and bad on their heads. Remember that video I linked a few posts ago? Here it is, in case you missed it. That's what NBC won't run. We will no doubt be subjected to entendres (single and double) and blatant garbage all in the name of advertisement. But lauding that President Obama is here because of a decision his mother made crosses their established ethical lines?!? You can read their linguistic gymnastics here.
  

That's all for tonight. Just wanted to keep you in the loop.

Poor Al

How'd you like to be Al Gore testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the need for "decisive action" to combat global warming while outside Washington DC is getting shellacked by an ice storm for the record books?

Next question: What's the Senate Foreign Relations Committee care about the weather?

Final question: How is it the committee members can keep a straight face?

The atrophy of education: Wichita Falls, Texas

For those of you who have felt your spleen close to rupturing watching your kid play t-ball, you might want to pop a few Tums before reading on. T-ball comes to the classroom.

In Wichita Falls, Texas, the superintendent, Dr. Tim Powers, believes that the grading practices that have launched this nation, practices that held children to an objective standard, are "toxic and counterproductive" (article here). A better methodology?

"...we should give the student as many opportunities as the student needs, within the parameter of the time constraints in which we are placed."

Ahhh-huh. For a minute, I thought first grade would last twelve years. Let me get this straight. So that means rather than drawing an objective line and making cuts based upon that line, teachers, beyond the instruction with which they already fill the day, need to concentrate on those who don't get it to the detriment of those who have long since mastered the material. The lowest common denominator drags the train??

Imagine if the teacher invested the extra time (you know, the twenty-fifth hour in every day) in the students who got it. What would happen if we nourished the excellence? Nope. We don't want to make kids feel bad by sending them to special ed. classes if they struggle, and we sure don't want to damage their psyches by administering discipline to the ruffians. No more thwack on the posterior and now no more thwack on the fragile self-esteem.

“Grades should reflect the content learned, not whether they learned it the first, second or third time. Will this require additional effort on our part as educators? ... ‘Yes,’ and it also aligns with doing whatever it takes to help students achieve the mastery level we desire for them”

Additional effort?!? Herculean! But notice where he puts the onus. The load crushes the teachers. This has become standard in our expectation of government. We abdicate our responsibility and demand performance from the government. Dr. Powers (ironic name, by the way) places little demand upon the student to learn. Whenever! In so doing, he foments the welfare cripples that suck the marrow out of our nation, folks who condemn the government for their station in life. It's the bailout mentality. It's wrong, and it's destroying our nation.

Teachers teach. Good teachers identify and encourage the stragglers and identify and push the motivated.

Students learn. Those who refuse to learn should be dealt with in one way and those who struggle to learn should be handled in another. Neither should encumber the class.

Parents. Where do we fit in? How have we prepared our children to meet the challenges of their educational experience? The engaged parent will ensure their children learn. They will be the first to advocate holding them back or to seek special education. They will be the first to allow or enforce discipline when necessary.

For those parents who have to labor within this type of T-ball educational system, you will have to challenge your own kids because the teachers will already be far over-spent. God bless us all as we train up our children in a land that less and less holds its individuals to account.

For those who live around Wichita Falls, Texas, you've got the T-Ball World Series (read about it here). Write your newspaper. Write your school board. And vote (!) when it comes time for that. Here's hoping you can wrest the Titanic's helm from the captain before its ill-fated doom. Implementation district wide is set for Fall 2009, a mere six-months away.

(Tip of the hat to Chekov for calling the article to my attention)

Anti-Semitism redux

I came across this today in Jay Nordlinger's always poignant Impromptus (here). Rather than paraphrase, I'll just let him and the article he cited do the talking (purple).

It’s hard to know when to panic. In other words, what is the right time to panic? A tricky question. Panic too soon, and you’re just foolish. Panic too late, and—well, it’s too late.

For several years now, we’ve been hearing rumbles about Europe, and they are getting louder. I was forcefully impressed by a piece by Douglas Davis in the current Spectator (subscription required, I’m afraid). It begins,

At my dinner table on Friday night, a holocaust survivor admits that she is trying to persuade her son to take his family out of Europe to America, Canada, Australia, Israel . . . ‘They say they can’t leave me, but I tell them: “Go, get out. My parents left my grandparents behind in Berlin and brought me to safety in England. Now I want you to leave so that my grandchildren will be safe.”’ There is an unbearable desperation in her plea. But she has a point.

As tens of thousands of demonstrators march through the streets of Europe, the chants are modified but the message remains substantially intact: ‘Hamas, Hamas, Hamas—Jews to the Gas’. Or, more simply: ‘Death to the Jews’. Many European Jews, even well-established, affluent Jews, have been checking the suitcase they keep packed under the bed. They have been here before and many are (albeit reluctantly) reading the writing on the wall.

Then Davis continues in a personal vein:

To some extent I thought I was inured. I grew up in postwar apartheid South Africa where a subtle undercurrent of anti-Semitism was a fact of everyday life. So while I was disturbed by manifestations of mob anti-Semitism, I was also less vulnerable to shock. That’s just how people are. Living in genteel, leafy Hampstead Garden Suburb provides an additional layer of protection from such crass outbursts.

But my sanguine state ends abruptly when I am out walking on Saturday. A hundred yards from my front door, I encounter the slogan, freshly painted in yellow, across the pavement: ‘Kill the Filthy Jews’. I am shocked. And shocked that I am shocked. The message is too close for comfort. The leafy gentility is, after all, an illusion.

Those who study these matters tell me that the current convulsion of anti-Semitism is the worst in a generation.

And so on. When is it too soon, if not to panic, to sound the alarm? Is now too soon?

At least Geert Wilders is under indictment. How long before the infection spreads overseas?

Death takes two steps forward

In Francis Schaeffer's video series, "How Should We Then Live?," he included a segment on news reporting. The scene depicts a clash between students and police as reported by a notional media outlet. The police come off looking like thugs carting off the peacefully protesting post-grads.

Then Schaeffer stops his camera and lets us see another news outlet's take on the event. In it, the thugs are reversed. The students come off as rioters and the police as frantically attempting to keep the peace. The whole event was a one-time drama put on by actors but filmed and reported by different groups.

The message? What the media wanted to tell its listeners made all the difference.

I thought of that yesterday as I walked passed a TV in my workplace. The CNN talking head gushed to her female cohort with unashamed giddiness,

"Now we can finally move ahead with embryonic stem cell research."

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold the bus. You could report the same thing this way:

"The plight of unborn children grew more dire today as the FDA opened the door for their murder in the cause of science."

For that is what happened as the Food and Drug Administration okayed the usage of embryonic stem cells on patients. President Bush restricted stem cell studies to embryonic lines that had already been started. In other words, no more intentional destruction of human life to advance science. The door is ajar. Expect the new president to fling it wide open.

The article (here) states that embyronic stem cells are the most powerful, but it fails to note that in all the testing that has been done thus far, the most useful stem cells have been those taken from living adults or umbilical blood and not those from destroyed babies.

And in keeping with his promises toward greater bi-partisanship (cough), the new President has lifted the ban on overseas funding for groups that promote abortions (here). Reagan began and Bushes Sr. and Jr. enforced this fiscal restriction to save lives abroad. Mssrs. Clinton and Obama have both repealed the restriction as one of their first acts in office. The latter waited until the day after Roe's anniversary.

What can we expect from the President regarding conservative values? Yesterday when meeting with leaders from both parties, the President flexed his muscle. When meeting steady resistance from the Republicans regarding his ideas for the wickering with the economy, he finally retorted, "I won" (here).

The left will spin this as the uncooperative righties not giving the new President his 100-day grace period. The right will consider the President's sweeping speeches and campaign promises a sham. It is interesting that the same man, on the day of his inauguration, declared

"We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken—you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."

In the meantime, millions more unborn children will die with the "legal" consent of the United States and its President. The genocide continues...

Land of the Free...still

I mentioned in a recent post stepping in some goo as I trod the wilderness of the web. What it brought to mind, despite the conviction that we are on a swift slide toward becoming socialist Europe, is we remain a free people. Others don't have it quite so good (which makes me want to bang my head on the concrete as I try and figure out why we want to become like them).

• China. Remember those fun-loving folks from the Olympics? Remember the magic they wrought amidst the Bird's Nest and on the 10-meter platform? Remember that wonderful illusion of freedom on display for all the world to see? In the middle of Barack Obama's inauguration, when he got to the part, "Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions," the communists strategically broke away to one of their ministers of thought to put their spin on what he was really saying (here).
  
  Censorship remains alive and well.


• Cowardice. Remember Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film maker murdered on the streets of Amsterdam for his cinematic critique of Islam? Rather than begin to root out and exterminate the cockroaches that perpetrated such inhumanity, the Dutch went one better. They bowed to the butchers and kissed their boots. It became hate speech to speak against Islam. Seems ol' Theo got his comeuppance in the minds of his countryfolk.

Well, the Queen of Heart's jurisprudence continues in the Netherlands. Geert Wilders, a member of Dutch Parliament and also a filmmaker, won't have to worry about getting his noggin schwacked for making a film about the War on Terror. Why's that, you ask? Because he's been indicted for inciting religious hatred against Islam with his film (read the insanity here). Perhaps local constables should arrest the jewelers for whipping the kleptomaniacs into an uncontrollable frenzy.

Has the world gone utterly mad?!?

Justice is turned back,
And righteousness stands afar off;
For truth is fallen in the street,
And equity cannot enter.
So truth fails,
And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

Isaiah 59:14-15

(Pictured: Theo van Gogh from Wikipedia)

Moderate Muslims: Winning over skeptics

I've mentioned before how nice it would be to hear the Islamic world cry out against demons personified who slaughter all things civilized. I think Horton's Whos could be more easily heard. An article in USA Today today reminded me of the sound of Islamic silence (I don't recommend the read, but for disclosure's sake you can find it here).

The gist of the article: because of the recent Jewish "war in Gaza," Obama will continue to support Israel against Gaza's democratically elected government. The same old saw. It's the Jews' fault. America will continue to support the Jewish state. Palestinians will remain oppressed.

One sentence in the opening paragraph stuck in my craw:

"If President-elect Barack Hussein Obama really wants to improve America's standing in the Muslim world, he'll need to do more to win over skeptics such as Muhammad Zia Ullah (a suq merchant in Pakistan)."

In light of the good faith that Muslims around the world are showing to Christians and Jews that's a reasonable request isn't it? Good grief.

How, pray tell, does Hamas show its good faith toward living in peace with the civilized world? Would lobbing love rockets into Israel be such a gesture. Perhaps taking out a school bus of Israeli children or a half-dozen citizens in a Haifa market with a couple sticks of C-4 strapped tenderly to your bosom. But, oh my, President Obama must contort like the Chinese Golden Acrobats to display his sincerity toward peace in the Middle East. Good grief.

(On a similar note, I received this video from a friend today...the other Keith. It's a little bit lengthy, but it's of an Arab woman, a secularist, taped on the Al-Jazeera network, exposing Islam for what it is. I wonder how much longer she'll be alive. It's a bit lengthy, but it gets really good at the end. View it here).

Life

(I got this link from my son and had to post out of my normal cycle.)

Roe is 36 today. Take 41 seconds, and give this a watch.

Candy for the eye and soul

Some spiffy stuff I stumbled across in the web's countryside. I stepped in some stuff, too, but I'll post that gnarliness tomorrow.

• Inauguration panorama. Some enterprising editor jammed together a mess of photos to come up with this shot. It's interactive, too. You can scroll around and up and down. It might take a few seconds to download based upon your stuff.


• Inauguration celestial. I understand that might be the opinion of the liberal America but that's not what I mean. Here's a phenomenal shot of the inauguration from space! Breathtaking. You can see the crowds of people as the huddled near the ten jumbo-tron TV's Notice how the people arc away from the screen. This, too, is an interactive site.

A couple writer's on the web have such quality stuff that I savor their pen's products like I do oatmeal scotchies from the hand of my bride. Andree Seu, a regular columnist for World Magazine, who also does a daily ditty at World on the Web, is one of those authors. I offer two of her recent pieces for your enjoyment (they're short).

• Oaths. President Obama took one yesterday. If you carry a ring on your left hand, you took one, too. If you've served in the military you took one. Here's a rich ponderance on the solemnity of an oath.


• Birds. Okay, it's not really about birds but about the sovereignty of God in our lives. But birds come into play (here). I thought of this rumination by Jesus, too.

Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:29-31

Amendment

Roe was 1973 not '72 making it's age 36. The devastation just makes it seem longer.

Disturbing

In my recent "Just another day" rant, I mentioned Sanctity of Human Life Day and that someone had remembered it (you can link the post here. You'll find it near the bottom). The person that remembered it? George Bush.

My bride just went to the link and found that it no longer went to President Bush's SHLD proclamation. Tragic. I feel like I've been slugged in the gut. Anyway, here's a newslink to what the former President had done.

Tomorrow the most egregious court decision ever turns 37 years old. God forgive us.

President Obama: Day one

In case you missed the inauguration, you can read what our President said here. My two cents:

• Epic history. When our parents were born, a black man becoming POTUS was inconceivable. Now, it is reality. NFL coaches keep their jobs when they win and get canned when they lose. Sad, but race remains a consideration when hiring. If a black man isn't considered among the list of potential coaches, many label the owner as racist. I long for the day when we start assessing the man based upon what he does rather than his skin tone. That goes for our current President.
  


• Brilliant rhetoric. He knows how to deliver when it comes to public oratory.


• God. Wow. Had a Republican included that many references to God or the Bible (despite twisting Paul's words way out of context, the "...setting aside of childish things"), the left would be in the middle of a collective spleen rupture. So this begs the question: why the almost over-emphasis on things biblical?


• Stand and cheer moment. "We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you." I hope that will be the case.
  


• "Grab your wallet" quotes. The purple comments are mine. I included the bold-type to emphasize a few points.
  


• "Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age." Does that mean I haven't been taxed enough yet?


• "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified." Sounds Kennedy-esque, doesn't it? But what happened to whether or not something is right or wrong? "Does it work" is utilitarian. It's pragmatism. And often, it leads to corruption. And, by the way, it's not the government's responsibility to ensure I get a decent wage. It's mine. My family is my responsibility. BACK OFF!!
  


• And the kicker... "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. This is the price and the promise of citizenship." Everything in bold can be loosely translated, "There will be no griping when we bleed you of your income to socialize our nation." What will be the final price? We'll see in eight years (yes, I said eight).
  

• Rick Warren. Unashamed about Christ. Sweet! Long-winded, though. Seemed like a mini-sermon (read it here).


• Joseph Lowery. He's the guy who did the benediction. If you think Warren was picked to appease conservatives, this gentleman sounded like he would be welcomed heartily in Jeremiah Wright's church of race and class delineations. Read his oratory here.
  


• Ted Kennedy. Pray for him. Collapsed during lunch having convulsions. Seems to be doing better this evening though still hospitalized.
  


• George Bush. Booed. Can you believe it? Like the Lakers vs. the Pistons. "Na-Na-Na-Na. Na-Na-Na-Na. Hey-ey-ey. Good-bye." At a change of power in the greatest nation on the earth?!? You've got to be kidding me. He served his nation for eight years and that's the send off he gets? I can think of a few gestures that I'd have wanted to return, but he remained the dignified man he's been for his entire tenure in office. Not that his eyes will ever make this blog, but "Thank you Mr. President for your faithful service to our nation. I and most of my readers appreciate your enormous sacrifice."

So what's it all mean? Not much. Day one is pomp and circumstance. Tomorrow implementation begins. It turns out that day two, in a bit of tragic irony, is the thirty-seventh anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Just another day: MLK

• The Cardinals. I did not expect in my lifetime to find the Arizona Cardinals anywhere past the first round of the playoffs at best. And now they're off to the Super Bowl. Dwight Perry, sportswriter for the Seattle Times quipped that it proved "it's time to repent -- the end is near."


• The Savior. Despite the deep freeze that has frost-bitten the northern hemisphere this winter, the enviro-apocalyptics are still afrenzied. (Trumpet blast) But help is on the way! Seems a chief NASA expert on the meteorological sword of Damocles hanging over our head looks to tomorrow's new President to save the world (here). Maybe I'm the wacko thinking our rebellion against God will usher in global catastrophe and that only He (God, not Obama) can save us.


• The New Amorality. We're going to usher in a new era of unrestrained libido. Some would refer to it as the Culture of Death. Many cry that "you can't legislate morality," completely ignorant of the fact that all law is moral. In keeping with that concept, the new administration is giving the governmental green-light to conduct that at one time was not discussed but in hush-hush tones, conduct that is now the only subject of sitcoms.
  
  Not only will the President rubber-stamp homosexuality by repealing "don't ask-don't tell" and rubber stamp murder en utero with the Freedom of Choice Act, his administration seeks to unfetter our youth by getting rid of such medieval programs like abstinence-based sex education (here). Hmmm...state taught sex-ed. More indication of parents abdicating their God-given responsibility and the state scooping it up.


• Sanctity of Human Life Day. What a difference a week makes. January 15th, last Tuesday, was Sanctity of Human Life Day. I hate to say, I missed it. Didn't even know it was taking place. Tragic. It also goes to show that the media didn't cover it. Not worth it, I guess.
  
  Someone remembered, though (here). I wonder if it will be remembered by them next year. Methinks not.


• Did I mention that the Cardinals, the Arizona Cardinals, are going to the Super Bowl?!? There may yet be hopes for my Vikings (ha-ha-ha-hoo...I nearly fell off my chair).
  

Fore!

A friend sent this to me (I don't know the source). Some of it's a hoot ... even if you're not a golfer.

TEN SUPERB CADDY REPLIES

Golfer: "Think I'm going to drown myself in the lake."
Caddy: "Think you can keep your head down that long?"
-------
Golfer: "I'd move heaven and earth to break 100 on this course."
Caddy: "Try heaven, you've already moved most of the earth."
-------
Golfer: "Do you think my game is improving?"
Caddy: "Yes sir, you miss the ball much closer now.
-------
Golfer: "Do you think I can get there with a 5-iron?"
Caddy: "Eventually."
-------
Golfer: "You've got to be the worst caddy in the world."
Caddy: "I don't think so sir. That would be too much of a coincidence."
-------
Golfer: "Please stop checking your watch all the time. It's too much of a distraction."
Caddy: "It's not a watch - it's a compass."
-------
Golfer: "How do you like my game?"
Caddy: "Very good sir, but personally, I prefer golf."
-------
Golfer: "Do you think it's a sin to play on Sunday?"
Caddy: "The way you play, sir, it's a sin on any day."
-------
Golfer: "This is the worst course I've ever played on."
Caddy: "This isn't the golf course. We left that an hour ago."

Hamas: Can you feel the love tonight?

From the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI):



Are those strains of Kumbaya I hear in the background?

Just another day: People

Some thoughts to close the week.

• Tom Hanks. The man can act. His characters compel us because you can believe that these are real people. Many have likened him to the Jimmy Stewart. It's an apt description.
  
  But unlike the combat-tested Mr. Stewart, Mr. Hanks leans left. No, he has built a castle miles to the left of center, and there he abides.
  
  His recent foray into the non-cinematic opinion condemns the Mormon church for its tenacious fight in support Proposition 8, California's constitutional amendment to declare marriage between -- gasp! -- a man and a woman. He calls them "un-American" (here). Interesting, though, that the largest identifiable people group that supported Prop 8 was black Californians. Why not them as "un-American?"
  
  Seems pretty plain that following a state's code for amending their Constitution is an American undertaking.
  
  Unless you have issues with religion. Do the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons ring a bell? The characters he chooses to play have no affection for Almighty God. How can a man be stranded on a desert island for years and cry out to a volleyball instead of God (Cast Away)?
  
  Hanks open attack against the Latter-Day Saints is an open attack against Catholics and Christians, too. It's against any who hold to a greater authority that infringes upon man's personal autonomy. Bummer.


• The Phantom of the Opera. Loved the movie. Loved the play. I have heard rumblings that those who know Broadway find Andrew Lloyd Webber, the man behind PotO and other blockbuster musicals, common and trite. They look down their three-mile long noses and scoff his successes as catering to the ignorant masses.
  
  Or perhaps he knows what he likes and figures, "Hey, if I like it, others might like it, too." Really, it's the genius behind Pixar. Couple a wonderful story with a wonderful telling of that story and awash it with compelling beauty. What's not to like?
  
  One take is that it's another conservative being shunned by the erudite elites of the media and entertainment industries (here)
  
  Who's to say. But I look forward to getting the audio hooked up on the new TV so we can CRANK the Phantom once again.


• Israel. Can someone explain to me why Israel is being called upon to end the aggression in Gaza? It's like the poor guy in the NFL who throws an opposing player to the ground for punching his quarterback and then gets flagged for coming to his defense.
  
  Hey, Israel! Finish the fight Hamas started. For all our sakes.


• Obama. We're almost there. Anticipate before the close of February:
  
  
  1. He will allow homosexuals to openly serve in the military.
  
  2. He will enact the Freedom of Choice Act eradicating in one empirical sweep the laws that states of put in place to protect unborn children.

Terrific. That's enough for this week.

QotD: God

"So you shall keep my commandments and do them: I am the LORD. And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the LORD who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the LORD."

Leviticus 22:31-33

Eureka! Scientist's create life

Sort of. Okay, not quite. Still, Fox's headline (article linked here) was kind of cute:

Life as we know it nearly created in lab

Nearly.

Then they really crank up the equivocation. Perhaps. Maybe. Possibly.

But Fox exposes the real linchpin of this entire experimental problem when they note:

Now scientists have created something in the lab that is tantalizingly close to what might have happened (at the time life began).

Created. Very little is stated in Fox's article about what really took place in the lab, but the most important thing to note is that intelligent beings had to establish the parameters and bring together the materials for this perfect condition to come about. "Scientists created." What? That's open for debate. But scientists tinkered, tweaked and finagled.

The experiment required a experimenter.

Why the resistance to accept the Creator?

Air Force: The Next Generation

Dick Cheney, Part II

This one's not about the VP. It's about his name.

Do you know anyone under the age of, oh, sixty named "Dick?" That's too bad. No, it's tragic. Our culture has slimed a great name. Dick Van Dyke! Dick Tracy (I always loved his last name). Dick Van Patten (sorry, that's a bit on the girlie-side). Dick Sergeant (can you name his series without a Google search?). "Moby Dick," a classic, they say. Dick Butkus (I wonder how many broken noses he gave before dudes shut their traps). Dick Clark. I suspect in our life time we'll not hear of another Tom, Dick or Harry named "Dick." That's sad.

I remember a guy I worked with whose last name was "Gray." Except it really wasn't "Gray." It was "Gay." He had tired of the disgusting humor because of his last name and didn't want his children to have to bear that. And so he changed his name. His family's name. No more "Gay." I couldn't even find the name "Gay" for boys or girls on "Wikiname." But what about Gay Brewer. Gay Talese. The Enola Gay. The "Gay Nineties." Oh, to be gay of heart. No more. That's sad.

I hate to hear what "Keith" has become synonomous with in fifty years. And your opinions don't count!

Dick Cheney

If it's possible for the left (and the world, for that matter) to detest someone more than President George W. Bush, that person would be Vice President Richard B. Cheney.

Many consider him the evil puppetmaster behind all that has occurred during the Bush presidency, insisting that the President wasn't smart enough coordinate his socks and that the sheer villainy the last eight years had to come from a warped and wicked heart more sinister than Bush's. I saw a bumper sticker that read "Satan/Cheney in '08. Vote for the father/son ticket." Charming. Hillary Clinton compared him to Darth Vader. Everyone had a hey-day with that one.

by Mike Luckovich

"The most amazing part of the (Cheney-Edwards '04) debate was when Dick Cheney told John Edwards in his Darth Vader voice, 'John I am your father.'"

- Jay Leno

Needless to say, Dick Cheney, while dispensing a bit of buckshot these past eight years (remember his greeting to Pat Leahy on the Senate floor? I still chuckle.), has absorbed more flak than any other political figure over the long term than I can recollect (Sarah Palin holds the short-term barrage record). But who is Dick Cheney?

Outside his life as a Wyoming Senator, I knew very little of the man. Jay Nordlinger had the opportunity to sit down with the Vice President and a few other reporters over an extended lunch to pulse the outgoing Veep. It reveals a side of the man few of us have had the opportunity to hear and might not get to hear considering the wheels of objective historical analysis tend to turn slowly.

If you know little about the man outside what the media has spun, you'll find the article here...it's three pages but a delightful and refreshing reading.

A quick excerpt, then I'll leave you be. He joked about the Darth Vader references and then told the reporters that he had asked his family if they were offended by the onslaught of Vader references. "They said, "No, it humanizes you.""

Just another day: A cosmic roar

Someone recently noted that turning to the news feels more and more like a Left Behind novel. True that. Then an article took me back to the late sixties, the 1960's to be more precise.

• Vietnam became a cauldron of nasty
  
• Israel smote its neighbors in a six-day fury the likes of which had not been seen.
  
• Breshnev and LBJ each had toy nukes
• Mao's Little Red Book polluted the land of one billion as he played with his own toys
  
• Free love, Kent State and Woodstock heralded the brazenness of the era
• The Motion Picture Association of America had to start rating movies

So I sit here and drop another "Just another day" intending to alert you to the "wars and rumors of wars" that portend the beginning of such things. And I do believe these to be such things. But if I'd been blogging in the sixties, I might have started JAD back then.

So what's been going on.

• Say "Excuse me!" Did you hear about what the astronomers heard? I always thought they looked, but I guess they listen, too. Normally, they say, the cosmos hisses. I wonder if it thinks it's watching a bad movie. Anyway, these eaves-dropping astronomers became bug-eyed when the heretofore timid cosmos coughed up a roar six times louder than 24-7 hiss (here). What gives? I don't know. Neither do they.


• Yellowstone's own gastro-intestinal difficulties. Seems Yellowstone's been quaking and shaking to beat the band these past few weeks. Did you know that one of the largest volcanoes in the world lies beneath the typically serene landscape? Yep. Is it going to blow. Scientists don't think so (here). Like meteorologists predicting hurricane season.


• Spanning the globe. Fourteen people are dead from a 6.1 earthquake down in Costa Rica and 1200 remain trapped under rubble. Considering their buildings have not been built to withstand such shocks, expect the toll to rise. Across the Pacific, Indonesia's dealt with 7.4, 7.1, and 6.1 to ring in the New Year. Here is a map of the hiccups this past week. Southern Cal's was a meager 4.5.
  


• WWF travels to Israel. As if the southeastern Mediterannean wasn't already like nitroglycerin in Barnie Fife's pocket, Lebanon's own terrorist team, Hezbollah, has come off the turn-buckles and fired their own "We're the Oppressed Victims" rockets into northern Israel (here and here). A UN "truce" means "ceasefire" to Israel but "time to reload" to the Muslims. What will escalate this mess across borders? Syria, Egypt, and Jordan al seem pretty quite. A bit further to the east, Iran stands there trash-talking like a child taunting the lion at the zoo. I think Iran will be surprised how far those paws can reach.


• Turn up the heat! Lots of cold around this winter. Lots of snow. Is this the cooling before the warming? Seems Europe's come to a standstill (here).
  

I do know this. We're four decades past the sixties. And one day closer. Until next time...

Citizen Kane

I love classic movies. Action. Drama. Comedy. Love stories. You name it. When looking to rent a movie, I'll go to top 100 lists to see which of the best of the best I have yet to see.

Most lists have Orson Welles' Citizen Kane as the #1 movie of all time. When asked the greatest movie of all time, directors, producers, actors, key grips and caterers will answer in locked goose-step unison, "Citizen Kane!"

Well, that many folks couldn't be wrong, could they? So about three years ago I rented Citizen Kane. At no charge, here's my review of CK:

STUPID!

It could be I'm a knuckle-dragger and that I don't have an erudite understanding of film nuance. But then there's Rosebud. Stupidia maxima.

I came across another film list recently. At the top of the list? CK.

Could one of you please explain to me the greatness of Citizen Kane? It's kind of like a joke or a puzzle. I want to understand. I want to get it. This one has me as baffled as much as a Jackson Pollock masterpiece.

I may have to go to my grave stumped by Orson Welles.

Law and rational disconnect

I can't think of an issue where people assert crazier notions than the abortion issue. Marvin Olasky, editor of World Magazine, made me think of that today as I read his article Abortion Heresy.

Near the end of his article, he exposed the daffiness of state laws that deal with the murder of an unborn child vis-a-vis the laws governing abortion.

"Right now killing an unborn child with the consent of the mother is legal in all 50 states—but in at least 35 states it is murder if a father or anyone else kills that child without the mother's consent. In other words, our law is based on the idea that unborn children do not objectively have value unless they are recognized as children by their mothers. Do we really believe that?"

Rationality and reality no longer govern our laws, at least when it touches the life of an unborn child.

How tragic that with so grave an issue we would let such contradictory laws abide side by side.

A father's love

(Posted with permission)

My church prays. Every Wednesday evening, the adults split up into small groups to pray for issues facing folks in the church, issues they're facing, issues our nation faces. Issues.

Tonight, I had the honor to engage in spiritual battle (prayer - Ephesians 6) with Arnoldo and Mark.

As Mark began to pray, he thanked God for a special situation that he encountered at work. Mark is a fire fighter at a nearby Air Force base, and during a quiet moment in the station the other day, he began to think of his children, his son, Nicholas, and his brand new baby daughter, Elizabeth. As he thought about his kids, a big smile grew across his face.

In that moment, God got his attention. Mark came to believe what he knew to be true, that God loves His children. That God loves him, Mark, in a way far greater than Mark could ever love his kids. As he smiled about his kids, he imagined God smiling about him. The thought stole his breath. His prayer thanked God for lavishing His love upon us and for adopting us, a group of folks who did not deserve it.

I get stuck on God's justice. God is just. He is. And those who stand in rebellion against Him and do not accept the restitution provided by His Son will know the hot fire of God's justice and His wrath.

But to those who are His, God in His word speaks of a paternal love the blows away the affection of the best dad on the planet (best mom, too). If you haven't read through the story of the Prodigal Son lately, give it a go (here) and pay special attention to the love of the dad...to both sons.

How sweet it was for my soul to hear one father offer such heartfelt thanks to his Eternal Father...and really appreciate what that meant.

(Pictured Mark & Elizabeth)

International cancer

Shmuley Boteach addressing how countries must deal with the Islamic fundamentalism that seeks the annihilation of the civilized world (here, italics mine):

"When the body has cancer, the medical profession deploys every means at its disposal to eradicate it. There is no proportionality. Radiation, chemotherapy and anything else that works is sent into the battle when dealing with a disease that will otherwise snuff out life."

No, it's not magic

If you have ever seen Penn & Teller, you'd remember.

Imagine Laurel & Hardy doing magic but here, the Oliver Hardy stands a full foot taller than the Stan Laurel. And Laurel doesn't talk. He can; he just doesn't. Skipper and Gilligan where the "little buddy" won't say a word. It's a funny and amazing act. They are great magicians.

But if you've ever heard Penn Jillette, the audible, sizable portion of the duo, break into his opinion of worldviews, the laughter ceases. Nothing amazing. Just vocal, bitter atheism.

The other day, a fan, a Christian fan handed Penn Jillette a Bible. Listen to how truly quieted this act made a blustery giant of a man. And pray for his soul.

Celestial warming?

Now that astronomers have determined that our galaxy is bigger and denser than previously thought (here), anticipate, oh, another three days before some bark-eater (**ad hominem attack warning**) has an epiphany and announces that we have caused this density increase and runaway growth by launching exploratory spacecraft into the cosmos.

Man-made celestial expandensation?

Planet Earth

Zoinks.

Oh, wow!

(Stunned silence).

These have been typical of the responses that have poured forth from me and other members of my family as we've sat in pop-eyed wander watching the BBC/Discovery Channel mini-series Planet Earth. I don't mean to sound bathetic (correct spelling), but I don't think it's trite to state that this is one of the most superb uses of the visual medium that I have ever seen.

Apart from the occasional evolutionary terminology (it's always a fact, don'tcha know), I don't know that I have ever seen anything on television that so declared the glory of God. Easily 99% of the places and things seen and recorded by these photographers I will never see. You'll swallow hard wondering how they got some of the shots they got.

What a phenomenal, breath-seizing opportunity to see things on this planet that must have given God great delight and joy to craft. I can imagine him sitting in the wings while the first folks ever to see some of these sights rounded the corner to stumble upon them. It had to be a better sensation than a parent watching their child tear into an unexpected and unbelievable birthday gift.

It's not a cheap mini-series. Perhaps you could ask for it as a gift for your family (thanks, Mom!). Maybe you can borrow it from a friend or check it out from the library. Or you might catch it on the Discovery Channel. In any case, for the one's who know the One who knit the tapestry together, it will serve to make you marvel all the more at the extraordinary God who created our home.

"Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good."

Better than a 9mm

What happens when an armed thug climbs into a little old lady's car as she's getting ready to leave Wal-Mart and she's maceless, taserless, and not packing any heat? My bet would have gone to the dirt bag since grandma didn't know jujitsu nor the difference between nunchucks and woodchucks.

But that was not to be the case. I'll not spoil the ending. Read what happened here.

(NOTE: This falls under the rubric of "No-duh!" but I do not use this article as an excuse to "put God to the test." I'm as big a fan of personal security as I am of wearing seat belts. It does, however, show the power of God unto salvation. You never know who might be ripe to hear the word of truth.)

Just another day: 78* on January 3rd!!!

• Okay, it is Texas. But 78 degrees! Where's the snow? Where's the ice fishing? Makes me want to call Al Gore. Whoa. Maybe the heat's baking my brain.
  

Speaking of the Al Meister, I came across this today.

by Glen McCoy

More on former VP Gore later.


• Papua goes the weasel. 7.9 on the Richter scale in Southeast Asia. Again. That'll rattle the cattle. Tsunami alert. Again. Are these coming at increasingly regular intervals or is it just me? Really. Any geological geeks out there?


• Gaza-ntheit. Israel's spent from trying to abide this factitious peace with Hamas. When your foe says they want to make nice but continues to Moe Howard the back of your head, you can either take the thumping in squeaky whinyness like Curly or you can wield around on your heels and jam digits one and toe into the sockets of your irritator.
  

Yes, the tanks have pushed into Gaza. Hamas has released an interesting response. They have promised to unleash a "day of wrath" (here). Interesting choice of words.

• 2012. Remember the disaster movies of the 70's? Airport and it's sequels? Towering Inferno? Earthquake? What made those movies compelling was their plausibility. You could imagine something like that taking place today or tomorrow.
  

Apocalyptic disaster movies have replaced the localized disaster movie. The usual cause of this cataclysm? You and me. Next in the queue is 2012 by Roland Emmerich. He took a unique slant for this flick. His film imagines what would happen if the prophecies from the Mayan calendar would actually come to pass.

How is it that Hollywood will bite on Al Gore apocalypses and pagan religion apocalypses, but they utterly ignore the judgment and destruction promised by God in the Bible?


• Tragedy. I do not know what 2009 will bring. Standby for my "9 certainties for 2009." One of those certainties is death. Wow, Keith, tracking a little morbid, aren't we? Yeah, I guess so. But one of the things God calls us to do is to learn to number our days (Psalm 90:12). We are to be aware that none of us is guaranteed tomorrow. Most of us grasp that. It touches a more tender spot when we think of those nearest our heart.
  

The sudden and tragic death of John Travolta's sixteen-year old son exemplifies this truth. I say this not to make you live in fear. Each day is a gift from the Lord. So as the clock takes us further from the drop of the puck for 2009, savor the rich blessings of your family and friends. Enjoy strangers, too, and let them know you enjoy their presence. Live without regret to the glory of Almighty God.

Keep your eyes to the east.

Ad hominem

Sounds like part of a recipe, doesn't it. Just add hominem and stir.

I had hominy once and didn't much care for it. Why would anyone think to soak corn in lye and then chow down? Same principle lutefisk. But I digress.

Thanks to MTV among a myriad of other reasons, we no longer listen to arguments very well. We have lazy, ADD addled ears. When an issue crosses our path that does grab our attention, the pitchman will connive and contort better than a carnival barker, and we become deceived.

One technique to make a point by not really making a point is to "attack the man" for that is what ad hominem means.

Think back to Sarah Palin. Arguably, the left hated her. That may be too polite. Can you think of anything sterner than "loathe"? Anyway, considering John McCain tagged her as his running mate during his presidential bid, the best way to derail her would be to counter her political arguments or her political positions, right?

Did the left once hammer her politics? I don't recall it. They attacked "the man"-- er -- "the woman" (ad feminem?). Sarah Palin from Wasilla! Ewww. She's wrong because she went to seventeen colleges. Look at her hair. Her tax plan is stupid because she spent a million dollars in sacks shopping (or was it at Saks?). Her international policies will have us fighting wars on every planet because she hunts moose! And her daughter's pregnant.

What does any of this say about her ideas? It might say much about her character but it says nothing about the philosophy she would use to lead.

Specifically, the ad hominem attack distracts. It's a shell game; its slight-of-hand. Yeah, it all sounds good, Keith, but you played hockey! Um, so? I still have all my teeth.

So next time you hear someone trying to convince you of something, me included, be on guard for the ad hominem attack. It's cheap, it's easy, and it's very effective.

But it's wrong. Take it from a Minnesota boy.

Abolishing God in the name of tolerance

The atheists are at it again and they won't be happy until the last vestige of anything remotely supernatural is driven from public view.

The military is getting hammered again for having invocations and benedictions at various ceremonies (here). The powers that be have so scrubbed the prayers to make them nothing more potent then a Deepak Chopra ramble on Larry King Live. And--egad! -- the military advocates spiritual solace for those who've struggled with suicidal tendencies. Hmmm. Am I to read that to say the atheists find suicide more palatable than theism?

This is getting so absurd I expect to see Elmer Fudd round the corner. Now the anti-gods are in a full-court press to have scrub God from the Presidential Inauguration (here). Can't ask His blessing at the lead-in. Can't ask His blessing on the out-go. And--get this--no "so help me God" from the lips of the oath-taking President.

These folks believe it's an infringement upon their freedoms to ask God's blessing upon our President. And it's illegal for the President to seek God's assistance in his life and in his role as our nation's leader.

Judges must dismiss these Looney-Toons from their courtrooms with a vigorous Doc Marten to the posterior. Buckling to the God-haters supported by high priced lawyers has corrupted the intent of our Founders to have free exercise of religion within our society, all aspects of our society, to include our government.

Time to say "No" when confronted by such ridiculous threats. They can abide, freely, in their disbelief with their heads buried deep in their rabbit hole. The great majority of our nation, those who believe in a living God, cannot buckle to those who wish to eradicate things religious from public view or soon they'll be asking churches to remove the crosses from their steeples.

(Apologies to Bugs, Daffy, Elmer and the whole LT team. I love 'em).

Gaza: No moral equivalence here

I've heard some wacky ideas in my day. The socio-political regurgitant that gets my goat is tolerance. Explain to me why we should "tolerate" a political ideal that encourages folks to strap TNT to their torso and then toddle off to obliterate a school bus. Or a vegetable market. Or a movie theater (though I can see where most of Hollywood's fare of late might cause you to want to raze the theater).

Such ideas and political movements need to be condemned en masse by civilized nation's around the world. We can expect such ideologies to attract Iran, North Korea, Venezuela (new to the group), and on occasion Russia, China and their ilk.

But when the free world begins to cave to and condone such nonsense, even going so far as to adopting surreal and insane legal codes in parallel with their own, civilization itself is jeopardized. They skylark about like life's a t-ball game. "We're all winners!" cries Stuart Smalley. "Don't you feel just swell about yourself?" Folks just don't understand the reality that the kids are keeping score.

In America Alone, Mark Steyn relates the story of British General Sir Charles Napier (back when Great Britain still had some cajones). When confronted by the Indian practice of "suttee" where a woman would be burned upon the funeral pyre of her deceased husband, he didn't bat a British eyelash.

"You say that it is your custom to burn widows," he acknowledged. "Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre, beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And we will then follow ours."

India no longer practices suttee.

Israel & Hamas are not equivalent. We don't need to equivocate about our support for the only nation in that gnarly nook of the planet that enjoys any semblence of societal freedom and civilization. I came across a couple of political cartoons this season that depict the difference and the world's um-well-gosh opinion of the situation.

by Glen McCoy

by Michael Ramirez

AND THEIR OFF!!

Rather, it's off. 2009. But you knew that.

I sort of slept in. Two boys have zorched out the door to hunt before our big afternoon meal. The girls are bounding around the house with an energy that indicates they have no clue that they just woke up. My in-laws remain snug in their beds, and my beautiful bride is folding together the batter for homemade Belgian waffles. It doesn't get much better than that.

Here we sit, perched upon the dawn (okay, mid-morning) of the New Year. 365 days ago I birthed this blog with a quote by John Stuart Mill on war (here). Who'd-a-thunk 2008 would bring the twists and turns that it did?

How much money did you lose in 2008? Were you betting on Hillary end game for the Dems? Had you ever heard of Sarah Palin? Did you imagine the tornadoes that would beset our country? Or a horrifying train wreck caused by text messaging? Do you remember that 2008 was the year that George Carlin, Charlton Heston, Heath Ledger, Jim McKay, Paul Newman, Tim Russert, Tony Snow, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Jerry Stack would all face their God. Some would meet Him for the first time only to be eternally separated from Him. Others would be graced with an embrace like they've never known as they are welcomed into the joy of the Lord.

What will January 2nd, 2009 hold in store? The writer of Ecclesiastes (yes, I think it was Solomon) railed against the frustrations, inhumanities, and inequities of life. His anguish took life in that he could only examine life "under the sun" and could not scrutinize the entire picture. Even as he sought explanation for the why's and wherefore's of God's divine hand, Solomon collided with the walls of his own finiteness.

He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. (Eccl. 3:1)

When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, 17 then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it. (Eccl. 8:16-17)

Only when he stopped his manic search for satisfaction and turned his eyes above the sun, did he find his satisfaction. Not explanation, but peace and satisfaction, much like Job when God finally confronted him. Job could not discern the end of things but understood that the God who began them all had the end in plain sight.

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know...but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:3, 5)

2009. Plenty or poverty? My hope is that I will be able to echo Habakkuk's heart when he praised God with tear-reddened eyes,

Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.

(Habakkuk 3:17-18)

Happy New Year, my friends.