While I certainly don't agree with every position he has, I respect that Gatewood is certainly the most honest man in the election for Kentucky Governor, and the least "buyable". If I had any spare money, I'd certainly donate to the cause.
A Christian Bohemian Packrat shares a few of the ideas he has managed to collect over the years...
Friday, April 27, 2007
I can't vote for my prefered candidate
Thursday, April 26, 2007
I'm still sick of Politics, but one thing is for sure
Gonzales needs to resign, and a reasonable replacement named.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
UK Benefits -- Milady is Disappointed
No, Milady wanted to get her degree. UK employees get 6 hours a semester free, and there were high hopes that they'd extend those benefits to spouses and children. Instead, the UK employee can either get the 6 hours, or the spouse or child may get 50% off tuition and fees. Very useful for kids, but where Milady wanted to take 1 or 2 classes for free, that won't work.
Oh, well....
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Good, cheesy science fiction
Star Trek: Of Gods and Men is behind schedule, so they only have the first 3 minutes of Act One on-line. It's still a really good three minutes.
Hidden Frontier (a Star Trek fan fiction follow-on) is wrapping up its final season soon. The first couple of seasons are very painful to watch, but they have matured into a cast capable of rivaling any series put forth by Paramount.
Finally, New Voyages will be releasing "World Enough And Time" any day now. I'm not quite over what they did to Chekov in "To Serve All of My Days", but they may fix it in the Special Edition later....
If you know of a show that should appear here, leave a comment or Email me and I'll add it.
Monday, April 23, 2007
The Song of the Day
Why? All kinds of bad moon magic being used here at work. I can't say much more, but fortunately it's not my manure pile to shovel....
Sunday, April 22, 2007
The Sounds Of Wretched Silence
I have been praying for the families of the people who died at VT. I've cried over the incident. But in this case, I have little sympathy for the victims, because (with few exceptions) they chose to be victims. Cho surprised the people in the first room. OK, I can see where the people in that room had little room to act. However, every other room had ample warning. Why didn't they fight back?
People are victims all over the world because they are denied the fundamental right to defend themselves. In the US, we teach our kids to never, ever fight (which 99% of th e time is right, but not 100%). In the rest of the world, we deny repressed groups access to arms to defend themselves.
I think Darfur is a shame. That said, every argument I used to oppose our trip into the Balkins and Milady used to oppose Iraq also apply there. It's a terrible problem trying to be a consistent libertarian...
Bloggers do little good when silent. Christians do little good when silent. That's why I won't be silent.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Why women avoid IT -- and possibly should
In the comments to the article, Natomui said:
It really frightens me that the tone of the article depicts all IT related women as doting career moms who are only waiting for an easy out to go home and take care of Father Jr. This backslide into 1950s pre-feminist movement status scares me. Why can't the IT dad have to worry about day-care and being on call 24 hours a day because he has to take care of his children too? Why have we set up yet another situation for detached parenting that falls prey to the same social normality that we've been trying to eradicate for decades to pave the way for something far more beneficial - a well rounded parental structure that depicts both parties as nurturing.
1960s feminism has failed the children. The Baby Boomers may not have realized it, and even their kids, but the current generation is, because they've lived it. Feminism is "I want it my way" for women. OTOH, having kids is all about their needs and growth. If a kid needs Mom to stay home, then Mom stays home. Period. If the family needs Dad to skip the promotion to $150k manager so that he can be at every ballgame and play, then you don't advance.
Once you have kids, it's about duty and responsibility, not rights and privilages.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Be careful Michael
Mr. Savage needs to be careful. Too many frothing-mouth rants like tonight, and the powers that be might put him to the front of the line for one... ;)
Built Lord Tough
Not Jeff. Jeff looks at things from the sunny side of life. It took us almost a year of going to our church before we realized that he wasn't the children's minister. Jeff has run the 3-5th grade ministry at our church for at least 9 years now, on top of his day job owning his own contracting business and his "night job" as a husband and father of 6 kids.
A couple of weeks ago, Jeff had some form of seizure or attack on the way home from work, and lost control of his Ford truck. He doesn't remember the truck entering one end of a house, and exiting the other end. Now, Jeff vaguely remembers the firefighters saying that he must be dead when they were getting him out of that Ford truck. At the time, he woke up asking why he was in the parade.
The doctors of course ruled out drugs or alcohol, and found that Jeff had broken several bones in his back. They also had to restrict his pain medicine, since there was a fear it could cause another seizure.
Sunday, Jeff was at church. He was in a plastic brace, and you could tell he hurt, but he was smiling and talking to everyone. When Milady and I tried to be gentle and shake hands, he pulled each of us into a strong hug. He was talking about how he knew it was the Lord who saved him, and that he's already talked to Ford about using "Built Lord Tough" as a theme for wristbands and a speaking tour. He's going to talk about "The Lord, Me, and a Ford", and how the Lord and his Ford pickup saved his life.
It takes a truly Godly man to feel that way about such a tragedy. Instead of kicking back, he's turned to God and is going right on. I for one am humbled.
If you'd like for Jeff to come talk to you and your church, Email me, and I'll pass the request along.
Prayer Request: Jeff still wants and needs a lot of prayer, because he's facing the possibility of other surgeries to his back, and months of healing and rehabilitation. His family also is going to need a lot of help getting past this.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
We MUST Understand -- Or It Will Happen Again
We have created a society of people without hope, either in God (whom they either don't believe in or don't know) or in man. Their parents don't raise them, foisting them instead into car seat pens (early daycare) and child holding areas (later daycare). They get to school and have absolutely no structure or discipline. If they can't sit down or quit acting like a kid for 5 minutes, they get pumped full of speed and labeled a problem child. There is no right, no wrong, and the kid who causes the problem gets the attention. Through a lack of discipline or being sympathetic to the abusers, school administrations will not take the picked-on kid's side. Is it any wonder that we have angry children who are so narcissistic and nihilistic that they are ready to die and want to take their attackers (real and imagined) with them?
As Christians, it's time for us to say that enough is enough. We must raise our children, even if it means living on one income for some time. Like The Anchoress has raised Buster, we must teach our children that living boldly is more important than just living. We must push the rest of society to raise theirs, and give what aid we can. Public schools need to be a place of limits and of love, or we must ALL force them to change, even if only by leaving them and driving them broke.
Most of all, we Christians need to throw this Purpose Driven, Prosperity asserting, touchy-feely pseudo-Gospel junk out the window. We must get back to the business of loving people and telling them that there is a God in Heaven who loves them, and who wants them with Him for all eternity.
These people need hope, real hope, and we are the ones who haven't been telling them where it is.