This year's Republican candidates are exactly like the Democrats. They believe that government has the solution to all of our problems. They just disagree with the Democrats as to what are the problems.
(No, it's not the least bit original.)
A Christian Bohemian Packrat shares a few of the ideas he has managed to collect over the years...
This year's Republican candidates are exactly like the Democrats. They believe that government has the solution to all of our problems. They just disagree with the Democrats as to what are the problems.
(No, it's not the least bit original.)
It's really hard for me to care. UK beat LSU. :)
Update: I think the BCS rankings are probably closest to "right". They have LSU 4th, South Carolina 6th, and UK 7th. The AP poll is close, but the USA Today poll has UK at 13th, which is IMHO too low.
There is just too much parity out there. Any of the "top twenty" teams could beat any of the others on any given night.
Things are just plain wrong when UK's football team is ranked significantly higher than Tennessee.
After UK's win over Louisville, a bunch of partying students tossed around trash and burned furniture down on Elizabeth Street, which is behind Conn Terrace. The police didn't like this, and promised to stop it.
We got down to where Press Avenue turns into Elizabeth Street. We passed one drunk pedestrian, but everything else was quiet. And then we saw why.
In a three square block area, we passed 2 horse-mounted officers, 6 bike cops, 7 cruisers, and 5 cops on foot. Based on the side-street ac tivity, there had to be 50 officers in the area. Every student in the area was sitting on porches or the yards like the Culhanes. They wanted to throw a rip-roaring party, and they couldn't with at least three cops in view at all times. Poor students.... ;)
Someone wasn't listening: they went ahead and nominated me as deacon anyway. Whomever that was, thank you. :)
I am going to decline the honor. Even if we weren't having troubles at the church, I don't have time to do the job with the kids young. It is something I can see doing in 10 years, when they're in college and desperately trying to find ways to not come home and see Mom and Dad (unless they're broke, hungry, and/or out of laundry... ;) ). For now, I have to focus on being a husband and father, and try to work on a college ministry somewhere when there is room to spare.
We bought a Toshiba P35-S6111 a couple of years ago. We needed a laptop that was more desktop-py, and it fit the need. It's certainly a luggable.
There are several known flaws with the P35s. They clog their CPU fans with dust bunnies pretty quickly. I've had to invest in air cans to clean the coils off. Then, a couple of weeks ago the laptop quit charging.
The Internet is so nice. The plug on Toshibas of the P35 era break under any pressure, leading to problems like ours. Of course, our two-year support deal was over, so I was either looking at paying a couple of hundred to get someone else to fix it or I fix it. Duh. ;)
As I mentioned, this problem is common, so there's a lot of plugs for sale on Ebay (and I buy one). I just have to unsoldier the old one, and soldier the new one in, without cooking the board.
It just took two Wal-Mart runs and three burns, but I did it. And then I gilded the lilly: I took the CPU fans and heat sink off and re-gunked the heat sink. The CPU is now wanting to stay hot, so I had to turn it down a notch (the games will LOVE that....).
When I get the new speakers in (did I mention I broke a speaker? oops...), I'll also have to redo the CPU heat sinks....
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!
This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.
Registration code: 8459745
Milady's brother-in-law has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. It still appears confined to the prostate itself, so they're very optimistic. He's talking with the specialists at Good Samaritan in Cincinatti about possibly having their robotic surgery team do his surgery. He would appreciate any and all prayers.
Politics bores me. I'm going to register Republican solely to vote for Ron Paul, even if a few of his answers concerning Islamic terrorists bother me. Otherwise, I refuse to think too much about the election until 2008.
I've also been typesetting a new book. More about that later in the month.
Finally, I haven't been blogging a lot because of problems at our church, Southern Acres Christian Church. We've had a lot of problems over the last several years. We fai led to execute a land-buying program (for very good, God-led reasons). We transitioned to three different worship services with three styles. We have a new, VERY young minister. Then the elders and that same minister saw that we were running our volunteers to death trying to do three services.
Our older population had gotten very attached to their 8:30AM traditional service, but the elders and the minister said "No, we are going to have two services. Period.". Between the older people disgruntled at the changeover and those people who left with the old minister, we've gone down from 1200 people to around 700, and that includes the 110+ people we've added this year alone. Basically, our minister has replaced older rich people with younger, poorer people. As a result, our weekly offerings have dropped from $35k a week to $24k-$25k, and that's barely enough to make our payroll.
The blame here abounds. Our ministry staff often appears underworked, and are notorious for not b eing of use when people need help. The elders are executing changes without getting congregational buy-in, and are not willing to respond to concerns from the congregation. When people in the congregation bring up problems, they are told that the current way is the way things will happen, and to hush, but sometimes the item is then later quietly fixed.
The congregation has also not responded well. Complaints were lodged over trivial things. Anonymous, hateful letters have been sent to the minister and the elders. People have gotten mad and acted in un-Christlike ways. A committee of members was formed. Lifelong friends are refusing to speak. Many of the people I most respect in the church have had to leave.
I was also greatly upset by the appearance of Barry Cameron at our church. He is appearantly a financial guru in the Restoration Movement, having written a "Godly" finances book. (IMHO, he's not Dave Ramsey, but that's another discussion.) During his sermon, he mentio ned that the church wasn't smart about money, at least McDonalds and movie theatres got their money in advance! As one of my co-workers mentioned, "I thought that simony was an obsolete sin." We would have left SACC immediately, except that he was a guest speaker, and we had some leadings that made us think the Holy Spirit was against a move. (At this point, those leadings have failed, so I don't think they're from God.)
Dysfunctional social situations wear me out. I have a hard time dealing with social situations anyway. I can't deal well with people who only take and don't give, and now my church is taking too. It's finally got me to where I'm not wanting to go to church.
If you can pray for our church, that the egos get turned off and they turn on to the directing of the Holy Spirit, I would appreciate it. I just don't think we can stay to see how things work out.
Does UK have a serious chance at the BCS Championship game? Probably not. We shouldn't be outranking Florida, that's for sure. Not unless we beat them, at least.
The SEC is just murder on football teams. Florida, UK, and LSU could beat each other fairly consistently, but could take any other team in the country on any given night. UK could even have trouble with Tennessee at the end of the season (and boy, is that a turnaround). I don't think any SEC team will be able to go unbeaten to get to the BCS championship, and with things as squirrelly as they are this year, that could be the only thing that puts a team in.
It's just amazing that we've gone from the cellar of the SEC to a reasonable chance at a real bowl and an outside chance of BCS contention. Yes, it may have taken a weak year nationally to do it, but whatever it takes. :)
He went into surgery at 12:50PM EDT. They expect that he'll be in ICU overnight, and longer if the surgery requires.
Please pray that he loses as little of his lung as is required for the cancer, and that it hasn't spread.
Update: 9/12 21:50: My grandfather is resting comfortably (albeit a bit groggy from the pain medicine). They removed the upper lobe of his right lung (about 40% of the lung), but as long as the lymph nodes are clear they will not recommend any chemotherapy.
Then, I found a page that said to change power cords. Appearantly the power supply in them is very sensitive, and if the cord isn't pushed in 100%, or if there are problems with the cord, the machine can randomly shut off. I dragged an ugly (but heavy-duty) black cord out of the desk, and switched it after the last power-off. No more problems.
Apple's stock cord is sitting in my trash can, cut in three pieces, (NEVER leave a bad cord intact; someone will want to use it again.) and my iMac is happy. Hopefully, that's the only problem and my iMac can keep humming along happily.
Upda te: It wasn't the power cord. The power supply is dying. Fortunately, my employer bought AppleCare, so the repairman will be there in a day or two.
Update: The lump is definitely cancer, but as long as it hasn't spread to the lymph nodes, they think it can be treated with surgery only. This is certainly a blessing in a rough situation.
IMHO, the FBI agent and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter(s) who leaked that he was a suspect should be given a fair trial for murder and then hanged. Jewell put himself in harm's way for hundreds of people and saved all but one of them. Because he was a "bubba" who lived with his mother, he had to be a psychopath who did the bombing. Some FBI agent had to be Deep Throat, and some Atlanta reporter had to be Woodward.
Richard Jewell didn't deserve what he got for his troubles.
Be patient, I'm working on it.
Jeff, know that you, your wife-to-be, and your mother are still in our prayers.
I voted for George Bush because I believed that, as non-conservative he is, John Kerry was worse. If it weren't for the judges (and conservatives had t o scream to stop Meyers), I would completely repent. As it is, John Kerry couldn't have been much worse.
We have a government that is bankrupt, a currency that's two or three steps away from toilet-paper hyperinflation, and an economy that is pushed against the wall by predatory undercutting by China and India. We don't need No Child Left Behind 2, Amnesty 2, or the Lizard Queen (a.k.a. Hillary).
King George had the perfect opportunity to do a drastic government overhaul at 9/11. He could have said "the Federal Government needs to defend us. We're building a fence at the borders, we're sending illegals home PERIOD, and we're going to focus on getting ourselves out of debt, off of oil, and getting competative overseas. The states will have to do roads, schools, and welfare, but the Federal Government is going to lower taxes enough to pay for it."
Did even one of these happen? No. Dr. Paul might do this, and Mr. Huckabee comes the closest after him. Otherwise, the rest ( Democrats and Republicans alike) sound just like Roman senators arguing about which circus to change while the Visigoths are at the city walls.
A pox upon all their houses.
I was walking into work, and I noticed him flying around one tree. It seems that he is in fact a she, and she has two chicks in a nest near the Main Building.
I'm still working on pictures. Give me a bit of time. :)
I am just surprised that people are surprised that no one is paying a premium for C skills. My first CS class was a FORTRAN and C class (programming for Engineers), and my first "real" CS class was Pascal. After the first classes, we didn't use anything but C or C++ for any serious projects. It wasn't until I started to leave that Java was even introduced.
Programming C is like a carpender hammering nails: some things should just come standard. No programmer in 2007 should NOT know C.
Our church still has to raise $800 (out of $1000) to fund our gas bill, or the kids will have to pay for the gas themselves (they're already paying $250 each for food and lodging). The Church is accepting Shell gas cards or cash to pay for the gift cards. If you'd like to donate, let me know by Email, and I'll let you know how you can donate on-line so that the money goes straight to the Church and to the Gas fund.
My brother-in-law is a Shriner, and he buys us tickets to the Shriners Circus every year. This year, we packed ourselves and the next door neighbors, and went to see the show.
About halfway through, one of the clowns came by, selling "Clown of the Year" pins as a fundraiser for the local Shriner's Hospital. I would have bought one myself, but I was down to 2 dollars from all of the Cokes, Nachos, and cotton candy I bought for myself the kids. While he's turned to me, Little Miss sneaks up on his other side.
Clown: "Would you like to buy a Clown of the Year pin? It's only 4 dollars."
Me: "No thank you"
*clown turns, face to face with Little Miss*
Little Miss: "I'd like 4 dollars."
Clown: *dramatic pause* She doesn't miss much, does she?
It took me 5 minutes to quit laughing.
Give me a while, and I'll have something good up.
Otherwise, I stand by my earlier ideas that it's just way too early for me to care.
The last couple of nights have had some rough sleep. Tuesday, I remember waking up around 1AM and going to the computer, and very little else. The rest of the night, I dreamed of trainyards.
I've found myself growing more optimistic in general as I've gotten older. I've seen the predictions of the false End Times prophets ("this means we have to be in the last couple of years, because X is about to happen") fail to pan out. I lived through the end of Cold War and the Clinton Administration. God willing, I'll even survive GWB.
As I've told Number 1 Son, Iran isn't going to nuke Israel. The Bible says it won't happen. We aren't going to starve in the cold when oil runs out, because God said not to worry about food and water, that He would provide everything we need. And if He doesn't protect us from something, we still win by losing.
I'm not afraid of what comes up, even if what is coming up is bad. "Cheer up, the worst is yet to come!" And then He is coming.
It used to be that you could keep a company going simply by consistenly producing good products for a good price and a reasonable profit. As long as the products and the price both remained good, people would buy the products and the profits would keep coming in. Obviously the products would have to be refined over time as the needs of the customer base changed, but this fundamental approach is sound.
Back before the world reinvented fiat paper money, companies didn't go up a lot. Unless you could help start a new company that would make a new market (like AT&T or IBM), you got money when that company made a good dividend and gave it back to you, the stockholder.
The concept that HP, the company that made good computers and excellent printers is better off than HP, the maker of junk computers and worse inkjets, is rediculous.
There is nothing wrong with Good Enough.
Can you still cry over it? Should you?
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.
Gonzales needs to resign, and a reasonable replacement named.
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....
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.
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....
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.
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.
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... ;)
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.
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.