tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73904642024-03-12T21:59:10.828-04:00Jeff the BaptistDevil's Advocate, Evangelical ChristianJeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.comBlogger2833125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-44047268735485012192021-03-07T16:13:00.001-05:002021-03-07T16:13:03.200-05:00Zombie Blog! After almost a decade, I'm considering resurrecting this blog. I'm stopped blogging because I was worn out, working hard, and decided to focus on family and friends on social media. Well now social media is awful and the kid is old enough to take care of himself so perhaps I'll be coming back here more often. Only time will tell.Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-6978430548312760352011-06-20T21:30:00.003-04:002011-06-20T21:37:50.738-04:00Hitchens on MametChristopher Hitchens' review of David Mamet's The Secret Knowledge on the Dismantling of American Culture had this to say:This is an extraordinarily irritating book, written by one of those people who smugly believe that, having lost their faith, they must ipso facto have found their reason.That's funny because the same could be said of Hitchen's own book of atheist evangelism God is Not Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-91879289217932972942011-06-19T21:48:00.003-04:002011-06-19T22:20:15.866-04:00A Shooting MemoriumStephen Camp died a few weeks ago at the age of 59 after a sudden brain aneurysm rupture. Camp was one of the foremost online authorities on the Browning Hipower and being fan of the gun, I had the pleasure of corresponding with him a few times about holsters and related gun accessories. He was a great, helpful, and humble guy. The gunblogosphere was much quieter about this than I expected. Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-71628840543410994242011-06-19T21:28:00.004-04:002011-06-20T00:31:07.527-04:00Constitutional ResponsesAccording to the New York Times, Clarence Thomas is breaking with judicial ethics guidelines by supporting Federal historical conservation efforts related to the Gullah/Geechee peoples of the coastal south. Thomas is himself a member of that group. Althouse and Instapundit mention that the proper response to a Supreme Court Judge with inappropriate behavior is impeachment not passive aggressiveJeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-66012437816549158512011-05-23T21:12:00.003-04:002011-05-23T22:08:34.185-04:00Some Light BloggingSo I haven't written anything here in a few months. There are many reasons for this. My wife is expecting our first child in two months. All of the meaningful parts of Blogger's backend is blocked at work. I can't even comment on Blogger blogs. I've also changed teams at work so that I'm actually working with military systems I like, which greatly restrains what I can actually post on Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-65312275366347510442011-01-21T15:00:00.000-05:002011-01-22T15:47:21.971-05:00Street SamuraiCutting the cucumber in half lengthwise is pretty cool. Doing it to a soybean is amazing, especially when consider that is sword is wider than his target...Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-34106638761815453642010-12-29T11:24:00.003-05:002011-01-18T06:24:21.557-05:00The 1911 ObsessionSayUncle is linking to an almost completely uninformed criticism of the 1911. I'm not going to direct link because it's honestly so poorly thought out it might be a gunblogosphere troll. I will quote his two major theses though:It’s a 100-year old design. It needs tools to disassemble. It has unreliable magazines. It is finicky about ammo. And, as a single-action pistol, it is unsafe for 95% ofJeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-62134694380283081522010-12-18T09:24:00.002-05:002010-12-18T10:01:48.008-05:00Not MineThe Anchoress notes that federal buildings must be warm for Michelle Obama to go in a sleeveless vintage Norman Norelli number without a hint of goosebumps. Unlike you know, every one else who has turned down their heat to fight rising energy prices and higher seasonal heating bills.I've been working for the government for over eight years now. At no time in my service has the HVAC ever worked Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-5065510194904873232010-12-13T17:45:00.003-05:002010-12-13T17:50:40.376-05:00RNC PoliticsRumor has it that Michael Steel is finally stepping down as RNC chair. Huzzah! Now Norm Coleman says he wants the job. Hey I have an idea. How about we pick an RNC chair who actually has a history of winning elections. Steele was a joke in his native Maryland, mostly because Black Republicans are blatantly Uncle Tommed in the state. Coleman lost to Al Franken in a close race. Isn't there aJeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-10372702823384748072010-12-10T13:46:00.003-05:002011-06-02T06:27:18.044-04:00Regular MaintenanceI was practicing my draw in the basement with the airsoft 1911 when I noticed that the thumbsnap on my holster was tending to disengage the airsoft's manual safety. Not so good, but I've never noticed it happening with the real thing. A quick walk to the safe and... huh the darn electronic lock is dead.Pry off the access plate, find the key, open her up and well there's your problem. One of Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-31361937193320443522010-12-07T19:00:00.003-05:002010-12-09T07:23:22.220-05:00Obama on MythbustersThe President is appearing on tomorrow's Mythbusters to commission Adam and Jamie to look into the myth of Archimedes mirror. For those not in the know, it's a device which was supposedly used to focus the power of the sun to set attacking Roman ships afire during the Siege of Syracuse.The Mythbusters have addressed this one at least twice in the past. So it's been done multiple times before, Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-66969048609841883472010-11-26T06:52:00.000-05:002010-11-26T06:52:57.119-05:00Hallelujah!Tamara and Sebastian have already posted this, but I wanted to wait until the Christmas season was actually here.Plus it's Handel's Messiah so it creates all sorts of wonderful tension between high artistes and the faithful. I'm surprised you didn't see a bunch of liberals sit down during that clip just to show the Christians what for.Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-90973452640331307052010-11-25T09:29:00.004-05:002010-11-25T09:32:53.576-05:00Happy Thanksgiving!And in honor of the holiday, I give you Breda's wonderful idea of brining a turkey in an empty refrigerator vegetable bin. Like most things of the internet it is a wonderful idea that is several days too late to be of use to you. But file it away for Christmas.Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-19212601795736181512010-11-18T07:21:00.003-05:002010-11-18T07:26:44.176-05:00Not So Peak OilAs I mentioned several years ago, the theory that underpins peak oil analysis is not especially sound. The output from a given deposit is bell-shaped. This is a sound empirical rule. You can aggregate all known deposits into a large bell shape. True enough. But this theory is only valid for known existing deposits. It doesn't take into account technology growth that allows for the Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-88457003510057834682010-11-08T19:38:00.004-05:002010-11-08T19:52:28.523-05:00Kid Needs a HaircutAmy and I share Jalopnik's disdain for the annoying kid in skinny jeans and a Christopher Atkins haircut that Toyota is using as their spokesman in at least one current advertisement. What is really sad is that while Toyota pisses all over the old Buicks in the commercial, they've basically become Buick.Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-7644451297633598182010-11-08T18:54:00.001-05:002010-11-08T18:56:30.252-05:00It's a CasseroleThis revelation about deep-dish pizza and others at Snowflakes in Hell and Clayton Cramer.Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-5899599238023341532010-10-30T14:07:00.002-04:002010-10-30T14:11:33.314-04:00Wisdom for the AgesClayton Cramer's post of excerpts from Andrew Jackson's fairwell address contain some amazing stuff. Among the topics he discusses are taxes, duties, the expanding role of federal government, and corrupt politicians or businessmen profit from these.Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-56731453632424087682010-10-26T20:52:00.002-04:002010-10-26T21:12:58.286-04:00Math for EveryoneJoanne Jacobs has a discussion about how much math is enough for students. She suggests that frankly, most people don't need everything they're taught even through high school. I think she mostly correct.When it comes to practical skills for the general populace, the skills list is something like addition/subtraction, division/multiplication, ratios/percentages, and exponents. Any sort of Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-8472859736431977252010-10-26T20:33:00.003-04:002010-10-26T20:41:16.892-04:00Future Contestants for the Newlydead Game?Turns out Bruce Campbell is an ordained minister and will be performing a wedding along with a large renewal ceremony at ZombCon. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the minister part. If you were Bruce Campbell, wouldn't you want to be able to manufacture holy water on demand?Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-10554111237222641572010-10-25T20:14:00.003-04:002010-10-25T21:00:41.399-04:00Are Those Things Loaded?Alright, I do understand the interest in the bra holster. I am a guy. I like guns. I like boobs. I understand the attraction of combining the two for male gunnies. Even the female gunnies can use it to give purpose to all those worthless empire-waisted tops that make them look pregnant.But why I can understand why it received a lot of blogger buzz, I don't understand everything. How do you Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-79224864420325617892010-10-25T20:06:00.003-04:002010-10-25T20:14:19.517-04:00Ages of EnglishWhen I was in middle school, we did a unit on Chaucer. We were given the original Middle English text and had to translate it into some semblance of the modern tongue. At one point my teacher read the Prologue to Canterbury Tales. It sounded cool but is barely intelligible.What surprises me about this clip of Shakespeare in the appropriate Elizabethan dialect was how intelligible it is. It's Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-25996045755913640682010-10-21T20:55:00.002-04:002010-10-21T21:01:47.465-04:00Petting the KittyMatthew Inman's instructions on petting the kitty is great. The part about belly rubs is especially true:Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-27981156477199232482010-09-14T20:24:00.002-04:002010-09-14T20:28:05.947-04:00Bashing Meghan McCainWhile I don't doubt that her book is completely daft, some of Leon Wolf's scathing review is also startlingly ill-researched. For instance:I defy Meghan McCain to identify a conservative candidate who acted or behaved in this way towards the party after a primary loss.Peg Luksik in the PA governor's race in 1994. Both Ridge and Single were total centrists and after losing to Ridge in the Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-803201664856112792010-09-11T15:52:00.004-04:002010-09-11T16:03:12.924-04:009/11Nine years ago I retired to my hotel room to practice my presentation for the conference I was attending at Virginia Tech. It was on some variant of Resin Transfer Molding I think. I turned on the TV to take a break and found out the world had changed. I went downstairs and everyone was just standing in the lobby watching the news.Suffice it to say I didn't practice after that and my Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390464.post-44465054959572406722010-09-11T13:31:00.003-04:002010-09-11T13:55:24.759-04:00Delaware PrimariesI've been receiving multiple robocalls per day from the O'Donnell and Castle campaigns for the last week. We're really sick of them and they are not convincing anyone in my family to vote for a particular candidate. I'm already voting for Castle. O'Donnell doesn't have anything to recommend her other than conservatism. Conservatism won't win her the general election. On the other hand my Jeff the Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13978930508610389584noreply@blogger.com1