Halloween

Ambra Nykol is talking about the pagan roots of Halloween. She doesn't like the unholy holiday very much.

I'm used to seeing this sort of stuff in the Christian community. Evangelicals and Fundamentalists in particular like to get all worked up and preach brimstone about Halloween. My church has a "fall festival" as a Halloween alternative. Good for them.

For a long time I used to preach back at them for over-reacting. When I was a kid I went trick or treating and the worst I got was a serious sugar high followed by an acute stomach ache. I didn't get demon possessed or anything and it hasn't really effected my walk. My typical response to this is sort of thing is "yeah it was a pagan holiday but it isn't anymore." Now its just the official costume party holiday.

What changed my mind? One Christmas during college I was working my usual winter break job, I was a department store cashier at Boscov's in Granite Run Mall. I heard someone say the same thing about Christmas: "Yeah it was a Christian holiday, but it really isn't anymore." That did it for me. I remember saying those words, but I sure as hell didn't say them about marking the Birth of the Savior. I'm sure there are a lot of folks who feel the same way about Halloween.

So I while my kids are probably going to put on an old sheet and have fun on Halloween, I keep my mouth shut about the critics. Criticize all you want folks cause it comes only once a year. Get it out of your bloodstreams.

Rebuilding after the War

You know a I've been seeing a lot of people take Kerry's capabilities to fight the war for granted. Andrew Sullivan has talked about the war this way. Megan McArdle has too. Basically, they think that Kerry will be stuck fighting the war and the only way out is through. They are counting on the fact that there is not morally acceptable or politically expedient solution to the problem other than victory. It has raised a couple questions for me.

The first is: What happens when violence escalates after Kerry wins?

It will you know. If the terrorists and insurgents retain any capacity to do so, they will want to test the new guy and see how he reacts. These are called probing attacks and the terrorists do them too. Will he pull a Clinton; drop some token bombs and then pull out? Will he pull a Bush and redouble his efforts?

In the end, the only thing keeping Kerry in Iraq is public opinion on the war. With sufficient effort from the terrorists (to increase body count) and his leadership (to get the hell out) that public opinion can be changed. The reason things aren't collapsing right now is that the current leadership is firmly entrenched in the steadfast resolve camp. What happens when the current leadership is in the "I inherented this from the last guy, but I don't think it was a good idea, and really don't want to do it" camp. I don't think he has the resolve here to see this through or understands its importance to the global War.

The second question is: What happens after Iraq?

What happens with the Global War on Terror? Even if he stays committed and we withdraw with a real tangible victory, what then? The military is going to need to recoup its wartime losses in money and manpower. Is Kerry going to do that? Not if his voting record in the Senate is any indicator. Kerry never met a military program he didn't want to slash. After the war is over and we need to rearm and rebuild the troops back to their pre-war levels, I seriously doubt Kerry will want to spend the money. His Great Society II social programming is going to take precidence and thats bad.

The real big problem is that just going through the Iraq War isn't enough. Iraq isn't the end of the War on Terror. We need to be able to keep the pressure on the terrorist supporting nations and we will still need our military to do that. I don't trust Kerry to maintain and lead them beyond Iraq. I don't think he understands how 9/11 changed the world and I don't think his foriegn policy will be effective at keeping the pressure on.

Good Work at Belmont Club

This piece by Ace of Spades basically sums up my thoughts on the war and war in general. I only wish I had written it.

Want the Readers Digest version? Here:

If you were only a supporter of this war given the assumption that it would be very brief and almost casualty-free, what the hell were you doing supporting the war in the first place? That is an extraodinarily irresponsible and naive position to take.

And here:

I do not like talk of "exit strategies." If the country is willing to accept something short of actual military and political victory in a war in favor of a face-saving "exit strategy" in which we pretend we've won, then that is simply not a war we should be fighting. Either a war is so important that it must be won, or else a war is simply not necessary.

Those are teasers, now go read it.

IQ Tests

Here's one. I got a 142 on it which is ok but I've done better. The test said this:

Jeff, you are a Visionary Philosopher.

This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways.

Well goodie for me. So listen to me people, I'm officially smart. ;) That is if you think IQ tests are useful for more than predicting how well you do on IQ tests.

UPDATE: Oh and this one says its 153. Thats a pretty big variance between tests taken a day apart isn't it?

I find it funny that people seem to want to correlate IQ to accomplishments like "Nobel Prize Winner." Folks, accomplishments are as much about how you apply yourself as how smart you are. Thats why people like George Bush and John Kerry are running for president, because they have ambition. And the truly smart people like me realize this. :)

Racial Profiling

Ambra Nykol is talking about racial profiling among police officers. She talks about instructions she got from her parents dealing with police. They sound a lot like what I recieved. Read it for perspective if nothing else.

I'm a white anglo-saxon protestant male. As a rule WASPs born in my age group do not really pay conscious attention to people's race. In fact we tend to politely ignore and talk around race for fear that noticing might get us called bigots or racists. Trust me there is no worse thing you can call a white man than racist or bigot. It is a charge which can haunt a white man for the rest of his life. Just look at what happened to Mark Fuhrman (who is actually a pretty nice guy and a good cop) at the OJ Simpson trial. For other examples of the power of the race card, look at how Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition got funding for years.

A lot of white folks aren't racist and we don't know anybody who is racist. Yeah we may say look at that lazy black guy, but we say the same thing about a lazy white guy he's hanging out with. We honestly don't care about skin color any more than hair color. The bad thing is that this is not universal, but a lot of white folks think that it is. To paraphrase comedian Ron White "I have a friend who is a racist, does anybody believe that anymore?"

Unfortunately people still do. I was traveling down south to visit my girlfriend Amybear in Greenville, NC. After being told about how racially charged that part of the south is I actually paid attention to race a bit. Specifically I noticed that all the cars the state police had pulled over (and there were many) were driven by black men. To be fair to the cops, some of them were black too.

It surprised me. If I was black I'm sure I would be pissed about it. I'm white and I know I should be madder about this than I am.

Throw-away Generation

Ambra Nykol is posting about kids these days. Ambra is younger than me, she's in her early twenties and I'm bearing down on thirty. I've touched on this topic here.

Belief.net Quizzes

Belief.net has a bunch of fun time-killing religious quizzes up. Thanks to A Case of Me and Messy Christian for bringing this up.

Iran Learning its Lesson

Stephen Green at Vodkapundit is blogging on the European reaction to the Iranian nuclear program.

I think Iran has learned the proper lesson from current events. Even if you are a major conventional power in your region, the Americans can knock you off easily. The US military really is a juggernaut at least when it comes to taking ground and fighting a conventional war.

However the Iranians have noticed that we handle North Korea much differently than say, Iraq. Why? Because North Korea has a nuclear weapons program and long range missiles that can hit important places. Iran is probably trying to follow a similar route. Nyah Nyah US can't touch us. Or whatever the equivalent in Farsi is.

The jokes on them though. The US already doesn't want to fight Iran, we're going to subvert their culture through Iraqi democracy instead. Nukes just aren't that useful at oppressing the masses of your own populace yearning to be free. We can only hope our next president is willing to put a big enough deterrant force in the mideast to stop them from taking the region hostage like North Korea.

The 11th Commandment

David Bernstein is talking about the 11 Commandment of Judaism over the Volokh Conspiracy. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. For those not in the know, the 11th commandment in Judaism is "Thou shalt not vote Republican." (For Republicans its "Thou shalt not run against another Republican".)

My Girl Amybear's dad is a big Republican. Her immediate family tends to vote to the right. The prominent Jews I work with are also Republicans, but I work for the military so trends tend to skew that way anyway.

It has always surprised me that a lot of very conservative religious Jews vote Democrat. You would think that the "family values" and the faith-based initiatives of the Republican Party would appeal to such a religious people, but no such luck. I think there are basically two reasons.

The first is that Jews tend to be very intimidated by evangelical Christians. Jews as a whole don't really try to convert people and evangelicals are all about evangelizing and converting. Big culture clash there. When they see a family member convert, chances are its the evangelicals "fault." When Jews see their kids converting they think about their culture dying because Jews do not see Jewish "Messianic" Christianity as a true extension of Judaism.

Also historically Christians converting Jews have also done so under the auspices of things like the Inquisition. It doesn't really occur to Jews that there were Baptists like me being put to the Question right next to their great-great-you-get-the-point-grandfathers. Jews as a whole don't understand the denominations within the Christian church very well, just like Christians don't really understand the difference between a Conservative and Reform Synagogue. What they do see is that the people acting very "christian" have often given Jews a reason to move someplace else or else.

The second is that Jews are a minority culture. When Christians start talking about faith-based initiatives, Jews realize that anything they do is going to be overwhelmed by the vastly Christian majority. Plus minority cultures tend to look to the government to safeguard their rights, which inherently puts them in the Democrat camp. The only one preventing tyranny of the majority is the government. That's a big reason why African-Americans vote Democrat and I think its a big reason why Jewish-Americans do too.

There are probably other reasons or other facets of these two that I haven't covered, but that's enough for now.

UPDATE: Matthew Yglesias has some commentary on it too. Its quite good and nice to hear from the other side of the aisle. He basically thinks Bush is too christian and that regionalism plays into it because the Jewish population centers tend to be in "blue" states. He's probably right on both counts.

Early Voting

Hey folks, early voting has started in 10 states. Everyone who's tried it likes it. Heck, my grandfather has been dead for 15 years and he's already voted 3 times in Chicago. Talk about a die hard Democrat. ;)

Every Punisher Comic Ever Made

Go here. I'm never gonna look at Ken and Barbie dolls the same way again.

Degenatron

Ah a trip back to those great arcade games of the 1980s that never were. Now fresh from Vice City here comes Degenatron.

Bumper Stickers

Glenn Reynolds is writing about the various campaign bumper stickers. He went into more depth here.

Dynamist picks this up with some self contradicting commentary like this:

Serif types are the original typographic forms of the Roman alphabet. Sans-serif types are derivative letter forms that have been stripped of their serifs (as the name implies, if you know a little French!), a simplification that lends itself to short, simple messages.

So is a bumper sticker a short simple message? Yup. So why wouldn't we want to use sans-serif fonts again? He goes on to talk about some typographic snobbery to back his case for Kerry up.

Honestly I find the social implication of the bumper stickers to be more interesting. I've lost track of the number of people with both a Bush sticker and "support the troops"/yellow ribbon/American flag on their cars as well. I've seen two people with Kerry stickers and any of those features. Not that I'm questioning their patriotism or anything.

Sanhedrin Reconvened

After sixteen centuries, Israel has reconvened the Sanhedrin. I believe this time around they'll be presiding over purely religious and theological issues. Maybe when Jesus comes back they can all shake hands and be friends.

In Jewish circles the Sanhedrin is a very well respected body that contained some of the greatest Rabbis ever. People like Gamaliel (who gets an honorable mention and very favorable portrayal in Acts). Historically it contained both members of the Aaronic priesthood (Kohanites/Kohenim?) and various Rabbis. The current version will contain representatives from the various Jewish subgroups like hasidic, sephardic, and ashkenazic Jews.

In Christian circles, the Sanhedrin is most fondly remembered for killing Jesus and then persecuting/martyring the first apostles. La Shawn Barber's post on the subject has some examples from the Gospels. Saul of Tarshish (who became the Apostle Paul) may have been a member.

After the Passion of the Christ came out my pastor got together with a local Conservative Jewish Rabbi and a Catholic priest and had a little discussion board on the topic at the Jewish Community Center. So a priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a JCC and ... Ok ok no jokes.

One of the big sticking points was the portrayal of the Sanhedrin in the movie. Jews had been raised to revere the Sanhedrin and seeing them used as villains twirling their mustaches while conspiring against the Son of God was a bit much. Even discounting the Passion's one-sided caricature of the priesthood, they still had a lot of trouble with the Gospel accounts of Jesus's trial being held on the eve of Passover. Several individuals came forward and told the Christians in the room that we really needed to revise the Bible because the Sanhedrin would never do such a thing. My pastor very politely pointed out that the men who wrote the Gospels were all Jews. They were there during those events and neither they, nor their audience (also other Jews), had trouble believing their story.

For the record folks, suggesting that someone rewrite their religious canon purely to make you comfortable is about the rudest thing you can do in an ecumenical setting. Especially when you are talking mostly to Christian Protestants who believe in scriptural inerrancy. You didn't see the minister or priest bashing the Talmud or questioning the spiritual basis of the Rabbinical system did you? Sorry but that still pisses me off.

Anyway lets hope this Sanhedrin works better and maybe their actions can help build bridges between Jews and Christians instead of burning them.

UPDATE: Let me clarify a bit here. The Rabbi at the meeting was a nice guy who didn't like the movie and had legitimate beefs about stereotyping, etc. He had the typical religious liberal outlook that I don't particularly care for, but hey so do thousands of ministers.

There were a few people I thought were profoundly ignorant. Ignorant is the best word I can think of and many christians at the panel discussion were highly insulted. The ignorant people happened to be Jews, but I referred to them as individuals on purpose since I don't consider them to be representatives of their faith. I don't want to generalize here.

More Bad Ways to Start the Day

Remember last time? Good I knew you would.

Bad Way 2: After a wonderful weekend together your girlfriend has to go home and you may not see her for months. Its sucks. She's unhappy. I'm unhappy. I miss you already dear.

So that sucks, now get rear-ended at the security gate going to work. Not my fault, he hit me going through the serpentine. Second time in less than two weeks that I have been rear-ended. Last time was by my apartment complex. Lets just say the cops at the security gate were less than competent, so despite getting hit right under their noses I have no police accident report. Can't say much more without mentioning things I'm not allowed to because of security where I work. Suffice it to say I'm filing an official complaint about police that aren't capable of policing.

Putin Backs Bush

CNN has the story here. Putin considers himself an unbiased observer on this since he disagrees with a lot of administrative policies (like Iraq). His basic position is that if Kerry is elected, terrorists will see this as a win. Sorry if that puts the Democrats out of sorts, but its how they will percieve it no matter the truth.

I saw this on Flynn & Larrimore's blog. They also have some commentary on the Flu Vaccine shortages. Go Delaware blogosphere!

Time for Choosing

Izzy had an excerpt from Reagan's 1964 speech "A Time for Choosing." Here is the whole thing with mp3 audio if you want to look or listen to it. The section at the end about appeasement and peace without victory is especially relevant to the current campaign.

The Internet and University of Delaware

I received two degrees from UD. Here is an interesting timeline of the creation of the internet and how the University of Delaware took part.

Weekend Visit

Amybear has been visiting this weekend that's why I'm not posting much. We spent yesterday doing yardwork at my parents place. She successfully did some bonding with my Mom. The men in the family were filling in a bunch of holes where we took out tree roots and whole trees. We put down grass seed, but I'm a little worried that its too late in the season for it to come up properly.

My parents had Blueberry Muffin Frozen Yogurt from Turkey hill for dessert after dinner. I'm not a big blueberry fan, it gives me stomach issues. Amybear loved it though. "It really tastes like blueberry muffins!" All the way home she was having blueberry muffin burps and smiling because she got to revisit the flavor. So if you can get Turkey Hill, Amybear gives their Blueberry Muffin fro-yo five stars.

Holy Peanut Butter Cookies!

The recipe formatting on this site is amazing. Just look at it, elegant and diagrams well. Wow.

Walking Drunk Game

Its a German game about trying to keep a staggering drunk walking straight. Once you get the hang of it you'll do pretty well. Why is a German drunk speaking texas english though?

Childhood Indoctrination

Ambra Nykol is giving her opinion on child raising. I thought this might be interesting for the childhood development folks reading this (and you know who you are).

Liberal Theology

La Shawn Barber is talking about Liberal Theology and scripture.

One of the big problems I have with liberal theology is one of their first tenets is a rejection of the inerrancy or validity of scripture. This means that when they do seek to use scripture they almost inherently pervert it. Why? Because they never seem to fit things into a coherent scriptural ideology. The biblical use for scripture is as a ruler or standard. By rejecting this they try to impose their own ideas onto the word of God. Unfortunately once you start throwing the portions of the bible out that doesn't support your conclusions you can follow anything.

For instance Christ said "Blessed are the peacemakers" yet he himself made a whip and cast the moneychangers out of Gods temple. Liberals like to portray anger or hate as a negative emotion and inherently sinful. The problem is that we know from the Bible that God hates sin and becomes angry with disobedience.

The Christian Right

I lead this post on Evangelical Outpost down a rabbit trail. I know I know I shouldn't feed the trolls. Anyway sometimes those trails are worth traveling so I'm going to bring it up here instead of sidetracking someone elses post about the voting habits of American novelists (They're democrats! What a shocker!).

Basically my thoughts revolve around this comment:

I visit this blog from time to time as an interested European wishing to learn about Evangelical Christianity in the US. I’ve learnt a lot. The author appears to regard the promotion of the Republican Party and its presidential candidate, as a matter deeply connected to his faith. God apparently wants you to vote GOP.

That I’ve read little or nothing concerning the Gospels, or the teachings of Jesus Christ, speaks for itself.

I think he's right. The Christian Right is doing a piss poor job of communicating Christ right now. We are making the mistake of the Ephesian Church and forgetting our first love while standing up for our principles.

Yes its true the world will hate us. We are commanded to be in it but not of it. Christ himself says we will be treated badly for that. Some of this lack of Christ is because he stripped out by the mainstream media as religious windowdressing. However our own media outlets have no such excuse. Robertson, Falwell, why do we put up with these people? Sometimes I think they are like the comforters of Job.

Are we really standing for our core principles? I have heard the religious right talk about gays and abortion until they are blue in the face. Where is the love of christ? The hope of the Savior? Shouldn't that be the most important thing?

The reason we are in the spot we are in socially, is because we have given up the fight for the soul of our culture. So instead we fight on the fringes of relative morality just like everybody else. The more I see the current Gen-Y kids, the more I see a hopeless and cynical generation. They have a huge void in their lives and are trying to fill it with whatever they can find liek sex and drugs. We have what they need, but we fight on about sex and stem cells instead of bringing them Christ. Bring the children the hope their parents have forgotten and we will change the world.

I just think that we as evangelicals and evangelical bloggers need to do better. I think as a group we are fighting the symptoms instead of publicizing the cure. What we really need is good modern apologetics, but I don't hear much about that. We're too busy opposing the culture to effectively engage it for Christ.

Growing Family

Joan at Seven Inches of Sense just adopted a new little guy. Go read the post because I'm trying valiantly to avoid spoilers. Maybe Amybear and I will do something similar soon.

More Biased Voters Guides and Affirmative Action

The Christian Coalition voters guides might be biased towards Bush. Evidentally Kerry didn't bother to reply to their inquiries about his policy positions so they filled in the blank with his voting record. One that is especially upsetting people is: "affirmative action programs that provide preferential treatment."

Sorry folks but thats a pretty accurate description of affirmative action. My federal Equal Employment Opportunity guide defines affirmative action as:

Some protected classes such as minorities, women, and persons with disabilities have suffered severe employment discrimination. Affirmative employment requirements were established to correct the effect of past discrimination and to achieve a goal of a workforce that represents our nation's diverse population.

Thus affirmative emploment is not for everyone. It is for members of those groups who have suffered from past discrimination...

This is in contrast to EEO policy which has no protected classes and is purely anti-discriminatory. So yes affirmative action provides preferential treatment, but in an attempt to correct past wrongs.

I seem to recall similar concerns about this sort of thing when Clinton was running. Some things change some stay the same.

Give People What They Want

Do you want to know how to succeed in business? Simple. Give people what they want. Want some cases in point from the Gun industry? I knew you might.

There have been a handful of trends in the last few years, they are:

1. Large capacity semi-automatic pistols, the so-called Wonder Nines
2. Small pistols for concealed carry
3. Military style semi-automatic "assault" weapons like the AK and AR derivatives
4. Affordable production near-custom 1911 semi-automatics ala Kimber, Springfield Armory, etc.
5. Affordable reproductions of old west guns driven by Cowboy Action Shooting (CAS)

These trends have occurred for several reasons, for instance 2 and 4 were arguably driven by the now defunct Assault Weapons Ban (long may it rot). Similarly 1 and 3 were driven by the desire of gun owners to have more lethal weapons. What is my point? Well lets take a look at some gun companies that aren't doing so well.

Case 1: Colt

Colt was the company to beat during the war and even post-war years. Until the 1970s and '80s when they ran themselves into the ground. Now they are trying to rebuild. They have canceled the lions share of their makes and models. This isn't necessarily a problem since some of their guns, like their double action revolvers, are unlikely to be profitable.

So Colt basically makes two guns. The first is the 1911. However Colt really only sells milspec, non-custom models. In fact the reason market 4 exists is because Colt missed the boat and didn't offer upgraded models when they had the chance. So they don't fill market 4. The second is the AR-15 (market 3), which Colt does well with, especially in the civilian and LEO markets. However they refuse to sell several models to civilians and the models they do sell are modified from the military spec standards so parts will not interchange. People don't like that either.

Colt doesn't make the guns for markets 1, 2, or 5. They have a design for a wonder9 because they show it off with their smart gun. However nothing has hit production except for the All American which was a horrible failure. Colt once made the Mustang .380 in several model styles for the concealed carry market. Even now Springfield Armory is considering bringing back a clone of it when Colt's patents lapse. But Colt doesn't make it anymore. Colt makes the SAA (THE cowboy gun) but at $1500 a pop from their custom shop, it isn't affordable for the average cowboy shooter. They also made the Colt Cowboy, which was shoddily made and still priced $300 more than their competition.

So Colt has been and remains in serious financial trouble. They refuse to sell the profitable products that would require little development and they no longer have the money to develop new products because of lack of revenue. So they have been trying to eke out enough revenue with their current line to get them to place where they have a pot of development money. Good luck.

Case 2: Remington

Remington doesn't make any guns for any of these markets. Part of this is because they don't make handguns which are 4 of the growth markets right there. They might be able to get into Market 3 with a ruggedized model 700 rifle like military/LEO snipers use, but they don't sell it. Instead the aftermarket is raking in a bundle on ruggedizing the guns themselves. Oops. Similarly the LEO version of their 870 pump shotgun might get them close, but it isn't sold to the general public either.

Their bread and butter is the hunting market which is slowly shrinking as the US population grows more urban. This is opposed to the self defense market which has been growing as the population shifts urban. Their marketing strategy so far has been to make cheaper versions of their current products (like the 710 and 597) using lower labor prices at their Kentucky factory. That will only go so far.

Christian Science Voting Non-Guide

WARNING: FOR ENTERTAINMENT VALUE ONLY

Izzy pointed me to this. It said he should vote for Kerry. We both had a good chuckle about that. I took it and it said that I agreed with Kerry on foreign policy. Also funny because that's the thing that scares me most about him. Its scarily biased and if you are a centrist on most issues it will tell you to vote for Kerry. Evidentially there is a 200th percentile of liberal on the CS scale so Kerry is the centrist. Who knew?

UPDATE: Messy Christian just took it here. She got had the same Kerry/Badnarik spit Izzy did. She's Malaysian though and I don't know how well descriptors like "centrist" track across national boundaries.

Get Up and Walk!

Instapundit has picked up on the faith-healing meme I first saw on GetReligion.

To paraphrase SNL, "John Kerry if you can heal this arm, Bob Dole will vote for you."

Wanna See a Proud Papa?

Look here. Doesn't Bush look all moist eyes and proud? The full post it is from is here. Vodkapundit has pictures of the same Colorado Republican Event here.

Mount St Helens

Looks like its the end times. Mt. St. Helens is not only erupting but also beset with giant insects.

Federal Holiday

Hope everybody enjoyed Columbus Day. Being a federal employee I had the day off (gloat gloat). I celebrated the discovery of the New World by sleeping in and then cleaning a lot. I got a few chores done too.

In my last apartment I tended to go a while between cleanings. That isn't necessarily bad, but things tends to build up and then its a pain. Cleaning out my apartment last month broke me of that habit. Now I'm probably going to go for more of a regular weekly or bi-monthly cleaning schedule that will keep everything tidy and probably save time too.

I realized that the shower at night methodology just doesn't work for me. I went shooting yesterday with my brother at our local indoor range. That means I basically got myself covered in a light dusting of lead and lead salts. I made sure to take a shower and wash that stuff off before ended up inhaling it all night long. I woke up this morning and had to shower again just to get myself feeling clean enough to leave the house. Showering is just part of my morning routine I guess.

Chores were good. I dropped my FN Hipower off at a local gunsmith for some trigger work. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does with it. If he does do good work I will be giving him some free publicity here.

Coming back from there I stopped in at my old supermarket. Its a Mega Superfresh that is within walking distance of my old place. I miss it. My new neighborhood supermarket (also in walking distance) is a crappy Acme with a really horrible produce section. How am I supposed to eat healthy if I can't get good fruits and veggies?

I did my second act of mindless routine coming back from Superfresh. My old apartment complex is on the way home and I stopped to make a turn into it. I didn't actually make the turn, I just stopped at the turn like I would if I was about to turn. It annoyed the woman behind me to no end. I didn't even realize what I had done until a second later. I guess its some sort of weird pavlovian response to coming home from that Superfresh. Part of my mind must have still thought that I had to make that turn.

The Debate and Why I Missed It

I hear Bush won last night. Good for him. I had other stuff to do. I wonder how many people were watching a debate on a friday night. Lets hope enough to stop his slide in the polls.

Amybear and I were starting to talk details about marriage instead. We aren't engaged yet, but now is the time to talk about this stuff before we commit to getting married. Amybear is smart and realizes this. We love each other but the interfaith marriage stuff is going to be challenging, especially once we have kids.

Despite what Jews may think, Baptists are pretty cool with going to Jewish stuff. We see Judaism almost as a parent religion so learning more about it is pretty cool for us. It allows us to put ourselves in better context. The Jews don't have as enlightened a position about Christianity. While they spent the first hundred years of Christianity persecuting us, the tide turned and they've basically been called "Jesus killers" and persecuted ever since. I can understand why they wouldn't like it very much. The fact that they're a less popular religion (in the purely numerical sense) and they tend to attrit a fair number of people to christianity every year doesn't help either. Anyway while Christians are pretty cool with learning about Judaism, Jews can be kind of uptight about it going the other way around which should make raising the kids interesting.

100th Post!

Yup, the big one-oh-oh I feel so old...

Anyway, bought myself a new gun today. Its a mossberg 590. 8+1 shots of 12 gauge shot. It has the bayonet mount and heat shield so it should look sufficiently mean. Well if trouble happens I'll be ready. Until then I'll be praying it doesn't happen.

I was originally looking at Winchester 1300 defenders and Remington 870 HDs. The 1300 is really nice, but its sales numbers are fairly low. If you already own one, it is a problem if you want to get aftermarket parts. If you want to buy one then good luck finding someplace local with them in stock. Walmart carries the sporting models, but they do not carry the defense models. I wanted a defense gun.

The 870 is also quite nice but it has the disadvantage of being an older generation design. The 590 and 1300 have aluminum receivers. The 870 is all steel which should allow it to last longer, but makes it heavier and more expensive for what you get. Remington just doesn't offer the features the other companies do at the same price point. My Mossberg is roughly competitive with the 7 round (6+1 in the chamber) HD, but its superior in many regards. The remington needs a new forend, sling swivels, and a new mag extension just to get in the ballpark.

I also like the mossies controls better. Everybody mentions the ambidextrous safety on the back of the mossies receiver. Great position for it and a big plus. What they don't mention is that the mossberg has the bolt release back by the trigger guard instead of in front of it. That means I can press it without having to move my hand. Bigger plus.

Weird Polling Numbers

Seems to me a lot of the political polls have been behaving weirdly. Some results favor Bush, other Kerry and often skewing by larger values than the margin of error. Maybe this is due to ideological skew in the questions introducing bias, but I have another idea.

I was just called by someone doing a survey of new home owners. Problem? I don't own a home, I rent an apartment. It is not unusual that I would get call from this survey, since they basically call people at random. What is unusual is that this time the woman on the other end had a strong Indian accent. I had a hard time understanding her and I believe it was mutual. When I explained that I'm not a homeowner she ignored me and kept right on going with her script. So I hung up.

Then something occured to me. How many of these polling firms places are outsourcing their legwork and data gathering overseas? If this is common that may explain the poor quality of polling these days.

Errands

I've been running around most of the day. I went to the DMV and I took care of my voter registration. I moved at the beginning of the month. It went well and now I have a new license with the correct address on it.

This especially good because I hope to be buying some guns soon (before the election). I need the DL for with the proper address for that. If Bush wins things could get violent in some liberal dominated areas. I'm a stones throw away from the ultra-liberal conclave also known as a college campus. I'd like to have a long arm to go with my hipower just in case. Luckily for most the ultra-libs don't usually own guns. Unfortunately for them if they try anything near me and mine, I do.

I got my car washed too so the protective layer of filth has been removed. Hopefully I won't get rear-ended again now.

My girlfriend showed me an Anna Nicole game on E! Online. Its disgustingly addictive. So far I've managed to get up to level 9. The level when the first introduce the pickle is a bear too.

Messianic Jews

GetReligion is writing about the cultural divide between Messianic "Judiasm" and the unleaded variety. More specifically they're talking about the trouble the press has expressing this objectively in a way that both sides can agree upon.

This kind of hits home for me. My Girl Amybear is a Reform Jew. I'm a Baptist (duh). We're seriously considering marriage at this point and we're wondering how the kids religious upbringing will work out. What's my point and how does this relate to the article? Well one of the things we considered (well I considered more on that later) was Messianic Judaism. They have the Jesus I want and some of the Jewish tradition she wants.

The problem? Well its twofold.

One is that a lot of Messianic congregations are pretty non-traditional in Jewish circles. Regular Jews do not, for instance, practice Davidic worship. Thats when parts of the congregation starts dancing up front during the worship section of a shabbat service. Its weird. Amybear and I are unanimous on its weirdness. Regular Jews have some traditional dances they do at wedding receptions and parties of religious significance, but in services? Don't be ridiculous.

The second problem is what GetReligion is talking about. Jews as a whole tend to be inclusive of all other Jews provided they are ethnically Jewish and not Christians or Muslims. The exclusion of Jewish Christians and Muslims has a lot to do with cultural/religious warfare and historical incidents of forced conversion like the Inquisition. Jews have been excluding Christian Jews from their fellowship since the Apostle Paul.

Our kids will technically be Jewish because Amybear is Jewish and Jews follow matrilineal descent. But Jews specifically exclude Messianic Jews from their congregations and gatherings. You can't even join a Jewish mailing list or online forum if they find out you're Messianic. Amybear doesn't want our kids to have to go through that and I see her point.

So we're going to have to do some tap dancing once we have kids. It should keep our lives interesting at least.

Bad Ways to Start a Day

Bad Way Number 1: Get rear-ended leaving your apartment complex. I pull forward to get set to merge out into traffic, she pulls forward into me. I'm guessing she was looking at traffic and not at the guy in front of her.

Anyway the good news is that the collision was very low speed. My car has a small scratch on the rear bumper. She might have something similar. Looks like the bumpers did their jobs and prevented any other damage. Plus, for once, it isn't my fault.

My last car had really crappy brakes. So that the last two times I've been in one of these I had the guilt of causing it. Not so with this one, she hit me. I can't really be too mad. She didn't do much damage and I've done worse to other folks. Ok so I can be mad, no sense going into denial or anything, but frankly little harm was done.

Bad news. I have her information, she has mine. I was mister nice guy and didn't insist that the cops be called. Like I said, there really isn't any damage or injury so it shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully the lack of a police report won't do much since no money should be changing hands. I'm going to have to buy a cell phone now so I can call the cops and not depend on the other person though. Oh well hopefully learning from my mistakes won't be too costly.

Christian Blogging

Should blogging be a spiritual discipline? Well not necessarily, but lately it seems that the vast majority of material written by christian bloggers is political. Kerry Sucks, Bush Rocks.

Thats nice and I don't disagree, but where is the love? Where is your first love my fellow Ephesians? I think this has really become the leading failure of the religious right. We just don't show the love of God enough. We don't show the truth we live for through our actions enough. I'd rather not fall into that trap myself.

Scripture commands me to do all things for the glory of God. This blog is included.

Spiritual Deserts

No, not Death by Chocolate. I mean those dry places, the lonely valleys we travel through where spiritual direction is difficult to discern. It seems like a lot of folks are going through that right now. Messy Christian and Reepicheep are two people on my blogroll that have had a bit of it.

My first instinct is to start giving advice on how to be happier or why people are going through trouble. I usually manage to shut up before I inflict permanent spiritual harm. You never know who to blame, but the tendency is to blame the guy in the relationship that didn't create the universe. Blaming someone is not a way to bring comfort. You just end up being one of Job's comforters, I guess. What I really should be doing is just sympathizing/empathizing and let them know they aren't alone.

About the only advice I can give is this: God knows what you are going through. Spend some time with him and ask him to show you what you need to do to get things right. Jesus didn't call the Holy Spirit a spiritual counselor for nothing. If you do have wrongs that need to be settled, the Spirit can also convict you of your wrongs. God is good and he is always faithful and waiting. Go to him.

Taco Bell and Accents

Izzy and I went to Taco Bell today. They revamped their combo menu a while back so, in our opinion, it makes less sense. (They don't have a two taco combo and number 2 for instance.) Turns out they still have the old combo options available though. That made me happy because, as a creature of habit, I really wanted my two supreme gorditas and a soft taco. It used to be the number 8. Now its the number nothing, but I can still order it just the same. We also found it interesting that the taco at Taco Bell is the equivalent to french fries at Burger King or McDonalds. A taco is a meal for some folks, fries aren't a meal for anybody.

The woman taking my order sounded like she was an immigrant from some part of Germany. "Vhat kint of taco vood you like to go mit your gordita..." Somehow "Mexican" food is not supposed to go with Natasha Badanov's accent. But she did a good job so who am I to really complain. I was amazed that no mexican immigrants worked at the mexican restaurant. Although frankly if I was Mexican I would probably see Taco Bell as an affront to my entire people and culture.

Vice Pres Debates

Not watching it. Who cares? Does anybody ever vote for Vice President? No. The only thing they're good for is breaking ties in the Senate. It doesn't take much to guess which way either of these two guys will vote in that case.

UPDATE: Thought of another reason to avoid them. These guys aren't even arguing their own ideas. They're arguing for their boss. For instance Cheney is not the social conservative that Bush is. Edwards is not the northern liberal that Kerry is. So these guys are just parroting their respective party lines. Big whooptie do.

Turning into Mr Rodgers

Its cold at work right now. The heat isn't on but the weather is downright chilly at night. So the temperature in the office is pretty cold. To combat this I wear a fleece jacket at work. I also wear a windbreaker outside cause its cold and windy.

Long story short, I come back from lunch and I go into my cube. I take off my jacket and put on my fleece. I think about what I just did. Great now all I need is some slippers and the King Friday to come a-callin'.

Thoughts on the Trinity

If there is one christian theological concept people have trouble wrapping their minds around its the trinity. How does the trinity square with something like the Shema from Deuteronomy: "Hear oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

One of the best illustrations I have heard is that of water. Water? Yes. The trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Water is liquid water, solid ice, and gaseous water vapor. All are the same yet all are different. God is water, but he can be perceived in different forms depending on what is happening.

My roommate used this illustration my freshman year. I like it so I thought I would put it down here. Thanks Dave.

Liberal Leadership

La Shawn Barber has a post up on her dismay with African American leaders. She's drawing her piece from a similar Armstrong Williams piece. I can see why black conservatives will be unhappy about "their" leadership. The most telling quote in William's piece (which Barber quotes):

Like the old saying goes, "easiest way to control the mob is to agree with them."

It seems to me this is what a lot of liberal leaders do. They use polling to get out in front of the current trends. Then, once they get to the leading edge of the mob, they shout "Follow me!" and everybody thinks they're leading and setting the agenda. They aren't of course, they're just mimicking the cry of the mob on a larger stage.

Eventually the mob slows down or changes course and the old leader loses touch. Then a new leader shows up and yells "Follow me!" in that direction.

Contrast this to Republican leadership (I hate call the Repubs conservative anymore because, well, lots of them aren't). Bush is known for disagreeing with a lot of the folks in his own party. He dislikes excessive polling because he thinks policy should not be based on a popularity contest, it should be based on judgement and fundamental governing principles.

In the end though I think the real difference is in how the two groups work socially. Conservatives are more authority driven. You follow the leader. Liberals have too much of that hippy culture for that to work. They're more anti-authoritative so you end up with cat-herding leaders. What do you guys think?

The Blogging Reformation

Doug Kern has a tech central column comparing the effect blogging has had on Big Media to the effect of the printing press had on the Protestant/Catholic divide.

Fortune Cookies II

I talked about fortune cookie fortunes here before. Tom, one of my coworkers, brought in two got at a restaurant with his fiance. His was "you are kind and courteous" hers was "It tastes sweet." Insert to proper phrase after the second and you will be appalled or laughing so hard you will have to sit down.

Fixed!

I'm starting to see why everybody moves off of Blogger eventually. Its not that the user interface sucks. Granted, it could use some improvements. For instance I just had to delete over a hundred posts by hand, and blogger forces a time consuming republish after every friggin' one. It took hours. If they had designed it properly it should have taken minutes (like purging my hotmail account does). I should be able to select the posts to kill and then do a single republish. But thats not the real problem.

The problem is that it breaks. A lot. And the channel they use to tell us that it is broken doesn't respond in a timely manner. So I don't get the message until 2 hours and 100+ accidental posts later. And that sucks, not because a service I use for free broke, but because my discomfort was completely avoidable if they had just promptly reported its brokenness. I don't pay money for this service but I do pay time. And I want those hours back dammit.

Oh did I mention that the rate Blogger sends random people to your door with the "next" button up top there seems to be dependent on how often you post? I seem to be getting a lot of folks recently because of my blogger screwups.

Commuters in the Mist: Updated

It was a foggy morning on the way to work today. Driving at highway speeds in a moderate fog isn't fun. It did give me a bit of revelation about which driver to avoid though. Seems that the people who weren't bright enough to put their headlights on were also not bright enough to slow down with reduced visibility. So now a I have an easy methodology to identify dangerous drivers in fog: no headlights.

UPDATE: Blogger broke so now I have a million of copies of this post. Grrr. I'm starting to realize why nobody "professional" uses blogger. Anyway I will be deleting the redundant posts but it will take a while.

Chris Muir

Unfortunately Day by Day has been on haitus because of things going on in the life of Chris Muir, the artist. Even more unfortunately it seems that one of the family members who was battling cancer has lost her fight. My prayers are with you Chris.

Debate So Far

I'm calling it for Kerry so far. Bush looks exasperated. His body language sucks. Not good. He needed to be confident and presidential. He needed to have authority and carry himself well. Instead he's been on the defensive. People seem to be thinking this debate is about the issues. It isn't. Its about the men. So far Kerry is looking presidential and Bush is looking flustered. Contrast this to the last debate when Bush was playing Gore like a master by now.

UPDATE: Yes Kerry won. For those of your who read the prayer, no this does not mean I will be voting for him. While Kerry did a better job of talking, he did not do a better job of saying anything I could agree with.

Overall I don't think the Kerry presidency will necessarily be a disaster as long as the Republicans maintain control of Congress to control his penchant for spending. By the time Kerry could get in the Oval Office, Iraq will be having elections and the indigenous Iraqi National Guard troops will outnumber ours in the country. Thats a good looking situation. Kerry may inherit Iraq just in time to take credit for winning the war.

Debate Prayer

Lord God, I know who I would like to vote for. I want to know who you would have me vote for. I pray that you would reveal your candidate through these debates.

Iraq: The Debate

Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy is offering a challenge about Iraq. I accept.

First, assuming that you were in favor of the invasion of Iraq at the time of the invasion, do you believe today that the invasion of Iraq was a good idea? Why/why not?

People call this the War in Iraq. Its not the War in Iraq, its the Battle of Iraq. The War is against Islamic Terrorists, not a single country.

Most of our military might in mideast was tied up containing Saddam Hussein's Iraq, how can you conclude that Iraq is completely secondary? Two years ago we basically had two options, either withdraw US forces to free them up for offensive action elsewhere or make Iraq the target. We chose the later. I believe it to be the right choice. Saddam Hussein was too dangerous to be left alone especially without containment or sanctions.

Now that the threat of Hussein is gone what do we do? We rebuild the country into one that will put pressure on the terrorist backing regimes in the area, specifically Syria and Iran. We know that freedom is more productive and more attractive than tyranny. If we can teach that freedom to the Iraqis then the other regimes in the region will have to follow suit or fall behind. That is what makes this worth it. That is the heart of the Battle of Iraq and what links it to the entire campaign. If democracy in Iraq succeeds it will force a complete change in the underlying culture of the region. Its a gamble, but I think it can succeed.

Second, what reaction do you have to the not-very-upbeat news coming of Iraq these days, such as the stories I link to above?

I don't dispute that bad things are happening in Iraq. Its a war. War is hell. Similarly a lot is being made of things not going to plan. A wise man once said that a plan in wartime never survives the first shot.

It think we have a good idea of what is going wrong. The problem with the news is that we have no idea about what is going right. All we get is body counts with no mention of accomplishments. How can you base a decision on just that? You cannot do a proper cost-benefit analysis if all you have is costs.

Third, what specific criteria do you recommend that we should use over the coming months and years to measure whether the Iraq invasion has been a success?

Is Iraq a freedom loving democracy, representative of its people? If so we will have won. If Iraq slides into Islamic Fundamentalism like Iran or back into B'aathist Dictatorial Fascism then we will have lost.

It does not matter if they like us. It only matters if they value the same freedoms we do like freedom of expression, self-defense, and religion. That will be enough. That will change their world.

Respect the Box!

I just thought I would bring this post at the Volokh Conspiracy together with this one from ESR.

Respect the box. You don't have to stay within "the envelope", but for God's sake realize why the envelope exists.

Oh and all you Howard Stern loving liberophiles complaining about the FCC, that goes double for you too. The envelope expands and the envelope contracts. We're in a contracting phase. Blame the war since contracting phases historically accompany them. But for God's sake stop whining about it.

Two Becoming One

My Girl couldn't sleep last night. She says screwing up one of my favorite shirts is ok, but I should buy some spares just in case. Good plan. She also says:

I tried going to bed but couldn't fall asleep. Maybe its the chocolate I had before bed. Sheesh I used to be able to drink diet cokes before bed an not have them affect me at all. Darn getting old.

I've said that exact same thing a thousand times myself. We're thinking alike and we're not even engaged yet. At this rate by the time we have kids, we'll be operating like some sort of hive mind. :)

Universal Gun Ownership

Kim du Toit is making a great point about gun ownership: it's not cut out for everybody.

I'm a gun owner. My Girl is not. I don't care if she ever gets into guns like I am. So far the most fun that I have ever had was skeet shooting. Target shooting is also satisfying. I love it, but I don't expect her to. I do have one stipulation though. She has to learn basic gun safety and how to make sure my guns are safe. Our house will have guns in it. I keep them locked up, but for her own safety she needs to know how to safely operate them just in case. Locks can be picked. Safe combinations can be guessed.

If you don't want to own guns fine. A lot of people don't want to own guns because they don't feel they are up to the responsibility. Hey you know yourself better than I know you. I'll take your word for it. But do us all a favor and refrain from making these two mistakes. Don't assume I'm not up to that responsibility because you aren't. Don't assume that means a gun will never come into your life.

The first is self explanatory since I'm not you. The second is why My Girl needs to know how to operate a firearm. Even if your family doesn't own guns, that doesn't mean you won't come across one in a parking lot somewhere. Or worse maybe your kids will. You should know the rules of safety just in case. It is in your benefit that you do.

Driving to Work

Today was one of those statistical confluences of idiots behind the wheel. In the space of a hundred yards there were almost two accidents. One of them almost involved me. The first saw a BMW and a ricer pass an normal driver. Joe Blow had the audacity to slow down at a yellow light instead of gunning it. They passed him using the left hand turn lane and then cut him off trying to beat the yellow and get back in the proper lane for the intersection. A few seconds later a soccer mom talking on her cell phone with her 7 year old son in the passenger seat nearly took my back bumper off at a merge. The kid wasn't distracting her though, he was too damn scared of his mom's driving to make a peep (insert look of wide-eyed horror here).

I wonder if we might not be better off if the automatic transmission was never invented. Seriously then people wouldn't be able to do a bazillion things while driving because they'd have to shift. They'd have to focus on what they're doing. And for your slush-box owners who might take offense, my car is an automatic too. But that doesn't make it right. ;)

Ughh

Well I'm almost done at the old apartment. I'll know when I'm actually done because the apartment will be clean enough for my satisfaction or I simply won't care anymore. I'm rapidly approaching the second.

I spent 3 hours there today. I cleaned the walls and windowsills. I vacuumed all the carpets I even decobbed the cobwebs in the corners. The kitchen is cleaner than I've ever had it at least. Bad news is that the bathroom still needs work. Remind me never to let soap scum build up that much again. Worse news is that the one of the cleaners must have had bleach in it, because now one of my favorite dark grey t-shirts now has light spots on it. Worst news is that its also one of My Girl's favorite shirts so she going to be unhappy too.

Oh well I'll have to remember where I bought it so I can buy another. Next time I clean, I'm wearing a white shirt that I got for free and won't mind losing.

Broadband!

My internet connection at the new apartment is up and running. Now I can say nothing twice as fast!

Moving

Well I'm moving to the new place today and it doesn't have internet yet. Unfortunately I don't have a dialup account I can use. The last time I tried that the uninstall hosed the hard drive on my computer (that's what I get for using an AOL free trial). Blogging will be light until the situation is rectified.

Rather

Lots has been said. I'm not going to reiterate. But I thought someone referring to the Columbia Broadcasting System as "See BS" was wonderful in its subversive cleverness. From here on out if I ever have to pronounce that particular acronym, be assured this will be what I am actually saying.

P.S. Yes I am easily amused.

Loosing Pets

Messy Christian's dog Nicky has a heart condition. The Vet is saying he only has a couple years to live. Both My Girl and I have lost pets in the last few years. It hurts. It was like losing family for us. My prayers are with you MC. Part of me really hopes there is a puppy heaven.

Ambra on Little "C" Ideology

Ambra Nykol is preaching against wishy-washy christians.

Christian technically means "little Christ." Acts says it was first using in Syrian Antioch and before then christians were simply referred to as "The Way."

I agree that the "all things to all people" wing of the American church is tragically flawed. Christ is about two things truth and love. The conservatives tend to emphasize truth. We are like the church of Ephesus in Revelations. The liberals tend to emphasize love. In my mind they emphasize love too much and sacrifice truth and so they have become like Sardis.

Christ accepted many people, but there was always the implicit notion of "Go and sin no longer." The liberals have kept the acceptance, but forgotten the truth. Similarly if the truth brings us into conflict then so be it. Christ himself says he comes to bring the sword and turn families against themselves.

Presbyterians and Israel

Eugene Volokh is blogging about Eugene Kontrovich's article in national review online. Basically the Eugenes are concerned that the Presbyterian Church is taking a stand against Israel but not against anybody else. You know like the Arabs in Sudan killing black Christians and selling their children into slavery. Or North Korea and China where Christian churches are being heavily persecuted because they oppose the absolute dominion of the state.

They have a point, but as a former presbyterian (Jeff the Presbyterian didn't have the same ring) I'd like to point out something myself. There are three presbyterian denominations in the US: PCUSA, PCA, and Orthodox. PCUSA is the original and went heavily liberal with the cultural revolution. They are also dying out like most of the liberal denominations. PCA is more evangelical and Orthodox is probably the most conservative and traditional. Please do not tar all presbyterians with the same brush. My PCA and OP brothers wouldn't put up with this crap.

Idiots and Onramps

So my coworker Izzy and I are coming back from picking up our lunch materials at the local WaWa. There is a fun onramp/offramp during part of the trip. It has some tight curves to it and opens out onto a nice merging lane so you should be able to take them sportily. I say should because it has the problem of being a major idiot transportation route.

In short, the only time this ramp is safe is in a car. Unfortunately it tends to get a fair bit of pedestrian and bicycle traffic. The combination of a steep grade, narrow shoulders, guard rails on both sides, and a blind corner at the top make for a potential death trap if you're a cyclist or a walker. We have both had a scary situations at that blind turn. Anyone with any sense stays away from it unless they're driving, but there are always idiots that walk or bike it.

Izzy said that he wished he didn't know about the idiots. That way he could have fun on the ramp and take the turns spiritedly as is his wont. I said that his ignorance would have tragic conclusions. Perhaps it would be better if there were simply fewer idiots in the world.

No, he said, then they would be less evenly spaced. You would have patchy idiot coverage instead of a background level of stupid that is easy to ignore. Plus the remaining idiots would tend to congregate together so you have regions of very high relative stupidity.

Hmmm. Yeah that would be horrible, said I. I'd walk up to the pump in dumbassington and find out I can't pump my own gas! Doh! Darn New Jersey Designated Stupid Zone!

Kerry and the Military

Hey that rhymes! Bush has been commander-in-chief for 4 years. Kerry served in Vietnam as a lieutenant for 4 months. Yet somehow Kerry is better qualified? How the heck does that work? Last I checked 4 years beats 4 months even if you consider a lieutenancy in a war equivalent to being commander-in-chief in a war. Which I don't. I wonder when the Democrats will figure this out, if ever.

Michael Badnarik at Slashdot

Slashdot has conducted an interview with Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian candidate for President. It basically sums up all the things that are wrong with the current Libertarian party. What do I mean? Well let me show you.

Badnarik is asked how we can improve the voting system to be more inclusive of third parties. His response is:

Personally, I prefer Approval Voting. In this method, each voter can select as many candidates as he likes -- he can vote for all the candidates whom he can live with. All of the votes are counted, and the candidate with the most votes wins.

So basically if I vote for 6 people under this system I have 6 times as many votes as someone who only votes for one. This is not a system where everyone has an equal or equivalent vote.

On the movement of both parties toward the center:

All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil.

The problem here is that there is not such thing as a good candidate. If you are voting on a political representative you will not agree with everything. You will always be voting for the lesser of two evils and the founding fathers even recognized this in the writing of the revolutionary period like Common Sense.

He goes on about repealing the PATRIOT Act in its entirety. Which is stupid since even the ACLU says that the majority of the PATRIOT Act is simply government reorganization and is neutral to civil liberties. Badnarik either hasn't bothered to inform himself on this issue or is an idiot.

Speaking of being an idiot, here is a choice piece on his corporate reforms:

A market in which single proprietorships and partnerships must compete against what are essentially mini-branches of government, with all the attendant privileges and immunities, isn't a free market. It's a rigged game. ... Stockholders are owners, and should be liable for the consequences of that ownership like any other owners.

That's right, all corporations are bad because they are legal government constructs to shield shareholders from liability. So what we should do is reduce corporations to jointly controlled proprietorships. Lets destroy the most significant legal and financial construct in history, because Mikey doesn't like it.

Lastly lets look an nuclear proliferation:

Pakistan and India have a history of 50 years of conflict. They're both nuclear powers. Yet they haven't used those arms. Israel has nuclear weapons, is surrounded by enemies and has had to fight for its very survival, yet has not used them.

Israel has never lost a war. That's why they haven't used them. Similarly Pakistan and India haven't fought a war since they became nuclear powers.

To be fair he does come out in favor of the electoral college and privatizing education. He also has some intelligent commentary on intellectual property and the effect of technological change.

Little Cars with No Power

I took my Protege in for its 30,000 mile service on Friday. The 30,000 mile service is pretty lengthy and takes about 5 hours (it involves flushing most of the cars fluids). So I ended up driving around in a rented Chevy Cavalier.

Uggh. My Protege is technically in the same size class as the Cav, but there was no comparison. No power even though it technically had a larger engine than my car's 2 liter. I had to rework how I took offramps because the handling just wasn't there. The interior was tiny with my left shoulder hitting the door. Similarly the roof seemed lower. Shudder. Definitely going to rent something else if there is a next time. I have never been so happy to be back in my car. Gonna have to baby it soon to keep it happy.

My Girl

My Girl has a blog on blogspot now. Previously she was only posting on a private online journal site so there wasn't much point to linking.

Cultural Tendencies

Ambra Nykol is writing about stereotypes and generalizations. She's drawing off of a blog entry by Brenton Mumford. What makes this interesting to me is that Brenton is a white man talking about black women. Ambra is a black woman. Here is a teaser:

The immediate reaction of having this type of dialogue is for us to tense up at the thought of "gross racial generalizations". Indeed, we do get into murky waters when we start typifying people based on race. If anyone is living proof against the ramifications of that, it's me. However, interestingly enough, one would be surprised as to how some of those "generalizations" actually measure up in real life. Oftentimes, they're spot on.

Now I'm probably going to put my foot in this a lot because I am a white male too. I'm more than that, I'm a white anglo-saxon protestant male. I'm a WASP, the whitest of the white. Don't make me whistle the opening theme to Andy Griffith to prove it.

Where am I going with this? The problem of generalization is that, while useful, they are often wrong in the specific. One of my favorite lines in Gettysburg is said by Sargeant Kilrain:

The thing is, you cannot judge a race. Any man who judges by the group is a pea wit. You take men one at a time.

Generalizations are trends. At best they are just paths of statistical likelihood. At worst they are unfounded accusations or popular falsehoods. Some of them are often quite useful, but we must always keep in mind that they're never right all of the time for all people.

I think this is part of the reason God forbids us from judging by the family or the group. God may visit the sins of the father onto the son, but it is not permissable for Man to judge the son by his father. We are all individuals, with our own paths to walk under heaven. Best we be reminded that generalizations are much like the rules of grammar or spelling, for every case there is always an exception.

Wasabi!

My Girl pointed me towards this story on Yahoo! News. People you're supposed to eat wasabi with sushi not put it up your nose for medicinal effect...

At the Movies

So I saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow yesterday. It was ok.

Visually it is pretty amazing. Well most of the time. Art deco robots stomping through 1939 New York. Giant rocket ships and lots and lots of references to old Republic serials. The "most of the time" comes in because some shots are just really bland. If you've seen trailers, you know that the movie's color scheme has a very washed out feeling to it. It works fine for the most part, but if there isn't anything interesting going in the shot, then the lack of color makes it amazingly boring. Several reaction shots throughout the movie are set like that deliberately. We have an actor and nothing interesting behind them but drab alleyway or black mineshaft reacting to something we can't see. Boring. If you have technology to show the monster like we do, then show it and let the audience react. Then show the protagonist doing something. Don't show people reacting to something we've already seen.

Writing was mixed. Some of it was classic serial writing. I honestly didn't mind that the arc-plot was so contrived because thats what they are supposed to be like. Some of it was really clever, one of the important props is basically a dollar store spark gun we all saw as kids. There are little details and one-liners in there that really are great. I will not ruin them by typing them here. Similarly the acting was quite good considering they are all on blue screened sound stages.

Other parts of the movie were just annoyingly stupid. Like Gwynneth Paltrow's whole character for instance. Her only purpose was to give Jude Law a hard time and give the villians important information. Why couldn't Angelina Jolie's character be in the movie that whole time and Gwynneth only appear for 5 minutes instead of the other way around? Granted giving Jude a hard time resulted in some yucks but otherwise she was a waste of space. At one point Jude punches Polly and knocks her out in order to go and be the hero. It was perhaps the best part of the movie. I clapped. Not because he was heroic, but because I'd been wanting to hit Polly for at least an hour by that point.

Oh and if you're going to set a movie in 1939, at least have the decency to know that World War I was not called "World War I" before World War II. It was called the Great War or the War to End All Wars. Do some research for heavens sake.

Oh and the last picture in her camera? She takes it of Sky Captain. Trust me you would have figured it out half an hour before the end of the movie anyway so I'm not spoiling anything.

Women's Lib

I am acquiring a real respect for the writings of Connie du Toit. She has an essay up about true liberation of women. It involves the fundamental fear of violence women face every day and how she dispelled it with firearms.

10 Tips for Being a better Man in a Relationship

Hey this guy has some good ideas. Technically his tips are about marriage, but many of them apply to any level of relationship. The best part of it is I already do some of that stuff before I read the article. (Not the stuff about reaching under you wife's blouse.) Go me.

Hat tip to Marriages Restored.

Moving

I'll be changing apartments soon. Blogging may be lighter than usual for the next week or so while I pack up and then settle back in. Just thought you might want to know.

Inclusiveness

Christian Inclusiveness is the topic of a series by Mark Roberts. I'm putting him on my blogroll so I can hopefully keep track of it.

Yglesias bashed AWB

Matthew Yglesias supports the death of the AWB. He actually has a fairly good line of reasoning on why it was a very poor law in the first place.

He reasons that Gun Control is only important as it relates to Crime Control. Since assault weapons are rarely used in crime, this link is especially weak. Additionally, the policy is so poorly written and handled that it seriously undermines trust between even non-activist gun owners and gun control advocates. Essentially the law gave strong credence to the slippery slope, comprehensive ban argument. Also attempts to improve it would only strengthen this argument because of the bans arbitrary design. I think he's right about both of these incidentally.

He then goes off on partisan rants about how Bush is evil and a liar. Where are the WMDs? Where are the WMDs? Oh well. At least he has done something worth reading. That puts him ahead of Atrios.

Sword Time

I own a sword. Its a nice one, an Angus Trim 1518 Longsword. Mine has blued fittings and an oxblood grip.

Usually my brother and I go shooting on Sundays, but today we did something different. We flipped over an empty trash can in the back yard and "recycled" some 2 liter plastic bottles. The first step in the process was hitting them with 32 inches of tempered steel of course. If we thought we could get away with it, we hit them twice. After we had reduced them to the smallest possible component parts we could, they went into the recycling bin. See real recycling goes into it somewhere... Good stewardship of earth's resources and all.

It is incredibly fun. You really must try it some time. I plan to bring my sword and a stand to my next church picnic.

AWB Correction

The Volokh Conspiracy and others are reporting that the Chicago Sun-Times has retracted their "assault weapons=machine guns" assertion two days early. Read my previous post for why this is a good thing.

Update: Did you know the AWB expired this morning at 12:01 AM? Well it did! Woo hoo! Assault Weapons for honest citizens again! Time to start planning that AR-15 M4orgery I want. I hear Rock River Arms does good work.

9-11

Well I spent the 3rd anniversary of September 11th doing exactly what I should have done. I slept in, watched some Rise and Fall of the World Trade Center on the History Channel, and then went to see Resident Evil: Apocalypse at my local Googleplex. At night I watched some cartoons and talked with the woman I love for a couple hours.

In short I got on with my life. I remember what happened 3 years ago today and I will not forget. But that governs how I act every day. Today was nothing special.

Residental Evil was ok. I saw a matinee which was worth it, but don't go into it thinking you'll be seeing high art. Its a monster movie with zombies and genetic freaks. Oh and lots of overblown corporate paranoia.

Coming out of the theatre I saw a car flying a flag and sporting a Bush/Cheney sticker. It occurred to me that I haven't seen many similar cars flying flags or yellow ribbons with Kerry/Edwards stickers on them. Maybe there is a correlation there. If you have seen some patriotic K/E folks, let me know.

Fortune Cookies

I went to an all-you-can-eat chinese buffet for lunch today with a cadre of coworkers. My fortune cookie said:

Find release from your cares, have a good time.

Heh. My coworkers said something along the lines of:

An uncomfortable proposition will bring great joy.

Hmmm. Perhaps there is the back seat of a volkswagen in his future.

The Assault Weapons Ban

Ok here is a gun post. The Assault Weapons Ban is about to expire on September 13th. Thats Monday. The Volokh Conspiracy is reporting that the Chicago Sun-Times will correct its misinformation about the ban on Tuesday. Thats the day after it is set to expire. After their falsehoods (intentionally or no) will have been used to influence policy as much as possible.

For those of you who don't know what the AWB is, it regulates a number of semiautomatic weapons on the basis of what are mostly external physical characteristics. Bayonet lugs and other things that aren't useful but look scary. It also limits the magazine capacity of most guns. It has been widely criticized both by pro-gun and anti-gun lobbyists for being ineffective and easy to circumvent. But people are still trying to renew it of course.

The most common misconception is that the AWB covers machine guns. Its not true. The AWB doesn't have any effect on machine guns (they are covered by the 1930s era National Firearms Act or NFA). All the guns covered by the AWB are semi-automatic. They are not machine guns although some have a passing resemblence to them. But the press promises to correct itself, only after its too late.

Awww Cute Baby

Gabe at Penny Arcade is a daddy. Pictures are contained within. I have to get around to putting a comic roll up on the ole blog here. Tycho, Gabe's partner in crime, had this to say:

When he told me this pregnancy thing was for real, triumphantly declaring that he "makes boys," I told him precisely what I thought - that any idiot is capable of this feat, and that - in actual point of fact - idiots engage in this kind of thing more than anyone else, which is why it can be so hard to get a decent cappuccino. I was being mean to him, it's kind of what I do, but he really was describing the most common, most ordinary event on our planet. There are two ways to interpret this.

The first way is to dismiss it, as I did initially.

The second way, the way that now seems apparent, is to recognize that the significance of an event isn't necessarily diluted by its frequency. Consider that we might live absolutely encompassed by marvels and wonders. I am suggesting that we are up to our asses in signs and portents that we are quick to omit or can't interpret.

Amen. Perhaps we should think like this more often. Its not that miracles don't happen anymore. Its that we fail to recognize them.

The Other Jeff the Baptist

Did you know there is another Jeff the Baptist? I didn't until today. Evidentally he's a seminary student living in Seattle. He seems to be one of those whiny people who consistently miss the obvious in hopes of finding something profound on the other side of it. For instance here's something he wrote:

"Why not just admit that God may be larger than our ability to comprehend? Why not just admit that we don't have all the answers yet (if ever)?"

I agree with all of that. In fact I know I will never fully comprehend God. He is a being who transcends all of creation and is certainly above the most basic precepts of my understanding. Do you know how I know this? Because God told me. Its in Isaiah. Its in Psalms. Its in the Scriptures God wrote for us so we could understand even a little of Him (or Her if you prefer) and what God wants us to do with ourselves.

Sorry other Jeff the Baptist, I can understand how all that love you have for your fellow man must be wonderful. But what happens when you see your friends doing something foolish? Something that will cost them their lives? Their souls? Do you do nothing and say "hey who's to really say?" In your analysis you do. After all we wouldn't want to dim their divine spark would we?

The right answer is that you do something. When the God who created the universe comes to your door and tells you what you need to do, you do it. I worship a God who commands me to opposed evil in His name and, while there are definitely gray areas, there are also some jet black and bright white ones. I love you enough to tell you when you are making a mistake when I know you will hate me for it.

See that divine spark you keep talking about is Divine. Its a gift from God. And he left us instructions for how to tend it so that it will grow ever stronger. Perhaps you should spend a little more time contemplating those instructions.

Worst List Ever

Josh Claybourn is creating a list of worst lists ever. It led me here.

My God that music list awful. How can you have 5 essential songs from the '80s and not include any of these: Angel is a Centerfold, 867-5309 (Jenny), Video Killed the Radio Star, Whip It, or Jessie's Girl? When somebody needs a song to represent all of '80s rock, doesn't it come from those 5? If it doesn't you can bet its going to be comething close like Safety Dance, Shout, Broken Wings, or anything by Duran Duran or Huey Lewis.

Similarly where is a disco song on their 70s list? No Donna Summer or the Bee Gees? The last time I heard God Save the Queen was on VH1 during the Sex Pistols Behind the Music show. No Sugar Hill Gang?

Now I'm not saying any of these songs is good (although I do like Video Killed the Radio Star), but they are what '70s and '80s music are.

Somewhere a Old Newspaper Man is Smiling

What we have here is not a case of Man bites Dog, what we have is a case of Dog shoots Man. Now even I know thats gonna sell papers.

Stewardship

Connie Du Toit has a piece up on stewardship. Its long and rambles a bit, but its good stuff. Her point is that we are stewards, but what we have is for us to use and enjoy.

I don't have a lot of stuff to pass down to my as yet unborn children. I have my FN Hi-Power and I'll probably have a few more guns to add to it. I have a good sword. It should survive me as well. My kids might like that shirt of maille I've been working on.

The rest is pretty utilitarian. My plates are not expensive china, they're just corell because I use them. My flatware is just stainless. I use that too. My computer and car will be ancient before my kids can ever use them. Most of my furniture is inexpensive particle board stuff.

On the other hand that doesn't mean my kids won't value any of them. I once gave My Girl a little knot made of vinylester resin left over from an experiment I did in grad school. Its worthless, just a little bit of scrap left in an injection line but she keeps it in her purse like I had made it from pure gold. I do the same with my kitchen table, its the one I ate dinner off of every night growing up. Its nothing special, but its family. Maybe my kids will be like that too.

Pretty soon I will be inheriting a gun from my Grandfather. It will probably be his Remington 870 12 gauge or his Sears 20 gauge. He was a deer and bird hunter. I'm not a hunter but I'll shoot some clays with it anyway. I might have to change the choke on it to suit the sport, but other than that it stays the way I receive it. Someday it may break, but it'll still have its place of honor in the cabinet whether it works or not.

The Tales from the Trip

I visited My Girl in North Carolina over Labor Day Weekend. The South is weird. Well it is for a Northerner like me.

Want an example? We went to a chinese all-you-can-eat buffet. My Girl ordered her usual Diet Coke. I ordered a tea. Now in most chinese restaurants, ordering tea will bring you a pot containing hot green tea. Usually there are handle-less tea cups involved as well. Not in North Carolina. I came back to our table with my first plate and there was a tall glass of sweet tea (pronounced sweettay). That was fine because I like sweet tea too, but it wasn't what I was expecting.

Similarly lots of people had accents and that seemed to make my mind jump to conclusions faster.

(1) Attractive women get even hotter. Southern women just sound sexy. Men might gain a certain air too, but I'm straight so if they get sexier I'm not the right person to notice. If My Girl picks up an accent down there I won't complain.

(2) Unattractive people metamorphose into total rednecks. They could be fat or skinny. Maybe they just need to put on a shirt. Others are like My Girl's neighbor who is Boomhauer-ly unintelligible. I find myself repeating Jeff Foxworthy routines to myself. They could be the nicest people ever and it doesn't matter.

(3) Slightly provocative people instantly become skanks. Remember Britney Spears when her first album came out. Normal girls in the south are like that; cute and (if you were in the proper age group) pretty sexy. On the other hand a southern woman dressing a little slutty is like Britney now; total whore-slut.

(4) People with multiple layered accents are just perplexing sometimes. The waitress at the aforementioned buffet had a Chinese accent and a North Carolinian accent. I can't write something down to illustrate the weirdness of this without getting into stereotypes that offend even me. I've actually experienced this before closer to home though. Most of the Indian professors at my alma mater had layered British and Indian accents. Its still weird when a chinese woman with the full asian accent says "you all" though.

Anyway the last bit of weirdness is the cuisine shift. There the usual franchises, but on top of this there are Sonic (yum!), Checkers, and Bojangles Chicken and Biscuits. Oh and Hardees. Yummy thickburgers. Even yummier thickburger commercials with that girl on the mechanical bull. Yowsa! Anyway mechanical bull girl sidetracked my brain. Suffice it to say that the general level of cuisine became about twice as fattening. I gained a lot of respect for My Girl because she actually lost weight in this environment.

P.S. Yes I realize that North Carolina isn't really the South because the state still has "north" in the name. ;)

Woo hoo!

Blogger is back up. Now I know why everyone wants to get off this service... ;)

Christian Singleness

Messy Christian is writing about christian singleness. Singleness or Marriage? Why is the church so obsessed with one or the other?

The Apostle Paul's advice on staying single is one of those funny things in Scripture. Its about that only time I ever have heard a scriptural writer say "I'm not sure if this is from God but..." then he talks a lot about how its good to be single. He basically concludes the passage with "...and I think thats inspired." Lots of wiggle room there.

Being single is good. Being married is good. Paul preferred singleness for the freedom it brought in trying times. Jewish tradition on the other hand has taken God's command to be fruitful and raise a family very seriously. So much so that they can't understand where we got the idea of solely dedicating yourself to God outside of marriage. Celibate priests, monks, and nuns? Foolishness!

The singles group at my church had a troubled history with this. The first singles pasator there had a bullet in his mission statement about making people "marriageable." He left over unrelated doctrinal disputes and our current pastor came in. As soon as he saw that bullet he knew he would have to rebuild the group from scratch.

Being single or being married, the church's interests should be the same. You need to raise up a spiritually strong, upright christian. By doing that they will move in the ways that God calls them. The couples who married and "graduated" at my church started a Young Married Life (YML) group using the same model as the singles group. Its been fruitful and is its own ministry separate from the singles group drawing in couples on its own. On the other hand many of the singles have used their singleness in ways Paul would approve, they are involved in short and long term missions. Some of them got married because of that, but others are still single and working in God harvest field. To each their own.

I'm about to start shopping for a ring, so we know which group I'm in. Darn burning with passion.

Holy Crap

This post at Evangelical Outpost is hilarious.

Labor Day

Spent the weekend with My Girl. On a completely different topic, isn't it kind of telling that Organized Labor is celebrated in the US with a day to be lazy and not work.

Atheism

The Evangelical Outpost has a piece up on atheism. I'm obviously not an atheist, but that doesn't mean they can't be good folks. However while Joe Carter says there are four types of atheist I contest there are only really two; anti-theists and skeptics.

Anti-theists

Anti-theists take the position that there is no God. There is nothing skeptical about it which sets them apart from the Skeptics. The Anti-theists know that there is no God with certainty. Anti-theists often look down upon theists for being less rational or intelligent than themselves. In my experience, these are the sorts of people that may get angry when you pray for them or around them. Religion to them is often seen as a psychological crutch for the weak.

The funny thing is that anti-theism is not a rationally defensible philosophical position. You can't prove that there is no God. God is far too generic and broad a concept to be refuted in this way. You can try to refute someone's specific conceptualization of God, but there can be an infinite number of those and you get nowhere. So the anti-theist is no more rational than the theist. The only way you can be an anti-theism is by buying into an unproven assumption, which is the same act of faith as a theist.

Some anti-theists are people who just haven't realized the philosophical discontinuity within their belief system. They usually become skeptics once it is pointed out to them. Others I have met have had strong experiences that have caused them to break with religion. Often this can be the death of a loved one or family member or similar traumatic event that their old religious belief failed to help them with. They abandon religion altogether as a falsehood because of it. These are often the people who see religion as a crutch. It didn't help them through their traumatic event so they assume it is incapable of helping you through yours.

Skeptics

Skeptics describe themselves as lacking a belief in God. Carter's post uses the term "methodological athiests." How can you be sure a room isn't full of invisible bunny rabbits? You can't say the skeptics, but it is wise to assume that it is not. The logical default for skeptics is disbelief. In comparison, a theist would often say putting off decision until you know more would be wiser still.

Skeptics usually say that God hasn't met some standard of reasonable proof. If He did, we would relent and believe says the skeptic. The determination of what is "reasonable" is up to the skeptic though. With a sufficiently hardened heart they can doubt anything, even their own personal experience. Skeptics put a strong emphasis on truth in my experience, but their standards for establishing it are almost impossibly high. Honestly, I think a lot of these people have their minds made up already.

A skeptic, in my experience, will rarely look down on a theist like an anti-theist will. The reason is that you may know or have proof of something they do not. They don't hold your opinion of course, but live and let live.

Frankly, I find both philosophies small-minded and lacking in warmth or hope. But then thats why I'm not an athiest. I respect the skeptical athiests more than the anti-theists myself. Their belief system is at least fairly consistent. Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost feels the opposite. He respects the anti-theists because at least they have faith. To each their own.

That's What I'm Talking About

I write about a lot of stuff on here. I'm a typical guy. I like guns and cars and My Girl. I get passionate about politics and religion. All those things will show up here. Some will show up more than others. I haven't written anything about guns yet and only a little about cars.

I'm also going to avoid talking about a lot of stuff. I work for the Unites States Army. Don't count on seeing a lot of stuff that is work related showing up on this blog. Likewise I lead a small group bible study on thursday nights. It meets in the Pike Creek area of Northern Delaware if your interested in finding a study. What gets said at my bible study is confidential among the attendees and it is not going to show up here either. Sorry. I probably won't be going into intimate details about My Girl either. She writes personal stuff on her blog, but its not out in public like mine.

One thing I can say about work is that it occasionally gives me a wake up call. A meeting today really hammered home that we're in a war. People are dying out there for you my fellow Americans. Blood is being spilled on the altar of freedom to secure your liberty. Don't forget it.