New Style

I have made another alternate style: "Dark & Bubbly." The color scheme is the same one I used a few months ago, before changing to the lighter scheme. All the alternate styles are available on the sidebar.

Funny Story

Read it now...I'll wait...

In such a situation, I would try very hard not to laugh. But if someone else starts laughing, all bets are off. I do feel bad for the, um, perpetrator, who's probably still in that stall.

One of the great truths of life: flatulence is funny. And if you say you don't think it's funny...you're lying.

(Via Wendy Cooper.)

Some Thoughts on the SOTU

Overall, it was a good speech. But there's still the tendency to want to throw money at every problem. I thought conservatives were supposed to reduce spending. Neal Boortz comments more on all the spending proposed. (He's very critical, but remember that he's a libertarian.)

Here's some things I liked:

• Tax cuts - letting people keep more of their own money.


• Stopping out-of-control litigation.
  
• Banning PBAs and human cloning.


• Making a case for removing Saddam Hussein

What I didn't like:

• Pouring more money into Medicare to "reform" it.


• Spending $1.2 billion to develop hydrogen-powered cars. Isn't this better left to private industry?


• Spending $15 billion on AIDS funding for Africa and the Caribbean. Geez! I'm with Old Oligarch on this one.

Finally, here's a good quote from the speech (the text can be found here):

We seek peace. We strive for peace. And sometimes peace must be defended. A future lived at the mercy of terrible threats is no peace at all. If war is forced upon us, we will fight in a just cause and by just means – sparing, in every way we can, the innocent. And if war is forced upon us, we will fight with the full force and might of the United States military – and we will prevail. And as we and our coalition partners are doing in Afghanistan, we will bring to the Iraqi people food, and medicines, and supplies ... and freedom.

Blog News

The blog formerly known as Wilde has a new name, a new home and a great new look: American Empire. Check it out, won't you?

War Essay

Everybody has been linking to this, and for good reason:

Eject! Eject! Eject!: WAR

Bill Whittle makes an excellent, well thought-out case as to why Saddam Hussein should be removed from power. He argues his case from the heart as well as from the mind. The essay is lengthy, but well worth taking the time to read, no matter what your opinion on this issue is.

Style Switching Now Available

While waiting for the plumber to come and fix the busted pipe, I worked on this style switching thing. I decided not to use PHP (for now) because I wanted the style switching to work in the comment and trackback windows, too. So I used this javascript switcher instead. It works in IE6 and Netscape 6, but not in Opera 6. Also, obviously, you must have javascript and cookies enabled. The only alternate style I have right now is called "Monochrome." I'll add others in the future. Let me know if you have any problems.

Update: If you have trouble with the comments or trackback not showing the newly chosen style, refresh your browser.

It's Been a Bad Day

This is a long story about my really awful evening. You can click the link below to read it or just skip it.

Last night, we had freezing temperatures here in the Florida Panhandle. I thought I had made all the preparations a homeowner should make for such things.

However, when I came home from work today, I discovered the pipes for my sprinkler system had busted and were leaking. I wasn't expecting this because I had turned the water off to the sprinkler system at the beginning of winter.

Like a dummy, I tried to turn the valve to see if I could get it to stop leaking. It started gushing instead. I'm now soaked and the temps are in the upper-thirties.

I called the emergency plumber. They are completely swamped. The earliest they can come out is noon tomorrow. They tell me I need to shut the water off at the main valve. I decide to give this a try, since my front lawn is turning into a swamp.

I lift up the lid to where the main turn-off valve should be. All I see is a water meter, clicking along at quite a brisk pace. I see nothing that looks like a valve.

As you can imagine, I'm pretty much panicking at this time. My elderly mother, who lives with me, is going around to our neighbors' houses to try to get some help. Nobody is home.

(I should mention that my mother had also been gone all day. She and my sister sometimes take trips to Biloxi to throw money away play slots at the casinos.)

I decide to try another plumber to see if I can get someone else out sooner. The lady tells me that their plumbers are all exhausted and have gone home for the day. However, she was very helpful in that she gave me the emergency number for the utility company. (I had been trying to find that number in the phone book with no success. Panic causes me to get stuck on dumb.)

I call the utility company and hold for about twenty minutes. I tell the dispatcher my situation. He tells me my valve is probably covered with dirt. He describes it and tells me I need a wrench to turn it off. I tell him I'll give it another try and I call back if I can't get it to turn off.

I dig around and see something like what he described. However, I either don't have the proper tools or the upper-body strength, because I can't budge the thing.

I call them back, and they picked up right away this time. I talked to a different guy, who said he would put me on an already very long list. He says it might be a while.

In the meantime, the water is now shooting up like a geyser. In desperation, I try again to turn off the valve. Nothing. The water meter is now spinning like those little wheels in a slot machine. I've been praying this whole time. I look up at the stars and ask God to please help me.

My mother finally gets my sister's husband on the phone (they had been grocery shopping) and he says he'll come over and help. Not long after, a nice man from the utility company arrives and turns the valve off. I thank him profusely. I thank God profusely.

I had the foresight to draw some bath water before attempting to turn the water off. My mother also filled up some jugs. So at least I was able to take a bath and have some water for other needs.

So, I'm pretty drained this evening. I just wrote this to vent. If you've read this far, all I can say is I'm very flattered.

Hurtful Satire

Reading this post on the Living Room has given me second thoughts about the Planned Parenthood parody posters linked in this post. I understand the dark, satirical humor of the posters. (My own sense of humor often has quite a dark side.) But I can see where someone might be very hurt by some of them. In fact, some have been hurt. I would never show those posters to someone that I knew had an abortion because I realize it would be hurtful to them. So, what's the solution? Do we get all overly-sensitive and PC and never use dark humor to make a point? Or do we satirize all we want without caring about someone else's pain. Is there an in-between?

Update: Joshua Claybourn has an exhaustive post on this controversy.

Update 2: Victor Lams weighs in and wonders if Christians have lost their ability to appreciate satire. I have to admit that my cynical side that loves satire is at war with my (overly) sensitive side.

Inner European?

Actually, no...

What's your Inner European?
brought to you by Quizilla

(Via Bene Diction.)

Unhappy Anniversary

Appropriate for the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade: Created Equal - The Pro-Life Blog. (Found via Eve Tushnet.) Another great pro-life blog: Prolifeguy's Take.

Joel Fuhrmann also has a couple of great posts on this subject, including a link to this Rod Dreher column about a Unitarian church service celebrating Roe v. Wade.

Like Joel, I also used to be pro-choice. I was still a lapsed Christian when I became pro-life. My change of heart about this issue was a gradual one. It's kind of a long story that I'd like to blog about sometime.

Update: Take a look at the blogs4God Anti-Massacre Movement, a gallery of suggested Planned Parenthood poster designs created by pro-life bloggers.

Bass Ackwards

Introducing the LilacRose mirror site!

(As seen on MCJ and InstaPundit.)

The Record Industry - Unable to Learn or Adapt

Lynn Sislo has a great post about the RIAA's latest attempt to close the barn door after the horse is thousands of miles away. From Lynn's post:

The recording labels have only themselves to blame. They should have been the first to jump on new technologies and made their entire catalogs available for download for a reasonable fee per song before Napster ever appeared on the scene. Most people will not steal if they can get what they want at a reasonable price. Forget "reasonable price" for now; what most people want from the music industry isn't legally available at any price.

Exactly. The record companies could have been pioneers with digital music. They could have resurrected the single (Remember those?) in MP3 format for a reasonable price. They could have made out-of-print music available again for purchase and download. They could have allowed people to pay for and download selected songs from a CD as an alternative to buying the whole thing. CDs would still be available, since many (like myself) like to have a tangible copy of a favorite album (along with the artwork and liner notes). But it would be nice to legally download the two or three good songs off an otherwise mediocre album that you're not interested in buying.

But the record industry didn't innovate and adapt. Napster got the upper hand. Napster was shut down, but Kazaa and others sprung up in its place. And there will be others after they shut Kazaa down.

Oh, the record companies have tried to get with it, but...well...I'll let the Inquirer article explain:

Even their competing download services are a joke, with draconian requirements, high fees, and — my favorite — the ability to delete your music in the event you stop paying for the monthly service. Did I mention you can't burn any of your music library either? What a joke.

The record industry's idea of distributing digital music is treating their customers like children and giving them very little value for their money by crippling their downloads to the point of uselessness.

Will the record industry ever get a clue and start using the new technology instead of fighting it? If they want to survive, they'd better learn something from Napster and Kazaa and get into the 21st century. The band-aid of RIAA lawsuits will not stop the bleeding forever.

Thoroughly Depressing

If these young women are so "liberated," why are they more degraded than ever?

Washington Post - The Buddy System

Thanks Clinton, Ally McBeal and Sex and the City. Thanks a bunch.

(Via The Corner.)

Trashing America...

...in more ways than one:

From the Belligerent Bunny Blog, which has extensive coverage of the D.C. "peace" protests.

(Via Too Much to Dream.)

Site Changes

I made some changes to the template. I thought the hover color was too harsh so I changed it to a lighter purple. The more significant change I made is (hopefully) more transparent. I got rid of the HTML table tags that I used to create the columns; now they're done with CSS instead. I had a hard time getting this to work the way I wanted it to. This post on Under the Sun (found via blogs4God) was very helpful and it enabled me to finally get this working.

The next thing I'd like to do is implement a skin switcher. I've already made an alternate gray-based skin for those of you who don't like purple. I just have to figure out this PHP stuff.

Messed Up

So, Taliban thugs are allowed in Britain, but certain bloggers are kept out? Unbelievable!

Blogging Controversies

There are a couple of blogging-related topics that everyone seems to be talking about today...

First, Iain Murray of The Edge of England's Sword has been fired for blogging. I think it's really lame to up and fire somebody with no warning over blogging.

The other controversy involves comments on blogs. The whole controversy seems to have started with this post by Josh Sargent. In a later post, he invites other bloggers to post their opinions about comments on their own blogs. That I can do...

I think comments are a nice addition to a blog, but are not essential. I certainly don't hold it against a blog if it doesn't have comments. When this blog was maintained by Blogger, I never bothered with comments. When I started using Movable Type, I turned comments off by default because I didn't want them on every post. I decide if a post is going to have comments by checking the "Allow Comments" box in MT. Sometimes I look at the box and think, "Nah...no comments for this post." Other times I think, "Yeah...why not?" It all depends on the post and my current mood.

I've noticed lately that I'm checking that box more often than I ever thought I would. Not that I ever get any comments...

Celebrities, War and SUVs

There seems to be a lot of sanctimonious celebrity bloviations lately. Here's my take...

Sheryl Crow's recent idiotic statements have gotten the treatment they deserve from all corners of blogdom. Here's a few of my own observations.

Crow says, "The best way to solve problems is to not have enemies." Does she have any enemies? I find it hard to believe that someone could become successful in the music industry without making a few enemies. Either through stomping on others to get to the top, or through others being jealous of you, you are going to have enemies. She also says, "War is not the answer." Funny, but when she was involved in a 1996 USO tour (traveling with Hillary and Chelsea Clinton) and entertained our troops in Bosnia, she didn't seem to have a problem with the use of military force. Could it be that her objections come not from pacifism, but rather from disapproval of the current President?

(I have another observation that has nothing to do with war but with one of her songs. I heard a song by her on the radio one time with these lines: "I took the I-95 down to Pensacola / All I found was a bunch of holyrollers / They don't know nothing 'bout saving me." Only problem is, I-95 comes nowhere near Pensacola. I-10 is the interstate that runs through Pensacola. I always thought this was funny, being from Pensacola and all. You would think that Crow could consult a map or something, but why let facts get in the way of a good slam against Pensacola and Christians.)

Also, I've been hearing a lot about celebrities and flighty pundits complaining that the great unwashed drive SUVs way too much. Of course, these celebrities are complete hypocrites.

Jaw-Droppingly Ridiculous

Call me old-fashioned, but I think this is disgusting and just plain wrong.

(Via Anne Wilson.)

I think this is true...

Strawberry: 30/100 Pear: 40/100 Banana: 40/100 Tomato: 30/100 Lemon: 0/100

Take the What Fruit Are You? test by Ellen and Aaron!

(Via Bene Diction.)

Priorities and Blogging

Lately, lots of bloggers are resolving to blog with less frequency or to quit altogether. One who, thankfully, is not quitting but is just cutting back is Joel Fuhrmann at Religious Left Watch. I agree with him that other things have to come first. Like I've said before, I just blog when I feel like it and I don't feel any obligation to post every day. I also don't feel pressure to increase my hits or compete with anyone else. Every hit and every link is an unexpected blessing as far as I'm concerned.

So my blogging philosophy is: Post when you feel inspired and have time. Don't worry about hits or how much you post. Just let it be a little outlet for you. This might not work for everybody, but it works for me.

FYI About Email

I noticed the other day that I did not get an email notification when someone posted a comment. I don't know if it was a glitch with my email or with Movable Type. So, if anyone has emailed me recently and I didn't respond, I wasn't ignoring you, I just didn't get the email.

I think the ambiance is lacking...

In the U.K., you will soon have the right to get married in an inflatable church.

(Via The Corner on NRO.)

Profit Over Safety

Via Eve Tushnet comes this sad, upsetting article:

New York Times: At a Texas Foundry, an Indifference to Life

I believe in capitalism. But it must be tempered with morality. The above article shows what happens when it isn't.

Axis of Evil Scenario

Neal Boortz posted this intriguing item on today's Nealz Nuze:

JUST SO YOU DON’T SLEEP WELL TONIGHT

Attendees at a recent high-level policy seminar on the East Coast last weekend heard a presentation from an acknowledged expert on terrorism and the Middle East. Yeah … I’m being vague here. My source didn’t want me to name names.

This expert said that President [Bush] couldn’t have been more right when he named Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the “Axis of Evil” in the world today. He then set forth the following scenario:

1. Osama Bin Laden is, indeed, quite alive and is presently in Iran. American authorities are aware that he is alive, and know where he is.

2. Even prior to 9/11 there was continuous communication between Osama Bin Laden, Kim Jong-il and Saddam Hussein as they hatched a plan to bring the west, and particularly America, to its knees. US authorities are also aware of these communications.

3. When the United States actually launches its war on Iraq, North Korea will immediately invade South Korea – knowing that the United States is not able to maintain two major battle theatres at the same time. Again, U.S. Authorities are fully aware of this operational plan.

Fact? Hey, I don’t know. Let’s just call it a “scenario.” It is certainly easy to see how this could be true. You have to admit, it’s a dammed good game plan. America is pledged to protect South Korea from the North. We have 37,000 soldiers over there right now. If Bush has to quickly withdraw those soldiers in order to save their lives, and leave South Korea to suffer its fate, American prestige would be desperately damaged worldwide. Can’t you just see the celebrations among the “We hate America” crowd as the United States tucks its tail in Korea and runs? What an incredible victory this would be for Osama Bin Laden and Kim Jong-il.

This could be a very interesting year.

If true, this is pretty alarming. It would help explain a lot of things, though.

Jesus and Pot

I've seen this news story linked on various blogs over the past few days:

BBC: Cannabis linked to Biblical healing
Guardian: Jesus 'healed using cannabis'

Let's just say I'm more that a little skeptical about this. The article that supposedly proves this appears in a pro-drug magazine, so there's definitely an agenda.

Just to clarify, I don't have a problem with medicinal marijuana. And although I don't believe in drug use, I think marijuana should probably be legalized (although not "hard drugs").

But the assertion that "Jesus was almost certainly a cannabis user" is just pure speculation. There's no real proof offered here. And there are no references that I can find to Jesus using potions or incense in the Bible. To me, this looks like another special interest group trying to use Jesus to promote their agenda, much like PETA claiming that Jesus was a vegetarian.

(First link via Mark Shea, second via Lynn Sislo.)

Moore-on-a-thon

Here's a roundup of recent posts about left-wing propagandist Michael Moore.

• Susanna at Cut on the Bias was seething after seeing Moore's latest agitprop movie Bowling for Columbine. After she calmed down a bit, she wrote this review. Her conclusion: "Michael Moore is an evil man." Can't argue with that.


• Joshua Claybourn points out some shameful but unsurprising behavior from Moore.


• Rachel Lucas has an in-depth psychological analysis of Moore.


• And finally...be sure to bookmark MooreWatch...for all your Michael Moore debunking needs.

Charlatan Preachers

Susanna Cornett links to this post on Beers Across America about TBN and Benny Hinn, and then tells her own story about a money-grubbing tent preacher. These oily charlatans really anger me for a variety of reasons. They take advantage of well-meaning or desperate people, they bring disrepute to Christianity and they preach just plain bad theology (the whole "health and wealth" thing).

I watched the Dateline NBC report about Benny Hinn that aired the week before last. I encouraged my mother to watch it too, because she likes Benny Hinn. (In fact, I'm sure she thinks I'm a jerk for saying he's a charlatan.) One of the most disgusting things I saw on the NBC report was how Hinn would tell people who were supposed to be healed, but actually weren't, that they lost their healing because of a lack of faith. What a horrible thing to do to suffering people!

After watching it, my mother said that Hinn was going to give his side of the story on TBN. I don't know if this ever happened or not. I hope my mother at least had some doubts planted about Hinn and his ilk. Thankfully, she doesn't send the guy money.

I've had a particular dislike for televangelists since watching how Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker operated back in the eighties (several years before the scandals that brought them down). They would beg for money, acting like they were just about to shut down PTL. But of course, the donations would roll in and PTL would survive to beg another day. I was just in my teens then but I could see these people for what they were. But then people like my grandmother would send them money.

The Bakkers' scamming finally caught up with them, and it will catch up with Hinn too. In fact, it looks like it already is.

Never Heard of Him

Which Marx Brother are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

(Quiz made by laughin.)

God and The Big Bang

David Heddle at He Lives has a fascinating post about The Big Bang. He concludes that science does not disprove that God is the creator of all things, but rather is evidence of it. His post sums up my own beliefs on the subject of creation. Sure, God could've created everything in a split second if He wanted to. But God is a creative God. He is the Great Artist, the Great Scientist. Creation of the universe and the earth did not just happen randomly. There is intelligence and creativity behind it.

Evangelicals and Art

Are Evangelical Christians clueless when it comes to art? Do they too often see art as just a mere tool with which to evangelize? I’m a conservative Lutheran, so I guess I would be considered an Evangelical. I have to agree that some Christians do seem to have a narrow view of art.

Mark Shea links to an essay on the Hollywood Jesus website: The Mythology of J. R. R. Tolkien. The essay is also given somewhat of a fisking by David Mills on Touchstone Magazine’s blog, Mere Comments*. That post and a follow up post also deal with how some Evangelicals view art. From the first Mills post:

I think this peculiar reading of Tolkien and his great book reflects what is, I am afraid, the traditional approach of American Evangelicals to these things: that stories are not really good or safe unless they are clearly propaganda in the old sense of the word, unless they are really illustrated sermons whose lessons can be put in propositions. This is the only sort of story they think “Christian.”

They are happy with The Narnia Chronicles because they can say “Aslan equals Jesus.” They are less happy with The Lord of the Rings because they cannot find nearly so obvious a Christ figure. You do find them saying “Frodo equals Jesus! Wait, I mean Gandalf equals Jesus! And Aragorn equals Jesus too!” but the range of possibilities usually defeats them. And Tolkien’s book does not give them any of the keys or hints that the book has an obvious and directly applicable Christian meaning they look for.

I have met intelligent Evangelicals, including some college professors, who distrusted all literature except Pilgrim’s Progress and its knock offs, because they could not easily find a “Christian” meaning in anything else. I have read and heard some tortured efforts by English profs at Evangelical colleges to prove that literature was good in itself, and they always wound up, in desperation perhaps, arguing for literature as an instrument, as a way of growing in knowledge in a fairly obvious way. This meant that if you had acquired the knowledge in another way, you did not need stories at all.

Is Mills being too harsh in his assessment? I don’t think he is. This same problem is the subject of the previously mentioned book Addicted to Mediocrity by Franky Schaeffer. Many Evangelical Christians do have a narrow, utilitarian view of art. If a work of art can’t be used as an evangelical tool, it isn’t considered useful. It may even be considered ungodly.

The point of Schaeffer’s book is that art glorifies God simply by expressing the beauty and truths of the world He created. It need not mention God directly or provide some neat allegory for Christian theology to be godly.

I think more Evangelicals are starting to understand this, but we still have a long way to go.

* The permalinks are not functioning on Mere Comments. The first post by Mills on this subject is entitled "THE EVIL TOLKIEN" and the second one is "ART AS INSTRUMENT."

Predictions

Anne Wilson has some predictions for the new year. Right Wing News also has predictions from several well-known bloggers.

No predictions from me. Any I make would either be really obvious or really wrong.

If anyone else wants to venture any predictions for 2003, you may do so in the comments section. Keep it clean, though.