Posts from — October 2004

Someday, somewhere, sometime, Christians must undertake Grams long march through the institutions. We must be pro-Establishment, playing the role of cultural leaders. Not whining, pessimistic, backwater contrarians.

Amen, Mr. Sandlin, Amen.

And I say that as someone voting for Michael Peroutka on Tuesday.

p.s. – What’s with all the name-calling? I thought you were against that.

Someone on a messageboard I regular asked about abortion, and if it is ever an option.
Some talk was going around about whether or not the “fetus was viable”. I commented that this language was very disturbing, and asked some questions about what ‘viable’ means. Here is what I said:

this whole “the baby isn’t viable” language is extremely disturbing to me. First off, what is the defining factor(s) of what is and what is not ‘viable’. Second, who came up with these criteria? Third, what authority do they have to go around defining what is and what is not a ‘viable’ human life? And, lastly, who cares if it is ‘viable’ or not? I don’t see any validity in murdering someone because they are not ‘viable’. “Oh, this one will only live a few hours… let’s kill him now.” Ug. It really sickens me… the whole concept.

Here’s what the person (in the medical field) that started the thread said:

Not viable means will not survive birth, and unlikely to survive a full pregnancy. An example would be fetuses without brains (anencephaly). There are clear-cut medical conditions that are literally incompatible with life (the fetus has either already died in utero or will be stillborn), and the pregnancy may not miscarry, but may threaten the mother’s life if the fetus is not aborted.

It still really bothers me. I mean… it’s really just sick. This idea that we can just kill people that are not likely (to put it mildly) to survive to full term, let alone outside the womb, is repulsive to me. If a baby is going to die, then let the baby die. Don’t kill it.

And, also, if a child has a condition that is ‘incompatible with life’, are they even alive? By definition, it seems to be ruled out.

You’re not supposed to be able to do it… But I have done it.

I disabled my navbar. Stupid navbar.

And, just so you know, I didn’t do any kind of tricky coding or something to get around it or fool the computer into not showing… I just turned it off.

And it let me!!

My Confession.

Once, when I was in 11th grade, I had a substitute teacher for my U.S. History class. I was living in Japan at the time, and this subtitute happened to be a japanese woman. And she didn’t speak English very well. It was the recipe for disaster.

Her only job, it would seem, was to take attendance and start a video for us to watch. Well, I don’t recall how I acquired it, but I had a remote control for the VCR. And this remote allowed you to adjust the tracking.

I was a bad boy. I “adjusted” the tracking, so that the picture was barely visible. The lady got up to see what was wrong, and while she was randomly pushing things, I fixed the tracking. She sat down. I messed up the picture again. As long as I only played with the tracking, no one would know that it was all intentional.

But when I started pausing it, and playing it in slow motion… that’s what gave away the fact that someone had a remote control. Although… I don’t think it was the substitute teacher that realized it. I think it was my classmates… they were mad at me.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson, Bush said he believes that both Christians and Muslims worship the same God.

“I think we do. We have different routes of getting to the Almighty,” Bush said. “But I want you to understand, I want your listeners to understand, I don’t get to get decide who goes to heaven. The Almighty God decides who goes to heaven and I am on my personal walk,” he said.

Strong Christian values, and all.

I’ve been trying to create the new five points of calvinism, but I only have four points…

Soteriologically
Ecclesiologically
Sacramentally
Liturgically

The only acronym I can think of for those, though, is LESS. And that just isn’t very encouraging…

I just had an encounger with a coworker. We greeted one another, and exchanged pleasantries, enquiring about one another’s weekend. He then asked how my little one, my newest little one, is doing. I said she was just great.

And then he asked how my wife was doing with three little ones. Only, it wasn’t a sincere question about how my wife was doing, but rather a little joke that it must be crazy with three little ones, and my wife must be out of her mind, because, of course, there’s no way anyone could possibly manage a home with three young children and not go insane, right? haha. Get it? Funny, see. He even laughed when he asked the question.

A Catholic friend said:

It’s true, Catholics don’t speak Protestantese — the easiest way to confuse a Catholic is to ask him if he has received Jesus Christ “as his personal Lord and Savior”.

The second easiest way to confuse a Catholic is to ask him when he was “saved!”

The first question confuses Catholics because we receive Jesus every time we receive communion (which is at every mass). As far as “personal Lord and savior” — well, Catholics don’t think in terms of “me and Jesus”, rather we think in terms of “Christ and His Church”. Thus the emphasis for a Catholic is not upon the individual, but upon the Church and her salvation which is found in Christ. The Bible also speaks such language.

The second question confuses a Catholic for the simple reason that we do not typically think of salvation as a one-time experience. Catholics typically do not spout of the date of their “salvation”. Rather we view conversion as a continual and on-going experience.

So, what is up with the Extreme counter/stats thing. It hasn’t been working for several days now. Is it every going to come back?

Who knew that if you didn’t put a name on a letter to a PO Box, it would be returned?

People left and right are getting their payment for the Reformation Day Ball returned as undeliverable.

But at least plenty of people will be there!

Geneva has grown up enough to know what she wants. Last week some time, Megan was taking a walk with the girls, and passed a yard that had a little doll stroller in it. Geneva was very excited about that doll stroller. A few days later, we went to Sam’s Club, and there happened to be a little set of a doll stroller, car seat and high chair in the middle of the aisle. Geneva saw it, and asked me to “give them money for it”.

That night, at the dinner table, she went on and on about how she wanted a doll stroller. She talked about what she’d do with it, and how fun it would be. And then at the end of a particularly excited rant, she yelled out “That’s my boy!”.

I cracked up. Apparently, it’s a line from Monster’s Inc. It’s been a popular phrase in the household since then.

Some time ago, a neighbor and good friend shared a bottle of wine with me. It was a Washington State wine, which he brought back from a visit home.

Snoqualmie Cabernet-Merlot. It was really, really good. So, if you ever see it, try some.

They don’t have it in stores around here.