Mark Byron

Saturday Musings

I've been down for the count with a sinus infection this weekend; I had to cancel my Friday Macroeconomics class and go to the doctor to get an antibiotic. I'm feeling better, in the largely asymptiomatic gone-12-rounds-with-[fill in heavyweight champ]-and-lost sleepy mode, taking multiple naps between tasks today, thus no blogging for the last 36 hours.

I managed to get out to the men's breakfast at our church, and found a little bit of culture shock. I haven't written on our Lake Wales First AofG yet, but one thing that I noticed today is that it's a bit more (how to put it politely) blue-collar than the Lakeland Vineyard and more southern. Our breakfast menu was eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy and grits. Chloesterol on a stick. I passed on the eggs (I don't like eggs as-is) and the gravy.

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The administation declared victory and went home on the steel tariffs. I don't think that this will hurt them much, even though I think they deserve a bit of hurt for some unjustified spin on the issue. They were in a no-win situation given the WTO decision, but instead of fessing up to their initial mistake and the WTO slapdown that followed, they tried to put a pretty bonnet on the butt-ugh-ly situation.

The Fox piece seems to think the plan didn't work given that the Steelworkers union backed Gephardt, but the policy is designed to show a bit of protectionist leg to the Rust Belt. It won't win over the factory-worker unions, but if the union votes goes 40-60 rather than 35-65, that will make the difference in a few key northern states.

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The naysayers needed some red meat, so the latest unemployment numbers (down a tenth to 5.9%) got spun badly, pointing out that payrolls didn't increase as much as this gonzo growth numbers would suggest. For the economy as a whole, that's actually good news. That means that we still have people at the ready to help the economy expand further. If we were getting those growth numbers and unemployment were down towards 4%, then I'd be worry if we were heading for some inflation.

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I need to stop she-dogging about the temperature only getting up into the mid-50s today; it could be a lot worse. Nine inches in Central Park? Hang in there, folks, we feel your pain.

Edifier du Jour-Matthew 22:41-46 (NASB)

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question:
42 "What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?" They said to Him, "The son of David."
43 He said to them, "Then how does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying,
44 'THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, "SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET"'?
45 "If David then calls Him 'Lord,' how is He his son?"
46 No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.

That is a good passage to shed some light on Jesus' dual nature, being both fully human and God at the same time. From his mom's side, he's a descendant of David (and from his stepdad Joseph as well) but he is still God as well.

David recieived a vision of the preincarnate Jesus, who would become human as one of his great-to-the-Nth-grandchildren. Usually you get that kind of contradiction via time-travel plotlines, but their's no time travel here; God's omnitemporal as well as all those other omnis.

Jesus' dual nature is one of the great head-scratchers of Christian theology; the Pharisees went away like the Aflac duck waddled away from Yogi's malaprops, having their minds fully fried. We don't have to go away shaking our beak. Instead, we can take comfort that we have a Savior who's been here and done that.

Edifier du Jour-Matthew 21:28-31 (NASB)

28 "But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, 'Son, go work today in the vineyard.' 29 "And he answered, 'I will not'; but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 "The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, 'I will, sir'; but he did not go. 31 "Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.

How many songs do we sing at church that we know we don't live up to? One song off of Smitty's Worship CD hits that weak spot-"I will worship you with all of my heart...all of my soul... all of my strength." I'm not there yet. I'm not sure, this side of heaven, I'll ever be there.

Yes, that chorus is lifted straight out of the Gospels. However, while I can strive for being whole-heartedly worshiping God, I never quite seem to get there, My head wanders off into daydreams or is thinking about the next day's lecture or grading papers or what I'll do for lunch after church.

I'm not sure if I'm the reluctant do-gooder, who is rebellious in the short-term but faithful in the long-term, or the two-faced one, who says the right thing but doesn't do it. There are times where I honestly think I can't give the 100% I'm being asked to give, then give a solid 99% effort for the Kingdom. Other times, I'll make big vows that I don't live up to.

You don't get a good chorus by saying "I will worship you with as much of my mind and heart as I can muster today." Yes, I feel that's closer to the truth than some of the more flowery rhetoric we wind up singing. I'm trying to give God the best that I can, but that falls far short of totality. That less-than-perfect old college try at holiness does please God. Even if we admit that we're humanly not up to keeping our thoughts and actions perfect 24/7, we shouldn't keep striving to do so.

Docking Procedures

Things seem to be looking good for the Conservative-Alliance merger up north. Even with a flap over Alliance MP Larry Spencer saying some over-the-top anti-homosexual stuff hasn't scared off the Conservatives from seeking a merger.

The two parties are (or have) voted on the issue. The Alliance had a party-wide vote on approving the merger, with a majority passing the measure. The Conservatives are voting on a riding (paliamentary district)-by-riding basic, with passage needing the approval of two-thirds of the delegates voted on in the riding caususes over the last few days. Most of the ridings seem to be voting for merger.

The votes have already been cast for the Alliance vote-they'll be announcing the results Friday. The Conservatives will have a virtual convention Saturday, but it looks like they'll get the two-thirds needed for approval.

Then, the fun begins. The new party has to worry about shrinkage from both ends, from conservative Alliance members thinking the new party's too liberal and from the left wing of the Conservative party who might prefer the Liberals to the new merged Conservative Party of Canada. There isn't anywhere for the small-c conservatives to go other than some protest party, but the left edge¹ of the Conservatives could easily become Liberals, especially if incoming PM Paul Martin (Chretien will be retiring next week) runs on a somewhat business-friendly neoliberal platform.

Note to American readers; if you see PC in a Canadian political article, it means Progressive Conservative, the official title of the Conservative party.

¹ I almost said RINOesque, but Republican in Name Only doesn't translate north of the border. To confuse things even further, there is a small libertarian/anarchist Rhino Party in Canada which causes even more confusion to Canadian readers.

There are no Raging Moderates

While I was riding in this morning, the Orlando station I was listening to had state Democratic chair Scott Maddox on in a piece on a Democratic ad campaign targeting Hispanic media that's being test-marketed in Orlando. Maddox said that the Republicans were extreme and to the right of the average voter in the state.

Leave the extremist part out for the moment and also leave the impuslse to Democrat bash behind. Republicans are to the right of the average voter. When you think about it, that's a no brainer. Yes, Republicans are to the right of the average voter. That's why they're Republicans.

While we're in the neighborhood, Democrats are to the left of the average voter, unless you're named Zell Miller. That's why they're Democrats.

The two parties are going to be, by definition, on one side of the political spectrum or the other in most cases. People who are in the middle of a state's political spectrum generally have a hard time fitting in with either political party and rarely wind up winning nominations. People who are centrist by national standards can win nominations, but they are usually to either the right or the left of their state's political center of gravity. RINOs are conservative by New England standards, while some of the Blue Dogs are left-of-center by southern standards.

The funny truth about American politics (and most first-past-the-post systems) is that we divide into two camps on different halves of the political spectrum (yes, the real spectrum is multidimensional) then fight over the voters in the middle. To say that Democrats are too liberal for the state or that Republicans are too conservative for the state is worth of at least one Claude; that's merely stating the natures of the beasts.

Edifier du Jour-Matthew 20:8-16 (NASB)

8 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.' 9 "When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a denarius. 10 "When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; but each of them also received a denarius. 11 "When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, 12 saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.' 13 "But he answered and said to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 'Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 'Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?' 16 "So the last shall be first, and the first last."

Heaven (at least admission) is a binary decision; do you know Jesus as your Savior or not? The person who can't remember not knowing the Lord and living a upstanding life gets the same eternal reward as the hell-raiser who confesses Christ on his deathbed. The longstanding believer may get a few extra kudos in Heaven, but to the best of my knowledge, Heaven is general admission; everyone has the same ticket.

Sometimes, longtime believers get envious of the latecomers, who have the high-powered testimonies of being in this or that sin, breaking drug addiction or alcoholism or bedhopping before coming to the Lord. Those people get more attention than the people who lead cleaner lives and have less dramatic testimonies. Satan can use this to get us to question the value of a clean life.

That clean life does have its rewards. We live longer; the classic sins aren't healthy. We have a longer time to serve the Lord if we found him at 10 or 25 than if we found Him at 40. We enjoy life more; those worldly pleasures aren't as good as they're cracked up to be.

Also, we're supposed to rejoice when the lost are found, being happy over the one rather than the 99, rejoicing more at the prodigal's return than the faithful son's ongoing faithfulness. The faithful son she-dogged to his dad over the big party Dad threw, just as the all-day workers griped at the latecomers getting the same pay as they did. However, it's God's estate; He gets to hand it out as he pleases.

Be happy with your salvation and don't begrudge the newcomers.

The Curse of the Cute Missing Female

What I'm talking about isn't new, but it seems that the news media, especially the cable news channels, have a vested interest in the tabloidization of the news, of seeking out the most sensational or heart-tugging case to put on the air. If you have a slow news cycle, media will make a big story about a photogenic girl/young woman that has been killed or reported missing.

It always seems to be a female, however; I can't remember the last time the media trumped up a missing boy.

It always seems to be a middle-class or better female. Missing poor kids aren't news, or their parents aren't photogenic enough to get the proper video clips.

It always seems to be a pretty girl. Homely missing girls need not apply.

It's usually a white girl. I can think of one case about a year ago where a couple of black teen girls were abducted (in California, IIRC) and it made news, but minorities are underrepresented in the mix.

The problem with that Cute Missing Female story is that it titillates more than it informs. Which of the three following stories affects my life more, raids in Iraq, growing factory output or the disappearance of a North Dakota college student named Dru Sjodin. Not the last of the three, to be sure. However, Dru's white, pretty, part of the inteligencia. Guess what? She's above the fold.

I've got some tacky questions. How does this case affect my life? She's missing and presumed dead, but what can I do about it? Pray for her family? Get tougher on sex offenders (it's easy to repeatedly throw the book at them)? Work on improving campus security?

Sometimes a crime can have bigger implications and cast light (sometimes too much light) on bigger issues, but that doesn't seem to be the case here, or in the case of the Laci Peterson murder that has been plastered all over the news. Would my life be poorer if I never heard of Laci? No. Would my life be poorer if I never heard of JonBenet Ramsey (time does fly, I had to Google to remember her name), the little child-beauty-pageant gal who was prime tabloid fodder in the late 90s? No.

I don't want to hear about those cases, and generally move quickly on when one of these Cute Missing Female cases comes on the TV. I'm not 100% sure, but there is more than a little prurient interest behind these cases, with people thinking about what may be happening to the missing female. True Crime goes electronic.

I'm not sure if the answer is to give blanket coverage to every abduction rather than just the Cute Missing Females. Pen asked earlier today "So tell me -- when we will give a damn about the other 114 children (the ones who are poor, disadvantaged, and uneducated) who went missing?", 115 being the number of stranger kidnappings reported in 1999. That's not quite the answer. We should care about the ones in our area, ones that we can help with. Things like the Amber Alert system, where abductions that especially need an immediate eye to find the missing kid are reported, could help us focus on a handful that we could have a practical help with.

Other than that, we're better off ignoring the Cute Missing Girls. Not that their families aren't grieving, but it's not the best use of our time.

Edifier du Jour-Psalm 131 (NASB)

1 O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty; Nor do I involve myself in great matters, Or in things too difficult for me. 2 Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against his mother, My soul is like a weaned child within me. 3 O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever.

While Paul does talk about the meat of serious theological study versus milky spirtual baby food (1 Corinthians 3, Hebrews 5), there are other times where milk isn't given a bad rap-1 Peter 2:2-3 (NIV) says "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good."

It's more than just the feeding that draws babies to their moms; love and attention are part of the package. Not only do we get spiritual nourishment from God, being close to Him provides comfort and joy to gentlemen and women the world over. Sometimes we just need to snuggle with God, especially if we're going through a tough stretch.

The New Frontrunner for the Nobel Peace Prize...

...is the Union Nationale des Syndicats Autonomes, a large French trade union. Why do they deserve this honor? They got French diplomats to go on strike. That alone is the biggest contribution to world peace in this year :-)

Vivisecting the Mouse

It looks like there are quite a few upset folks up Disney way. Roy Disney, Walt's nephew, resigned as a director in protest over Michael Eisner's leadership, joined by fellow director Stanley Gold, citing

...operational deficiencies, imprudent capital allocations, the cannibalization of certain Company icons for short-term gain, the enormous loss of creative talent over the last years, the absence of succession planning and the lack of strategic focus.

Being a half hour south of "the attractions" (as they collectively call the Disney, Universal and Sea World complexes in the traffic reports) Disney news is local news; the news media here will treat Disney news like Detroit stations cover Ford and GM.

It seems that Disney might be better off split into two units. One would be the original Disney, with the theme parks, Disney film studio, Disney Channel and Disney Store outlets. That would bring the core of the business back to the family (albeit a secular one with a unhealthy focus on the occult that isn't as wholesome as advertised) entertainment business that was their bread and butter until two decades ago.

The second outfit, ABC-Touchstone, would have ABC, the ESPN channels, the non-Disney movie studios, ABC Family cable and Capital Cities broadcasting outlets; I think I have all the key components listed. I'm not sure if Disney is getting positive synergy from this bunch, as the Kill Bill feedback helps show. I think the company would fare better if there were two different entities; the Disney folks may figure that out in the near future.

Let Eisner run ABC-Touchstone, and let someone who's more in tune with Disney's mission run the Mouse.

Honest Dick

It's hard to believe we're already in December. For a native Michigander, it doesn't feel like December, more like mid-September with the occasional foray into October. That makes getting in the Christmas mood a bit difficult, but there are other physical prompts that it is Christmas season, like Christmas lights (St. Augustine's old downtown was nicely lit up, seeing Old Spain blend with Modern US was interesting). I'm still getting used to the geographic absurdities of hearing some of the secular seasonal songs that do not make sense just north of Frostproof; however, I'm laughing a bit less about hearing Winter Wonderland and Let it Snow this season.

We're closing in on the primaries and caucuses in very short order, and all indications have the Democrats shooting themselves in the foot and nominating Howard Dean. While certain dreamers on the left may want to make parallels to LBJ (doesn't quite work, Pen), this isn't 1968. Iraq isn't Vietnam on any number of levels.

The casualties are far fewer
The government we're helping to install should (no, I can't guarantee that) be better than the South Vietnamese government of the late 60s.
There isn't nearly the anti-war fevor on the left.

Nor does Bush have the same political dynamic as Johnson.

Bush isn't having to fight off an anti-war insurgency; no Clean Gene McCarthy running.
Bush doesn't have to worry about a redneck backlash on civil rights; there isn't a George Wallace third-party waiting in the wings.
Bush has a fairly united Republican party behind him, running essentially uncontested for the nomination. If there is opposition, I haven't heard of anyone yet. Conservatives grumble, but there isn't even a 2004 equivalent of 1992's Pat Buchanan to cast a protest vote for.

Sorry, folks on the left, but this isn't going to be 1968 redux. If we're going to go retro, let's go four years into the future, and cast Dubya as Honest Dick. Nixon was running essentially unopposed in 1972; Smothers Brothers comic sidekick Pat Paulsen ran a semi-serious campaign against Nixon in the GOP primaries. A badly splintered Democratic field nominated a very liberal George McGovern. George Wallace tried his hand in the Democratic primaries and won a few before getting shot and paralyzed for the rest of his life; that helped Nixon consolidate the Southern Strategy that moved the south into the Republican column, as he played to the law-and-order side of the Wallace voter without adopting much of the racist side.

Howard Dean would be a decent analog to McGovern, albeit one that is less likable but a bit less liberal than McGovern. Bush isn't Nixon in many ways. He's much more likable for the swing voter (charm wasn't Nixon's strong suit) and is one of the more honest presidents we've had in a while, better than Reagan and on a par with Carter.

His administration has had less scandal than any administration in my lifetime. Democrats may want to talk about the Enron ties of some Bush people, but any problems will likely extend to merely supporting deregulation in general, not bribery/campaign donations quid-pro-quo to help a business in particular. No Bert Lances. No Ed Meese and sweetheart loans. No Ray Donovan and alleged (not proven in 20/20 hindsight) connections to the mob. No Iran-Contra (l'affair Plame is the best hope for the left, and that seems to have died down). No Whitewater or Monica. And to be sure we differentiate from '72, no Watergate or the other sleaze from the Nixon team.

Bush has partly defused the elderly gambit by passing a flawed Medicare prescription plan. If you add the issue of same-sex marriage to the mix, which will tend to skew the elderly to the right, Bush should do better among the elderly than in 2000. He'll do better with swing voters, who won't trust Dean with fighting the bad guys. He won't lose much, if any, conservatives.

There aren't going to be too many Bush 2000 voters who will vote for Dean in 2004. There will be plenty of Gore voters in 2000 who will vote for Bush this time; Arab-Americans might be the only demographic group he might do worse with, but that will be more than offset with a increase Jewish vote.

It's too early to get cocky, but we could easily be looking at a 60-40 blowout like '72. About the only way that Bush could lose if a credible challenge from the center appears. If the Democrats run to the left, there would be enough room to maneuver for a centrist candidate to run as a pro-war-on-terror deficit hawk. John McCain, anyone? He could pull off a 40% plurality in a three way race with Bush and Dean. I don't see any other centrist politician getting past the 5% protest vote level.

The other possibility would be a Lieberman win in the primaries. With the liberal vote split between Dean, Kerry, Gephardt, Clark and possibly Edwards, there's room for Lieberman to pick up some 20-25% plurality wins and get the nomination as the electable candidate. As long as the Straight Talk Express is in mothballs and the Democrats don't nominate Lieberman, this one could get ugly for the Democrats.

That's 14 In Blog Years

Get out the funny hats and the noisemakers, the Junkyard Blog turns 2 today. Bryan Preston was one of the few Christian bloggers going when I came on board two years ago next month, and a good resourse for that period.

Keep up the good work, Bryan and company.

Edifier du Jour-Matthew 18:1-6 (NASB)

1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 "Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 "And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

It's not that kids are sinless (no one has to teach them how to say "MINE!!") but young kids have a guilelessness that makes it easy to express their feelings without worrying how they look. As adults (or even teens and pre-teens), we have social norms get in the way of how we express ourselves before people and before God. It would be uncool to express the enormity of our feelings for a God as big as He is, and that reserve cools our feelings towards God.

The one example that comes to mind is the story of the woman who anointed Jesus' feet. That was uncool and spooked the Pharisees, but it is that type of unashamed abandon that God would like us to have toward him, not the anal-retentive reserve of the Pharisee. I'll have to admit that I'm more Pharisee than feet-anointer in my worship, and would like to be otherwise.

We don't want to put barriers in people's way if they have that kind of childlike (not childish, mind you) faith, especially children, for it is much easier to bring a child to Christ than an adult. We do want them to grow in an intellectual understanding of who God is, but not to lose that joy of encountering Abba Daddy. The secret of being an adult is knowing when you don't have to be, and one of those times is within worship.

Football Musings

I'm in an odd spot in my Blogger Bowl 2K4 shootout with the Merlot Broham; all of his players played either on Thanksgiving or in the 1PM games. He's in the clubhouse with 78 points, with me with 49. However, I've got Tomlimson, Eddie George, Morton Andersen (I almost said Stenerud; no, he's not quite that old) and the Titans D going; Andersen just gave me a point to make it 78-50.

Fantasy geek question-if you have a kicker, do you find yourself rooting to have his team stall in the red zone? Conversely, if your opponent's kicker's team gets into the red zone, do you root for them to push it in?

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There aren't too many coaches who follow a legend that succeed; Frank Solich met that fate this weekend. Getting to the BCS title game two years ago wasn't enough; they haven't won the Big 12 North the last three years (they got to the title game without winning the North, losing to Colorado that year).

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So, the Hokie Pundit will head for Pheonix for the illustrious Insight.com Bowl. They were in the hunt for a national title not that long ago.

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I was napping off the St. Augustine trip when the game was on, but the Florida-FSU game was a doozie, with FSU winning 38-34. It looks like Florida will head off to the Peach Bowl, not as good as they'd like.

Afternoon Musings

Last one off Blogspot, turn out the lights-Lee Anne Millinger pulled the trigger and moved to Typepad Friday.

More positive PR for The Passion-Billy Graham saw it and liked it. It will be coming out of February 25, just in time for Lent. Some Jewish leaders are opposed to it, for it portrays the desire of the Jewish leaders of the day to execute Jesus. Well, it's taking the Bible at face value; it's only anti-Semitic in the sense that it shows what happened that Passover season.

It's hard to be too happy with the results of this weekend in Iraq, where anti-US forces killed Spanish intelligence agents, Japanese diplomats and US troops in three separate incidents. A counter-attack on would-be ambushers killed 46 Iraqis, but that's cold comfort.

Edifier du Jour-Matthew 17:14-21 (NASB)

14 When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, 15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 "I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him." 17 And Jesus answered and said, "You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me." 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not drive it out?" 20 And He said to them, "Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. 21 ["But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."]

That is one of the scary passages; believers might have more faith than the disciples, who got to see Jesus face-to-face. If they did, they could do anything God wanted them to.

Here's a question-how big is our faith? There was an old Fred Allen line¹-"You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, put it in a flea's navel, and still have room left over for two caraway seeds and an agent's heart." Can our faith fit in there as well?

Even if it can fit, it still may well be very potent. Faith's a bit like anti-matter; it's very explosive when it comes in contact with the natural world. In a way, faith is anti-matter, for it is part of how we interact in the spiritual realm when time and space limitations start to melt away. You can move mountains with that type of power, even a small bit of faith.

¹-I've seen the quote with a gnat rather than a flea and there's a discrepancy about how many caraway seeds (2,3,8).