Mark Byron

Getting My Chippewa Up

Get a bunch of PC college presidents together, and strange things happen. The NCAA is in the process of banning Indian-based nicknames, whether or not the tribes in question like them. Well, at least banning them from post-season play. By next February, teams can't use the verboten nicknames in post-season tournaments and teams with offending nicknames can't host tournament games; by 2008, their bands and cheerleaders will be banned from appearing at tournament games with contraband logos.

Two of my alma maters¹, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan, had Indian logos (Hurons and Chippewas respectively) when I attended in the early 1980s. The PC bug hit EMU in the early 80s and the teams are now the Eagles. However, CMU has stuck with the Chippewa nickname; the local branch of the Chippewa are on good terms with CMU  and support retaining the logo. There were no local Hurons to go to bat for the EMU nickname.

However, CMU is on the NCAA's s--t list, despite the fact that the tribe is supportive. FSU seems to be in a similar boat, where the real Seminoles are supportive. They have a mounted warrior with a spear and an near-omnipresent "Whoa-oh-oh-oh" battle chant (FSU fans can give me a better spelling of that) going during football games. That might seem over the top if you're a Native American or MultiCulti wonk looking to be offended, but the namesakes seem OK with it.

Quite a few people have asked why Notre Dame's not on the list; that leprechaun with its dukes up is a more offensive portrayal of an ethnic group than any feather-hatted warrior (although Cleveland's Chief Wahoo does top it), but the Irish aren't a protected minority group anymore.

¹I spent my sophomore year at EMU in 1980 but transferred to CMU. I think that means I can't call it an alma mater, but "schools I used to go to" didn't flow well.

Curse of the Cute Missing Female-2005 Remix

Yours truly, December 2003-"The Curse of the Cute Missing Female"

...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 AP's David Bauder, today.

When "Dateline NBC" reporter Josh Mankiewicz asked television news division chiefs to talk about disproportionate coverage of attractive white females who go missing, only his boss agreed.

His report on the trend is scheduled to air on Friday's edition of "Dateline NBC."

Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, JonBenet Ramsey, Elizabeth Smart and now Natalee Holloway all became household names because of the way television news divisions, particularly the cable networks, extensively covered the story when they went missing.

Each had another common trait: they were young, white, pretty and female. Some have questioned how they became stories, when more than half of missing people are male and nearly three in 10 are black.

Bauder was one of the first folks on the Eason Jordan story; will he stick to this story until he gets results?

 

Edifier du Jour-2 Chronicles 26:16-22(ESV)

¹⁶But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. ¹⁷But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the LORD who were men of valor, ¹⁸and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the LORD God." ¹⁹Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the LORD, by the altar of incense. ²⁰And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the LORD had struck him. ²¹And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the LORD. And Jotham his son was over the king's household, governing the people of the land.

Even in the theocracy of Judah, there was separation of powers; the Levites were supposed to handle the sacrifices and the king was to run the government. Uzziah wanted to consolidate things and got a case of leprosy for his trouble. He was separated from the people of God for his uncleanness, not unlike how the unrepentant sinner is separated from God.

One way of reading this is a cautionary tale of combining religious and secular power, but another more practical way is to stay within your anointing. There are some areas that God has gifted us and some areas that aren't our strengths; we need to stick to, by and large, the areas where we have giftings.

That doesn't mean that the tongue-tied have a pass on evangelism, but it does mean that we need to stick to the things that God has us focusing on.

Motown Musings

There are a lot of interesting local stories in the Detroit papers today.

The one that will be of interest to the wonks in the Peanut Gallery is that of Keith Butler's nailing down mainstream Republican support; AG Mike Cox and former LG Dick Posthumus have now endorsed him.

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Another piece that was of interest was on Lee Iacocca's new batch of Chrysler ads.

Resurrecting Iacocca as a spokesman had its risks. Was he too old, too identified with the Chrysler of the past, too Frank Sinatra-era to resonate in a hip-hop world?

"Yeah it was risky," said Hugh Broder of Chrysler's ad agency BBDO Detroit. "But this is Lee Iacocca we're talking about."

No. Not Sinatra-era (unless we're talking NY, NY) but early MTV era. Iacocca's 80s ads were a masterpiece of straight talk; he was something of a folk hero in Michigan and elsewhere for getting Chrysler off the mat. The younger members of the Peanut Gallery might have to be reminded that Chrysler had to have the US government cosign some loans to keep them afloat in the late 70s; the government actually made money with the stock options they got as part of the deal.

I'm not sure about the rest of the Peanut Gallery, but this new batch of ads have a warm, retro feel to them without it being pure retro; seeing Iacocca interact with a flat-screen monitor keeps it current. They throw Jason Alexander into one of the ads to give us 90s retro along with the 80s; they actually have Iacocca saying "yadda, yadda, yadda" to give Seinfeld cognosenti a chuckle.

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Here's an interesting multicultural footnote. Wayne county (Detroit and Dearborn's country) passed a law making stores and restaurants labeling food as halal (Islam's analog to kosher) to be properly butchered; with one killing cut of the knife preceeded by prayer.

That's a non-trivial matter in Wayne county. Dearborn has a large Arab community and Hamtramck has gone from being a Polish/Eastern European stronghold (Rudy T was from Hamtramck) to a growing Bangladeshi community. It's interesting that as Islamic immigrants become part of the community, businesses cater to them; the idea of halal McNuggets shows how they've become a part of the metro Detroit community.

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Also, the Red Wings are scraping the rust off of their old-timers and giving them one more season. They signed Steve Yzerman earlier in the week and now have gotten Chris Chelios under contract. Chelios was my age yesterday, but not anymore; congratulation, young'en.

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Yep, a final footnote; I tunred two score and four today. A nice dinner out with Eileen is on the docket.

 

Morning Musings

Blair's going to kick out non-citizen jihad-preachers. Why'd it take this long? Well, it isn't overly PC and Labour fights with the LibDems (my spell checker wanted Libidos; close, but not quite) over the Muslim vote. However, they have to fight the Tories for the law-and-order vote, too, and that just took precedence.

Back up five yards; that last crack was not fair. It might help NuLab with the centrist vote, but it is also the right thing to do.

We're always doing a fine dance between liberties and safety, and when you have an attack like this, you start to err on the safety side and do things that would seem over-the-top before the attack. Over on this side of the pond, the Patriot Act gives law enforcement a longer leash; over in the UK, they're looking to give the jihadis the heave-ho where possible.

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The IRA might have turned the other cheek, but the men of orange aren't there yet. However, this might be more gang violence than anything.

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On a CNN show, Novak called BS on Carville and walked off. He didn't use the acronym, either. I'm surprised that doesn't happen more often, both storming off and calling BS (albeit more politely, one would hope).

With Crossfire and The Capital Gang history, this will give CNN an excuse to show Novak the door. Don't expect him to be off TV for long; Fox could find a way to use him.

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Here's an interesting piece-

The father of one of the Marines killed this week in Iraq said his son felt the U.S. mission was "a bit fruitless," because insurgents always returned after the military flushed them out.

Insurgents don't wear uniforms and don't introduce themselves as such in casual conversation. This is why we're seeing the terms for this from a War on Terror to a Struggle Against Violent Extremists. In Iraq, it's truly a "police action," since what is typically needed is halfway between a SWAT team and a full military operation.

Not everything bears fruit quickly. Hang in there, guys.

Edifier du Jour-2 Chronicles 20:13-23(ESV)

¹³Meanwhile all Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. ¹⁴And the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. ¹⁵And he said, "Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the LORD to you, 'Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God's. ¹⁶Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. ¹⁷You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.' Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you."

¹⁸Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshiping the LORD. ¹⁹And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice.

²⁰And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed." ²¹And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say,    

"Give thanks to the LORD,
   for his steadfast love endures forever."

²²And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. ²³For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another.

Note that Jahaziel had gotten the word from the Lord first; God knew that He had let the heathens do the dirty-work for Judah and let Judah know about it. They didn't just go out and sing their way to victory; in this case, they were there to pick up the road kill God had left for them.

Don't count on this happening, but God does "set a pick" for us from time to time.

 

                       

Mouth And Heart

Joe Carter had an interesting post on the "Seven Deadly Trappings of Evangelism;" I'm way late to this party, but I wanted to use it as a touchstone for a good post.

Four of the no-nos can be squeezed into a bucket of "Pressuring people into a decision for Christ."

1-Sinner's Prayer. You're supposed to believe in your heart and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord. Saying that prayer (or something that acknowledges your need of a Savior) is a necessary but not sufficient condition, as we would have said in grad school. People often run people through such a prayer and think that their job is done; they might have been mouthing the words to get you off of their back.

2-Altar Call. If someone is browbeat into coming forward to receive Christ by a three-hankie appeal by the pastor, it might have as much lasting effect as that force-fed sinner's prayer.

If the five-minute pleading for conversions isn't a bit manipulative, the rote call to come forward to receive Christ makes the breed even more ineffective. At both Southern Baptist churches I went to, a salvation altar call was a stock ending to the sermon, even if the sermon wasn't particularly evangelistic. If you listen to a hundred of those pro-forma altar calls, you might start to get immune to the need for salvation.

3-Do you know Jesus as...-normally that ends with "your Lord and Savior" or something like it. It's not a great question, since it can do more harm than good as an early question in a conversation. You might find a candidate for a Gospel presentation, but you might also tick off non-evangelical believers in the process.

The folks who grew up speaking evangelicalese will either give you a "yes" answer (which ends the evangelism part of the evening) or a chilly "no" (if a childhood of preaching and Sunday school didn't take, your ten-minute pitch isn't likely to bag him). The folks that don't have a church background will usually need more than your PDQ Gospel to really make a decision.

Also, folks with a mainline or Catholic background may speak a different spiritual language; they may have a saving faith in Jesus, but may express that faith differently. That's going to make communication difficult, and the brother-in-Christ might be insulted if you're trying to convert them when they're already right with God, but just using a different vocabulary to describe it.

If the answer to the first question is "yes" the second question is often "When did you get saved?" Our non-evangelical brothers in Christ may not have a time certain where they became "born-again;" many folks grow into a faith rather than have a binary switch-over point, especially if their church isn't big on making a personal, public declaration of faith.

A better question might be "Do you go to church?" If they go to an evangelical church, you might ask them if they've ever accepted Christ. If they go to a Catholic or mainline church, you might as what Jesus means to them.

6-Witnessing-I think Joe has the cold-call, door-to-door (or cornering someone at a mall) quick-and-dirty variety. Good witnessing is longitudinal, but there is a place for the cold-call variety; it's just not as effective in the long haul. Many of the cold-call witnessing styles call for a basic presentation of the Gospel and a quick yes-or-no response.

We have laws that give people cooling-off periods to back out of direct-marketing contracts, since people can often be pressured into signing contracts (or saying a prayer) to get people out of their face.

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In looking at all four of those things, the common denominator that can taint them is getting people to make a quick, emotional decision to accept Christ. Some people will come forward or say a prayer not out of a real faith but out of guilt or annoyance. A false and forced "conversion" can make the person cynical when it doesn't take; if they think that saying a prayer is the answer, they can be drawn away rather quickly.

For instance, I've heard statistics that only about 10% of people who come forward at Billy Graham-style revivals/crusades actually stick with a church a year after the event. They may have confessed with their lips, but the heart never got around to accepting Christ.

A conversion that will stick requires disciplining the person, allowing the decision to be a deep, unpressured one. Also, people need help drawing closer to God once they've made that heart decision; many churches are great at evangelism but lousy at discipleship

Midday Musings

Is there a lot of attention being paid to OH-02 or what? Even the WaPo is doing post-mortums two days later. This seems like much more coverage than a by-election usually gets. However, since it's cast as bad news for the Republicans, it's prime MSM fodder.

Here's an interesting Corner post

A Kos-reading Democrat friend of mine writes:    

The significance of the Ohio-2 result is that it demonstrates that Democrats can defeat Republicans when they fight them on the issues rather than retreat from them as the DLC has wanted to do.

Can anybody spot the fatal flaw here?

Just one? I see two. The first is that the Democrat lost Tuesday; he might have easily covered the spread, but he still lost.

The second is that they largely didn't run on the issues. Hackett played up his Iraq service and ran ads with a Bush speech praising those who served; by and large, he only "fought them on the issues" when he was fund-raising among the Kossacks, who raised about 2/3 of his funds.

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Interesting choice for Governor-General up north. A cute Haitian-Quebecer TV reporter named Michaëlle Jean. She's the first black GG in Canadian history and the second member of the Fourth Estate in a row to hold the slot; outgoing GG Adrienne Clarkston was a TV reporter/anchor before getting the spot.

Is that a potential perk for reporters who are friendly with the government? "Be nice and you'll get a cushy prestigious job, a "taskless thanks", down the line."

Yes, it's mostly a ceremonial position, but she'll easily be the prettiest head of state around.

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This megatrade is interesting. The Heat give up Rasual Butler, Eddie Jones and change for Jason "White Chocolate" Williams, Antoine Walker and James Posey. Williams and Walker have been on the egotistical side in the past; talented underachievers.

Is Walker ready to go into Rasheed Wallace mode, to back off the ego in order to build a winner? If so, he might wind up being a killer sixth man.

Can Williams learn to crank things down a notch and be a distributor rather than a disruptor? If so, he could prove to be a nasty-effective running mate for Dwayne Wade.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. If the parts fit, Miami might just get passed Indy and Detroit and into a NBA final; they're weak at small forward, but they'll have potential all-stars at the four other spots. However, this ego surplus might make Miami a second-round casualty even if they win their division.

Edifier du Jour-2 Chronicles 19:4-7(ESV)

   

⁴Jehoshaphat lived at Jerusalem. And he went out again among the people, from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back to the LORD, the God of their fathers. ⁵He appointed judges in the land in all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, ⁶and said to the judges, "Consider what you do, for you judge not for man but for the LORD. He is with you in giving judgment. ⁷Now then, let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the LORD our God, or partiality or taking bribes."

The judges here were supposed to look to God for their wisdom, not to a majority of nine justices. Times have changed. When someone tries to take God first and the Constitution second (a la Roy Moore) the results aren't pretty.

I'm not a fan of the Roy Moore crowd. I think that their rebellious nature is a step away from a literal culture war that would be fought with guns rather than prayer. One of the drawbacks of a secular republic is that we have to pull our theological punches at times in the public square (or at least the governmental part of it).

The polar alternative, to totally ignore God, doesn't seem to be an option, though. That has gotten us into trouble; the French revolution of 1787 seems a classic case in point, and the Peanut Gallery can assuredly come up with a few more.

We're not a theocracy (nor do I want one until Jesus returns), so judge-priests don't seem to be a good option. However, that doesn't mean that judges need to leave their faith at the door. We're still figuring out how to balance that out.

Ohio Musings

Outside of the Toronto crash, the big item is the by-election in Ohio; Republican Jean Schmidt won a 52-48 squeaker over  Paul Hackett. The closeness in a normally Republican district could be chalked up to Schmidt being slammed for some tax-raising votes as a state rep and Hackett running on his military service in Iraq. Conservatives might have stayed home and some swing voters might have liked that good serviceman in the ads that had the President talking about military service.

Rush was ripping Hackett a new one on the radio today for hiding a hard-left, Kossack (Hackett has posted on Kos) agenda behind a military facade. However, that's exactly how I'd run a TV ad campaign if I were on the Hackett payroll (fat chance of that); you don't win a conservative district as a Democrat by singing straight out of the Dean songbook.

Here's an interesting Wikipedia writeup on the race; hat-tip to this Red State post. The interesting part is that Schmidt seems to have conservative credentials on other issues (or at least runs her platform that way) but seems to be too cozy to the centrist-leaning Republicans that dominate the Ohio GOP.

Schmidt might be in for a short stay. Watch for a knock-down-drag-out primary next spring between Schmidt and fellow state rep Tom Brinkman; Schmidt limped in with a 31% plurality with former congressman Bob McEwan getting 26%, Brinkman 20% and Mike DeWine's son Pat getting 12%. Economic conservatives might rally behind Brinkman, for McEwan seems to have settled in to a Beltway lifestyle after losing his seat in 1992 and has a carpetbagger label at this point.

Brinkman seems to be my kind of guy, someone who's anti-death-penalty on pro-life grounds; he got some soft-on-crime flak for that stand. However, the Club for Growth folks like him and were running ads for him and against Schmidt in the primary.

2006 won't likely be 52-48 close. If Ken Blackwell gets the gubernatorial nomination, Republicans will turn out. Also, the conservative 527 machinery and blogdom will have 15 months to go over Hackett's platform and make the Kossack label (or whatever translates that into average-voter-ese) stick.

Edifier du Jour-2 Chronicles 14:12-22(ESV)

 

¹²And the messenger who went to summon Micaiah said to him, "Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably." ¹³But Micaiah said, "As the LORD lives, what my God says, that I will speak." ¹⁴And when he had come to the king, the king said to him, "Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?" And he answered, "Go up and triumph; they will be given into your hand." ¹⁵But the king said to him, "How many times shall I make you swear that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?" ¹⁶And he said, "I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, 'These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.'" ¹⁷And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?" ¹⁸And Micaiah said, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. ¹⁹And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab the king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' And one said one thing, and another said another. ²⁰Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, saying, 'I will entice him.' And the LORD said to him, 'By what means?' ²¹And he said, 'I will go out, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And he said, 'You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so.' ²²Now therefore behold, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets. The LORD has declared disaster concerning you."

It's hard to deliver bad news, espcially when people are going to tend to surround themselves with yes men. There's a lot of people who are prophecy junkies, but they usually don't like to hear bad things about themselves. Nor do would-be prophets like to tell bad news; they're like stock analysts that don't give sell recommendations in order not to tick off the underwriting clients.

Micaiah was Johnny-one-note bearish on Ahab, but he was true in that; God's blessing wasn't there. Not only wasn't God there, He was helping Ahab along his road to destruction by allowing Ahab to be "fed false intel" from his prophets.

What's the application here? To not be afraid to deliver bad news or to recieve it if you're heading down the wrong path.

A Real Toronto Blessing

This one doesn't have anything to do with Toronto Airport Fellowship, just the Toronto airport. An Air France plane crash-landed, going up in flames, but everyone survived. Survivors ran onto "the 401" to get help.

I've been on the stretch of Highway 401, the main Detroit-to-Toronto-to-Montreal freeway. It's very much equilvent to our big-city Interstates; I-94(?) driving past the Minneapolis airport in their southern suburbs is a close parallel. It's spooky to think that crash survivors made their way onto that major freeway during rush hour to flag down help.

Afternoon Musings

If Bolton didn't give the left a conniption fit, this will-Dubya's come out in favor of teaching Intelligent Design. I can see the one liners already-"He doesn't use any intelligent design of his Iraq policy, now he wants schools to teach it?"

The one downside of the interview was his giving Rove "complete confidence." That's usually said within two weeks of someone being shown the door.

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Rafael Palmeiro is getting raked over the coals even before the ink's dry on the suspension notice. Right now, all he's done is gotten a ten-game suspension for steroids. 

Sammy Sosa got eight for a corked bat; should he be excluded, too? Should we pull Mr. Vaseline (a.k.a. Gaylord Perry) out of the Hall? Not to mention Ty Cobb, who went into the stands to pummel a one-handed taunter, making the Pacers look tame.

There are a lot of concoctions that include steroids that don't advertise the fact; for now, I'm willing to give him some slack, even if that finger-pointing steroid denial before Congress this spring looks a bit awkward at the moment.

Stop Your Reactors or We'll Taunt You a Second Time

"Strong French warning to Tehran"

Edifier du Jour-Proverbs 2:1-5(ESV)

¹My son, if you receive my words
   and treasure up my commandments with you,
²making your ear attentive to wisdom
   and inclining your heart to understanding;
³yes, if you call out for insight
   and raise your voice for understanding,
⁴if you seek it like silver
   and search for it as for hidden treasures,
⁵then you will understand the fear of the LORD
   and find the knowledge of God.

Wisdom isn't a low-lying fruit. It needs to be reached for. It involves exercise, exercising both your brain and your spirit, mostly the latter. It's more work that a lot of people want to do.

The Holy Spirit's at the ready as your personal trainer in that endeavor. But it does require work. No pain, no gain, as the old saw goes. The pain is that of taking up your cross and getting rid of the things in your life that aren't godly.

However, you'll develop discernment that is useful in making it through life.

 

Evening Musings

Good news; things are starting to roll on the new business. Various distractions have slowed the launch, but we're about a week away from getting salable product. In the mean time, I'm getting a crash course in the lumber business; being a woodworking newbie, I'm having to learn from scratch things like what a board-foot of lumber is (1'X1'X1" {or four-quarters in lumber-speak}) or learning to keep veneers (wood) and laminate (plastic or occasionally steel) straight.

I mastered the computer business as almost as raw a newbie; I think I can get the hang of lumber enough to be ordering it confidently in short order.

The bad news is that blogging will be slight for a few days while things get busy.
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Time to channel Little Enos-"Daddy, you're about to have your recess ruined." He's everything a UN-phile liberal is supposed to dislike, and thus is a good choice to be Bush's UN rep. Yes, he's a bad cop, but you sometimes need bad cops.

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Saudi King Fahd left the mortal coil today. He'd been in poor health and brother Crown Prince Abdullah had been running things for a decade, so the transition to King Abdullah later this week will be nearly non-existent.

Now we'll have to specify which King Abdullah we're talking about, since Jordan has one two. I still think an Ab-dullah sounds like something that will have infomercials for; "Faster than Bowflex or Nautalus, the Ab-dullah is the cheap and simple way for a tighter midsection."

This is a sad piece; Rafael Palmeiro got busted on a steroid drug test after pleading innocence on the subject this spring. Just after he broke 3000 hits, too.

Edifier du Jour-2 Chronicles 7:1-3(ESV)

¹As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. ²And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD's house. ³When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever."

We don't see that kind of devoltion today. We also don't see those types of miracles today, either.

It's easy to worship God when He does something so grand that it's impossible not to. What God prizes more than that no-brainer type of worship is a worship that doesn't need a mega-miracle to get you down on your knees. I'm reminded of Jesus' comment to Thomas-"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Catfight Update

There was a catfight in the wee hours of this morning; the fur was all over the hallway when we left for church this morning.

One interesting side-point was when we got home last night; we had a black cat laying in the grass right in front of our car. If I were superstitious, I'd have been nervous. Even without that, the cat was ornery-bordering-on-demonic, with a weird purr-growl that said "If you move along and leave me along, you're not going to be hurt. Otherwise, no guarantees."

Some of the fur looked like it came from Mr Ornery Black, but others came from a gray cat that we saw earlier in the weekend. It all seems very weird, like nothing that I can remember from earlier apartment or home stays. I'm keeping my spirit open for any supernatural overtones, since the apartment building and surroundings seemed to become a cat hangout all of a sudden; I'm not sure what's up.

Morning Musings

I'm not sure what up in our new apartment complex, but we've been seeing a lot (three different ones) of stray cats wondering around the last few days. Last night two of them got into it right outside our apartment door. We have one of those setups where our entrance to the apartment is covered but outside, and we're on the upper floor, yet I was hearing a good-ol'-screechin' catfight in our level of that breezeway.

I wish I had a good "catfight" story to segue into, but I don't. Cathouse stories, maybe, but no catfights.

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Minor miracle; the Brits have nabbed all four of the 7/21 veteran suicide bombers; one of the was collared in Italy. One of them is screeching like one out our cat collegues, essentially saying that they was planned to be duds.

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Interesting piece on Rupert Murdock's son and heir apparant bugging out of News Corp and going back to Australia. Not everyone wants to follow in dad's footsteps.

What struck me is that Rupert's 74 and that runaway heir Lachlan's 33. A little math shows that Rupert was 41 when he started his family. That makes 43.99 year old me (birthday's Friday) a bit easier about starting my own; I hope I do a far better job of being a dad.

Wee-Hour Musings

I had a busy day today; Eileen and I went up to Fort Michilimackinac; the place has been vastly improved in the three decades since I was there as a teen. One of the nice things to see was a fairly straight-up assessment of religion in the life of the residents; a reenactment of a French-colonial wedding actually mentioned marriage being an analog to the church as the bride of Christ. Not bad for a state-run joint.

There (as always) seems to be a bit of Brit-bashing, making the French look better; the less American a group is, the better press historians give them. The French did a better job of getting along with the Indians and digs were made that no Catholics could be in the British army. They didn't mention whether Protestants would have been allowed in the mid-1700s French army.

One of the strange contrasts is to see this recreation of a pre-Revolutionary War fort (the British bugged out to more fortressy Mackinac Island {yes, of Somewhere in Time fame} late in the war and burned mainland Michilimackinac to the ground once they lugged the stuff they wanted to keep over to the island so as to keep the rebels from using it) right next to the Mackinac Bridge; the entry point to the park is literally under the beginnings of the bridge.

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This Red State post is rather interesting. The content, blasting George Pataki for his cross-the-board centrism, isn't all that out of the ordinary at conservative wonk central, but the überwonk that wrote it was- Richard Viguerie. 

A quarter century ago, he was one of the big conservative minds in Washington, mastering the art of political direct mail for fund-raising. He's a bit less influential today, but he's still a heavy hitter in conservative circles.

I find it interesting that this old conservative dog is learning some new tricks. We're starting to see fairly heavy hitters hang out in the Blogosphere, and not just the young technophiles.

Blogs like Red State might be more important than direct mail today, at least in an early state of a primary where the opinion-makers can be moved before camping into a particular campaign. Viguerie might have wanted to nip any idea of a Pataki campaign in the bud, and realized that an influencial blog would help more than ten thousand letters.

Edifier du Jour-2 Chronicles 5:11-14(ESV)

¹¹And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves, without regard to their divisions, ¹²and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 priests who were trumpeters; ¹³and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the LORD), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the LORD,

"For he is good,
   for his steadfast love endures forever,"

       the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, ¹⁴so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.

For me, this verse hearkened back to a Ron Kenoly song, Fill This Place; it's odd that songs are more of a touchstone than the actual Bible passages that inspired them.

Non-Pentecostals often chuckle at footage of folks getting "slain in the Spirit," but that's essentially what's happen here with the priests; the presence of God was too much for them to stay on their feet. While there's often a bit of mass psychology going on in some "Spirit-filled" services, you'll also see people honestly overwhelmed by God's presence and be more than a bit wobbly; you just find a place to sit down if that kind of thing happens in a Baptist church, but in a Pentecostal one, it's OK to sprawl out on the floor like a eight-day wash.

Charismatic stuff aside. Do we want that much of God? I can here Jack Nicholson going "You can't handle that much of God!" No, we can't; not at least if we don't want our lives transformed.

Not that we're going to be able to stay on our feet, but that getting that much of God would be transformative; Moses had a godly glow when he came down Mount Sinai after meeting with God. That type of 180-proof contact with the Great I AM would not allow your life to be the same. You don't get that in a garden-variety Sunday service, even in the most charismatic church.

Jesus did rip open the Holy of Holies on His way off this mortal coil; that direct relationship with God that used to be only open to the high priest once a year is now open to each of us 24/7. Most of us (myself included) are too scared to want to go in at that level, but it's open to us. Be prepared to have your socks knocked off it you do.