Pray for the Family of Kyle Lake I didn't know Kyle personally...Riddle was becoming friends with him. I read about his death on Marko's blog. Here's the AP story via the Houston Chronicle:
WACO — A pastor performing a baptism was electrocuted inside his church Sunday morning after grabbing a microphone while partially submerged, a worker at the church said. University Baptist Church Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, was standing in water up to his shoulder in a baptismal when electrocuted, said Jamie Dudley, wife of UBC community pastor Ben Dudley and a business adminstrator at the church.
The woman Lake was baptising was not injured, Jamie Dudley said. She said doctors attending the service did chest compressions for 40 minutes before Lake was taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center.
Dudley said it's common for the pastor to use the microphone during baptisms. "He was grabbing the microphone so everyone could hear," Dudley said. "It's the only way you can be loud enough."
Dudley said about 800 people were attending the morning service. She said the service was larger than normal because it was homecoming weekend at Baylor University, located near the church.
Dudley said Lake had been at the church for nine years, the last seven as pastor. She said Lake had a wife and three children.
Monday Night Gather around 6:30. Discussion will start around 7:00 pm. We're on the 4th and 5th chapter of Amos. It might be helpful to check out the Message version of Amos before the study. Also, for a more in-depth look, here's the NetBible version in pdf. The pdf file has a lot of really good endnotes for translation and contextual insights.
Tonight's meeting will be at the Doyle's. Call me on my cell for directions 918-258-6925. posted by Jimmy at 5:37 PM |
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"God received different material valuables from me, as well as prayers in exchange for promises of a better life. In reality, this did not happen - I found myself in the devil's hands," the plaintiff said...The plaintiff said that when he had been baptized in childhood, he concluded a contract with God that had legal effect - God was supposed to protect him from evil.
The plaintiff said the Romanian Orthodox Church, which, according to him, directly represents God, should compensate him for the alleged God-inflicted damage.
It reminds me of this Onion parady from back in 2000...except for this one might be true. Apparently, there was a movie called The Man Who Sued God with Billy Connolly as well. posted by Jimmy at 7:19 AM |
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Update: Wal-Mart and Totalitarianism
First of all, I want to say that I'd request that you not do what I did. I emailed the teacher and asked her about the incident Jimmy posted about earlier, and she really just wants to be left alone. She doesn't want all this attention, and wishes this would go away.
That said, I suppose that the Secret Service is as intimidating in real life as they are in the movies, because the impression I got is that they scared her to death.
How much the President can be blamed for this is problematic. This could be the work of an overzealous, overly sensitive Secret Service agent. My gut instinct, though, is to say that Presidents set procedure and tone for how their employees behave. If this administration really made it a point to value free expression, I doubt this would have happened.
At any rate, it should not go unnoticed. If agents of the government are allowed to engage in this type of intimidation, and we ignore it, then it's only a matter of time before it becomes an assumed power.
I try to be a balanced person. I try to believe that strong, central power can (and indeed, must) have a role in free republics. Things like this cause me to respond one of two ways, and I vacillate between the two: 1) We need to change the government systemically and take some of its power away. Attempts to control the voicing of opinions about the government should not be tolerated, and if that's how the government is going to use its authority, then maybe we need to make closer study of the words of Thomas Jefferson... and 2) There's no way to effectively diminish the government's power without some very negative consequences, and we, the electorate, need to decide to use better judgment about the type of people we allow to pull the reigns or resign ourselves to being controlled by an overbearing government. The hypocrisy evident in the fact that this is done by an administration that ran on the platform of decreasing the level of control the government had on individuals lives should not be lost on anyone.
At the same time, the other side doesn't come out of this squeaky clean, either. Apparently, in all of his righteous indignation, Matthew Rothschild didn't have any problems with lying to a teacher who didn't want to talk to the media in order to squeeze the story out of her. I guess, for those who put ideology above people, the ends really do justify the means. I suppose it's okay to manipulate people for the purpose of exploiting them as long as your goal is slaying the evil Republican dragon, eh, Matt? Of course, the hypocrisy on this side should be equally alarming. This group wants to have its cake and eat it, too. Those in the government should have all the power they ask for, as long as they use it toward good and noble ends, right? Nevermind that government power necessarily is the power to coerce. If you don't pay your taxes, they have the ability to make you pay them... with guns, if necessary. If you're going to hand over power to the government to force other people to give you a job, give you health care, and entitle you to a good life... if you're going to give the government that much power, then don't whine about the subsequent loss of freedom. I'm not saying that some of these things aren't necessary at times, but freedom and security are difficult to balance. Benjamin Franklin put it in much more direct terms: "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." posted by Stephen at 7:14 PM |
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and as an added humor bonus, a funny theater marquee:
Stefan Jones says: "One of the local (Beaverton, OR) movie theaters is a dowdy, badly located concrete box from the beginning of the multiplex era. "The Regal Cinemas chain shows some special interest films there, plus popular films nearing the end of their run. The marquee space is severly limited, resulting in sublime concatanations like the one shown in the picture." posted by Jimmy at 5:09 PM |
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What's up Sukkah?
Since it's envogue to talk about our Jewish roots, (and my buddy Ben in Michigan reminded me) I thought I'd mention that we are in the second day of Sukkot.
...On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Festival of Sukkot, seven days for the L-RD. -Leviticus 23:34
The Festival of Sukkot begins on Tishri 15, the fifth day after Yom Kippur. It is quite a drastic transition, from one of the most solemn holidays in our year to one of the most joyous. Sukkot is so unreservedly joyful that it is commonly referred to in Jewish prayer and literature as Z'man Simchateinu , the Season of our Rejoicing.
Sukkot is the last of the Shalosh R'galim (three pilgrimage festivals). Like Passover and Shavu'ot, Sukkot has a dual significance: historical and agricultural. Historically, Sukkot commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Agriculturally, Sukkot is a harvest festival and is sometimes referred to as Chag Ha-Asif , the Festival of Ingathering. The word "Sukkot" means "booths," and refers to the temporary dwellings that we are commanded to live in during this holiday in memory of the period of wandering. The Hebrew pronunciation of Sukkot is "Sue COAT," but is often pronounced as in Yiddish, to rhyme with "BOOK us." The name of the holiday is frequently translated "Feast of Tabernacles," which, like many translations of Jewish terms, isn't very useful. This translation is particularly misleading, because the word "tabernacle" in the Bible refers to the portable Sanctuary in the desert, a precursor to the Temple, called in Hebrew "mishkan." The Hebrew word "sukkah" (plural: "sukkot") refers to the temporary booths that people lived in, not to the Tabernacle.
Wal-Mart, the Secret Service, and a Student's anti-Bush poster UPDATE: This story will probably end up on Snopes.com as a new urban legend. It was originally written about by Matt Rothschild in this article from theProgressive.com. However, Zed has done a little research, and outside of the blog-world this news doesn't seem to exist anywhere else. I'm going totry and send an email to Matt Rothschild to see what info I can get from him.
UPDATED UPDATE: Matt Rothschild, editor at theProgressive.com and author of the original article, sent me a reply concerning my inquiry. Perhaps it isn't just an urban legend. Here's his response:
Dear Jimmy Doyle, I got the information from Selina Jarvis, the high school teacher, and it was corroborated by law enforcement. Best, Matthew Rothschild, Editor, The Progressive
UPDATE 3.0: Stephen has had email conversations with the teacher involved with this story. It appears that this actually happened. He will probably post more later on what he has discovered in the correspondence.
Cory Doctorow: Wal-Mart called the police on a high-school student who brought in a pic of a homemade anti-George Bush poster for photo-finishing. The Secret Service went to the kid's high-school and confiscated the poster.
Jarvis had assigned her senior civics and economics class "to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights," she says. One student "had taken a photo of George Bush out of a magazine and tacked the picture to a wall with a red thumb tack through his head. Then he made a thumb's-down sign with his own hand next to the President's picture, and he had a photo taken of that, and he pasted it on a poster..." An employee in that Wal-Mart photo department called the Kitty Hawk police on the student. And the Kitty Hawk police turned the matter over to the Secret Service. On Tuesday, September 20, the Secret Service came to Currituck High. "At 1:35, the student came to me and told me that the Secret Service had taken his poster," Jarvis says. "I didn't believe him at first. But they had come into my room when I wasn't there and had taken his poster, which was in a stack with all the others."
Monday Night Gather around 6:30. Discussion will start around 7:00 pm. We're on the 4th and 5th chapter of Amos. It might be helpful to check out the Message version of Amos before the study. Also, for a more in-depth look, here's the NetBible version in pdf. The pdf file has a lot of really good endnotes for translation and contextual insights.
Wewill be meeting at Doyle's House of Prayer tonight. Drop me an email or give me a call (918-813-3258) if you need directions. posted by Jimmy at 5:17 PM |
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Saturday, October 15, 2005
Great T-Shirts At BustedTees BustedTees has a gallery of pics of their t-shirts. Here are some examples: posted by Jimmy at 3:42 PM |
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What I saw then, and still see now, is a world filled with dazzling goodness and horrific evil, with love and hate, with beauty and ugliness, with life and death. In the face of such clear duality, it seemed to me then, and still seems to me now, that there are but a handful of spiritual possibilities:
*There are no spiritual forces. The material universe is all. Our lives bear no larger meaning, and those who hope for more, hope in vain. In this case, considering the 9-year old rape victim, I despair.
*There is only one spiritual force at work in the universe, encompassing both good and evil. This world is precisely as this force wills it to be, and everything—including the rapes of children—happens according to its plan. In this case, again, I despair.
* There are two diametrically opposing spiritual forces at work in the universe, one entirely good and loving and the other entirely evil. Satan (or whatever one chooses to call that evil force) is most powerful and therefore will utterly triumph in the end. The suffering of that poor little girl is but a foretaste of the complete suffering that is to come for us all. In this case, of course, I despair.
*There are two opposing spiritual forces at work in the universe, one entirely good and loving and the other entirely evil. God (or whatever one chooses to call that good and loving force) is most powerful, and therefore will utterly triumph in the end. The suffering of that poor little girl - Satan’s doing - will somehow be redeemed and she herself will be healed as part of the complete redemption and absolute healing that is to come for us all. In this case—and in this case alone—I rejoice, and gladly pledge my allegiance to this good and loving God.
I cannot prove or disprove any of these possibilities, of course, based on the evidence of my experience. What I know with certainty, however, is the one that makes me want to go on living, the one I choose for my own sake, the one I deem worthy of my allegiance. I may be wrong in this matter, but I am not in doubt. If indeed faith is being sure of what we hope for, then I am truly a man of faith, for I absolutely know what I hope to be true: That God is completely good, entirely loving, perfectly pure, that God is doing all that He can to overcome evil (which is evidently a long and difficult task), and that God will utterly triumph in the end, despite any and all indications to the contrary. This is my first article of faith. I required no Bible to determine it, and—honestly—I will either interpret away or ignore altogether any Bible verse that suggests otherwise.
Yom Kippur Tonight marks the beginning of YomKippur (Lev 23:27). In rabbinic literature this evening and tomorrow is both the Day of Judgement and Atonement. The Day ends tomorrow with the blowing of the tekiah gedolah, a long blast on the shofar--a ram's horn "trumpet". It's imagery and terms that we are all familiar with as Christians: atonement, Day of Judgement, the last trumpet. Unfortunately, much of its depth and meaning is perhaps lost on us Gentiles.
Jewish tradition believes that on this day God places a seal upon the Divine decrees affecting each person for the coming year. In other words, decisions of life and death, peace and prosperity have all been decided and are now sealed. The Book of Life is closing on this day...This sense of vulnerability is heightened by an awareness of life’s transience. There are two Yom Kippur customs that serve to remind us of the inevitability of death. The first is to light a memorial candle for parents who have died. The second is to wear a kittel, a white garment that can symbolize both purity and death, during the Yom Kippur services.
The spiritual work of repentance also demands a turning away from bodily pleasures, hence the following activities are prohibited by traditional Jewish law on Yom Kippur: eating and drinking, washing, anointing with perfumes or lotions, sexual intercourse, and wearing leather shoes. The reason for not wearing leather is that it represents material and financial comfort, which is contrary to the humility of spirit required for repentance.
Before Yom Kippur begins, every Jew is urged to undertake one other action that is not merely preparatory to repentance, but integral to the process: requesting forgiveness from human beings against whom one has committed transgressions. This is necessary in order to wipe the slate of interpersonal relationships clean before the start of the holiday, since only sins human beings and God are addressed during Yom Kippur itself.
Monday Night Gather around 6:30. Discussion will start around 7:00 pm. We're on the 3rd chapter of Amos. It might be helpful to check out the Message version of Amos before the study. Also, for a more in-depth look, here's the NetBible version in pdf. The pdf file has a lot of really good endnotes for translation and contextual insights.
We will be meeting at Zed's House of Prayer tonight. Drop me an email if you need directions. posted by Jimmy at 7:13 AM |
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Sunday, October 09, 2005
The Transformation of Rick Warren: Some say he's the next Billy Graham. He's changing the way I look at him. You have to read this article.
Excerpt: ... After it was over, Warren said to his hosts, "Take me out to a village. I want to meet some pastors." They took him to Tembisa, a huge and desperately poor township outside Johannesburg. Local evangelists there often plant new congregations, using large blue-and-white striped tents. In many instances, homeless widows and orphans live in the tent during the week and also worship there on Sundays.
When Warren arrived, the tent church pastor boldly walked up to him, saying, "I know who you are. You're Pastor Rick."
"How in the world do you know who I am!" Warren exclaimed.
"I get your sermons every week."
The pastor told Warren that once a week he walks 90 minutes to a post office with an internet connection. He downloads Warren's sermons from Pastors.com and preaches them on Sundays.
"You are the only training I have ever had."
Cut to the heart, Warren says, "I burst into tears. I thought, I will give the rest of my life for guys like that—the real heroes out in the bush."
That night, Warren sat under the African sky and prayed, "God, what are the other problems that you want to tackle?" Warren told CT, "God gets the most glory when you tackle the biggest giants. When David takes on Goliath, God gets glory. What are the problems so big that no one can solve them?"
Around this time, Warren says he was driven to reexamine Scripture with "new eyes." What he found humbled him. "I found those 2,000 verses on the poor. How did I miss that? I went to Bible college, two seminaries, and I got a doctorate. How did I miss God's compassion for the poor? I was not seeing all the purposes of God.
Marked Very cool looking graphic novel of the Gospel of Mark. (via Jason Clark) Be sure to check out the Flash Paper of the beginning of the book. Here's more information on the book in which the "devil rides in a stretch limousine, Moses bears a striking resemblance to Frederick Douglass, and the angel left at the tomb is a clown":
Why turn biblical imagery upside down? “For centuries, we’ve seen the long-haired white middle-class guys who have co-opted Christianity. That was my beef,” says Ross. “Those images of Jesus and his followers were created by really talented artists during the Dutch Renaissance, and after hundreds of years our culture is still bound by these images’ tyranny.” That’s why this Jesus, who starts out holding a circular saw and sporting long hair and beard, is bald and clean-shaven by page 17.
To the uninitiated—and perhaps to the uptight—Marked may appear blasphemous. Ross’s art was inspired by Nikos Kazantzakis’ controversial novel The Last Temptation of Christ, and the format of graphic novels encourages sophisticated play with the sort of shocking images and complex themes that have made Art Spiegleman’s Maus both a prize-winner and a classic. “I fear that two thousand years of 20/20 hindsight have sucked the surprise, awe and sheer weirdness out of the Gospels,” says Ross, and Marked works hard to restore those qualities to the familiar story.
But Ross is a man of deep faith and abiding love for the Gospel story: “I just wanted to see if I could receive the Gospel of Mark with a lover’s heart and then recount it with a troublemaker’s eye,” he says. “Like Picasso stripping away layer after layer of preconceptions until he finally arrived at a new way of seeing.”
Words Mean Things Post #303 and Neo-Marcionism I do not believe the Hebrew Scriptures are "old" as in outdated. That God has somehow changed from being that God, or that people have changed either, for that matter. It seems that one of the earliest heretics in the Church, Marcion (2nd century), has had a lasting impact on our view of Scripture. Rejecting anything Jewish in the Scriptures, he was the first to develop a defined canon...one in which He removed any reference that might be considered Judaic or relating to the "inconstant, jealous, wrathful, and legalistic" YHWH who created this evil world. His canon included only edited versions of Luke and some of Paul's writings...rejecting the Hebrew Scriptures entirely.
Lately it seems like there is a growing number of Neo-Marcionites, and I run into them quite often. The belief they hold is that the "Old Testament" is a list of books that no longer has bearing on us (outside of a few cool stories and perhaps the Psalms and Wisdom Literature). However, the Gospels and Epistles (especially the writings of Paul) are of essential value because they are in the "New Testament" list of books. Although, last year I was apparently mistaken to think that the Gospels belong in the "new" list as "the words of Jesus [about how to live] don't matter because they were before the cross".
Words mean things. Because we consistently refer to the Hebrew Scriptures as the "Old Testament" and the Christian Scriptures as the "New Testament", we as Christians promote this neo-Marcionsim. We have forgotten (and taught others to forget) that both the Old and New Testament are covenants (agreements) with God about how he graciously works in our lives; and that the Hebrew Scriptures, like the Christian, speak of both of them. These covenants are not lists of books, and we should stop referring to them like they are. In the same way--for our own benefit and that of others--we should stop invalidating whole sections of Scripture by referring to them as if they were outdated. posted by Jimmy at 7:16 AM |
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Justice A really good discussion about mercy and justice as it relates to those in poverty is going on over at Terry's blog, Monastic Mumblings. You'll want to read these two posts: here and here.
Here's an excerpt from Terry's last post:
I see a tension between Dan and Rick's (rhymes with kerouac) points about the "deserving" poor. Clearly , by human standards, making things worse by enabling someone is not a good situation, however just as clearly Jesus Himself showed us the ultimate in sacrificial giving to those (me personally) who don't deserve it. I am not sure how to resolve this thinking, and I need more study but at this time, I personally feel that I can't know who is deserving, who will change their life in the future, and who won't, so I have to side with giving to even the undeserving, because I did not deserve the Gift of God.
Jesus didn’t come to tell people how to become Christians. He didn’t even spend his time telling people how they could join the Church. Rather, he came to show them how to be human. He encouraged people to follow him, to become his disciples, to get re-connected to God and other people. Salvation isn’t about having the right labels; it’s about becoming truly and fully human. It’s about living the way God has created us to live, in harmony with him, with each other and with the rest of creation. And it’s not so much about what happens after you die, though that is one important dimension of it; it’s about life right here and now. Put simply, Jesus believed in just one story – ‘Us’, humankind, moving, both individually and collectively, closer to or further away from the Kingdom of God and his promised shalom.” Steve Chalke, The Lost Message of Jesus, pg 153, 154
Fall Cleaning Turns Up Lost Love Note One of the churches™ I worked for raised funds by auctioning prime parking spots. It was a mega-church™ with a severe lack of parking and a building campaign. So, they sold the top 5 or 10 parking spaces...the ones right next to the building (they were actually closer than the handicap spots). After I resigned I still had some projects to do that involved the church. One of them was a church camp where we needed to load out sound equipment from the youth room. After parking near the doors to load the heavy equipment and unintentionally blocking one of the purchased spots one Sunday morning, I found this on my windshield:
(the name has been edited to protect the individual's identity)
What's particularly interesting to me is that I didn't know the person who left the note, and they didn't know who I was or why I was there. I could have been a visitor for all they knew! Wouldn't that have been a great welcoming note!
Mighty Mice Regrow Organs A strain of genetically altered rodents can grow new skin, toes, tails and even organs. Are humans next? By Kristen Philipkoski.
You Can't Hide Your Lyin' BrainBlood flows to the parts of the brain associated with anxiety and impulse control when liars do their thing. As a result, MRI machines spot fibbers with more than 90 percent accuracy.
Chips Help Catalog Katrina Dead Morgue workers are using RFID chips -- either implanted directly into the corpse or placed in the body bag -- to keep track of the scores of unidentified remains as the hunt for relatives continues.Blood flows to the parts of the brain associated with anxiety and impulse control when liars do their thing. As a result, MRI machines spot fibbers with more than 90 percent accuracy.
Okay...seriously. Apparently this is for real. If you're a Beach Boys or Brian Wilson fan, here's your chance to talk to Brian. Just donate $100 to Katrina aid and Brian will give you a call. posted by Jimmy at 8:03 PM |
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Monday Night We'll be meeting at St. Patrick's this Monday night. We'll meet at 6:30 pm for the service from the Book of Common Prayer. Discussion will start around 7:00 pm.
It might be helpful to check out the Message version of Amos before the study. Also, for a more in-depth look, here's the NetBible version in pdf. The pdf file has a lot of really good endnotes for translation and contextual insights. posted by Jimmy at 12:20 PM |
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The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is the only Gospel
Thanks to Tom Mohn for his words this morning, and to the God who gave them to him
The Bronze Snake: Numbers 21
4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, [c] to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" 6 Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
The Lord gave the Israelites a gift... one that was meant to direct them to him. Yet, in typically human fashion, the Israelites get distracted. I wonder what happened to that snake.
Hezekiah King of Judah: 2 Kings 18
1 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother's name was Abijah [a] daughter of Zechariah. 3 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called [b] Nehushtan. [c] )
The gift that was meant to exalt God above everything else became exalted. The people began worshipping the gift rather than the gift-giver.
How we cling to Nehushtan. How our churches are filled with it. So many things that God gave us to enjoy and to point to him we have taken and turned into our gods. Healing, singing, knowledge, community, reform... we are guilty of making them all Nehushtan. God smashes Nehushtan and begs us to come back to him and trust him alone.
Mirror Mask This looks interesting. The promotional blog circuit is really talking it up. From the previews it's hard for me to tell whether it will be really good or really bad. It has an interesting, dark, early film look mixed with a Tool video.
Talk Radio Hosts If we aborted all the white babies, we would have fewer stupid talk radio hosts.
UPDATE: To be fair and so that you can make your own interpretation of Bill Bennet's comments, here's a link to the unedited call where the comment was made. UPDATE #2: The author of Freakanomics shares his thoughts.
Here's a transcript:
BENNET: Lewis in SarasotaFlorida.Hello Lewis. Last call of the day.
CALLER: Hey bill.
BENNET:Hey.
CALLER:How are ya doin?
BENNET:Good.
CALLER:New caller to ya here and new listener.
BENNET:Great.
CALLER: I've noticed the national media is, you know, they talk a lot about the uh loss of revenue, or the, uh, un, inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent uh months here, uh, that uh, you know, the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn't -- never touches this at all.
BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?
CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.
BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too. I think as --does abortion disproportionately occur among single women? No.
CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics, but quite a bit are, yeah.
BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both -- you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well --
CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.
BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out [CALLER speaks] these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky. You know, There's no doubt, true, as you were saying Jeff, the size of the X Gen...Generation X is a lot...is smaller, right?
JEFF: About 30 million smaller than the Boomers.
BENNETT: Yeah, and part of this is abortion.
JEFF: It's got to be.
BENNET: So it does have something to do with a productive economy.
CALLER: Well, the drain on society is children being born to single women isn't really an accurate thing either, because there is more than enough people willing to adopt children who are born to single women.
BENNET: Yeah. If we loosened up adoption laws and made it easier for people to adopt, and enouraged people, more people to adopt. Look you make a very interesting point, and very thoughtful point.
For Stephen: Mediated African Waterhole National Geographic has a "Wild Cam" video link to a waterhole in Botswana. Here's the info:
PEAK VIEWING PERIOD: 7 a.m.-Noon Botswana Time
And in September as Mashatu moves into its summer season, Pete's Pond will see increasing traffic in the afternoon hours from about 4-6 p.m.
Stephen, how's this for media access for ya? Reality without reality.
"A day will come when, by means of similitude relayed indefinitely along the length of a series, the image itself, along with the name it bears, will lose its identity. "--Foucault, This Is Not A Pipe
The image to the right is not a pipe...it is an image of a pipe. I'm torn. Live cams like the one above actually make me want to experience things like an African waterhole in reality. And I enjoy the fact that I've seen events like the American troops entering the center of Baghdad and pulling down Sadam Hussein's statue as they happened (on MSN live cam). I was in awe that we could see history happening all the way around the world...not in sound bite, edited fashion...but as it developed, but for the most part my students were not awed...for some it was actually boring. I had to keep telling them, "This is history happening." But it wasn't near as exciting for them as the collapse of the WTC (where I actually had a student come in and say, "Did you see it? One of the towers collapsed...it was so cool! Like something in a movie!").
Could it be that the more we believe these images we see are reality, the less meaningful the reality is? Maybe that's why the students I teach are not amazed at nature...they've seen too many images of reality rather than the thing itself...and they assume the two are the same. Or worse, they prefer the image to reality. They would rather sit in Plato's cave and play the projected video game images of reality than to experience it. posted by Jimmy at 7:37 AM |
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MIT's $100 Laptop It's versatile...hand crank for power when there's no electricty, works as a laptop or touchpad, carrying handle, etc. MIT's Media Labwould like to make this system available for people all over the world, especially in the Third World. Check it out here...make sure page through the links describing this system.
C|Net discusses the viability of such a system in the market-place here. posted by Jimmy at 7:26 AM |
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Jimmy Doyle is a dad, husband,
teacher, friend, and other things. Currently he's just trying to figure out what it means to follow Christ and be in community with others. He enjoys having conversations with fellow pilgrims on the journey.
Stephen Zedler has a wife and three kids who he loves very much. He has been called by God to study and teach history, particularly U.S.
history. He also believes that God has called him to reform the way children are educated in America.
If you'd like to email Stephen, you can do it here.
Man Sues God
Yom Kippur
Jimmy Doyle is a dad, husband,
teacher, friend, and other things. Currently he's just trying to figure out what it means to follow Christ and be in community with others. He enjoys having conversations with fellow pilgrims on the journey.
Stephen Zedler has a wife and three kids who he loves very much. He has been called by God to study and teach history, particularly U.S.
history. He also believes that God has called him to reform the way children are educated in America.
