It’s very unlikely that I’ll be posting anything during Christmas. I’ll be back around next Wednesday. Until then, my God richly bless you and have a wonderfully merry Christmas.

Peace out!

An interview with myself concerning the “Holidays”:

Q: Would it make me happy if the whole world came to follow Jesus Christ and celebrated Christmas?

A: Sure.

Q: Am I crazy enough to believe that that will ever happen?

A: Of course not. I teach a series on Revelation every year and I am confident that this world (as a whole) will never accept Christ, even according to His own book!

Q: Should we all quit trying to evangelize the world?

A: No! As a Christian, my number one priority should be evangelism.

Q: So if I meet someone who isn’t interested in accepting Jesus, should I shun them, hate them, kill them, or fart in their general direction?

A: No!! Jesus taught us to love our enemies. That is to say, just because we don’t agree doesn’t mean we have to fight about it. I’ll just continue to live the way God directs me to live let the testimony of my daily life give authenticity and verisimilitude to my evangelism. Besides, we are blessed to live in a country where all of us are free to worship as we please.

Q: If my friend invites me to a pagan blood letting ceremony should I go?

A: Only if you’ve done your homework and you know what all is involved in the ceremony. I probably wouldn’t go to a pagan blood letting ceremony because 1) it might be rude or awkward if I have to refuse to participate in some part of the ceremony because it conflicts with my own beliefs and 2) I hate giving blood.

Q: So should I tell my friend that his religion is “all lies” and that he’s going to Hell?

A: I don’t think that would achieve the desired effect. Better to maintain your friendship and just be honest about your own faith without insulting his.

Q: What does verisimilitude mean?

A: Look it up!

Merry Pancha Ganapati and Happy New Year!

Only five shopping days left until “Holiday”!!

[Editor’s Note: I wrote this a few days ago. I’ve now come up with two likely outcomes, but I don’t want to seem like I’m betting on both horses in a two horse race. Thus I’m posting this one unaltered. I may post my other theory later.]

I’m one of those guys that likes to predict things. Tammy gets pretty aggravated at me when we watch movies or TV because so often I’ll tell he how the show is going to end after only watching the first ten minutes. (My opinion on the vacuity of Hollywood writers’ talent is well documented.) What really makes her mad is that I’m usually right. Example:

During the first commercial break…

Me: Do you want to know what happens?

Her: No!

Me: Ok… Then I won’t tell you that that blonde girl is going to be a total jerk to the new kid, but the rest of the school will rally around him and the blonde girl will end up hated by everyone. Then she’ll realize what a jerk she was and there will be a big hugging scene and maybe a musical number were they all make friends. Oh, and that not-as-cute brunette? She’ll get the guy.

Her: Shut up!

After the show ends…

Me: (With a smug grin on my face.) That’s what I figured.

She: I hate you.

Now, go back with me into the mists of time. Back to the days of the Kenneth Star report and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. This was in early 1998. When Slick Willy finally confessed to America what he’d been up to (“Confessed” is used here loosely since all of America already knew.) Tammy asked me if I thought Hillary would dump the scum bag.

In a moment of pure clairvoyances I said no. “She can’t leave him now. She’s been shoving him up the political ladder for 20 years. She won’t give up on him until she’s the president. Then maybe she’ll leave him.”

What’s really amazing about that statement is that it was made two full years before Hillary entered public service for the first time as a New York senator.

Here’s another example. This one happened on opening day of the first LotR movie in December of 2001. There was a preview for “Collateral Damage”, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. I told a coworker, “You know, Arnold is going to president someday.” Granted it would require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but still. This was two years before Arny ran for and was elected The Governator.

So with my track record established here, I want to make some predictions. This time, though, the I hope I’m wrong.

There’s something about our current economy that just doesn’t make sense. The economy is still growing. Despite the media’s constant doom and gloom message over the last couple of years. Despite retardedly high oil prices. Despite two wars that have dragged on for five years and removed tens of thousands of reservists from the economy. Despite a housing market that is so inflated and out of whack it’s a wonder anyone in California actually owns a home. Despite the current, slow but certain collapse of the mortgage industry. And despite a dollar that is about to take a real nose-dive in the international market.

I’d love to say that it’s all thanks to Bush’s tax cuts. I think those helped for sure, but I can’t accept that as the sole explanation.

So anyway. Here’s my prediction:

I’d love for Huckabee to get the republican nod, but regardless of who she runs against, Hillary will be the democratic candidate and the Clinton War Machine will do what it does best and turn every mote in the eye of her opponent into a mountain while somehow ignoring the forest of planks in her own eyes. The election will be close, but this time the old Clinton democrats will edge out the conservative base.

With Pelosi (or someone similar) running congress, Hillary will be able to repeal all of Bush’s tax cuts as well as bloat the budget with all sorts of socialist programs. I’m not sure she’ll get her health care dreams, but she’ll do enough. She’ll also yank the troops out of Iraq as quick as she can.

The good news is that by the time she can get the troops out, the “Surge” will have run its course, and the war will be winding down anyway. Iraq will not be stable, but it won’t come crashing down as the last U.S. cargo plane lifts off from Baghdad.

The bad news is that her tax hikes will burst whatever thinly stretched bubble is keeping the economy buoyant. The dollar will genuinely crash along with the housing market and the stock market. Oil, because it’s globally traded using the dollar, will go through the roof. “Recession” is probably not strong enough a word to describe the U.S. economy that will follow. In 2010, republicans will surge back into congress and produce gridlock for two years before we manage to be rid of the Clintons once and for all.

Pretty grim, eh? Let’s start praying now that I’m wrong.

[Ed: As I said above. I have developed another theory that’s much less gloomy, but I’m not sold on it yet. Pray anyway!]

I can’t explain how it is that I have never looked up “FNORD” before. It showed up on the whiteboard in our office break room a few weeks ago and I kept telling myself to go look it up (seeing as how I’m endlessly curious about odd words and their origins). But I always forgot about it by the time I got back to my desk.

Then today, I saw it in the sidebar of Ghosty’s blog. So I looked it up right away. Turns out it’s been around for ages! How could it be that I never noticed it before? The only explanation that makes sense is that I was brainwashed by the Illuminati!! They conditioned me to subconsciously ignore the word!!

So why can I see it now? Isn’t it obvious? I’ve attained enlightenment and overcome the Illuminati’s brainwashing.

(If you don’t know what FNORD is all about, then you’ve probably not reached my level of mental superiority. Keep trying… or just google it. *wink*)

Another good “ever wonder”.

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don’t they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Now, I do have an engineering degree, so please don’t waste both our time explaining the physics behind this one.

I know this guy.

He went to Harvard, but only squeaked by with a D+ average. He dropped out of law school. He dropped out of divinity school. He has no formal education in any scientific field. He has made numerous grand and self-exalting claims, all of which have proven untrue.

So what could a guy like that amount to? Not much, right? Well, actually he’s Nobel Prize winner and former Vice President of the United States.

“I took the initiative in creating the internet.”
– Al Gore

Only in America.

P.S. I was looking for a good synonym to “braggart” to describe Mr. Gore but the best word thesaurus.com offered is a bit too PG-13 for this blog. I’ll give you a hint. It has to do with the male bovine digestive system.

After my previous post on “The Golden Compass”, dedicated reader, excellent blogger, and all-around swell Hindu, Ghosty, published a related post on the dogmatic extremes involved and I highly recommend you read it.

Clicky clicky.

I’ve touched on this in several previous posts, but I want to dedicate some time the subject. I get lots of emails from “religious groups” like the AFA, the RFC, et. al., and I’m grateful for the work these folks do. It’s a great way to stay on top of political and cultural battlegrounds. But I don’t charge angrily into the fray every time I get an “alert” email. Quite frankly, there are battles I choose not to fight.

As Ghosty said in his post, the Bible is rife with passages challenging you to think. Use your head. You can’t believe what you know until you know what you believe. I believe the strength of Christianity is the fact that it teaches its followers to challenge authority. “Don’t take my word for it, look it up!”

I remember seeing a clip on the news back during the Branch Davidian hubub. (Remember Waco?) In it, David Koresh is preaching from the Bible and not one of his followers has a Bible of their own. Get it?

You’d be amazed at how many people don’t carry a Bible to church. They just assume that the guy in the pulpit knows everything and they trust everything he says… blindly. I love my pastor, I really do, but I’m not putting my eternal soul in his hands. My faith is in Christ, not Dennis, and not the AFA or the RFC.

This goes beyond “The Golden Compass”. In the last month, I’ve received at least five or six emails from the AFA decrying various retailers for not including “Christmas” in their marketing. Really? That’s worth taking up arms? Does it somehow damage our culture when secular retailers act like secular retailers rather than Christian ones? I don’t think so.

This is from an email my dad sent me last week, a letter from God:

It has come to my attention that many you are upset that folks are taking My name out of the season. Maybe you’ve forgotten that I wasn’t actually born during this time of the year and that it was some of your predecessors who decided to celebrate My birthday on what was actually a pagan festival. Although I do appreciate being remembered anytime.

I don’t care what you call the day. If you want to celebrate My birth, just get along and love one another.

If you want to give Me a present in remembrance of My birth here is my wish list. Choose something from it:

• Instead of writing protest letters objecting to the way My birthday is being celebrated, write letters of love and hope to soldiers away from home.
• Instead of writing to the President complaining about the wording on the cards his staff sent out this year, why don’t you write and tell him that you’ll be praying for him and his family this year. Then follow up.
• Instead of nit picking about what the retailer in your town calls the holiday, be patient with the people who work there. Give them a warm smile and a kind word. Even if they aren’t allowed to wish you a “Merry Christmas” that doesn’t keep you from wishing them one.
• If it bothers you that the town in which you live doesn’t allow a scene depicting My birth on the lawn of City Hall, then just put a Nativity scene on your own front lawn. If all My followers did that there wouldn’t be any need for such a scene on the town square because there would be so many of them all around town.
• Finally, if you want to make a statement about your belief in and loyalty to Me, then behave like a Christian. Let people know by your actions that you are one of mine.

Don’t forget; I am God and can take care of Myself. Just love Me and do what I have told you to do. I’ll take care of all the rest.

Good stuff.

Lest you take this to mean otherwise, I do still believe that there are some causes worth fighting for and some cultural movements that are dangerous, especially to our kids. On those, I have looked it up and I am willing to fight.

One frequent argument by those who favor freedom of everything is to say, “If you don’t like it then don’t buy/watch it.” While that is true of the individual, I can tell you that no parent is capable of sheltering their kids from anything that is popular with their peers. Not unless they lock the kids in a broom closet their whole lives (which, apparently, law enforcement frowns upon, those pansies).

Yes, you can refuse to take your kids to see a movie, but their friends at school (even a “Christian” school) may see it, and love it, and quote lines from it, and buy merchandise promoting it. Eventually, your kid will see the movie whether it’s at the mall, on DVD at someone else’s house, or even on their friend’s iPod. It’s not out of spite (usually). It’s just so they can feel a part of the craze.

The two biggest faults I see in parenting today are 1) assuming your kids are naive to the world and 2) assuming your kids are completely honest with you. Were you completely honest with your parents? (I was of course. *wink* Hi, mom!)

I agree with Ghosty’s point that exposure to dissent is good, but I would say that there must still be reasonable limits. It’s good to have your faith challenged so that you will learn to defend it. But it’s not good to be exposed to any evil just to make sure you know it’s wrong. Some evil can be correctly judged from a distance. I don’t have to pick up a red hot piece of metal to know that it will burn me and I don’t have to watch every movie Hollywood puts out to know when one is not fit for my consumption.

That’s all I’m tryin’ to say.

If you’ve ever met me, you probably know that I’m a germaphobe. (The actual term is mysophobe, but nobody knows what that means.) Just today, I was laughed at repeatedly when I had to visit a busy, downtown hospital with some co-workers. My hands never left my pockets and I kept my mouth closed as much as possible.

But once in a while a story comes along that makes it all worth it. I love when I get the chance to say, “Look who’s laughing now!!”

A quick google of this story reveals that it’s been around the new for a while, but I just came across it today. Watch the video and bask in the horror.

Clicky clicky.

Just for grins, here’s a couple of pics I scraped of the inkernets.

The secret’s out! Your iPhone is really running XP!

And here’s a sneak peak at Mac’s new Sudanese version of the iPod due out next Spring.