Six minutes of impossible illusions

You're so sharp, you'll have guesses at how these are done.

I don't. Too fast! Can't try!

Monday music: Dancing Trees, by Sergio Altamura

Mellow, sweet solo guitar.

The Tim Tebow Super Bowl ad: all the kerfuffle was about...

... this:

Update: As CR points out, the rest of the story is here. At the FOTF site, there are two Tebow spots, one in addition to the spot shown above — were both shown?

(Not) this day in BibChr history: poetry

(About) two years ago (not) today, we had one of our funnest, liveliest meta's ever.

It started because of a stupid poem that snagged my attention, and got me thinking and talking about what passes for poetry. An admitted Philistine when it comes to modern poetry — okay, most English-language non-rhyming poetry, period — I voiced my thoughts in my usual calm, non-inflammatory, mild way.

Hilarity ensued.

Actually, not so much "hilarity" as a really fun, contentful, educational, challenging discussion. Karsten Piper (son of John) graciously stepped in and offered some helpful, thoughtful comments, for which I'm still grateful.

So for the reading-pleasure of you relative newbies, I hereby point you here. Pour yourself a glass of white wine, or Martinelli's, have a slice of cheese or two.  Enjoy. It really is one of our best, thanks to the level of discussion in the meta.

Hither and thither 2/5/10

Another busy week... but not too busy to serve you up this borgaschmord:

• San Diego tips: in case you missed it, please check yesterday's activation of the BibChr Brain Trust.
• Okay now, this just reminds me 'way too much of a scene from Twilight Zone that left me unable to sleep with my bedroom window curtains open. Until I was, like, 47.
• Okay, not that old. But we are talking double-digits.
• Reader Susan points out something my Josiah will think is cool on a whole lot of levels: Roman Army "Swiss" knife, from about 200 AD!
• Say... why are cats so fond of board games?

• I think this is absolutely hysterical. So you have a burning desire to be a priest in a totalitarian, authoritarian, inerrant, fiercely-hierarchical church whose distinguishing position is that it's never wrong and it's the only real (and perfectly-united) church. Just one problem: the inerrant hierarchical church says you can't be a priest. What to do? Well, naturally, you just break away and do your own thing... representing yourself, unauthorized, as a priest(ess) of this totalitarian, authoritarian, inerrant, fiercely-hierarchical church. The one that says you can't be a priest. And you're a break-off of that one-and-only true and perfectly-united church. Yeah. That makes sense.
• Ah, the Bizarro-world of tax laws. I pass on, without additional comment: breast augmentation? Ruled as cosmetic surgery, and disallowed. "Sex change" operation? You betcha. (CR passed along that little item.)
• Goodness. I honestly can't remember reading more common-sense from a pro-abort, than in this column on the Tebow Super Bowl ad controversy.
• "Caution" indeed.

• On to more important things. Reader Stephen Rodgers alerts us to some tips on cast-iron skillet pizzas, and on making a grill into a pizza oven. (He also assures us that he doesn't only think about pizza. We await evidence.)
• Interesting. According to this article pointed out by reader CR, that dedicated "Christian" Barack Obama hasn't attended church much since his election. He has a mix-n-match BlackBerry religion.
• From that article we also learn that liberal Christian leader Jim Wallis believes you can be a Christian without having a clue about the Gospel or the claims of Christ or the value of a human life or the meaning of marriage... as long as you're "comfortable with [your] own faith."
• It's hard to read this humiliating article about liberal progressive Christianoid Baptist whatever-talking-thingie Tony Campolo and his stubborn refusal to learn anything from his constant string of bad calls, and not think of Proverbs 4:19. Warning: do not have anything in your mouth when you read the sentence that begins "We really feel that Hillary Clinton was more committed to...." (Thanks to Paula for the link.)
• Reader Zach West's dad got a little bored during a recent snow storm. Result? Phonehenge.

• So, let me get this right: the Department of Justice is actively seeking to hire lawyers who have "convulsive disorder, mental retardation, [and/or] mental illness"? Yeah. That'll help.
• Julie Garrett (fondly known in our house as "the grasshopper lady") points out this depressing graphic of unemployment in America under Democratic economic rule.
• Well... it's better than the Star Wars Holiday Special.  (But then, what isn't?) [NOTE: original link was wrong; now fixed.]
• I'm sure we'll all sleep better at night knowing that state re-education camp officials, rather than wasting their time on trivialities such as reading and math, are keeping us all safe from dangerous 9-year-olds armed with two-inch Lego guns. (See video here.)

• Reader CR grimly and correctly reminds us that President Obama may have the opportunity to make two more Supreme Court appointments soon. Elections have consequences. Professed Christian voters didn't think that one through... or that's my very most charitable estimation.
• This Frank + Ernest just cracks me up.

• And the What th--? of the Week award goes to...

• We also have a late-breaking Title of the Week, to wit: Anger counselor charged with pulling gun in parking flap
• Holiday season has come and gone, and I want to know: how did we miss this?

• Penultimately, our IT-savvy readers in particular will enjoy this little snippet, courtesy of reader Zostay. 
• Leaving us, inevitably, with....

 

Tapping the BibChr Brain Trust in re. SAN DIEGO

Having gotten terrific tips in the past for our New England trip — for which, again, thanks! — we now turn to you again.

The plan now being penciled out is for some configuration of Phillipses to head south this summer, ultimately spending time in the San Diego area.

Open mike:

• Must-sees?
• Tourist traps?
• Must-avoids?
• Pulpits open to a guest preacher?

No wonder he was afraid of doctors - or, The formula: redefine, then wrong

Warning: this story about a Holocaust survivor makes for harrowing reading.

You read that, and even if you affirm the Biblical truth of the total depravity of all mankind, you blanch. How could someone treat another human being like that? How can one human regard other humans as objects, lab rats, things to be used?

But then we know that this has been done in slave-cultures; we know it was done in our own. Blacks were defined as less than fully human. Therefore, they could be bought and sold, and used as tools. Nor was that a new attitude. I remember when studying the Greek word doulos ("slave") decades ago I happened on a statement by Aristotle, that (from memory) a tool was a doulos apsuchon, and a slave was an organon empsuchon — that is, a tool was a slave without life, without a soul; and a slave was a tool with a soul.

Then my mind drifts to a video I happened on yesterday, which horrified me. I look at a lot of videos, keeping an eye open for Hither and Thither and Monday music. This one was supposed to be really, really funny.  I could really, really have lived without it.

I gather a guy's girlfriend broke his stereo or something — I am not going to look for it again to get the details right. So for revenge, he "pranked" her, fooling her into putting a spoonful of cayenne pepper into her mouth when she thought she was doing cinnamon.

She screams in pain, and he laughs and laughs and laughs. It is clear that she is both hurt and scared, and he just can't stop laughing. I bailed before it was done, because frankly it just horrified me. I hope someone is telling her to get away from that creature. As for him, I hope... well, I hope the sorts of things you'd suspect a guy would hope for such a creep.

But it's pretty apparent to me that she's not fully-human to him... or if she is, that fact doesn't carry much weight. She's certainly not anyone for him to cherish, respect, protect — in short, love like a man should love his woman. Some redefinition has gone on, some squelching of soul, of whatever remnants of conscience he has.

Then we end up where you knew I was going. Abortion. First time I saw my little eight-week-old unborn Josiah in a sonogram, that little white heart-blob beating, beating, beating, one of my first thoughts was, "Good Lord — doctors and nurses know this, they see this, and they still do abortions?"

Because abortions are every bit as brutal, as inhuman, as monstrous as anything Mengele did, or this idiot subhuman was doing to his girlfriend.

Worse. Jews had theoretical options, some few escaped. Some slaves also escaped. That girl had options. She has options. I hope she knows that.


Babies? No options. None. The very soul of vulnerable helplessness.

In all but a statistical handful of cases, they've been invited into existence by a willing act. (Even when not, they are not the offenders, they merit no punishment.) There's nowhere for them to go, nothing for them to do.

The lesson?

Define as sub-human, and you can do as you wish.

It's simply another dark fruit of our first parents' rebellion. "You shall be as gods," was the sales-line, and they fell for it as has every child they've ever produced by natural conception. So we just re-define what God has already defined, and feel free to sin against it.

Diabolical.

It's why we as a race stand in need of such a radical Gospel, calling for radical repentance, radical conversion, and radical schooling in God's ways.

Wonder where the Star Wars opening text goes?

Well, now we know!

AMAZING indie work. Regular readers will particularly love a touch at about 1:29.

(See, since my substantial contribution for the day is up over at Pyro, I can afford to be silly here.)

"Bohemian Rhapsody," with Marc Martel of Downhere

Back in December, we featured How Many Kings by Downhere. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought, "Hunh, that Marc Martel [lead singer] sounds like a Christian Freddie Mercury."

Evidently I wasn't the only one to think that. This is quite a performance. Enjoy.

Hither and thither 1/29/10

A multi-course meal of eclectic goodness for your week-ending enjoyment.

• First, an apology. That's right, from me, to you, Dear Reader. I am sorry that I didn't have THIS up for you, if you endured the president's SOTU speech. Sorry. (Check out the URL.)
• Want to read a really good response to the State of the Union Ordeal? That would be from... Sarah Palin. 
• UPDATE: after that endless saga of a speech, the President has earned himself a new nickname: Oblahblah. (Can't believe I didn't think of that myself; credit to commenter Chadron over at FR.)
• Legos. So, first of all, did you even know there was such a thing as a "certified Lego professional"? Well, there is; and there are six of them. One of them is Nathan Sawaya. His "art is currently touring North American museums in a show titled, The Art of the Brick." Nathan will do a life-sized Lego statue of you, if you like. Just send him sixteen photos of yourself from various angles. Oh, and $60,000.
  
• Not inter-faith, but multi-faith. So a pastor, an imam, and a rabbi walk into a church, a mosque, and a synagogue... and take their congregations. Not a joke. (Thanks to 3GD for the tip.)
• Doggone it, there should be law against hornets so big that 30 of them can massacre 30,000 honeybees. This isn't the first time we've noted them, though.  It's European honeybees that are so vulnerable. However, Japanese honeybees have a lethal defense. (In fact, that was our first Isn't Evolution Wonderful post.)
• Well. Now we finally know what it takes to get a Clinton to stand up for the US in any sense.
  
• Goodness I hate it when this happens.
• From the bizarre to... well, the bizarre of another kind. So a guy comes up with a way to help lonely single people locate each other, make some wise moves to establish relationships — do you think he ever dreamt his service would end up trampled by willing slaves of sexual perversion, hellbent on mainstreaming their sin? And yet. (Thanks to reader Joe Wisnieski for the tip.)
• Folks aren't much about repenting of sin. But they are all about making their sin not look like sin.
  
• Food? Oh yeah, I guess you can eat it. If you want. Or you can do this.

• For the man who has everything — and I mean everything — you've got this. And of course, this.
• Carolyn Plocher does a lot of writing about sexual/family-related issues and the media for the Cultural and Media Institute. Reader Mark Loftus noted to me that Plocher caught Joy Behar spilling the beans about all those homosexual men longing for monogamous, married, same-sex love... and how their numbers may be grossly exaggerated. In the course, Plocher herself outs the agenda.
• But shh! the Pres says that they're just being "who they are."
• Uh... time for this link again?
• Speaking of The One: you're the President of the United States. You're going to speak to a class of sixth-graders. Naturally, you make sure to bring along... your TelePrompter?

• Beetles. Turns out they have feelings. And sometimes jewels. (Thanks to reader Jan Pruett.) 
• So, when I got my iPhone, you mocked.  "Extravagance," you scoffed. "Men and their toys," you jeered. Okay, that was my wife. Okay, it wasn't even her (—bless her!), it was my conscience. But ha! turns out iPhones save lives. (Actually a serious story, but hope we can smile with the happy ending.)
• Oh dear. In a court case that arguably shouldn't even be taking place, it sounds as if the expert witness in favor of California's Proposition 8 didn't do a very good job. (Link from reaer CR.)
• Turns out our awesome cat from earlier this week isn't the only one.
  

• There are many price-comparison sites for books. The creator of a new one, BookAse.com, reached out to me for mention. One unique feature I notice is that search results single out the lowest prices up-top, followed by used and new as distinct categories.
• So, you're a professedly Christian president of a nation with a deeply Judeo-Christian history and framework. You need to nominate someone to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Who do you pick? Well, naturally you pick someone who has written that religious people do not have the right even to THINK that homosexuality is a sin, and that such intolerance cannot be tolerated.
• Not depressed enough? Consider this: there are still Christians who foolishly voted for Obama, who are doubling-down to rationalize their error. Scariest thing about human nature, period.
• And so HSAT, I leave you with these:

 

 

 

My own Obama SOTU anti-Bingo card

Using the previous template, I threw together my own card full of words, terms, and phrases I'm pretty sure we won't be hearing tonight.

Love to be wrong, though!

Obama SOTU Bingo Card

From Feed Your ADHD comes the handy-dandy Obama State of the Union bingo card.

Before you ask, No, I do not plan to listen. I will have something better to do. Even if I have nothing to do, I will have something better to do. I already know what it's going to be:

"Blah blah blah Bush’s fault blah blah blah inherited problem blah blah blah I intellectually grasp the pain you think you have blah blah blah doing all I can blah blah blah hang in there blah blah blah you need me blah blah blah massive totalitarianizing 'fixes' blah blah blah tough talk to my enemies, foreign and domestic blah blah blah God rubber-stamp my plans bless America."

You can also get multiple generated boards HERE.

Cool theological/Biblical resource site: TheologicalStudies.org.uk

Check out TheologicalStudies.org.uk

Like my sites, it isn't pretty and shiny, but it has some very good links.

For instance, the theologians page has a listing and biography for many movers and shakers in theology, ranging from Carl Armerding to Edward J. Young.  If the material is available online, it is linked.

Side-note: that led me to a really snotty, condescending obituary for E. J. Young, written by F. F. Bruce.  Most of you won't care. Older and more theologically-trained perhaps will note both names. Young is a hero of mine, Bruce was. Bruce was a consummate scholar, but also a consummate dissembler, to be blunt. Bruce so phrased himself that he had a large evangelical following who didn't know that he denied Pauline authorship of the Pastorals, Daniel's authorship of Daniel, the unity of Isaiah, and on and on. So in this obituary, Bruce poses as praising Young — but he's really lecturing and scolding him. It's offensive.

The Biblical studies site similarly has an assortment of tools. For instance, he has a truckload of resources on Proverbs (— though, unaccountable, Bradshaw has overlooked a critical master's thesis and series of lectures related to Proverbs, as well as a series of indispensable blog posts).

(Removing tongue from cheek....)

Enjoy.

...but they're not really pro-abortion

My BSIL redirected my attention to a story relating to the coming Super Bowl. (That's some sort of sports-thing, I think, completely unrelated to salad or soup. I think people watch it on TV. People like, for instance, my BSIL. But I digress.)

Seems that University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow will appear in a commercial during the 2010 Super Bowl.

What kind of commercial? In praise of beer? Vodka? Fast cars? Fast food?

Not so much. He's just glad he's alive, and wants to say so.

So you're thinking, "How is this newsworthy?" Well, turns out some people are very upset about the ad. So upset, that they demand that it be censored, removed, not shown.

Huh? What people? Women's groups.

Why? Use of scantily-clad females to sell products by sexual suggestion? Oh no, no no no, no problem there.

Well, was Tebow some powerful person who took advantage of his high and trusted office to use a subordinate woman as his sexual plaything, and then urge other subordinate women to perjure themselves to save his career?

No, but there is a connection I'll explain in a moment.

No, Tebow's crime is that he's specifically glad he is alive instead of having been aborted by his mother's choice.

There you have it. His very existence is an affront to the dark sacrament of our day: a woman's "right" to kill inconvenient, imperfect, or ill-fathered children.

If the Lord tarries, I anticipate the day when future generations look back on our culture's attitude towards abortion as we look back on slavery, exposure, "sacred" whores, and gladiatorial games. It is black ice in our national reasoning-process, an area of moral insanity where no amount of facts and logic can intrude.

It's why a man can embody and live out real contempt for women, and real abuse of them as soulless objects, yet be given a pass by all women's groups simply because he guards The Unholy Sacrament.

The moral black-ice of abortion is what gives birth to burbling, barking, retire-to-Bedlam stuff like this:

Terry O'Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women, said she had respect for the private choices made by women such as Pam Tebow but condemned the planned ad as "extraordinarily offensive and demeaning."

"That's not being respectful of other people's lives," O'Neill said. "It is offensive to hold one way out as being a superior way over everybody else's."

She really said that. I added the emphases, but did not make that up. Did Ms. O'Neill's brain explode after that feat of logicide? The narrative does not relate.

So if you watch the Super Bowl, prepare for one commercial unlike the others.

Thanks to our friends at FOTF, and some still-sane folks at CBS.

The Bayly brothers hit a triple

Probably more than a triple, but three posts arrested my attention.

First, to you who don't know them. Tim and David Bayly are pastors, and sons of the late Joseph Bayly (1920-1986). Papa Bayly was (among other things) an editor and an author. As a young Christian, I enjoyed his books The Gospel Blimp, The View from a Hearse, and I Saw Gooley Fly. My favorite, though, was his anthology called Out of My Mind.

It is from that title that his sons named their blog, Out of Our Minds Too. It's one of my regular stops. I was first drawn to it because I liked their dad's writings, and now I enjoy theirs as well. (And of course, the post by David which I noted here gives them a special place in my heart.)

All that to say this: (at least) three posts on their blog right now are particularly worth noting, and I note them to you:

• U.S. Supreme Court vs. Gianna Jensen...
• Saddleback: "transcendence is not on the menu" 
• "The day I decided to stop being gay"

These all feature links to other articles, so I'm doubling here: the original articles are worth reading, particularly accompanied by the Baylys' remarks.

Plus, I get to point you to another worthwhile blog.

In case you feel the need for another blog.

(c;

Awesomest. Cat. Ever.

"Pal, do yourself a favor: take the bag, and leave. You do not want a piece of this."

Monday music: Pachelbel's "Loose" Canon, by Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

(Thanks to reader Julie for the tip!)

When fools separate: a statistical question

Actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie never married, though they have six children. Reportedly, they said they would only marry when homosexuals were free to "marry."

That was a pretty stacked condition to set, I think, depending on how you view it. Homosexuals already are free to marry, at least in every state of the Union. That is, if they find a willing and eligible member of the opposite sex, they may marry. The present temper tantrum is over their failure to force the nation to redefine "marriage" to apply to their particular form of ruinous perversion.

So perhaps "Brangelina" made a pretty safe bet. Somehow, I doubt they were bright enough to have worked it out that way. Perhaps they should have added that they also would only marry when idiots were free to give any solution to any math problem they like and receiving a passing grade.

But I digress.

So the two moral geniuses have separated, and now the fates of their poor show-children must be decided.

My statistical question is: now that the two are separate, and no longer Brangelina, has the number of fools in America risen, or held steady?

(If the "friends" who deny the split are correct, the question will be shelved.)

Hither and thither 1/22/10

Hey! Where was everyone last week? Well, if you missed it, check it out. This week is a bit text-light, graphics-heavy.

• So often, it seems as if political leaders aren't so much in their own homes. Now, I don't think husband and wife need to be carbon-copies of each other. There are things that the dear wife is wrong about has differing views. Like whether squash is a food God meant for humans. But I digress. Case in point: John McCain? Against "gay" "marriage." Wife and daughter? Not so much. (Link sent by 3GD.)
• On the subject of my dear wife, and differences. There's a very funny video, that's... well....  We were split as to whether it should be posted. See it for yourself, and guess who voted which way. (Link courtesy of reader CR.)
  
• Build your own "working" phaser! Really. At the very least, it will stop The Balloon People from their nefarious plans to take over the planet!

• Our British friend, Pastor Gary Benfold, sends a link reporting that Britain is considering a bill which may make it impossible to require pastors to practice the faiths they reputedly represent.
  
• Reader No Longer Blind points us to these pretty and amazing pictures. Don't look too long, though... they may be MormoPowered™.
• What should it tell me that all my own blog comments are going into my Spam folder?
• It was a bad week for liberalism, which is to say a good week for America. For one thing, Air America goes belly-up. This radio network, you may recall, was created to counter Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk-radio in general. FAIL! (Win!)
  
• Of course the defeat of Dem Coakley by Scott Brown in Massachusetts is good news for America, insofar as it may stall Obama's statist health-care takeover. But it could specifically be good news for us in California, who have to live with the shame of having inflicted Barbara "Don't-Call-Me-'Ma'am'" Boxer on the nation.
• With Boxer gone, I can go back to teasing Arkansans for being The Nameless One's launch-pad, with a clean conscience.
• Also, with Scott Brown winning the Massachusetts Senate seat, Nancy Pelosi was forced to make one of her exceedingly rare reality pit-stops and admit even her corrupt gang couldn't ram through the Senate health-control bill.
• Charles Krauthammer reflects on the significance of this election.  It's a good read. Especially when he notes that Obama blames Coakley's loss on — you guessed it — Bush! Which leads to the money-quotation: "Let’s get this straight: The antipathy to George W. Bush is so enduring and powerful that . . . it just elected a Republican senator in Massachusetts? Why, the man is omnipotent."
  
• And if this year could finally end the political career of Arlen Specter? Bonus!
• (As you might have anticipated, Michelle Malkin isn't too impressed with Specter's patronizing behavior.)
  
• Aaaand the Supreme Court dealt a long-overdue major blow to the wretched, un-Constitutional McCain-Feingold folly. Major sign that this is a good thing: Dems are in a major squealing tizzy.
  
• Man made some pretty cool Lego flames — including his name: Cole. (See here for more.)

• BSIL noted this example of poor teenage judgment (tautology?), and reminds me of a certain, hysterical scene from Fireproof. Did they discover the true "Wrath of God"?
  
• Heh. The Husband Store. 
• CHECK THIS: the Planned Parenthood solution to the Haiti crisis is, of course, to kill more babies. Don't ever forget, that's their business.
• Wow. Ads can be... strange.

• There's such a thing as Chocolate-tasting parties? Hunh. Well, if you'd like to know, here's how to host one. However, I'm wagering that the question foremost on most of my readers' minds is, "How do I get invited to one?" Sorry, no article on that.
  
• Here's a dog who knows that there's more than one way to get scraps.

• One of the things that punk Marc Heinrich does over at Purgatorio is put up picture and do a You Supply The Caption. I actually have fallen out of the habit of visiting. So imagine my surprise when I stumble on a YSTC featuring a shot from my favorite (and the best) version of Dickens' Christmas Carol — and find my name in the meta.
• If I may go with that for a moment longer, one of the funnest, best internet surprises ever, for me, was this thread. Absolutely made my day, and then some.
• Hostility to kids who read well in government schools is at an all-time high.

• Leaving us with: