Hither and thither 7/31/09

This week's assortment pretty well epitomizes H&T's (intended) jolly eclecticism, mixing the serious, the sad, the funny and the weird. (Hm; I think I have my autobiography-title! Now if only I could get a life worth writing about....)

And if I do play Tour Guide and say so — which, if I don't, who will? — note the flow and segues. They're particularly slick today:

• John Piper's generosity is really amazing. He has provided yet another free book for download, about William Tyndale, Adoniram Judson, and John Paton.
• Also free, but of no evident eternal value: these are really cool. The gent makes vivid 3D paintings on the sides of buildings, often putting people and objects in the picture that heighten the effect. For instance, the lady below is in the painting. Be sure to go to the site to see the rest.
  

• Staying with art, I ask: what was your kid doing when he was six? I'm guessing not this. (Not mine, either. For that matter, not me. Hm, think there's a connection?)
  
• Full-size house built out of Lego bricks?
• And if that isn't enough Lego to keep my weekly unspoken promise to fans and their kids:

• Fizzy milk? Brr-r-r-r-r.
• For Phil Johnson.
• Staying with the food theme: courtesy of my DAOD, the inestimable Rachael, I bring you — Darth Porkchop.

• Now smoothly focusing on the Star Wars theme (and thanks to the same source), an interview catches up with Jake Lloyd. Who, you ask? The poor little (then) ten-year old who played Anakin in Phantom Menace. It isn't fair, but many blame the film's flat quality on Lloyd's flat performance.
• But we all know it wasn't Lloyd who ruined the film. We know who the real culprit was, don't we?

• Too "edgy"? Well, um... sorry. Maybe this?
  

• Staying with that note, however, Matt Blum offers Proof That George Lucas Is an Evil Genius. It centers on... well, here's his money-quotation:

Yes, Lucas is an evil genius. Maybe he really can’t write dialog better than a marginally talented twelve-year-old could, or maybe it’s just a ruse. Maybe he deliberately picked really bad actors to play Anakin Skywalker as a boy and young man. Maybe the plot is already complete and we just don’t realize it because he’s just that devious. Or maybe the final stage of the plan has yet to be sprung.

• Another slick segue, plucking out the theme of sinister, shadowy figures: two policemen attempt a background check on President Obama... and are suspended.
• Saying "police" and "Obama" calls to mind the President's foolish and ignorant condemnation of a police incident, and subsequent attempts to smooth things over. The President hosted a little sipping of the suds at the White House — but it was merely a photo opportunity, as far as is known. The best thing about it is what it's being called: "White House Hoppy Hour,""Mug It Out," "The Audacity of Hops," "Coalition of the Swilling" and "Red, Light and Blue" (after three of the beers participants chose: Red Stripe, Bud Light and Blue Moon), and of course "Yes, Three Cans."
• Reader James Joyce (not the author, who died in 1941, and is probably not a BibChr reader) gives us a peek at the side of Canadian healthcare that Michael Moore and the Dems don't talk about.
• Two words and a disclaimer: luxury toilets (one coarse term). 'Nuff said. Really.
• Okay, maybe a little more. Check the Neorest site, particularly the writeup on the home page. Are they talking about a trip to the bathroom, or a religious experience? Honestly, it makes one wonder what one has been missing, all these years. But... well, not for long.
  
• On the other hand:

• Staying with food, my family really, really likes Chik-fil-A. And so, it turns out, does Kevin deYoung. Me, I'm positive, but unenthusiastic.
  
• There have been a lot of rumors about the coming movie adaptation of The Hobbit. Producer Peter Jackson lays some to rest, gives some solid info here.
• Our sister from the frozen regions of Iceland, Lynda Chan, alerts us to a big weekend up yonder. It is Merchant's Holiday Weekend, featuring such activities as a mud ball tournament, and The Herring Adventure. The page has links to a map of Iceland with many interesting historical notes: such as that "to count as a 'real Icelandic man' you have to be able to swim naked to this island with a torch in your hand while singing the national anthem"; and that in 1253 "the farm of Gizur who later became Earl of Iceland burth - he escaped hiding in a barrel full of skyr-yogurt."
  
• You will think this is a joke, but it isn't. The good news is that (the dye used in) blue M&Ms can treat spinal injuries. The bad news: it turns you, well, blue.

• Back to the subject of food: ooh, nom. Rubic's cubewich. But where do the mayo and lettuce go?

• Staying with the theme, again with the nom: pie-lipops.

• Think that bus you took is crowded? Check this train.

• Some of these are funny. I just feel like they could have been funnier.
• That's all the text for now, leaving only the end-pictures. My dear wife and I have plans for the weekend. "Doing what," you ask? I'll never tell. Not until next week.

When justice is forgotten (capital punishment)

A brutal creep with a history of abusing women stabs a young lady and slashes her face. Amy Leigh Barnes calls emergency, and dies while on the phone, with her last breaths gasping out the identity of her murderer.

The judge scolds the young man who murdered her. Calling him "evil," he says

“You are a bully who will hit and injure anyone who gets in his way. Particularly women. And particularly women with whom you are in a relationship. You are dangerous beyond words.”

Wow. Harsh. Judge sounds all riled, eh?

Sentence?

Well, for the young lady, death. She's dead now. She'll be dead next year. And in five years, ten, fifteen, twenty years....

And she'll still be dead when her murderer gets out of prison — assuming he serves the whole 24 years of his sentence.

The value of her life, then? Twenty-four years of taxpayers supporting, housing, guarding, and picking up the medical bills for her murderer.

Then there's actor Kelsey Grammer, whose deep, mellifluous voice I wish I had. Ah, but did you know that his younger sister was brutally murdered in 1975? Yes, when 18, Karen Elisa Grammer was raped, and then stabbed to death. A man was sentenced to... free support for life on the taxpayers' dime.

But wait, there's more.

Grammer's sister is still dead, and it clearly still tears him up. But the murderer is still alive. He was initially sentenced to death — which makes sense, as he was found guilty of murdering three people. But that sentence was commuted to (A) life, all expenses paid; and (B) the possibility of parole.

So now a parole board was considering freeing this three-time murderer. And Grammer had to persuade them not to do so.

They decided not to.

But the murderer gets another go in 2014.

My point is very simple. In some cases, justice is complicated. In murder, it is not. The value of a human life is beyond measure. I take $50, justice is that I pay back $50 plus interest. I take a human life by murder, my own life is forfeit, period. The suggestion that I can "pay back" by any other means necessarily cheapens the life of the victim.

The Bible's attitude is clear and univocal and just.

Ours is not.

So we have the pathetic spectacle of victims' survivors having to plead and reason to keep a murderer in jail. They should not be subjected to such lifelong suffering. The memory of their loved one should not be so cheapened.

The murderer should not be alive.

But we've opted instead for relativism, psychology. Madness. Inconvenient children get the death penalty on a whim. Murderers get room and board for decades, then freedom.

"...behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD,
so what wisdom is in them?" (Jeremiah 8:9b)

Obama science czar says babies may become human, eventually (another bloody hands alert)

Times beyond easy count, we warned people who were trying to profess Christ and Obama that the two weren't a good mix, given (among other things) Obama's pro-abort extremism. (See here, for instance.)

In response, a lot of talk was thrown out to try to mask what one can only guess was a restless itch to fit in better with the world.

The predictions we made about Obama were about as bold as saying that a lemon will taste sour. Since then, they've unfolded, sadly and obviously.

Here's the latest.

The man for whom so many "evangelicals" shot a tranquilizer dart into their conscience has appointed John P. Holdren to be director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is Obama's top science adviser.

The Bible makes clear what natural revelation alone also puts beyond argument: what a male human conceives in union with a female human is fully human, from conception.

What did Holdren write, in 1973?

That we don't know whether the fetus begins life as human?

No.

That the fetus becomes human in the first, second, or third trimester?

No.

Here is the published view your man Obama legitimized by appointment to a position of influence, emphases added. In 1973, Holdren co-authored a book presenting this view:

The precursors of the egg and sperm cells that create the next generation have been present in the parents from the time they were embryos themselves. To most biologists, an embryo (unborn child during the first two or three months of development) or a fetus is no more a complete human being than a blueprint is a building. The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being. Where any of these essential elements is lacking, the resultant individual will be deficient in some respect.

Not human at conception, not human during conception, not human after birth, not human at first birthday, perhaps not human at second birthday....

Perhaps a "becoming human" ceremony should be held in addition to birthday parties? And who will certify humanity? Perhaps a government agency? A subdivision of the agency that will determine who does and doesn't deserve particular medical treatments?

The authors actually try to paint abortion as the best thing for the (poisoned, burnt, dismembered) baby. Hear the chilling torture of logic your man Obama just anointed, emphases added:

From the standpoint of the terminated fetus, it makes no difference whether the mother had an induced abortion or a spontaneous abortion.... On the other hand, it subsequently makes a great deal of difference to the child if an abortion is denied, and the mother, contrary to her wishes, is forced to devote her body and life to the production and care of the child. In Sweden, studies were made to determine what eventually happened to children born to mothers whose requests for abortions had been turned down. When compared to a matched group of children from similar backgrounds who had been wanted, more than twice as many as these unwanted youngsters grew up in undesirable circumstances (illegitimate, in broken homes, or in institutions), more than twice as many had records of delinquency, or were deemed unfit for military service, almost twice as many had needed psychiatric care, and nearly five times as many had been on public assistance during their teens.

There seems little doubt that the forced bearing of unwanted children has undesirable consequences not only for the children themselves and their families but for society as well, apart from the problems of overpopulation.

Holdren was not questioned on this specifically in his confirmation hearings.

But we already knew what Obama thought, well before the election. Inconvenient children are a punishment, and their lives are forfeit at a whim.

Seems like a close ideological fit, to me — simply a natural extension.

And nothing that a Biblically-faithful Christian could remotely accept.

Muslim principal fires Christian coach after Muslim student converts — off-campus

Gerald Marszalek is a state and national Hall of Fame wrestling coach at Fordson High School. Or he was for thirty-five years — until Muslim principal Imad Fadlallah let him go.

First, a Christian pastor who volunteered as an assistant coach was fired after a Muslim student converted to faith in Jesus Christ during a private, off-campus wrestling camp. (The pastor claims that he never preached while serving as a coach.) The student was baptized.

It is of interest to note that the convert reportedly "was not a student at Fordson high school at the time as this took place in the summer before his freshman year."

Nonetheless, the complaint that has been filed alleges that

[s]ubsequently, in full view of students and faculty, Defendant Fadlallah approached the young Fordson student who had chosen to be baptized a Christian at Hancock's summer wrestling camp, punched the student, and advised the student that he had "disgraced his family" by converting to Christianity from Islam.

Marszalek was ordered to keep the pastor (Trey Hancock) off-campus, as if he were some sort of child molestor or otherwise imminent threat. But Hancock had a son who was a star wrestler, so he eventually did come on campus. Whereafter Marszalek was let go.

Principal Fadlallah is a Muslim, as are many within that community. Can a threat be detected in this note Fadlallah sent Pastor Hancock in letting him go?

"I would like to keep this matter under strict confidentiality. If this issue is leaked to the community, I cannot stop the adverse reaction that it will cause."

The coach has filed suit. Here's a striking note: in spite of the allegation of obvious rights violations, the ACLU was not interested in the case.

The lawsuit alleges that Marszalek, a Hall of Famer who had achieved over 450 wins and was made "Sportsman of the Year" by the All-American Athletic Association, was let go simply because he was a Christian, and because Principal Fadlallah has been systematically eradicating Christianity from the school.

WorldNetDaily reports that Marszalek "is suing both the principal and the school in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Michigan, seeking back pay, injunctive and declaratory relief, damages, and to be reinstated as coach of the wrestling team."

Further:

"We are getting a glimpse of what happens when Muslims who refuse to accept American values and principles gain political power in an American community," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Marsazalek. "Failure to renew coach Marszalek's contract had nothing to do with wrestling and everything to do with religion."

The Religion of Peace. Coming to power near you.

"Voyage of the Dawn Treader" begins filming

Garth Franklin reports that production is officially underway on the third novel in C. S. Lewis'
Chronicles of Narnia series.

This is either my favorite, or second-favorite, of the series — though the competitors are close (the first, the third, the fourth and the sixth are pretty close; followed by second and fifth). It also has a good bit of overtly Christian content.

I hope they don't blow it!

Specifically, I hope someone with "pull" has taken seriously the suggestions we considered earlier.

The wisdom of humility, the mouth, Obama: study in contrasts

A female police officer was interviewed about Obama damning the Cambridge police as having acted stupidly.

She said she'd supported and voted for Obama, but would never do so again.

She further said that Obama should have said that he supports his friend Professor Gates, but "I don't have all the facts. So I'm not going to comment." Check it:

Ah. But that would have been the wisdom of humility.

If Barack Obama had possessed that quality, then 2+ years ago he would have said, "I have no qualifications and no achievements to prepare me to be President of the United States. Find someone who does."

Once you've deceived your way into that office, it would be awfully hard to resist the temptation to pose as instant-expert on everything.

Fun movie: Paul Blart, Mall Cop

My dear wife, two youngest sons (ages 9 and 13), along with DAOD and BSIL, just watched and enjoyed Paul Blart, Mall Cop.

Comedy is often risky in my family. The more who are there, the more diverse the senses of humor. But eventually this movie had everyone laughing, shouting, groaning and talking back at the screen. Had to back up a couple of times because the laughter drowned out the next words, and that's all a really good sign.

I picked this flick for our weekly Burger Movie on the strength of reviews I'd read when it came out. Most recently I saw a review that tagged it as a family-friendly, funny Die Hard. That's accurate. In fact, there seem to me to be more than a few nods to the Bruce Willis thriller.

An aspect I really liked was how the movie treats the eponymous character fondly. He's a loser, but not a pathetic loser (like the horrendous lead human in Ratatouille). He's just a really nice guy who loves his daughter and mother, respects women, and takes his job seriously. Really, really seriously.

It's a pretty mild PG for some name-calling and mild violence. Maybe the PG-est scene is where Blart unintentionally guzzles a liter or two of what he thinks is lemonade, which turns out to be margaritas. The effects are horrific and funny, and provide an opportunity to make an observation about getting drunk.

But, see, both before and after the scene Blart stresses that he doesn't drink — and that this is why he doesn't drink.

In another scene a corpulent woman beats the stuffing out of Blart, her blouse getting pulled up (in no way titillatingly) in the process. But why does she beat him up? Because he won't hit women. Period.

Good movie, and fun. Six diverse thumbs up from the Phillipses and Allens.

CAUTION: there is some coarse, PG-language in the movie. It's not "G" for a reason. If that's a major issue, consult one of the sites that commonly itemize (though one of them relates a phrase I don't remember hearing, and the usually-very-conservative Christian Spotlight review gives it a positive rating).

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Now, to keep up our Monday Funny Video tradition, here are a couple of Blart star, comedian Kevin James.

First, James talks about renting a foreign car:

Then about his struggle (?) with weight:

Finally, "phone number rhythm":

Persecution of Christians by Muslims, communists: good topic for congregational and personal prayer

I have heard this as a background buzz of varying modulations. But when the liberal Huffington Post runs a piece titled Saving the Islamic World's Christians, it catches my eye. Particularly with this as an opener:

Here's a good question. Why do the majority of American Christians remain so oblivious to the increasingly bitter fate of their fellow Christians in the Islamic world?

Painfully good question.

Chesnoff details some of the barbaric brutalities to which Christians have been and are subjected in Islamic countries. The only bright spot is that Christian communities grow in Israel — which makes sense, since Jews are the other major target of Islamic extremists.

Another eye-opener is this article by Muslim journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, shamefacedly admitting that Christians are under particular Muslim persecution in the city of our Lord's birth, Bethlehem.

Now turning our eyes to North Korea, sadly, the name Ri Hyon Ok must be added to the roll of martyrs for their faith. This 33 year old woman was publicly executed under a number of probably false accusations, which masked the real reason: she distributed Bibles in this Communist society. "North Korea appears to have judged that Christian forces could pose a threat to its regime."

Totalitarian governments, as a rule, have seen Christians as a threat.

Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth (Hebrews 11:36-38)

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 13:3)

Christian music sale

Here are a bunch of Christian music CDs for $5 each. I don't know contemporary Christian music, beyond Phil Keaggy. Are any of these worth $5?

Hither and thither — 7/24/09

Not a lot of text today. Unsure whether it's because it's been a slow week, or that I'm caught up in book editing, or other things. Regardless, here 'tis.

• Unpronounceable reader vcdechagn has a Lego find for us. Gizmodo saw "Lego cathedrals," where billions of bricks are sorted and stored. See here for the video and explanation.
• When you think about it, Tim Burton is probably the perfect person to remake Alice in Wonderland... if he doesn't "dark" it out of kids' reach. Here is the new trailer, just released.
• Tangentially I wonder how many of my young (i.e. 40 and under) readers know that there was an Alice in Wonderland made in 1933, with such big names (then and/or later) as Sterling Holloway, Richard Arlen, Edward Everett Horton, Charles Ruggles, Baby LeRoy, Cary Grant, Jack Oakie, W.C. Fields, Gary Cooper, and Billy Barty. The makeup and effects are really pretty good as well. Surprisingly, I don't think it's released on DVD.
• A friend once told me that the first thing that happens when you get drunk is that you become an instant expert on everything. Perhaps being drunk with power has the same effect. And perhaps that explains President Obama acting as lead investigator, prosecuting attorney, judge and jury on the actions of a police officer investigating a reported break-and-entry, said the officer acted "stupidly." Many intelligent responses have come out, including this one. However, Obama is doing what he characteristically does when he says or does something foolish: he is bull-headedly doubling down. Goodness. And they said W was stubborn.
  
• I love this next pic. I'm always puzzled at people who wear sunglasses indoors, and people who... well, look:

• Points but trying, but he's still a scary dentist:

• So of course we all know that liberals are all about ideology-free Science, while conservatives are knuckle-dragging cretin ideologues. So equally of-course, we'd expect our über-liberal President Obama to support the most clear-eyed, objective, sane and sober man as Science Czar. Mm-hmm? Ri-i-i-i-ight. You betcha.
• As an olive branch to my readers who got upset over a fiew critical comments about CCM, I mention a new iPhone app about Christian music releases.
  
• I Don't Know How Women Do It Dept. In the 70s, I had a pair of shoes with heels a couple of inches or so. They were big and square heels, yet took some managing. If I tried to walk in those things women wear, I'd be... well, I'd be more of a spectacle than I already am. And dead, too. particularly some of these, on one or both counts:

• Cool. The disappearing artist! Check it.

• Here's something similar, might interest my Josiah. Some camo clothes —called MultiCam — that really camo. The gallery has some shots where I don't see a model, period.
  

• Oh, you know I like this (h-t threegirldad)
• Then, of course, these:
  

Jimmy Carter, my Obama

I was converted in February of 1973. I was pretty much apolitical, except that I leaned liberal, as most of my non-Christians peers did. (It has become fashionable again.)

So when the terribly lame Gerald Ford was opposed by this nice, idealistic man who boldly declared himself to be "born-again," as I recently had been, and asked "Why not the best?", I was persuaded.

Jimmy Carter.

Worst. Voting decision. Ever.



Now, the difference between my vote and that of professed Christians who trashed their distinctively Christian values to vote for their ideological enemy, Barack Obama, is that contrary information and thought-out Christian resources were not readily available. Those were the days of the monopoly of CBSNBCABC and the various Timeses. This hasn't been the case for years, and convincing information on Obama was readily available to every American.

Another difference is that it wasn't long before I began to realize my error, while Obamolaters continue in deep, defensive denial. (Another lesson: when you do something foolish and/or sinful, your choices are to repent and redeem, or dig in deeper and make it worse.)

Obama voters can't hide behind the unavailability of information.

So rose to power perhaps the most inept president ever, though that is a fairly rich field. Whatever his failings in office, his treacheries afterwards have sealed his legacy forever — barring a decisive and fruitful repentance soon.

Jimmy Carter is a man whose follies are visible and repeated globally. Worse, this is a man who has learned nothing, who has never been humbled, by his many failings, follies, and deserved thrashings. He is a living bad example, a warning sign in ancient flesh.

There is a book title that tells almost the whole story: The Real Jimmy Carter: How Our Worst Ex-President Undermines American Foreign Policy, Coddles Dictators and Created the Party of Clinton and Kerry. True, and amen.

But now Al Mohler adds a bit, and it's worth reading, if too polite.

So: Carter has betrayed his country, his denomination, and the Lord he professes to follow.

Who does that leave?

A story with a happy twist, from the war on the inconvenient unborn

Professor Jim Hamilton brings a tale from his brother about an expectant mother who walked out of an abortuary and decided to have her baby.

It's wonderful to read a story with a happy turn, in the ongoing war against the inconvenient and the imperfect.

And "they" say that a pro-life presence at abortuaries is counter-productive?

Depression (bi-polar and otherwise) and jerkiness

I don't really have a feel for Mike Adams as a writer. He alludes to attending church; his bio says he's an ex-atheist and has an MA in Psychology; he publishes on Townhall, so he's some kind of conservative... but that's about it.

Adams just wrote You Aren't Bipolar, You're Just a Jerk! If you're interested in the topics of depression in general, or bipolar illness in particular, give it a read, then come back. If neither interests you, feel free to give this post a pass. But please read Adams first if you mean to read on here. (And btw, if you start, try to finish it — I think he takes a few unexpected turns.)

*** *** *** *** ***

All done? Welcome back.

I find Adams' post a maddening mix of the brilliant and the irresponsible. There are countless folks who really do need to read it, take it to heart, stop hiding themselves behind lame excuses, get the heck over themselves, and grow the heck up. They might also read this post, and get a clue.

But equally there are others who would read it, and simply be crushed and broken by his uncaring, ham-fisted, over-simplistic over-generalizations.

Remember: "Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda" (Proverbs 25:20).

Also remember: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15).

Bipolar? I don't understand "bipolar illness," the current name for what used to be called manic-depression. But I knew a sufferer very well, years ago, and weathered several cycles with this poor soul. I could not for the life of me draw the line between the "OK-(s)he-can-do-something-about-this" and the "only-medication-can-help." I'm pretty confident both are there — given the catatonic state I witnessed on the one hand, and the frenetic, days-without-sleep, on-cocaine-without-the-cocaine behavior.

Depression? I know depression a little better, more's the pity, because I've been there. I was there deeply, and for years. That was years ago, thank God, but the memory is as vivid as the monitor in front of my eyes. And I'm still more inclined to melancholy than its reverse. ("Full of angst" was a startlingly on-target observation a dear friend once made.)

During one particular extended period, I did everything Adams said. I gave myself for others, again and again and again. It made me feel more depressed and alone. I exercised, every day, sweat pouring off me. I prayed. I memorized.

Now, I can also tell you things I should have done differently. My point is neither that I was the helpless victim of an external force, nor that I even really fully understand what happened.

My point is that simplistic, hand-dusting, "There-that-ought-to-fix-it" formulas (when presented in that manner) probably do more harm than good.

People are different. (Deep, eh? I'm full of stuff like that. It just flows.)

I can prove it.

Look at Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Totally different temperaments.

Look at Nehemiah and Ezra. Totally different temperaments. (Further, check this post.)

Look at Johns MacArthur and Piper. These worthy, productive, God-loving gents were being interviewed at a conference. Piper mentioned a period of depression he had gone through that had lasted years.

Pause.

"Years?" came MacArthur's incredulous question.

See, these men are just put together different. MacArthur simply cannot imagine being down or blue for that long. It isn't in his makeup.

But obviously Piper can. And obviously I can. For myself, I wish I were more like MacArthur than Piper in this regard. But ah, well. I am what I am, and that's what I need to deal with.

Obviously this could be a very long post, and it isn't going to be. I'll just close with a few thoughts.

1. A depressed person should talk with his pastor. He should read Scripture. He might check out Lloyd-Jones' Spiritual Depression. He could try what Adams suggests, all of which are good ideas as far as they go.
2. If those measures, undertaken seriously and prayerfully and with persistence, don't address it, maybe it's something else.
3. People trying to help depressed people should study Scriptures about patience, longsuffering, and compassion. They should eschew simplistic quick-fixes. What worked for you may not work for someone else; if it doesn't, it doesn't mean you're better than someone else.
4. Remember, identical symptoms can have totally different causes. Here's Bob. Bob says he is a Christian. Bob is plagued with guilt. What to do? Simple, right? Tell him the blood of Jesus covers all his sins, he's saved by grace, leave it at the Cross, and move on, right? Right — unless Bob is plagued with guilt because he is walking in known, unrepented sin; unless Bob is shaking his fist in God's face every day. In that case, Bob doesn't need comfort. He needs repentance. He may even need to become a Christian.

So, was this post everything I can say about depression?

No sir, no ma'am.

It was just a few thoughts provoked by Adams' column.

Now, discuss.

UPDATE: there is now a re-posted companion-piece over at Pyro.

Hunh. Magic template change.

So now suddenly all the links are bright blue and underlined. They weren't that way, I didn't change anything — but regardless, ba-bang, it changed itself.

I don't remember how to change it back.

So... what do you think? Prefer? Hate? Don't care?

UPDATE: Obama hosed my template (see the meta). All better now.

Isn't evolution wonderful? — 7 (anti-sonar moths)

It's fascinating to think of the generations of moth-researchers dedicated to figuring out how to thwart a bat's sonar. Then of the production of bodily tools to do just that — all the millions of brave experimenters who died, yet someone passed along their findings to successors.

And then, finally, they "learned" (the word is used) to thwart the bats. Smart little bugs.

Or... brilliant Designer.

Well, there y'go: the LDS solves the Obama birth certificate controversy

UPDATE: I'm experimenting with publishing this reformatted, to see if it's the O-letter that hosed my template.

UPDATE II: well, I'll be dipped. Obama hosed my template. Thanks for the tip, MesaMike.

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I've shared that someone with a wicked sense of humor evidently subscribed me to the White House's "faith press" mailing list.

I just got this. Here you go, Carlo and everyone — mystery solved! If the Mormon temple has all of O's genealogical information, I guess we can write RESOLVED on this one, eh?

From: White House Media Affairs Office
To: filops@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 12:40:34 PM
Subject: Statement from the President after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and leaders of the LDS Church

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 20, 2009

Statement from the President after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and leaders of the LDS Church

The President issued the following statement after meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and leaders of the LDS Church at the White House today:

"I enjoyed my meeting with President Monson and Elder Oaks. I'm grateful for the genealogical records that they brought with them and am looking forward to reading through the materials with my daughters. It's something our family will treasure for years to come." ##

Fellow smart-phonies: beware IOS!

In keeping with starting off the week with a chuckle, we combine the merits of a sobering PSA:

Hither and thither — 7/17/09

Nice and eclectic crop today. Let's go!

• First a serious note, if I may: please pray for me, as I've taken today and Monday off in hopes of pushing through to complete my book's first draft. I've been revising the whole again and again as I've written, and am now writing the last chapter. Then I fashion the whole together. I hope by Tuesday to have it essentially finished — well ahead of schedule, praise God.
• Of course, God uses the truths in my book in many lives. For that to happen, it has to fall into many hands. Hm. Do you think I have a chance of...?

• And now we combine a nod to our Lego-loving readers (or kids) and a nod to the fortieth anniversary of the moon landing (7/20/69).
  

• Here's a little something on The Men On the Moon. Weird, though, isn't it? If someone had asked you then (I was 13 and in Mammoth Lakes) where our space program would be in forty years, wouldn't you have guessed we'd have gone to a planet by now? At least? Weird.
• Along with that (perhaps particularly for you homeschooling moms) comes eleven little-known facts about the moon walk. Communion on the moon? Interesting... though the suggestion of apostasy afterwards is very sad.
  
• Perhaps my evil, cat-hating dog-lover readers will want to avail themselves of the bowlingual translator that Japan has produced. But does it only translate dog into Japanese? Looks like it.
• Dear wife, boys and I saw Half-Blood Prince Thursday night. Brief and spoiler-free: apart from one (unfortunately key) sequence whose changes completely, slack-jawedly baffle my wife and me, it is head and shoulders the best of the lot. Acting, camera-work, editing of the story, effects, sets — just a really good movie.
  
• At last! A simple breakdown of the Dems' health care plan. (h-t- my dear wife)
• Staying with movies: I once wrote about the Gospel in Spider-Man 3 — and how it wasn't there. Pastor Chris Anderson writes about the Gospel in the movie The Mission — and how it isn't there, either. Using the damning legalism of Roman Catholicism (which the movie features) as a counterpoint, Anderson points to the wonderful good news of God's grace in Jesus Christ.
  
• Will the "gas stations of the future" be guys in overalls sitting around with six-packs and specially-customized port-a-potties? Conceivably.
• Wow. This lady actually makes me look like a free-love-and-daisies libertarian on the subect of movie theater etiquette. I have a very firm list too, but it's a lot shorter — though she covers it. I'd be content if folks would just (1) stop using their cell phones once the lights dim (President Obama will wait; honest, he will); (2) whisper quietly (if at all) instead of talk; and deal intelligently and responsibly and thoughtfully with children. The rest is bearable.
  
• One of the great myths about abortion is that most men are anti-abortion, and most women are pro-abortion. That's why it has the false veneer of being a "woman's issue." The reality is the reverse: many men are pro-abort. The reasons are obvious, and they reflect very poorly on many members of my sex. Want to see it spelled out? Check this unveiling of a little bit of verbal sewage (which itself ostensibly was written by a woman, for "AskMen.com").
• I haven't said much (anything?) about the Obama birth certificate controversy... because I haven't had much to say. But this story is really interesting. It is about a U.S. Army Reserve major from Florida who refused to obey his orders to go to Afghanistan on the grounds that Obama has not established that he was born on American soil, and thus has no right to the Presidency. He took his case to court, and got a judge who was willing to pursue the matter seriously. Whereupon the Army cancelled his orders. Unprecedented? At the least, very, very interesting.

• ...in a strange development of the same issue, the Department of Defense then reportedly forced that same man's private-sector employer to fire him.
• Ouch. Except only that I would title it Christian Contemporary Music.

• Big-name guys were asked what one thing they'd change about John Calvin. Their answers are good (though I don't know enough to evaluate Wilson's). Given them, my no-name answer would be that he be more conscious of what he brought over uncritically from Roman Catholicism, and take pains to reform it as well.
• Staying with Calvin. If you want to — and I don't suggest that you should — you could go here to read about the lamest and most seemingly ignorant post griping about Calvinism that I can ever remember reading. Two factors make it particularly weird, though. First: the guy's a professor, a PhD (in theology!), and clearly feels he has a masterful grasp of the subject. But second: take the whole essay, change a word or two, and it reads like every hit-piece a smart-alecky pagan has ever written about Christianity and Christians. But it's passed off as a Christian critique of Calvinists. Strange. And then...
• The cartoon below (from here) is funny in its own right, I think. But I also think it isn't too difficult to make an "ouchy" personal application to those of us tempted to think we're more passionate, God-centered, Biblical etc. than those other people — many of whom probably think the same thing of themselves in contrast to us. (NOTE: that strip is not reliably "family-friendly.")
  

• Pyro reader Carrie (no profile) noted that I had trouble discerning Aussie from Kiwi, and favored me with a link to a pronunciation chart. It's pretty great.
• Proverbs 29:18 comes to life: reader Aaron points to an article once again illustrating how the courts can empower one person to make his rebellion against God (and self-mutilation) everyone's nightmare.
  
• Here is an exercise in MSM parsing. The headline is: Sotomayor Defends 'Wise Latina' Remark.
• Shocker! MSM misrepresents abortion-clinic violence! Click. (h-t Challies)
• And finally, how could we not...