Friday, April 09, 2010

Hither and thither 4/9/10

You know, it's been ten days since the last HT. So dudes and gals, I'm loaded for bear. Should be fun.
  • Where does the natural progression of the Nanny State lead? Well, here, for instance. Makes you want to say...
  • Are you getting an iPad? You will break it.
  • There is a solid, dense yet readable article on Pontius Pilate by Murray Smith in the Sydney Morning Herald (h-t Craig).
  • Title of the week: How to manage hayfever as a Buddhist. No kidding!
  • I am looking forward to the release of OS4 for iPhone this summer.
  • Yes, I still love my iPhone.
  • Isn't it weird how some people still think that skin-color is ideology? And isn't it weird that those people are, by and large, liberals... yet there's still this popular misperception that conservatives are racists, ,every last man, woman and child of them?
  • Our brother across The Pond, Pastor Anthony Forsyth, notes that there is a sort of British "Manhattan Declaration," called Westminster 2010.  I do not recognize the signers well enough to comment; I do notice that it does not so much as mention the Gospel. Pastor Forsyth distributed the Nineteen questions to provide a counter-consideration.
  • Good brother CR points out a court case which may challenge the abortion status quo — and which reminds us what a horrid mistake professedly Christian Obama-voters made.
  • Ah-h-h-h. Ambiance!

  • Can you do the right thing for a stupid reason, or for none at all? Sure!
  • Whom to blame for Obama winning the election? This essay suggests a guilty party, and I think it makes sense. I would add this: W was so intent on restoring dignity and class to the presidency, after The Nameless One had dragged it down to the moral gutter his own soul inhabits, that he Lego spider!!!. Bush failed to see the importance of a continual, aggressive campaign for his main goals, and overwhelming response to his asinine critics. Silence was deemed to be admission of guilt. Ergo, Obama.
  • HSAT I blame the voters, period. Though the MSM did its best to get 0 elected, reasons for rejecting him weren't in secret code under a rock at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
  • BTW, the number stands at 18. What number, you ask? The number of states suing to prevent Obamacarianism.
  • Lego spider!!!

  • "This isn't achieving my objective, so I'm out of here" is one clue that repentance is not genuine.
  • Lego crawler (maybe get pix; site has some nasties)
  • So back around Easter I'm learning and loving the Getty/Townend song "See What a Morning." It blesses me, stirs me, fills my eyes with tears. Then I read that Amy Grant has a new album. She was a big name in Christian music at the start of the 80s — young, pretty, popular.So this new album has a song that's a big hit, Somewhere Down the Road. Grant's witness since the 80s has been uneven; I wondered what she felt burdened to come back and tell a lost world. Answer? "Not much," if that song's a limitation. Read the lyrics. Telling someone headed for a hopeless eternity under God's wrath that "strong arms" and "the answer" are waiting for him "somewhere down the road" is, to my mind, unkind, to say no more than that.
  • Tonight on National Geodarwin: the Evolution of the Spork!
  • Unmarketable talent? But fun!
  • Cool and creative billboards. (One's a little gross.)
  • The good news is that I just read a positive preview of the coming movie Dawn Treader (third in the Chronicles of Narnia). That's particularly nice, in that I'd read a credible report that They were removing all of the explicitly Christian aspects of this very-Christian story. The bad news? It was in Christianity Today.
  • Under the Om Nom Nom heading, reader Laura Kelleher notes the advent, thanks to KFC, of a sandwich with buns made out of chicken!

  • While agreeing with m'man Mark Steyn's alarm at Obamacare, and his well-grounded fears of a kind of Armageddon in the wake of the death of America as an ideal, Professor Paul A. Rahe has a much more optimistic view. He believes that the Obama regime's callous contempt for the American people will crystallize liberalism as never before, and there will be a "new birth of freedom." Hope he's right, but fear that generations of government-reeducation camps and MSM lapdog indoctrination will assure that he's wrong.
  • This lady thinks Rahe's wrong, and I fear she has a good point.
  • Meanwhile President Obama has been hard at work: dividing America, disheartening our population, abandoning our ideals, abusing our allies, emboldening our enemies — and making us less safe. But he's succeeded in what seems most important to him: his will definitely be an historical Presidency.





















16 comments:

Gabby said...

The article about Rove is very interesting. I remember a constant bafflement in my mind during those years when the Bush administration failed to address those 'missing' weapons. Their silence on the matter galled me and I had many conversations about WHY didn't they get out there and tell the American people the facts. WHY did they miss so many opportunities to support the war effort, especially in the midst of the aggressive and ugly anti-war campaign. I was perpetually baffled and/or angry about the whole thing.

HSAT - because of that horrid lego spider, I can't visit here til it drops off the page. Oh, the horror of that thing!!

David Regier said...

AWEsome non sequitur in the Rove section! Bush Lego-spidered, people died!

Brad Williams said...

Well, Dan, I have two things to say about the most interesting thing you have on here by far:

The Business Card Chucker!

1. Unmarketable? Looks like he got an endorsement from Samsung with his mad Business Card throwing skilz.

2. Makes me shudder the think of the damage someone could actually cause with a shuriken. Yikes.

Fred Butler said...

That baby video induced a seizure on me. I'm still recovering.

CGrim said...

That Lego crawler town is amazing!

Here's the direct link to the Flickr photos, if you want to avoid the tasteless banner ads on that other site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29844928@N07/sets/72157623336807855/

Plus you can view the photos in super-hi-res.


I laughed at the "If you can see someone drowning, lol" sign. The high-voltage playground is pretty funny too.

Aaron said...

The retirement of Justice Stevens is all over the news today. CR has been warning us about this for months.

I'm glad you linked Kathy Shaidle. She underscores a point I've been trying to emphasize for a while now. Many conservatives blame our politicians or think Obama got elected through the use of secret hypnosis. But the reality is the people are the problem.

However, angry Americans really need to face the unfaceable: that most of their fellow citizens are just as corrupt, incompetent and compromised

After all, California, Michigan, and New Jersey were already well on their way to bankruptcy before OBama was elected.

CR said...

While I can appreciate Joseph Shattan's article, in the end, the culpability goes to the voters, especially to professing Christians who voted for him and double especially to churches who did not inform their congregation on the important issues.

As to what were the reason that people voted for him. There are several. There were many who were caught up in feeling of voting for a black President, including many professing black Christians who were completely ignorant on the issues. Again, much of the blame has to go to the churches because of either timidity in thinking they can't talk about this things in church, or the fact that many good Christian pastors, say they don't care about that stuff. I could name some notable names, but I won't.

Lastly, but not least, people vote their pocket books. If the economy is bad, people vote differently. Many so-called independents, don't have much principles except how good or bad the economy is doing.

There is a ploy by the Obama administration. Some of you may or may not know this, but around 5% unemployment rate is considered a "full employment rate." We haven't seen that unemployment rate since the Bush years. I don't believe that rate will come down to that level in the Obama administration. So, they are trying to make the 9% the new full employment rate. Watch for this.

PS - Liberal justice John Paul Stevens announced his retirement today. So President Obama will be able to nominate another liberal justice. Justice Ginsburg is also very old and ill with pancreatic cancer. Look for her retirement during the Obama administration. That is three Supreme Court justices that he'll get to put on the SCOTUS. Unless the remaining conservative justices can convince Kennedy to change his jurispudence (O'Connor was instrumental in moving Kennedy to the left on abortion), abortion will be the law of the stand for probably years to come.

Think about that for those of you who voted for President Obama. I'm sorry I just can't hide my disappointment in them or the churches that failed miserably to bibically inform them.

Aaron said...

Speaking of CR...LOL.

CR said...

Sir Aaron,

The retirement of Stevens could have far greater implications than we ever imagined and here's why.

We understand that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Liberal justices have no gumption for the law or the Constitution. They crave to re-write law.

If Kennedy does not decide to go with the conservative majority but with the liberal wing of the court, he would be the most senior associate justice of that wing and he gets to choose who to craft the opinion, if not himself. (He would not be the most senior associate justice on the court, Scalia is, but he would be the senior associate justice with the other justices writing a liberal opinion).

Kennedy is sometimes a crapshoot, but the lust for power and to craft or be able to craft or guide a decision is an insatiable desire. You can bet your sweet bippy the MSM will be wooing Kennedy, maybe doing documentaries on him, to stroke his ego to try to get him to side with the more kook fringe liberal wing of the SCOTUS.

100 Mile Pants said...

Thanks for mentioning the Westminster Declaration. Since I told you about it I have had another 5-10 friends FB, e-mail or link to it positively. It's going to be a long few weeks till the election...

And we are still dealing with all the people speaking / linking positively to the attempt to get the dreadful (lyrically) "Delirious?" song "History Makers" to #1 in the UK charts for Easter. They only made #4 but once again it has given an opportuntiy for people to flaunt their lack of discernment. A song that promotes Wimber's "Power Evangelism" is whole heartedly supported by those who really should know better just because it is "Christian". UGH!

Last thing from across the pond, the fish story is a little off. The initial reports were via a very conservative UK paper that jumps on any opportunity to shout "Nanny State" and often with good reason. But as the story developed over the next few days it became clear that the arrest for selling a fish to a kid of 15 was similar to Al Capone being done for tax evasion. The shop was a disgrace and there were many issues of cruelty. They leaked their version to the press in advance.

Aaron said...

CR:

That's an interesting insight, one I hadn't thought of. The whole thing is a terrible shame because we could have had a very much right leaning court had we elected McCain.

I deal more with the liberal Judges on the District Court level and to some extent, the various appeals courts (for example, my job may be done differently in the ninth circuit vs. other circuits due to crazy decisions there). People really don't understand the extent to which Judges affect our lives.

All that being said, there is a growing number of people who seem to favor socialist policies. They don't realize their being scammed by used car salesman and unfortunately for all of us, we'll have to wait until they learn the hardway.

Moon said...

it's the chinese Spork! or Japanese..whatever....I've always wanted a spork ever since I saw one at geek.com

As for the iPad: I know myself well enough to know that anything that breaks can't fall on my hands...that's why I have a blackberry which I must've dropped about 5,000 times now and is as good as new by God's grace of course...

On: Om Nom Nom...at least it's high in proteins...with the chicken and bacon and swiss cheese and all that...seriously i wouldn't eat that...I love my heart and arteries too much..

DJP said...

Ditto for me and my iPhone. The irony is that I never dropped it much until I got this particular expensive holder that goes on the belt. Terrible. Didn't like it, and drop drop drop. Sold it.

Now have a cheap $9-10 holder, and virtually never drop it.

Aaron said...

Dan:

I originally had the Naked Case 2 which is a clear acrylic case that is practically indestructible. It's pretty nice. I dropped my phone several times without anything happening to the phone. Then I decided to try the Barely There Case. Wow. Now I just take a lot better care of my phone because I like a case that is...well, barely there.

CR said...

Yup, Sir Aaron, we could have had a more constitutional leaning court and they do affect our lives as you noted. Think about it (if Ginsburg retires), President Obama would have appoint three Supreme Court nominess. Three! That doesn't happen often. Reagan was able to appoint three and two of them duds (O'Connor and Kennedy)!! You think Obama will make the same mistake? Heck no! That's the one thing that really ticks me off about Republicans, they don't do their homework. George Bush Sr. appointed Souter. Thank goodness W didn't make similar stupid mistakes as his predecessors!!

If I were a Republican I filibuster every single judicial nominee and vote down a nominee. Yes, elections have consequences, but not just in the Presidency, the Senate, also.

Shaun Marksbury said...

If I have a working replica of the Star Trek PADD, does that count as having an iPad? Those things are indestructible!