Justin and Challies: just kinda funny

Both those good brothers — Justin and Challies — are all (as) excited (as they get) because The Driscoll told Francis Chan that everyone thought he was nuts. Gasp!

If only someone had taken a cold hard look at Chan's announcement before now!

Like... oh, I don't know... four months ago? And again from a different angle? And again?

Just sayin'.

Yours faithfully,
DJ "Cassandra" P

Monday music: "Guitar Boogie," Tommy Emmanuel

Close your eyes and tell me how many guitarists are playing. Amazing performance.

(Thanks, reader Kurt Kroeker, for the tip)

Hither and thither 8/27/10

Here's what I've got for your weekend enjoyment, friends.

Note: I've a very full day, so you may need to be patient about comment moderation. But do comment! It tells me you're out there having fun (or gnashing your teeth with me).

• Giving "magnetic personality" a whole different meaning. (Think she's ever heard that one? Unh.)
• Another reason every Christian should re-think, if he's registered as a Democrat. In the course of an article reader Aaron pointed me to (about abortion laws in Virginia), this sentence: a legal opinion restricting abortion "had no hope of passing because the Legislature is split -- Republicans control the House while Democrats control the Senate." No further explanation is offered because none is needed: the writer knows, his editor knows, what everyone knows: the Democratic party would oppose any restriction on the practice of slaughtering children for being inconvenient, imperfect, or ill-parented.  Period.
• Hm. Think they have a special for BibChr/HT readers?

• Staying with the noms, reader Barbara found this terrific cake for the young, restless, reformed, and hungry:

• Always health-conscious, Fred Butler points us to a yummy breakfast treat.
• I'll say it again: I like this guy. Don't know his position on everything, but boy does he know how to lead, and how to communicate.
• Jim Wallis apologized... but don't get too excited. He didn't apologize for his wretched teaching or activities in giving cover to the worst elements in our nation. Just for saying Olasky lies for a living.
• Next time They say they just can't find a way to cut spending, point to the US Ambassador's Fund. My dear and longtime friend Tom Lusby brought this to my attention. You'll see hundreds and hundreds of thousands of our dollars going to such projects as restoring foreign sultan's palaces, documenting pygmy music, restoring a minaret and a castle, and on and on. A maz ing.
• In related news... oh, my gosh.
• Encouraging news, though: a dim light appears to be flickering to life in the voters' skulls.
• Just don't look at any of the ads: these are some amazing wool sculptures of celebrities.

• Dude. Seriously. Do not mess with these penguins.

• Laura Kelleher points us to an Episcopalian (!) private school in Texas who excluded the child of two sexually-perverted women pretending to be married. Wonder how long that will remain legal.
• So where do we look for depth of moral, philosophical reasoning? Why, Hollywood, of course. For instance, resident sage Brad Pitt is reconsidering his opposition to justice for murder victims (i.e. the death penalty). Why? Bible reading? No; a doco by Spike Lee, somehow. Who would Pitt execute? Murderers? Well, no, they're still okay. Pitt might pull the lever on the execs who spilled a bunch of oil into the ocean -- which oil, by the way, quickly disappeared.
• Someone should show Pitt a doco about abortion.
• Then there are couples -- and, worse, singles; or non-married/marriageable couples -- who indulge in artificial insemination from sperm donors. An article Aaron sent me focuses on the cryo-kids' perspectives. My own thoughts might be pretty controversial, I think, even here. Let's just say I think it's a bad idea, all around.
• In other news: I need me one of these.

• Funnest bit of golf I've ever watched. Very relative statement....but still, it's fun.
• Kerry Garrett found some parents eager to get their child into Legos young.

• Well, The King's College in New York has jumped the shark. You can read a few remarks from Carl Trueman, who doesn't seem as mournful as I would be that Francis Beckwith found his words about Rome motivational to his own apostasy.
• Or have they? Is D'Souza a Romanist, as reported? That may be uncertain, but what is certain is that he is (A) doctrinally seriously messed-up, and (B) crystal-unclear on the Gospel, if only judging by the quotations in the third, fourth and fifth paragraphs on this page. [Link fixed.] Saying you're kind of Roman Catholic, kind of Reformed, kind of evangelical is not the same as saying you're an American of Indian heritage.
• Last comment: want a measure of what a mess D'Souza is? Even Francis Beckwith says he's a mess. QED.
• Is the Obama IRS leaning on a pro-Israel organization whose policies don't line up with those of The One? Not hard to believe. (Thanks to Chris for link.)
• "Duh" title of the week: Marines don't want to share rooms with other men obsessed with having sex with other men: general. Okay, I may have tweaked that title a tad.
• Provide your own caption.

• Fred Butler tells us that if we just give him a couple of minutes, he'll fold this right up for us.
• Hunh. You'd think a guy would notice this.
• Okay, I guess not all guys.
• Glad I've got my own car; not so big on public transportation.

Twitter tactics

I still don't exactly "get" Twitter.

Over the months, I've amassed... let's see... 308 "followers." In not much more time, Turk has over 1000. And, as you'd expect, Phil has, let's see...1,024,375,918,327. Totally figures.

Now, I'm "following" 28, and Turk's "following" 89. Again, figures. He's such a follower. (Phil, of course, follows no man.)

I've noticed recently that some people with huge followership have "followed" me... several times. Same person, adding me, 2, 3, 4 times.

I wonder if that's a tactic. Is the theory that the more you follow, the more will follow you back? So when it doesn't work with me, they just re-follow me, in the hopes that I'll reciprocate and up their followership?

Weird world.

Trogdor is Trogdorizing

Some of my stand-out favorite comments here and at Pyro have been made by one Trogdor. He doesn't comment often, but when he does, he makes it count.

As with his comments, so with his posts at his blog: infrequent. In fact, he did one post on his daughter's birth back in May, and then essentially "went black." Finally, his daughter passed a message along to daddy that he'd better get back to it. I'm glad she spoke up, because it produced two very nice little posts:

• For [some obscure figure] — wherein Trogdor notes that Justin Taylor opines that things are what they are... except in one particular area; and
• No true Scotsman would write a post like this — making short work of one particular atheist silliness

I mention these to you in the hopes that (A) you will profit by them, and (B) your visiting will encourage him to write more. 

In fact, I feel something analogous to God telling me to tell him that he should Trogdorize more faithfully.

Pilgrim's Progress study guide recommendations?

A missionary friend family is driving back to the States from, like, Australia or somewhere. They'd like an online Pilgrim's Progress study to work through as they do.

Anyone have a recommendation?

God as the refuge of His people

The imagery of the "refuge" in the OT is of a place to hide, to be safe from danger.

This picture makes me think of verses such as Psalm 18:2.

"The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, 

my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, 

my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold."

Or

Mightier than the thunders of many waters, 

mightier than the waves of the sea, 

the LORD on high is mighty!

(Psalm 93:4)

Then, if we turn the picture a different way, we might think of....

"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." (Matthew 7:24-27)

Monday music: "Bohemian Rhapsody," Austrian Mnozil Brass

I have so many great things on-tap that it's hard to choose where to go now. My natural next choice would have been a sweet jazz piece I found... but the Dear Wife isn't a jazz fan. So this is chosen with her in mind.

Continuing to uphold the fine BibChr legacy of bringing you the very eclecticest in musical entertainment, here is Bohemian Rhapsody, with the Austrian Mnozil Brass.

(Five words: Guy In The Red Shoes.)

Before you ask — I have no idea what the final 90 seconds or so is about. But it looks like they're having good, clean Teutonic fun.

Note: we're compiling so many versions that I've actually created a Bohemian Rhapsody tag.

Hither and thither 8/20/10

Got a good 'un for your weekend today, friends and neighbors. As usual, possible updates until noon PT. Now, let's launch! It's Friday!

• Kind of funny, in a dark way: psychic news. The "good" news: the psychic found a body. The "bad": it was the wrong body. Oopsie.
• Still, gotta say: more impressive that what modern wannabe's try to pass off as prophecy or "word of whatever" (e.g. "The Lord is touching someone with a backache....")
• Square circles...er, Thin fat people... er, Dry water.... er, Up down... no no no: "Gay" marriage update: the good news is that the insanity has been stayed; the bad news is that it has been stayed so the 9th Circuit could review it — and they're seriously nuts. (For instance, they just discovered a right to lie.)
• On that same subject, I think Robert Knight (in distinction to a surprising number of Christians and otherwise-conservatives) takes the issue appropriately seriously, sees some of the ramifications, and suggests a course of action. Needs more thought and detail, but at least he's trying.

• Nationally and politically, a bit of help may be on the way. Michael Barone surveys polls and analyses suggesting that House Dems may be heading for the worse (for them; good for us) election in over sixty years. Further, Mark Hemingway notes a poll that usually under-represents the GOP which shows a seven-point generic-ballot lead for the GOP. So, many analysts are having to revise GOP Senatorial prospects 'way up. They're calling it an "anti-incumbent mood," but I think that's off. Even our own Barbara Boxer is struggling; while I don't love the phrase "Senator Carly Fiorina," I do love me some "ex-Senator Barbara Boxer."
• To try to offset this, the MSM wing of the DNC will keep talking about "mood" and "anti-incumbency," and will minimize the issues driving the Dems' fading hopes. They will back any plan the DNC throws, including their preference for personal attacks over discussion of issues. (I expect this from Boxer, who first won her office by personal attacks on the infinitely-more-qualified Bruce Herschensohn.)

• Irony Can Be Pretty Ironic Alert: remember how Obama has blamed Bush for everything, how his supporters say Bush ruined America, created terrorists, made our enemies hate us worse, called him "Chimpy McBushHitler"? Funny thing, life. Now folks from that same crowd wants Bush to come back and save their waffling messiah, by weighing in to support the mosque at Ground Zero. Suddenly Bush is credible to them.
• But Bush shouldn't. It is not for nothing that Limbaugh calls it the "Hamasque."  It's become a cause-celebre for some liberals to strike their pose of (faux) tolerance. Nancy Pelosi gives a peek the real, ugly face of liberalism, as she calls for "looking into" (!) the funding of Hamasque critics.
• Just 'twixt you and me, my fear is that Bush will do it. He always had a soft spot for granting misplaced assists to America's domestic enemies.

• Don't forget, by the way, that Imam Rauf, immediately after 9/11, partially blamed America for the murderous attack, calling it an "accomplice," and saying bin Laden was "made in the USA." But he wants us to think this mosque is all about peace and reconciliation and wonderfulness. Riiight.
• Similarly: some cartoons make you laugh, some make you think. This one makes a point, and makes my heart hurt. (Thanks for the link, Al.)
• "Be productive! Save!" says the 0 administration. And if you do? They'll tax you more. Brilliant. Like spanking your kid for earning an A. Brilliant, brilliant. Gotta go to Harvard to think like that.
• Here's another reason why people who love Palin, love Palin. It started when Emily's List, an organization dedicated to painting all women as bloodthirsty child-murderers above all things, started running these inane "Sarah doesn't speak for me." Palin Tweeted, "Who hijacked term:'feminist'? A cackle of rads who want 2 crucify other women w/whom they disagree on a singular issue; it's ironic (& passé)." Brilliant. And how do libs respond? By whining about Palin's use of the word "cackle." No, really, I'm not kidding. That woman is a dead-eye sharp-shooter.
• Oh, on Palin: remember how the elitists and O-bots sneered and squealed when she talked about "death camps"? Well, check this out. (Thanks for the tip, Fred.)
• Wow. If a "business owner" tried anything like this in America, he'd find out pretty quick who really owns his business. (Link thanks to Laura Kelleher.)
• The good news: "Science" says we all share a common mother. (Something about midichlorians, or something.) The bad news: they get everything else wrong.
• Another asinine court ruling sparked by dysangelistic atheists. Don't skip this: "First erected in 1998, monuments were paid for with private funds and erected only with the permission of the troopers' families." (Thanks for the lead, Aaron; and M-e-r-r-i-l-e-e sent me the same.)
• Now, here's a list that has my readers written all over it.
• Pizza... a health food? (Thanks to Berry Davis for the link.)
• I am pretty sure that this is not a health food. (Thanks to reader RandomCreativity for the tip.)
• A coworker pointed out this map of Australia. (Rupert can confirm accuracy.)

• Ever wonder how Jelly Belly comes up with its flavors? Wonder no more.
• Wow. Whoever rated Sacramento as one of America's most underrated cities definitely looks for something different than what I look for. Who did this list? Oh. Huffington Post. Never mind.
• And now, a Star Wars quadruple-header:
• SW fans will geek out at this life-sized TIE interceptor. 
• Reader Barbara found some very cool Star Wars cakes.
• Speaking of Star Wars (?), care to see some easily-pleased fans? Right here.
• Best of all: do you remember that fans had undertaken a project to redo all of Star Wars in 15-second segments? Well, it's completed. While they're working out legal issues, you can see one complete sequence (including an in-poor-taste bit, unfortunately), and the 50 favorite scenes (watch for Alfalfa, Sheriff Woody, Legos... and Wilhelm!).
• Score a victory for pro-life free speech in schools.
• So: government reeducation-camp students cheat in math competitions. The solution? Ban homeschoolers. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up.
• Goodness, what a horrible and dangerous time to have an inept, unqualified, clueless, God-defying president with misplaced loyalties. Exhibit A, and Exhibit B. If only those who inflicted him on the world received the consequences individually; but by their folly, the endangered a country, and the world. Which leads us to a....
• Nostalgic moment: remember when we had a president who even occasionally could handle numbers rationally?
• Ironically, a British writer nails it in ten reasons why the Obama presidency is tanking. The major quibble that leapt out to me, however, is with #1: " The Obama presidency is out of touch with the American people." I would say "openly contemptuous of." Our keepers know so much better than we what is good for us, why should they bother with the buzz of the hoi polloi?
• A church-worker in Durham, UK, is Twittering the Bible a chapter a day.
• Mainly for our beloved English Muffin. But you can look, too.
• Now let's get just plain graphical:

Breaking news: Jim Wallis shaky on the truth!

Okay, not so "breaking."
So who's George Soros' favorite pet religious tool? Might be LIBERAL Christian  Jim Wallis' LIBERAL Christian organization "Sojourners."

WORLD Magazine's Marvin Olasky noticed that Soros' organization OSI gave $200,000 to Sojourners in 2004, another $25,000 in 2006, and another $100,000 in 2007. Because of that, he challenged Wallis' claim to be non-partisan and above it all.

Confronted with this fact, Wallis of course did the Christian thing and admitted it. Oh, no, wait, that's wrong... Wallis did the LIBERAL Christian thing and called Olasky someone who lies for a living, just like Glenn Beck.

So Olasky dug deeper and, amid some oddly vanishing evidence, found the solid proof. (Read it before WORLD archives it.) Wallis backed down. I don't read, however, that he apologized.

Since WORLD pulls its articles from free circulation, let me provide the links that should stay:

National Review article on the Walllis cover-up
Foundation Center web site, which has Soros' organization's tax returns
OSI's 2004 tax return
OSI's 2006 tax return
OSI's 2007 tax return

Songs for aging rockers

(thanks to my dear wife)

One hysterical scholar; or, When academics throw hissy-fits

Author and scholar Dr. Ronald S. Hendel has let his membership lapse in the Society for Biblical Literature, and he wants everyone to know about it.

Why? What drove him out?

It always cracks me up when Hugh Hewitt gets a conspiracy theorist on his show, some feverish soul hinting around about a dark and malicious group who is engineering the course of history and the world's miseries.

Hewitt will cut and say "So Bob, Bob, Bob — is it The Jews?"  (Except he pronounces it, "da Jooooooooz.")

Well, Dr. Hendel calls himself a Jew, so those aren't his villains. In Hendel's case, one might say "So Ron, Ron, Ron — is it The Christians?"

Yep.

See, Dr. Hendel is a very religious man, worshiping a very narrow, specialized definition of Reason. In the good doctor's lexicon, "Reason" must exclude, or adopt a dismissive approach to, one certain category of evidence. Hendel does Schleirmacher proud in positing a rigid and vast chasm between faith and facts. One must begin with the assumption that "the religious" is unrelated to reality, unrelated to facts. Anyone not falling within Hendel's very narrow borders cannot be a real scholar, or at least not one fit for a platform in the SBL.

Not even octogenarian OT scholar Bruce Waltke, internationally-acclaimed author of a very solid Hebrew grammar and reams of articles and publications. Why is Waltke disqualified?

Well, Hendel doesn't put it this way, but Waltke is disqualified because he believes the texts they're supposed to be studying. To Dr. Hendel, belief is heresy.

Pause. Isn't that odd? Society for Biblical Literature — but you're only qualified to speak (according to R. Hendel) if you do not actually believe the Biblical Literature around which you've formed a Society.

Well, of course the doctor's woes go far beyond having to live with the shameful knowledge that Dr. Waltke (horrors!) believes the text he's writing about. No, worse still: there might be people there who care about Hendel's soul, and who try to express their faith.

No! No! Run away! Run away!

This leaves us with the irony that Dr. Hendel's narrow, doctrinaire nut-cases will sit and respectfully listen to his lectures and read his papers. But show them the same respect? Absurd! Ridiculous! Where's the door?

So Dr. Hendel takes his marbles and goes home, leaving the Society to (in his words) "creationists, snake-handlers and faith-healers."

That's right. You know.

Like Bruce Waltke.

Monday music: Maynard Ferguson playing... well....

How to follow up last week's surprising Ella Fitzgerald clip?

Ooh! I know!

Trumpeter and bandleader Maynard Ferguson performing, on the Mike Douglas show, for you....

Cheesiest. 
MM video. 
Ever.

Hither and thither 8/13/10

Wellsir, I've had far worse weeks, but it's been a busy one. Busy at work; my dear and irreplaceable wife had some minor dental surgery (went well, thank God), and I'm busier today than a one-eyed cat watching two mouse-holes. Haven't been able to review some of the longer, more detailed leads sent me, so they'll have to wait.

But in the meanwhile, I know how y'all look forward to this, and something's better than nothing, right? May be updates until noon PT, as usual.

• First, the timeless words, "Mom, why can't I get a job?" (I have a guess.)
• I love a happy ending:

• Physicist Stephen Hawking thinks that, if we don't take to the stars, we might become extinct (reader Chris Carney notes). I don't see how this could ever happen, unless (A) we develop FTL technology, or (B) we learn how to terraform, say, Mars. Regardless, Christians now that there is no chance that mankind will ever become extinct, as we know that Jesus Christ will return to a populated Earth.
• How many times have I linked to the Washington Post? This may make once: Anne Applebaum psychoanalyzes Tom Sawyer and his disorders, and provokes some thought.
• Uh... Phil?

• If  GOP candidate had said something like this, it might be a career-ender. For a Dem candidate? Résumé-enhancer.
• UPDATE: interesting. That guy's still in the race, but a Democrat congressman who piled on has (soft of) apologized — not to the Palins, of course — and resigned.  L, IB.
• ...and another entry on the List of Records You Don't Want to Hold.
• A Lego Dystopia.
• What a difference. 'Nuff said.
• Huge surprise, except for the not. Renegade judge Vaughn Walker decided not to undecide or delay his one-man decision to overturn the will of the citizenry (whose hearts he'd read), as well as how ever many millennia of foundational structure. "Review? I don't need no stinking review" Yeah, who could have seen that coming?
• Reader Andy Dollahite found us a series of high-quality color photographs of America from 1939-1943. I think I see some home-schoolers!
• Sigh. (Thanks, 3GD.)
• 201? Too bad:

• As I've probably said, I'm more of a Republitarian, on many issues. This list of no-no's just makes me think, "Who owns this business — me, or the government?"  That's how liberty is lost: inch by inch by inch....
• ...which, naturally, reminds one of the best job interview scene on TV, ever.
• I don't either, Paula:

• What do you think? Touchingly kind and commendable, or heart-stoppingly foolish? First, I thought the former. Then I reconsidered. What if something had gone wrong?
• Diss cats if you must, but at least they'll never do double-drive-bys.

• Pastor Kevin deYoung gives a good, thought-provoking list of things to consider and/or do in the light of the recent setback to California's Prop 8. Unfortunately (and predicatably) his meta quickly goes to Gehenna. I really don't understand good Christian writers who put out great material, then don't police meta's. Seems to me it'd be better to have no meta at all. One Dan's opinion.
• In related news: okay, now we know you can do it. But why?

• Berry Davis found some very talented folks with a whole lot of time on their hands. It's a Super Mario Music Battle. Not sure which I like best: probably the dual-guitar dude, though the drummer has mad skilz.
• Summer heat have your eyes a little dry?  I have an absolute sure cure. (Sorry about the lame BoM quotation at the end.)
• As you likely know, representatives of "The Religion of Peace" in Afghanistan brutally murdered and pillaged ten Christian medical aid workers. There is some silliness about whether or not they were Christians out loud, which (as Colin Hansen rightly observes) should have nothing to do with anything. Kudos to the New York Times for a slide-show honoring the martyrs.

• Hunh. So there's a guy running for governor in Florida named McGollum. Cool!
• Oh, wait. I misread. Never mind.
• Though it does bring to mind this whimsical blast from the past:

• Hey! We know someone who knows someone. Reader Merrilee Stevenson is friends with Peter Kerr and his wife.  Kerr is a Congressional candidate in Kentucky and, says Merilee, a good guy.
• You've heard of the city officials in Bell, CA, who are grossly overpaid? Of course. Now, out of over 300 MSM stories, how many do you think mentioned that they were Democrats? One hundred?  Nah. How about one? Dems, like the state attorney general who is investigating them.
• One less lying, deceptive, above-the-rules, fundamentally compromised individual in the military? Sounds like a "win" to me. Remember: this one didn't work out all that great.
• Culminating with this: