Hither and thither 1/7/11

First, if you haven't already, go play Pick the Cover.

Here we are with the first Hither and Thither of the new year. Thanks for your faithful reading in 2010; here we go again! The usuals apply.

• It was a week of answered prayer, wasn't it? Long-timers will recall the Lament for America after the catastrophic national election of 2008, and the series of posts doing some serious theologizing and strategerizing (beginning here). In the third of those posts, I called us to repentance, prayer, preparation, and work. I reminded everyone that the authority in America is the Constitution, not the president. And in that light, I called for peaceful, lawful resistance to every evil thing Obama meant to do to this country.
• And what did we see this week? For the first time ever, the Congress opened (against the shrieks and whines of Democrats) with the reading of the Constitution, and the beginning of a Congress devoted to resisting many of the harmful things Obama has begun to do to this country. This is an answer to prayer, it is mercy tempered with justice. The House will try, but the Senate will resist. And so Americans will once again be presented with a clear picture, and a clear choice. What will they do with it? Time — specifically, 2012 — will tell.
• As to the reading: per usual, the Dem snarked at anything they could find, and the GOP showed one-sided graciousness, such as assigning the reading of the Thirteenth Amendment to John Lewis. What is interesting to note, though, is that not all even agree on the text of the Constitution. You'd think they would settle that one.

• Senate Dems, meanwhile, are trying to make it easier to steamroll bad legislation past the minority.
• As to Obama, good thing for him the press continues to adore him so, or else....
• Now more things to make you stand up and take notice.

• Now we turn with some beauty, thanks to Julie Garrett's find of pictures from space.
• Sorry sorry sorry, I know I'm terrible, but... LOL.
• Some things change and some, sadly, do not. For instance, Islam. What happens when a seventeen-year-old girl born into an Islamic family turns from the death-cult to Christ? The parents torture her, then someone (on their behest?) murders her.
• Reason to fear the Federal Government? Here is a list of top ten anti-Christian acts in America from 2010.
• Amazingly, Obama and the supposedly non-partisan CBO are trying to position Obamacare as a money-saver, so that its repeal would raise the deficit. No shame.
• Um, I don't remember asking for a side of Jihad with my Big Mac. (Warning: language.)
• Meanwhile, reader Charlie Eldred observed that the judicial laughing-stock known as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled a war memorial cross un-Constitutional.
• Read between the lines of this biased report, and we may have yet another reason to like (and respect) Chick-Fil-A.
• Reader John found a very funny British sketch: my Blackberry is not working.
• John also pointed me to Canada's creative approach to speed reduction.

 

• This is cool. Reader Fred Butler set me looking for converted bumper cars, which were street-legal for awhile, until the DMV revoked their registration.

• Another suggestion from Fred led me to learn about Stan Munro, who builds famous landmarks out of millions of toothpicks. His Toothpick City took six years, six million toothpicks and over 5700 ounces of glue.
• Say, any of you heard of this Swiss-Serbian Christian singer named Vlada? I happened to catch part of a piece on him on the radio; the music is what caught me: funky, jazzy, complex. Check it out. I may just have to get that album.
• You've probably seen part of this, but perhaps not all: a photographer from The Columbus Dispatch happed to record a homeless man with a sad story, a sad smile, and a golden voice. Next? Ted Williams (53, but looking more like 63) got a nice little profile on CBS News, and then he was reunited with his 90-year-old mother (better video here). Williams already has a Kraft Macaroni and Cheese contract, and other offers as well.
• My thoughts? I don't know enough. The image of homeless folks as noble souls down on their luck has long been wiped from my mind. One of my bitter pastoral experiences was sticking my neck out for a sob-story, and getting burned. I notice Williams didn't get his mother's age right. I notice that once he said he was two years sober, once two and a half years. So I think, Hope his employers get a full tox screen. He talk a lot about "God" and "spirituality," but also takes God's name in vain a number of times. Every street hustler I've encountered says "God bless you," and talks nice. All I'm saying is that I notice things things, and wonder. But I hope it's as good as it looks, I hope Williams is (or becomes) a young brother in Christ and gets himself settled in a good church, I hope this is the start of wonderful things in his life. I just wasn't born yesterday, is all.
• And notice, any way you slice it: none of this had one thing to do with one government program.
• See? Now we're getting somewhere!

• I've had a new feature in mind for some time, and now roll it out: Headline Corrections. It's where I take a headline as it is, and "correct" it to what it should be. For instance, the headline Specter leaves Senate without any regrets should be Specter thrown out of Senate without learning anything from his idiocies. Pretty sure this will be a frequent feature.
• You already knew this, but a Facebook "friend" isn't necessarily the same thing as a real friend. Sad story.
• Then there's....