Hither and thither 5/20/11

Welcome to a very animated H&T.

• Here you go — and, as you read just remember: whoever you are, wherever you are, I'm watching you. Always... watching...

• Mother themes continue here and there, even well after Mother's Day. Phil and I found some Spurgeon very worth sharing. For instance: "A man with a soul so dead as not to be moved by the sacred name of 'mother' is creation's blot."
• Every time I click on Jollyblogger's site (at least once a day) and see that David Wayne hasn't blogged, my concern for him deepens. His health news in late March frames his silence in my mind. I've tried contacting him variously by electronic and telephonic means, without success. Do keep him in your prayers. He's a good brother, a servant of Christ, a preacher of the Gospel.
• Zachary West pointed me to a story of a man accused of stealing some $10,000 worth of Legos. Yikes.
• A decade after the Netherlands created homosexual "marriage," how do family issues fare? William C. Duncan says that "gay marriages are relatively rare, marriage rates are down, divorce rates are stable, and the out-of-wedlock birthrate is continuing to climb."
• L, I B — someone made a projector (almost) completely out of Legos.
• Several (notably Fred) pointed to a hysterical video of a kitten and a scary, scary... tennis ball. (The music is perfect.)
• For my other readers, here's a pretty great dog video. (Thx Dawn Lewis)
• Julie found some office workers with far too much time on their hands:

• Hey Phil — can Wrigley do this?

• We could do an entire riff on how being good at one thing has nothing to do with being good at another. For instance, John Cleese was a very funny comic actor... who knows nothing whatever about Christ. Stephen Hawking is a widely-regarded physicist... which earns him zero credibility on the reality of God and heaven. N. T. Wright is famed for his studies in Second Temple Judaism... which in no way qualifies him to comment on the execution of bin Laden. Harold Egbert Camping earned a B. S. in Civil Engineering... which gives him zilch qualifications as a Bible teacher. I could go on and on. (Thx Joel Griffith, David Elliott.) 
• And now, in another bit of that literary beauty in which H&T specializes — it brings a tear to the eyes — we come full circle and have N. T. Wright criticizing Stephen Hawking for not knowing what he's talking about. Snif! Hankie!
• Again on Hawking, while Kirk Cameron (like all of us) may not be able to match IQs, he's wiser than Hawking in that he knows the difference between bald assertion and proof.
• All of that to say: "A man's got to know his limitations" (Det. Harry Callahan). Stick to what you know.
• Squirrel offers some very good observations and perspectives about Camping.
• It's even worse, actually. Dear, esteemed friend Mark Ostby pointed out to me that Camping's people took out a full-page ad in USA TODAY, in which the argument is advanced that those who affirm that the incarnate Christ did not know the hour of His return are committing the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. I am not kidding. Basis? "Son" is not capitalized in Greek. So, on the basis of that kind of exegesis, 99.99% of all professing Christians through all time are going to Hell, because Harold Camping (alone) says so. I. Am. Not. Kidding.
• (And just in case you didn't know, "Son" is never capitalized in the Greek manuscripts in any distinguishing way... nor is any other word.)
• Philosophical question: if raised-pinkie bloggers don't notice something, did it actually happen?
• A must-have:

• Professor Jim Hamilton certainly knows his Bible, and offers a helpful and thought-provoking post on how we should order the books in the Hebrew OT. Jim argues that we should follow the tradition of the Jews rather than the English tradition. Our tradition is literary (law, history, poetry, prophecy), and makes sense. Hamilton is like Sailhamer and a growing consensus in seeing the very order of the OT books as theologically significant.
• Important Safety Tip: be very careful when you conduct Mentos experiments:

• Byron York did an interesting profile of an interesting man: Herman Cain. None of the candidates "lights me up" at this point, but I do like that Cain has actual experience running things, fixing them and making them work. I also like his plain talk. That he did not have a pre-set "solution" on Afghanistan in itself doesn't bother me — but it was a gaffe. He should have been ready to say in effect, "Without knowing the classified information reserved for the CiC, I might make foolish and harmful statements such as candidate Obama made, which I would later have to eat, as he has. However, I can tell you that my philosophy and policy towards such engagements is _____." What concerns me more is the fact that the Presidency is not a good entry position; one doesn't want to know going in that there will be need for massive on-the-job training.
• On Gingrich, I'm with Russell Fuhrman, as well as Bill Bennett and others. See, here's the thing: it isn't that Newt has this one really bad idea, which he shared with the MSM. It's that Newt loves Newt, and Newt loves Newt's mouth, and Newt loves running Newt's mouth in ways that attract attention and awe. And as long as he's in the spotlight, he'll just do that. It's all about how he sees himself and is seen. He has no message-discipline, no focus on a larger goal. He is the larger goal. Baggage and braggage. No thanks. Next!
• Amazing what a blind spot Hugh Hewitt has for Mitt Romney.
• By contrast, Ronald Brownstein has a somewhat more clear-eyed discussion of Romney's "evangelical problem."  My problem with the article is its apparent assumption that being an evangelical means support from evangelicals. I never was for Huckabee, because he was too big-government, and his religious statements were foolish. That Romney adheres to a bizarre cult is a minus to me, but the deal-killer is the fact that he's never held office as a conservative, and I don't believe his "Des Moines Road" conversion.
• San Francisco "logic": abortion? No problem! Circumcision? No no no! (Thx Robert Sakovich)
• Did you know that Paul Ryan wants to push your grandmother off a cliff? It's true! I saw it in a video!
• The scary thing is that people spent money to make that piece of inanity, and there are actually people who will believe it.
• And that just makes me sad.

• Everybody knows about Al Mohler going after Harold Camping. I guess. But I prefer reading our beloved Trogdor on the subject. After all, Mohler would never start his essay on the befuddled near-nonagenarian by saying "a punk named Harold Camping is shooting his big mouth off about how the Bible supposedly guarantees that judgment day will be May 21." Stylistically, that's chow-de-dow.
• Another installment of Coffee As A Health Food.
• Reader Sue found the Mona Bacon; and she and Marla Beale found van Gogh's Bacony Night.
• Then there's this, from Pilgrim Mommy: candied bacon ice cream! Om nom nom!
• And if you find yourself staggering about in a bacon-induced haze, and you fall and hurt yourself, Martin Pitcher knows just the thing at Amazon.
• Hmmm, Amazon... say, is that the site that's accepting pre-orders for...?
• So, back to baco-genic injuries: if it's your honey who's injured, nothing says "Get well soon" like a lovely bouquet of bacon roses. (Thx Kirby Johnson)

• I don't think you have to have cared a fig about the "royal wedding" to appreciate this cartoon/photo pairing that Julie found for us:

• Your Tax Dollars At Work Alert: the government's CDC has issued a paper on preparing for a Zombie Apocalypse. I am not kidding. (Thx Robert Sakovich and Chris Carney)
• Well, it's easy to see why we can't cut spending. Everything is essential!
• Oh, and still on that subject (zombies), Chris Carney already has his Zombomobile all picked out:

• Name the two deadly sins on display here:

• Am I the only one who sees irony in this? There's a woman in Scotland who thinks she's a pastor of some kind ("Rev Canon Dr"). But she's disappointed because the electoral synod appointed a man as Bishop, instead of her. She'd had her heart set on becoming their first woman Bishop. So here's the irony: God Himself says she cannot and may not be a pastor. Yet she insists that she is, in defiance of His express will. But this body of mere mortals says she cannot and may not be their "bishop" at this time — and she submits to their will? Why not just proclaim herself the first female Bishop, and be done with it? See: irony.
• ...and reader William Dicks found a copy of the book that explains all about women:

• ...volume I, anyway.
• Now I'm Really Worried Alert. A general tells us that China is no match for the US military. A Chinese general tells us this. (Thx John)
• Dear wife and I have often marveled at the fact that Star Trek tricorders apparently can do anything. Now there's going to be a contest to develop a real-life tricorder, with a $10 million prize.
• And in conclusion: what's that sound on the stairs? Oh, don't worry. It's probably nothing.

• Bringing up these parting thoughts.

THE USUALS WILL BE OBSERVED