- This blog isn't one of the Big Boys. And maybe yours is even smaller. But don't forget: it isn't the size, it's the 'tude.
- Right at the top: DO NOT MISS Frank Turk's absolutely lovely, stirring reflection on Christ and the event of His birth, "the moment that the world was made for." In an "evangelical" blogiverse where what should matter does matter, this post would be linked and re-linked a dozen, two, three dozen times or more.
- Staying with thoughtful essays, Denny Burk points to an absolutely brilliant essay by Rod Dreher on a recent sort of wannabe "spiritual bio" written by Supreme Court associate justice Stephen Breyer's daughter Chloe, an Episcopalian "priest." It is dead-on accurate and instructive; one however feels an ongoing sadness that Dreher himself, in targeting Breyer's preaching of a false Gospel, himself advocates for an institution devoted to the preaching of another false Gospel.
- In book-related news, I just had a terrific time chatting with Chris Rosebrough on Pirate Radio about The World-Tilting Gospel — and a bunch of things.
- Both books continue to do well on the year-end lists of folks who've read them, like our Fred Butler.
- Jared Moore also interviewed me on SBC Voices about the state of evangelicalism, and about both books.
- If you're keeping score at home, Mitt Romney has flipped again. This time on Iraq. What next?
- Ooh. Vertigo much?
- Angie found us an amazing set of Lego reproductions of the Lord of the Rings. (Can't vouch for text, only looked at pix.)
- In less happy Lego-related news, however, Robert Sakovich noticed a mother who's ticked off at the new Legos for girls. Why? Read the article. Special bonus for TWTG readers: what do you flash on when you read the Editor's Note?
- Randy Talley tells me he's a better person for seeing this; and now, we can all be better people, too.
- So when you hear Michelle Obama say, in so many words, that she puts herself at the top of her priority-list, are you (A) Very surprised, (B) Somewhat surprised, (C) Not at all surprised, or (D) Amazed that this could be news to anyone?
- And when you hear (in that same clip) that her husband is happy enough when Michelle is "not as mad at" him — same questions.
- And when you hear Michelle's husband say he has no pet peeves about her, and then hear Michelle say that her list of pet peeves is "too long" to relate — same questions.
- Bonus round for historians: has there ever been an angrier First Lady with a bigger chip on her shoulder?
- (If I could do PhotoShop, I'd do one of Hillary and Bill saying "Miss us yet?")
- Uh-oh. I was just emailed this:
- From the author of Death Panels to the Death Star:
- Idle kids? Set them to making Star Wars snow-flakes. They're really pretty wonderful.
- Susan points us to 25 creative ideas to make (some aspect of) life easier. I bet you'll see at least one that will move to you say, "Oh, huh... yeah!"
- Just... oh, dear. Twelve actual sermons that use sci-fi. No, I can't bring myself to watch any. Not yet, anyway.
- WOW. In time for a late Christmas gift, Paula directed me to a veritable Bacon-palooza. I mean, dude: bacon chocolate peanut brittle, bacon toothpicks, bacon maple bar cake, baconnaise, bacon peanut butter cups, bacon moon pie... dang, I'm hungry.
- Again wow, but in a different way. I doubt my BSIL will soon forget our first serious conversation when he took an interest in my daughter. She was and is, after all, my DAOD, and I was going to make it count. And I think I did, poor lad. That he hung in there afterwards spoke well of him. But I say that to say this: it could have been even just a tad more intense! Now you fathers of D's have some more arrows in your quivers.
- Of course, nothing can completely replace the classic 10 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter.
- A brief, passing burst of sanity. In a court. In a California court. Upholding the right of a Lutheran preschool to fire an employee for "shacking up." Enjoy it.
- Instead of visions of sugar plums, here's what's haunting FedEx exec's dreams these days:
- Here's a little more info, from FedEx.
- Here's my FedEx story. Valerie had just returned from the hospital some years ago. I got her home, got her in bed and settled, and she just needed to rest quietly. Kids were at grandparents. So I wrote a note, saying in large plain print something like "DO NOT RING doorbell! Knock quietly." I taped the note over the doorbell, with the word NOT positioned right over the bell. The note completely covered the doorbell.
- You know what happened next. The doorbell rang! Furious, I stormed over to the door and snatched it open, only to see a FedEx driver give me a cheery wave, hope into his truck, and drive off. In other words, he had to push the note that said DO NOT RING, in order to ring the doorbell! I called FedEx, got the manager, and he apologized, saying, "Yeah, that driver is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you know what I mean." Yeah, no kidding. That's... dude, that's just KJV-Only level of stupidity.
- And, in a very slick segue...
- Ooh, this is cool:
- Mmm. Quest for the perfect food may be over. My Food Looks... Scrumptious!
- Well, if it isn't that, it may be Marla Beale's find in a post titled If I die a Bacon-related death, I'll blame you. It does look delicious. Maybe add some olives, onions, guacamole...?
- The Headline of the Week is not a joke: 12 Members Of Breakaway Amish Group Charged In Beard-Cutting Attacks. What's more, the rogue barbers are charged with Federal "hate crimes." Wait, I'm not even done. The ringleader's name is Samuel Mullet. Again, I kid you not.
- Whoa. Durable pen. Too bad we don't know the make. You know, stocking-stuffer.
- Yeah, sorry.
- So Sam Knisely found a seasonal article claiming that an ancient document sheds light on the Magi. This is where the doctrines of inspiration and sufficiency comes into play. Evangelicals have shifted to trying hard to find this and that historical detail to explain the text, effectively forgetting that it is the text that is inspired, not the event. The text gives us what we need to know.
- Jared Compton over at the DBTS blog has a more edifying and helpful essay on the Magi's star.
- Christopher Carney notes that there actually are school textbooks worse than ours. They're in Saudi Arabia, thanks to "the religion of peace."
- Relatedly, Robert Sakovich found an essay and photo essay concerning the persecution of Christians in Pakistan by the Muslim majority.
- I leave you with this thought: our coming robot overlords are now working on agility.
- ...and these:
THE USUALS WILL BE OBSERVED
Posts
20 comments:
The article on the ancient text on the Magi says:
"The wise men are described a[s] descendants of Seth, the third son of Adam."
Given that every male but Noah and his three sons were wiped out in the flood, everyone is descended from Seth (and Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, etc).
A Merry and Blessed Christmas Time to All My fellow CalvieDispieBaptogelicals!(and even those who are a little less Calvi/Dispie)
Your FED EX story is a neat little picture of what happened in Eden. isn't it?
God made it CLEAR that If you(Adam) eat from the fruit of that tree, in the day you eat, you WILL DIE.
What did Eve, and Adam do? The EXACT thing God said NOT TO DO.
What you did was post a written stipulation that provoked the flesh to action, DJP.
Note to self:(Be sure to hang out at Pirate Radio this weekend!)
Bacon-palooza. Lol. Can you point us to some NITRITE-FREE?
Magi document. It must be a Christian holiday season. You know, nobody seems to find new Quranic documents around Ramadan, questioning Islam.
Seacrest Out.
Okay, this is too weird:
1. I'm the first one to post a comment.
2. I was mentioned in H&T two weeks in a row.
Next time I'll try to get quoted for something theologically deep and relevant! Or maybe the time after that instead.
Happy Friday and may the Lord's blessings be abundant and evident for you and yours this Christmas!
Then again, maybe I'm not the first today... forgot about the screening process.
There is a downside to getting old, but I can't remember what it is.
Pierre, first laugh of the day. So we should envision this poor delivery man as later writing, "I should not have known bell-ringing had not the note said 'Thou shalt not ring!'"
:^D
Kudos to FedEx for handling their messes and doing so without humiliating anybody unnecessarily.
Susan, THANK YOU for getting that link to Dan...I'm sure we'll be putting some of those to use!
The Saudi textbooks come as no surprise, as does the response. I'm not expecting much to change.
The comments to the Magi document article are really telling. So many God-haters out there...
Merry Christmas to all...may we all enjoy celebrating God humbling Himself and becoming human in order to redeem us from our sin!
wv: crowin
Under that article about the hand-wringing leftist art director complaining about feminine Legos, I left the following comment:
The editor's note says: "She and her husband are committed to encouraging and supporting their daughter and both of their sons to follow their hearts and be true to themselves."
I don't believe this statement, and would even say it is a lie. In fact, I bet you right now you do not practice this philosophy at all. Being the "culturally sensitive" individuals you claim to be, you make your children eat vegetables instead of following their hearts of only eating mac and cheese and gummy lifesavors. And, I can say right now with certainty, if one of your children is to come home one day from highchool to tell you he or she has been attending an evangelical Bible club, has given his or her life to Jesus Christ, and I now believes homosexuality is a sin, there will be much wailing and gnashing of parental teeth and all of this commitment to encouraging them to "follow their hearts and be true to themselves" will go out the window.
The Grasshopper boys are counting the days until LOTR Lego sets are available. Because we really need more Legos.
@Fred - you nailed it, in your comment to the writer of the "Macho Legos" article. Tolerance is a one way street. Sheesh. But those poor kids...
Wow. I thought textbooks were bad here... yikes. "Here's how to cut off the hand of a thief."
And on that happy note,
Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth
peace to men
on whom His favor rests.
Merry Christmas, Julie
First things first: Merry Christmas to Dan, Family Of Dan, Friends Of Dan, and dear Brothers and Sisters!
"Vertigo" mtn biking vid: before children, hubs and I did a lot of mtn biking on lovely single track through forested mountainsides. But I watched that video and kept catching myself leaning hard to the left in my chair. GAAAHHH!!!
Michelle Obama's priorities: Women get told all day, every day (by the world) to take care of ourselves, treat ourselves, give ourselves breaks, because "we're worth it." No surprise that she soaks up this advice.
Printing and framing the dating rules (both sets).
CA court ruling: stopped clocks are right, too...twice a day.
Bacon Related Death page - use caution in reading the text. And I felt my arteries clog a bit more just looking at the photos. :)
Dan - thanks for another enjoyable H&T. Christmas Joy To YOU!!
So, on that mountainside trail...what happens when you meet someone coming your way?? It was a little unnerving.
Another way to make your life easier - I put nice white rain gutters (with end caps) up in my son's room for bookshelves. It was lovely because all of the covers were visible and it was one less thing on the floor to vacuum around.
I think I will be spending this afternoon making snowflakes.
Haven't gotten thru a fraction of the wonderful offerings yet, it will take the rest of the weekend- thanks Dan :o). Just had to say I find it amazing that someone would take one look at that teeny-tiny, barely-clinging-to-the-hill path and say "Hey, I've got an idea, let's ride our bikes here!" Scary.
Have a blessed, safe and very Merry Christmas everyone!
I LOVE the continental chicken.
But I feel sorry for the rottie who was rebuked after being in perfect play position/invitation. Oh well, we're all misunderstood at one time or another.
Any Obama reference makes the GOP candidates look better and better to me even though he is the fourth best POTUS evah. No wonder I so often pray Ps. 109:8.
On that note, Merry Christmas to you Dan, I learn a lot from you, all of it very good. Blessings to you and your family and all your readers, who I also learn much from.
Oh come, oh come Emmanuel!
Yes, poor Rottie, being scared by a little fluffball about 1/5 the mass of its head.
;^P
1. Okay, I just started to read the "Lego outrage" article when I got to this paragraph:
Are current Legos products gender-neutral? Heck NO! It's all guy ... from "Star Wars" and "Cars" to Ninjas. Even the neutral-sounding "City" line is mostly full of cars, fire engines and planes. Most of the 'mini-fig' characters that come with playsets are male. Pure macho stuff, hardly gender neutral.
Okay, so the problem isn't just little male figurines but also "Star Wars", "Cars", ninjas, fire engines, and planes?? Excuse me, but one of my favorite toys as a child was a remotely-controlled helicopter. I would run around and follow it while it flew because it was so fun. That's a male toy? Says who??
And there are plenty of "Star Wars" fans out there who are women.
...
Okay, I just finished the article. What a mess. :(
2. Robert, you're most welcome. I have my friends to thank for that link. :) Aren't those ideas great??
3. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!
Susan :)
(Oops, I've been corrected--my toy was a plane, not a helicopter. Sorry.)
Dan, that dreaded Napoleon Complex. ;-)
The big dogs don't seem to have clue about size. But those little ones do.
The Rottie needs the Cone of Shame for not taking advantage of a tasty snack.
Oh!
Go little ketteh!
Merry Christmas to all!
Ok...I'm sorry, but those lego objectors don't love their kids. You don't let your son dress up as a princess. Period. If you love your son you teach him to be a man.
BTW, you see the UPS clip where the UPS driver tosses a package and flips off the security camera? Although, I honestly think UPS delivery personnel are better than the FedEx ones.
Post a Comment