Hither and thither — 7/17/09

Nice and eclectic crop today. Let's go!

• First a serious note, if I may: please pray for me, as I've taken today and Monday off in hopes of pushing through to complete my book's first draft. I've been revising the whole again and again as I've written, and am now writing the last chapter. Then I fashion the whole together. I hope by Tuesday to have it essentially finished — well ahead of schedule, praise God.
• Of course, God uses the truths in my book in many lives. For that to happen, it has to fall into many hands. Hm. Do you think I have a chance of...?

• And now we combine a nod to our Lego-loving readers (or kids) and a nod to the fortieth anniversary of the moon landing (7/20/69).
  

• Here's a little something on The Men On the Moon. Weird, though, isn't it? If someone had asked you then (I was 13 and in Mammoth Lakes) where our space program would be in forty years, wouldn't you have guessed we'd have gone to a planet by now? At least? Weird.
• Along with that (perhaps particularly for you homeschooling moms) comes eleven little-known facts about the moon walk. Communion on the moon? Interesting... though the suggestion of apostasy afterwards is very sad.
  
• Perhaps my evil, cat-hating dog-lover readers will want to avail themselves of the bowlingual translator that Japan has produced. But does it only translate dog into Japanese? Looks like it.
• Dear wife, boys and I saw Half-Blood Prince Thursday night. Brief and spoiler-free: apart from one (unfortunately key) sequence whose changes completely, slack-jawedly baffle my wife and me, it is head and shoulders the best of the lot. Acting, camera-work, editing of the story, effects, sets — just a really good movie.
  
• At last! A simple breakdown of the Dems' health care plan. (h-t- my dear wife)
• Staying with movies: I once wrote about the Gospel in Spider-Man 3 — and how it wasn't there. Pastor Chris Anderson writes about the Gospel in the movie The Mission — and how it isn't there, either. Using the damning legalism of Roman Catholicism (which the movie features) as a counterpoint, Anderson points to the wonderful good news of God's grace in Jesus Christ.
  
• Will the "gas stations of the future" be guys in overalls sitting around with six-packs and specially-customized port-a-potties? Conceivably.
• Wow. This lady actually makes me look like a free-love-and-daisies libertarian on the subect of movie theater etiquette. I have a very firm list too, but it's a lot shorter — though she covers it. I'd be content if folks would just (1) stop using their cell phones once the lights dim (President Obama will wait; honest, he will); (2) whisper quietly (if at all) instead of talk; and deal intelligently and responsibly and thoughtfully with children. The rest is bearable.
  
• One of the great myths about abortion is that most men are anti-abortion, and most women are pro-abortion. That's why it has the false veneer of being a "woman's issue." The reality is the reverse: many men are pro-abort. The reasons are obvious, and they reflect very poorly on many members of my sex. Want to see it spelled out? Check this unveiling of a little bit of verbal sewage (which itself ostensibly was written by a woman, for "AskMen.com").
• I haven't said much (anything?) about the Obama birth certificate controversy... because I haven't had much to say. But this story is really interesting. It is about a U.S. Army Reserve major from Florida who refused to obey his orders to go to Afghanistan on the grounds that Obama has not established that he was born on American soil, and thus has no right to the Presidency. He took his case to court, and got a judge who was willing to pursue the matter seriously. Whereupon the Army cancelled his orders. Unprecedented? At the least, very, very interesting.

• ...in a strange development of the same issue, the Department of Defense then reportedly forced that same man's private-sector employer to fire him.
• Ouch. Except only that I would title it Christian Contemporary Music.

• Big-name guys were asked what one thing they'd change about John Calvin. Their answers are good (though I don't know enough to evaluate Wilson's). Given them, my no-name answer would be that he be more conscious of what he brought over uncritically from Roman Catholicism, and take pains to reform it as well.
• Staying with Calvin. If you want to — and I don't suggest that you should — you could go here to read about the lamest and most seemingly ignorant post griping about Calvinism that I can ever remember reading. Two factors make it particularly weird, though. First: the guy's a professor, a PhD (in theology!), and clearly feels he has a masterful grasp of the subject. But second: take the whole essay, change a word or two, and it reads like every hit-piece a smart-alecky pagan has ever written about Christianity and Christians. But it's passed off as a Christian critique of Calvinists. Strange. And then...
• The cartoon below (from here) is funny in its own right, I think. But I also think it isn't too difficult to make an "ouchy" personal application to those of us tempted to think we're more passionate, God-centered, Biblical etc. than those other people — many of whom probably think the same thing of themselves in contrast to us. (NOTE: that strip is not reliably "family-friendly.")
  

• Pyro reader Carrie (no profile) noted that I had trouble discerning Aussie from Kiwi, and favored me with a link to a pronunciation chart. It's pretty great.
• Proverbs 29:18 comes to life: reader Aaron points to an article once again illustrating how the courts can empower one person to make his rebellion against God (and self-mutilation) everyone's nightmare.
  
• Here is an exercise in MSM parsing. The headline is: Sotomayor Defends 'Wise Latina' Remark.
• Shocker! MSM misrepresents abortion-clinic violence! Click. (h-t Challies)
• And finally, how could we not...