Inflorescence: Our Fishtail Palm Blooms

I've never seen this from our palm. It's a spectacular inflorescence.

Herzlich Survives the Cut

Cancer survivor Mark Herzlich made the New York Giants’ roster after being signed as a free agent out of Boston College. The linebacker, who beat a rare form of bone cancer in college, was on the bubble — and still may be as teams search the waiver wire—but he’s on the Giants’ roster for now.

“Herzlich didn’t bat an eye the whole camp,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said. “Physically, he did everything you asked and more. I saw him improve literally week by week.”

-from the AP this morning, via Yahoo!Sports

He'll make it.

"Just fix it."

"I wasn't going to buy another car that was bailed out by the government."

"Let the Chips Fall, Mr. Stokes"

Among the teachers I had a Duke, a few were unforgettable. I can remember specific conversations I had with those few. Things they said, in the context they said them, are not far away in my memory, even 45 years later.

Instapundit links to a column by a college professor entitled The Amazing Colossal Syllabus. He reports that he must spoon-feed detailed, written instructions to his students at the beginning of the term on what he expects of them in his reading and writing assignments, that is to say, he has to do a good bit of threshold thinking for his students because they, having been fed on the "thin gruel" of high school education, would be lost if he were simply to assign the books for the semester and require the students write essays on them.

I remember the first day of an upper level American History course at Duke, taught by Anne Firor Scott, a fantastic teacher. She announced a research assignment in words that were few in comparison to the weight of the assignment. It was my first course with her. She was a young professor and already a giant in the department. I had a small reputation as a student, and she knew who I was. I was insecure that first day of class, as usual, insecure about how I was going to do in the course generally and, specifically, about what she wanted on the assignment.

As soon as the class came to a formal end, I approached Dr. Scott and started to politely cross-examine her on the assignment. She cut me off, looked at me directly, and said firmly, "Let the chips fall, Mr. Stokes."

I immediately "got it." Rather than being even more concerned that I didn't know what the assignment was, I was liberated by those words. She wanted me to tell her what I thought about the readings and the subject matter. A large part of my assignment was that I was to devise it. I was free to think for myself. She trusted me. I smiled and said, "OK! Thanks!"

Still Praying, But I Think It's Time to Go

The recent decision to change our ordination standards is a rejection of Scripture and tradition as understood by more than one billion Roman Catholics. It is also an offense to more than 300 million Eastern Orthodox in their various communities in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and around the globe.

Western Christianity has been the “superpower” of the Christian world for more than a thousand years. Across the centuries we were able to define what it meant to be a Christian. This is no longer the case. As is well-known, the numerical center of the Christian world has moved South and East. That “global South” is becoming more and more important for the larger body of Christ and they (along with the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox) will see us as having departed from Scripture and tradition as the Church everywhere has known it for two millennia. Our relationships with them are now freshly damaged.

-from "A Tale of Elephants and the Mouse: Presbyterians, 10-A, and the World Church," By Ken Bailey, Author and Lecturer in Middle Eastern New Testament Studies, New Wilmington, PA

(Thanks, Sean)

Did You Wash Your Hands?

Mom was right.

The Burritos Friends-with-Benefits Place on Flagler

Today Carol and I had lunch at a semi-fast, Mexican food place on Flagler Street called Lime. It opened several months ago, and has been very successful. So we visited today for the first time and tried their veggie burritos. (They were OK, but it's really hard to beat the rice-and-beans Vegetarian TropiChop at Pollo Tropico for half the price.)

Lime's had several hip signs (its ambiance is South Beach), and one of them was "Think of us as 'a friend with benefits'." Carol was not impressed. But that got us talking about how shredded to pieces was the idea of "marriage" (or, as the priest said in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" mawidge). There is so little dignity left of marriage among such a large portion of the Millineals that "friendship" is not only disconnected from it but, when connected with physical intimacy, stands on its own, and is held in greater esteem at that. Plus sex is fun and without consequence, right? So, then, Lime can sell more burritos by invoking the relationship institution of the decade.

When did marriage get so disconnected from friendship? I thought it was a gateway to greater and surer friendship, with the benefits immeasurably enhanced, at least potentially. What happened? How did we get this way?

Vaclav Klaus Speaks

The Crisis of the European Union: Causes and Significance

Enlightening, succinct, and disturbing.

Highlands Hammock for Thanksgiving?

It may not be too late to get a couple of spots, side by side. We take pop-top and tents, and/or maybe a camping trailer. Carol and I go up Tuesday afternoon, maybe in both SUVs, and get things set. Kith & Kin fly into ORL next day, say, and we pick them up there. (Early birds could come on Tuesday.) We take everyone back to ORL from HH on Sunday sometime. (Is ORL cheaper, closer, than FLL, WPB, TPA, or MIA? I was thinking it would be.)

Hello, Dragon!

Several months ago, I installed Dragon Naturally Speaking, version 11.0 (Premium), on my desktop at the office. I have been working Dragon into my practice since then, slowly but effectively. It is a remarkable program. Its adaptation involves a significant learning curve, but I've made my way up it to a meaningful extent, certainly enough to know that it is for me a very practical and useful innovation.

Recently I discovered that my trusty Olympus Digital Voice Recorder (the DS–4000), when loaded into its cradle on my desktop, can be linked into the Dragon software. Usually, my dictation travels by way of that cradle hookup to our office network. From there, one of the secretaries picks it up for transcription. She can either print out her transciption and walk it back to my office or let me know via email that I can look at it via the network. Now I have learned that instead of sending the recorder's digital file to the office network, I can direct that the Dragon software perform the transcription right my desktop.

This morning, then, I took my dictating device with me on my walk. When I take that walk, which is nearly 2 miles long, my mind is fresh, the blood is flowing through my brain, and all sorts of ideas and plans begin to hatch, especially on a Monday morning when I am well-rested. So as I walked, I dictated a "To Do" list. Later, when I arrived at the office, I popped the recorder into its cradle and had Dragon do the transcribing. I saw the text emerge on my screen before my very eyes. When Dragon completed the work in a matter of a minute or two, I blocked and pasted the Dragon document into a Word document, one that was already pre-formatted for my "to-do" lists. (I could have had Dragon transcribe directly into the Word document, but I am progressing slowly with this.) In just a few more minutes, using the keyboard in the traditional way, I made the list look like the ones that I prepare three or four times during the week to help me keep things straight.

I am interested to know whether any of the other Kith and Kin is using Dragon or is interested in doing so.

(By the way, using Dragon, I dictated directly into Blogger the first draft of this post.)

The Broncos beat the Seahawks, 23-20

Kyle Orton led Denver back from a shaky start with two TD drives and Tim Tebow put the Broncos in position to win it after Jeff Reed tied it at 20 with a 53-yard field goal with 1:16 left in regulation. Tebow had a 19-yard scramble in leading the Broncos downfield for Steven Haushka’s 51-yarder as time expired.

- from this morning's AP report on the game.

Denver Post NFL reporter Mike Klis said this about Tebow's role in the game:

Having received heavy criticism from several former players in recent weeks, backup quarterback Tim Tebow threw a 20-yard dart to TE Julius Thomas, as well as an exciting scramble and throw to RB Jeremiah Johnson for 23 yards.

Like I said, we'll see.

The Fellowship of Presbyterians

As we continue to grow in number and begin to clarify our focus . . . it may be confusing to keep “PC(USA)” in our name, as our core commitment is not to renewing the structure and systems of our denominational bureaucracy, nor is our sole focus on congregations remaining within the PC(USA). At the same time, we honor and claim our theological and confessional heritage as Presbyterians. And so, as we complete the final stages of incorporation as a 501(c)3 organization, we officially announce our name: “The Fellowship of Presbyterians.”

-From "What's in a Name? Announcing our New Name and Logo."

The three day "Gathering," called by the Fellowship in Minneapolis, began this past Thursday with "[n]early 2,000 Presbyterian pastors, elders, and lay leaders, representing more than 830 U.S. congregations . . . ," and wound up Friday.

¡Hombre! Las Delicias is Back!

¡Agui!

(Mmmm. May take a vacacion de me vida de salud. No te diga a Dr. McDougall, por favor.)

Boomer on Tebow

Boomer Esiason, the former Bengals quarterback and current CBS analyst, says Tebow has no business being an NFL quarterback, and just because Tebow was successful at Florida, that’s no reason to think he’ll ever be any good with the Broncos.

“He can’t play. He can’t throw,” Esiason said, via Mike McCarthy of USA Today. “I’m not here to insult him. The reality is he was a great college football player, maybe the greatest college football player of his time. But he’s not an NFL quarterback right now. Just because he’s God-fearing, and a great person off the field, and was a winner with the team that had the best athletes in college football, doesn’t mean his game is going to translate to the NFL.”

-from NBC Sports

I guess we'll see.

Taking Tri-Rail Semi-Private

The Herald reports today that the Florida Department of Transportation is in talks with the FEC (Florida East Coast Railway) about transferring operations responsibility to the FEC.

First, I would like to concede that my throwing rocks at Tri-Rail is like someone living in a glass house (Metro-Rail) throwing stones.

That being said, Tri-Rail exists thanks to $61 million of annual capital and operating subsidies from the federal government, the state government, and the three counties through which it runs. Riders contribute $11 million a year. Let me restate that. For everyone $1 a Tri-Rail rider pays, the taxpayers of the United States, Florida, and the tri-county area, pay $6.

Furthermore, the Tri-Rail riders transfer to Metro-Rail to complete their commuting trips, and there we have another set of tax-payer subsidies. Tri-Rail riders pay nothing for their Metro-Rail ride.

In addition, as far as I can tell when the noisy Tri-Rail riders join us Miami-Dade riders on Metro-Rail, they consist of Broward County and Palm Beach residents who ride down to go work at the county, veterans, and UM hospitals and the state offices at Civic Center, and the Metro-Dade County offices at Government Center. That is, their employment is also government subsidized. It is also interesting to note that Metro Rail was designed so that their desks are but a few steps away from the Metro-Rail stations where they finish their commute.

(Yes, I've ranted about this before.)

First Day of First Grade

I don't have time to post anything but pictures, but since that is the most fun part anyway, I figure you readers won't mind.
;-)

Al Gore and Barack Obama won Nobel Peace Prizes

Catherine Hamlin was nominated one year. (She didn't get it.)

The Story Behind the UM Football Scandal Story

In the Herald this morning.

Charles Robinson, the Yahoo! sportswriter who broke the story, sounds very straight. Most interesting to me are his comments about the ex-UM players, now in the NFL, who justify their actions on the basis of "all the money that the UM had been making off of them."

When life is reduced to dollars and cents, it's not very pretty.

(I don't mean to confine this observation to the students, by any means. I am simply saying that when relationships are evaluated as transactions that can be quantified in gold, then disaster will finally follow.)

New NFL Kick-off Rule

Just heard about it tonight on the Sunday Night game.

I don't think so.

Clinton and his Vegan Conversion

We've all seen this by now, and I have posted on his conversion before. But I think it is just great. I hope he keeps talking about it. And I wish him well personally.

(By the way, he and I are the same age. Class of '68. What do you think?)

A Crisis of Confidence, Not of Fundamentals

Mackin Pulsifer is the Vice Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Fiduciary Trust International. One can access his excellent discussion of the "Recent Market Turmoil" here.

Chipolte Disappoints (OK, Ciphotle) (But see the Comments)

Not so candid about the bacon grease in its dishes that vegans and those who observe dietary restrictions on religious grounds might choose.

The Latin Health Pathway at UR Med School

Rochester med students practice on "patients" - en español!

¡Qué bueno!

Watch Out, Rick! Watch Out, Michelle!

Here she comes!

US to Hope: Stay Away

This is unreal.

Yalitza Salazar Photography

Pretty awesome.

The End of NCAA Athletics at the U?

Yahoo Sports alleges a sickening tale of moral and ethical corruption lasting over a decade and involving a 'Canes booster, who is now a convicted and imprisoned felon, UM players and recruits, and, perhaps to a profound extent, employees of the U's athletic program.

Miami Herald Sportswriter Greg Cote's title of his column today, "The Smoke You See at the University of Miami is a Five-Alarm Blaze" doesn't strike me as hyperbole. From Cote's column:

But Shapiro’s [the booster's] claims involve so many players over such a long period that an entire decade could be tainted – virtually all the years of coaches Larry Coker and Randy Shannon. An irony is that Shapiro’s work in the shadows is said to have started just as UM down-turned from its most recent national championship-game appearance into a decade of declining success, reminding us, perhaps, that money can buy you neither love nor BCS hardware.

I should emphasize the obvious here: That none of Shapiro’s claims outlined in detail in the Yahoo.com report have been proven to be gospel. But circumstantial indications of truth appear mountainous. The UM fan who honestly believes none of this is true might be a potential customer to buy sand at the beach.

Yahoo’s chief investigator, Charles Robinson, is respected. Over nearly a year, he conducted 100 hours of interviews with Shapiro, reviewed 20,000 pages of Shapiro’s business records available via his bankruptcy case, scanned 5,000 pages of cellphone records and reviewed 1,000 photographs . . .

The conclusion, the allegation, is that 72 former and current UM players — alphabetically, Ray-Ray Armstrong to Kellen Winslow Jr. — received at least some form of illegal benefit from Shapiro. The allegations ensnare a dozen current players, including quarterback Jacory Harris.

Documentation indicates Shapiro’s gifts to UM athletes variously included cash, prostitutes, entertainment in his home and on his yacht, trips to restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bonuses for on-field plays — including injuring an opponent — travel and, in one case, an abortion for a player’s girlfriend.

Further allegations are that seven former UM coaches in football and basketball (including Frank Haith) were aware of Shapiro’s “generosity” and turned a blind eye. If proved, that could be especially felonious.

Women Elders? How about a Woman Apostle!

N.T. Wright, in his Paul for Everyone - Romans: Part Two, uses a just-unearthed, ancient chest, full of fascinating objects, as a metaphor for verses one through 16 of Chapter 16 of Romans. This is the section at the end of his letter where Paul identifies "no fewer than twenty-four names of Christians in Rome, plus one other (Rufus' mother) who isn't named . . . [italics Wright's]." The metaphor is apt. And the most fascinating objects to me are the pair of names in verse 7, which verse Wright translates as follows:

Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives and fellow prisoners, who are well known among the apostles, and who were in the Messiah before I was.

Although Wright translates the pair as Andronicus and Junia, others translate the pair as Andronicus and Junius. The 2011 edition of the NIV translates the second name as Junia, the feminine form of the name, but the NIV, 1984 edition, the NIV edition that Jesus and the disciples used (just kidding), translates the second name as Junias, the masculine form. The NASB gives us the masculine form in the text but it footnotes the feminine. Same with the NET. But the KJV, which, of course, Jesus and the disciples did use, gives us the feminine, as does the RSV, the NRSV, and the NKJV.

Here's what Wright says about translators who don't concede the feminine form of the name:

"We note . . . the importance of women in the list. Paul names them as follow-workers, without any sense that they hold a secondary position to the men. One of them, Junia in verse 7, is an apostle: the phrase 'well known among the apostles' doesn't mean that the apostles know her and Andronicus (probably wife and husband) but that they are apostles, that is, they were among those who saw the risen Lord. She has the same status as all the other apostles, including Paul himself. Don't be put off by some translations which call her 'Junias,' as if she were a man. There is no reason for this except the anxiety of some about recognizing that women could be apostles too."

UM Middle Linebacker, Jimmy Gaines

Along with the Giant's Mark Herzlich, Jimmy's on my coveted Fall 2011 Football Watch list. The sophomore from western NY, with the "ability to diagnose plays quickly" and "fly all over the field," sings.

Rahe on Yesterday's Events among the Republicans; and On the Right to Defend One's Self.

Professor Rahe's take on what happened yesterday in Iowa.

Here's another good column by Professor Rahe, this one on the London riots and the right, now largely lost in Britain, to defend one's person and property. He conludes his column with this:

In times like these, it is useful to remember the immortal words of John Adams: “We talk of liberty and property, but, if we cut up the law of self-defence, we cut up the foundation of both. . . . If a robber meets me in the street, and commands me to surrender my purse, I have a right to kill him without asking questions.”

More on Medical Missions that Treat Fistulas and the Work of the Hamlins

The Fistula Foundation has a website worth exploring to learn more about helping women overseas with the pregnancy-related fistula problem.

The Fistula Foundation website states that for the past five years they have been the largest supporter of the work that the Hamlins introduced in Ethiopia. The "Hamlin Fistula Relief and Aid Fund" has its own website and it includes a good discussion of the history of the Hamlins' work in Ethiopia.

The Hamlin Fistula Relief and Aid Fund link refers to Dr. Catherine Hamlin's book, The Hospital by the River, available on Amazon.

A Walk to Beautiful. A Walk to Emaus.

The most frequently watched video around our house is A Walk to Beautiful, a NOVA documentary about the work of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia. The film tells the story of such a walk taken by three young women, virtual outcasts in their villages because of injury done them by a prolonged, obstructed labor. They walk to the hospital started by two Christian surgeons from Australia, Catherine Hamlin and her late husband, Reginald, and are healed.

The story that the film tells is completed in an article in the April 23 issue of World Magazine written by Emily Belz, entitled "Delivery from Shame." The article completes the story because the film is extremely light on the central fact that the hospital is a Christ centered mission. The article makes that fact very clear.

I thought this sidebar to the Belz article was quite interesting, especially for people who think that all medical advances are invented in the US:

A reliable surgery to repair fistula wasn't developed until the 19th century. Hamlin and her husband drew advice from an Egyptian doctor, Pasha Naguib Mahfouz, a Coptic Christian who was one of the pioneers of fistula repair in the first half of the 20th century and helped eradicate the condition in Egypt. He sent them drawings of his surgeries. The Hamlins wrote anyone around the world who had tried fistula surgeries to get their advice, and began developing their own techniques for the difficult operation.

The Hamlins had never seen a fistula until they arrived in Ethiopia. Reginald Hamlin performed his first attempted fistula repair on a 17-year-old whose husband had abandoned her, and he succeeded. The Hamlins were working under difficult circumstances: A blood bank, so vital for surgeries, was nowhere to be found when they arrived in Ethiopia in 1959. The refrigerator at the hospital where they first started usually had one or two pints of blood in it, according to Hamlin, and they had difficulty convincing suspicious staff and able patients to give blood. That's changed over the last 50 years.

A Middle Way Out of the Social Security Problem

A client sent us earlier this year a gift subscription to the Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine. I didn't have high expectations for the magazine, but it turned out to be really pretty good, and seems to be especially oriented toward middle-agers. One of the columnists, Mary Beth Franklin, the Senior Editor, very competently addresses the Social Security problem in this month's issue, and she had this to say about a middle-way solution to the grid-lock between the Dems (no reduction in benefits!) and the Repubs (no increase in taxes!):

A middle ground. A think tank called Third Way has staked out some middle ground. It has developed a proposal to increase Social Security benefits slightly for the most vulnerable, trim benefits for the wealthy and eliminate them altogether for the super rich. (That means Derek Jeter would have to forfeit his Social Security.) It also proposes to adjust taxes in a way that won’t be burdensome for a workforce that will have to support a large and aging population of retirees.

The proposal—which reflects many of the concepts outlined by the bi­partisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in its December 2010 report—would gradually increase the retirement age to 68 for today’s 38-year-olds and eventually set it at 70 for today’s 4-year-olds, with hardship exemptions for those who need to retire sooner. Pegging the retirement age to reflect increased longevity will close slightly more than one-third of Social Security’s projected 75-year shortfall.

The Third Way proposal also tinkers with the consumer price index formula that is used to set annual cost-of-living adjustments for retirement benefits. Using this alternative COLA formula to slow annual increases could close another one-third of the program’s projected funding gap.

On the revenue side, the group proposes that by 2020 the government extend the payroll tax to those earning up to $190,000 a year—up from today’s $106,800 cap. It would also tax 100% of Social Security benefits received by high-income retirees, up from 85% today. Together, the revenue changes would close the remaining third of the program’s projected shortfall.

This makes a lot of sense to me. But read the entire article here. Also, the homepage of the Third Way website, to which Ms. Franklin's article links, also invites a further look.

Raquel Publishes a New Cook Book!

Raquel Roque, who owns Downtown Book Center, has just published The Cuban Kitchen. She is one of those people who makes Downtown Miami a great place to be. (I've posted on Raquel before: aqui y aqui.)

This morning the Herald published a good article by Ana Veciana-Surez about Raquel and her book.

The City of Miami with its own "Financial Urgency"

Miami city commissioners met in a lengthy executive session at City Hall Tuesday in a last-ditch attempt to avoid unilaterally cutting union contracts – their fallback position if they don’t get deep-enough concessions to balance the city’s sinking budget.

Meanwhile, across town at the Little Havana headquarters of the Fraternal Order of Police, nearly half of its 900 members voted to support a petition recall of Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado. They oppose the mayor’s plan to plug a $61 million budget hole with givebacks from most of the city’s 4,100 employees.

-from this morning's Miami Herald.

Is it too late to point out the conflict-of-interest where a labor union for public employees organizes a recall to remove the city officials with which it is negotiating salaries?

(Not a government, then, "of the people, by the people, and for the people," but one "of the public employees, by the public employees, and for the public employees, except in the matter of government revenue, which remains of the people." Now I understand.)

Fiduciary Trust Company on the Downgrade

Our view is that the downgrade does matter, but not for the reasons the headlines shout. It matters because the political choices before our leaders are now stark. The U.S. cannot continue to borrow $0.40 for every dollar it spends. We hold on to the view that politicians will place reality above ideology and work to devise policies that lead to a less-intrusive government, that promote growth policies guided by clear regulations, and that strengthen the U.S.' long-held comparative advantages in technology, finance, education, healthcare and industrial processes, among others. The markets and their constituents will no doubt help to focus this clarity.

-from Fiduciary Trust Company International's Perspective of 8/8/2011.

I hope the optimism is well-founded.

Cornell Axes Dr. Campbell's Nutrition Course

So much for academic freedom. (Thanks to Carol, who picked this up this link to the Ithaca Journal from the Forks over Knives page on facebook.)

Cornell's dropping Dr. Campbell's course is mentioned in the documentary "Forks over Knives", so the fact of Cornell's action against Dr. Campbell isn't exactly today's news. But it is interesting that the The Ithaca Journal (A Gannett Company) published this column just recently.

"Pensions are swallowing up the city."

So states City of Hollywood (FL) Commissioner Beam Furr, as quoted this morning in the Miami Herald. The main lament of that article is that the city is cutting $200,000 of social service grants.

The Herald has been following the city's struggles with its three unions over the city's pension obligations. The negotiations have not been going well for the city. Accordingly, the city commission declared "financial urgency," which it believes authorized it to slash the salaries of general city employees by 7.5 percent and police and fire employees by 12 percent. The matter of cutting those salaries is before Florida Public Employee Relations Commission, and there will be an evidentiary hearing in a month or two.

The city has a $10 million deficit running for the current fiscal year, which ends on September 30, and, according to the Herald, for "the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, the city must close a $38 million gap."

Contemplative Christians/Activist Christians

This dichotomy has come to my attention lately. I knew it was there, but I've been challenged by it recently. As a loved one and I struggled to understand each other as we spoke of Kingdom things, I seemed to the activist and she the contemplative.

In Romans 15:18, Paul writes:

I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done . . .

John Stott comments that when Paul writes "by what I have said and done" he means, literally "by word and deed." Stott goes on:

This combination of words and works, the verbal and the visual, is a recognition that human beings often learn more through their eyes than through their ears. Words explain works, but works dramatize words. The public ministry of Jesus is the best example of this, and after his ascension into heaven he continued "to do and to teach" through his apostles. [footnote Acts 1:1] One of Jesus' most powerful visual aids was to take a child into his arms, and one of the early church's was their common life and care for the needy.

-Stott, The Message of Romans: God's Good News for the World, pp. 380-381.

As I consider my contemplative friend's Christian life, what strikes me is her Christlike activism, her good works. I can also see that her activism takes its toll on her. But I also see that her activist life drives her to return to contemplative moments with Christ. She is on both sides of that divide after all, and each side of the contemplative/activist dichotomy nourishes both her and, through her, the objects of her love.

The Return of U.S. Manufacturing

This is the title of several articles that are currently circulating. The latest one that came to my attention is in the July 2011 Economic Bulletin published by the American Institute for Economic Research. (You need to be a member to access the complete article or buy it. I have enjoyed my membership.)

Articles one can read without charge on this subject include this press release in May by the Boston Consulting Group, this one in the Fiscal Times, and this article from Fortune Magazine.

With all the gloom and doom that the media poisons us with (none of whose writers, I would guess, ever had to meet a payroll) , it is refreshing to consider the way the American market responds to global market changes. If I had some extra time, I would spend it researching domestic low- and mid-cap manufacturing firms and acquiring as much stock as I could in the ones that looked especially promising. If I were a young man starting out in life, I would look at them as places to work.

People Make Fun of My 3D Sun App

This one.

But Glenn Reynolds understands.
(See this also.)

Today's WSJ Interview of US Representative Cantor

Worth reading.

Counterfeit Cigarette Sales Big in Miami

Phillip Morris is suing local retailers. Our nephew Bob is an assistant prosecutor with a special statewide state attorney dealing with the problem on the criminal side. (Bob is visiting us and going to our Friday morning breakfast today.) Florida loses $1.34 in taxes per pack on the counterfeits.

Weary of Evangelicalism? Me too.

But read this.

PC(USA)'s General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission Ducks Ruling on Ordination Vows

The GAPJC, a sort of "Supreme Court" for the denomination, entered rulings in two cases that have upset the orthodox but, to me at least, are understandable and inevitable. Instead of addressing the merits of the ordination of practicing homosexuals at the congregational level in those cases, the GAPJC bounced one of the cases back to the pertinent Synod for its determination of the issues and affirmed the other case on technical grounds.

As the August "Fellowship PC(USA)" meeting in Minneapolis of orthodox leaders from around the country approaches, the rulings are timely. That is to say, they are fuel for the fire.

Law School as the University's Cash Cow

TaxProf Blog addresses a controversy where a university allegedly rakes off 45% of its law school's revenue. This is nothing new.

In the mid-70s, the U hired one of my former law professors at UChi as its dean in order to catapult the 'Canes into at least the second tier of national law schools. (This effort, I believe, was successful.) She asked me to come on as Dean of Students. In our discussions, she said just exactly what is alleged in the TaxProf post, that law schools make big money for the university. (I declined the offer.)

Our experience with Mary indicates that med school costs for the student are not all that much higher than law school costs, but the resources that UR pours into its med students dwarf those of anything I saw at UChi. The major expense of the law school, apart from the library and a thin layer of faculty, are the class rooms and lecture halls, furnished mainly with desks. The laboratory class rooms and their furnishings and equipment for the med students are more costly by several factors. The teaching teams for the med students are deep and dense, PhDs, MDs, and more. Class sizes are smaller. I don't think I have ever heard of universities making money off their med schools.

More of McDougall on Starch

Until you realize that you are a starch-eater, the solution to your health and weight problems will remain elusive. Once you understand that the bulk of your diet must come from starches, like rice, corn, beans, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, everything will fall into place. You will now think: It just makes so much sense now. The program is easy to follow, the foods are delicious and satisfying, the excess body fat disappears, the bowels work, my laboratory test results are now great, and my mental and physical energy have become boundless. Most importantly, with starches at the center of your meals, you feel a sense of wellbeing and control. You have finally come home to your food. This way of eating is for life.

Starches Are Plants, but Not All Plants Are Starches

Referring to my dietary recommendations as vegetarian, vegan, plant-food-based, or high-carbohydrate is correct, but not sufficiently specific.

Vegetarian means that meat is eliminated. Most people would include eggs and dairy products in a vegetarian diet and many would also allow fish (or chicken).

A vegan diet avoids all foods from animal origin, but can still be based on Cokes, potato chips, and vegan cheesecake. At least half the vegetarians and vegans I know are overweight and unhealthy because of all the soy meats and cheeses, olive oil, nuts and seeds, simple sugars and refined flours they eat.

A plant-food-based diet could mean lettuce, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower, and therefore, a lifetime of hunger pains and fatigue from lack of energy.

And table sugar is a high-carbohydrate food: enough said.

The word “starch” conveys exactly what you are supposed to eat.

-from the McDougall Newsletter - July 2011 The quote above is only part of the article to which I link. If the quote has your attention, then I suggest you read entire article.

At the risk of some indelicacy, I will affirm in particular what Dr. M says about "the bowels work." Just prior to adopting Dr. McDougall's approach, there was a five year period during which I had became very involved with a fine gastroenterologist. Since my diet change, I haven't had any of the problems that sent me to him and, of course, haven't called him or been to his office. I don't expect to do so again.

Rooting this Year for Mark Herzlich

Mark is the NY Giants' rookie from BC, who was last year's ACC Defensive Player of the Year after taking the prior year off to deal with Ewing's sarcoma. (Two years ago, the physicians at UPenn hospital said they could probably save his leg, but that "his athletic days are over.")

Doing the Math with the 2-Earner Family

The 2-income family gives a shocking amount of the extra money they scramble to earn to the government. I'm no tax expert, but my suspicion is that this happens because liberals like more taxes and conservatives like subsidizing the traditional family with a stay-at-home parent. Put those 2 forces together and we get the (perverse?) burdening of the 2-earner family.

Why don't more couples do the math and figure out that they should not do all that extra work for the government? Life is so much simpler with the 1-earner family, and the spouse who doesn't bring in the dollars can provide great economic benefits by directly performing work that would otherwise have to be paid for, most notably child care. Since this economic benefit isn't taxed, it's a double benefit. Instead of buying inferior childcare (or other services) with after-tax dollars, you perform the work that is worth that much money, and you're not paid, so you don't pay taxes on the value it represents.

-Ann Althouse in a recent post, to which Glenn Reynolds links with approval.

Right-to-Work States Do Better Than the Other Kind

[W]hen we compare and contrast the economic performance in these 22 [right-to-work] states against the others, we find interesting things. For example, from 1999 to 2009 (the last such year for which data are available), the aggregate real all-industry GDP of the 22 right-to-work states grew by 24.2 percent, nearly 40 percent more than the gain registered by the other 28 states as a group.

Even more dramatic is the contrast if we look at personal income growth. From 2000 to 2010, real personal incomes grew by an average of 24.3 percent in the 22 right-to-work states, more than double the rate for the other 28 as a group. But the strongest indicator is the migration of young adults. In 2009, there were 20 percent more 25- to 34-year-olds in right-to-work states than in 1999. In the compulsory union states, the increase was only 3.3 percent—barely one-sixth as much.

-From "The Right to Work: A Fundamental Freedom" by Mark Mix, President, National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation in Imprimis: a Publication of Hillsdale College.

(Right-to-Work states protect a worker's right not to join a union, except for employees who work in the railway or airline industries and who work in certain federal related situations.)

A map identifying the right-to-work states and the forced-unionism states is here.

LuLu Lemon & Karhu

So, it has been awhile since I posted anything. I decided that it was time, both because it has been so long and because I have some new things that I have enjoyed SO much and which have had a significant impact on me in the past several months.

Anyone out there ever hear of LuLuLemon? This is an athletic clothing line that makes very expensive and high quality gear. In the past year and a half, I have treated myself to several of their items. I don't usually spend so much on myself. I rarely ever buy myself anything really. Since I am having to replace my children's entire wardrobes twice a year as they grow and as the seasons change, I get to the point where I hate to spend any more money on clothes at all. However, I have discovered that I am more likely to run when I am comfortable in my gear and when I don't have to think about it once I am running. I originally switched from shorts to skirts because of those two things. (And, since I switched to skirts I have not ever run in shorts again...not even once--and it has been about 3 years on that particular front).

Anyway, I have discovered when running that cotton shirts get heavy and hot and chafe. I have also discovered that shirts that are tighter through the body tend to ride up when I run (an extremely annoying event which requires my attention and energy to fix several times throughout my run when I feel like I do not have that extra energy to spare). The easiest fix for this would be to switch to running in merely a sports bra (which more than half of the women at the Trail do), but I am simply NOT into baring my midriff for all the world to see. Enter LuLuLemon and some of their tops designed for dance and yoga: they may not have been intended for running, but it doesn't matter. They are the perfect option for me. Their power dance tank top is tight through the bust offering extra support where it counts, and it is loose and blousy and extremely light beneath the empire waistline offering coverage which stays in place and yet feels almost non-existent. In the picture I am wearing their "Let It Loose" tank, which looks quite different, but serves the same purposes.

I have also found that my one running skirt from them is my favorite. It has a back pocket large enough to hold my phone. It also has two places in the waistband that I often use to hold an energy gel and a key to my car. Also, the way they have designed the under-shorts is great. The legs actually stay in place and don't slide up my legs as I run. The name of this skirt is their "Speed Skirt" (I think).

I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to run and just enjoy the run-- to run and not be distracted by your clothes because they are too hot, too heavy, or simply won't stay in place. Plus, I must admit that it is so fun to run in clothes that are also lovely and feminine.

For some inexplicable reason, when I was younger I associated being feminine with being weak. I wanted to be a tomboy so that I would not be tainted by this weakness. Now that I am older and maybe a tiny bit wiser, I have realized that feminine does not equal weak. It is a different strength. It is a supple strength, a graceful strength. And, as silly as this may sound, when I run in my LuLuLemon gear, I feel unapologetically feminine AND strong.



Now, onto Karhu shoes (as if this post isn't long enough already!) My sister-in-law, Mary, and I recently both went to Luke's Locker here in Austin. We both walked out with the exact same new running shoes by a company in Finland called Karhu (the Finnish word for "bear"). These shoes are designed with a fulcrum or lever-type function in mind. The hope is that when you put your foot down the shoe will quickly take that downward action and transition it forward into horizontal motion. It is supposed to help reduce the up and down motions and make your running more efficient. I LOVE these shoes. When I finally get into that zone where I am running and relaxed, I can literally feel the difference this makes in my stride. I can feel my feet moving in a more horizontal motion forward. I also find that my legs have been less tired running in these shoes. When I do begin to get tired, I find that if I can just pick my foot up and step through to put it down again that the shoe feels like it does much of the work to roll my foot from heel to midfoot to forefoot and on again. So, I concentrate on just putting my foot down again and the shoe rolls me on through to the next step. I do not know if Mary's experience has been the same. Her running form is significantly different from mine. She already tends to land on the middle or the fore part of her feet when she runs, so I do not know if she experiences the levering action at all. I don't land hard on my heels when I run, but just enough that I do experience the fulcrum at work. So, if you land on your heel at all, check these out. You may find that they help keep you moving forward.

If you are interested in checking these shirts out, I must tell you that there is good news and bad news. Both the shirts I mention have been sold out online and are no longer listed. However, you may be able to find them on ebay (for twice the price...ouch). Or, you can just wait a while and check again. They rotate through their styles and colors often and usually introduce new things every 45 days. Who knows? Their next line-up may be even better.

"Some women get what they have always wanted from their man: undivided attention."

Andree Seu in her essay "A Visitor's Guide: From Waiting Room to Visiting Room, navigating behind prison walls," in the July 30,2011, issue of World Magazine.

Ouch!

PC (USA) Strategies

I believe God has called some people to leave [the PC(USA)]and some people to stay . . . Myself, I have not been released by Christ to go. He's telling me right now, 'You're to stay and be a biblically orthodox witness amidst this chaos.'

-Ronald W. Scates, senior pastor of the 4,800 member Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, as quoted in the July 2011 issue of Christianity Today.

If they throw you out of Highland Park, Ron, there is definitely a place for you at FPC Miami Springs.

"You are the most vile, unprofessional, and despicable member of the US House of Representatives"

Ah, South Florida politics.

(I would like to point out that both these people are from Broward County. Thank you.)

Seriously, the bio of Representative Adam West, who said this about his fellow House Member Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, states that his religion is "Christian." Ouch.

Miami Recycle Bike Shop

What a great business!

Stonger Christians/Weaker Christians

We finished up Chapter 14 in Romans yesterday, and there were a lot of raised eyebrows about the idea of there being Christians who are "strong" and those who are "weak." The particular issue in that chapter is the observance of the food laws that distinguish the Jewish Christians from the Gentile in that church. Paul sees that issue as sort of cultural/ceremonial rather than something more essential. He firmly holds that the Jewish Christians should be treated with deference, even though their observances may evidence an incomplete grasp of grace.

Paul's analysis of the problem in the Roman church begs to be applied to issues that are troubling Christians today. I therefore expected that we would spend a good bit of time discussing what sort of differences were cultural - and thus should be treated with a sort of graceful deference - and what differences dealt with morality and outright evil and should be the subject of discipline, kindly applied.

But we didn't stay long with that discussion. What the class wanted to talk about was the idea that some Christians would be "strong" and others "weak;" and that the "strong" Christian is called to make, understand and then deal with that distinction in a way that advances the mission of the church. Several people in the class didn't seem to like the idea of one Christian judging another and then believing himself or herself "stronger." To many people "stronger" meant superior. And they saw that making such distinctions as contrary to what Jesus said about judging in Matthew 7. Moving quickly to that discussion surprised (and instructed) me. But that's why I enjoy the class so much.

Why is it that people in the class resist the idea that there are stronger and weaker Christians?

By the way, Chapter 15 starts off with this verse:

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. (NIV)

Who Needs the Gospel?

If you've been in church for 20 or 30 years, you need the gospel in a different way, but you need the gospel just as much as all the abortionists and homosexuals who are outside the church. They need God's justifying grace via the gospel, you need God's sanctifying grace via the gospel.

-Tullian Tchividjian in an interview published in the July 16, 2011 issue of World Magazine.

Less Acidic Coffee

The ENT who is examining a hoarseness problem I have developed told me to cut down or eliminate acidic drinks, and he mentioned coffee in particular. (I have developed callouses on my vocal chords.)

I found a dicussion of the acidic-coffee issue here.

Assessing Montreat (Revised)

Carol and I returned last Wednesday night from our week long vacation that had, at its center, the Christian Life Conference. Things have changed at the conference after our four summer absence. The PCUSA's decades-long controversy over the authority of scripture (which controversy is at the base of all other controversies there) has resulted in the departure of several of the large churches that supported the conference, resulting in fewer people in attendance, a much smaller budget, and a well-meaning leadership cast that did the best they could.

The conference did not lack substance. Stuart and Jill Briscoe, keynote speaker and plenary Bible study leader, respectively, were very good. (Jill Briscoe had a particularly special impact on all of us, I think.) Jim Singleton, representing Fellowship PC (USA), gave two fine seminars on what is developing in the movement of many of the Evangelical churches away from the world-conforming center of our denomination (and probably out of it).

There was also a Craig Barnes sighting, when he gave about half of his one sermon Sunday morning. He served up that slightly disappointing morsel at the Conference Center's worship service, a service that was notable for a fine, contemporary choir, on the one hand, but, on the other, a final, three stanza hymn that did not mention any member of the Trinity! (The program notes said this particular hymn is among the new, contemporary hymns that will make up nearly half of the new PCUSA hymnbook coming out soon. I can hardly wait.)

The conference center's auditorium was less than half full during the plenary sessions. The dining hall at Anderson was only about one-fifth full during the meals we took there. In past years the dining hall was full of people, a place where our family crowded in for happy meals, where friendships were made and renewed and the ice-cream dipping station was hard to reach for all the adults and kids. The seminar menu itself seemed very lean

Marlene and Gary hosted us at their home. What a wonderful feature of our visit! They had also invited to stay with them a clergy couple from our Presbytery whom we knew. That fellowship made this summer's visit very special. But my heart went out to (and was instructed by) the obvious struggle that the pastor-half of the clergy couple is having with the denominational crisis. I am glad that their church is in our Presbytery, however. Carol and I will be depending on its leadership (as well as that of a few other churches) as we strive to discern what God is calling us to do with our congregation.

African-American Genocide

[In] enlightened New York City . . . three African-American babies are aborted for every two live births.

-from a WSJ opinion piece entitled "The Moral Outrage of 'Missing' Girls."

Holy Cow! That was Fast!

Wisconsin starts to get well in a hurry.

Claw-Back Liabiilty Hits Bank of America

Justice grinds slowly, but finely. The WSJ reports today that BofA has entered into a settlement agreement with certain other financial institutions that bought some of the mortgage syndication packages for which BofA was held responsible. The amount of the settlement is more than the profit that BofA has made since 2008, and the settlement is with only with a few of the buyers of these rotten financial products. So more is coming for BofA and its peers. (I should add that most of these rotten financial products were sold by Countrywide, which savings bank, in a spectacularly ill-timed decision, BofA purchased shortly before the crash.)

This explains, of course, why the big banks have been sitting on all of the money with which the government has infused them since the financial crisis arose. They knew it was coming.

This is deflationary. Watch the gold prices as this thing continues to unwind.

Good-bye, Blue Dogs?

So where do I go? The other Beltway party? Please.

(I note that the Politico article to which I link is written by Pete Sessions, a Republican member of the House from Texas. Give me a break, Pete.)

From Andy Kessler

His new book. His article on solving the the Greek financial crisis in the WSJ. Why do I think of the Babylonians and Judah, when I think of Germany and Greece? (Or China and the US?)

Speaking of the US, in case you think that Paul Ryan's plan is "extreme," read this, also from the WSJ.

Hey, Guys, Quit Playing Around. Get on with It!

[R]esearchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine reported that a man over 40 is almost six times as likely as a man under 30 to father an autistic child. Since then, research has shown that a man's chances of fathering offspring with schizophrenia double when he hits 40 and triple at age 50. The incidence of bipolarity, epilepsy, prostate cancer and breast cancer also increases in children born to men approaching 40.

-from an article in the 6/25/2011 WSJ entitled "What's That Ticking Sound? The Male Biological Clock"

Steve Quinzi and the Quality Quartet

Steve, the keyboardist on the right, is our music director at church. He is also on the faculty at Miami-Dade College. This group of four faculty members gets together at the college twice a year to jam. But I get to see (and to hear) Steve at least once and sometimes twice a week. Yes, he brings liberty to our worship music. (By the way, "Quality" is the surname of the saxophonist.)

"The theological objections to macroevolution are literally crucial because they tell us whether the Cross was necessary . . . "

This is what Marvin Olasky says in the July 2011 issue of World, page 96.

Mr. Olasky, I look into my heart and can tell whether the Cross is necessary.

Irony in the Brave New World

Gay couples seeking the legal form of marriage, straight couples abandoning it. As to the latter, not just the kids, but the grown-ups, especially them, the ones who should know better.

Adam and Eve?

[M]ost theistic evolutionists have no room in their Darwinist theory for the special creation of Adam and Eve. They say either that Adam and Eve had "souls" inserted into their bodies while they were part of a herd of hominids, or that - as a BioLogos website article theorized - they "were not individual historical characters, but represented a larger population of first humans who bore the image of God."

-Marvin Olasky in his World Magazine review of Should Christians Embrace Evolution and a discussion of chapter 3, "Adam and Eve," written by Michale Reeves, theological head of Britain's Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship. (You can download all of that chapter on the link to Olasky's review. You just have to look for it.) Don't miss World's 2011 Book Issue, just out.

Does "theistic evolution" address an essential of the faith? Our Romans study takes us to Romans 14:1-8 this Sunday, the first part of a longer passage whose theme continues to Romans 15:13. Is this passage helpful in dealing with just what we are to do with the question of theistic evolution, or, to be more precise perhaps, with what we are to do with the brother or sister who is on the other side of that issue from us?

In dealing with our response to "weaker" Christians whose views are contrary to ours, Stott uses the "essentials" versus "non-essentials" dichotomy. He concludes

In fundamentals, then, faith is primary, and we may not appeal to love as an excuse to deny essential faith. In non-fundamentals, however, love is primary, and we may not appeal to zeal for the faith as an excuse for failures in love. Faith instructs our own conscience; love respects the conscience of others. Faith gives liberty; love limits its exercise. No-one has put it better than Rupert Meldenius, a name which some believe was a "nom de plume" used by Richard Baxter:

In essentials unity;
In non-essentials liberty;
In all things charity.

-Stott, The Message of Romans, God's Good News for the World, pp. 374-375.

(For further discussion on the matter of Adam at the BioLogos forum, go here.)

Juan in the News Again.

The latest developments on the case here. Mas aqui. Muy importante in Venezuela y Chile. See the earlier post.

Government Employee Unions Sue Governor Scott

Florida legislature enacts a bill that requires government workers to pay in 3% of their salary to the pension plan. The governor signs the legislation. The Florida governor gets sued in class actions funded by the unions of the government workers. The case will be heard by government workers who wear robes. How will this turn out?

Hint: the Florida legislature and the governor are elected by the people. The government workers in question, their union bosses, and the folks in the robes, at least the ones who hear the appeals, are not elected by the people.

Union Lawyer Serves Up a Dish of Regional Bigotry

Arise, South Carolinians!

"Helicopter Men, Grounded"

"Helicopter Men" is the label hung on those unelected persons who manipulate the financial markets of our world to make everything all right. Like Ben Bernake. This class of persons is referred to in a list-serve email I received last night from Fernando Crespo, a portfolio manager with J.P.Morgan. His email links to a JP Morgan newsletter written each month by Michael Cembalest, the Chief Investment Officer for that financial firm. The latest newsletter is full of disturbing graphs and other data, but I thought the following portion of Mr. Cembalest's introductory paragraph is particularly worth posting for those of us dealing with our household budgets:

Helicopter Men, Grounded. Over the last 2 years, it has been hard to disentangle how much of the global recovery was organic, and how much was a byproduct of stimulus (monetary and fiscal). We are now going to find out how fast the world can grow on its own, relying on the private sector. Political and economic factors are bringing the era of the Helicopter Men (and not just Helicopter Ben) to an end. Markets are likely to be in for a bumpy ride as this takes place, with reduced return expectations for financial assets. How to adapt? As I said to my wife when we were discussing investments recently, my highest conviction portfolio idea may be this: let’s spend less money. . .

Missing: 160 Million Girls

"Development was not supposed to look like this,” [Mara] Hvistendahl [author of Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men] writes. “For as long as they have speculated about the status of women, social scientists have taken for granted that women’s position improves as countries get richer.”

-Quoted in this Bloomberg review of Ms. Hvistendahl's book.

Why would you take such a thing for granted? You would, I suppose, if you excluded unborn girls from the definition of "women." Or if you had certain views about "progress" and were absent the day they talked about the 20th Century.

Can't Resist This One.

Sorry, Glenn Reynolds made me do it.

Nailing It

Henninger on Perry

Pretty interesting.

Perry-Palin? Palin-Perry? Holy Cow.

Last Night's Debate

I saw a good bit of it. It was worth watching. Here's how I rank the performances:

1. Romney
2. Paul
3. Cain
4. Santorem
5. Bachman
6. Pawlenty
7. Gingrich

I like the way that Romney refused to be lead around by the questions from the so-called moderator. Romney has really "grown up" as a Presidential candidate since four years ago. This is this first time I have seen him in action.

I thought Pawlenty was foolish in answering the Coke vs. Pepsi question straight up from CNN's pro-Obama moderator. And I thought Pawlenty was foolish in paying extended obeisance to the Navy veteran after Romney had already made that gambit. He could simply have said that he agreed with Romney and then went on. Pawlenty had some good things to say, but he lacks Romney's gravitas. I don't think he's a light-weight, but he somehow projects it.

Paul and Cain were simply fun to watch, and I appreciated their candor. They were both refreshing. Paul's views on our military adventures during the last decade now resonate with me in a way they have never done before.

Santorem surprised me positively. The moderator tried to bait him into criticizing Romney on Romney's change of views regarding abortion. Santorem didn't rise to the bait exactly. But if I had been him, I would have said that I would take Romney at his word and then would have gone on to describe my faithful political history of supporting the pro-life movement.

Bachman seems smart and attractive. (Really, the first six on my list are pretty close together. Maybe there is a little more space between Romney and the other 5 of the first six.) But Bachman's no Sarah Palin. Maybe that's good. Maybe it isn't. I'm not sure. Was everyone making that comparison, Bachman and Palin, as I was every time Bachman took the screen?

As to Gingrich, I was already biased against him. It controls my evaluation of his performance. He did quite well. But every time he made a good, articulate point - and he made several - I thought to myself, "What a shame; the guy is so good and so flawed."

(OK, Governor Perry, when are you jumping in?)

Handlebar Palsy

Mary sent me a link to an abstract about "a compression syndrome of the deep terminal (motor) branch of the ulnar nerve in biking."

Here's an anatomical illustration from Gray's to show just where the deep terminal branch of the nerve is.

Added Risk with Non-US Stocks

At least 35 years ago, when I was an expert in stock market investments (generally speaking, I was much smarter then than I am now, not only about stocks but about most everything else), I invested in some publicly traded Canadian oil exploration company stocks. These stocks were somehow connected to William F. Buckley's family, and that gave me comfort. There was nothing wrong with these companies, except for one thing: they were Canadian companies about the time that Pierre Trudeau became the Prime Minister. He was the darling of the left, and one thing he did was semi-nationalize the oil companies, and the prices of my modest positions in those Canadian stocks dropped like a rock as a result.

My view of that investment is that it was money well spent, because it gave me an appreciation that I had never had before of the US stock market environment. This is not to run down Canada (we are blessed to have such a neighbor), but it is a foreign country and investment risks in foreign countries are different than the investment risks here in the US with US companies.

I was reminded of this today in reading reports in the WSJ of difficulties with stocks in Mainland Chinese companies that are traded publicly. One former "small gem," according to the WSJ, is China MediaExpress:

Boasting rapid growth and big profits from selling advertising on video screens in Chinese intercity buses, [Chinese MediaExpress] drew tens of millions of dollars from marquee investors. It listed its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where its chief executive rang the opening bell last June.

Today, MediaExpress is in chaos, its shares no longer traded on NASDAQ after a turbulent few months marked by investors' concerns over the size of its business and questions over its accounting.

It is one of dozens of companies from China that have come under fire by investors and regulators for allegedly misleading investors, exposing a loophole that has U.S. regulators concerned.

This doesn't mean that one should not invest overseas. It simply requires a prudent approach. For the amateur, that means an advisor who prizes diversification, the right allocation, and low expenses, and makes a special effort to determine one's suitability to the investment recommendations he or she might make.

I can't help but observe, however, that it has always seemed the prudent approach to go easy on investments in the home of Tiananmen Square.

We are So Cutting Edge

Ann does the stand-up desk.

Alpha has a New Look

Maybe this is old news to most everyone else, but it is new news to me.

Alpha's Regional Director, Florida South, Mike Fernandez, came by to see me yesterday and brought me up to date. Alpha has produced a fresh new set of videos for its church program and has introduced versions for college and other use.

We have some new, baby Christians at FPC Miami Springs. An Alpha course this fall sounds like just what we need.

(New, baby Christians often have more non-Christians in their immediate circle than us old hands: another reason for an Alpha course.)

(I made a pitch to Mike, who lives in Orlando with his wonderful family, to do parish ministry here Miami-Dade, his home town. I am shameless.)

Coffee Schadenfruede

And speaking of Schadenfruede, I note, however unChristianly, the following:

The WSJ reports today that "Smucker Profit Falls 21% on Higher Costs."

Weiner Schadenfreude

There is hardly a congruency between libertarians and their right-wing cousins, on the one hand, and Christianity, on the other. The delight in which many in the anti-Democrat portion of the media take in the situation of Anthony Weiner reminds me of this once again.

If we must think about this "scandal," and it appears that we must, what really is the issue presented by Congressman Weiner and Huma Abedin? In my view, it is about marriage and the nearly impossible way in which they seem to have begun that relationship. Both of them have jobs that make profound, burn-out level demands on each of them as individuals. As a married couple, the demands are impossible. What, exactly, were they thinking? Was this marriage simply a career move for both of them? Is their marriage simply a failing clone of the Clinton model? Or were they looking for something more personal and real. If the latter (and I would grant them the presumption that they were looking for something more than personal advancement), I have to say that I pity them and need to pray for them.

More Lectionary: Of course, there's an APP for that.

Crushed Red Pepper: Their website. At iTunes. The price for the basic service is $.99. To get the "Daily Office" (daily Bible readings), you need to buy the $1.99 add-on. It's the Daily Office I was looking for. Because the scriptures are right there, the total cost seems very reasonable. The lectionary source is slightly different from the one on the PC(USA) website. I haven't quite sorted out the differences, but the app choices appear to me to be very satisfactory. (One has two lectionary source versions to choose from in the Crushed Red Pepper app.)

Second-Mortgage Misery

The WSJ today reports that 40% of homeowners who took a second mortgage during the last several years and had not paid it off when the economy went south are "underwater." This compares with 18% of other homeowners. Of course, it would be no surprise that the less equity one has in his home, the faster that equity disappears as housing prices go down. But the magnitude is striking.

The article is worth reading because it discusses the consequences both at the macro level ("the second mortgages are weighing on a fitful recovery") and at the micro level (its harder for a homeowner to get a credit card, etc. "There are all sorts of little, pernicious effects that you don't necessarily think about.")

The article also makes the point that while the first mortgages that the banks extended were "packaged" and sold into the syndication market, the banks kept the second mortgages. So those mortgages are presently a drag on the balances sheets of both the giants and the locals. (Not to say that the banks who sold the first mortgages are immune to claw-back liability. We haven't heard the last of that either.)

I have no special knowledge, of course, but it seems to me that we are not near the end of this unwinding.

The PC(USA) Lectionary Resource

The website for the General Assembly Mission Council of the PC(USA) has a helpful lectionary section.

In my Southern Baptist upbringing, we had "daily Bible readings," and the Sunday School Board published booklets for home or personal use. Chief among these were the "quarterlies" issued to each active Sunday School member, young or old, and those publications were "graded" for each age group. The booklets would have our weekly Sunday School lessons for the calendar quarter and scripture to read each day. The SBC was a powerhouse of Christian Eduction then, and probably still is. What a blessing it was to me and my family. So we Baptists had lectionary resources.

However, I don't remember bumping into the word "lectionary" until college, when I began singing in the choir at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Durham.

The PC(USA) lectionary section is worth exploring, especially the Frequently Asked Questions page, if the idea of church-wide lectionaries is an unfamiliar one.

"The Search for the Historical Adam"

The cover story of the June 2011 issue of Christianity Today addresses the latest challenge to the historicity of Adam, one that emerges from "unnerving new genetic science" and argues that only a "tiny group of homonids . . . several thousand individuals at a minimum" and no single individual can account for the genetic diversity that we now see in humans.

The same magazine issue has an editorial entitled "No Adam, No Eve, No Gospel," which seems to suggest where CT stands on this question; but not so fast. The subtitle of the column states, "The historical Adam debate won't be resolved tomorrow, so stay engaged." A careful reading of the editorial suggests that at least someone on the editorial board wants to consider further the thesis that "Adam" may refer to a collective group. "Scripture often calls groups of people by the name of their historical head." That approach would reconcile "Adam" with the "complexity of the humane genome [a complexity which], we are told, requires an original population of around 10,000."

Pretty interesting.

But cuidado, CT.

Fraudulent Tricks of Some Investment "Promoters"

Beating the market is easy. Just understate its performance.

Various investment promoters are touting their stock-picking prowess by comparing their returns, including dividends, to the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index without dividends.

It is a lot easier to beat the market when you don't count its entire return. Over the past decade, according to Standard & Poor's, the S&P 500 benchmark gained an annual average of just 0.72% without dividends. But with dividends included, the S&P's total return reached 2.81% annually.

-from a WSJ article by Jason Zweig

There are Some Things Glenn Reynolds Just Doesn't Get

The matter of diet and health is one of them. Is he serious about citing the NYT as some sort of authority on this subject, where regarding politics he holds the newspaper in contempt? Or citing with approval a 6 month "weight-loss study" of 23 people when, for example, The China Study is sitting out there? When it comes to food, Glenn believes what he wants to believe. He is hardly alone.

The Moral Link to Economic Recession

Yesterday I spoke with my friend Gonzalo the banker, who lives in Hialeah and rides MetroRail. I have talked with Gonzalo about the banking side of the economic recession since it began in 2009. He continues to be appalled by the greed he sees on the micro level among bankers and borrowers, greed facilitated by government policy, and the connection of that greed to the problems we have on the macro level.

He told me yesterday of a friend of his who, during the real estate boom, moved from Hialeah to a Cocoplum mansion that the friend financed with very little down, a mansion that now is in a sort of frozen state of foreclosure. By that I mean, he pays no mortgage payments any more, because he can no longer afford it. However, because of a government program to "save" people's homes, he still is in possession of it and anticipates he will remain in possession for at least two more years before the bank can finally get it back. What is interesting about his situation is that Gonzalo's friend is not now actually living in his mansion. He has rented it and has moved back in Hialeah. Aided by the rental income, he continues his life-style as best he can. The family's educational plans include keeping their kids in private school. They are getting ready to send their oldest to NYU this fall, no doubt financed in large part by grants and loans, for which the family qualifies because of the sad balance sheet submitted by the parents.

Apparently, there is nothing illegal about Gonzalo's friend gaming the system this way. (Or would you say that these are reasonable survival tactics, under the circumstances?)

No amount of government regulation will make up for the lack of character among its citizens. When I was in law school, the sort of legal philosophy known as "positivism" reigned. That is the idea that one could change behaviors with a statute, that law was a sort of teaching tool and could civilize the heart. We see now that more laws only make the game more complicated - and that clever minds can rise to the challenge of any regulation. The problem is character, not economics.

I've read somewhere that law does not so much build character as expose it. Now where was that?

Pretty Good Comparison of the Various Deficit Reduction Proposals in Congress

From Bessemer Trust's Tax Update newsletter for May 31, 2011, entitled "Tilting at Windmills? Deficit Reduction and Tax Reform in the 112th Congress."

"The Egyptian Mummy Diet Paradox"

Dr. McDougall discusses and resolves this diet paradox, where an ancient population that one presumes is on a starchy, meatless diet, with plenty of vegetables, leaves behind mummies with obvious signs of arterial disease.