Catholics and Bible Study (Updated)

[A] funny thing happened on the way to modernity: The Catholic Church opened itself to the Word in a way it hadn't done before. In the process, it fostered a balanced culture of biblical exegesis and devotions (at least among most scholars and clerics) that many in sola scriptura Protestantism might envy. Especially in light of trends in mainline denominations that fostered a radical desconstruction of biblical texts on the one hand, or, on the other hand, a blinkered literalism that appeals to many conservative pew-sitters.

David Gibson in Saturday's Houses of Worship Column in the WSJ.

Would all the blinkered literalists please raise their hands? Thank you. Now, all the conservative pew-sitters remaining (yes, those of you who just sit there in your pews) would you kindly raise yours? Thank you. Now please, all of you, walk on out to the outer darkness, sit there, and be forever quiet.

And to you, David, our deepest thanks for dealing with those annoying people.

So, then, Catholic scholars and clerics, please proceed.

UPDATE: Carol points out that my point is rather obscure here. What I meant to do was take issue with the article, especially the glib paragraph that I quote, with its cheap shots. I don't think that Protestants break down into the three groups that Gibson identifies, i.e. those who deconstruct the scripture into meaninglessness, those who read the Bible "literally," whatever exactly that means, and those who are do-nothing, conservative bench warmers. I also do not believe that "[Catholic] scholars and clerics" defines the class that exclusively deals with scripture appropriately.

Our personal experience with Roman Catholics (those who attend our Bible studies) is that they are largely unacquainted with Scripture. They are eager students. On the other hand, for the first time in our memory, the local Catholic Church has a "Bible Study" going; I would very much like to see what that looks like over there. Juan tells me that he attends a men's breakfast Bible study in the Gables and there are a couple of Roman Catholic men who attend. Mary is in a Bible study with some other students in her program at Bryn Mawr, and that study has at least one (maybe two) Roman Catholics. I think these are wonderful developments.

I just get set on edge by the sort of condescension that is reflected in the WSJ article. Of course there are "blinkered literalists" and passive "conservatives" on the Protestant side. But David Gibson should take a trip to Kijabe and take a look at Protestants who are faithful to scripture and working hard for others, sacrificing careers, say, in national journalism, and putting their children at serious risk, that is, in the hands of God. He should look at the folks running the Miami Rescue Mission here in Miami. Or in the medical mission in north Philadelphia that is underwritten by the Tenth Presbyterian Church in that city. There are, surely, a lot of lay Protestant Bible readers behind those efforts.

Goodbye, Primary Care

Forty-nine percent -- of the more than 150,000 practicing [primary care] doctors -- say during the next three years they plan to reduce the number of patients they see or stop practicing entirely.

Why.

I guess the extent of this impending crisis will depend, at least in part, on the number of new primary care physicians entering the market place during the next three years. I'm not sure we can be optimistic about how large that number will be.

Just Say No to . . .

Detroit.

And certain States.

Is there no end to this?

(By the way, our church is looking at a deficit at the end of the year. Do you suppose . . . ?)

Cutest Things lately. . .

Honor calling spiders, "itsy bitsy."
Aidan saying "vanilla why-fers" instead of Vanilla wafers.

Hell Hath No Fury

I am reading Mark Bostridge's biography Florence Nightingale: the Making of an Icon. I got onto this new bio via a review in the WSJ, and it's my first serious exposure to Nightingale.

Bostridge is not an easy author to read - none of the elegance and focus of David McCullough. But I have persisted with Bostridge's book because Nightingale is a fascinating woman.

She is about 22 years of age where I am right now, and struggling with a call she believes she hears from God to do something about the nursing situation in England, a call which, if pursued, would defy convention. Beginning on page 85, Bostridge writes of Nightingale seeking the counsel of Samuel Gridley Howe, who, with his new bride Julia Ward Howe, visited Nightingale while the couple were in England for their honeymoon.

Bostridge writes that Samuel Gridley Howe was "well known" in Britain for his work in Massachusetts teaching blind deaf-mutes. Nightingale had read "the annual reports of the Perkins Institution and State School for the Blind, of which Howe was Director."

Nightingale wrote Howe after his visit, asking him whether it would be "unsuitable and unbecoming for a young Englishwoman to devote herself to works of charity in hospitals and elsewhere as Catholic sisters do? Do you think it would be a dreadful thing?"

Howe replies, encouraging her to follow her vocation: "Act up to your inspiration, and you will find that there is nothing unbecoming or unladylike in doing your duty for the good others . . ."

Apparently, most of the biographies of Nightingale stop right there, but Bostridge writes that Howe's encouragement of Nightingale became a "festering" issue between Howe and his wife, Julia Ward Howe. Finally, after 20 years of marriage, Julia Ward Howe

rebuked Samuel Howe for having encouraged Florence Nightingale, a woman of similar age herself, to pursue a career, when he would not even allow his wife to publish a book of poems. . . [H]e responded by saying that "if he had been engaged to Florence Nightingale, and had loved her ever so dearly, he would have given her up as soon as she commenced her career as a public woman."

Julia wrote a series of poems in tribute to Nightingale, including these lines in one entitled "Florence Nightingale and Her Praisers":

If you debase the sex to elevate
One of like soul and temper with the rest,
You do but wrong a thousand fervent hearts,
To pay full tribute to one generous breast.

The Freezer

So, here is where I spent my morning.


BRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!! 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
Yes, Zero. Not 32 or some decent number below freezing, but ZERO degrees. Even with gloves on my fingers were little tiny bricks of ice every time I came back out. I had on a very nice coat (Macon's) that kept my body very warm, but grabbing frozen casseroles, soups and pies and loading them into sacks has a way of getting those little phalanges very very cold!

allowing multiple train wrecks

I've seen studies around lately that suggest that multi-tasking is less efficient than not multi-tasking. I wonder if they consider the benefit of moving several projects forward in tandem, that there might be a benefit in everything moving forward together and at once, even if each could reach the goal faster if given individual focus.

I haven't really read any of these studies. Tried reading some with my left eye while I typed this to my right, but I just got dizzy.

Child Slavery in the Sudan

From Frontpagemag.com:

[P]erhaps no where is child slavery more prevalent in Africa than in the Sudan. A Ugandan parliamentary committee heard last week that as many as 30,000 children abducted in Uganda over nearly two decades by the savage, anti-government Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) for use in its operations had been sold in Sudan’s Darfur region. The LRA has been fighting the Ugandan government for years with Sudanese government support. After their sale in Darfur, the children were employed as child soldiers and laborers, while others were “sold as sex slaves to the Sudanese.”

Read the rest of the article by Stephen Brown here.

A copy of this article was forwarded to me by Audrey Walters-Moore and Kimberly Smith of MakeWay Partners.

This makes me think of a lot of things, among them what Jesus said in Matthew 18:6 -"But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." (Read the entire chapter.)

It also makes me think of this lyric:

My chains are gone, I've been set free!
My God, My Savior has ransomed me.
And like a flood His mercy reigns.
Unending love, Amazing Grace!

(This is from the Chris Tomlin version of Amazing Grace, which was the sound-track for the movie of the same name.

So much fun to play in the rain

Today we were outside when it began to sprinkle a little bit. The kids refused to come inside and I gave in. So, we stayed outside, the sprinkles passed and afterwards it was just gorgeous. Here's some pics of the lovely morning.

Photo and Computer Back-up Strategy

Great post on the Photoshop Insider here by Scott Kelby. (Please put the Epson P-2000 on the list. Thank you.)

Good Internet Vendors

Interstate Batteries. They have all kinds of batteries. I had two obscure (to me, at least), very dead, button-type batteries in two different pedometers. I had no idea that the little button batteries were "watch batteries" in the trade. So I searched the number on the back of the first dead battery, and found the replacement. The service was prompt and the pedometers are firing.

CD RV Parts Center. We have been getting our camper ready for our first camping trip in literally years. In the interim, we bought a new car for towing and were having trouble with the "pigtail" that connects electrical system of the camper with that of the towing vehicle: it was too short. I thought, "I wonder if you can get an extension for those things?" I ran "RV equipment" on Google, and this was number one on the listing. Like the battery vendor, the key issue was whether I could find the item in the vendor's inventory. I didn't know that "pigtail" was a key word. But "extension" and "electrical" worked. I was a little concerned that the vendor was located in California, with me in Miami. But it was here in good order within a week with UPS ground. It was exactly what I needed.

Trick or Treat!

Somebody was High King Peter (from The Chronicles of Narnia) this year and somebody else was supposed to be a daffodil. High King Peter was very excited to get dressed up and head out to play with his friends: the Knight and the Butterfly Princess.


However, while Daffodil was very happy to put on her headband and diaper,



she was NOT very excited to put on her Daffodil dress.


After we pulled her arms out of the top half of the dress and put on a more comfortable t-shirt, Daffodil was very happy to get to see her friends: Dragon, Bee and Univ. Texas Cheerleader.
And, since I don't have a good photo of the four of them, here's yet another photo of High King Peter running forth to save the day!

Just some more pics from Halloween

"The Financial Sector Subtracts Value from the Society"

So says one of my personal heroes, John Boggle, on NPR this morning. He's just published a book called Enough. Let me say, Christmas being around the corner, this would be a nice book to read.

Between big government and "the financial sector", the two of which having just recently merged, it will be a wonder that anything will be left over for the rest of us.

During the interview, Boggle also offers a quote from Albert Einstein: Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

You don't suppose AE was referring to the billable hour, do you?

Queston about Facebook

Why would someone propose being a "friend" on Facebook, someone with whom one is not acquainted and with whom there are no common "friends," unless they are up to no good? This seems to happen a couple of times a week.

Only Half a Million?

I received an email this week from Despair, announcing that the catalog is in the mail. The announcement states that the document is "Now arriving in the mailboxes of a half-million depressed people."

Where do they get that number? Is that the number on their mailing list? Is it only the men in their sixties in the families to whom the catalog is sent? (Just kidding. I am not depressed. I am not.) If it's only the half-million on their mailing list, then Despair is definitely a growth company.

If the number is based on a sample of, say, 25 people randomly chosen in the Austin area, then I hope their counters are the same people who are doing the Presidential polls.

Macon Crocker on Lookout Mountain?

This photo was sent me by a gentleman from Swannanoa, NC, who found our post about Carol's father. He comments on the post and said he had a photo of a "Macon Crocker", and invited us to send an email, which we did.

Back came the photo. The back of the photo has the name "Macon Crocker" written on it. The gentleman said that the photo is among several others that were among the effects left by the gentleman's mother, for whose estate he is serving as executor.

The gentleman's family, he said, were "Montreaters." Years ago, part of the Crocker family had a house in Montreat too. We think that Macon may have been visiting and that this photo may have been of him on Lookout Mountain. The climb to the rocky crest of Lookout Mountain was a feature of our summer visits to the Christian Life Conference at Montreat.

Charging Batteries

What you need to know about chargeable batteries and, perhaps more importantly, the right kind of charger.

Biden's Bishop on Abortion

There is a "way of life" and a "way of death" and abortion is a part of the way of death. This has been the consistent teaching of the Church ever since [the beginning].

Read the entirety of Bishop Malooly's letter to the editor of the [Delaware]News Journal here. (Thanks, Drudge.)

Putting the Incentives in all the wrong places

From a Harvard Economic Professors Blog:

Here is a question that you may have been thinking about: How do the different candidates' tax plans affect Greg Mankiw's incentive to work?

[snip]

If there were no taxes, so t1=t2=t3=t4=0, then $1 earned today would yield my kids $28. That is simply the miracle of compounding.

Under the McCain plan, t1=.35, t2=.25, t3=.15, and t4=.15. In this case, a dollar earned today yields my kids $4.81. That is, even under the low-tax McCain plan, my incentive to work is cut by 83 percent compared to the situation without taxes.

Under the Obama plan, t1=.43, t2=.35, t3=.2, and t4=.45. In this case, a dollar earned today yields my kids $1.85. That is, Obama's proposed tax hikes reduce my incentive to work by 62 percent compared to the McCain plan and by 93 percent compared to the no-tax scenario. In a sense, putting the various pieces of the tax system together, I would be facing a marginal tax rate of 93 percent.

The bottom line: If you are one of those people out there trying to induce me to do some work for you, there is a good chance I will turn you down. And the likelihood will go up after President Obama puts his tax plan in place. I expect to spend more time playing with my kids. They will be poorer when they grow up, but perhaps they will have a few more happy memories.

What Happened to the Abortion Issue?

Am I to understand that it is all settled now? Many Christians I know are supporting Obama, without even a nod at his views at the extreme end of the abortion continuum. Have we, then, "moved-on" from "single issue" politics. Perhaps I would, if the pro-life candidate had a minister who preached "God Damn America!" But that's not what we have here.

"Give or take a Jesus . . ."

This morning I was at the Savannah Airport early, waiting for the plane back to Miami. It appears to be a newly built airport, and it was pleasant except for the television monitors blaring everywhere. There is simply no getting away from network/cable news, at least at airports. And CNN was the newsfeed of choice.

But an author interview got my attention, this of Benyamin Cohen, who has just published a book called My Jesus Year: A Rabbi's Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith. Although the CNN reporter interviewing Cohen was most interested in Cohen's visits to black Baptist mega-churches (I presume in Atlanta), we finally learn at the end of the interview that Cohen visited all kinds of churches, Roman Catholic, Methodist, White, etc., during his year in the Bible Belt.

At the very end, Cohen said that his own faith had been strengthened by his experience and that he learned that the Christian churches were quite similar to his own Jewish temple "give or take a Jesus."

Well, yes. That's always been the difference, hasn't it. That pesky Jesus.

Nickled and Dimed

I flew to Savannah last night for an ACTEC meeting. The flight from Miami was on an American Airlines Express prop-jet. It's cruising altitude was 18,000 feet, and it was fine.

I decided to check my main bag, a roll-on, and carry my brief case with the computer in it. The charge was $15 to check the first bag, just like they say in the Southwest Airlines ads. I noticed as we boarded the small plane that many of the other passengers dragged their roll-ons and had their smaller bag as well. When we got to the plane, an attendant took the roll-ons and stowed them. No charge.

I'm staying on the waterfront in Savannah, at the Hyatt Regency, a monument of local graft, I'm sure, because it is entirely out of place here in the historic district - an architectural insult to the city. (I'm staying because it is the over-flow hotel for my meetings.)

To use the internet, one must buy one-day passes from T-Mobil at $10 per day.

But those little soap bars are still included, as far as I can tell.

Diana and Obama

In the The (Washington, D.C.) Examiner.

But, ahem, you heard it here first.

Thanks, Carol. (Thanks, Glenn.)

Amazon Rocks

I posted a day or two ago on the Livescribe gadget, which I think is known as "the Pulse." I decided to get one and went to their web's "store"; went through all the steps of opening an account; hit "buy" or whatever; and nothing absolutely nothing happens. I am afraid to hit "buy" again, but after awhile I do. Nothing happens again.

This is in the evening, and I call their customer service number. They only answer during business hours.

Today I got back to the matter, and called and got someone at customer service. I hoped to be able to determine (a) whether they had a record of my having bought a Pulse, or maybe two of them, and, if not (b) may I order one over the phone? As to the latter question, No, they do not take orders over the phone. As to the former, they have no record of an order or of my even visiting. I finally said that I would try ordering again from their store, and the gentleman said to call him back if I was not successful.

Then he asked me to rate on a 1 to 5 scale, obviously reading from something, how satisfying was the experience of dealing with him! I said that, within the limitations management imposes on you, I would give you a 5. "You've been great," I said. But overall, I told him, I would have to say a 1 or less as to the "experience."

He said thank you, and to call him back if necessary. Just as I was about to hang up he mentioned, "You might try Amazon. They sell the pen too."

Zowie! Five minutes later (or less), it's ordered and will be here on Monday.

Can't Wait to Vote!

Early voting breaking records in South Florida. This is going to be one interesting election!

Elephants Texting

From Kenya, of course. (It must be the proximity to RVA that makes them so smart. But how do they handle the tiny keyboard?)

"Livescribe" - Have you seen this??!!

The Livescribe pen is one of Popular Mechanic Magazine's Top 10 Best Gadgets of 2008. Here is the website for the device. The introductory video on the main page is a little lame. I would suggest you look at the videos they have deeper in the website.

My thinking is that Mary might find this useful in her classes. But I'm wondering whether this might be a great way to capture my client conferences without having the laptop there.

"The Queen"

Carol and I saw this via Neflix DVD last night (We have decided to somewhat vary date night so that we alternate Publix with a DVD each week. We don't want to fall into a rut.) A film based on how Queen Elizabeth and Tony Blair dealt with the Princess Diana tragedy seemed an unlikely basis for an entertaining motion picture. But it was very well done and it raised some important questions about our celebrity culture.

As I watched the movie's depiction of the struggle that the Queen had in understanding the public affection that the British had for Diana and the risk to the monarchy that the Queen's virtual silence on the tragedy seemed to pose until she came around at Blair's insistence, my mind went to the Obama phenomenon. It's not a perfect analogy, of course, but what I see as a mostly unexamined enthusiasm for Barack Obama, based on his media-inflated charisma and the idea that his election offers some sort of redemption for the tragic side of American History, is similar in some respects to the Diana phenomenon, the "People's Princess" as Tony Blair anointed her. As the stodgy, clueless, remote, and adulterous monarchy ("adulterous" not including the Queen) provided the foil for the Princess, so the difficulties of the Bush Administration and the corruption exclusively assigned to his party by the media provide the foil for Obama.

Without minimizing the personal loss that Diana's death meant to her family and friends, one can say that the public convulsion in Britain over her death probably did no permanent damage. But the risks involved with an Obama regime will be significant and the change it will introduce could well be enduring.

Criminals for Gun Control

First USMC F-35B STOVL Flight

I think I know who would be leading.

"A Liberal Supermajority"

A disturbing look at the future with both the White House and Congress controlled by the Left. (And can the Supreme Court be far behind?)

Only in America!

McCain and Obama at the Al Smith Dinner.

"Some struggling homeowners are being tempted to default on purpose in order to qualify for mortgage relief from the federal government . . . "

I'm shocked!

Dave Seivright, Lemon Peels, and Web Bible Resources

Dave Seivright is a missionary to professionals and business men, and works under the auspices of Campus Crusade. He is a PCA minister and "planted" Kendall Presbyterian Church. For many years since then he has conducted a ministry that targets lawyers, doctors and businessmen. He is involved not just in conversions but also very heavily in discipleship. He also has an important work in Germany. You can read more about him here.

My friend Austin is within Dave's orbit. On Dave's website, among the Miami photos, you can see a group picture with Austin cutting up. He's the only one in the entire group of mature men who is doing the lemon peel in the mouth gag. I'm glad that Dave is working with Austin. (You have just a hint of what we have to put up with at our Friday morning breakfasts.) (You can also tell from the photo that there are not a lot of Baptists at the table.)



I'm on Dave's email list, and a recent one linked to various internet Bible study websites. I am going to use this post to list them and to list others as well, as I come across them if they seem to be useful. So I will be coming back to this post from time to time, even if it has the lemon peel problem with it:

The Bible online. (This is BibleGateway, and I use this all the time, not only to check readings and do searches but also to print-out handouts of scripture readings for Bible discussion.)

Bible Study Tools. This is Crosswalk.com. I haven't used it, except to try it out just a little when I got Dave's email. I need to work with it further.

Audio Bible. This is another feature of BibleGateway.com. I haven't tried it out yet.

Bible in a Year: Listen or Read. This is a feature of Crosswalk.com. I have become a strong believer in reading through the Bible in a year.

Another read-through-the-Bible-in-a-year site. This one is at a site called OnePlace.com.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. This is still another feature of BibleGateway, which has numerous resources worth exploring.

Here begin my additions:

Don't forget the Net Bible site at Bible.org! Not only is the Net Bible available there, but also Bible studies, including at least one by Micki Maris, our friend and Morgan's mother! Micki helped edit the Net Bible. (See my earlier post on the Net Bible.)

Robert Austell's Blog. This is full of wisdom and resources. Just work the search feature. That site also links to Robert's sermons.

The Running Skirt/Skort

You men out there, I just need to warn you that this entire post may fall under the category of "Too Much Information" or under the category of "chicks'-stuff-and-the-strange-things-we-as-men-have-never-even-thought-might-be-issues-for-women-when-running." If you do not desire to read more about things in these categories, then please feel free to skip this one. For all of the rest of you out there, may I bring to your attention, THE RUNNING SKIRT. Yes, SKIRT. (or skort, depending upon the whim of the marketing departments in the running world).

Ah, how I LOVE my running skorts! They look like a skirt, but have spandex compression shorts underneath. I used to run in shorts. I never particularly enjoyed my shorts, although some were cute to wear. I did particularly NOT enjoy how my shorts would start to ride-up as I ran, especially if I was going uphill. I spent several minutes of my runs just pulling the legs of my shorts back down, over, and over, and over. SO annoying! Then, several months ago, I read an article in one of Macon's "Runner's World" Magazines about running skirts. I think that it was written by Kristin Armstrong. Anyways, I had always thought that if I saw a woman in an athletic looking skirt, then she must be going to play tennis. Little did I know that there is an entire movement out there in the athletic world making skirts for running, cycling, golf, etc. After reading the article, I did a little web surfing and discovered a couple of skirts on sale at sierra trading post. I was able to get my first running skirt for $25 (instead of the normal $60 that this particular skirt usually sold for). It is the "Brooks Motion Skort". It is last season, so it is harder to find, but it ROCKS! This skirt continues to remain my favorite. It is just a bit longer, it has a pocket sewn into the leg of the compression shorts underneath where I can put my key, and a pocket in the skirt where I can put my phone/mp3 player.


The most wonderful part of running in this is that I don't have to pull my shorts down over and over and over again. I just run and since the compression shorts are not riding up all the time, I don't even think about them. Of course, it is also fun to wear something that is cute and a little bit feminine while I am getting so hot and sweaty. This skort idea strikes me as really great because it serves both form and function well.

Anyway, since I loved this skirt so much, I invested in some skirts from Hind (also found at sierra trading post). These were a little shorter, and although they are comfortable, I find that I miss having the pockets which my Brooks skort has.


On Saturday, Macon and I ran in the SkirtChasers5k. The skirt that I got for registering was a very very cute little number that even had little snaps on the waistband where you can hang your race number. No more need for safety pins at the race!

However, while it was a fabulous red, and while it was so very light that I almost forgot I had anything on, there were at least two drawbacks. The "boy shorts" underneath this skirt are not compression shorts and before I had even started running I was very aware of the tendency of these shorts to ride up and cause quite the "wedgie." Also, because the skirt is SO light, when you run it bounces up higher than my others and reveals the boy short wedgie underneath from time to time. Oh, and because the boy shorts do not stay down, there is the issue of leg chafage. OUCH. After three+ miles, your skin can cause itself some damage from the friction of your legs rubbing together. For those of you who have legs that do not rub together, congratulations! That's wonderful. For those of you, like me, who do have this issue, this skirt from "SkirtSports" may not be the one for you.

P.S. After washing the skorts a few times, the compression shorts may begin to have the tendency to ride up a bit, but the secret to fixing this is to sweat just a little and then pull them down to where you want them. The sweat will hold them in place for the remainder of the run/walk.
P.P.S. Several of the running skirts do not have compression shorts underneath, they merely have "spankies" or briefs. "Spankies" are similar to briefs. Sometimes they are the same as briefs, and sometimes they fit more loosely, it depends on the company making them. If you are someone with teeny tiny legs that do not rub together then spankies or briefs underneath may work great for you. If you are not, then I cannot recommend having spandex compression shorts underneath enough. Sometimes in order to find these, you have to search for "athletic" skirts or "motion" skirts (or skorts) instead of "Running" skirts/skorts.

First Bike for Aidan

Aidan turns 4 on Tuesday, but today we had his party. Since he was going to be getting all his other presents in the afternoon, Kells and I decided to go ahead and have his bike ready for him when he woke up this morning.

You may recall that Aidan has been riding and loving his Skuut for about a year now. Aidan and I have logged quite a few miles with him on the Skuut and me on my Cannondale. So Kells and I were quite interested to see if this would translate into anything noticeable on a bike with pedals.

On his wishlist, Aidan was quite specific in wanting a bike "with training wheels." I tried to talk him out of it, but Aidan really really wanted them to the point of starting to cry when I kept suggesting that he might not need them. So, hey, you wants the Training Wheels? You gets the Training Wheels and we are all happy.

Naturally, as soon as Aidan saw his bike this morning, he wanted to ride it. And, after the fastest change from pajamas to clothes ever seen in this household, he and I were out on the street (7:15AM). Since the bike had training wheels, I could carry my coffee in one hand and walk/run alongside him. We were out for about 45 minutes when it was time to come in to get ready for church, and Aidan said, "Dad, I don't think I need the wheels anymore." He and I decided that after church, we'd get the wrenches out and take them off.

And after a fast lunch, with him doing most of the wrench turning, the training wheels were retired with little fanfare.

Then, after four trips out and back with me running behind holding the seat, Aidan says, "I don't want you to hold the seat anymore." So I moved to lightly holding his back (which was much more fun for my back). And after two trips out and back he said, "I don't want you to hold my back again." After which, it seemed like a good idea to get the camera.



You can see that the pedals fit him fine, but the bike is just a bit too tall for him, so he has a bit of trouble keeping it up after stopping. But he regards that as a feature, since his second most favorite thing to do after riding the bike is to pretend to crash it. So usually he just lets the bike fall over and he goes over too, with much giggling.

In fact, we had to convince him to actually ride the bike "seriously" because when the camera came out, he would go for ten feet, then wobble his handlbars on purpose (saying "woah woah hee hee woah woah") and fall over. What a ham. But it's a testament to his comfort level with the bike.

Oh, and Aidan said today, "The Skuut is Honor's now, because I have a new bike."

Hello, on Saturday (again)

What in the world happened to this week?! It flashed through so quickly! And here I am in the disorder of my office on Saturday morning again.

Is it over? I'm referring to the Presidential election. McCain has really not stood up well to the financial panic, because he is a man with not a lot of depth intellectually; he is someone who reacts instinctively, and his instincts are not tutored as, say, Reagan's were. And the Democrats, aided by their many sympathizers in the MSM, have done a good job of assigning blame to the Administration, both for creating the problem and now for not being able to solve it quickly. And it has been difficult for McCain to disassociate himself from Bush.

I don't watch TV or listen to the radio much anymore, but when I was near a TV or radio, I was apt to hear an Obama ad during the last two weeks. And the ads are all over the internet as well. He has been waiting to spend that cash hoard, and now he is doing it on advertising, and I would think that it is very effective.

One topic of several of the ads I've seen is an attack on the McCain health plan. If one knows anything about the topic, one can see that the ads, selecting fragments of truth, are false and misleading. But there is no answer to that attack coming from anywhere that people who are not well connected to the internet might hear. Health care is a tough and complex subject, and most people have no idea what the issues concern, except now the Obama ads tell us that McCain will tax us on the benefits provided in his plan and send the tax savings to the insurance companies. Is this just campaign puffing or is this how "information" will be managed during his administration?

There has been a messianic dimension of the Obama campaign all along. He didn't create it, necessarily, but he provided the platform for it by essentially having no history or, better put I think, denying any history. Thus he is an attractive blank slate upon which people write their fantasies of a political figure who will right what is wrong in their worlds. He enables us to act that way not only by disconnecting himself from any story line coming out of his past, but also by promising anything and everything in a broad, remarkably charismatic and pursuasive way. How will a man like this actually perform as President? I think people who have invested him with messiah like qualities will be greatly disappointed. It is one thing to be disappointed in George Bush, whom we knew or should have known to have significant weaknesses, but Obama followers are in a sort of denial about their man. What will they do when they come out of that fog?

Back to David Allen. Carol and my assistant Nancy came back from a seminar for office managers about 10 ten days ago. The speaker was Laura Stack, who bills herself as the "Productivity Pro." Nancy and Carol were greatly enthused, had some great tips about handling emails, and described Laura's "handling the in-box" method. Her approach is so similar to that of David Allen that I picked up Getting Things Done again. And I spent six hours last Saturday doing the sweep through my office, setting up the 43 folders in a new way, filling out single sheets of paper with "the next thing", filing them appropriately, and enjoying every minute of it. I didn't finish the job, but got a very good start. I'm encouraged that I will carry this through, and I will spend more time on the sweep and set-up project today.

One thing I have done is radically change the way I use my office. When we moved into this space about five years ago (five years ago??!!), I purchased some very nice furniture, including a stand-up desk arrangement for the first time, along with the standard sit-down desk, with desk chair, etc. As it turned out, I used the stand-up desk furniture simply as an extra credenza, and it became, most of the time, a place to pile things. The traditional desk remained the center of my work universe.

What I have done is to move my computer and telephone over to the stand-up desk, together with a personal laser printer. Most of the day, then, I am standing up, with the main exception being when I have meetings. But even the meetings are often with the participants standing up, especially when the meetings involve just me and one other person. Those meetings seem to be greatly facilitated by both of us facing one another and both of us able to spread out something on the stand-up desk and read it together, side-by-side, or both of us able to view my computer and it being easy for the other person, if helpful, to keyboard the computer, as I step back. Not having the big desk between us at these one-on-one meetings somehow improves the flow of ideas.

The stand up desk runs along one side of my office. It is 3.5 feet high, about 13 feet long and two feet deep. Propping up one end is a book case and the other end two sets of lateral file cabinets. One set of file cabinets is immediately at my right hand, and I can simply roll out the top drawer - and there are my 43 files. (I now maintian them, rather than my secretary.)

We are doing some office rearranging at the firm, and my big desk will be going to someone else's new office. To replace it, we will bring in a round conference table that we already own and seems to be just the right size.

When I get the office all set up, I will make a short video and post it.

Let's Go to Philadelphia!

The largest pipe organ in the world is there.

At Macy's!

(We'll see Mary, too.)

Update on the Adoption

I'm looking for something to do that doesn't involve reading Ulysses, so I thought I'd give an update on our adoption; since I don't know that I've done so since we began this process 13 months ago. -not sure what's going on in Ulysses. 450 pages so far. Think I read about a funeral, a news article, some advertising, Shakespeare and Hamlet, a bar, a kidney. I think I'd like some yogurt and honey-yogurtandhoney-honeyandyogurt. what is he talking about? adoption? who is ulysses? who gave him a login to post at kithandkin? I don't think this Joycereading has affected me overly.

Our paperwork made its way over to Ethiopia at the start of June. The word is that we might receive a referral in December or January, maybe. A referral means that we are matched with a child. Then it will probably be 2-3 months after the referral that we'll head over to Ethiopia to pick up the infant - so maybe March or April? It will be strange to drive to the airport with a baby seat in the car. Probably not as strange as driving home from the airport with a baby in the car. That will be pretty strange.

The Clean-up Begins

The WSJ reports this morning:

Public pension funds and other big investors, riled about hits they have taken in their securities-lending programs, are now pulling out the stops to get back what they think they are due.

"Pulling out the stops" means litigation. The legal remedies of those investors who believe themselves defrauded by the investment elites have oh so many more remedies this time around.

Among the targets mentioned by the article is my old friend Northern Trust Corp.

The Greatest Financial Meltdown in the History of Western Civilization!!

Carol could not find a parking space at Sawgrass Mills today and had to wait for someone to leave.

Sawgrass Mills.

Watch the Supreme Court

We have three branches of our federal government. Two have agreed on the "bail-out" and with actions of the Executive in pre-empting the market in dealing with the economic difficulties of certain private companies. What will the Supreme Court do with this, when the litigation, which is sure to ensue, finally makes its way to that court? (It may take many, many months.)

Our little exhibitionist

So, tonight, Macon and I are sitting down, enjoying an end of the week movie, when I notice that I can still hear Honor talking, "daddy...daddy....daddeeeee!" It's 8:30 and she is usually asleep by 7:15 or 7:30, so I turn on the video and see that my little girl is standing in her crib naked. Yes, NAKED. What are we going to do? We have spent more money on trying to get her pajamas that she can't get her poop out of than we have spent on pajamas for Aidan in a year, and now in the most secure pajamas we can find, she has figured out how to take the entire pajamas off along with her diaper!! Thank goodness she was only wet this time...

SHEESH!!!! Here's hoping she actually falls asleep some time soon.

Any ideas as to how to keep her in her pajamas? We're open to suggestions.

It's Hard to Hit a Moving Target When . . .

You are in a panic;

Everyone around you is in a panic;

The target may not be moving simply in a single dimension, it may be moving in two or more dimensions, and it is constantly changing form;

You are not sure whether the object that you have identified as the target is, indeed, the target at which you should be shooting; and

The President and majorities in both the House and the Senate must agree that the time has arrived for you to pull the trigger.

Not Your Dentist's Drill Bit

The WSJ awarded it's annual Innovation Gold Award to a company called Vidacare. Vidacare developed a device to introduce fluids into the vascular system where the subject's veins have collapsed. The device is a hollow drill bit which, for example, an emergency medical technician on a call might use on a patient in desperate need of an IV, but unable otherwise to have one introduced. The EMT drills into a bone of the patient (the tibia) and introduces the medicinal substance into the marrow through the drill bit. The marrow, as I understand it, is a very effective portal to the bloodstream.

This is the path to the WSJ article itself, but I'm not sure it's available directly. But I think you can access the article by way of the Vidacare site or simply read about the device on that site, although the description there appears to be untouched by any English major within several miles.

Those crazy NPR folks

Dear friends who listen to NPR and think that they're hearing "news." If you'd like to know what is happening in the world, you need to also listen to Rush Limbaugh. Between NPR and Rush, you should be fine.

NPR doesn't yell, Rush does. That's the main difference between the two. They both are more interested in you coming around to their ideological point of view than anything else.

If you have the same ideological views the radio shows can be very entertaining, but let's not pretend anymore that they aren't just the same.

Personally, I don't listen to either of them. I get my news via the internets and listen to podcasts in the car. Sometimes I also listen to that crazy Rock And Roll that the Kids are all talking about.

I would have voted against it too.

In her speech before the vote [on the bail-out bill], Pelosi said the Bush administration's policies were ``built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything-goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision and no discipline in the system.'' From Boomberg.com, here.

International Space Station

This is cool.

Not everyone drinks the Koolade

Mac vs. PC.

" . . . and college men are . . . taking notes."

"Nouvelle raunch feminism."

Finished McCullough's "John Adams"

Simply terrific! (But I just hated to read of John and Abigail's deaths. They had become dear friends whom I admired deeply.) I'm going to go back and quote some passages in future posts.

Now on to volume one of Dumas Malone's six volume Thomas Jefferson biography Jefferson the Virginian.

And also, eventually, to other books that McCullough praises in the Acknowledgements section at the end of John Adams, including but limited to Elkins and McKitrick's The Age of Federalism.

Audio Tape to Digital File

Yahoo has a tech post on this. I have a lot of audio tape, including one of my dad talking about growing up in Atlanta. I would like to transcribe it to a digital file.

Has anyone done this with his or her tapes, or is the audio tape media too primordial for anyone even to be aware of a problem?

NPR: "The Largest Bank Failure in the History of the United States!!" What a Crock.

This was the lead this AM as I drove to the MetroRail station and turned on NPR. The reference to the "failure" was to Washington Mutual. When I arrived at work, there was the WSJ, reporting that JP Morgan had acquired WaMu assets and would keep the bank open under it's present name, etc.

A Depression style "bank failure" is when the depositors lose their money, and whatever emotion that the idea of a Depression era bank failure would generate is clearly the sort of emotion with which NPR wanted to freight this news. But that is simply a lie.

What is also interesting about JP Morgan's acquisition is that private monies, not public, are funding the acquisition of WaMu. The people who are getting hurt are the WaMu shareholders, the same people who would have profited from the run up of the stock over the years in which WaMu was making it toxic loans. There is a rough justice in all of that.

But it serves NPR's editorial purposes to add fuel to the current panic: the long-range purpose being to promote and expand an already intrusive national state and the short-range being to install a left-wing candidate (to the extent that we can know who, exactly, we would be getting here) in the White House.

I am simply through with NPR.

"Cubanization" Redux

A recent University of Miami study . . . found that more Cubans had arrived [in Miami-Dade County] since 2000 than during the 1980 Mariel boatlift and the 1990s rafter crisis combined.

-from the lead article in today's Miami Herald.

Mary's Into Physics . . .

and Chemistry. I had two Cs in my academic career, from junior high through college: Chem 1 and Chem 2 at Duke. Carol made A+s in those courses. On the other hand, she did marry me, and I married her. So who's really the brighter?

Good on You, Bill!

Of course, there's no sub-text here.

Palin in Central Florida

60,000! And no rock concert.

Milestone

Today I read the last section of the Old Testament in the Chronological Bible. Tomorrow begins the New. I have found this to be a very interesting and instructive way to read through the Bible in a year. No preacher would lack in sermon topics, no teacher subject matter, no writer ideas to essay if he or she simply took the 15 minutes a day to do this. No one could fail to be instructed and "built-up". It is full of surprising readings, and readings I warmly remember.

Elary at MCAD

Nancy's daughter Elary transferred from Miami-Dade College to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, beginning there this fall. She's loving it. Here she is in the "3-D Shop" at MCAD.

We are proud of her!

Macon Rice Crocker and WWII

Macon Rice Crocker was the father of Carol and Mary Ann and the maternal grandfather of Macon, Walter, and Mary.

Mary Ann sent us this article from the Greensboro News-Record that lists those from the congregation of West Market UM Church who served in WWII, and Mr. Crocker is among them.

Mary Ann recalls a photo of Mr. Crocker in uniform, and she is going to look for it. I believe I have seen that photo, and we may have a copy as well. If we do, we will put it up.

Zac on the Intrepid

World Magazine had an article in its September 6/15 issue about Zac Sunderland, a 16 year-old who is sailing around the world solo, hoping to break the record for youngest, solo circumnaviagor.

He has a blog here.

Here's an article from Pacific magazine, with more photos. (I'm not sure about the World mag links these days.)

Weight-Watching: It's a Minefield Out There

As I struggle with getting "back to goal," I must say that it is really a minefield out there. Let me tell you about my week:

1. Monday: someone brought in a wicker basket full of home-baked muffins and put them in our office kitchen. I couldn’t resist and ate two of them. I went to the Session meeting Monday night. There's a candy dish on the church secretary's desk. I ate two pieces.

2. I went to a meeting Tuesday night, and told the people not to fix any food for me, even though we were to have a “light” supper. I took the half of sandwich I carefully put aside at lunch that day. Some kind person baked a wonderful dish for everyone, not many people came to the meeting, and I felt obliged to eat something of it, along with my half-sandwich. It was not a low-point dish.

3. Wednesday night was another social occasion with dinner from a fine cook, who is a person comfortable being over-weight, and I was socially compelled to eat the dinner. It was so good I went back for seconds, as I was expected to do.

4. Friday was a “pot luck” luncheon at our firm. I, of course, was compelled to eat something from everyone’s dish, including the dessert dishes.

Notice the victim language that I use above in referring to my inability to control my eating. It’s everyone else’s fault!

On the other hand, I learned today that a lawyer I know and respected died recently of a heart attack. He was a good bit over-weight. He carried it very well, however. As did my dad, who died of heart disease too.

Dr. Bransford at Kijabe Hospital

I'm on the email list for Make Way Partners. I hear from its president Kimberly Smith who is in the Sudan doing a wonderful work. Below is the text of a recent email from her. It refers to Dr. Bransford and the hospital at Kijabi where RVA is also located. Note that Kimberly refers to Mary the Dinka woman, whom we met on our visit to the hospital in December of 2006.

September 8th, 2008

Dear Fellow Missioners,

One thing is for sure, life is never dull here in Sudan. We have tried to treat Kevin's malaria here at our medical clinic, but we have not been able to get him to a satisfactory condition. We made arrangements to medi-vac him to Kenya today. We praise God for our partnership with Dr. Dick Bransford of Bethany Kids at Kijabi hospital (the same doctor who saved Mary two years ago)! Dr. Bransford agreed to receive Kevin and care for him in his hospital in the beautiful Rift Valley. This is a double blessing because not only will Kevin receive excellent medical care, but it is also a beautiful sanctuary for restoration for both Kevin and Shalene.

As only God can do, another miracle came from all of this. Just 30 minutes before the medical flight was to arrive, a policeman came to the compound to tell us there was a woman who was going to throw her baby into the river. Apparently, her baby was born without an anus. The baby's name is Arek. Every time the child defecates, it is passes through her urinary tract. It is an absolute miracle that the infant has not already died of infection. The mother, Abet, had brought the baby to our medical clinic, but because we still do not have the funds for a sterile surgical unit, there was nothing our staff could do.

The mother and grandmother had lost all hope. The community was urging them to just throw the baby in the river for it was not good to waste food on her. The mother had finally succumbed to discouragement and was going to throw Arek into the river. Baby Elijah's father happened to be chatting with some police officers when he heard what was happening. He told them, “The Christians who saved my baby, will save this baby, too.” So the policeman came to us.

Quickly, I called Dr. Bransford, once again pleading for help. He readily agreed; he is always so excited to help the children! He and his wife Mimi have been faithful missionaries here for more than 30 years.

We ran to Abet to make sure she did not throw Arek into the river. She agreed to go to Kenya on our flight that was due to arrive in 15 minutes! Abet had never even been inside a vehicle, much less an airplane. She has never left her small village nor does she speak any language but her native tongue, Dinka. The only clothes she had was the one torn and dirty nightgown which she donned. We quickly ran her through the market where we bought a small suitcase and filled it with clothes and food for her and baby Arek.

Only God can reveal a dying baby, work out international travel (without documentation, visas, ID, or any kind of paperwork), a committed doctor to receive them, and provide clothes for travel, not to speak of changing a mother's heart, all in 30 minutes!

Please pray for Kevin's continued healing, for Baby Arek’s surgery to go well, and for the heart of Abet to be encouraged in Christ. I am sure she will receive much love and knowledge of Christ while she is with Dr. Bransford!

All in a day in Nyamlel!

k

Kimberly Smith
President

Make Way Partners
PO BOX 26367
Birmingham, AL 35260
U.S.A.

Phone: 205.240.8597
Fax: 205.822.8091
www.makewaypartners.org

Or this one

Can't Resist this One Either

Two Big Days of Blessing

Today is Mary's birthday. It's been a challenging one for her.

Tomorrow is the 38th wedding anniversary of Carol and me.

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

-Psalm 100 (KJV)

No, Joe. The Right VP Choice would have been Obama.

Biden almost gets it right.

But Hillary was the right choice for the Presidential nomination.

Weight Watching (and Fighting)

I started back to Weight Watchers today. I had laid off for about 7 weeks because of so much happening during the summer. And I added about 6 pounds. So back I go.

My weight-alarm system is my clothes. When things start getting tight, then I wake up. Several years ago, after I lost 25 pounds and then paid about $250 to alter my business suits to fit my slimmed down frame, I vowed that I would not pay the tailor to make them bigger again. Over the last few weeks things started getting tight, and back I went to WW today, weighing in at 164. (My goal weight is 155.)

I know what to do at this point in my life. I just have to summon up the discipline to do it: write everything down; count the points; do the walks; limit breads and confine them to whole wheat in all events; cut the sweets to a couple of days a week, one serving per day, and in reasonable portion; eat slowly; drink plenty of water; get a good night's sleep; hit the veggies hard; attend the WW classes each week; and get Carol to make the no-point soup.

I did pretty well today, for the first day back on the wagon. I'll do better tomorrow. I can lose a pound a week if I just try a little. In nine weeks I should be at goal.

There is a lady in our group who started in March of 2007. As of today she's lost 67 pounds. She still has more to lose, maybe another 15 or 20 pounds, but does she look good. I hadn't seen her in about 8 weeks, and I almost did a double take when she walked in. WW definitely can work.

(Sean is working at it too. Go, Sean!)

Keeping Fido Secure

This article notes that a Long Island animal shelter is embedding chips in its animals when they are adopted. This looks like a privacy issue to me - not for the animal, of course, but for the family. It's a Brave New World.

Disturbing Hostage Video

McCain-Palin in Colorado Springs Yesterday

Pretty impressive.

Such Heartbreak!

"The photo on the front of today's Miami Herald of a father cradling his 5-year-old daughter in death -- one of the dozens of young victims of Hurricane Ike in Haiti -- has left me emotionally drained this morning. I feel utter sadness for Frantz Samedi, the helpless father; anger for his daughter, Tamasha, because the world allowed this to happen to her; and concern for my husband, the father at the other end of the lens who took the photo."

Read more.

Mario Loyola on Relations with Cuba

Here is the link to the article that Juan mentioned in his comment to my Saturday post.

Midwives for Haiti

At the dinner Carol and I attended last night, I met a contemporary who is a midwife in Vermont, combining her practice with that of teaching at the medical school there. She is involved in overseas medical mission work, and has gone on a number of mission trips, especially to Haiti.

She told me about "Larry" Mellon, an heir of the Mellon family, who turned his back on the finance world, entered medical school when he was in his 40s, and did pioneering medical mission work in Haiti.

Her more recent trips to Haiti have been through an organization called Midwives for Haiti.

(One of Hank's daughers is a nurse-midwife, now training in anesthesia, and has been on numerous medical mission trips to South America.)

Who Are Your Five?

About Sarah Palin, an admiring pundit writes:

She is so absolutely, remarkably, spectacularly ordinary. I think the magic of Sarah Palin speaks to a belief that so many of us share: the sense that we personally know five people in our immediate circle who would make a better president than the menagerie of candidates the major parties routinely offer.

This made me stop and think about who I know in my "immediate circle" who would make such a "better President." I can immediately identify several in my immediate family; easily five or more in the Maris and Sewell families; three or more at the law firm; several in my church; a couple at the Friday morning breakfast; a number of clients; and one or two internet friends. This is not hard.

None of them, however, is "absolutely, remarkably, spectacularly ordinary." And I don't think Sarah Palin is, either.

Rear Admiral George J. Dufek

I had the privilege and pleasure of sitting next to the widow of Admiral Dufek at a dinner last night. She told the table that Admiral Dufek was the first American on the South Pole. Nearly everyone did a sort of double-take and I think several weren't really sure. My dinner companion was, after all, in her mid-nineties, and, at the large table, maybe she really wasn't being heard very well.

I certainly knew better than to doubt her in the least, because last night was not the first time I had met her. She leaned over and whispered to me, "When you get home, just Google Dufek on the interent."

(I found this, for example.)

Admiral Dufek commanded "Operation Deepfreeze" in 1954. I was 9 years old at the time, and I remember reading about that expedition in a little newspaper that was distributed to elementary school children called My Weekly Reader. (The story was all over the media, in fact. I read about it in Life Magazine and in the National Geographic Magazine. It had the sort of public interest that the space program was to enjoy a decade or so later.) That article led me to read about one of Adm. Dufek's mentors, the Navy explorer Admiral Richard E. Byrd, whose bestselling book Alone, was part of our family's small library.

She and her family lived all over the world. At one point, she told me, they were stationed in Micronesia, and there they witnessed three Atom Bomb tests.

She also said that Adm. Dufek and John McCain's father were classmates at the Naval Academy, and that she knows Sen. McCain's mother well and, of course, knows the Senator. Mrs. Dufek mentioned the time when "John's father" ordered the bombing of Hanoi, knowing full well that his son was kept in prison there.

I've More in Common with Sarah than I Thought

(From a campaign stop yesterday in Cedarburg, Michigan.)

Hello, on Saturday

Already posted three times, so you can tell how productive this Saturday is starting to look. However, I did get up early (surprise!), and hit two gas stations. I filled up the Pathfinder and three five gallon containers at the first; and filled up the 4Runner at the second. (Two gas stations? Maxed on on the pump with the credit card at the first.) All of this is getting ready for Ike, which now appears to be dipping south of us.

As I saw the new track for Ike laid along the east coast of Cuba, it occurred to me that Katrina-like devastation there might finally cave in the regime. I wonder if our planners are thinking about this? I don't wish any further hardship on the people of Cuba; I'm just speculating.

I also wonder if McCain's "change" plans include lifting the embargo on Cuba? If so, I doubt he would say so. Would Obama be more likely to do so? I doubt he would say so either. Raul Martinez, the former mayor of Hialeah, and someone I admire (in part because the Herald hates him) is running for Congress from our district as the Democratic nominee. (Martinez has always been a Democrat, which is rather anomalous in Miami-Dade.) Martinez has thrown his lot in with the younger generation of Cuban-Americans who are not scandalized by the idea of rationalizing our relationship with Cuba. (Notice that I did not say "liberalizing" our relationship; this liberal/conservative dichotomy continuously fails us . . . or betrays us. For example, tell me again what "compassionate conservatism" means, please?)

As to challenging the beltway mentality, it is finally apparent that we have both Presidential nominees advocating change. McCain is finally being seen as alongside Obama on this point, and he may be on the verge of completely co-opting that idea. At the risk of sounding partisan (who me?), I would suggest that the differences between the two include, but are not limited to, (that's lawyerspeak) this: McCain really means change or, if both really mean it, McCain has the backbone and experience to effect it. Where is Palin in all this, besides eye-candy (which, by the way, is a complete justification for her being nominated)? She is a profound gesture to traditional American values and to the (completely consistent) idea that women are entirely as capable as men, with the added feature of being able to produce the next generation, and should be at liberty to do what they are lead by the Spirit to do. (Let me, for example, talk to you about my daughter and daughters-in-law.)

More reasons to like Palin: (1) She's having trouble with her teenage daughter. (2) Her teenage daughter is having trouble with her. (3) Her husband looks like a great guy who has put up with a heck of a lot and still has a genuine looking smile.

I'm thinking about whether I want to see the 'Canes dismantled by the Gators today.

Nah.

Well, I better get to work. I'm down at the office, looking at the end-of-week mess. Time to do the GTD comprehensive, weekly review.

I'm Sorry, Sarah . . .

I've moved on.

Mary Stokes Crocker

She's an artist in Baltimore.

And Now for Something Really Important

Aidan writes his name.

Girl, Get a Grip!

No, not Sarah.

Carol.

I'm watching the Giants-Redskins game, and she wants to talk Palin and Ike.

One of the things about being an educated MAN is that you know how to put important things in perspective.

So, can we save it for the commercials?

(Hmmm. A lot of the commercials are new.)

Can we please save it for half-time?

Thank you.

I Can't Resist Posting This

I mean, this is more Sarah Connor than June Cleaver. . . .

-Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit.

This is not Good

What we can say is that Ike has the potential to do serious damage, and at this time Florida seems the most likely destination for a U.S. landfall. That's because this afternoon's models have become somewhat more clustered around such a location five days from now. . . The latest HWRF model presents one scenario that could take place, bringing a large category 4 hurricane to Miami's doorstep by next Tuesday.


-Eric Berger at SciGuy

UPDATE: I have examined the map closely and I find that the blue (purple?) tentacle tracks right down Westward Drive. On the other hand, that would be six blocks south.

Sarah's Speech

WOW!

UM Unsafe?

As we get ready for the UM-UF game this weekend, this story from the Miami Herald describes why a Hollywood (FL) mom insisted that her son, a 'Canes fan, go to Gainesville rather than Coral Gables to play college football.

And let me add, "Thanks, Miami Herald, for another positive article. No one will ever accuse you of boosterism."

Palin as the Right's Obama

I have no idea what the Palin pick will ultimately do to the Presidential race. Yesterday I visited with some clients who are appalled by McCain's nomination of Sarah Palin and believe he has lost the election because of it. They had no problem in respect to the inconsistency of their view that she was unqualified because of lack experience to lead and their support of Obama.

And then there is this rush of enthusiasm on the right for Palin (which I share).

I think we are all so jaded with the sort of leadership we have been getting from both parties that the lack of history that characterizes both Obama and Palin merely gives us blank slates upon which to project our grandest hopes.

Think about who we have leading Congress - Pelosi and Reid. Then on the Republican side consider Trent Lott and Ted Stevens; the leadership we had from Rumsfeld, the unchecked spending by Congress to which President Bush turned a blind eye if he did not otherwise sponsor it himself; and an intellectual elite that includes Newt Gingrich, Bill Bennett, and Pat Buchanan.

As I continue to read McCullough's biography of John Adams, I am reminded of the storehouse of great men and women with which this country began. What a contrast to our wardrobe of leadership now.

Palin as Second Best to Romney

[T]he McCain camp is defending Palin's resume, which, aside from being a governor and a mayor, includes being a mom, playing basketball, hunting moose and being runner-up for Miss Alaska 1984. There was some grumbling among Republican insiders that McCain would have been better off choosing somebody with a thicker resume, such as Mitt Romney, who actually won Miss Alaska 1984.

-Dave Barry in the Miami Herald. Laugh through the rest of it.

I Love Apples!

I have forever, and only came to bananas later in life.

Looking for an apple in the fridge the other day, I came across two that Kellsey had left behind. They were "Cripps Pink" apples, according to the label. I had never heard of them, and I wondered whether they were still fresh enough to be any good.

Wow! They are delicious! Wiki has an article on them, which I found helpful. Wiki has a couple of links, one here, which offers more details. According to the latter article, a Cripps Pink is a Pink Lady apple that didn't make the cut (so to speak). The Pink Lady, then, must be extra delicious. The PL has its own website, no less.

Mmmm!

The Left's Worst Nightmare

That spectre has a name--Sarah Palin, the 44-year-old governor of Alaska chosen by John McCain on Friday to be his running mate. There she is: a working woman who's a proud wife and mother; a traditionalist in important matters who's broken through all kinds of barriers; a reformer who's a Republican; a challenger of a corrupt good-old-boy establishment who's a conservative; a successful woman whose life is unapologetically grounded in religious belief; a lady who's a leader.

-Bill Cristol in the National Standard here. His entire article is worth reading.