Better Late Than Never, Better Safe Than Sorry

So my flight home to Ohio on Saturday was delayed for several hours due to "mechanical problems." It's mildly disconcerting when you can see them pop the hood on the jet you're about to climb 30,000 feet in. Fortunately, no one wants to be the person responsible for the end of several dozen people's lives, so there is some measure of confidence that the job is going to be done right. It was just a little frustrating when your flight departs an hour after it was supposed to have arrived. Yeah, it was kind of like this.

The Check Is In The Mail

So what are you going to do with your tax rebate? May I recommend the following?

1. Pay down credit card debt.
2. Pay down car loans, student loans, etc.
3. Put it into savings.
   
4. Add it to your IRA, if you're not already contributing the annual maximum of $5k
5. Give it to charity.
6. Buy gas, milk, eggs and bread.
7. If 1-6 are taken care of, splurge.

By the way, did you know my birthday is coming up? Just sayin'.

PSEO

So having solved our environmental and energy crisis, I figure I'll move on to education. Okay, here's the thing. The best program in the world has already been around for over 10 years and hardly anyone knows about it. It's called the Post Secondary Enrollment Option, and it works like this. If you are a high school junior or senior and you keep your grades above a certain average, you may attend a community college part or full time at no cost and earn full college credit. When you graduate, you not only earn a high school diploma, you have also earned an Associates Degree. You can then transfer to a traditional college or university and graduate in approximately half the time and at half the cost.

Come on, we even figured this one out in Ohio. Why is not every state in the country doing this? It's a no-brainer! Without it, I might not have had the opportunity to go to college. Instead, I graduated with a bachelors degree with a double major at age 20.

The Solution No One Wants

I had an interesting thought cross my mind as I was driving around today. With high gas prices and all of the "why isn't the government doing anything" complaints I hear, I noticed there has been no discussion at all around one of the few short term solutions the government actually could impose in an attempt to lower gas prices: Rollback speed limits on national highways from 65+ to 55 as they were during the last gas shortage.

There's the rub. No one wants their personal convenience diminished as part of the solution. Come on, driving slower is the "green" thing to do. Don't you care about the environment and your budget? Right, now that much.

Song of the Day: Rise Above This ~ Seether

I dig Seether. I heard this song when I was driving today, and like many of their songs the music really caught me and their songs just resonate in a sad sort of way.

43%

I found this to be astonoshing. According to a poll report by Time, 43% percentage of Clinton voters say they would stay home or vote for McCain if Obama is the party's nominee in November.

I suspect that's a heat of the moment type of response ,and the numbers might come down. But considering how close they are on so many issues, that is an incredibly high number. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. This reinforces in my mind that to Clinton and her brigade the only thing that matters is power and whoever dare opposes her is a mortal enemy regardless of where they stand.

I'm trying not to be partisan, but I can't help but laugh at the thought that the Democrats might actually cough up this election. I want to see one of them go Teddy Roosevelt and run as an independent after losing the nomination, that way they can keep bickering all the way to November.

Darfur

Lost among more trivial matters is more distressing news on Darfur. If you're interested in hearing the candidates comment on an actual issue, click here.

Great

I figured this would happen. Hillary is going to win PA with just enough of a margin that the whole circus is going to move on to the next state in the same exact fashion. I'm officially tired of the campaign season.

Expelled

Last night I went to see Ben Stein's Expelled with a group of friends. I thought it was a good presentation and made effective use of imagery. I thought it did a particularly good job of turning Richard Dawkins' argument on its head. I was impressed that Dawkins was willing to be interviewed by Stein though and will give him props for that.

Of course, all of the critics will jump to the conclusion that this is just creationist propaganda in disguise. They are connecting the wrong dots. Intelligent design does not start with the Biblical description of creation and try to make scientific data fit into that box as creationism seems to do. I do not think intelligent design leads people to adopt a literal account of seven day creation as presented in the book of Genesis, or to the adoption of any particular religion. But if you do follow the logical implications of intelligent design, I suspect it may lead you to a moral universe and a power greater than yourself.

A commentary by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity is here very helpful in having a starting point in a conversation about Darwinism and Intelligent Design:

Ever since men were able to think, they have been wondering what this universe really is and how it came to be there. And, very roughly, two views have been held. First, there is what is called the materialist view. People who take that think that matter and space just happen to exist, and always have existed, nobody knows why; and that matter, behaving in certain fixed ways, has just happened, by a sort of fluke, to produce creatures like ourselves who are able to think. By once chance in a thousand something hit our sun and made it produce planets; and by another thousandth chance the chemicals necessary for life, and the right temperature, occurred on one of these planets, and so some of the matter on this earth came alive; and then, by a very long series of chances, the living creatures developed into things like us. The other view is the religious view. According to it, what is behind the universe is more like a mind than it is like anything else we know. That is to say, it is conscious, and has purposes, and prefers one thing to another. And on this view it made the universe, partly for purposes we do not know, and party, at any rate, in order to produce creatures like itself - I mean, like itself to the extent of having minds. Please do not think that one of these views was held a long time ago and that the other has gradually taken its place. Wherever there have been thinking men, both views turn up.

Song of the Day: Chocolate ~ Snow Patrol

I'm still getting some mileage out of my I-tunes gift card. Today I purchased Chocolate by Snow Patrol. Very cool song, and I like the video too. It's a good commentary on society.

Protestant Confession

I have learned a lot more about Pope Benedict XVI this week as he has been visiting the US, and I must say, I am very impressed. I regret that the Protestant circles I have grown up in have not held the Pope in particular and our Catholic brethren in general in greater esteem. (I think BVBC does a good job with this, but not so much with Cedarville and my previous churches.) From what bits I have gleaned in articles and newscasts, I have found the Pope's teaching to be very instructive and nourishing. My sister has been asking what I wanted for my birthday, and I think I am going to ask her for one of his books, perhaps God Is Love.

Phone Call

So for the last week and a half I have been fighting this cold/sinus infection thing. I figured it was just a viral thing and waited it out for a week before I saw my doctor, but I really do have an infection and got started on antibiotics. So anyway, most every night I have been waking up with a coughing fit during the night. Finally, tonight I was sleeping through when I get a phone call in the dead of the night, and by the time I get to the phone they hung up. But, now I'm up coughing and can't get back to sleep. Drat.

Maybe it Hillary was calling me on the red phone to get advice.

May I Have This Dance?

This may be my favorite time of the year, when the season changes from Shelly to Wordsworth. I drive by this field on the way to church, and I took the long way home today so I could see it again.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Besides the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

- William Woodsworth

Kind Of

I have noticed something of a bad habit in myself that upon further observation also seems fairly common. I frequently insert "kind of" or "just" or some other mitigating word in my sentences. ("Just" is one of my most favorite words and probably appears in 90% of my e-mails.) It's not valley-girl speak, "Like, you know, for sure." It seems to be more of a lack of simplicity and confidence in my language.

Have you ever noticed that? Why do I/we do that? Why say, "I was kind of hoping . . . " when you can say, "I would like to . . ." or "I was just thinking" when you can say, "I believe . . . " and so on and so forth.

Might this be part of letting your "yes" be "yes" and your "no," "no?" It at least seems to have something to do with assertiveness, confidence and a willingness to take a firm position with what you say.

As a sidebar, I have also noticed that I am far too repetitious with certain words and phrases when I pray. I'm sincere when I use them, but they're kind of stale. I find that I'm annoying myself with it, not to mention what annoyance it might be towards others with whom I more frequently pray.

Well, That Sucks

So I was planning on flying home at the end of the month for a week's vacation and to celebrate my birthday with my family, but the airline I had booked my ticket with just went bankrupt and canceled all flights. Bummer man.

Be Nice To The Animals

I would encourage everyone to visit the Animal Legal Defense Fund and sign their petition to Congress for an Animal Bill of Rights. I don't think we always grasp the range and depth of what it means to be bringing the good news of the Kingdom of God now, but I think that includes care of creation and all that is in it.

In hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. - Romans 8:18-22

Shout-out to Paula for informing me about the ALDF, and kudos for her service in this unique and highly worthwhile enterprise.

A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. - Proverbs 12:10.

Let's Be Honest

I saw an interesting article on CNN today. It reported that a poll was taken and that most Americans say the U.S. is on the wrong track. In fact,

81 percent of respondents said they believed "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track."

What exactly does that mean? What track were we on before? What track are we on now? If we are on the wrong track, how do we fix it? What does the right track look like? And how do you get 300 million people to get on the same track and go in the same direction anyways?

Those questions do not seem to have appeared in the poll. I think part of the answer was right there staring us in the face of the article itself though.

The problem is, that will require a second admission. They say the first step to finding a solution is admitting a problem. You might think that having over 80% of people saying things were wrong counted as an admission. Well, if it was, it only got us half way there.

The problem is, we won't admit that we're the problem. My stomach turned when I read the other responses to the survey.

Pop quiz: whose fault is it when you buy something you can't afford?

Pop answer: the government's fault!

There it is in a nutshell. We think the problem is that the country has gone off on the wrong track. The real problem is that we won't admit that we're the ones driving the train.

So you want a new President who's going to fix this mess, huh? I do too. But you know what? It doesn't make a difference who we elect if we're not willing to admit that we're part of the problem and are willing to be part of the solution.

You want to know why we're on the wrong track? It 's because we're a bunch of lazy, self-indulgent, intolerant, bickering, adult-adolescent fools who think we're entitled to everything and owe no one anything.

Maybe it's just human nature. Back when people were more religiously minded, it was "God's fault" when things went wrong. Now that we are more secular, it's simply "the Government's fault" when things go wrong.

Here's my challenge, to you and to myself. The next time you're tempted to complain about a problem, instead of finding someone else to blame, try finding a solution instead. It will be more work, but it just might be worth it.

Dude, Check Out My Hybrid

No, not my car. My, um, offspring.

That didn't take long did it?

So, is this evolution or regression?