No Grasp of Your Reality

The highlight of my Christmas is when Tom and his long-haired brother, Andrew, were up for the game point in the James Bond Edition of Scene-It. They had tied the previous question, which made the next challenge particularly intense. The room fell silent as the seconds counted down to the tiebreaker, which is random and isn’t necessarily in the form of a question. No lie : “The one with the shortest hair wins.”

It sometimes amazes me that out of the same pen can come amazing tales and immoral treatises alike. I am sure that many of my readers know and love the book, “Gulliver’s Travels”, by Jonathan Swift. The charming tales of a man shipwrecked in a land of little people has given much laughter over the years. In a way, it is good that Mr. Swift will be remembered for this tale, and not for his lesser known social activitism that the took part in.
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From my Amazon page.

Handbook of Scriptures to Grow On is an indispensable book for Christian parents. It is a thin book, just a little over 150 pages, of verses topically arranged by everyday character and behavioral issues.

The beauty of scripture is that, as we teach our children, we grow with them. Knowing what God says about various issues helps to mold our parenting and to teach us to embrace the same verses for our own living. The best way to teach our children is to set an example in our own lives. The verses are helpful and worth memorizing together.

As an aside, because it is so easy to find pertinent verses, this is a perfect book to grab while you’re taking a moment to collect your thoughts before going to speak to your child about a discipline issue. It will give you confidence to speak to them from a godly perspective, and not just as another human being (”because *I* said so”). You can show them the actual verse about why what they did was wrong, and why it is offensive to God - not just to you. With this knowledge, you can appeal to their spirituality (and even open the door to discussion) and you can lead them to confess their specific sin and renew their relationship with the Lord AND with you.

The only problem I have with the book is that the references are in the New International Version, and I prefer the NASB or KKJV. Still, you can take the reference and quickly look up the verse in your preferred translation.

salguod just posted a scan of his register receipt from his local video store. Apparently, in signing the receipt, he agreed to “surrender [his] soul for all eternity to the clerks” at the video store. (via Boing Boing.)

This week, I went to a routine doctor’s appointment. While I waited to be called, a woman sat across from me reading a ‘how to please your man in bed’ article from a women’s magazine to her friend, who was sitting next to her. It was loud enough, it was impossible for anyone in the waiting room to ignore.

Heh. Yes, it did speak of ways to touch your “guy” (LOL – I can’t imagine why a guy would want chocolate sauce poured on his chest, unless he were to shave it first), but one thing that caught my attention was the number of times that it said things like, “really get into it”, “pretend like you’re enjoying yourself, even if you’re not” “even if you are uncomfortable, just act like you’re having a great time.”

What is sad about many women’s magazines and articles about relationships and, yes, even the physical aspects of them, is that they seldom start with the premise that you are actually in love with your “guy”. (Sadly, many women’s magazines refrain from using taboo words like “spouse” or “husband” because they don’t want to exclude those who are involved in extramarital relationships.)

If you and your husband love each other, why would you have to ‘pretend’ to enjoy yourself - or lie about liking something you’re not at all comfortable doing? Sure, there is a place for putting the needs of your spouse above your own and being generous husbands and wives. But, what about being honest with each other? How can anyone truly learn to please their spouse – in all aspects of life - if everything is about faking happiness?

Lawrence Lessig has invited Geoffrey Stone to guest blog until Saturday while he’s away in Italy working on Creative Commons stuff.

Geoff is a professor of law at the University of Chicago, and author of “Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from The Sedition Act of 1798 to The War on Terrorism“.

So far, Geoff has been writing about the “Alien and Sedition Acts“, which were passed by the John Adams administration in 1798.

The Sedition Act effectively made it a crime for any person to criticize the President, the Congress or the Government of the United States. The Republicans vehemently object that the Act violated the First Amendment; the Federalists argued that in time of war it was essential to stifle criticism of the government because if the People lost confidence in the government they would not make the sacrifices war demands.

From there, he goes on to discussing dissent in general, and how it affects the moral of a nation and it’s enemies during a time of war. Instead of ignoring the possible negative results of free speech in a nation at war, he clearly acknowledges that it can sustain the morale of the enemy.

Dissent in wartime may improve the quality of decisionmaking, but it may also and at the same time strengthen the enemy’s resolve. An enemy that knows we are divided and uncertain will fight harder than it we are united and resolute. It knows that even if it cannot win militarily, it might win (or at least obtain a more favorable settlement) because of domestic American politics. Thus, for those Americans who are firmly committed to the war, dissenters are acting treasonably because they are encouraging the enemy and arguably putting American lives at risk. Their response to dissenters is essentially, “Can’t you see what you’re doing? You’re jeopardizing American soldiers! Just shut up!”

I’m very curious to see how he will conclude his miniseries of miniessays. I highly recommend taking the time to read Professor Stone’s series.

“The truth of the gospel leads inexorably to laughter. Those who want to glower as they cling to truth want something that can never be. Whatever it is they have in their hands, it must not be the truth, unless it is perhaps just a fragment of it. The dour Calvinist, the cranky sabbatarian, and the pious self-loather are all textbook head cases. We see them in Scripture, we see them in our literature, and sometimes we see them out on their front porch on sabbath afternoons, glaring at the bicyclists. Are they speaking the truth? Well… are they laughing for joy?” - Doug Wilson

While I’ve received over a hundred of the Nigeran Scam emails, today marked a turning point, as I have received my first email in German. I assume it’s one of them, since the format is the same as all the others, and it says “Dollar $9 Million” in the text. I suppose I got on the list because of my German last name. You can read it yourself below.
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Thanks to the help of some kind scientists, when a loved cell phone dies it turns into a sunflower.

I forgot to mention this! I stopped by the surgeons last week for a followup check to my recent surgery, and I got a clean bill of health. Praise God, the great Healer!

I found out that Cryptome.org has a detailed chart of American soldiers dead in Iraq (when, where, and how). There’s been a lot of talk about removing embedded cameramen from Iraq since Kevin Sites reported and filmed the marine who shot the apparently wounded, unarmed Iraqi.

I’ve never heard so much whining about how we aren’t in a position to judge, because we don’t know the context. My friend, Colin Judge, who is currently stationed in Baghdad, has written up a pretty nice rebuttal to this kind of thinking. I hope people will listen… after all, he’s over there, so his opinion must be valid.

Q. Why does a chicken coop have two doors?

A. Because if it had four doors it would be a chicken sedan.

Lately, my children have been singing the Crazy Bus song from the PBS kids show, “Arthur”.

They run the loop between the kitchen and dining room, screaming Crazy Bus at the top of their lungs.

Yesterday, I said, “YOU GUYS ride the crazy bus!”

and Thomas replied, “Yeah, but you DRIVE the crazy bus!”