HT: Photo Basement via io9.
Now THAT is a REAL MAN
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Category Archives: Community
If you were elected President, what would you do?
If you’re on Twitter, post your answer there and include the #ifelected hashtag. I’ve got a few in there already, but it’d be more fun if somebody else was playing with me! Make it funny, serious and/or insightful… just don’t be bland. (And make sure you’re following hashtag on Twitter if you want yours included in their index.)
Anybody who’s trying to get a handle on the current economic free-for-all should check out The Real Great Depression, which does a great job explaining how the depression of 1873 mostly happened because too many banks approved too many bad mortgages in the commercial real estate sector, and so it’s a better analog to what we’re seeing today.
More generally, the Ludwig von Mises Institute put together a collection of articles to help you understand the bailout and everything related to it (Freddie Mac, short-selling, etc.). Lew Rockwell put together a similar collection of “I told you so” articles.
Fubsian Economic Theory
This conversation actually happened (more or less) on a message board Nicole and I dual-admin for her digital scrapbooking creative team. I’m not much of a digital scrapbooker, so all I end up “contributing” is goofy, geeky stuff (like Dinosaur Comics). It’s all good, though, because Nicole’s CT is chock-full o’ nuts like the two of us, so they (usually) appreciate the geeky things I toss in there. 
Anyway, I thought I’d share this one with everybody (especially maybe Ryan?). Also, in this comic Utahraptor’s reading my lines. I know y’all were dying to know that, so you’re welcome.
HT: Myself on Twitter. (Can I get more lame than that? LET’S NOT FIND OUT, MMMKAY?)
You know what? Don’t vote.
I read this aloud on Sunday morning, and nobody kicked me out.
Matthew 15:7-9 (ESV)
You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
"'This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'"
Of course, it makes a difference when the person preaching asked for someone to read the passage. 
Longs Park has a Petting Zoo!
Nicole and I took the kids out to Longs Park on Sunday afternoon. We had a good time just relaxing, goofing off at one of the playgrounds, and hanging out at the petting zoo. Yes, I said “the petting zoo.” At a park!
This is just one of the many reasons why I love Lancaster County.
Constitution upheld in SCOTUS… go figure.
It’s good news, but it’s sad that our courts have so little regard for the Constitution that there was ever a question as to how the Supreme Court would rule:
Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said that an individual right to bear arms is supported by “the historical narrative” both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted.
The Constitution does not permit “the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home,” Scalia said. The court also struck down Washington’s requirement that firearms be equipped with trigger locks.
(Source: The Evansville, Indiana Courier & Press)
Of course, it’s the stereotypical 5-to-4 ruling… which basically means half of the current judges presiding over the Supreme Court are complete idiots. (Really: if you have a feeling the vote is going this way, isn’t this like telling every potential “freak militiaman” to start gunning for you? It doesn’t make any sense to me… because now you don’t have gun bans to hide behind. I just don’t get it.)
When Travis says “cult,” what does he mean?
In light of recent concerns (via e-mail) about my calling Chesapeake Community Church a cult, and given Abraham Piper’s recent post regarding author’s intent, here is my working definition for “cult”:
“A cult is a group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control (e.g. isolation from former friends and family, debilitation, use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience, powerful group pressures, information management, suspension of individuality or critical judgment, promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of [consequences of] leaving it, etc) designed to advance the goals of the group’s leaders to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community.”
(HT: Wikipedia)
Review: Horton Hears a Who
This past weekend, Nicole and I took the kids to see Horton Hears a Who! It was Joshua’s first time in a movie theater, and he did okay. (He got a bit whiny toward the end, so I took him over near the door and held him a bit, and he calmed down.)
Anyway, the movie was a lot of fun. I had trouble keeping track of whether Horton and the kangaroo represented “mainstream culture vs. evil, close-minded fundamentalists” or “believer vs. atheist.” It was a little too disorienting to try and embrace both models at the same time—maybe due to my taking personally the homeschooling dig early in the film. 
As with previous Dr. Seuss theatrical adaptations, a number of additions were made to convert the 72-page book into an 86-minute film. Unlike previous live-action Seussian projects, however, these additions (for the most part) added something to the story without mutating it into a children’s book version of Ace Ventura. Even the anime fight sequence worked! The main exception in my mind?
“In my world, everyone’s a pony and they all eat rainbows and poop butterflies!”
At first glance, Katie seems to have been intended to play the part of the cute toddler who sometimes makes strange remarks. She ends up just being creepy, though. Her character is so dissonant in relation to the rest of the movie that she doesn’t just seem out of place… she seems like a saboteur, intentionally seeking to derail the story.
Aside from Katie, the movie just works. So, since she doesn’t have much screen time, I’d give the movie 4.5 (out of 5) stars!
I Voted (for Ron Paul)!
I took Katie with me this morning (she’s almost a bigger Ron Paul supporter than I am; she says he’s her “favorite President ever”) out to my local polling place. Now I think it’s weird that the State government is using a religious institution’s building to run a government function, but hey–I’m one of those weird “separation of Church and State”rs. Outside the building was a table where a guy had a sample Republican ballot, as well as this handy-dandy little reference card:
FYI: 100% of the identified Ron Paul supporters (three of the four candidates in each list) are “NOT ENDORSED” by the Republican Committee of Lancaster County, PA. Those candidates are listed at RonPaulPA.com.
You know, this just seems odd to me. I can see a special interest group endorsing certain GOP candidates before the GOP primary, but why would the GOP itself be endorsing particular candidates before the primary election?
Why should their a priori endorsement matter to me? Isn’t that a little bit backwards?
Sorry, I’m just a little bit angry about this. If they’d given reasons for the endorsements (or lack thereof), I might feel better about it. But when they do something like this, aren’t they implicitly saying “those candidates aren’t ‘Republican’ enough”? Fine, make that claim… but support it if you want me to take you seriously!
Just handing over this card, though… party officials are literally dictating to area residents how to vote?! How would it look if your county’s Democratic party was telling all the Democrats to vote for Obama? That’s what this looks like to me.
The purpose of a primary is for me to tell you who to vote for, “Party Officials”; not vice-versa.
Ooh… it just burns me up!