Christmas Eve

Church was snowed out last night! This doesn't happen very often (and I cannot recollect the last time!). The conditions were just right for very slippery roads: Friday was in the high 30's or even 40 degrees. Saturday we had about 2" of wet snow. Pavements that were not plowed got very icy as the temperature dropped dramatically.

I plowed Saturday and so our own driveway was basically dry Saturday night.

Sunday afternoon we had between 3 & 4" of snow. That on the base of a packed icy base made side streets very slippery.

As we drove to church Sunday morning, we slide into an intersection at South Shore Drive and 10th. Fortunately no one was coming otherwise we would have been side-swiped.

We got the call that church had been canceled at about 5. I decided I would go out and plow - oh was it cold! After doing our driveway I went up to Mrs. F.'s next door. Roger was working on our walk with a shovel. Mrs. F surprised me as I was plowing. My head was "down" and it was dusk so I did not see Mrs. F exit her front door and walk towards me. Additionally the blowing snow and tractor engine would have drowned out even the sound of her approaching. Suddenly as I backed the tractor up, I looked right and she was just feet from me. She had a Christmas card for me (with a $ 50 bill!). I yelled out of fright at seeing her suddenly appear seemingly out of nowhere. Roger heard me yell next door!

Last night we went out to a church family's house at 7. They only live a mile from us and it was all on suburban streets so the drive was easy. About 4 couples gathered for fellowship. We sang Christmas carols, played Electronic Catch Phrase, had a brief Bible time, and shared snacks and dessert. We were there until past 10.

Today I am at work. Kathee is home writing reviews. I left the house at 7:00 and made it downtown in about 40 minutes. The side roads are still slippery but there was very little traffic so it was not dangerous. There are but a handful of co-workers on my entire floor today so things are very quiet.

I intend to work until about 2:30 and then head for home. I want to run the plow over the driveway again to pick up the half an inch or so of snow that collected overnight.

We will be going to Fourth's vespers service at 5:00. Kathee made lasagna and we will be having family and friends by at 7:00.

Denny Burk's The Incarnation ministered to me this morning and I encourage my readers to click over to his article. As we ponder the meaning of the incarnation we ought to those "marvel[] at those things which were told them" (cf Luke 2:18).

Darrell Dow: On Certainty

Darrell Dow: On Certainty

Excerpt:

When we set out to ‘prove’ something we begin down a very treacherous path indeed. For outside of a small subset of things — namely those that exist in the physical realm — it is impossible to ‘prove’ anything in the way the word is commonly used.

....

Like Job I admit that I cannot measure God in a test tube. I cannot place him on a scales or under a microscope to satisfy my curiosity. But I know that my Redeemer liveth. Of this I am certain.

It is at the moment when you acknowledge that you cannot ‘prove’ something yet cannot deny that it is real, that the true understanding of faith begins to take hold.

Job 19:25-27  

 25 For I know that my Redeemer lives,
      And He shall stand at last on the earth;

 26 And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
      That in my flesh I shall see God,

 27 Whom I shall see for myself,
      And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
      How my heart yearns within me!

Comment: Thoughtful!

Congressional underachievers

George Will: The gift of doing very little

Excerpt:

Consider Congress's agreeably meager record:


It raised the hourly minimum wage from $5.15 to $5.85 — less than the $7 entry wage at McDonald's — thereby increasing the wages of less than 0.5 percent of the workforce. Rebuffing George W. Bush, who advocates halting farm subsidies to those with adjusted gross incomes of more than $200,000, the Senate also rejected — more bipartisanship — a cap at $750,000. This, in spite of the fact that farm income has soared to record levels, partly because Congress shares the president's loopy enthusiasm for ethanol and wants more corn and other agricultural matter turned into fuel.


Although Congress trembles for the future of the planet, it was unwilling to eliminate the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol. But our polymath Congress continued designing automobiles to make them less safe (smaller) and more expensive. It did this by mandating new fuel efficiency — a 35-mpg fleet average by 2020 — lest the automotive industry design cars people want. And Congress mandated a 12-year phaseout of incandescent light bulbs.

Comment: They did temporarily patch the AMT (doesn't impact me, but needed to be resolved). See earlier CFG posting: Bluto strikes again

Kevin Everett returns to Buffalo

Everett attends Bills game: Buffalo TE returns to scene of Sept. spinal injury

Excerpt:

Bills tight end Kevin Everett arrived at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday morning to watch Buffalo's home season finale, less than four months since sustaining a severe spinal cord injury on the same turf.

Everett addressed teammates about two hours before the game against the Giants. He left the locker room in a wheelchair and then, on his own power, climbed into a covered golf cart before being driven up the tunnel and out of the stadium.

Comment: All CFG Kevin Everett postings

The shepherds' Christmas

Luke 2:8-20

8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

14 “ Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. 17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. 18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

The shepherds:

1. Heard the glorious message fearfully: "they were greatly afraid" (vs 9)
   
2. Sought the Incarnate God hastily: "they came with haste and found ... the Babe lying in a manger" (vs 16)
   
3. Heralded the evangel extensively: "they made widely known the saying which was told them" (vs 17)
   
4. Worshiped the Savior continually: "the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen" (vs 20)
   

---

Merry Christmas

Dear friends,

We rejoice in God's graciousness to us. We are worshiping our Savior with our brothers and sisters at Fourth Baptist church. Kathee will be making lasagna on Christmas Eve to enjoy after the vespers service at Fourth Baptist. Christmas Day our family will celebrate Christmas with us at our home in Plymouth.

True meaning and purpose in life only comes through knowing and living for the Savior. We trust that the great gift that the shepherds found that first Christmas morning will be discovered by you as well.

Here is that gift: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

The right answer: absolutely nothing

How to Avoid Recession? Let the Fed Work

Excerpt:

The question on the minds of many in Congress and in the White House is this: What they should be doing now to keep the economy on track? The right answer: absolutely nothing.

This advice isn’t easy for politicians to follow. Because economic downturns mean fewer jobs and falling incomes, they are painful for many families. Voters can confuse inaction with nonchalance and send incumbents packing. But just as patients should avoid doctors who recommend radical surgery for every ailment, voters should be wary of politicians eager to treat every economic ill. Sometimes, bed rest and wait-and-see are the best we can do.

Congress made its most important contribution to taming the business cycle back in 1913, when it created the Federal Reserve System. Today, the Fed remains the first line of defense against recession.

The Fed’s control over the money supply is a powerful lever to move overall demand for goods and services. When its trading desk buys bonds and expands the money supply, it lowers interest rates and encourages the private sector to borrow and spend more. The influence of interest rates on the economy is particularly strong in housing, where buyers are rate-sensitive. Because housing woes are the source of the current slowdown, the Fed’s tool kit is well suited for the task at hand.

The recession-fighting effects of monetary expansion, however, are not limited to the housing market. When lower interest rates make fixed-income investments less attractive, investors turn to the equity market and bid up stock prices. Higher stock prices, in turn, make consumers wealthier and more eager to spend. They also make it easier for corporations to expand their businesses with equity financing.

By making United States bonds less attractive to world investors, lower interest rates from a monetary expansion also weaken the dollar in currency markets. A depreciation of the currency is not in itself to be feared. Treasury secretaries often repeat the mantra of favoring a strong dollar, but these pronouncements are based more on public relations than hard-headed analysis.

Comment: Good article about "The Fed"

Christmas carolers

We we blessed to have 4th Baptist Christmas carolers visit us last night. I tried to sing along but my voice is pathetic in contrast with the skills of these my Sisters and Brothers.

Alma mater has record year

UC wins bowl game

Excerpt:

The University of Cincinnati Bearcats secured their place in school history today, rolling to a 31-21 victory over Southern Miss in the PapaJohn’s.com Bowl before 35,258 fans at Legion Field.

The victory improved the 20th-ranked Bearcats to 10-3, making them the first UC team since 1951 to win 10 games in a season.

Comment: My Brother (UC,'76) and I ('71) watched out of loyalty to our alma mater. The game wasn't that exciting (frankly). We took a break during the 3rd quarter to play pool (I lost 1-5).

Quicken Online

Quicken Online to support iPhone

Excerpt:

On January 8, 2008, Intuit will reveal Quicken Online, a new version of their financial management software specifically designed to work online. The service operates through a Web browser using Adobe Flash 9 technology and will cost $2.99 per month.

Quicken Online isn't designed as a replacement or even as a supplement to the popular desktop financial management software for Mac OS X and Windows, according to Jim Del Favero, Quicken product manager. Instead, it's designed to appeal to a separate kind of users all together.

"We're expecting to appeal to people just out of college to their early 30s," Del Favero told Macworld. "People who have simpler financial needs, who are focused on knowing how much money they have and what bills need to be paid, and how to live within their means."

....

Intuit utilizes a Multi-Factor Identification (MFI) system to make sure you're you when you log on, similar to what financial institutions require for you to log in to their online systems, though Del Favero indicates that Intuit's system is unique to them. The company is utilizing its own CustomerCentral system to manage data aggregation for Quicken Online.

It's a system that consolidates data from thousands of financial institutions throughout the world, and Del Favero says that this system has a variety of checks, balances, locks and security protocols to prevent thieves from breaking in and stealing your identity. Quicken Online has to go through the same security audit process that banks do, he added.

Comment: See my earlier comments on Cloud computing: "Comment: I've heard but cannot confirm that Intuit will soon offer an Internet based personal financial manager - think Quicken on the Internet."

Buffett buying WFC

Buffett's Subprime Bets

Excerpt:

In fact, Berkshire Hathaway has been buying. For years, Berkshire has been sitting on a huge mound of cash, but it's now starting to deploy that money. Berkshire's purchases have been consistent with Buffett's statements that he doesn't expect a depression. For example, the company bought Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) -- a cyclical railroad that would definitely be affected by a slowing economy.

Berkshire is also looking for bargains among the lenders. It's been purchasing Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB), two companies with excellent balance sheets and conservative management. While these firms did do some subprime lending, their balance-sheet strength should take them through this crisis.

How to Purchase a Water Softener

Kare11: How to Purchase a Water Softener


Comment: Our water softener basically failed. We are getting some soft water but the unit (now 11 + years old) needs major repairs. The question for us was should we repair the old unit or purchase a new unit with a 5 year warranty. We opted for the new unit and it will be installed Monday. The article from Kare11 is helpful for shoppers. I called Surge, EcoWater Systems, and Culligan. We bought the most basic system without the fancy controls.

We new the existing system had problems because the brine tank would fill to the top and overflow. Or the brine tank would be completely dry to the bottom. While we were in Dallas, we had a major overflow.

7 Medical Myths

British Medical Journal: Medical myths

Excerpt:

People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day

The advice to drink at least eight glasses of water a day can be found throughout the popular press.w1-w4 One origin may be a 1945 recommendation that stated: A suitable allowance of water for adults is 2.5 litres daily in most instances. An ordinary standard for diverse persons is 1 millilitre for each calorie of food. Most of this quantity is contained in prepared foods. If the last, crucial sentence is ignored, the statement could be interpreted as instruction to drink eight glasses of water a day.

Another endorsement may have come from a prominent nutritionist, Frederick Stare, who once recommended, without references, the consumption "around 6 to 8 glasses per 24 hours," which could be "in the form of coffee, tea, milk, soft drinks, beer, etc." The complete lack of evidence supporting the recommendation to drink six to eight glasses of water a day is exhaustively catalogued in an invited review by Heinz Valtin in the American Journal of Physiology. Furthermore, existing studies suggest that adequate fluid intake is usually met through typical daily consumption of juice, milk, and even caffeinated drinks. In contrast, drinking excess amounts of water can be dangerous, resulting in water intoxication, hyponatraemia, and even death.


The List:

1. People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day
   
2. We use only 10% of our brains
   
3. Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death
   
4. Shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, or coarser
   
5. Reading in dim light ruins your eyesight
   
6. Eating turkey makes people especially drowsy
   
7. Mobile phones create considerable electromagnetic interference in hospitals.
   
   

Comment: I had my own encounter with medical myth # 1 this year. I saw a throat specialist and then visited a speech therapist twice (I was hoarse). The speech therapist said I should drink my weight ÷ 2 ounces of fluid a day. I weigh 235 so that would be 117 oz a day. The speech therapist told me that juice, milk, diet soda, and coffee did not count. It had to be 117 oz of water! I take a large thermos (32 oz) of water to work every day. One day I tried to drink that times 2. 64 oz is a lot of water! I never made it to the 117 oz!

As for medical myth # 4, my bald pate is proof of this myth!

Leaving just two

Oldest WWI vet dies, leaving just 2 comrades

Excerpt:

J. Russell Coffey, the oldest known surviving U.S. veteran of World War I, has died. The retired teacher, one of only three U.S. veterans from the "war to end all wars," was 109.

Coffey died Thursday at the Briar Hill Health Campus in North Baltimore, where he had lived for the past four or five years, said Gaye Boggs, nursing director at the nursing home. No cause of death has been determined, she said Friday. His health began failing in October.

More than 4.7 million Americans joined the military from 1917-1918. Coffey never saw combat because he was still in basic training when the war ended.

The two remaining U.S. veterans are Frank Buckles, 106, of Charles Town, West Virginia; and Harry Richard Landis, 108, of Sun City Center, Florida, according to the Veterans Affairs Department. In addition, John Babcock, 107, of Spokane, Washington, served in the Canadian army and is the last known Canadian veteran of the war.

Comment: I found this interesting. Hard to believe that of 4,700,000 only 2 remain! And both of those are over 100!

Kerfuffle over the 'Mosque' at Normandale

Comments: This interests me on several levels: My Son attends Normandale, it is a local story, it deals with religious tolerance and religious liberty, I sensed perhaps a Christian overreaction, and the ACLU is involved. This post documents what I see of the kerfuffle (I like this word!).


Katherine Kersten: Normandale's 'meditation room' is home to a single faith

Excerpt:

Last week, I visited a Muslim place of worship. A schedule for Islam's five daily prayers was posted at the entrance, near a sign requesting that shoes be removed. Inside, a barrier divided men's and women's prayer space, an arrow informed worshippers of the direction of Mecca, and literature urged women to cover their faces.

Sound like a mosque?

The place I'm describing is the "meditation room" at Normandale Community College, a 9,200-student public institution in Bloomington.

Until recently, the room was the school's only usable racquetball court. College administrators converted the court into a meditation room when construction forced closure of the previous meditation room.



Worldnetdaily: BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS - 'Mosque' uncovered on college campus


Terry Hagedorn thread: 'Mosque' Uncovered on College Campus

Minnsota Sun Sailor: Normandale intended meditation space for all faiths, college president says


Minnesota ACLU: ACLU-MN inquires into Normandale Community College Meditation Room

Quote:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota announced today that it is investigating Normandale Community College's meditation room after receiving complaints of improper use. The ACLU-MN is concerned that way the prayer room is currently structured may violate the establishment clause, which states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

The ACLU-MN sent a letter yesterday to Normandale Community College asking for more information about how exactly the prayer room is used, and explaining what the current laws say about reasonable accommodation. ACLU-MN does not oppose allowing students a space to pray but the school must allow students of all denominations equal access to space. In the letter to Normandale Community College we urge that if the allegations are indeed true that Normandale must take immediate action to remedy the problem.

"The wisdom of our founding fathers on the entanglement of religion and government is as important today as it was 200 years ago," said Charles Samuelson, executive director of the ACLU Minnesota.

Comment: A kefuffle indeed! ... life goes on! Best not to overreact! (The ACLU has sometimes been criticized by Christians: eg. when school prayer was ruled unconstitutional by the Supremed Court (The ACLU represented Engle in Engle v Vitale (1962))

Sam Macalus: Plymouth Metrolink's 500,000th rider

Plymouth Metrolink rewards 500,000th rider

Excerpt:

It's easy for one day to blend into another when a person follows the same routine day after day, but Friday, Dec. 7, broke the pattern for one area resident.

When Plymouth Metrolink pulled into Plymouth's Station 73 Park and Ride Friday afternoon and Sam Macalus stepped off the bus, he was greeted by Plymouth Transit Coordinator Bernie Maciej and a series of camera flashes.

Macalus was the 500,000th rider on Plymouth Metrolink in 2007.

...

The bus-stop celebration came as a complete surprise to Macalus, who lives in Maple Grove and rides Metrolink on his way to the University of Minnesota, where he's a student.

"It's really nice to be able to get downtown so fast," Macalus said. "It's faster than driving, and I'm never stuck in traffic."

Comment: Sam worships with us at 4th Baptist. The print edition of the Sun Sailor had a picture of Sam on the front page today!

Long weekend

Kathee and I have tomorrow off. Kathee has many projects and I have a few little ones. Kathee makes German Christmas candy, Ginger bread cookies, and homemade Chex Mix. Those are her tomorrow projects.

My tomorrow project is to have our water softener serviced (I don't do the work ... Surge does! But I need to be there for that.).

I had my hair cut at the Crossings Skyway Barbers today. I had a free half an hour and walked over there. It's the first haircut I've paid for in several years. I got it all cut off ... shorter than Kathee does it. The young stylist, Chelsey, asked me what I wanted ... I told her I wanted hair extentions with beads and a blue stripe. We got off to a good start!

Living without Microsoft Office

Yes, There Can Be Life After Word

Excerpts:

The advantage to Google Docs is that you can work on a document at home on one computer, store it and then grab the same document on another computer, even at the office. You could work on the document with any computer that has an Internet connection. (There’s the hitch: you can’t work on it while on a plane.)

Actually, there is another hitch. You store the documents on Google servers. That might make someone dealing with important documents nervous, if you think Google might be looking at them or that someone might hack in.

....

You can also get good free office applications that reside on your PC the old-fashioned way from Abiword.com or OpenOffice.org


Comment: I'm a little spoiled because I have all the tools provided by my employer. We can even buy Office at a substantial discount for personal use. I love computing "in the cloud" ... having everything on the Net instead of on my MacBook, or Dell, or Vista HP, or Lenovo Thinkpad. Work stuff ... is on a shared drive. Personal stuff is "in the cloud". I've used Open Office on a Linux workstation for work processing and for spreadsheets ... it does everything that I would do in Word of Excel. The Office product that I love is Access. I've used AbiWord as well. It is capable!

How John McCain will win the GOP nomination

The McCain Scenario: Traveling with the candidate in New Hampshire, you see how he could be the GOP nominee

Excerpt:

In a new Rasmussen poll in the Granite State, McCain has already surged to within four points of Romney, who as the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts has been on the air here for five years. Once again independents gravitate to McCain. Should he even finish a close second, he'll beat the expectations spread, though he arguably needs to win in order to get the money necessary to stagger to the next primary.


Comment: In my own view, Huckabee will Iowa but falter in New Hampshire. I have held all along that McCain is the strongest GOP contender!

Wells Fargo Economists: 2008 forecast

Wells Fargo Economists: Economy Continues to Slow, Recession Unlikely in '08

Excerpts:

"Healthy export growth and continued business spending will help the economy steer clear of an outright recession, but I believe that won't be significant enough to prevent an economic slowdown in 2008," said Dr. Scott Anderson, senior economist for Wells Fargo & Company. "Rapidly cooling earnings growth and rising economic uncertainty will make U.S. companies reluctant to undertake ambitious expansion plans in 2008."

---

Jim Peet's Forecast for 2008

Comment: I'm not much about forecasting (so this is probably near worthless) but I thought I would take my own stab at forecasting and then check back a year from now and see how badly I did:

Sports: Green Bay and New England in the Super Bowl ... Green Bay wins! (If I really had any "faith" I would say the Vikes and New England ... but I am a realist!

Politics: Hillary vs. McCain. McCain wins the Presidency! (Frankly I don't really have a clue ... but I am putting my stake in the ground and will wait to see what happens)

Stocks:

Stock	12/20/07	Forecast 12/20/08
Dow	13,180	14,200
NASDAQ	2,617	2,800
S&P 500	1,451	1,525
WFC	30	36
MMM	84	97

Gasoline: Today in Plymouth = $ 2.799 ... in a year = $ 3.290 Plymouth gasoline prices

Fourth Baptist Church: Our Senior Pastor will be installed on March 2nd, 2008 (please know I have no inside track! Don't take this as anything other than a guess!)

The New Tolerance--Believe Evolution, or "You're Fired!"

In March of 2004, biologist Nathaniel Abraham, Ph.D., was fired from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, a highly esteemed research facility based in New England. The cause? His religious beliefs differed from those of his supervisor. Dr. Abraham believes that God created the world. His supervisors believe that the process of evolution explains all that now exists.

Dr. Abraham, a scholar and noted research scientist whose specialty is the zebrafish, was fired after revealing to his supervisor in a private conversation that he believed in Creation, a belief that is somehow widely discouraged and disapproved of in today's scientific community. Dr. Abraham’s private beliefs did not affect his ability to do the job for which he had been hired, but his supervisors refused to tolerate his private faith. Although the tenets of evolution cannot be proven in laboratories any more than Creation can be proven according to the scientific method, most scientists would rather place their faith in evolution than in a Creator. And they are now apparently attempting to require that everyone who works in the field of science share their personal faith in evolution or be banned from that profession.

The Christian Law Association is representing Dr. Abraham in a lawsuit against WHOI to test whether America’s courts will permit this sort of blatant religious discrimination, which would result in limiting those working in the field of science to only those that share a common faith in the tenets of evolution.

To read more about this ongoing case, click on one of the following links:

onenewsnow.com

foxnews.com


Comment: From Christian Law Association Email Alert