The Dog Chow Diet story

Yesterday I was at Costco buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for my loyal pet, Necco, the Wonder Dog, which weighs 191 lbs. 

I was in the check-out line when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog. 

What did she think I had, an elephant? 

So, because I'm retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. 

I added that I probably shouldn't, because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms. 

I told her that it was essentially a Perfect Diet and that the way that it works is, to load your jacket pockets with Purina Nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. 

The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story.) 

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care, because the dog food poisoned me. 

I told her no, I had stopped to pee on a fire hydrant and a car hit me.

Comments: From my brother. Photo sources: Dog, Checkout line, ICU

Pfizer Allergan Merger? A Spicy Meatball!

Pfizer, Allergan Considering Combining - A deal for Allergan would be the biggest announced takeover in an already busy year Excerpt:

Drug makers Pfizer Inc. and Allergan PLC are considering combining, in what would be a blockbuster merger capping off a torrid stretch for health care and other takeovers.

Comment: Love the retro Alka-Seltzer Jack Somack commercial

Save the Black Children - Get Married!

The Poverty Cure: Get Married - Black children bear the brunt of single parenthood’s harms.

Excerpt:

71% of African-American infants are born to unmarried women, compared with 29% for white women. The birth of a child doesn’t motivate many African-American couples to get married: 66% of black children are not living with married parents. Nor does it keep their unmarried biological parents together. About seven in 10 white children, from newborn to 18 years of age, are living with their biological parents, compared with one in three black children.

This matters because—as family-structure researchers Sara McLanahan and Isabel Sawhill note in the Future of Children, “most scholars now agree that children raised by two biological parents in a stable marriage do better than children in other family forms across a wide variety of outcomes.” Cohabitation is not a replacement for marriage.

On average, cohabiting couples stay together for only 18 months. Two in three children born to cohabitating couples will see their biological parents break up by age 12, compared with only one in four in married-couple families. That fact is vital because family instability is a major source of poor outcomes for children.

It turns out that the effects of family instability are measurably worse for boys than for girls—and worst of all for African-American boys. In a landmark new study, a research team headed by MIT’s David Autor and Northwestern University’s David Figlio find that relative to their sisters, boys born to poorly educated unmarried mothers have higher levels of truancy and behavioral problems throughout elementary and middle school, are less likely to graduate from high school, and are more likely as juveniles to commit serious crimes. Many of the gaps between brothers and sisters are larger for blacks than for whites.

... we should never imagine that efforts by government and civil society, however effective, can fully substitute for the influence of stable, intact families. True equal opportunity for African-Americans will take not only programs to boost black incomes, neighborhoods, schools and job opportunities, but also mothers and fathers living and working together to raise their children.

Comment: Another sad note: According to 2010 census data, African Americans make up 12.6% of the U.S. population2 but the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that black women accounted for 35.4% of all abortions in 2009 (source Google). Chart below source. Cake topper photo source.

The Gun Control Minuet

The Progressive Gun-Control Charade: After tragedy, politicians glibly call for unworkable reforms—then blame the ‘gun lobby’ when they fail.

Excerpt:

It’s notable how much the rhetoric has changed since the peak of the national gun-ban movement, when politicians talked honestly about reducing violence by constricting the gun supply—and what that would require.

In a 1989 Senate hearing, Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, a Democrat from Ohio, candidly explained: “If you don’t ban all of them you might as well ban none of them.” But gun bans proved unpalatable to American voters in even the most liberal jurisdictions.

In 1976 Massachusetts voters rejected a handgun ban referendum 69% to 24%, with 86% of eligible voters going to the polls. In 1982 California voters rejected a handgun “freeze,” which would have barred their sale, 63% to 37%, with a voter turnout of 72%. 

In the decades since, the politics of gun control have become a kind of minuet. Progressive politicians pander to a core liberal constituency with gun-control rhetoric, all while chasing the votes of the 42% of American households, according to Gallup, that own one.

The photo-op of the candidate duded up for hunting or skeet shooting is a common ploy. Once elected, these politicians advance incremental gun restrictions that are demonstrably inadequate—for instance, the now-expired ban on “assault weapons,” which barred new sales of a narrow class of rifles outfitted with pistol grips and adjustable stocks but allowed continued sales of the same guns minus those features.

Gun owners and Second Amendment activists understand that Howard Metzenbaum was absolutely right about the logic of supply-side gun control. So they resist incremental gun controls on the understanding that the latest proposal cannot be the last step. And when these half-measures fail, in either passage or effectiveness, progressives can always blame the “gun lobby.”

This interplay allows progressive politicians to claim they have no interest in gun confiscation, and still wax heroic about lost battles over glittery legislative proposals that in practice would not have prevented the crimes they purport to address. Everyone, across the political spectrum, should reject this kind of duplicity.

As a candidate, Barack Obama said that he had no interest in trying to take peoples’ firearms. Now, beyond the influence of voters, the president has begun to elaborate his true inclinations. This month he praised Australia’s far-reaching gun-control efforts. In 1996, after a lunatic used a semiautomatic rifle to kill 34 people in Tasmania, the Australian government banned all semiautomatic rifles and repeating shotguns.

Owners of these roughly 700,000 firearms (about a quarter of the country’s three million total guns) were required to turn them in for destruction. The government called this a “buyback,” but no one had a choice. This sort of confiscation effort would not work in the U.S., and actually would make things worse. For one thing, these types of guns have many easy substitutes. (An Australian-style plan would leave roughly 100 million handguns in U.S. circulation.) For another, Americans own roughly 325 million guns, orders of magnitude more than any other country. The U.S. equivalent of the 700,000 guns confiscated in Australia would be many tens of millions of firearms, virtually none of which can be tracked to a particular owner.

In 2007 the International Small Arms Survey studied 72 countries that had attempted gun confiscation or registration, and found massive circumvention of these laws: an average of 2.6 illegal guns for every legal one. So if Americans, steeped in Second Amendment and frontier culture, defied gun bans at only the average rate that has occurred internationally, the result would be many millions of guns flooding the black market. Still, President Obama’s open praise of the Australian gun ban is progress of a sort. It sets us on the path toward an honest debate about the confiscation policies that supply-side gun control inevitably requires.

The challenge is to get the politicians who continue to crave the votes of gun owners to speak as candidly about this as the president has. For instance, after strident but vague criticism of the gun lobby following the Oregon shooting, Hillary Clinton two weeks ago tepidly endorsed the Australian model, while getting all the details wrong. She asserted that it focused on automatic weapons (false) and suggested it was a voluntary buyback, like the “cash for clunkers” plan for retiring old cars (false). The Australian model was “worth considering,” but she said, “I do not know enough detail to tell you how we would do it, or how would it work.”

When an MSNBC reporter then asked the campaign’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, whether Mrs. Clinton was “suggesting confiscation of guns,” the answer was “of course not.” So, to the glib critics of America’s gun culture: You cannot continue to have it both ways. If vast reductions in the supply of guns are the key to stopping mass shootings, tell us precisely what policies you propose. And then tell us how you intend to square those policies with the fact that Americans already own hundreds of millions of firearms.

Comment: Blaming the NRA and blaming the gun lobby are favorite themes. In the comments section of this article is a valid observation: "Democrats demand that we are to not judge all Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge all gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics. Look to the most dysfunctional and murderous cities in America and you will find decades of Democratic Party ownership, er, I mean control". On voluntary "buy-backs" ...  I know many who would not comply.

Bill Boegeman: "Exploited" by student loans?

Student loans: Interest rates keep borrowers in the hole - Something’s wrong when $6,000 in payments cut debt only $700.

Excerpt:

Between my three banks, my total student loan debt as of Oct. 17, 2014, was $82,961.02. That’s how much it cost me to get a B.S. in social studies education from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

It was worth every penny. My education readied me not only for teaching but for life. I am a better person today because of the things that I learned at Mankato, and the knowledge and skills behind the paper diploma I received. Do I wish that it had cost me less? Yes. Do I think that it should have cost me less? Absolutely. Higher education is way too expensive in this country, and even though my debt is partly the result of more than three years of untouched accumulated interest, it’s still a travesty that anyone could end up $80,000 deep for a four-year degree from an in-state university. That said, if I could go back in time and see that price tag, would I still do it? You bet.

Here’s the part that really makes me mad: For 12 months, I have been making student loan payments of just over $500 a month. That means that over the course of a year, I put about a $6,000 dent into my student loan debt, or so I thought. On Oct. 17, 2015, a year to the day after I began paying off my loans, my total student loan debt was …

$82,264.27 

If you don’t have a calculator handy, that adds up to just under $700 less than I owed a year ago— $700 out of the $6,000 I put in that actually went toward reducing my debt. That’s about 11 percent of the total amount paid, just enough to reduce my total debt by almost 1 percent. Where did the other 89 percent ($5,300) go? Interest.

That’s messed up. I mean, c’mon, man, I understand interest. That’s why loans exist. The lender needs to see a return on their investment. I get it. But this is more than a return. This is a rip-off.

Full disclosure: I am making minimum payments. Had I chosen a different repayment plan and paid a little more each month, that huge debt would undoubtedly be just a little bit slighter, the percentage reduction a little bit greater. But the key words are “a little bit.” Either way, the lenders still win big. And those other repayment plans sucked anyway.

Could I afford a little higher payment if I cut out some social outings, canceled next summer’s travel plans, and scratched my monthly subscriptions to HBO and the WWE Network? Yeah, probably. But I enjoy those things, and I don’t want to sacrifice the quality of life that I enjoy today just so I can pay my loans off by the time I’m 48 as opposed to 52.

Some people say that these things are not mutually exclusive — that you can spend for today while also saving for tomorrow. That might be true if you’re making bank, but it’s not exactly true if you’re not. Every dollar spent now is a dollar not saved for later. Every dollar saved for later is a dollar you can’t spend now. And when you don’t have a ton of money left over at the end of every paycheck, this does turn into an either-or scenario. Either you enjoy life now, or you enjoy life later. In other words, you’re either making bank, or you’re making decisions.

At the end of the day, I don’t expect people to feel bad for me, a middle-class white guy who, immense student loan debt aside, has it pretty good. However, I do expect people to be angry at those financial institutions that are keeping me, and millions of others like me, from having it a little better. Those white-collar crooks who rig the game in their favor and then force us all to play.

Those lenders who are preying on the vulnerable, exploiting those in need of help for their own personal gain, and exacerbating the enormous gap that already exists in this country between the haves and the have-nots. As for me, I’m hoping our political leaders will figure something out, that they’ll come up with some kind of combo-platter solution that offers forms of student loan forgiveness mixed with caps on the exorbitant interest rates our lenders currently are allowed to charge. Until then, I’ll just continue being one of the millions of screwed-over young adults in this country, lucky and privileged enough to receive a college education, but not blessed enough to be born in an era where this kind of exploitation has been outlawed.

Comments:

• My daughter paid her way through 4 years at Mankato, She started working and saving at 14 for college. She graduated in 2007 debt free
• A simple math class or finance class would help Bill understand interest
• Was Bill exploited? No way!

Broadband in Minnesota

Minnesota Broadband Map

Tylenol - a Haiku

Just one liver to give. Tylenol.  I am actually taking a generic

The Kabuki debt-limit dance

A Senate Insider Reveals 3 Doomsday Scenarios That Could Blow Up Debt Limit

Excerpt:

“What usually happens with the debt limit,” says Manley, “is that Republicans go through a Kabuki process of having show votes before they do the right thing. They pass a bill [raising the limit] with all sorts of conditions attached, those get stripped by the Senate, everyone freaks out. Then at the last minute they pass a clean bill.” The reason Goldman Sachs and other observers are so mellow about the deadline this time is that hardline conservatives who threaten default lack a key point of leverage: They can’t oust House Speaker John Boehner because he’s already said he’ll resign next week. Boehner has said he wants to “clean up the barn” before leaving, which has been interpreted to mean he’ll put a “clean” debt limit bill on the House floor and pass it with mainly Democratic votes, as he has in the past.

Comment: Kabuki

The Kabuki process .... involves what is essentially a game of hot potato: To appease conservatives, the House passes a bill on a party-line vote with provisions attached that no Democrat can support; the Senate strips those provisions and passes a clean bill, which it sends back to the House; as midnight approaches, Boehner puts the clean bill on the floor and it squeaks through. But this back-and-forth takes time, owing to procedural rules and the glacial pace at which Congress operates

Oxycodone - a Haiku

Based on: Common side effects include euphoria, constipation, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, anxiety, itching, and sweating

Haiku formula : The haiku is a Japanese verse in three lines. Line one has 5 syllables, line 2 has 7 syllables and line three has 5 syllables.

Because no one reads this:

“Can you prove God exists?”

Apologetics and the Role of Plausibility Structures

Excerpt:

... if I were to find a box of cookies in my kitchen cabinet I would assume that my wife had bought them at the store and placed them there herself. If someone were to argue that tree-dwelling elves baked the cookies, packaged them for their corporate employer, and stashed them in my pantry, I would have a difficult time believing their claim; the existence of unionized tree-dwelling elves is simply not a part of my plausibility structure.

Everything that we believe is filtered through our plausibility structures — belief-forming apparatus that acts as a gatekeeper, letting in evidence that is matched against what we already consider to be possible. Plausibility structures filter out claims that we believe cannot be reasonable or potentially true. They don't necessarily tell us if a claim is true, only that the truth of the claim appears plausible enough for us to accept and that we are not wholly unwarranted in thinking it could be true. Whether we are gullible or skeptical, the beliefs we accumulate are those that have been filtered through plausibility structures at the individual and cultural level. These eventually form our worldview, which itself becomes a broad strainer that filters out beliefs that we won't even consider to be possibly true.

Comment: A good resource is http://www.reasonablefaith.org/ . I'm a big fan of the elves ... an investor in Kelloggs

Basic Muslim Doctrine - 5 Pillars

1. God. Islam insists that there is but one God, whose name is Allah. Allah, a personal God, is the creator, lawgiver and judge of the universe. In Arabic, Allah is grammatically incapable of the plural construction: Allah is the one and only God. The utter transcendence and oneness of God is repeatedly and militantly affirmed by Islam. Islam thus insists that God has no son or cohort.
2. Angels and demons. Islam affirms the reality of finite, immaterial beings. These are angels who are under Allah's control. Two angels list all the deeds of humans, both good and bad, and these deeds are produced duced on the Day of Judgment
3. Prophets. Allah inspires prophets to declare his message of submission mission to humanity. The first prophet was Adam, the first human. There are many others, including Moses, David, John the Baptist and Jesus (Qur'an 3:84), who is also known as the Messiah, sinless and a worker of wonders.
4. The holy books. Muslims believe that some of the prophets received divinely inspired books. Thus they accept the Torah (Taurat) as from Moses, the Psalms (Zabur) from David, the Gospel (Injil) from Jesus and the Qur'an from Muhammad as divinely revealed holy books.13 The Qur'an, however, is deemed the final and ultimate authority, having been directly revealed to Muhammad and flawlessly preserved since its inception. Where the Bible contradicts the Qur'an-as it often does-the Qur'an is deemed to be correct and the Bible in error.
5. The judgment of God. Nearly every chapter of the Qur'an speaks vehemently of the last judgment of Allah, and speaks far more often of hell than of paradise. If a person's good deeds outbalance the bad deeds (the score is kept by angels), he or she may hope for paradise as a reward. However, since Allah is regarded as utterly sovereign and free, an individual cannot know whether he might receive mercy or severity in the afterlife (Qur'an 36:54; 53:38). However, it is certain that a man cannot be certain of his eternal condition-unless he dies in a genuine jihad. Then his destiny is certain: endless life in the company of multiple, heavenly virgins.
6. Divine decrees and predestination. Allah is absolutely sovereign and views humans as his slaves, not his friends or his servants (Qur'an 17:16; 59:23; 74:31; 35:8). While Christianity and Judaism stress the providence of God, Islam does so to the extent that petitionary prayer is excluded. Prayer involves reciting parts of the Qur'an and invoking Allah's power, but does not include personal requests to affect his will.

On these six doctrines are placed the five pillars that make up the practices of Islam.

1. The first is the confession of Allah as God and Muhammad as his prophet (shahada). On the basis of this belief one is considered a Muslim-that is, one who submits to Allah. This act does not change the being of the person, however. One has simply confessed a belief, which implies a commitment to live accordingly.
2. Second, Muslims must engage in five daily prayers, facing Mecca (salat). These prayers are highly ritualized and physical, and require ablutions and proper postures. There is little sense of spontaneous prayer and no personal petition.
3. Third, Muslims are required to give alms (zakat), which amount to 2.5 percent of their profits to an Islamic charity.
4. Fourth, a yearly monthlong long fast during daylight is required (Ramadan).
5. Fifth, if at all possible every Muslim is to make one pilgrimage to Mecca, the birthplace of Islam (hajj).

Source: Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith, Douglas Groothuis, Chapter 24, The Challenge of Islam. Image Source

Islam and Christianity

1. Claim 1: The Original Holy Book (the Christian Old and New Testament) has been distorted
2. Claim 2: Jesus was not crucified
3. Claim 3: Jesus is not divine
4. Claim 4: God is not Triune (Qur'an 5:73)
5. Claim 5: Jesus was a prophet of Allah

Source: Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith, Douglas Groothuis, Chapter 24, The Challenge of Islam. Image source

Back to the Future - We've Arrived

Back to the Future - We've Arrived

Apathy and Hedonsim - Enemies of an Effective Worldview

Comment: Image source Apathy. Image source Hedonism

Apathy doesn't wonder about where does one come from? Why am I here? What's after this life?

Hedonism doesn't either but lives robustly, recklessly and debauched for today!

Recovering from Back Surgery

• The above is not my image but is a general image of a synovial cyst in the lumbar region
• My cyst was at L2/L3 and was 10 mm (.27 inches) in size
• The symptoms were manifold: pain in stepping with my right foot, weakness in right thigh, and pain in the back
• I had the surgery yesterday at Abbott Northwestern at 8:30 am
• I came home today at noonish
• I have a 3" incision in my back w 12 stitches
• I am not uncomfortable except when I move.
• I'm supposed to lay low for 2 weeks until the stitches come out.

A Tragic House Fire - What is the True Story?

Three children killed in north Minneapolis fire laid to rest - Speakers lament conditions that led to death of 3 children

Excerpt:

Large portraits of the grinning children lined the front of the church, honoring Latorious, 6, Latoria, 5, and Latorianna Thomas, who was about to turn 2 — all young lives tragically cut short in an early morning house fire on Oct. 4. “Now we’re here looking at three babies that could be doctors, lawyers, judges,” community activist Spike Moss told more than 100 mourners at the funeral on Saturday inside the Spiritual Church of God in Robbinsdale. “We want this to be a symbol of change. The only good from this is they were so innocent that they’re on their way to heaven.”

The children had recently moved from Chicago to north Minneapolis with their mother, Taneisha Stewart. It was their first night in a new rental property on the 2700 block of Penn Avenue N., and the furnace wasn’t working. With temperatures dipping, Stewart turned on the stove so her family could keep warm. Investigators have concluded that the electric stove started the fire, but they are still trying to pinpoint the exact cause. Arson has been ruled out, but authorities don’t believe Stewart was home when the blaze erupted, as she originally claimed.

... U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., called on members of the black community to take care of one another in order to prevent further tragedies. “No child, no matter how poor they may be, should have to withstand the boiling heat of Florida in July or the cold in Minnesota,” he said. “No family should have to turn on the stove just to stay warm.”

House Fire In North Minneapolis Kills 3 Children
Excerpt:

Three young children are dead after their house caught fire Saturday night in north Minneapolis. The family had just moved into the home, and we’re told they may have left the oven open and running in the kitchen to keep warm.

The children’s mother made it out alive, but the three children were trapped inside. The three children who died in the fire have not been identified, but they are 1, 6 and 8 years old. This house isn’t supposed to be still, or empty. Just yesterday, a mom and her 3 kids moved in.

As night and temperatures fell, firefighters believe the oven stayed on and open to heat the house. “They are not vented properly. They are not a heating appliance. They are used for cooking and not heating,” Minneapolis Fire Chief John Fruetel said. And that is what he says started a fire that lit up the dark fall night. “Unfortunately last night there was so much involvement of fire that it made it very, very difficult for our fire crews,” Fruetel said.

He said once inside, his firefighters made the most emotional of discoveries, two children who lost their lives downstairs and one fighting to live upstairs who eventually also died. “We grieve when we lose a child and to lose three is unfathomable pain for the family, for the friends and for us as the city of Minneapolis,” Mayor Betsy Hodges said.

Investigator believes Mom wasn't home when kids died in fire
Excerpt:

Investigators believe that a Minneapolis mother was not at home when a raging house fire took the lives of her three children. In a search warrant filed to obtain the cell phone records of Taneisha Y. Stewart, Minneapolis Fire Department Investigator Timothy Thomas said Stewart had no soot or a noticeable smell of smoke when officials arrived on the fire scene at 2755 Penn Avenue North shortly before midnight on Oct. 3.

The warrant states Stewart showed no sign of smoke inhalation, despite her claim that she was sleeping on the first floor and awoke to find the home ablaze. Thomas also added she did not require medical assistance and smelled of an "intoxicating beverage." "We do not believe she was in the house prior to the discovery of the fire. We would like to find out where she was and it would be at the time that we might arrive at perhaps submitting a case to a prosecutor," said Sgt. Sean McKenna, an investigator with the Minneapolis Arson Unit.

McKenna is requesting Stewart's cell phone records to try and figure out where she was when the fire started. The warrant states, "The lack of a competent adult inside the home with three sleeping juveniles under the age of seven is a factor in the deaths of the children." Stewart told KARE 11 the day after the fire that she did everything she could to rescue her kids. Six-year-old Latorious, 5-year-old Latora and 1-year-old Latorianna Stewart perished in the fire. Investigators believe the fire was caused by the oven, which was being used to heat the home as the furnace was out of service. While investigators say the fire did start in the home's kitchen, the official cause of the fire is undetermined. The request for Stewart's phone records, and cell towers that would locate her whereabouts on the night of the fire that killed her children was granted by a Hennepin County Judge. Those records will help determine whether criminal charges are filed against Taneisha Y. Stewart. However, McKenna said it is too early to talk about possible charges.

Investigators: Minneapolis mom not home during fire that killed 3 kids
Excerpt:

Investigators said the mother of 3 children who died in a fire on Penn Avenue N. in Minneapolis in early October was not home when the flames broke out. Latorious, 6, Latoria, 5, and Latorianna, 1, were all killed in the fire, which officials said started in the kitchen where the oven was being used for heat. According to a search warrant application filed in Hennepin County Court on Friday by Minneapolis police Sgt. Sean McKenna: The children’s mother, Taneisha Stewart, “showed no signs of having been inside the burning dwelling. She had no soot on her person, nor a noticeable smell of smoke. She was not coughing, short of breath, or exhibiting any signs of smoke inhalation. She did not require any emergency medical assistance." The investigator noted Stewart smelled of alcohol.

“Your affiant does not believe Ms. Stewart was present inside the home at the time of the fire. The lack of a competent adult inside the home with three sleeping juveniles under the age of seven is a factor in the deaths of the children.” The search warrant application said Thomas told investigators her home did not have a working furnace and she was heating the home with an electric kitchen stove with the door open. She said she had done this at a prior residence in Chicago, and “never had a problem.” The Minneapolis home did have working smoke detectors.

Comments:

• There is no diminishing the tragedy: Three innocent young children dead by fire!
• Representative Ellison seems to be blaming "the system" (or at least that's my take)
• I have questions about the house / landlord: The smoke detectors? The furnace?
• And I have questions about the mother? Was she or not there?
• Why did the mother move to Minneapolis? Where was the father?

Gub, Gum, Gun: American Paranoia

Panic strikes school after student says ‘gum’

Excerpt:

Dear Lobo Parents, This morning we received a report from a student that there was allegedly a weapon on campus. After investigating the concern, it was determined that a student thought he heard the word “gun,” but in fact it was another student asking for some “gum.” The safety of our students is always foremost on our list of priorities, so we take these concerns seriously. We continue to encourage students to report anything they see or hear that causes them concern. Fortunately, in this case, it was a misunderstanding and there was no threat to our school or need to conduct a lockdown.

Take the Money and Run -- (Movie Clip) Gub

Excerpt:

Allen (a bank robber), walks up to the teller and hands her a note that reads. "I have a gun. Give me all your cash." The teller, however, is puzzled, because he reads "I have a gub." "No, it's gun", Allen says. "Looks like 'gub' to me," the teller says, then asks another teller to help him read the note, then another, and finally everyone is arguing over what the note means.

Comment: Top image source

The Next Mass Killing : Lather ... Rinse ... Repeat

• Crazed, odd-duck, killer (who may or may not be a "mommy's boy", obsessed with violent video games and on antipsychotic drugs)   ...
• Targeted unsuspecting (students / shoppers / movie-goers / worshippers) at a ...
• #SoftTarget (school / mall / movie theater / church) that had been designated a #GunFreeZone  ...
• The President held a news conference where ...
• He blamed the #NRA and 
• Called for common sense #Gun Control (in which things mentioned in the first bullet point will not be considered)
• And called for a ban on assault rifles (even though an assault rifle was not used and all an assault rifle is is a regular rifle that looks "bad")
• The President ordered flags at half staff
• The #Killer is identified. He had a (Facebook / MySpace) page 
• And had posted a manifesto online only days before
• Though #Dead by (shot by cops / suicide) ...His name will be in the news for days until a ( hurricane / tornado / International incident / plane crash / major sports) story supplants it
• The Democratic party used the tragedy to raise funds
• The President flew to the stricken community to comfort the victims' families and score some political points
• A Wikipedia page for the killer was created

When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?

Timeline 

Justification - A most precious doctrine

Justification - Defined

Justification is the doctrine that God pardons, accepts, and declares a sinner to be "just" on the basis of Christ's righteousness (Rom 3:24-26; 4:25; 5:15-21) which results in God's peace (Rom 5:1), His Spirit (Rom 8:4), and salvation. Justification is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ apart from all works and merit of the sinner (cf. Rom 1:18-3:28).

Double imputation

Double Imputation is a doctrine related to Justification, which views the concept of imputation as applying both to Christ and believers. On the one hand, our sins are imputed to Christ who bore them on the cross. On the other hand, Christ's righteousness is imputed to believers whereby they are seen by God as cloaked in the righteousness of Christ. Justification, in this view, is based on Christ's propitiatory sacrifice as well as his personal righteousness imputed to believers, not any righteousness inherent or infused in man.

Propitiation

Excerpt:

Propitiation means the turning away of wrath by an offering. In relation to soteriology, propitiation means placating or satisfying the wrath of God by the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

In Rom. 3:25 and Heb. 9:5 the Greek word hilasterion (KJV, "mercy-seat") is used. It is the word employed by the Septuagint (LXX). translators in Ex. 25:17 and elsewhere as the equivalent for the Hebrew kapporeth, which means "covering," and is used of the lid of the ark of the covenant (Ex. 25:21; 30:6). Hilasterion came to denote not only the mercy-seat or lid of the ark, but also propitiation or reconciliation by blood. On the great day of atonement the high priest carried the blood of the sacrifice he offered for all the people within the veil and sprinkled with it the "mercy-seat," and so made propitiation.

In 1 John 2:2; 4:10, Christ is called the "propitiation for our sins." Here a different Greek word is used, hilasmos. Christ is "the propitiation," because by his becoming our substitute and assuming our obligations he expiated our guilt, covering it by the vicarious punishment which he endured. (Compare Heb. 2:17, where the expression "make reconciliation" of the KJV is more correctly in the ASV "make propitiation")

Key Verses (also in the definitions above)

Romans 3:21-26

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 4:20-25 :

[Abraham] did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22 And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”  23 Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24 but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.

Romans 5:15-21

But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. 16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. 17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. 20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Comment: Several key points.

• Abraham did not inherit justification. He was born a sinner like all mankind. 
• As an adult he had to by faith trust the promises of God
• The Law nor good works saved Abraham
• Men are called upon to admit our sinfulness, helplessness and lostness AND\
• Call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation
• That faith act results in justification. 

The man behind Black Lives Matter St. Paul is a slacker sucking on society

Meet the man behind Black Lives Matter St. Paul

Excerpt:

He .. graduated from Hamline University in 2008 with a degree in criminal justice.

But he says as he started real-world police skills training and applied for the Brooklyn Park force, he had a change of heart. He said it wasn't the job he'd seen as an intern. "I was able to get that inside look at the police department," he said. "I was able to see a lot of good officers working, and that gave me a good image of what police, what policing should look like, but again, when I started the skills academy, I didn't see that same image. The focus being so much on using force and deadly force just sort of turned me off to being a police officer."

Instead, he got a jobs as a cultural liaison at the White Bear Lake school district and most recently a Scholars Program organizer with Century College. But his job was cut, and he's been on unemployment as he's worked to start the Black Lives Matter chapter in St. Paul.

Comment: Advice:

• You've received a good education!
• Use your time to find and hold a job!
• Instead of disrupting the lawful activities of others!

I'm not opposed to the legitimately unemployed receiving benefits, but this man is a rabble-rouser who should be working! Per Google the unemployment rate in Saint Paul is 3.7%. He should be able to quickly find a job!

Media: Stop giving killers the "limelight"

'The more people you kill, the more you're in the limelight'

Excerpt:

The Oregon college gunman who murdered at least nine people has been named as _______________ - a 26-year-old who celebrated other mass murderers, attended a school for students with 'emotional issues' and said: 'The more people you kill, the more you're in the limelight'.

The killer, whose father is British and said he idolized the IRA and Nazis, on Thursday walked into Umpqua Community College in Roseburg wearing body armor and carrying three handguns and a rifle before shooting dead nine students and wounding nine more. Witnesses said he had made his victims stand-up and say if they were Christian before telling them: 'Good, you'll see God in a second' and shooting them in the head. If students answered anything other than Christian they were shot in the body. After his bloody rampage was reported to police he was then killed in a gunfight with officers with one source saying: 'He appears to be an angry young man who was very filled with hate'.

Oregon gunman left angry note glorifying mass killers

Excerpt:

The 26-year-old gunman in the deadly shooting spree in southern Oregon is believed to have left behind a document that glorified mass killings and bitterly referred to his lonely existence with few human contacts outside the Internet, a law enforcement official said Friday.

'You will never hear me say his name,' sheriff says of Roseburg school shooter

Excerpt:

The Douglas County sheriff says he will never utter the name of the man responsible for the deadly attack at Umpqua Community College and has called on news media to do the same. "Let me be very clear: I will not name the shooter." Sheriff John Hanlin said during a Thursday night briefing at a fire station near the Roseburg campus. "I will not give him credit for this horrific act of cowardice."

Comment: There's some common sense from Sheriff Hanlin - let's celebrate heroes and disregard  cowards ! Imagine ... with 10 bullets one can go from anonymity to celebrity. Nobody flunkies with a mental kink and hate have followed that path! In our age, one kills, and the President holds a news conference.

In Evil's Path - What Should One Do?

• Acknowledge the reality of evil. Shooters may additionally be depressed, mentally ill, et cetera; but there is evil in the world, there are evil people, and evil people will do evil things. In history - Hitler (his just end in the decade of my birth). Today: ISIS. The mass shooters who are apparently Nihilistic in their worldview. There is a character from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, a dark lord named Darth Nihilus was a reference to the Nihilism ideology as he devoured entire planets and did not care for living things at all.
• Know that we live in a time when the days are evil and it is not likely to improve.
• About gun control:
• We live in a nation where 270 million firearms are possessed by civilians
• Postulate #1: In the US, citizens have a right to own a gun
• Postulate #2: Guns have a legitimate use including sport shooting, hunting and self defense 
• Postulate #3: There is a place for legitimate vetting of potential gun buyers
• Postulate #4: No mentally ill person should be issued a gun
• Postulate #5: While the toll of gun violence is high, guns used in self defense have saved lives as well.
• Postulate #6: It is utopian to think that 270,000,000 guns could be removed from the hands of the citizenry 
• There is something about our society that is spawning young monsters. What to blame?
• Violence in media including video games? 
• The use of prescription and illegal drugs?
• The moral relativism that pervades our society? (How few children are taught the 10 commandments today?!)
• The worldview that man is of little consequence
• What solutions do I offer?
• Frankly I don't think demonizing the NRA (a favorite Obama target) is helpful
• We need to understand that there are soft targets that attract evil mad men
• A good man with a gun in the right place will deter evil men
• See postulates # 3 and # 4 above
• What can any one individual offer:
• Be a true follower of Christ
• Resist evil
• Support law enforcement (Romans 13:1-6)
• Expose falsehood (false worldviews) which lead to hopelessness
• Pray for our communties

Emily - Gone but not Forgotten

From January 2013

October 1st 2015

Comments:

• She was born March 2001
• And died today
• She was a lovely, goofy, little pet
• She was frequently on my lap
• Often slept by my head
• Would try to wake me up (most times successfully) by patting my face or pushing on my eyelid
• Loved by Kathee, Loved by my children, Loved by my Brother. Loving to all!
• I am grieving

September 2009

The universe is meant to make us feel small, to stand in silenced awe

Mars and the Majesty of Christ

Excerpt:

The vastness and beauty of the Milky Way should elicit a response from us. That response should be neither one of pagan nature worship nor greedy utility, but of wonder and awe at Christ Jesus in his infinite vastness and immeasurable beauty. We should likewise marvel at the truth that a God in charge of galactic orbits chooses to live with and in us. We are not adopted into Christ despite our smallness, but indeed on account of it. If the unveiling of Christ was met with a dismissed, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (Jn. 1:46), should we really be surprised that God, at even the cosmic level, chooses what seems insignificant and tiny to display the paradox of the wisdom and power of God in Christ (1 Cor. 1:20-31)?

The universe is meant to make us feel small, to stand in silenced awe. The gospel, though, tells us that we have purpose and meaning, not by our strength or our power, but because we’re hidden in the One who was dead, and is now alive forever, the One for whom every galaxy, seen and unseen, was made as an inheritance.

Comment: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork" (Psalm 19:1)

The national anthem of Hell is 'I did it my way'

Invictus


My Way - Lyrics

Comments:

• I memorized Invictus in high school and the mantra "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul" was my credo for several years. It's a good pick me up ... I can do it phrase / view that can move the needle from being a "C" student to a better student or from being dumped by a girl to "I'm going to stop crying and find another girlfriend".
• About Frank Sinatra and My Way: I am a Frank fan and I like the song!
• The "My way" / "Captain of my soul" works until one understands that God is the grantor of the soul and we are the grantee! As in the following
• "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand." (Deuteronomy 32:39)
• "What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?" (Psalm 89:48)
• "Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust." (Psalm 104:29)
• While still appreciating the expression of Henley's indomitable spirit, and hoping to have that same warrior mentality as I face my own trials; the "Captain of My Soul" view falls short when one is crumpled paralyzed on the ground after a spinal injury!
• This quote is instructive: "The national anthem of Hell is 'I did it my way'.” Peter Kreeft

Peter Kreeft is a brilliant apologist. Here's a helpful link to his writings.