Vacation photo's # 2

Titanic exhibit

Henry J outside of 50's diner

Starlight theatre

Steve Green (my cousin)

Fish hatchery

Fish hatchery

Truman birthplace (Lamar, MO)

Beatles tribute band

Vacation photo's # 1

Condo:

Back from Branson

We arrived home from vacation at 6:30 tonight. We ordered pizza in and now are relaxing. I took a lot of pictures but need to upload to Photobucket before I post any.

Here's a summary of our trip:

1. We had a 2 bedroom / 2 bath condo. While we only used one bedroom the spaciousness of the condo was nice.
   
2. We attended 5 shows:
   
   
   
   1. Andy Williams
      
   2. Spirit of the Dance
      
   3. Lost in the 50's with the Platters
      
   4. Johnny Cash ... a Tribute
      
   5. Liverpool Legends
      
   
   
3. We toured The Titanic
   
   Other:
   
   
   
   1. Just like last year, I was called (cell phone) about a work issue. I called my boss and passed it onto him
      
   2. We had discounted tickets to all of the shows - only spent $ 142 total on show tickets
      
   3. I endured 2 time share presentions (how we got discounted tickets) and managed to NOT buy! NO NO NO!!! (You have to practice this in front of a mirror before a time share presentation!)
      
   4. We ate most meals at the condo ... saving $$$
      
   5. We had some car issues ... I think the alternator is going bad. Also the transmission shifted funny multipl times today. Both will have to be looked at
      
   6. We worshiped at Branson Bible Church last Sunday
      
   
   
4. We visited the The Veterans Memorial
   
5. We visited Eureka Springs
   
6. We connected with my cousin, Steve Green, in Mena Arkansas.
   
7. We drove over 2000 miles
   
8. I read most of the books that I took along
   

Missionary dating

A Match Made on Earth: When Christians date outside the fold.

I could be considered the beneficiary of "missionary dating". Back in 1969 I met and dated Brenda, later attended her church, and in the Fall of that year was saved.

In retrospective, it was not a healthy relationship. It was not a Christ honoring relationship. My conclusion: "missionary dating" is an oxymoron!

Excerpt from the article:

For evangelicals who want to pair up with others of the same faith but don't manage to do so in their early 20s, trouble lies ahead, particularly for women. Evangelical churches now typically have a 60-40 split between women and men, which means that there are many more single evangelical women out there than their male counterparts. As Ms. Cockrel explains, "I have friends who wanted to marry a Christian guy, are still single, and are more and more open to dating non-Christians as they get older. They're tired of waiting."

Margaret Nagib, a 35-year-old single psychologist who lives outside of Chicago, sympathizes. "Sometimes it's just nice to go out on a date." Ms. Nagib was seeing a non-Christian for three months earlier this year. She talked with him very early on about her faith and even told him that she would "never consider being serious with someone who wasn't Christian." Ms. Nagib says that when he told her he was agnostic, she could have ended it right then, but the two "clicked really well." He went to church with her and read a book on Christianity that she recommended, but ultimately the two broke up. He asked how her faith would affect their relationship if they got married. "When I think of our wedding ceremony, I want it to glorify God. And when I think of marriage and obviously children, they should glorify God."

------
But pastors regularly remind their flocks to avoid dating outside the faith. Lee Strobel, formerly a teaching pastor at Saddleback Church in Southern California and the author of "Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch in Marriage," tells people that "conjugal evangelism" doesn't work. "If you're feeling like if I just marry this person, I'll be able to influence him toward God, it's self-deception." He notes that "the nonbeliever is more likely to pull the Christian away from his faith." This is a contention, by the way, that sociologists, like Brad Wilcox at the University of Virginia, generally support. Mr. Wilcox explains: "Evangelicals who marry nonevangelicals are typically less likely to remain as or become as devout as those who marry within the fold."

Vacation

We are packing up and leaving tomorrow for Branson, Missouri.

We've never been there and so we don't know what to expect. We have a condo rented for the entire week commencing on Saturday.

What I hope to do:

1. Read. I am taking 3 Mac OS X books, the DBTS journal, The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in an Age of Deception, Holy Habits: A Womans Guide to Intentional Living (Kathee's book), World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism, Reclaiming The Center: Confronting Evangelical Accommodation In Postmodern Times, and Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications (which I've half read).
   
2. Not work or think about work!
   
3. Not use the Internet
   
4. Take some photos
   
5. Worship somewhere I've never been on Sunday (to be determined)
   
6. Eat BBQ in Independence MO (tomorrow night I hope!)
   
7. Take in 2-3 shows at Branson (to be determined)
   
8. Visit Titanic exhibit in Branson
   
9. Visit Eureka Springs, MO
   

Work:

1. Another stressful week at work but I am going to close my eyes in sleep tonight and not think about it
   
2. I left with ZERO emails in my inbox
   

Other:

1. I got the MAC ICAL application to subscribe to 4 Google calendars that I maintain. I was having a hard time figuring it out and was on the phone with Apple for 2 hours. They couldn't figure it out either
   
2. After taking an hour break, I subscribed the New York Yankees calendar ... saw how that worked and then followed that path with my Google calendars. EZ. Sadly I wasted 2 hours of my time and an Apple technicians time when it was (as we call it in the business) "probable user error"
   

Roger is watching the house, mowing, feeding the cats, changing cat litter, watering plants, picking up the newspapers and the mail.

Praise: Last October when we left on vacation my back was bothering me. I've had back pain for most of the last 11 months (including pain stepping with left foot, and weakness in my left leg). About August the 15th it stopped. My left leg is stronger. I'm not sure why the change, but I give God the glory and the praise for it.

So blog readers ... I'm signing off ... and won't be back until Sunday 9/23!

ATM fees

Bank of America raises ATM fees to $3

Excerpt:

Bank of America Corp. has raised surcharges for non-customers at most of its ATMs nationwide to $3 from $2.

The Charlotte-based bank, which has more than 17,000 ATMs, made the change in most markets in July and August, spokeswoman Betty Riess said.

Bank of America (Charts, Fortune 500) has the largest ATM network in the United States and the higher fees could affect millions who do not hold consumer banking accounts there.

Comment: Ingdirect has a product called Electric Orange that has free ATM's

Fudging attendance numbers

I'm not talking about churches who claim to have untold numbers in Sunday School (think "World's Largest Sunday School!").

Check out these two reports from a Major League baseball game:

After 12 Innings, Nats Left Feeling Vacant Grueling Day In Desolate Park Ends With Loss: Marlins 5, Nationals 4

Excerpt:

The loss, Washington's second straight to the Marlins, left the visitor's clubhouse at Dolphin Stadium nearly as silent as the stadium had been much of the afternoon. There were perhaps 400 people in attendance. Players seemed both exasperated and exhausted by the fruitless performance that barely anyone was there to see.

"It looked, actually, like an extended spring game," Nationals Manager Manny Acta said about the crowd at the stadium, which seats 75,000 fans for football games. "It was so sad, but we still got to play the game. [Linden] just hit the ball perfectly -- the only place he could hit it in the infield and beat it out."


MLB Boxscore: Florida 5, Washington 4

Official MLB attendance: Att: 10,121.

Comments: Of course the answer is the the official numbers are the "paid attendance". The picture in the Washington Post article is stark! 400 folk in a 75,000 stadium!

Peace for all ... except Israel!

Ahmadinejad: Israel "cannot continue its life"

Excerpt:

Iran wants "peace and friendship for all," the country's president said Wednesday while again denying Western assertions his nation is pursuing nuclear weapons and trying to destabilize Iraq.

But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a hard line against Israel, calling it "an invader" and saying it "cannot continue its life."

Previous Madman alerts!

News you can't use!

Earth Might Survive Sun’s Explosion

Excerpts:

About five billion years from now, astronomers say, the Sun will run out of hydrogen fuel and swell temporarily more than 100 times in diameter into a so-called red giant, swallowing Mercury and Venus and dooming life on Earth, but perhaps not Earth itself.

----

Dr. Silvotti said that the results showed that a planet at the Earth’s distance “can survive” the red giant and he hoped the discovery would spur searches for more like it. “With some statistics and new detailed models we will be able to say something more even to the destiny of our Earth (which, as we all know, has much more urgent problems by the way),” he said in an e-mail message.

Comment: Glad we pay these scientists for this hard work! Nice to know that 5,000,000,000 years from now the earth will survive!

Now what's really going to happen:

2 Peter 3:10-13, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

Shrinking kilogram

Official prototype of kilogram mysteriously losing weight

The 118-year-old cylinder that is the international prototype for the metric mass, kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing weight -- if ever so slightly. Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.

"The mystery is that they were all made of the same material, and many were made at the same time and kept under the same conditions, and yet the masses among them are slowly drifting apart," he said. "We don't really have a good hypothesis for it."

Comment: For me the masses are slowing coming together!

Fetch FTP and Unix commands

Tonight's MAC projects:

1. I downloaded and installed Fetch FTP and tried it out with my jrpeet.com site. Works fine. I may still by CuteFTP as I like that interface a little better.
   
2. I received Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger today and scanned through it. I will be taking this on vacation with me.
   
3. I was unable to register the ICAL (calendar) product. I intend to call Apple support tomorrow night (must call before 8)
   
4. Roger showed me how to enable the right mouse click with the Mighty Mouse.
   

Much still to learn!

Two people today (a coworker and my Son) asked me how I would compare / contrast Vista with OS X Tiger. I have been using Vista at work for 6 months. Almost all of my daily work is done on Vista so I have a lot of experience with it. I think that OS X Tiger has it all over Vista. There is no comparison! The transition from XP or Vista to OS X has a little bit of a learning curve, but OS X is much more intuitive and friendly. I love it.

Also, my MACBook runs significantly cooler than my Dell / and is quieter!

Challenge to Global Warming

Challenge to Scientific Consensus on Global Warming: Analysis Finds Hundreds of Scientists Have Published Evidence Countering Man-Made Global Warming Fears

Excerpts:

More than 500 scientists have published evidence refuting at least one element of current man-made global warming scares.
-------
Despite being published in such journals such as Science, Nature and Geophysical Review Letters, these scientists have gotten little media attention. "Not all of these researchers would describe themselves as global warming skeptics," said Avery, "but the evidence in their studies is there for all to see."
-------
"Two thousand years of published human histories say that the warm periods were good for people," says Avery. "It was the harsh, unstable Dark Ages and Little Ice Age that brought bigger storms, untimely frost, widespread famine and plagues of disease." "There may have been a consensus of guesses among climate model-builders," says Singer. "However, the models only reflect the warming, not its cause." He noted that about 70 percent of the earth's post-1850 warming came before 1940, and thus was probably not caused by human-emitted greenhouse gases. The net post-1940 warming totals only a tiny 0.2 degrees C.

The historic evidence of the natural cycle includes the 5000-year record of Nile floods, 1st-century Roman wine production in Britain, and thousands of museum paintings that portrayed sunnier skies during the Medieval Warming and more cloudiness during the Little Ice Age. The physical evidence comes from oxygen isotopes, beryllium ions, tiny sea and pollen fossils, and ancient tree rings. The evidence recovered from ice cores, sea and lake sediments, cave stalagmites and glaciers has been analyzed by electron microscopes, satellites, and computers. Temperatures during the Medieval Warming Period on California's Whitewing Mountain must have been 3.2 degrees warmer than today, says Constance Millar of the U.S. Forest Service, based on her study of seven species of relict trees that grew above today's tree line.

Singer emphasized, "Humans have known since the invention of the telescope that the earth's climate variations were linked to the sunspot cycle, but we had not understood how. Recent experiments have demonstrated that more or fewer cosmic rays hitting the earth create more or fewer of the low, cooling clouds that deflect solar heat back into space-amplifying small variations in the intensity of the sun.


Major points:

1. Natural moderate 1,500-year climate cycle has produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to ours since the last Ice Age
   
2. Modern Warming is linked strongly to variations in the sun's irradiance. "This data and the list of scientists make a mockery of recent claims that a scientific consensus blames humans as the primary cause of global temperature increases since 1850," said Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Dennis Avery.
   
3. Sea levels are failing to rise
   
4. Our storms and droughts are becoming fewer and milder with this warming as they did during previous global warmings
   
5. Human deaths will be reduced with warming because cold kills twice as many people as heat
   
6. Corals, trees, birds, mammals, and butterflies are adapting well to the routine reality of changing climate.
   
   

Comments: Book looks interesting. My book queue is full right now so I probably will not immediately order it!

Another reason I don't use aftershave!

Wisconsin man sues when aftershave ignites

Excerpt:

According to court filings, Lewitzke was burned while camping with family members on Memorial Day in 2004 in Wisconsin Dells, a popular resort area outside of Madison.


He washed and shaved in a bathhouse on the camp grounds and applied Brut lotion to his face, neck and chest with his hands. He also used the aerosol deodorant. He then went to a fire pit to cook breakfast.


His face, neck and chest ignited while he was starting the cooking fire, his lawsuit says.


Lewitzke's attorney, Michael Hanrahan, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that his client suffered burns on 30 percent of his body and underwent three skin grafts.


He claims in court documents that the Brut products and their packaging were the direct cause of Lewitzke's injuries and were defective because they were "unreasonably dangerous.'' The suit also says the products' labeling was unsafe because it should have warned about the danger of fires, and the manufacturers should have tried to minimize that risk.


Brut's manufacturers and companies selling the products should be held liable for Lewitzke's injuries, medical expenses, and the pain and disability he has suffered, the lawsuit argues.


"Our view is there is no warning that after you apply it, you remain flammable for some period of time,'' Hanrahan told the newspaper. "You aren't thinking, 'I'm still flammable.'''

Comment: The other reasons: 1.) It stings; 2.) I don't like the smell; 3.) Seems like a waste of money!

Saving the General Store

Struggling to Save a Main Street Mainstay

Small Business
Struggling to Save a Main Street Mainstay
By STACEY STOWE
Published: September 9, 2007
Sounds romantic, but running a general store is anything but.

Excerpt:

THE newspapers for sale in the window were 10 days old, and the shelves were largely bare but for a few boxes of cake mix and saltines. Established in 1812, the Colebrook Store is the oldest continuously operated general store in the state. But since mid-July this nostalgia-soaked spot across from town hall, where the coffee is hot and the gossip lukewarm, has been closed for vacation.

To the dismay of many of its neighbors, it is on the market and may be closed for good.

“It is the center of town, as far as I’m concerned,” said Jerry Rathbun, the first selectman in this postcard-perfect town of 1,500 in the state’s northwest corner. “Without it, the whole place kind of dies.”

General stores are gradually vanishing, victims of changing economics and consumer habits. In Connecticut only a handful remain, leaving many towns with fluorescent-lighted gas-station quick marts instead.

In Colebrook, signs in the window of the general store said: “Closed for Vacation. Be back July 17.” Two days later, the door was still closed. Joan M. Durant, the town assessor’s clerk, said: “I don’t think it has ever been closed for vacation. Now everyone is waiting to see if it will reopen.”

Dennis Spector, a college professor who lives in town, was standing outside wondering where to get his coffee. “There’s no Starbucks,” he said.

When reached later that day, the owner, Lora C. Murphy, 53, said that, as a mother of two, including a daughter with special needs, she could not afford to continue running the store at a loss. Ms. Murphy has owned the place for about two years. Customers may rave about the éclairs and like the idea of running into neighbors when they buy the newspaper, she said, but that’s not enough. “It’s really hard because the local community sees it as a novelty.”

Comment: I'm not sure they are worth saving! One of my favorite childhood memories was the general store in Alto Michigan. Alto main drag is virtually a ghost town now. The hardware store is gone (that was a cool place, you could just walk in and buy BB's!). The bank is gone. So are most of the stores. I think there is still a bar there. Not news ... but people want quality at a reasonable price. In my teen years (perhaps my last visit to Alto's general store), the goods were dusty and the whole place had a certain dank spell about it.

Doctor Says Bills’ Everett Will Walk Again

Doctor Says Bills’ Everett Will Walk Again



Sports / Pro Football
Doctor Says Bills’ Everett Will Walk Again
By MATT HIGGINS
Published: September 12, 2007
One day after doctors described his condition as potentially life-threatening, Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett was moving his arms and legs Tuesday.

Excerpt:

The doctor who performed surgery on Everett, Andrew Cappuccino, said Everett’s condition had “improved.”

Another doctor, who has consulted with Cappuccino, said Tuesday that Everett could eventually walk out of the hospital.

“Kevin Everett is moving his arms and legs, his legs stronger than his arms,” said the consulting doctor, the neurosurgeon Barth Green. “He’s moving them both to a point, to a degree that he will end up walking. He will walk out of the hospital.”

Comment: Encouraging news.

Deseret Morning News reviews Mill City Museum

Milling around — Minneapolis' Mill City Museum pays homage to the flour industry

Excerpt:


Some people might question the wisdom of building a museum inside a flour mill that exploded once and caught fire twice. But, as real-estate agents say, it's all about location.

It's fitting that Minneapolis' Mill City Museum is housed within the ruins of the old Washburn "A" mill — the forerunner to General Mills — because it helped to make Minneapolis the "flour milling capital of the world" from 1880-1930.

And it's fitting that the museum is located next to St. Anthony Falls — the only falls on the Mississippi River — because it supplied the mills with water power to grind wheat into flour.

And it's fitting that the museum offers a view of the old Pillsbury "A" Mill across the river — another major mill that helped give Minneapolis the "Mill City" nickname.

The numerous mills that sprang up along St. Anthony Falls industrialized flour production and had a major influence on how Americans got their daily bread. The surrounding Great Plains grain belt supplied up to 175 railroad cars of wheat a day, to be made into flour and shipped all over the world


Mill City Museum


View Larger Map

Comment: Where we take out of state visitors. We've been here 4 or 5 times.

A bad day at the bank

Frisco Wells Fargo mistakes customer for a bank robber

Excerpt:

A man from Little Elm, Derrill Ewans, visits a Wells Fargo bank in Frisco in order to get a car loan. After carrying on as a normal human would with the loan officers, a bank teller observing the activities decides that he looks suspicious and calls the police. The teller calls the police a second time to report that Ewans had a gun. After police swarmed the bank, in addition to handcuffing his girlfriend who was waiting outside in the car with their three-year-old daughter, they took Ewans and made him lie down on the pavement while they held guns on him. After finally allowing him to sit up and holding him for 30 minutes, they realized that he did not have a gun on him, much less a desire to do anything in the bank but get a car loan.

Map Frisco, TX

Comment: He might go to Lending Tree next time!

Mac HTML editor

Taco HTML editor

Because I do some web work, I need both an HTML editor and a FTP client. I've used Edit Plus for over 10 years (and still use it at work!). I really like this editor. I also use it to edit Cold Fusion code. But alas, Edit Plus does not work on the Mac.

An Apple support person recommended Taco and I downloaded it today. It does not look as full featured as Edit Plus but I think it will work for me. It is also free! Hard to beat free!

I still need a FTP client. I'm going to wait until after I get back from vacation before I address this need.

9/11 Tribute site and victims list

This site is dedicated to the victims of September 11, 2001 tragedy

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 VICTIMS

Numbers:

CONFIRMED DEAD:	2948
REPORTED DEAD:	24
REPORTED MISSING:	24
TOTAL:	2996

Comment: I hope you visit the site!

The importance of savings

Save, Save. Don’t Splurge on a Piggy Bank, a Tin Can Will Do

Save, Save. Don’t Splurge on a Piggy Bank, a Tin Can Will Do.
By SHIRA BOSS
Published: September 1, 2007
Saving money may not be the sexiest financial move, but it’s probably the most important.

Excerpt:

Saving money is not the sexiest financial move, but it’s probably the most important. So start squirreling. Even if it’s the change from your pocket. Start incubating a nest egg, which is not just for retirement. A cash account may be for a flatter television set, a vacation, new clothes, a period of unemployment, a down payment on a house, car repairs or whatever treat you can dream up.

I know, times are tight and 7 out of 10 Americans report living paycheck to paycheck, meaning there never seems to be enough left over for savings. In 1985, Americans were saving $11 for every $100 they brought home; now the savings rate is around zero, and debt is at a record high.

-------

It is a widespread and harmful myth that one needs to make more money to save some of it. “We’ve met people who can save on a salary of $30,000, and people who have not a penny in savings and a salary of over $300,000,” said Manisha Thakor, co-author of “On My Own Two Feet,” a personal finance primer for women. “Saving is about a mind-set and a commitment, not a level of salary.”

When I was most stressed financially, I forced myself to put 5 percent of every check into an emergency account. It built up surprisingly quickly and ended up paying for surprise expenses that otherwise would have gone on a credit card. Now I’ve worked up to putting some cash from every paycheck into envelopes marked Goody Bag, which I dip into for luxuries like a nice teapot. That definitely makes earning money — and spending it — more fun.

“The powerful thing is that saving is not about deprivation, saving is actually all about spending,” Ms. Thakor said.


Comments: I thank my wife for having us on a conservative fiscal policy for the 33 years (will be 33 years in December) of our marriage. Interent banks have automatic savings plans (eg. ING Direct).

Is this any way to treat a patriot?

Trashing Petraeus: MoveOn.org, and the new standards of Democratic debate

Excerpt:

Important as was yesterday's appearance before Congress by General David Petraeus, the events leading up to his testimony may have been more significant. Members of the Democratic leadership and their supporters have now normalized the practice of accusing their opponents of lying. If other members of the Democratic Party don't move quickly to repudiate this turn, the ability of the U.S. political system to function will be impaired in a way no one would wish for.
Well, with one exception. MoveOn.org, the Democratic activist group, bought space in the New York Times yesterday to accuse General Petraeus of "cooking the books for the White House." The ad transmutes the general's name into "General Betray Us."

"Betrayal," as every military officer knows, is a word that through the history of their profession bears the stain of acts that are both dishonorable and unforgivable. That is to say, MoveOn.org didn't stumble upon this word; it was chosen with specific intent, to convey the most serious accusation possible against General Petraeus, that his word is false, that he is a liar and that he is willing to betray his country. The next and obvious word to which this equation with betrayal leads is treason. That it is merely insinuated makes it worse.

Denny Burk on: "General Betray Us"

Politics reached a new low in the run-up to General Petreaus’ testimony before Congress yesterday. The editors at The Wall Street Journal excoriated the slanderous tactics used against Petreaus and have called for congressional Democrats to repudiate MoveOn.org’s full-page ad in The New York Times which renamed the general “General Betray Us.”

Comment: Image is from Denny Burk site!

IMAP

Internet Message Access Protocol

Last night was my first experience utilized IMAP. Most email clients utilize Post Office Protocol (POP)

Last night I set up Fastmail with the Apple mail client utlizing IMAP.

IMAP advantages:

1. Faster response time because not all of the message is downloaded
   
2. The use of an email client on a main workstation (actually multiple clients are supported!) while still enabling web access from many workstations
   

When you look up traitor in the dictionary ... you see Kucinich's picture!

An exaggeration? Perhaps. You decide!

Clip: Kucinich on Syrian TV

Transcript: The U.S. Must Pay Reparations to the People of Iraq

Comment: From MEMRI

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent, non-profit organization providing translations of the Middle East media and original analysis and research on developments in the region. Copies of articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on request.

6 seconds to spare

Teen helps free woman from car seconds before 2 trains hit

Excerpt:

Thomas Foust was driving behind the woman Saturday night in the northern Chicago suburb of Glenview, Illinois, when her car turned onto the tracks and stopped.

"I saw the train lights coming and I said, 'This is a big problem,' " Foust told CNN's Kiran Chetry on "American Morning."

Foust, a trained lifeguard, put the car he was driving in park and jumped out, saying little to his friends, who got out and followed.

"Me and two of my friends, Tyler and Zach, we ran up to the car and started yelling and pounding on the window, and finally we got the door open, and we're like, 'Ma'am you need to get out of this car right now because there's a train coming toward it,' " Foust said.

"We unclipped her seat belt and basically just pulled her to safety and my friend, Tyler, ran and called the police, and ... we got maybe 10 feet away from the train, and it hit like six seconds after we got her out."

Comment: Teen hero! Good read. Video available!

In my prayers

Everett's injury 'catastrophic' - Doctor: Paralysis likely for Bills TE after spinal surgery



Cappuccino repaired a break between the third and fourth vertebrae and also alleviated the pressure on the spinal cord. In reconstructing his spine, doctors made a bone graft and inserted a plate, held in by four screws, and also inserted two small rods, held in place by another four screws.

Comment: This is close to the injury I had 20 years ago (Labor Day 1987). My injury was at C4-C5. I thank God that I can walk.

Happenings: Kathee very tired as she was up until 1 a.m. working a system issue. She is filling out rebate paperwork for the Apple Nano and HP Printer. I am exploring the MacBook. Tonight's reading was I Chronicles 21 & 22. I got my Fastmail account set up with the Apple mail client (using IMAP). Also I imported my address book into the Apple address book. I figured out Cut and Paste. I ordered 2 OS X Tiger books from Amazon and hope to in time to take on vacation.

"Perfect Storm" In Housing?

Washington Mutual Sees "Perfect Storm" In Housing

Excerpt:

Washington Mutual Inc said on Monday that most U.S. housing markets are weakening, creating a "near perfect storm" that may force the largest U.S. savings and loan to set aside more money for bad loans.

Chief Executive Kerry Killinger said the thrift may set aside $500 million more for loan losses than the $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion it had forecast in July. Any increase would be Washington Mutual's fourth this year.

Speaking at a Lehman Brothers Inc. financial services conference, Killinger said the housing market faces rising delinquencies and foreclosures, higher borrowing costs, tighter underwriting standards and tough capital markets, "creating what we call a near-perfect storm for housing.

"Most housing markets appear to be weakening, to us," Killinger said. "We would not be surprised to see declines in housing prices in many regions of the country ... for the next few quarters." He said corrections in the housing and credit markets will last longer than the thrift expected.

Comments: A bad time to have to sell a house. A great time to buy one! This is much like the S & L crisis in the late 80s!

Ancient escape tunnel

Scientists see how Jews fled from Romans: Archaeologists stumble upon Jerusalem tunnel used in A.D. 70


Excerpt:

Israeli archaeologists on Sunday said they've stumbled upon the site of one of the great dramatic scenes of the Roman sacking of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago: the subterranean drainage channel Jews used to escape from the city's Roman conquerors.

The ancient tunnel was dug beneath what would become the main road of Jerusalem in the days of the second biblical Temple, which the Romans destroyed in the year 70, the dig's directors, archaeology Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority, told a news conference.

The channel was buried beneath the rubble of the sacking, and the parts that have been exposed since it was discovered two weeks ago have been preserved intact.


Comment: Fascinating!

MacBook setup

I took the dive into the Mac world. Today was a hectic day.

1. Dan Brown preached this morning from Titus 2:11-15. Excellent
   
2. I mowed after church while Kathee went to the grocery store.
   
3. I spend the remainder of the day cleaning up the Dell and setting up the MacBook
   
   
   
   1. I moved all essential files onto a USB drive and deleted from the Dell
      
   2. The MacBook came up nicecly right out of the box
      
   3. The Airport Extreme router and printer set up was complex. Turns out that Comcast had to reset the cable modem remotely. But once that took place, all worked well
      
   4. I installed Firefox, Office, and Parallels
      
   5. New HP printer connects to the router and prints fine!
      
   
   
4. Apple has a deal where they sell a printer for $ 100 w a $ 100 rebate, and a $ 150 Nano with a $ 150 rebate. Of course it is a major pain to fill out the rebate paperwork and there is a 6 week wait for the rebate. But ... still nice
   
5. Kathee working (her IT job) most of the afternoon and still.
   

Nathan took the old Dell and the Brother

I have alot to learn about Mac OS X. I could not figure out how to eject a DVD / CD ... but Roger knew.

So this is my first blog from the MAC

Dell Inspiron 5100 bites the dust

The lower case "B" ... just does this " ".

After 47 months (I was holding out for 48) ... I am getting rid of it. Computer Renaissance will give me $ 50 bucks and wipe the hard drive.

My target is a MacBook

Time to reup on the Do Not Call

Do No Call Registry

Here's the official site to renew one's "Do Not Call" options. Also can verify your phone # at this site.

Metro Women's Center Board retreat

The Metro Women's Center board retreat was at our house this morning (9-1). Below is a picture of board. Colleen Tronson (Director) is in upper left.

Who knew?!

Osama New Bin Laden Tape

I find 5 things interesting about this:

1. He is a fan of Noam Chomsky: "among one of the most capable of those from your own side"
   
2. He is concerned about global warming: "mentions global warming and "the Kyoto accord.""
   
3. He favors lowering taxes: "He also speaks to recent issues grabbing headlines in the United States, referring to "the reeling of many of you under the burden of interest-related debts, insane taxes and real estate mortgages; global warming and its woes...""
   
4. He's not a fan of the Democrats! Officials: Bin Laden tape criticizes Democrats, corporations. To be fair ... he hates Bush!
   
5. He must use "Just for Men" to color his beard! (Image above from CNN). Compare earlier image!
   

And here's the kicker ...

""To conclude," bin Laden says, "I invite you to embrace Islam." He goes on to say: "There are no taxes in Islam, but rather there is a limited Zakaat [alms] totaling 2.5 percent.”"

He favors a flat tax!

How to repair your credit

How To Fix Your Credit

Intro:

If a low credit score is limiting your ability to get a car or home loan, there are five basic steps you need to take to raise it.

The process isn't complicated, but requires the basics of discipline and common sense. Remember: There are no immediate fixes and repairing the damage takes time.

"You've got to stop digging the hole before you can get out," says Gail Cunningham, Vice President for Business Relations at Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Dallas. "You've got to freeze your spending. It won't get better tomorrow unless you do something today."

Start by cutting up unsolicited credit card offers that arrive in the mail. Accepting similar deals allows you to run up large balances on several cards and transferring the balances to one card doesn't reduce the amount owed. Worse, the low introductory interest rate on a new card is likely to encourage more spending.

But don't cut up all your current credit cards. There's no need to conduct all transactions in cash. Creditors tend to view someone with no credit cards as a higher risk than someone who has managed a few cards well.

One major bank credit card and one oil company credit card should be enough. Use a debit card when possible because there's a direct link between spending and your bank account.

Steps (view article for full narrative):

1. Get your credit report.
   
2. Pay your bills on time.
   
3. Keep your credit card balances low.
   
4. Learn from your mistakes.
   
5. Write a budget – and stick to it.
   

Comment: There is a link on right column for the free credit report! See Credit Card offer Opt Out to Opt Out of those annoying credit card offers!

From "Learn from your mistakes" point:

Oddly, once you're on the comeback trail, you'll find it's easy to backslide because your finances are in better shape. It's much like dieting – mints look manageable after losing 25 or 30 pounds.

Friday happenings

1. One week from today we leave for vacation (Branson, MO). I have already halfway checked out!
   
2. My Brother-in-Law's cancer has gone from bad to worse. Today he will undergo gamma knife radiation surgery to destroy 2 tumors in his brain. Next week, my Sister will be driving him to Houston (from Dallas) for chemo.
   
3. Coffee with Larry N from work at 9:30
   
4. Dinner with a couple from church tonight
   
5. Tomorrow the Metro Women's Center's board retreat at our house
   
6. Fall projects: painter is out repainting the posts by our front door and trim around the garage doors
   
7. I have light programming projects planned for work today.
   
8. My new glasses finally arrived and I hope to pick them up tomorrow.
   
9. Article of interest: Don't Suffer the Little Children: A father of four explains the realist approach to parenting". Excerpt below
   
10. Interesting website of the day: the New Pamphleteer. The author of the Opinion Journal article above has published "Raising Wild Boys Into Men: A Modern Dad's Survival Guide" which is available from the New Pamphleteer.
    

Excerpt:

While some mothers and fathers stubbornly cling to the utopian beliefs of their childless years, the vision of humans as inherently sinful and selfish resonates with many of us who are parents. Nobody who's stood between a toddler and the last cookie should still harbor a belief in the inherent virtue of mankind. An afternoon at the playground is apt to make one toss out the idealist Rousseau ("man is a compassionate and sensible being") in favor of the more realistic Hobbes ("all mankind [is in] a perpetual and restless desire for power"). As a father of four sons, I've signed on to Mr. Sowell's summation of a parent's duty: "Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late."

The constrained vision indicates that world harmony and universal satisfaction are mirages. People are innately selfish, and they'll always desire more goodies. This means that tradeoffs between competing wants are inevitable. My wife and I therefore forbid our children to use the word "fair." Parents still in the thrall of the unconstrained worldview are prone to manipulation by their kids, who like little human-rights lawyers insist on fairness as an imperative. And don't get me started on the damage that an exaggerated sense of fairness and entitlement has done to public schools. In our house things are much simpler: That last piece of cake had to be divided somehow, and in this imperfect world your brother got the extra frosting. Deal with it.

While the unconstrained worldview teaches that traditions and customs are to be distrusted as holdovers from benighted generations, those of us with the constrained view believe it's good to make our children address their elders properly, refrain from belching at the table and wear clothes that actually cover them. Mr. Sowell noted that some benefits from evolved societal rules can't be articulated, because they've developed through trial and error over centuries. This reveals the sublime wisdom in that time-honored parental rejoinder: "Because I said so."

Rudy in St Paul today

Part One - Rudy’s Entrance

Part Two - Rudy Takes a Seat

Part Three - Coffee

Part Four - Coffee

Part Five - Rudy’s Parting Words to the Crowd

How about a Rudy / Pawlenty ticket!

From:
Coffee w Rudy (Part I) & Coffee w Rudy (Part II)

Keep your Honda for 225,000 miles

Consumer Reports says: keep your car for 225,000 miles

Excerpt:

The average car buyer trades his car in every five years. If, instead, you didn't trade your car in but kept it for 15 years, or 225,000 miles, Consumer Reports says you'd save $30,800. How'd they get that figure? If you bought a Honda EX and kept it for a decade-and-a-half rather than replacing it, you'd save $20,500 in new car expenses, depreciation, taxes, and insurance. The other $10,300 comes from the interest you earned on the twenty grand -- because of course you'd invest it responsibly, which is the entire reason you aren't trading your car in, right?

The magazine then gives a list of Good Bets and Bad Bets to make it past 200K miles, even with good maintenance. Every single car on the Good Bets list is either a Honda or Toyota.

Comment: For me, I'm tired of a car after 7 years! But the article is interesting and probably valid.

Amazing truck crash photos

Amazing truck crash photos spark Web debate

Excerpt:

Investigators estimated that the truck was traveling about 75 mph when it crashed through a concrete barricade separating the road from a roughly 200-foot precipice running alongside State Route 59.

What happened next has been described on Internet messages boards as "impossible," "crazy" and "insane." One Web site ran the photos under the headline, "I bet this guy will be in church Sunday!"

So stunning are the photos on the myth-buster sites that many people posting comments allege the pictures have been altered with Adobe Photoshop.

Not so, say the local police.



White Ute - Inches From Disaster

Excerpt:

"The Hurricane City Police department confirmed that these images "are consistent with a single vehicle traffic accident that occurred on State Route 59 in Hurricane City" on 30 December 2006, and that "Hurricane City Police and Hurricane City Fire Rescue responded to the scene."

Snopes: Living on the Edge



Comments: Per Snopes ... real! The Snopes pictures are the largest and slowest loading. The middle link has all of the photos, but smaller. Loads faster.

Retrospective: D. James Kennedy

The Coral Ridge Strategy: D. James Kennedy explains how lay evangelism can lead to exponential growth

Excerpt:

Finally the truth struck me like a bolt of lightning. I myself had attended classes for three years and had not learned how to witness. Not until someone who knew how took me out into people's homes did I gain the confidence to do it myself. And so I began the program that has continued at Coral Ridge for the past six years. I took out one person until he had confidence to witness, and then another, and another. And so it has grown. After the people are trained, they can train others.


In envisioning an evangelism program, a pastor typically begins by preaching on the subject and then inviting everyone who is willing to take part to come on some specified night to begin. This is the way we tried at first to motivate and recruit people. It was not very successful. The basic motivation will no doubt begin from the pulpit with sermons on the responsibility, privilege, and necessity of witnessing for Christ. However, our experience showed us that the actual recruiting should be done on a person-to-person basis.


Comment: This has been a year of passages for great men of God: 1st Jerry Falwell and this week D. James Kennedy. Kathee and I took the Evangelism Explosion training years ago and later taught this at Haddon Heights Baptist.

"Excellence in All Things and All Things to God's Glory" -- The Legacy of Dr. D. James Kennedy

Excerpt:

The death of Dr. D. James Kennedy is yet another reminder of what the hymn writer Isaac Watts saw when he wrote that "time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all its sons away." Dr. Kennedy died this morning at his home in Ft. Lauderdale. He had been out of the public eye since suffering a significant cardiac arrest last December 28.

----

He was a visionary with few peers. The motto inscribed on a flanking wall of the church's massive sanctuary certainly made an impression on me as a young man: "Excellence in All Things and All Things to God's Glory."

An open letter to pets

To be posted VERY LOW on the refrigerator door - nose height.

Dear Dogs and Cats,

The dishes with the paw print are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note, placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is not a secret exit from the bathroom. If by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years -- canine or feline attendance is not required.

The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough!

To pacify you, my dear pets, I have posted the following message on our front door:

To All Non-Pet Owners Who Visit & Like to Complain About Our Pets:

1. They live here. You don't.
   
2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. (That's why they call it "fur"niture.)
   
3. I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
   
4. To you, it's an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly.
   

Remember: In many ways, dogs and cats are better than kids because they:

1. Eat less
   
2. Don't ask for money all the time
   
3. Are easier to train
   
4. Normally come when called
   
5. Never ask to drive the car
   
6. Don't hang out with drug-using friends
   
7. Don't smoke or drink
   
8. Don't have to buy the latest fashions
   
9. Don't want to wear your clothes
   
10. Don't need a "gazillion" dollars for college.
    
11. And finally, If they get pregnant, you can sell their children.
    

Comments: Sent to me from my Sister-in-Law, Kathy Peet. Picture is "Emily". Emily was curled up in my sink this morning and would not move. I skipped shaving! (The little sacrifices for a pet!)

What Openness Theology Must Deny

The World From Our Window: What Openness Theology Must Deny

A good read!

Another on open theism:

Denny Burk: Greg Boyd Responds

Comment: Open theism is heresy!

(From Denny Burk site):

Abraham Kuyper: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”

Fraud w "straw buyers"

Alleged mortgage conspiracy led to $50 million in losses

Excerpts:

Authorities revealed in federal court Wednesday that they are investigating allegations of a mortgage fraud conspiracy involving about 200 houses in several southern Twin Cities suburbs.

The investigation is tied to a rash of foreclosures in New Prague and New Market, and possibly other suburbs, and some people who were renting the houses have been evicted. The government estimates losses of more than $50 million.

---------
The foreclosures are rooted in the sale of homes by Eagan builder Parish Marketing and Development to a small group of investors, according to the company's attorney. Loan documents were allegedly falsified to make the buyers appear as if they qualified for the mortgages when they did not.

When the housing market collapsed this year, those so-called "straw buyers" were unable to resell the properties, which ranged in price from $300,000 to $500,000. In some cases, the buyers managed to rent out the houses, but often the rental payments were not enough to cover the mortgages.

"All of a sudden, the pool of potential buyers who could take the mortgages off their hands significantly decreased," said Ryan Pacyga, the attorney for Parish Marketing. It left Parish Marketing and the investors with "overwhelming obligations."

A 30-year-old loan officer for U.S. Bank pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Minneapolis to one count of conspiring to commit mail fraud in connection with the alleged mortgage fraud.

Ramiz Yousef Saadeh of Apple Valley worked for U.S. Bank until last month. Saadeh said that at the direction of a homebuilder identified in court only as "Company A," he provided mortgage brokers with falsified financial data from 2004 through May of this year. The information was used so that "straw purchasers" could obtain loans under false pretenses to buy the homebuilder's properties.

Comment: There needs to be more oversight of the mortgage industry. If the industry cannot regulate itself, the government will step in! Image is from the Star Tribune article.

Why President Thompson?

The Thompson Effect: No dominant candidate gives Thompson a shot if he can seize it

Excerpt:

As the new kid on the campaign trail, press coverage of the Thompson candidacy will be voluminous. But media interest won't last any longer than voter interest if Mr. Thompson doesn't use it to put forward some intriguing ideas, and then show that he can defend them with conviction. Mr. Thompson will also have to demonstrate in short order that his fund-raising abilities can compete with Mr. Giuliani's extensive network and Mr. Romney's deep pockets.

With the public in a sour mood, Republicans aren't likely to win unless they make the 2008 election about big themes and issues. They need a reform agenda, and if Fred Thompson doesn't stand for something beyond his persona as a television DA and pickup truck populist, he's not likely to go the distance.

Comments: I like the Repubican field. At this time, I'm unsure of Senator Thompson. My ranking (in order of preference) as of today:

Rank	Name
1	John McCain
2	Mike Huckabee
3	Mitt Romney
4	Rudy Giuliani
5	Fred Thompson

Of the above, I view Rudy Giuliani as the strongest Republican candidate.

Is A McCain Comeback Still Possible?

Excerpt:

If McCain does decide to go for broke and hope that disaffected conservatives will return to the real McCain at the eleventh hour, here’s what he should do. First, McCain should spend the next four months visiting every nook and cranny of New Hampshire, a northern state that is more secular than religious, more Roman Catholic and Mainline Protestant than Evangelical, more fiscally conservative than not, and that has an affinity for mavericks of all stripes. If McCain can reintroduce himself to New Hampshire voters in a favorable light, he has a chance of scoring a major upset in the nation’s first primary. That will mean that after New Hampshire, Romney, the likely winner of Iowa, and McCain would each have a contest under their respective belts, while Rudy and Thompson would have no such victories. McCain’s next step would be to win Michigan, a Midwestern state that responds well to Republicans like McCain, with his understated cultural conservatism and domestic pragmatism. A one-two-punch against the rest of the field in New Hampshire and Michigan could do major damage to one or more of the frontrunners. Romney will probably snag LDS-heavy Wyoming and Nevada, but if McCain can build up enough momentum, he may be able to win South Carolina, the supposed Thompson firewall, or Florida, Rudy’s firewall. That could propel McCain into Super Duper Tuesday, where he could do very well in states like California and Illinois. And all this from a man who is politically as good as dead.

Fake motorcade causes summit stir

Fake motorcade causes summit stir

Excerpt:

Members put together a sham motorcade, hiring two motorcycles and three large cars on which they put Canadian flags. Police waved the motorcade through two checkpoints before pulling it over near the Intercontinental Hotel where Bush is staying.

Cast member Chas Licciardello got out of the car dressed in a white tunic and cap and wearing a long, fake, Osama bin Laden-style beard.

"No particular reason we chose Canada," cast member Chris Taylor was quoted as saying on The Sydney Morning Herald's Web site. "We just thought they'd be a country who the cops wouldn't scrutinize too closely, and who feasibly would only have three cars in their motorcade -- as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him."


Comment: They are fortunate they were not shot! A clever but dangerous prank!

The Chaser team charged and granted bail

Official "The Chaser" site

Importing Poverty

Importing Poverty: We can't ignore the facts. Only an act of willful denial can separate immigration and poverty.


Excerpt:

Why is it important to get this story straight?

One reason is truthfulness. It's usually held that we've made little, if any, progress against poverty. That's simply untrue. Among non-Hispanic whites, the poverty rate may be approaching some irreducible minimum: people whose personal habits, poor skills, family relations or bad luck condemn them to a marginal existence. Among blacks, the poverty rate remains abysmally high, but it has dropped sharply since the 1980s. Moreover, taking into account federal benefits (food stamps, the earned-income tax credit) that aren't counted as cash income would further reduce reported poverty.

We shouldn't think that our massive efforts to mitigate poverty have had no effect. Immigration hides our grudging progress.

A second reason is that immigration affects government policy. By default, our present policy is to import poor people. This imposes strains on local schools, public services and health care. From 2000 to 2006, 41 percent of the increase in people without health insurance occurred among Hispanics. Paradoxically, many Hispanics are advancing quite rapidly. But assimilation—which should be our goal—will be frustrated if we keep adding to the pool of poor. Newcomers will compete with earlier arrivals. In my view, though some economists disagree, competition from low-skilled Hispanics also hurts low-skilled blacks.

We need an immigration policy that makes sense.

Consider also: The Poor in America

McCain Hates you.

I really like this guy!

Can You Trust the NT Gospels?

Can You Trust the NT Gospels?

Introduction:

Are the New Testament gospels a reliable witness to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ? The question is a basic one, yet it is absolutely foundational to the Christian faith. If the gospel accounts are reliable, then we have overwhelming reason to embrace Jesus Christ as the Messiah. His ancestry, birth, baptism, ministry, miracles, teaching, death, and resurrection all lead to the same inescapable conclusion.

But if the gospels are not reliable, then we have a massive theological dilemma. If the Jesus of the Bible was not the real Jesus, then our faith in Him is almost surely misplaced.

Comment: The first article in a series. Image from Wikipedia: Historicity of Jesus

Also consider: The Consistency of the Gospels

One of the main beefs that critical and or liberal theologians have with the inerrant view of the gospels is that they claim there are so called "contradictions". Their claim is that the gospels are not cohesive (especially the Gospel of John) and do not correlate with each other feasibly. Dr. Mark Roberts debunks that myth by stating 32 similarities with all FOUR gospels...including John's Gospel account!

Interested in Trolleys?

Twin Cities by Trolley: The Streetcar Era in Minneapolis and St. Paul

A friend of Roger's loaned this to him. I only had an opportunity to look it over for 30 minutes (enough to flip through the pages and look at the maps and pictures and then read the epilogue).

The startling conclusion from the epilogue: government bureaucracy killed the trolleys by holding rates so low for so long (a nickle a ride for over 35 years!) that the owners could not get a decent return on their capital investment.

I'm interested in the book for historical reasons. I ordered 2 copies. One for me and one for a relative for Christmas.

Paganism intersects technology

Airline sacrifices goats to appease sky god

Excerpt:

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday.

Nepal Airlines, which has two Boeing aircraft, has had to suspend some services in recent weeks due the problem.

The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.

"The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights," said Raju K.C., a senior airline official, without explaining what the problem had been.

Feds: Buy a foreign car!

Ford, Chrysler irked at feds' potentially biased email

Excerpt:

Charges of anti-Americanism have followed the transmittal of an e-mail from the US Department of Health and Human Services to 67,000 federal workers. The e-mail, written by an unnamed member of the department, gives advice on buying a personal car and suggests making fuel efficiency the first consideration, citing the 2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid and Nissan Altima Hybrid by name. Then, based on a list from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, it suggests 12 cars to look at, all of them imports. It also specifically recommends staying away from SUVs.

Chrysler's position, via a spokesman, was blunt: "clear bias against American manufacturers." A Ford spokeswoman took a more diplomatic stance, saying "We find it puzzling that a government agency such as Health and Human Services is advising its employees on what they should choose as a personal vehicle."

Comment: I think the big three can compete against the foreign car makers, but it doesn't seem right that a federal department would direct 67.000 employees to buy a foreign car!

Trouble on Gardenview Drive

Can the Mortgage Crisis Swallow a Town?

Business / Your Money
Can the Mortgage Crisis Swallow a Town?
By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ
Published: September 2, 2007
At current rates, analysts expect foreclosure filings to hit a rate approaching heights not seen since the Great Depression.

Excerpt:

Over the last 18 months, the Egglestons have watched one house after another on their street, Gardenview Drive, end up foreclosed and vacant. Although lawns are still tidy and empty homes are not boarded up and stripped as they are in inner-city Cleveland, the Egglestons say Maple Heights no longer feels safe after dark. Nor do they have the confidence they had when they moved in a decade ago that this is the ideal place to raise their 6-year-old twin girls, Sydney and Shelby. So, in May 2006, they put their home on the market in order to move closer to Mrs. Eggleston’s parents in another middle-class Cleveland suburb, Richmond Heights.

They have had no takers. Although they lowered the asking price to $99,000 from $109,000, no one has even come to look at it in more than six weeks. “My heart panics every time I drive down the street and I see another for-sale sign,” says Mrs. Eggleston, pointing past the placards in front of her porch to others that dot surrounding yards like lawn furniture. “Some people on the street couldn’t pay, so they just left. The competition to sell is just ridiculous.”

Praying Biblical prayers

Prayers that are guaranteed to be answered

I found this instructive:

Tired of not having your prayers answered?
Try praying Biblical prayers....

1. Pray for Wisdom - James 1:5
   
2. Illumination of the Scriptures - Eph. 1:15-23
   
3. The Sanctification of the brethren - 2 Cor. 13:7-9
   
4. Fill us with joy and peace - Rom 15:5-6
   
5. Spiritual Strength - Eph. 3:14-21
   
6. Strengthened with God’s Power - Col. 1:11
   
7. Filled with wisdom & spiritual understanding - Col. 1:9
   
8. Filled with knowledge of God - Col. 1:9
   
9. The brethren would walk worthy of the Lord - Col.1:10
   
10. Love may abound - Phil. 1:9-11
    
11. Fruitful in good works - Col. 1:10
    
12. Pray for Laborers in the harvest - Matt. 9:38
    
13. Boldness to witness for Christ - Eph 6:19-20
    
14. The Gospel to Have Free Course - 2 Thes 3:1
    
15. Pray for souls to be saved. - Romans 10:1
    
16. The Salvations of Government Officials - 1 Tim 2:1-3
    
17. Patience and longsuffering with joy - Col 1:12
    
18. Endurance through Trials - Rom 12:12
    

Above from The Reforming Baptist

The Myth of the Uninsured

The Myth of the Uninsured

Excerpt:

The Census Bureau released a report this week, and it does some mighty powerful damage to the whole “47 million uninsured Americans” line we keep hearing from politicians. You know - those 47 million poor, down-on-their-luck, hard working American citizens who, according to Hillary!, Barack, and Johnny we need to pay for insurance for?

Well, that’s not exactly the whole story, according to the Census Bureau. They released some rather interesting facts - the two most important in my opinion being the following:

1. Of those 47 million uninsured, 38% of them make more than $50,000 a year. Over 20% of them make more than $75,000 a year.
   
2. Additionally, 27% of the uninsured aren’t even American citizens
   

---------
.... “a major reason for the uninsured “problem” is our failure to enforce our border.” Now that we have concrete evidence that the health insurance “crisis” in this country is in part directly linked to illegal immigration, any politician wishing to be taken seriously on the topic of health care had better be strong against illegal immigration as well.

Comment: I personally have known people who refused to buy health insurance when offered by an employer!

Backers of health plan for kids have other motives

Excerpt:

So ignore the politicians' rhetoric on SCHIP. Instead, look at what they approved and what they rejected. It becomes clear that expanding SCHIP isn't so much about helping poor, uninsured children get the coverage they need. Rather, it's an effort to chip away at private health coverage and move more and more people into a government-controlled health program.

The needy children, one fears, are just heart-rending props, meant to distract attention from the fact that Congress is moving ever closer to creating a government monopoly over health care.

"See ID" on Credit Card?

See ID? Don't do it!

Excerpt:

Thousands of consumers have written "See ID" or "Ask For ID" on the back of their credit or debit cards in lieu of a signature, believing the practice will thwart fraudsters.

After all, how could someone use a card fraudulently if they're asked to produce identification with it?

"Ever since I had my identity stolen, I have it on all my cards," said Matthew McGrigg, a 37-year-old executive for a Denver software company who watched helplessly as thieves drained his bank accounts with little more than his signature a few years ago.

But officials at Visa and MasterCard say unsigned cards are not only invalid, businesses should not accept them for purchases. And a card without the owner's autograph may actually be exposing the cardholder to fraud - and saddling the merchant who accepts it with the liability.

Comment: I still think it is a good idea! Image courtesy of Retail Management Online

My Year Inside Radical Islam

I completed reading My Year Inside Radical Islam: A Memoir today.

For a background to this book, read my earlier post: Journey of Faith.

Conclusions:

1. A worthwhile read.
   
2. I wish he would have had a chapter that elaborated on his conversion to Christianity.
   
3. An educational, sometimes humorous glimpse into Islam.
   

Labor day happenings:

1. We met friends from 4th Baptist for breakfast at Perkins
   
2. Roger worked and worked to get our string trimmer started ... to no avail
   
3. Today is the 20th anniversary of breaking my neck (Labor Day 1987).
   

Tree frog on the porch

It's small and not easy to see in the pictures. Kathee took these this morning before breakfast. This week when we had to the deck surface replaced, Kathee moved her plants into the kitchen. We have an orange plant that Roger grew from a seed. Now 6 1/2 years old. Several other plants, and a large rectangular planter. All these were moved inside for 3 days. Friday Kathee was moving the rectangular planter from the kitchen back onto the deck, and this little frog jumped out of the planter onto the kitchen floor. He hopped into a corner. Our three cats completely missed seeing it for three days and then missed this event too. This morning, the little frog climbed out of the planter and onto the deck rail to sun itself.

Iraq War veteran plates

Roger received his Iraq War Veteran Minnesota license plates:



The license plate bracket covers this phrase: "Iraq War Veteran"

Details at the State of Minnesota

Credit Card Offers Opt out

I saw this tonight on WCCO: How to Opt Out of credit card offers:

WCCO: Terri's blog


OptOut

Sick of credit card offers? OptOut! Comment: Married? Both husband and wife need to Opt Out. We did it tonight. Image from Directory of Opt-Out Links

Deck project

We completed our deck project this week. We had a product called Last Deck installed to replace our moldy, mildewed decking. Last Deck is aluminum - never need painting or staining and will not rot. (Kathee is holding sample (top picture)). Grand Exteriors of St. Michael was the contractor. We picked Last Deck because it is a Minnesota company that understands the harsh weather that a deck must withstand. We also procured new all weather patio furniture from ByTheYard. Bottom photo is of Bob Hegland, Grand Exteriors.

Fire hydrant 1, Bull 0

Bull meets its demise after a run through the crowd at State Fair

Excerpt:

The running of the bulls was an unexpected feature event on Friday at the Minnesota State Fair.

In a brief, frenzied moment, an angry bull charged through the fairgrounds, barreled past fairgoers, butted a faded red fire hydrant and died. No one was injured. And no damage was done to fair exhibits. "Even our fire hydrant is OK and good to go," said fair spokeswoman Brienna Schuette.

Comment: He will be available "on a stick" today! ("On a stick" is State Fair food!)

The permanent campaign

Presidential Leapfrog - The nominating process gets curiouser and curiouser.

Excerpt:

Sixty years ago, Presidential nominees were chosen largely by delegates to conventions held in late summer, between 60 to 90 days before the actual vote. That system gave us FDR, Truman and Ike, to name three better than average Presidents. It also gave us Warren Harding--but then no system is perfect.

Comment: I favor regional primaries that rotate voting. Earlier post: Uncluttering the primary calendar

Night out with Rachel

Tonight was my night out with my daughter.

1. She picked me up from work
   
2. We went out to dinner at the Monte Carlo
   
3. Ballgame was interesting as the Twin's pitcher took a perfect game into the ninth inning! Twins' Baker not quite perfect, but it will do
   
4. After the game, Rachel dropped me off at my parking garage.
   
5. A very nice time!