The Bear and the Atheist

An atheist was walking through the woods.
'What majestic trees'!
'What powerful rivers'!
'What beautiful animals'!
He said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river,

he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him.

He turned to look.

He saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charge towards him.

He ran as fast as he could up the path.
He looked over his shoulder & saw that the bear was closing in on him.

He looked over his shoulder again, & the bear was even closer.
He tripped & fell on the ground.
He rolled over to pick himself up but saw that the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw & raising his right paw to strike him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out, 'Oh my God!'

Time Stopped.
The bear froze.The forest was silent.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky.
'You deny my existence for all these years,
teach others I don't exist and even credit creation to cosmic accident.'
'Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament?

Am I to count you as a believer'?
The atheist looked directly into the light,
'It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly

ask you to treat me as a Christian now,
but perhaps you could make the BEAR a Christian'?

'Very Well,' said the voice.

The light went out.

The sounds of the forest resumed.
And the bear dropped his right paw,
brought both paws together,
bowed his head & spoke:

'Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive,
from thy bounty, through Christ our Lord, Amen.'

Comment: Sent to be from Pastor Williams of South Holly Baptist

Date night!

About once a year, Kathee and I do something special by way of entertainment. Tonight we are going to the Nicollet Island Inn for dinner than then to My Fair Lady at the Orpheum Theater.

The only negative, I have a cold and feel very droopy. Too bad I am at work (a no-nap zone!).

The Democrats and NAFTA: full pander-mode

Democrats vs. Trade

Excerpts:

Driving this debate is the unpopularity of NAFTA in Ohio. In 2006, Ohioans elected one of the most anti-trade politicians in America, Sherrod Brown, to the U.S. Senate. With these voters at stake, Obama denounced NAFTA (and Hillary’s alleged support for it) during a speech in Lorain Sunday afternoon. "One million jobs have been lost because of NAFTA, including nearly 50,000 jobs here in Ohio,” Obama claimed. “And yet, 10 years after NAFTA passed, Sen. Clinton said it was good for America. Well, I don't think NAFTA has been good for America — and I never have.”

But when asked later, Obama said he wouldn’t pull the U.S. out of NAFTA, because doing so “would actually result in more job loss . . . than job gains.” This is true, of course. Even a politician in full pander-mode can’t deny that NAFTA, like any free-trade agreement, created jobs as well as destroyed them. Free trade allows countries to shift resources to where they are most productive relative to the countries they are trading with. We hope that Barack Obama is familiar with the concept of comparative advantage. We hope (audaciously?) that the pursuit of votes rather than gross ignorance has led him into this wilderness of incoherence.

And Hillary? Her reaction to Obama’s attacks is an even more worrying sign that the Democratic party is growing more protectionist. Fearing the credulousness of Ohioans, she has not pushed back against Obama’s economic charlatanism. Indeed, putting her faith in the credulousness of Ohioans, she has called for a “time out” on new trade deals, as if our pending agreements with Colombia and South Korea would deal a staggering blow to Ohio’s economy.


Comment: So Obama is against NAFTA but wouldn't end US's participation in NAFTA! Unfamiliar with the law of comparative advantage? Explained: The Theory of Comparative Advantage - Overview

Saving the Cougar Ace

High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace

Comment: If you every wondered how they right a ship like this ... here's the story. (Caveat: some foul language).

Additional information:

1. Wikipedia: Cougar Ace
   
2. Photo gallery (image above is from this site)
   

That maverick John McCain

The Real McCain

Excerpt:

Over the past few years, McCain has stepped up his longstanding assault on earmarks. Every year, McCain goes to the Senate floor to ridicule the latest batch of earmarks, and every year his colleagues and the lobbyists fume. For years, McCain has proposed legislative remedies — greater transparency, a 60-vote supermajority requirement — that were brutally unpopular with many colleagues until, suddenly, now.

Over the course of his career, McCain has tried to do the impossible. He has challenged the winds of the money gale. He has sometimes failed and fallen short. And there have always been critics who cherry-pick his compromises, ignore his larger efforts and accuse him of being a hypocrite.


Comment: One thing I appreciate about him!

Geraldine Ferraro explains the Superdelegates

Got a Problem? Ask the Super

Excerpt:

In 1982, we tried to remedy some of the party’s internal problems by creating the Hunt Commission, which reformed the way the party selects its presidential nominees. Because I was then the vice chairwoman of the House Democratic Caucus, Tip O’Neill, the speaker of the House, appointed me as his representative to the commission. The commission considered several reforms, but one of the most significant was the creation of superdelegates, the reform in which I was most involved.

Democrats had to figure out a way to unify our party. What better way, we reasoned, than to get elected officials involved in writing the platform, sitting on the credentials committee and helping to write the rules that the party would play by?

Most officeholders, however, were reluctant to run as delegates in a primary election — running against a constituent who really wants to be a delegate to the party’s national convention is not exactly good politics.

So we created superdelegates and gave that designation to every Democratic member of Congress. Today the 796 superdelegates also include Democratic governors, former presidents and vice presidents, and members of the Democratic National Committee and former heads of the national committee.

These superdelegates, we reasoned, are the party’s leaders. They are the ones who can bring together the most liberal members of our party with the most conservative and reach accommodation. They would help write the platform. They would determine if a delegate should be seated. They would help determine the rules. And having done so, they would have no excuse to walk away from the party or its presidential nominee.


Comment: Good read. The Repubican's approach is "winner take all" primaries (not all are!)

Lake Pepin ice thickness = 29"

Results are in for Lake Pepin ice thickness

Excerpt:

The ice on Lake Pepin has undergone its annual measuring tape scrutiny, and the results match what life above the water's surface confirms: It's been a cold winter.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in an update posted on its website this morning, said that the ice layer's thickest point on Lake Pepin is 29 inches. That was found during measuring Friday near Stockholm, Wis.

"The ice is thicker this year than it was last year when we had fairly thin ice," Mark Upward, a Corps spokesman, told the Red Wing Republican-Eagle. "We have more ice this year than in the past several years."

The annual measurements on the lake, located on the Mississippi River between Red Wing and Wabasha, are used to predict the navigational outlook on the Upper Mississippi River. This spot is chosen because the lake is the final part of the river where the ice breaks up, and the current is slower on Lake Pepin than on the rest of the river.



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Popular religion: "nothing in particular"

Survey: Americans switching faiths, dropping out

Excerpt:

One in four adults ages 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with a religious institution.

"In the past, certain religions had a real holding power, where people from one generation to the next would stay," said Penn State University sociologist Roger Finke, who consulted in the survey planning. "Right now, there is a dropping confidence in organized religion, especially in the traditional religious forms."

Lugo said the 44 percent figure is "a very conservative estimate," and more research is planned to determine the causes.

"It does seem in keeping with the high tolerance among Americans for change," Lugo said. "People move a lot, people change jobs a lot. It's a very fluid society."

The religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin.

The majority of the unaffiliated -- 12 percent of the overall population -- describe their religion as "nothing in particular," and about half of those say faith is at least somewhat important to them. Atheists or agnostics account for 4 percent of the total population.

Comment: Still a nation that needs the Gospel! More from Albert Mohler

E Peet graduation photo (1930)

Alto High School Class of 1930
Contributed by: Bowne Twp. Historical Society

Graduates: B. Brannan, A. Hunt, and E. Peet

Comment: My brother found this while searching for images from Alto Michigan. The woman on the right would be my Aunt Ella Peet (long since deceased!) Image from The Bowne Twp. Historical Museum

A corpse cannot arise from his coffin

How dead were we?

Ephesians 2:1, "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins"

Eaten In One Week Around The World

What Is Eaten In One Week Around The World

HT: Approaching North

Comment: Photo essay. Photos from Hungry Planet: What the World Eats .

Since I am not that involved in the grocery / cooking side of our household (that's an understatement), I'm not sure what the Peet family spends on groceries per week.

Hillary's campaign slow pays small businesses

Small Vendors Feel Pinch of Clinton’s Money Troubles

Excerpt:

It was just $2,492.63, a pittance, really, alongside million-dollar television buys and direct mail drops.

But with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination enduring a rough patch, Peter Semetis, the owner of a deli and catering business in Lower Manhattan, had been following the news and growing increasingly worried that he was not going to be paid for the assorted breakfast trays, coffee, tea and orange juice he had provided the campaign for an event in mid-December.

“I’m afraid of her dropping out of the campaign and me becoming a casualty,” Mr. Semetis said.

So on Thursday, he went to small claims court and filed suit. Mr. Semetis, 53, said he was hardly a political pundit but like others across the country, he had become caught up in the election in the last year and was able to offer some analysis. “There is potential for her to lose Texas,” he said — an assessment not at odds with the polls — “which would pretty much force her to quit.”

Comment: Oh well ... she is toast anyway! Jonathan Alter: Hillary Should Get Out Now

VIVA OBAMA 2008

From www.amigosdeobama.com

Keeping Moore’s Law pumping

Trying to Put New Zip Into Moore’s Law

Excerpt:

The remarkable progression of Moore’s Law, meanwhile, involves continually shrinking almost everything to do with the chips. Today, the transistors in a high-end chip are no wider than the nucleus of a smallish bacterium — that’s far smaller than the smallest light wave.

Until now, as chips became smaller, they also became faster in about the same proportion. It’s still true for transistors, but it’s no longer true for the wires used to connect transistors — and that slows performance gains. Daniel Edelstein, a program manager and fellow at I.B.M. Research, says, “We’re running out of steam.”

Comment: Moore’s Law

SNL: Mike Huckabee Overstays His Welcome

"One another" commands

"One another" commands


Comment: From my other blog

Saturday happenings

Kathee and I met a couple from Church this morning at Mountain Mudd in New Hope.

Roger made a nice lunch for us (bean soup).

My Brother (another Roger) came by at 1:30 and we played 10 games of 9-Ball (split 5-5).

We (Brother and I) took my S-10 out and Roger gassed it up for me. I took him out on Medicine Lake. We drove from Hardies' boat ramp, around the Art House Shanties, then N. to French Park.

Kathee packed up for her business trip to Salt Lake City tomorrow. She leaves at 8 a.m. and won't be home until past mid-night Monday night (Tuesday morning).

Kathee made Reuben sandwiches for us for dinner. We read Psalms 19 & 20 and had coffee and prayer.

K and I played 6 games of pool and she won 4-2.

Tomorrow: Worship at 4th. I am expecting Rachel to join me for church and then we are going out to the Big Bowl for lunch.

Psalm 19:1-4

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
2 Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.

NYT Ombudsman rips NYTimes

NYT Ombudsman Rips the McCain Hit Piece

The La Pointe windsled

Across the Bay, on a School Bus Wearing Skis

Excerpt:

From a distance, the large red aluminum contraption parked on the frozen shore of Lake Superior here looks like a small houseboat perched on skis. Up closer, as schoolchildren pile in with their backpacks and iPods, it becomes clear that the mystery vehicle, with two large fans on the back, is something else entirely.

For residents of this remote village on an ice-locked island off the tip of mainland Wisconsin, the gliding boatmobile, known here as a windsled, is a kind of school bus.

That’s right: in one of the more unorthodox modes of student travel anywhere in the country, the children of La Pointe, on Madeline Island (full-time population 250, triple that in the summer), actually windsled to class several weeks out of every year. It is the transportation a school district needs when students are separated from class by more than two miles of jigsaw ice blocks coming together to form something that approximates a floating road of shallow depth across a bay.

Comment: Image from http://www.jlindquist.com/.


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Overspending at Hy-Vee

DELI PIGOUT A CLINTON GUT BU$TER

Excerpts:

Hillary Rodham Clinton's free-spending campaign blew a whopping $95,000 at a low-end supermarket-deli chain last month in Iowa - a telling sign of why she can no longer cut the mustard financially against Barack Obama in critical states.

Clinton's latest campaign filings reveal how a sprawling, top-heavy campaign organization splurged on posh hotels and pricey consultants but still struggles to define its message against Obama, a charismatic opponent whom Clinton's camp now calls the front-runner.

The $95,000 charge came at the Hy-Vee store in West Des Moines, a grocery and deli chain that is a fixture in the state, on Jan. 1, just two days before Obama stunned Clinton by beating her in the Iowa caucuses.

...

The heavy spending helps explain why Clinton's camp ended the year $7.6 million in debt, not including her $5 million loan to her campaign.

The campaign team has plowed through $116 million so far.


Comment: If she can't control the grocery budget ... she can't run the country! Wait until she socializes national health care!