Category: misc

Today’s English Lesson

Today’s pet peeve comes via John H at the BHT:

More generally, I think we should also avoid the word “ignorant” in this context, as the word is too much of a value-judgment. First-century people weren’t “ignorant” of what centuries of scientific and medical research have unearthed; they just “didn’t know” it.

“Ignorant of it” means “didn’t know it.” I am ignorant of a great many things – as are you. This is not a value judgment of any kind, it is simple fact. It is only when you define a person as being ignorant as an aspect of his character that it becomes a value judgment. So, can we go back to using words because of what they mean rather than what politicians try to make them mean?

20 Years of Freedom

At the end of World War II, what remained of Germany was divided into four territories, each occupied by one of the major Allied powers – The US, France, Britain, and the Soviet Union. Berlin was set as the central control area for all four powers, an arrangement which doomed it into being split by political strain between the victors.

The Soviets refused to agree to the reconstruction plans put forth by the other three powers, which would have allowed a devastated Germany to again become self sufficient, and continued to pillage the city for goods and dismantling any industry it had left. As the tensions grew, Britain, France, and the US combined their controlled areas and extended the Marshall Plan even further, allowing the western part of Germany to being rebuilding and growing again.

Following these disagreements, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade in 1948, which many consider the first major crisis of the Cold War. This prevented food or supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The other allied countries responded by airlifting in a massive amount of food and supplies to West Berlin, causing a war of propaganda to erupt between the Soviet and Allied governments. Ultimately the blockade was lifted, but the damage was done. Only a few months after the shipments restarted, East Germany was formally absorbed into the USSR as the German Democratic Republic, and West Germany began to embrace western capitalism and democracy wholeheartedly. Throughout the 1950s, the West’s economy and standard of living grew rapidly, while the East saw only stagnation, resulting in a permeating feeling of envy and a desire to escape to the West. Continue reading 20 Years of Freedom

Saturdazed

I really don’t have much to say today. I’ve been working on that new series I mentioned the other day, but its nowhere close to being ready to post. So I’m sitting here, racking my brain for something to write to maintain my goal of posting every day but nothing is coming.

I’ve been playing around with XBMC today, trying to see how practical it would be use that and some sort of stripped down Linux install for my parents’ media PC. They’ve been using Vista and the darn thing barely functions at this point with all the weight of the OS + all the default junkware from Dell that came preinstalled. I’m thinking Ubuntu 9.04 minimal install would work best (9.10 still doesn’t work well with XBMC and some of its components).

Looks like the healthcare bill just passed the house, even with 30+ Dems voting against it. I can’t help but wonder if that would have happened had the Stupak amendment been killed – while it’s a great idea to make sure that the government health care program doesn’t fund abortion clinics, I think I would have rather just slashed the program altogether. Now we’ll have a broken health care system, more restrictive laws, higher taxes, and a weaker economy, but clean political records with the NRLC. Hope it was worth it.

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I am looking forward to church. Hopefully it will be followed by a Cardinals victory in Chicago and a chance to meet up with a couple of friends. Either way, in the meantime, I’m going to try and get some sleep.

Prayers for Ft Hood

A terrible act of brutality has played out this afternoon, where at least one (possibly up to three) Army personnel shot and killed several people – the current count is 12 dead and 31 wounded. So far we only know that (one of?) the shooter is dead, an Army psychiatrist Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan, and there are two other suspects in custody.

In the meantime, please pray for those injured today, and the families of all those wounded and killed. There’s plenty of political fallout that will come from this, and they’ll be caught up in it – pray that God grants them peace in this time of trial, and that he can use this to direct them back to Him.

Edit 8:20 PST: It was just Hasan, apparently, and he was only injured. He is still alive and is in custody. He apparently also has been doing some website posting praising and admiring suicide bombers. A coworker of his at Ft. Hood described him as making comments about the US “shouldn’t be over there,” and saying that “the Muslims should stand up and fight the Americans.” He apparently also refused to be photographed with women, so perhaps there is a little irony in that the police officer who shot him to end his rampage, and was wounded in the process, was a woman.

No Condemnation

I’m working on a lengthier post that I may have up later today or tomorrow, but right now I feel like there’s something else I should be writing. Lately I’ve been struggling with a lot of things as I’m trying to put my life back together the way it needs to be, and one of the ways that I’ve come under attack is with spurts of crushing guilt and feelings of worthlessness. I get that little voice in my head that’s telling me that God isn’t going to waste his time on me, that I’m a failure, a hypocrite, a betrayer of Christ, so how could he really love me?

And then, this morning, Jon Acuff’s latest post popped up in my Google Reader.

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, …”

If I’m being honest, sometimes I rewrite that verse in my head. I write it, “There is now some condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Or “There is now at least a little condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” But that’s not what it says.

There is no condemnation.

There is no condemnation.

There is no condemnation.

Will the Holy Spirit convict you? Certainly. Will God reveal areas of your heart He wants to shine His light into? Without a doubt. Will God condemn you? Will God press play on the failure film of your life? Will He make you mentally relive your worst moments over and over again? No. That’s not God, that’s an attack.

Go read the whole thing.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. How blessed we are to serve a God who so fully and completely loves us,  that he was willing to die just to give us the chance to be with him again. How can we ignore that? How can we respond to that in any other way than complete and total devotion?

If you’re under attack today, I hope that these words will help you to see that you’re not in this alone. God is always there, always forgiving, always the gracious and loving father – and where my words fail, his never will.

How great is our God!