The 48th Carnival of Homeschooling...

... is up.

Internet-Less

I'm currently without Internet at the house, thus the lack of posts over the holiday weekend. The networking setup was located in what was my home office and is now becoming a room for our son. I should have all the networking stuff relocated and operational by tomorrow.

I'll have to post pics of our son's room. We had some greatly appreciated help from my Dad and stepmother, who painted the room for us on Friday.

The 47th Carnival of Homeschooling...

... is up.

Not Good

If I'm 92, and three guys kick down my door, they're getting shot. I don't know how the police can crash into a home and expect the innocent people living there to be able to tell the police from would-be assailants.

Instapundit has been on this for a long, long time.

The Leaves Are Off

Picture from today's day trip.

Bond Is Back, and He's More Interesting

I agree with the Pontificator.

I think this marks the decline of gadgets in movies. This makes sense. In the past, doing a special effect for a gadget was hard, and so the audience was impressed when you pulled it off. Now with computer imaging, you can put anything you want onscreen, so none of it is impressive anymore.

Real stunts, however, are always impressive. Near the very beginning of the new Bond film, there is an excellent, extended stunt sequence by Sebastien Foucan. Highly enjoyable.

And as for story, this one is far better than any in a Bond film in a long, long time. Perhaps ever.

"A Pan, A Comb, Perhaps a Cat"

All things a little, Scientologist girl dreams of hearing promised her on her wedding day.

Shichida Makato Books in English?

How frustrating. I guess because half the movies at our house are from various countries in Asia, I had some unconscious impression that I could get any media from Asia in English. It is not so.

I cannot find any Shichida Makato books in English available on the Internet. Perhaps I am missing something. These books have been bestsellers in Japan, so I expected them to be easy to find. I've heard that there are English versions available in some Japanese stores.

Anyone know where to find these books?

Hoyer Beats Murtha for Majority House Seat

This is a good thing. The Democrats were worrying me that they really didn't have any intentions of being moderate, but this vote makes me more optimistic.

Defining Great Art

This has been an interesting and ongoing debate between myself and an extraordinarily gifted artist.

I contend that a person can be extremely talented and can produce works of great skill and mastery, but that such a person's art is not necessarily great in that, ultimately, the greatness of art is inseparable from its moral value. No matter how incredible and technically masterful the work of art, it is not great art if, in the end, it promotes evil.

Meanwhile, the artist contends that the greatness of art is wholly separable from moral value. This is not to say that moral value doesn't matter, only that he doesn't believe that good or evil factors into artwork's "greatness."

What say you?

The Aim of Liberalism

If the aim of liberalism is socialism and a more European mode of governance, doesn't the evidence show that the end game of liberalism is self-destruction? Shouldn't we take for granted that self-preservation is good and worth fighting for?

(Link via Instapundit.)

The 46th Carnival of Homeschooling...

... is up.

The 45th Carnival of Homeschooling...

... is up.

Democratic Victory

The Democrats have taken the House, and may be taking the Senate. They've also swept my home state of Arkansas. In the Governor's race, Democrat Mike Beebe beat Republican Asa Hutchinson by a sizable margin. It's no secret that I greatly prefered Asa in this race, but I thought that Beebe's victory speech was very gracious:

From this point forward, there are no Democrats or Republicans or independents, there are only Arkansans.

I hope that Beebe will prove me wrong about his position on the grocery tax and eliminate it.

In predictable news, Republicans won both the Northwest Arkansas U.S. House seat and the Northwest Arkansas State Senate seat. Northwest Arkansas is solidly Republican though, so no big surprises there.

Arkansas Victory 2006 Rally

Many more people attended than I would have expected. It was packed. In fact, I couldn't get into the actual rally area. I took pictures from the back of the hangar at the rally entrance. (You'll notice that the pictures with President Bush are very grainy. They were taken from extremely far away and cropped.)

Here's what the tickets looked like:


The President with Asa Hutchinson (right) and John Boozman (left):


President Bush giving an impassioned speech about the War on Terror and the importance of tax cuts:


Air Force One and the very back of the crowd:


Excellent. Can't wait to vote tommorow!

What races are you watching?

Fall Day Trip - War Eagle Mill

The mill:


The wheel:


The bridge:


Me:


Family feeding geese:

Fall Day Trip - Trees, Farm, and Horses

Fall Day Trip - Oddities

A bad end:


Nyah!


Bear totem:


Abandoned chicken house?

"The New York Times just tore the heart out of the antiwar argument, and they are apparently completely oblivous to it."

Jim Geraghty (via Instapundit):

I'm sorry, did the New York Times just put on the front page that IRAQ HAD A NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM AND WAS PLOTTING TO BUILD AN ATOMIC BOMB?

What? Wait a minute. The entire mantra of the war critics has been "no WMDs, no WMDs, no threat, no threat", for the past three years solid. Now we're being told that the Bush administration erred by making public information that could help any nation build an atomic bomb.

Let's go back and clarify: IRAQ HAD NUCLEAR WEAPONS PLANS SO ADVANCED AND DETAILED THAT ANY COUNTRY COULD HAVE USED THEM.

For this election's November surprise, the NYT has decided to punch itself in the mouth. An interesting choice.

On Being a Coffee Lightweight

Good night! Check out the coffee grinder linked as "this one" on Instapundit. I'd be grinding my coffee with one of these before I'd drop $300 for an appliance with such a limited use.

Knowing that there are people out there buying this sort of equipment, I've never felt like such a coffee lightweight before.

UPDATE: Instapundit link fixed.

Mark D. Roberts on Andrew Sullivan and Retrofitted Christianity

Hugh Hewitt's interview with Andrew Sullivan was not to be missed. (Transcript here.) Many people have focused on how entertaining and bizarre the interview was, but Mark D. Roberts is brilliantly analyzing Sullivan's thoughts about Christianity, thoughts that are very much in line with what Roberts terms "retrofitted Christianity." Though I'd never heard the term "retrofitted Christianity," I think the name is apt, and this breed of liberal Christianity is one of my favorite topics of discussion.

Some of my favorite bits in Roberts' series thus far:

• On the idea that "Christianity, at its very core, was a very contentious and debated and quarrelsome organization" (Sullivan) from the beginning:
  

  Scholars and others who desperately prefer pluralism and who seek to undermine Christian orthodoxy have painted a picture of early Christianity that suits their preferences. In this picture, the diversity and disagreement among early Christians is exaggerated, while the predominance of orthodoxy is minimized. Of course this nicely supports the theological leanings of those who want to see themselves as somehow Christian without endorsing orthodox theology.

• On the notion that the Gospels are extremely contradictory both internally and with each other:
  
  

  Once again, I fear Sullivan has bought into a bit of retrofitted Christian dogma, which exaggerates the differences among the gospels for the sake of discounting them. Ironically, the kind of literalistic reading that allows some scholars to find multiple contradictions among the gospels is exactly the sort of thing Sullivan despises among fundamentalists. I am not the first to point out that fundamentalist Christians and liberal scholars who reject biblical authority both tend to read the Bible in the same, overly literalistic way.

• On the Incarnation (the whole section is urgently relevant to all Christians today as many churches are now teaching the "retrofitted" version of this doctrine--a version that, in my opinion, is not even properly called Christian):
  
  

  I must confess to being a bit confused about what Sullivan really believes about Jesus. He says, in good orthodox fashion, that in Jesus God became man. Then he immediately qualifies this by saying that he believes it in the only way he can, "that one man represents . . . God's decision to be with us." This seems to be a denial of the actual Incarnation, replacing the fact with a symbol. But then Sullivan adds that "the force behind everything decided to prove itself benign by becoming us, and being with us." According to this last sentence God became us, seemingly in fact, and was also with us.

Those were just teasers; you'll want to read the rest of it and keep it bookmarked because more posts will be added. And worry not, the posts are fairly short and will not bog you down in reams of theological reading.

Sidenote: If you did listen to the Hugh Hewitt interview with Andrew Sullivan but missed Hewitt's parody interview with James Lileks, you'll want to correct that situation at once.

First Loaf of Bread Ever

 
I've never made bread before. I can't believe that it actually turned out well. Brushed it with olive oil before cooking instead of butter. Crust was especially delicious. 

Bloggers on the Right Make Their Election Predictions

Which way do you think I answered?

1) Do you think the GOP is going to retain control of the House?

Yes (38) -- 61.3%
No (24) -- 38.7%

2) Do you think the GOP is going to retain control of the Senate?

Yes (56) -- 90.3%
No (6) -- 9.7%

Click into the comments to see how I voted in this poll.

Asa's Straight Talk and Beebe's Doublespeak in the Arkansas Governor's Race

As the election approaches, two reminders of Beebe doublespeak...

• On abortion he expresses both pro-life and pro-choice positions. He "personally" opposes abortion; the classic code for the pro-choice position. He supports a partial birth abortion ban and parental notification laws, both pro-life positions. He claims to only support a few exceptions to a general abortion ban (rape, incest, life of the mother), generally regarded as a pro-life position, but he also says that the decision of whether or not to undergo an abortion is "between a woman, her doctor and God."
  
  In short, he will not tell you his position. In Arkansas, a refusal to be clear on this issue clearly means that one is pro-choice.
  
  Asa on the other hand, he's made his pro-life position clear.
  
• He claims that he will cut the grocery tax. At least that's how his campaign spins it. He actually claims that he will slowly phase out the grocery tax when and if all other priorities are addressed first, and he is certain that he wouldn't rather spend the money, and state revenue has grown. That's not a promise to cut the tax at all. Nevermind the fact that Beebe has rarely met a tax he didn't like.
  
  Meanwhile Asa plainly states that the grocery tax should be eliminated without a negating litany of qualifiers.
  

These are major issues in Arkansas. On one side, we have a straight forward candidate who represents the positions supported by voters in Arkansas--that's Asa. On the other side, we have a gutless con man who can't seem to open his mouth without talking from both sides of it--that's Beebe. I think it's an easy call, and I'm voting for Asa.

Kerry's Lack of Common Social Grace

Say a coworker walks into my office, and I say, "You jerk!" The coworker, of course, is offended. Which of the following would be the proper response from me?

A) "Oh! I am so so sorry! I didn't mean you. I was just reading this article about John Kerry, and I was talking about him. Sorry about that." OR

B) "You want an apology out of me? No way! Of course I was talking about John Kerry and not you. It was obvious. So what? Why should I apologize for that?! I will not!"

John Kerry appears to be the only person alive who thinks that B is the correct answer.

UPDATE: I was incorrect. Kerry's not the only one who would get the answer wrong. In fact, a few people seem to need an additional answer: C) "Yeah, that's right! I called you a jerk! You wanna make something of it, jerk-face?"

UPDATE 2: Kerry apologizes. Sort of. More of a "Sorry I botched a joke, but you knew that I just botched a joke because I know you can read my mind, and anyone who took it differently is an idiot or a liar."

Perhaps the above should have included an option D) "I'm sorry, you idiot."