Blog

Hugh Hewitt's Blog. An interesting mix - a little bombast (see Introduction and Appendix A), a pinch of name calling (Left Angeles Times), a touch of fear-mongering (see Chapter 7 - Establishing a Defense), and some genuinely helpful information (see list of bogs in the Preface and Chapter 12 - A Dozen Blogs I Would Launch if I Were . . .). All in all worth your time to skim.

Baloney Blogging

More PR Than No-Holds-Barred On Bosses' Corporate Blogs

With blogs like that, who needs news releases? Some Internet watchers wonder if a blog that sounds like nothing more than a corporate press room is worth the effort.

Finished Another Book

I just finished reading Mouw's interesting and thought provoking Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport. I wonder how many “theological bigots” would agree with some of what he says. I can’t wait for my friend Bryan to read it and give me his thoughts. Mouw’s goal with the book is to attempt to show how Calvinism is relevant to life in the 21st century, and he does a pretty good job. I’m not sure the book is quite as “lay-level” as he might have hoped, but that is probably more of a comment on the state of teaching in our churches as it is on the book.

One area that I would like to see more well developed is the passage on 114-115 about how Calvinism is weak on ethics. He just sort of throws out the idea, and then suggests that Calvinists should be more humble on ethical matters. I suppose my interest in seeing the topic more well developed comes from the fact that I spend more time thinking about ethics than about Calvinism.

One great takeaway comes from his reference to The Heidelberg Catechism, specifically Heidelberg One:

Q: What is thy only comfort in life and death?

A: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, hath fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

I know this is tangential, but I was thrilled to find his assessment of Las Vegas as “a counterfeit version of the ‘new Jerusalem’.” This is exactly the thought I had when I first visited Vegas, and it was reinforced with every visit.

There is much here with which I agree, and other things which I need to consider further.

Dominican Man Dies After Drinking Contest

Well, what can I possibly add to this?

The 21-year-old winner of a competition to drink the most tequila died and three other contestants were gravely ill in the hospital, officials said.

AP

Nobody Likes Stinky People

Smelly Readers Banned From Calif. Library

Dan Brown

Well, I just finished reading The Da Vinci Code, and . . . it's not that great - kind of slow moving, actually. Some of the descriptions seemed to repeat, some of the character development was just weird. For example, there's a vignette about how Silas grew up as an orphan on the tough streets of Spain, but then, near the end of the book, when he goes into the Opus Dei in London he is recognized as American. Huh?

Brown's other books - Digital Fortress, Deception Point, even Angels & Demons - are considerably better. Maybe I just don't know enough to see straight through the baloney in them.

Well Worth Your Time To Read

Is a Cinema Studies Degree the New M.B.A.?

"The greatest digital divide is between those who can read and write with media, and those who can't,"

New York Times

Mind Boggling

I'll never win; I'm too high-strung.

. . . two players control a ball with their brain waves. The player being most relaxed wins the game.

Mindball: the EEG game

What If

Wired reports:

Imagine every time you hear the telephone ring, you taste a burrito with jalapeño and guacamole. Believe it or not, some people -- synesthetes -- experience things just like that.

Rainbow Coalition of the Brain

I See Your True Colors Shining Through

I think this tells us more about Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) than Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan generally gets accolades for his public pronouncements. Yesterday he got a brickbat from Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who blasted Greenspan as "one of the biggest political hacks we have here in Washington."

Senate Democratic Leader Blasts Greenspan

It's Been A Long Time

Since I played MSNBC's Crossword. I wonder if I'm still any good?

Update - not too shabby, if I do say so.

Nobody Likes Stinky People

An Iranian woman has requested a divorce from her husband on the grounds that he has not washed for more than a year.

Something Doesn't Smell Right About This Marriage

This Should Be Interesting

Slate's Today's Paper's mentions the following:

The New York Times announced its newest op-ed columnist: John Tierney, a Times veteran known for his libertarianism, contrarianism, and occasional shtick. "To test the reaction of cabbies," writes the Post's Howie Kurtz, "he once put on a ski mask, told them he had just robbed a bank and asked them to step on it (no one much cared)."

Sounds like an interesting guy.

Christianity, Modernity, and Postmodernity

Take the time to read Truth-Telling is Stranger Than It Used to Be, Part One

College Kids . . .

I guess De Anza College doesn't teach its students the meaning of the word dystopia

Brave new world underfunded

Ad Report Card

Slate weighs in on Overstock.com's advert.

Interested in Medical Blogging?

Grand Rounds 23 is up, menu style, hosted by http://www.intueri.org/