Mother Cat Adopts Orphaned Baby Rabbit

[YouTube Link]

HT: Neatorama

Physics, As Explained Using Your Ex-Girlfriends

0. Newtonian gravity is your high-school girlfriend. As your first encounter with physics, she's amazing. You will never forget Newtonian gravity, even if you're not in touch very much anymore.

1. Electrodynamics is your college girlfriend. Pretty complex, you probably won't date long enough to really understand her.

2. Special relativity is the girl you meet at the dorm party while you're dating electrodynamics. You make out. It's not really cheating because it's not like you call her back. But you have a sneaking suspicion she knows electrodynamics and told her everything.

3. Quantum mechanics is the girl you meet at the poetry reading. Everyone thinks she's really interesting and people you don't know are obsessed about her. You go out. It turns out that she's pretty complicated and has some issues. Later, after you've broken up, you wonder if her aura of mystery is actually just confusion.

The full list is here. Hat tip to someone, but I can't remember whom.

Johnny Cash Sings Softly and Tenderly, Jesus is Calling

[YouTube Link]

Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape Dying Planet

EARTH—Former vice president Al Gore—who for the past three decades has unsuccessfully attempted to warn humanity of the coming destruction of our planet, only to be mocked and derided by the very people he has tried to save—launched his infant son into space Monday in the faint hope that his only child would reach the safety of another world.

Story Link

UMC School Gets Top Ranking in List of Party Schools

Congratulations to Randolph-Macon College, a United Methodist-affiliated who claimed the #6 position in the Princeton Review's list of top party schools in the country.

Really, the University Senate should evaluate and rank UMC seminaries based on party-ness.

Now, your homework assignment, dear readers: devise a drinking game appropriate for United Methodists.

The 100 Push Up Workout

Jeff the Bapist has been engaging in the 100 Push Up Workout -- a program aimed at moving a person to doing 100 consecutive push ups.

I liked the idea, so I adapted it for my own fitness routine. For three weeks, I've been doing push ups on chest/tricep day instead of dumbbell bench presses and dumbbell shoulder presses. Today, I did three sets of push ups: 40-25-11. On the twelfth rep of the final set, my arms gave out from under me. I've already experienced substantial improvement.

Royal Enfield Sighting

I've previously art blogged about Royal Enfield motorcycles -- those gorgeous expressions of mid-century British grace. But until last Sunday, I had never seen one in person. Then I spotted this beauty in a church parking lot:



A 500 Bullet Classic ES. It was breathtakingly beautiful, like a mechanical Venus rising from the breaking asphalt.

Like Herding Cats

For a few months, Double Plus Undead has been providing regular roundups of the Moronosphere -- the collection of bloggers who have coagulated around the blogging genius Ace of Spades like a crusted-over cystic infection.

Ace affectionally refers to us as "morons", hence the name.

Think of it as something like the Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup, only less so.

Question of the Day

I have shamelessly stolen today's Question of the Day from Bishop Schnase, who asks "So, whatcha’ reading this summer?"

This summer, at my wife's behest, I read Stephen King's It. And to prepare for the birth of my first child, I'm reading What to Expect in the First Year. It's considered to be one of the best baby owner's manuals on the market.

How about you?

Do We Want Politicians To be Authentic About Their Faith?

In a disturbing violation of privacy, an Israeli newspaper published the prayer that Barack Obama left at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Hat tip to David McDonald, who writes:

This incident, and all the hullabaloo about Mr. Obama's church in Chicago have gotten me thinking--to what extent do we want our politicians in this country to be genuinely religious?

Apparently not very much. Part of running for public office in 21st Century America is turning Sunday morning worship into campaign stops. We know this because candidates encourage the media to photograph them sitting in pews, attentively listening to the pastor and enthusiastically singing hymns. These events never fail to offend me, regardless of candidate or party, because they adulterate the purpose of worship.

But I suppose that I am not in the norm in this regard because candidates, backed by marketing studies, continue to make Sunday morning worship campaign appearances. Despite occasional gaffes, professional campaign managers are pretty smart people, so I'm inclined to think that the problem isn't smarmy candidates, but the electorate that is impressed by such smarminess.

Caption Contest

Previous contest winners

WINNER: Brian Vinson: Forget fossil fuels; Taco Bell is much more efficient.

ZombieHarmony

A dating service for zombies.

Hat tip to DoublePlusUndead via Ace.

Batman, Efficient and Libertarian?

Illya Somin (h/t) has a couple of fascinating posts up. First, he excoriates Superman as wasteful:

Tyler offers a few suggestions on what Superman should do to increase the social returns on his investments of time and energy. On a (slightly) less unserious note, I have to admit that one reason why I never much liked the Superman franchise is that the character seems to misallocate his efforts so severely! If you had his powers, would you spend your time chasing a third-rate villain like Lex Luthor (even if played by the great Gene Hackman)? Why not instead overthrow Kim Jong Il or stop the genocide in Darfur? Perhaps the first thing our hypothetical Superman should do is take one of Tyler's economics classes and learn about the concept of opportunity cost.

Batman, on the other hand:

I recently saw the new Batman movie, which is quite good. Overall, I have a much more favorable view of the Batman mythos than of the rival Superman series. Unlike Superman, who often seems to waste his immense powers on relatively minor villains, Batman/Bruce Wayne pays attention to the importance of opportunity costs. For example, he goes after the bigwigs of Gotham organized crime, not the smalltime petty thieves. He consistently attacks the most powerful villains he can realistically take on with the resources available to him.

Somin goes on to explain that Batman exists largely as a response to the ineffective Gotham City government, thereby pointing out the shortcomings of government.

I've long been fond of the Batman mythos, and perhaps because it quietly pings my libertarian Spidey-senses.

Now to change the subject a bit, in other libertarian news, Reason magazine ranked the 35 largest cities in America from least free to most free. Chicago came up as least free, and Las Vegas came up as most free. I was intrigued by the description of Las Vegas' third-term mayor Oscar Goodman, a former top-tier criminal defense attorney:

What’s there to say? Las Vegas is the wildest city in America’s most tolerant state, and Mayor Oscar Goodman wants to make the place even freer. He supports legalizing prostitution in Vegas (the oldest profession is currently legal only in Nevada counties with fewer than 400,000 residents), and is the antithesis of a nanny: When a fourth-grader asked him what he’d take to a deserted island, Goodman said a show girl and a bottle of gin.

I did some more reading on Goodman. I really don't like the idea of government openly promoting sin (as opposed to merely allowing it), but Las Vegas has only thrived under Goodman's tenure. If he runs for President in 2012, I'd like to hear more.

Is There A Canon Within The Bible?

Thinklings is having an excellent discussion about this question:

Is there a canon within the canon? In other words, do some books of the Bible take precedence over other books of the Bible? Or at least are there books -- or a set of books within the Bible -- that could be construed as primus inter pares (first among equals) when compared to other biblical texts?

Art Blogging: Todd Frahm

Todd Frahm is an American sculptor and art professor educated at the University of Illinois. He's most widely known for a number of monumental sculptures, including this one of the rabbit god El-ahrairah from book Watership Down:

Hat tip to Scribal Terror for directing me to Frahm's work. Here are a couple other samples:

Card Shark (playing cards and resin, 2004).

Snail (stonewear, 2005).

20 Favorite Works of Fiction

Joe Carter has a list of his fifty favorite works of fiction. I can't think of fifty, as I sold most of my book collection when I moved a few years ago, and most of the rest is still packed away. So I'm largely working from memory. Like Joe:

Unlike similar lists, though, you won't find anything as unreadable as Joyce's Ulysses or as faddish as the latest Salman Rushdie novel. In fact, on first glance the inclusion of children's books and graphic novels might give the impression that it is rather lowbrow, if not philistine. But each of the entries was carefully selected because they have what most modern fiction lacks: a compelling story.

1. Watership Down by Richard Adams

2. Shardik by Richard Adams

3. The Pearl by John Steinbeck

4. The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold.

5. Anthem by Ayn Rand.

6. Midshipman's Hope by David Feintuch

7. Battlestations by Diane Carey

8. Beowulf

9. When the Legends Die by Hal Borland

10. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

11. Shane by Jack Shaeffer

12. Little Rabbit's Loose Tooth by Lucy Tate

13. Fifty Short Science Fiction Tales by Asimov and Conklin (eds.)

14. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

15. The Epic of Gilgamesh

16. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

18. Rally Cry by William R. Forstchen

19. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

20. The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

Question of the Day

You're not going to go out dressed like that, are you?

Outside perspective

John Armstrong, a Reformed writer and blogger, posted his thoughts about the retired UM pastors in California who have aggreed to officiate gay weddings. I found his thoughts interesting coming from someone outside the UMC.

The Only Reason Why I Don't Play Indoor Laser Tag Anymore Is Because People Would Look At Me Funny

It's certainly not that I don't want to. The last time that I did play was with my wife about five years ago. And it was a hoot. Seriously, is there any sport more fun?

Not a sport you say? Well, years and years ago, when the batteries weighed 25 pounds a person, it sure was.

What If Fonts Were People?

I'm a Times New Roman guy myself, although sometimes I go all wild and crazy with Georgia.

[Video Link] HT: Neatorama

The Process

A short film about how committees function.

[YouTube Link] HT: John Carney

Caption Contest

Previous contest winner

WINNERS:

Double Plus Undead: Alaska Representative Don Young transforms into his alter-ego, Porkman! Able to procure millions in earmarks in a single motion! More corrupt than five Democrats combined! Even more shameless than Paris Hilton! Porkman, fighting for Bribes! Earmarks! And The Congressional Way!

Keith Taylor: "You mean this is Memphis??!!! I'm not in Kansas City??!!! HELP!"

The Best of Apocalyptic Fiction

Apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction that is concerned with the destruction of civilization, or even humanity itself. It can be traced back to apocalyptic mythology in ancient times, and in modern times, to Mary Shelley's 1826 novel The Last Man. Here are a few of my favorites:

Earth Abides (1949) by George R. Stewart. The main character, Ish, is a graduate student camping in the woods for a few weeks. In the interim, a horrendous plague sweeps the earth, killing almost the entire human race. The only common factor among the survivors is, strangely, that they have all been bitten by rattlesnakes at some point in their lives. Ish commits to rebuilding civilization, only to find that children born after the disaster have little desire to resurrect the past.

The Last Ship (1988) by William Brinkley. A U.S. Navy destroyer in the Barents Sea suddenly receives missile firing orders. Following often-drilled procedures, it immediately fires it nuclear payload into the Soviet Union, and then waits for further orders. None arrive. In fact, the Nathan James cannot receive any transmissions from the U.S. at all. Traveling south to Europe and thence to America, it finds no signs of human life. The task of preserving the human race apparently falls to them alone.

War Day (1984) by Whitley Streiber by James Kunetka. The authors, who were childhood friends, write as future version of themselves as they journey across an America devastated by an inexplicable and sudden nuclear war that occurred one day in 1984. It is, in my opinion, the most realistic depiction of nuclear war in fiction. For example, one major theme of the book is the wholesale destruction of the U.S. economy after only a handful of nuclear warheads hit it.

What are your favorite works of apocalyptic fiction?

My Favorite Episode of The Twilight Zone

My favorite episode of the TV classic The Twilight Zone is "The Shelter". It's long struck me as having substantial homiletical application, as demonstrates the hidden viciousness and depravity of humanity; the brutality and selfishness inside all of us, invisible even to ourselves except when our survival is threatened.

"The Shelter" is the story of a group of families in a suburban neighborhood at the beginning of a nuclear war. Only one family has built a shelter.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Total run time: 25 minutes.

Patriotic Consistency

Jockeystreet has a challenging and thought-provoking post up, calling Americans to be consistent about their patriotism. He references a near-massacre during the Korean War:

Because the reaction of so many to a story like this will be to trivialize it, to say that that was then, this is now. To accept no responsibility. To feel no regret. "I wasn't there." So on, so forth. (And I hear this all the time. Slavery? "It was a long time ago, I wasn't there, it's not my fault." Native American genocide? "It was a long time ago, I never shot an Indian.")
But it seems to me that the same people who can't be bothered to think about some of these very deeply disturbing events in our collective history are the same people who so gloriously beat their chests and wave their flags on the Fourth of July.

They prattle on about the Declaration of Independence. They are very, very proud of beating up on those Germans in World War II. They think we really showed the British. And built the first printing press. And invented flying machines. And did everything awesome that was ever done.
They never stop, shrug their shoulders, and say they've got no real reason to be so proud. They never say "It was a long time ago, I didn't do it, I wasn't there."
I'm all for being proud of the Declaration fo Independence. I'm all for being proud of the good things in our collective history.

For the sake of consistency, I just ask that we acknowledge the wrong while revelling in the right. That we stop basking in our corporate glory now and then just long enough to accept our share of corporate guilt.

lolMcCain

see Obama pictures

Beeker's Ode to Joy

[Video Link]

Modern Christian Courtship

Dale Tedder has a list of links about raising daughters when they start dating, including this set of interview questions that the father should ask the boy. The author, Reb Bradley, endorses a rather complementarian view of gender roles that I cannot endorse, but the questionnaire is quite valuable -- provided that it is not whipped out on the first date.

The questionnaire is reflective of the modern Christian courtship movement, which is an effort to reconcile Christian values with an increasingly sexualized American society. Here's one critique from a few years back.

What do you think of the Christian courtship movement? How should Christians raise their children to date?

Art Blogging: Vasily Surikov

Vasily Surikov (1848-1916) was a Russian Academic painter. He was raised in Siberia and descended from its Cossack conquerors, who provided inspiration for many of his historical works. He studied at the Academy in St. Petersburg, after which he settled in Moscow. Early success allowed him to travel to Italy, France, Germany, and Austria, which widened his perspective. Yet his focus returned to scenes from Russian and particularly Siberian history, and after the death of his wife, he moved his family back there.

The Conquest of Siberia by Yermak (oil on canvas, 1895, Russian Museum in St. Petersburg) depicts the 16th Century conquest of Siberia for Russia by the Cossack leader Yermak.

Russian Troops Under Suvorov Crossing the Alps (oil on canvas, 1899, Russian Museum in St. Petersburg) recounts the disastrous Russian invasion of Switzerland during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Taking of a Snow Fortress is a scene from everyday Siberian life, depicting a traditional equestrian challenge of the region (oil on canvas, 1891, Russian Museum in St. Petersburg). This is my favorite Surikov, due to its vigorous energy.

Recipe Blogging: Pickled Eggs

I've decided to make pickled eggs. I figure that if they're good enough for Moe's Tavern, then they're good enough for me. I've never pickled anything, but it looks like it's fairly simple. This was the recipe that I used:

12 hard-boiled eggs
2 pints of vinegar
½ tsp of ginger
½ tsp of black pepper
½ tsp of allspice

Place the shelled eggs in a jar. Boil the other ingredients and let simmer for ten minutes. Pour it into the jar and let it sit for a month.

Here's a picture of the finished product:

I guess that I'll find out in a month or so how well it turned out.

Have you ever pickled any foods?

Caption Contest

Previous contest winner

WINNER: Jeff the Baptist: Man, Shonen Knife really let themselves go.

Culinary Preferences

What is your favorite food from Star Trek?
	Plomeek Soup (Vulcan)
	Tube Grubs (Ferengi)
	Gagh (Klingon)
	Jumja Stick (Bajoran)
	Slug-o-Cola (Ferengi)
	Raktajino (Klingon)
pollcode.com free polls

Be sure to check out The Star Trek Cookbook, by Neelix.

Satan Gets Involved in Oklahoma Politics

The Devil knew better than to mess with Georgia, but apparently he's not shy of promoting his supporters in Oklahoma. This is a serious violation of the separation of crypt and state.

The Logic of the Hypostatic Union

About a year and a half ago, we had discussions at Locusts & Honey about logical consistency in theological formation. One of the principles that I espoused was the Law of Non-Contradiction; that a thing cannot be both what it is and what it is not at the same time.

However, it has occurred to me that the Hypostatic Union of Christ may be a violation of this principle. Although it would not be a violation for an entity to be both human and divine (or any other two natures or components), it would be if the entity would be "fully" both throughout. A cake, for example, is composed of sugar, flour, eggs, and oil, but it is not and could not be fully sugar, fully flour, fully eggs, and fully oil simultaneously.

Which is not to say that I am rejecting the Hypostatic Union -- by no means. But it does appear, at first reading, to be a logical inconsistency.

What do you think?

I Thought That I Would Come Out as Ferengi

The ultimate Star Trek alien quiz created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Borg You are Borg. You have one goal, which is to assimilate all of the cultures in our galaxy and add them to the collective. You prefer a life which is ordered and is without surprises which allows you to keep focus. Andorian 70% Borg 70% Ferengi 65% Xindi 60% Human 55% Romulan 55% Cardsassian 50% Vulcan 45% Betazoid 40% Bajoran 40% Klingon 35% Q 35%

Literary Tattoos

Contrariwise is photoblog filled with pictures of literary quotations tattooed on people's skin, including Saint-Exupéry, Vonnegut, and Sylvia Plath. It's a pretty cool idea. I thought about what literary quotation I might select, and pretty quickly settled on a scene from Douglas Adams' So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, in which Marvin the robot sees God's Final Message His Creation:

"I think," he murmured at last from deep within his corroding, rattling thorax, "I feel good about it."

The lights went out of his eyes for absolutely the very last time ever.

Luckily, there was a stall nearby where you could rent scooters from guys with green wings.

But all joking aside, I would never actually get a tattoo. It's a permanent, almost unerasable mark identifying a person. And if you're sharp, you always want to be able to, on short notice, disappear, assume a new identity, and never be seen again. Think of it as a private Witness Protection Program. And tattoos are a limiter on that ability.

HT: Neatorama

No, It Can't Be True!

Check out this Pearls Before Swine comic.

HT: Ironic Catholic

Review: Diary of the Dead (2007)

Diary of the Dead is a documentary reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project. It is taken from footage recovered from a group of college film students in Pennsylvania. Compiled and edited by world-renowned zombie expert George Romero, it is an interesting exploration of how people respond differently to undead outbreaks. Here is the trailer:


[YouTube Link]

The film highlights this critical component to survival in the midst of a zombie apocalypse; what I like to call "mental turn-around time". Some people, upon encountering attacking zombies, are able to rapidly adjust their worldview to accommodate the new, harsh realities of survival. More often, however, people cannot pull themselves out of the mall-shopping, frappiccino-sipping numbness of the suburban mundanity. This is why slow-moving creatures with less intelligence than cockroaches are able to slaughter and eat faster and 'smarter' humans.

Mental agility is the single-most important contributor to survival in the event of a zombie attack. The cameraman and his girlfriend are a study in contrasts of this factor. In the midst of the destruction of human civilization, Jason is most concerned about capturing events on film and posting the videos on his blog. While his girlfriend Debra seems to grasp the catastrophic nature of the risings, Jason is thrilled that his blog traffic has surged to gargantuan proportions -- until the collapse of the Internet.

If you want to survive, you have to have the attitude of survival. You have to be able to quickly accept catastrophic situations without panicking, but also without denying the reality of them.

Caption Contest

Previous contest winners

Picture via Pundit Kitchen

WINNER: Allan R. Bevere: Habemus Papam!

Masculinity at the Marketplace

I love this commercial.

[YouTube Link]

Communications Evolution

Via James Joyner. I haven't explored Twitter, but as far as I can tell, it's like blogging in stream-of-consciousness. Personally, I don't want every thought that passes through my head recorded in permanent text. But maybe it serves some use. Gavin does it, so it must be a good idea at some level.

Retro Music, II

Last week, I mentioned the Madonna phase I went through when I was 14. During those years, I was also fond of Guns N' Roses. I was introduced to their music with the song Patience, which was also the first music video I ever saw:


[YouTube Link]

My wife is very fond of the majestic love ballad Sweet Child O' Mine. Lead guitarist Slash was at his best in this hit:

[YouTube Link]

But I've always been the most impressed by their narrative video November Rain:

[YouTube Link]

What's your favorite Guns N' Roses song?

Question of the Day

more cat pictures

How do you feel about LOLcats?
	I love them! They're hilarious!
	I don't really care.
	I will drive roofing nails through your eyeballs if you ever show one of those accursed things again
pollcode.com free polls

Collecting a Urine Sample from Your Dog

You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to get a dog to pee into a cup.

Caption Contest

Previous contest winner

WINNERS:

Matthew Johnson: Ladies who prefer funneling.

DogBlogger: The sweet spot where the temperance movement and the abstinence movement meet.

The UM Mission in Second Life

Last week, a group of United Methodists met in Second Life to talk about the proposed church plant in SL. Theresa and Gavin were there. Apparently there is real support in the North Georgia Annual Conference and the Tennessee Annual Conference to move forward. Keep this evangelistic mission to Second Life in your prayers.

Strobel pens Case for Another One of My Case Books

CHICAGO — Lee Strobel, the one-time atheist and junior reporter who has made a career of applying journalistic techniques to biblical questions, has penned his 40th book with the word "Case" in the title.

"I felt that after all these years I needed to make the case why my Case books are still relevant," he says of his new book, The Case for Another One of My Case Books.

Strobel’s new Case book spends a chapter rehashing the points made in previous Case books, including The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, The Case for Christmas, The Case for St. Patrick’s Day, The Case for Mary, The Case for Those Weird Passages in Daniel, The Case for Sending the Strobel Grandkids to College on This Book’s Royalties, and The Case for Everything Else in the Bible That I Missed Before.

Link

The Bat'leth as an Anti-Zombie Weapon

A few days ago, we discussed weapons to use in melee combat against zombies. I've been pondering whether the Klingon bat'leth might be useful. It has the capability of making all three primary moves against an undead foe: slashing decapitations, skull-popping, and eye-puncturing.

Finding a commercially available battle-ready bat'leth, however, may prove very challenging.

Brian's Sermon from Monty Python's The Life of Brian

[YouTube Link]

Melee Combat Weapons

My weapon of choice when facing the undead -- especially when on the run -- is the M1 Carbine. But firearms may not be enough, particularly in close-combat situations such as clearing a building, moving room-to-room. Or, alternatively, after you've run out of ammunition, which is an inevitability in a full-scale zombie apocalypse.

So you'll want to have a melee combat weapon accessible. Max Books of The Zombie Survival Guide is a firm supporter of the popular monk's spade, a polearm of Chinese origin. Here is a demonstration:


[YouTube Link]

This weapon can be used (at either end) for decapitation strikes against zombies while maintaining a distance from their hands or teeth. Although it does not actually kill a zombie, I think that decapitation is the proper goal, as it is far easier than the two other ways to access and destroy a zombie's brain: (1) pierce the eye socket and reach the brain or (2) puncture the skull and crack open the brain directly. A severed zombie head is still a threat, but it is a greatly diminished threat, as it lacks mobility.

My problem with the monk's spade stems from its primary advantage. The length and weight of the weapon will slow and fatigue its user, as well as prevent one from carrying and using a rifle. I prefer to think of a melee weapon as a backup, but the sheer size of the monk's spade prevents that approach.

That's why I prefer the daito, the Japanese longsword. Invented by Miyamoto Musashi, it is a few inches longer than the traditional katana, giving the zombie fighter additional distance from his opponent while making horizontal slashing strikes. At under four feet in length and three pounds in weight, it is imminently portable by a rifleman.



Jeff the Baptist has noted his preference for axes:

The Shaolin spade is a Brooks thing. Like most polearms, it's pretty heavy. If you want something simple and useful, go with an axe or tomahawk. Good stuff and useful for more than skull splitting.

If you want to get fancy, I'm wondering if a dedicated thrusting blade (like a small sword or rapier) would penetrate the eyesocket into the brain and do some good scrambling. They'd make a lighter and more effective sidearm than a lot of the melee weapons I see suggested for the same jobs. Plus they have more reach than a knife or kukri.

I agree that a thrusting blade, such as a rapier, is probably a good choice, but I think that using an axe is asking for trouble. Cracking open a zombie's skull will permanently eliminate it as a threat, but I'd be very concerned that the blade might become lodged in the skull.

What is your preferred anti-zombie melee weapon?

Question of the Day

What should I get a tattoo of?

Taking Off Your Christian Blinders

I think that I am at an advantage in ministering to a post-Christian society in that I became a Christian as an adult, and so I can readily think like a secular person. It's fairly easy for me to spot Christian presuppositions in evangelical efforts that are not self-evident to the secular person. Victor Reppert writes:

I have taught in both a Christian setting and a non-Christian setting, but most of my student career and my teaching career has been in secular institutions. I often find that in a non-Christian setting students seem unaware of the fact that they have a world-view, or else they haven’t really thought very clearly about what their world-view is and how to make it a consistent one. So you find people drawing from one source here and one source there whenever it suits them. In a Christian setting you will still find some of that as well. But the main issue that I believe I should try to come to terms with in dealing with Christian students is the fact that they have learned certain ways of talking about what they believe which are common in churches but have little meaning to anyone outside of four walls of the institutional church. One church outsider came to a church and was asked “Are you under the blood?” which prompted him to look up at the ceiling to see if there was some red liquid coming down. Consider even a phrase like “Christ paid the penalty for our sins.” What penalty? What sins? And how could Christ pay it, if we incurred the penalty?

Missionaries often spend years studying the peoples of the countries in which they minister, hoping to understand the thought-forms of those peoples, so that they can learn to present the Christian message in a way that is meaningful to the people of that culture. Yet, I think, a lot of Christians have no idea how their world-view differs from the world-views of others, or how to ask the questions a non-believer would ask.

If Christians want to be effective evangelists -- or even effective thinkers -- they must engage in depth points of view other than their own.

HT: Jollyblogger

Caption Contest

Previous contest winners

WINNER: Andrew C. Thomspon: Bob was determined not to miss one minute of the half-time show while waiting in line for the men's restroom.

Review: Flight of the Living Dead

Flight of the Living Dead is a 2007 documentary about a zombie outbreak onboard a US transatlantic jetliner. Here's a sample scene, not for the faint of heart:



A dwindling number of survivors battle against an ever-increasing number of the undead. Possessing only three handguns and limited ammunition, they improvise weapons as they struggle to regain control of the plane and land it safely.

They use a number of fire-based weapons, which, as I previously noted, are usually more trouble than they are worth -- especially in the contained atmosphere of an airplane. However, given the choice between getting bitten and using an improvised flamethrower, their choices are understandable.

This film highlights the airline industry's lack of preparedness for mid-air zombie attacks and is an ominous warning for the future of air travel unless the TSA enacts immediate changes.

Until that time, you, the air traveller, must take safety into your own hands.

Retro Music

Last year, I posted videos from the music of my youth that I was still quite fond of.

Well, confession time: when I was 14 I went through a Madonna phase.

Wipe that smirk off your face! Don't tell me that you didn't have one, too.

I really liked her stuff and listened to it all the time. My introduction to her work came at the age of thirteen with this video of Like a Prayer:


[YouTube Link]

A few days ago, my wife and I heard the playfully romantic pop song True Blue, which is among our favorites:

[YouTube Link]

My favorite Madonna song is the obscure but joyful celebration of childhood Dear Jessie. I especially like its use of stringed instruments:

[YouTube Link]

How to Confuse an Idiot

Hat tip

Good Argument for Gun Rights

And, according to notes from the Constitutional Convention, one of the reasons why the Second Amendment was written:

[YouTube Link] Hat tip

Weekend Rabbit Blogging

The trailer for the horror film Night of the Lepus:

[YouTube Link]

Non-Controversial Church Opens For Potential Presidential Candidates

Turn your speakers on and click here.

Church Transforms into Coffee Chain

DENVER — Connection Metro Church, which used its foyer coffee bars to attract visitors to its eight satellite churches in the Denver area, has decided to abandon ministry altogether to focus on coffee.

"People liked the coffee a lot better than the ministry, according to congregational surveys, so we’re practicing what we preached and focusing on our strengths," says former teaching pastor and now chief marketing officer, Peter Brown.

Many in the congregation seem downright relieved.

"The sermons were okay, but the vanilla frappes were dynamite," says one woman who regularly attended the church for two years so she could enjoy the special brews. "I even brought my Jewish neighbors and they loved them."

Story Link

Caption Contest

Previous contest winner

WINNERS:

Mofast: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you!

Jeff the Baptist: Cookie Monster would later escape jail time using the infamous "Blue Rage" defense.