Green Baggins2

A Trial of Patience

2007-02-21T17:36:00.000-06:00

Please pray for a not-so-small problem we have currently: our basement is flooded completely (and I mean really flooded). There is two feet of water in much of the basement, and three feet in some places where the floor is lower.

Christmas Pictures

2006-12-02T19:04:00.000-06:00

The contrast on the last one is priceless.

James 1, King

2006-12-02T19:02:00.000-06:00

"K" is certainly for King. Here is James, looking every ounce the king he is.

Fairly Unique

2006-10-28T14:45:00.000-05:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are:
0
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

To use a phrase which would drive my mother crazy.

World Championship Chess Match

2006-09-23T11:26:00.000-05:00

The world championship chess match is up and going now. It is between Veselin Topalov (a Bulgarian, currently rated 2813, the highest rated active player), and Vladimir Kramnik (a Russian, and current classical champion, with a rating of 2743). While the ratings favor Topalov, the experience favors Kramnik. Topalov has never done a marathon match such as a World Championship match, whereas Kramnik has done more than one. Kramnik took the championship from Kasparov, by the way, and has had a rating in the past of 2811. Therefore, I favor Kramnik to win the match, despite his recent illness. You can watch the games in real time here.

The politics are interesting as well: about ten years ago, the chess world split because of Kasparov. Since then, there has been two champions, classical world and world. Kasparov wanted the championship to be determined not by a marathon match, but by a tournament. He wanted the professionalization of chess, whereas some still believed in the match system. The FIDE President has proposed a re-unification match between the two champions.

A hurricane

2006-09-16T10:23:00.000-05:00

It is very odd to share a name with a hurricane.

Recent funny of Ila's

2006-09-07T16:21:00.000-05:00

Recently, I was reading in a book, and found out something that was rather incredible (negative, actually). So I said, "You have got to be kidding." Upon which Ila's prompt reply was, "What did the kitty say?"

Great blogging tools

2006-09-06T14:31:00.000-05:00

If you use Firefox, then you need to install Greasemonkey. This allows you to install some really great user scripts. For instance, I have installed a trackback feature (regrettably, I can only send trackbacks, I cannot receive them, since blogger doesn't allow it, unless you are willing to go the route of Haloscan. But I have already added a recent comments hack to my blog, which Haloscan messes up.), and I can edit comments that I have written (on my blog or on someone else's), and I can edit comments written by other people on my blog. I have a tags generator both for del.icio.us, and for technorati. Just get an account with Userscript.org, and then type in blogger in the search engine, and you will find most of these. They are fun, and they are great ways to get more readers to your blog.

Pretty win

2006-09-06T13:41:00.000-05:00

White is at the bottom going up. How should Black proceed?

At long last, some more pictures!

2006-08-31T17:19:00.000-05:00

Pretty puzzle

2006-08-25T17:11:00.000-05:00

Stop signs

2006-08-19T10:06:00.000-05:00

I'm republishing this from my other blog, just for fun.

For those of you who are interested in theological humor, here is an excellent old chestnut. I got this from a college friend (Bear), but had lost it for a while. Finally it popped up again on Wrightsaid and I immediately saved it. Enjoy.Suppose you're traveling to work and you see a stop sign. What do you do? That depends on how you exegete the stop sign.

1. A postmodernist deconstructs the sign (knocks it over with his car), ending forever the tyranny of the north-south traffic over the east-west traffic.

2. Similarly, a Marxist sees a stop sign as an instrument of class conflict. He concludes that the bourgeoisie use the north-south road and obstruct the progress of the workers on the east-west road.

3. A serious and educated Catholic believes that he cannot understand the stop sign apart from its interpretive community and their tradition. Observing that the interpretive community doesn't take it too seriously, he doesn't feel obligated to take it too seriously either.

4. An average Catholic (or Orthodox or Coptic or Anglican or Methodist or Presbyterian or whatever) doesn't bother to read the sign but he'll stop if the car in front of him does.

5. A fundamentalist, taking the text very literally, stops at the stop sign and waits for it to tell him to go.

6. A preacher might look up "STOP" in his lexicons of English and discover that it can mean: 1) something which prevents motion, such as a plug for a drain, or a block of wood that prevents a door from closing; 2) a location where a train or bus lets off passengers. The main point of his sermon the following Sunday on this text is: when you see a stop sign, it is a place where traffic is naturally clogged, so it is a good place to let off passengers from your car.

7. An orthodox Jew does one of two things:1) Take another route to work that doesn't have a stop sign so that he doesn't run the risk of disobeying the Law.2) Stop at the stop sign, say "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, king of the universe, who hast given us thy commandment to stop,"wait 3 seconds according to his watch, and then proceed. Incidently,the Talmud has the following comments on this passage: R[abbi] Meirsays: He who does not stop shall not live long. R. Hillel says: Cursed is he who does not count to three before proceeding. R. Simonben Yudah says: Why three? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. R. ben Isaac says:Because of the three patriarchs. R. Yehuda says: Why bless the Lord at a stop sign? Because it says: "Be still, and know that I am God."R. Hezekiel says: When Jephthah returned from defeating the Ammonites, the Holy One, blessed be He, knew that a donkey would run out of the house and overtake his daughter; but Jephthah did not stop at the stop sign, and the donkey did not have time to come out. For this reason he saw his daughter first and lost her. Thus he was judged for his transgression at the stop sign. R. Gamaliel says: R.Hillel, when he was a baby, never spoke a word, though his parents tried to teach him by speaking and showing him the words on a scroll. One day his father was driving through town and did not stop at the sign. Young Hillel called out: "Stop, father!" In this way, he began reading and speaking at the same time. Thus it is written:"Out of the mouth of babes." R. ben Jacob says: Where did the stop sign come from? Out of the sky, for it is written: "Forever, O Lord, your word is fixed in the heavens." R. ben Nathan says: When were stop signs created? On the fourth day, for it is written: "let them serve as signs." R. Yeshuah says: ... [continues for three more pages]

8. A Pharisee does the same thing as an orthodox Jew, except that he waits 10 seconds instead of 3. He also replaces his brake lights with 1000 watt searchlights and connects his horn so that it is activated whenever he touches the brake pedal.

9. A scholar from Jesus seminar concludes that the passage "STOP" undoubtedly was never uttered by Jesus himself, but belongs entirely to stage III of the gospel tradition, when the church was first confronted by traffic in its parking lot.

10. A NT scholar notices that there is no stop sign on Mark street, but there is one on Matthew and Luke streets, and concludes that the ones on Luke and Matthew streets are both copied from a sign on a completely hypothetical street called "Q". There is an excellent 300 page discussion of speculations on the origin of these stop signs and the differences between the stop signs on Matthew and Luke street in the scholar's commentary on the passage. There is an unfortunate omission in the commentary, however; the author apparently forgot to explain what the text means.

11. An OT scholar points out that there are a number of stylistic differences between the first and second half of the passage "STOP". For example, "ST" contains no enclosed areas and 5 line endings,whereas "OP" contains two enclosed areas and only one line termination. He concludes that the author for the second part is different from the author for the first part and probably lived hundreds of years later. Later scholars determine that the second half is itself actually written by two separate authors because of similar stylistic differences between the "O" and the "P".

12. Another prominent OT scholar notes in his commentary that the stop sign would fit better into the context three streets back. (Unfortunately, he neglected to explain why in his commentary.) Clearly it was moved to its present location by a later redactor. He thus exegetes the intersection as though the stop sign were not there.

13. Because of the difficulties in interpretation, another OT scholar emends the text, changing "T" to "H". "SHOP" is much easier to understand in context than "STOP" because of the multiplicity of stores in the area. The textual corruption probably occurred because"SHOP" is so similar to "STOP" on the sign several streets back that it is a natural mistake for a scribe to make. Thus the sign should be interpreted to announce the existence of a shopping area.

And some new additions by my friend Tom Penning:

14. A worship band leader pauses and writes a chorus based on "Stop, Mr. Postman!" Instead calling it "Stop Mr. Churchman!" He/She writes two verses and twelve chorus repeats.

15. A W Bushite Republican realizes that sign is faded, and pushes to raise taxes so that the local sign company can produce another sign causing one employee to work an addional 12 minutes, his tax increase in effect paying for the new sign.

16. A Presbyterian turns to those riding with him and forms a committee to decide the length of stop necessary, the exact location of the stopping to be done, and the exact definition of WHAT is to be stopped.

17. If no one is in the car with him, the Presbyterian makes an executive decision, and plans to report on his actions the next time four others are in the car with him.

18. A Constitutionalist wonders which part of the US Constitution gives the Executive Branch of Government the right to dictate stopping zones. He also considers whether the determination of said stopping zones is technically Legislation and should have been determined by the City Council. He then finds out that the stop locations WERE determined by the City Council, so he agrees to stop hereafter at that stop sign.

On Old People

2006-07-30T14:51:00.000-05:00

I really honor and admire old people. They often have terrible circumstances in which to pass the remainder of their lives, and usually they are very lonely, especially if they are in a nursing home.

However, there are things that they can do, and ought to do. The old people I admire the most are the ones who are never done living until they die. There are some old people who coast along in their old age. They go downhill fast. I do not have very much admiration for such people. Old people ought to learn new things that they didn't have time to learn before. I know of a woman who started memorizing her Bible at the age of 65, and she never stopped until she had the whole thing memorized. Anyone who thinks that they cannot do that have one single obstacle in the way of doing it: themselves! They need to keep going: keep walking with God, walking period! They need physical exercise, and mental exercise. If they do that, then they will continue to have productive lives. The ones who do not do that are destined to go downhill and pass away. Use it or lose it.

Flu shots

2006-06-09T13:26:00.000-05:00

Some rather alarming things that you need to know about flu shots. First, the actual composition for each year's flu vaccine is based on an educated guess made by a consensus of about 30 public health experts. These "experts" meet annually with the FDA in the US to predict which specific strains of influenze will invade the country in the coming year. If this sounds unscientific to you, it's because it is. The most promising clinical trials show only a 14% reduced risk, with some studies showing that vaccinated individuals were actually at a 2% higher risk of getting the flu. According to Dr. J. Anthony Morris (distinguished virologist and formerly Chief Vaccine Control Officer at the FDA), "There is no evidence that any influenza vaccine thus far developed is effective in preventing or mitigating any attack of influenza. The producers of these vaccines know they are worthless, but they go on selling them anyway." Another point to remember is that out of all "influenza-like illnesses," only 10 to 15 percent are an actual strain of influenza.

Let's not forget that over 49% of individuals receiving the flu shot will develop systemic reactions. It is now recognized that there is a direct link between Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) and the flu vaccine. GBS is a neurological problem that causes paralysis, with most victims never fully recovering. More recently, there is now an established link between the flu vaccine and Alzheimer's. According to Hugh Fudenberg, MD, the world's leading immunogeneticist, if an individual has had 5 consecutive flu shots, their chances of getting Alzheimer's is 10 times higher that if they had one, two, or no shots. Because only about 10% of all adverse vaccine reactions are reported to the FDA, the true vaccine damage figures are grossly underestimated. Is it any wonder that, nationwide, less than 35% of doctors and nurses get the flu vaccine themselves?

2006-05-08T17:56:00.000-05:00

White to play and win (not mate).

First Sentence

2006-05-08T17:51:00.000-05:00

Ila gave us her very first complete sentence, with subject and predicate two weeks ago on Sunday. Sarah was working with cookie dough, eating it rather than cooking it (as seemed appropriate under the circumstances!), and Ila was happily helping Sarah in this endeavor, when Ila said, "I like dough." Hmm. Prophetic.

Easter Pictures

2006-05-07T14:12:00.000-05:00

Ah, the King

2006-04-22T16:30:00.000-05:00

Another fine puzzle.

2006-04-21T16:57:00.000-05:00

This is quite difficult. It takes a lot to see it.

Brilliant Checkmate

2006-04-19T18:37:00.000-05:00

Here is a real dandy.

The Sparkling Perrier

2006-04-12T13:38:00.000-05:00

2006-04-06T13:46:00.000-05:00

This is a neat little combination.

Beautiful combination

2006-04-05T12:22:00.000-05:00

White to move and win (not mate).

White to move and mate in four

2006-03-31T14:10:00.000-06:00

I finally found out the problem I was having. Here is another nice problem.

White to move and mate in 3

2006-03-30T17:34:00.000-06:00

Here is a beautiful mate. If anyone, btw, can tell me why I am having trouble with the borders, I would be grateful. I am using
Chessmaker.

Beautiful combination

2006-03-22T13:09:00.000-06:00

White to play and win.

More pictures

2006-03-18T18:31:00.000-06:00

Chess puzzle

2006-02-28T14:22:00.000-06:00

Black to move. What should he do?

Yet another blog

2006-02-11T11:27:00.000-06:00

I know, I know, you are wondering what I could possibly be doing with yet another blog. Yet, this is actually a project I have been working on for some time. It is called "The Accent Translation," a new translation of the Bible. There are some rather different features of my translation, which I hope will make it rather three-dimensional. Check out the link marked "The Accent Translation" on the sidebar. I would appreciate comments about how useful the system is, and any corrections or connections that I missed.

Pretty mate

2006-02-09T10:08:00.000-06:00

White to move and mate in three. This is a real gem. Hat tip to Susan Polgar's blog.

Random Pictures

2006-02-04T10:10:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures of my family, along with Caroline, who is Ila's and James's cousin (Sarah's sister Rachel).

Forced Win

2006-01-24T16:02:00.000-06:00

What should Black do?

My other church

2006-01-13T14:26:00.000-06:00

I promised pictures of the other church of which I am the pastor. Here they are.

Pretty checkmate

2006-01-07T09:11:00.000-06:00

Here is a pretty checkmate: White to move and mate in two.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

2005-12-30T17:39:00.000-06:00

Well, I need to record my thoughts before I lose what I have remembered from it. Overall, I was extremely impressed. I thought the acting was superb. I especially thought that
Edmund was very convincing. He has extremely expressive eyes. I thought his repentance was sincere. I thought that the dialog was in general very well executed.

Aslan was convincing, and not as tame as some have said. His roars filled the theatre. I interpret the pause before he kills the witch differently than some do. Some seem to think that Aslan was sorry that he had to kill the witch. I interpret it as in 1 Peter 3:18-22: Christ preaching his message of victory against the dark forces of evil.

Lucy was very cute and right on, though a tad sharp to the others. But she does need to be portrayed as human, whereas Lewis in the book almost makes her too perfect (probably a function of the person to whom he dedicated the book: his god-daughter Lucy Barfield!). Susan is portrayed as grown-up in the books (and always wanting to be grown-up), but I think in this volume she is not as grown-up as she becomes later, especially by the time the Last Battle occurs. I am thinking of her overly grown-up reaction to the beaver talking. In the book (and in keeping with their child-like nature), the children take animals talking completely in stride. Peter truly is magnificent, and his move from being unsure of himself to being king (in German, called the Bildungsroman, or "rite of passage) is done absolutely perfectly.

I agree that the scene at the river is a little overdone. I liked the fact that they tried to build a relationship with the centaur. That would only have been natural. I liked the professor, though some of his best lines (especially Lewis's repeated rantings against the school system of his day) are not there. His eyes just sparkle. I liked the professor in the Wonderworks production even better.

I would say (having known the quibbles that others have voiced concerning the movie) that my likes rather heavily outweighed my dislikes. I was much moved in rather many places. I would highly recommend this movie.

Paralyzing Move

2005-12-22T11:12:00.000-06:00

What is White's winning paralyzing move?

Christmas Picture

2005-12-19T10:23:00.000-06:00

Here is our Christmas picture. Enjoy.

Another beauty

2005-12-14T12:03:00.000-06:00

Here is a real puzzler. Who is better?

On Noisy Toys

2005-12-13T10:07:00.000-06:00

We have recently acquired some torture devices disguised as children's play toys. They make noises. As Ravi Zacharias said, "you don't know the meaning of the word 'infinity' until you have children." We have a daughter now, who is almost 2. We now know the meaning of the word "infinity."

You know, I have this dream, where the creators of these toys are subjected to at least 20 hours listening to their Frankensteins being played constantly. I'm sure that they do not know the meaning of the word "infinity." I'm sure that they only play these blasted contraptions for a grand total of two minutes. Or, better yet, I imagine them toying (pardon the pun) with how they can disrupt family life, and drive fathers away from their children by means of sadistic torture. My sister said it best, "I don't give noisy toys to people I like."

Narnia and witches

2005-12-07T14:32:00.000-06:00

There are people out there who are concerned about the fact that Lewis' great classic has the word "witch" in the title. Given the climate of the times, it is but natural that this would be a concern. It is by no means a light concern. What with Wiccans practicing all sorts of witchcraft, it would be premature, at the very least, to dismiss out of hand a concern which is so genuine.

Nevertheless, the concern about Lewis is misplaced. They argue that the title _The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe_ is occult, all by itself, simply because it has the word "witch" in it. This commits the word-concept fallacy. Just because a word is there does not mean that every possible connotation you could think of is also there. Conversely, the concept could be there without the word being there. For instance, Os Guinness has written a book entitled, _Dining with the Devil_. If you judged the book by its cover, you might think that dining with the devil is a good thing. It is only after you have read the book that you find out that it is a bad thing. It is certainly not Satanic! We must judge by the context, and must most certainly *not* judge a book by its cover! So, right away, they're off to a very bad start.

When talking about Aslan, the article says this, "Obviously, there is a salvation message in all of that, but is it the message of Jesus Christ? Obviously not. It is the salvation message of an occult, New Age lion that has, not only more powers than a human, but enough power to rival our Savior in the eyes of young readers." This has nothing to do with what Lewis was trying to do. He was trying to picture Christ's death (especially in a sacrificial context!) and resurrection by means of fantasy. The metaphor works precisely because it is fantasy and can get behind the defenses we often put up to religion. Btw, I will deal with their earlier critique of Lewis' apologetic on the other blog. But see this for a much better explanation of Lewis.

They then procede to lambaste _The Last Battle_. They start out by completely misunderstanding what Lewis was doing with Puzzle and Shift. Do they even *begin* to think that Lewis meant to sanction such behavior? They should have read what happens to both of them, but expecially Shift. Judgment may be delayed, but it is certain to come.

They say this about the moral of _Last Battle_: "it is not intended to bring one to Christ at all. It is simply a very misleading occult, New Age, fantasy tale, replete with supernaturally-powered animals, and the evil philosophy that regardless of how evil we are, we all have that spark of goodness in us for which God will surely take us to heaven." This completely ignores the judgment scene at the end. The animals are supposed to *represent* humans. They come to Aslan, and they are judged, some going on the right hand of Him, and some going on the left. This has *nothing* to do with the occult. Lewis was *not* a New Age philosopher *at all.* This article is full of slander. And I'm sorry, lumping Lewis in with Harry Potter is an example of the "poisoned well" argument. The writers of this article have probably written much good literature. This article is not one of them. It is nothing short of absurd.

Beautiful study

2005-12-05T14:13:00.000-06:00

White to move and win. What is the correct move for white?

Elegant mate

2005-12-05T10:44:00.000-06:00

Here is an elegant mate in four (white to move).

Chess Puzzle 2

2005-12-03T13:40:00.000-06:00

Here is a beauty from over a thousand years ago.
*Black* to move and mate in three.

Chess puzzle

2005-12-03T09:59:00.000-06:00

Here is a chess puzzler. I am going to try to include these as a regular feature of the blog. White to move and win.

Narnia

2005-11-29T10:26:00.000-06:00

Since everyone's talking about (see here and here) Narnia, I must get on the bandwagon to be suitably faddish. Many thanks to Susan for the link to a super-trailer for the movie coming out in December (here). It is a whole nine minutes!

It looks like they have retained the Christian symbolism from the book, and that is the main point. The book means nothing without it. See especially the two articles in Reformation 21 (linked above) for a very interesting discussion of Lewis's technique and goals in creating Narnia as an apologetic. I have had great fun in reading the book aloud three times since the summer (one to VBS, one in a Good News club for the local school, and one for the youth group Bible study). I will be well-versed in LWW by the time the movie comes out.

But there is agony as well. I am really tired of movies that twist the story of the book for supposedly dramatic reasons. There were quite a few of those changes in the Tolkien movies. Even after looking at the commentaries and the rationale for it, I was not convinced. They could have asked this question: will they change the story for the sake of those who don't know Tolkien, or will they be faithful for the sake of those who do? Faramir is the very worst example of this. What they gained in having a tension resolved at the end of the movie, they lost in the lessened contrast between Boromir and Faramir. And having Frodo going through Shelob's lair without Sam was extremely disappointing, since one of the main themes of the book was the friendship that existed between them. Lewis does not need this kind of wrangling. We are dealing with a far smaller structure with far more tensions resolved in a shorter period of time. And so, I hope that they will do their duty by Lewis. My agony consists in wondering how much of the story they will change. The BBC version had that virtue about it: they didn't change much at all. We are dealing with Disney here, which does not inspire confidence on this score. And Lewis said nothing about the children being shocked at the animals' talking: that is too grown up. The four children accept it at face value in the book. Lucy even wonders, "I wonder, can birds talk in Narnia?" Although, they do have the right person being incredulous: Susan, who winds up "apostatizing." Interesting, hmmm. Thoughts, anyone?

More pics

2005-11-23T13:46:00.000-06:00

Here are some more pictures. We have here Hull CRC and the parsonage in which we live. The parsonage is huge, with three floors (one of which is an unfinished basement). We like it very much. The two pics of the inside of the church are done for both a close-up of the pulpit, and a scope shot, to give you some idea of how big the church is. This church was built in the 1970's. The parsonage is about a hundred years old. But they keep up on it. It has both heat and air-conditioning. Pics of Hope Reformed will be coming (bad time of day to photograph it).

2005-11-13T16:18:00.000-06:00

At last, here are some pictures, courtesy of the digital camera given to us by my parents :-)))). Included is one of James's baptism.

In-laws

2005-10-31T10:31:00.000-06:00

I have very gracious in-laws. They have come to stay for a week to help out Sarah with the new baby, and Ila in particular. This involved quite a long trek for them. They are anxious to please, and anxious to help in any way they can. I am blessed.

James

2005-10-29T10:46:00.000-05:00

We have a new baby boy! His name is James Mark Calvin Keister. He was born Thursday, Oct 27, 3:09 PM. He weighed 8.5 pounds, measured 21 3/4". He is quite healthy (scored an 8 at one minute, and a 9 at five minutes). Mother and baby are doing very well. There will be a picture of him available on the hospital website (we don't have a digital camera :-( ). The link is as follows:

http://www.st.alexius.org/birth_place/nursery.asp

Just click under Oct 27 (it isn't up quite yet).

Baby being born today or tomorrow

2005-10-26T19:16:00.000-05:00

For any who are in suspense, we are still waiting. We are scheduled for an inducement tomorrow morning early. It looks very much like Rick Flair will get his wish. We will see.

Correction

2005-10-21T18:06:00.000-05:00

Alas, I must correct a previous post. Sarah does not have a induction scheduled for Monday. We wished for it, but it did not materialize. At least, we were not able to get a promise. So, we do have one scheduled for Thursday (I am sure that Tim would be overjoyed if that turned out!). But we might be able to get one earlier, depending on how busy the hospital is. They will, of course, take us anytime if Sarah goes into labor.

Education

2005-10-20T18:05:00.000-05:00

Here is an interesting website:

http://centre.telemanage.ca/links.nsf/articles/
880E3E01776DEDE485256B52005AF058

The conclusion that public education has gone downhill since the 1890's has been contested by these folks:

http://www.snopes.com/language/document/1895exam.htm

And if one follows the link to my brother's blog Cumberland Island, available on Green Baggins, one can find a very interesting discussion on education there.

I think I would disagree with the folks at Snopes, powerful though some of their arguments are. For one thing, many of the objections they listed were already noted in the first site. For another, I'm not sure how many of the alternative modern questions and fields proposed would be answered well by modern high-school students. The most that the exam could prove, of course, is a trend, not a blanket generalization, if it does prove the trend.

Update

2005-10-20T11:31:00.000-05:00

For those who are wondering about news, we don't have number two child yet. However, we are going to schedule an inducement on Monday, Oct 24, if the baby does not come sooner. So, less than a week, and Junior will be here, Lord-willing!

On comments to pregnant mothers

2005-10-17T16:40:00.000-05:00

My wife is thinking of starting a pregnant women's asylum. Women used to stay at home in the nineteenth century when they were pregnant, so that people would not comment on their state of pregnancy. But now, they generally are out and about right up until the end of pregnancy (no, there is nothing to announce yet!). But lately, my wife has gotten rather a lot of comments that have been rather insensitive. they have been comments on how big she is. Now really! You would think that people could be a little bit more tactful than that. I would think that even comments such as, "Now, is it a boy or a girl?" might be offensive (coming from a stranger), since the person is saying that the woman obviously looks pregnant! This might not be the case with all women, but shouldn't we at least consider the pregnant woman's feelings on the matter? It is enough to make them want to go into hiding. Yup, one can understand why they did things that way in the old times.

Actually, I've even heard around here that wives used to keep it under wraps so well that their husbands sometimes didn't even know when the baby was born! I even heard that one husband had to ask, "You're going to the hospital? Why?" My wife is not actually thinking of starting an asylum. But she does feel bad about some comments that have been made to her along these lines, "Boy, do you look ready!" So, the next time you see an (even obviously) pregnant woman, do her the kindness not to say anything at all about how she looks (understanding that she might be hyper-sensitive about it), or you can say something like this, "You look radiant!" This, of course, to someone you know.

Meat

2005-10-13T10:16:00.000-05:00

There are people out there who say that meat is a bad thing and that we shouldn't eat it. I beg to disagree. All meats are not created equal. The book to read on this is the book by Sally Fallon called Nourishing Traditions, available on Amazon. I heartily recommend this book to all those people who are tempted to follow the latest fad on dieting. This book is for you. Generally, the more natural something is, the more healthy it is. Refined sugar is much worse than raw sugar. Margarine is far worse than butter. Store-bought milk that is pasteurized and homogenized is much worse than raw milk. This book will destroy what the "diet dictocrats" are telling America. Why should we wonder if diabetes is threatening to destroy our population? Why should we wonder if cancer is on the rise?

What Sally Fallon recommends is that meat that is fed organically is the healthy meat, and the fat that goes with it is healthy fat that will not make you fat.

Expectation

2005-10-12T10:11:00.000-05:00

For those who don't know, my wife and I are expecting our second child (a boy) on Oct. 23. Currently, the wife is doing fine. I don't think that this baby will be late. Certainly, he will not be as late as Ila was. But the wife is already showing signs of being further along. The name has been picked out, but we are not telling until our son is born (one does have to have something to announce!). We are, of course, very excited (not to say frustrated at the wait!), though not exactly prepared for baby number two. It was easy to prepare for Ila's birth. But for the second one, we are already dealing with Ila (who is quite the handful, I assure you!).

Ila is showing signs of extreme bookishness. I've never seen a child so enamoured of books. She is 21 months old, by the way. I know that she is learning the language through these books. She knows her numbers, letters, shapes, and colors pretty well by now (after ad nauseum repetition, she ought to!). She doesn't say the words as clearly as whe will later, but she can point to the right thing.

The other expectation that I have is of soon being able to hunt. One has to pass a hunter safety course, and then buy the various licenses needed. The main reason I am doing this is because most of the men (and many of the women) in my congregation hunt. They do it for many reasons, not least of which is preservation of their crops, since deer do great damage up here, and not just to crops, but also to cars! But they also do it for fun and for good sausage! Pheasant is excellent, and is one of the main birds hunted here, along with the tens of thousands of geese. But I do it in order to have another way to spend time with members of the congregations. I also got a fishing license to go with it.

The Basis of AP

2005-10-07T16:43:00.000-05:00

The basis of parenting in the AP fashion biblically speaking is the love of God. The statement, "The Lord disciplines those He loves" means that discipline is based on the prior relationship of love. The relationship between love and discipline is NOT reversable. Love is foundational. We discipline because we love our children. It is not the case that we can discipline before we love.

But even more important than that: the child needs to know that the basis of discipline is love, if discipline is to have any effect at all. If the child has any doubts that his parents love him, and then he receives discipline, it WILL be interpreted as hate. So the simple question to ask is this: how is it possible for a newborn child to understand that his parents love him? The answer is that the parents take care of the child's needs, and do not administer discipline while the child cannot understand it. That means no discipline until the child is approximately 12-15 months old. Even then, careful and patient instruction must precede the instance of discipline, or the child will not understand. Short temper and lack of patience have no place at all in discipline. A great book on this is Tripp's book Shepherding a Child's Heart. Every parent needs to read this book.

This approach does not in any way deny that children are born with sinful natures: of course they have a sin nature. But how did God do it? Read Ezekiel 16. There was no discipline at all until Israel could understand why it was being disciplined. But notice how love precedes discipline in that rather graphic chapter. This is something about which Ezzo is completely clueless. He does not understand the relationship between discipline and love. The result for his approach is that many children (though not all: some can handle whatever is handed out to them) wind being turned inward, since they cannot connect with their parents.

Some might say that parenting in this way is self-masochistic. I can deny that with our own experience. There are rough nights, admittedly. But the fact is that Ezzo doesn't work very well even for getting children to bed and sleeping through the night, since they don't ever feel secure. A baby needs to feel secure above almost anything else. It is a need commensurate with food and water. We must not downplay emotional needs here.

Indeed, the example of God is again helpful to us: God is completely unselfish. We often think that parenting is about us, about the marriage. While it is true that parents should give time to each other, parenting is inherently unselfish, inherently other-centered. Ezzo simply allows people to justify themselves in their selfishness.

Harriet Miers 2

2005-10-05T15:25:00.000-05:00

I have been convinced by Hannah that Harriet Miers is indeed someone to root for in the Supreme Court hearings. I rejoice that she would protect life and protect the Constitution. I rejoice also that liberals will have a hard time trying to pin anything on her. I admire Bush for making such a savvy decision, and hope and pray earnestly that she will be confirmed.

Attachment Parenting

2005-10-05T15:20:00.000-05:00

There is this hideous idea out there that parents ought to abandon their children during the night when the child cries, so that the child can cry itself to sleep. In the Evangelical world, this view has been promoted by Gary Ezzo. This promotes failure-to-thrive children, teaches them that their parents do not love them (and love *must* be foundational to discipline in order for discipline to have any meaning), starves them, and isolates them from the world. Ezzo promotes a typically selfish way of parenting, making sure that parents can justify their selfishness by saying that parenting is all about the parents rather than about the children. Many SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) are Ezzo babies. Relational love is necessary for a child's very survival. In fact, it is as essential as food and water itself. That is why attachment parenting is much more loving and successful.

Harriet Miers

2005-10-03T13:53:00.000-05:00

One wonders about someone whom people claim to be constitutionally originalist, but who are pro-choice. At least, it seems that she is pro-choice. I have serious misgivings that what we actually have here is another middle of the road nominee here to the Supreme Court. It might be too early to tell. But the fact that the majority and minority leaders of the senate approve of her is not good news to me. Here we had a golden opportunity to change the make-up of the Supreme Court, and get another Scalia or Thomas on there, and we are disappointed. Bush doesn't need to win any popularity contests: he needs to do what is right. I would have preferred to see Janice Rogers Brown nominated. She seems to be much more conservative. Furthermore, she was already approved by the Senate just last June.

IM

2005-10-03T13:45:00.000-05:00

If someone were to have a Yahoo account, they could download the IM software, which allows people to have phone conversations for free. In addition, they could IM for free as well. I have an account, which is greenglove78. Hope to see you there.

Fun books

2005-09-30T14:04:00.000-05:00

I just read some rip-roaring good books. They are both by Rafael Sabatini. The first is called _Sea Hawk_, and the second is called _Scaramouche_. Rafael Sabatini is also the author of _Captain Blood_, a book I read a while back. He is a master story teller, and I highly recommend these books to ya'll.

Greetings

2005-09-29T16:39:00.000-05:00

I came across an interesting quotation today on the function of greetings in society. Here it is:

"Today, just as thousands of years ago, the greeting is of vital importance in family and neighborly circles. It is the contact point; it preserves the coherence of the community. Rejection of the greeting means rejection of the community."

The next time you greet someone, and you are tired of the familiar "How are you?", remember that society greetings function like glue. They are important, as trite as they often seem to us.

An Amusing Story

2005-09-29T09:35:00.000-05:00

I heard on the radio today (NPR's Performance Today) a funny story about Yo Yo Ma, the famous cellist. He was playing with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Andrew Davis. They had a bunch of balloons ready to be released at the end of the concert. They had these balloons because it was the beginning of the season. But instead of docilely staying there and behaving themselves, they started popping. In the most delicate and soft passages with Ma by himself, the balloons started popping. Finally, Davis glared up at the ceiling and said, "Oh, shut up!"

Expectation

2005-09-28T18:26:00.000-05:00

Sarah and I are expecting a boy, as most of you reading this will know already. The boy is due Oct 23. What is interesting is that we live 75 miles from the hospital.

Sarah is feeling well right now, but is beginning to slow way down. However, yesterday she had the energy to clean up much of the house along with some friends who had come over to help her out.

Ila is talking now fairly well. However, many of her words sound like many other of her words. For instance, "obey" sounds like "apple." She is doing really well at our neighbor's house, with whom whe will stay when Junior is born. Every time she is there, she has a great time. I am grateful indeed for such grandmotherly, available baby-sitters, who love to babysit Ila for free! How spoiled we are!

Right now I am taking a hunter saftey course, in order to get a hunting license to as to be able to spend time with the men of my congregations. Most of them hunt or fish.

Classics

2005-09-28T12:23:00.000-05:00

I love the classics. Or maybe I should try sarcasm (as I did with German Diva once) and say that I HATE classics. But one has to start somewhere. Right now I am working on a commentary on Homer's Odyssey. So far, I am about one page into it. I note the scansion of the line, then work on the vocab and grammar of the line. So far, so good. However, my computer crashed last week, and some of the fonts are gone. I hope the Greek font didn't disappear on me, or there will be trouble.

Currently, I am teaching brother of mine Greek. We are going through Groton's book _Alpha and Omega_, which I highly recommend to anyone wanting to take Greek on their own, although it does help to have a teacher.

Here is a question for ya'll. Is classical education (whether Christian or not) a good thing or a bad thing? By that, I am referring to what Dorothy Sayers and Douglas Wilson accomplished in their seminal essays on the subject.

Why a new blog?

2005-09-28T12:11:00.000-05:00

Why should I have two blogs, when one is plenty for anyone? The reason is that several of my friends are interested in a blog by me that has nothing to do with theology. Now, this is a tall order. After all, theology is my job. However, this is where I will post happenings in my family, discussions in philosophy, music, and all other non-theological areas.