Entries from October 2008

October 31, 2008

• Random rant Friday

(Pic: Granddauaghters Hannah and Kaylah)
Should Christians celebrate Halloween?
Google “Should Christians celebrate Halloween?” and you’ll get about one thousand sites covering everything from “it’s completely harmless” to “it’s completely hellish.” Here’s site 1,001 that’s somewhere in the middle: Yes, no and maybe

Are presidential candidates “Christian”?
In a 2004 interview in the Chicago Sun Times, Democractic [...]

October 29, 2008

• Truth: first casualty of politics

It’s been said, “Truth is the first casualty of war.” The same can be said about politics! So here are a few sites that claim to sort out truth from fiction in the 2008 U.S. political campaigns:
FactCheck.org
PolitiFact.com
Snopes.com
Of course, I’m always wondering, Who’s checking the fact checkers? (See If your mother says she loves you, check it [...]

October 27, 2008

• Who’s intellectually honest?

Mike Gene has a great article on assessing all the heated arguments between now and election day—or anytime. Here are excerpts and main points from The 10 Signs of Intellectual Honesty:
When it comes to just about any topic, it seems as if the public discourse on the internet is dominated by rhetoric and propaganda. People [...]

October 25, 2008

• Will prayer affect election?

The tension between God’s providence and humans’ freewill has been long discussed and debated. So, will all the prayers between now and November 4 make any difference in the U.S. presidential election?
Alaskan governor and Republican vice presidential candidate believes so. When asked by James Dobson on the “Focus on the Family” radio program [...]

October 24, 2008

• Moderation in all things?

In a recent emailing, I identified myself as a “moderate.” And I was immediately accused of being “indecisive” and “apathetic.”
The problem with liberal, conservative and moderate labels is that few of us consistently fit the stereotype. For instance, I’m decisively conservative on abortion and un-apathetically liberal on capital punishment. So, does that [...]

October 23, 2008

• Would last honest reporter please turn on lights?

Whew! A scathing editorial by Orson Scott Card pleads, Would the last honest reporter please turn on the lights? The piece, originally published in the Rhinoceros Times of North Carolina is spreading across the Internet and radio talk shows like a California wild fire.
Some of Card’s charges include:
This housing crisis didn’t come out [...]

October 22, 2008

• Swiss guarantee ‘plant rights’

The Swiss constitution now protects plants from geneticists “trampling on a plant’s dignity.”
Yep, when Dr. Beat Keller, a molecular biologist at the University of Zurich, wanted to genetically modify wheat to make it resistant to a fungus, he had to get government’s permission and promise not to “disturb the vital functions or lifestyle” of the [...]

October 21, 2008

• For writers only

If you’re not a writer, feel free to click on over to my 200 articles on everything from sects to sex.
But if you’re a writer, you’re going to resonate with Jodi Picoult’s honest and transparent article from Writers’ Digest, “Try, Try, Try Again.” Here are some excerpts:

. . . the only reason I turned [...]

October 17, 2008

• ‘Random rant Friday’

(Use the “comment” section to suggest a caption. Lots of possibilities!)
Polling the polls
The only polls that count are those on election day, but that hasn’t stopped the pollsters!
While virtually every poll shows Senator Barack Obama in the lead, his percentage over Senator John McCain is all over the map as suggested by an interesting [...]

October 14, 2008

• I passed my PSA test!

Tuesday 2:00 pm
Great news! I passed my PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test, which means the 42 radiation treatments have successfully zapped the cancer.
My original PSA was 7 (average is 4) and now is 2.9 (better than average).
You can read about my medical adventures at Top Ten Things I’ve Learned Living with [...]