News items you might have missed

Tom Monaghan of Domino's Pizza fame has decided to build a brand-new city from scratch that will be completely Catholic. What's the point of this? Has he never heard of Vatican City? Or Boston? The full story can be read at this linkazoid.

Also, Don Knotts died. He was 81. Barney Fife was one of the classic characters in all of TV history (that phrase just makes my knees weak.) "TAGS" was one of the best shows ever while he was on it. "Where's my bullet?"


"Wars of the Aoten" update: Five chapters to go.

David and Saul

Check out 1 Samuel: You can find the coolest stuff even in the obscure OT books. The conflict between Saul and David is a picture of Satan's desire to destroy Christ. Saul was elevated to a lofty position that he despised, and in his disobedience he was judged. Even in his repentance there was no remedy. So David, the type of Christ the King, is anointed, and Saul goes about to destroy him but is unable. Every time he repents of his designs against David, the evil spirit from God returns to drive him crazy again (Mt. 12:43-45). In fact, he often declares that David is the rightful king, just as the demons in the Gospels testify to the Holy One, just as demons believe and tremble. But David will not overrule the Lord and destroy Saul, just as God defers the destruction of Satan. At one point David finds Saul asleep with his lance stuck in the ground at his head, suggesting a wound to the head (Gen. 3:15). Finally God brings about Saul's end at the hands of a gentile army, not unlike Armageddon, and David claims his kingdom. As well, this would make Jonathan the son of perdition, a type of Judas, David's own familiar friend. Although Jonathan never betrayed David, he did die in the service of his father.


"Wars of the Aoten" countdown: 6 chapters to go, pretty much

Gal. 4:24

"... Which things are an allegory; for these are the two covenants: the one from the Mount Sinai, bearing children for bondage, who is Hagar."

So Paul says the law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai was for the children of bondage, those descended from Ishmael, not Isaac. This statement must have infuriated the Jews of his time. And yet, Islam (whose adherents proudly trace themselves to Ishmael) is the most morally strict religion of the modern era. Hmmmm ....


"Wars of the Aoten" countdown: 7 chapters to go.

Mac Quack, Corporate Duck

Here's some scattered comics from a strip I worked up a couple of years ago but couldn't get a syndicate interested in because they dedicate so much time making "Nancy" the brilliant piece of work it is. I'll post more as time goes on unless they start sparking riots in Europe.

Media bashing II

Heard about the plan for the United Arab Emirates to buy some U.S. ports? Maybe, but what you've probably heard about is only the reaction to the sale. That was what I first heard about a week ago, and the news media has been extremely slow in reporting the actual facts; in fact, details are still very sketchy and confusing. I'm still too confused to blog about the issue itself (and truthfully I'm not all that interested), but I can say this: It's another blatant example of what's wrong with the news media. Lots of people accuse the media of having a (liberal) bias, and some reporters and editors definitely do, but overall their real problem is they are LAZY! They report only what the loudest whiners are saying, never try to verify what they're saying, and never seek out an opposing opinion or set of facts. So now all they are reporting is the bleating of a bunch of politicians who want to be re-elected and need to look like they care about national security (and from that perspective this issue appears to truly be a tempest in a teapot). Until recently liberal groups were the most proficient at whining, so there's where the apparent bias comes from. Anyway, I've seen it over and over again, and this is another example.

Funny stuff

Maybe it's just because I used to work for newspapers, but there's something I like about this. Click on the image to make it big enough to read.

History nut alert!

I've found an awesome website with voice recordings of U.S. presidents going back to Benjamin Harrison. This kind of stuff fascinates me. Try it out!

http://www.lib.msu.edu/vincent/presidents/index.htm

Movie review

I saw "Capote" last night, and it is a wonderfully scathing expose of journalism, how reporters and subjects try to use each other for their own ends and how getting the story comes before even people's lives. Also, it really levels the shallow celebrity society of the '60s, which is probably no different from now. I highly recommend you see it or rent it when it comes out on DVD; it's rated R on account of language, but its not too prominent. If Harper Lee is not already your hero, she will be by the end of the movie.

On radicalism

Remember when Ariel Sharon set foot on the temple mount in Jerusalem a few years ago? The Muslims started a holy war (Intefadah) because the ground is sacred. In Afghanistan and Iraq, when troops have had to target mosques, they have been greatly criticized, because the buildings are sacred. Riots followed false accusations that a Koran had been flushed, because that book is sacred. Now people are being killed over some cartoons, because the image of Muhammed is sacred. Is there anything that is not sacred to Muslims? Oh yeah — human life! What was I thinking?

I use Muslims as an example, because frankly they volunteer themselves, but this type of thing has been done by self-righteous extremists forever. For the sake of religion, or political power, or racism, or pretty much any reason you want, all in the name of protecting what is sacred to whoever has the biggest weapon, the thing that God and God alone can endow is stolen away. It's crazy.

New QotD!

"Believer, it is a deep mystery, this of the Cross of Christ. I fear there are many Christians who are content to look upon the cross, with Christ on it dying for their sins, who have little heart for fellowship with the Crucified One. They hardly know that He invites them to it. Or they are content to consider the ordinary afflictions of life, which the children of the world often have as much as they, as their share of Christ's Cross. They have no conception of what it is to be crucified with Christ, that bearing the cross means likeness to Christ in the principles which animated Him in His path of obedience. The entire surrender of all self-will, the complete denial to the flesh of its every desire and pleasure, the perfect separation from the world in all its ways of thinking and acting, the losing and hating of one's life, the giving up of self and its interests for the sake of others — this is the disposition which marks him who has taken up Christ's Cross, who seeks to say, 'I am crucified with Christ; I abide in Christ, the Crucified One.' "

— Andrew Murray, "Abide in Christ"

Sorry boot this, I just learned how to post my pic

1 Cor. 13:5

"(Love) seeks not its own."

The Church likes to invoke 1 Cor. 13 at weddings, which is fine, but it misses the point. The passage isn't talking about eros, its talking about agape. It is a selfless love that the Church really needs to get its mind around. It is love purely for love's sake, love as its own reward, love without motive, love without hope of return.

Weird stuff in the news

Have you heard about the turmoil in Europe? A Danish paper published some cartoons that depicted Mohammed, and now Muslims all over the world are going crazy. The cartoons also appeared in Norway and France, and so citizens of those nations in the Middle East are being targeted by extremists. The cartoonists themselves are in hiding. On the news I heard a Muslim leader living in Denmark say flatly he wants that country to pass laws to cater to the Muslim minority. This can't be good.

In other news, Hooters is opening a casino in Las Vegas. In that city, Hooters would be considered family-friendly.

Bill Murray's worst nightmare

PoliSci 101

Here's why abortion will never go away, no matter how many conservative judges and justices are put on courts. Our natural sensibility tells us that it's not fair to protect an unborn baby's life over that of its mom, so no law banning abortion will ever be upheld unless it has a provision to end a pregnancy if the mother's life is in danger. But here's the catch: Every pregnancy puts the mother's life in danger. Most moms survive, obviously, but it's still a tremendous trauma on her body and anything might go wrong. So these provisions can and will be used pretty much at will.