Small Arms Range

So today I got to go out to one of the ranges here at APG and shoot some guns for a couple of hours. HOOO BOY!! so much fun. Nothing like a 30 round clip at full auto...

I smell like gunpowder a little bit. :)

We had all kinds of guns there to play with. M-16, M-4, AK-47, AK-74, and several XM8 variants. Those XM8's were my favorites... saweeeet guns. H&K knows how to make a good gun.

I did not realise...

This is like the epitome of why no one should care what these people have to say about ANYTHING.

US actress Cameron Diaz has apologised for wearing a bag with a political slogan that evoked painful memories in Peru. [She] visited the Incan city of Machu Picchu in Peru's Andes wearing an olive green bag emblazoned with a red star and the words "Serve the People", perhaps Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong's most famous political slogan, printed in Chinese. The bags are marketed as fashion accessories in some cities around the world, but in Peru the slogan evokes memories of the Maoist Shining Path insurgency that fought the government in the 1980s and early 1990s in a bloody conflict that left nearly 70,000 people dead.

Right, so, oops? I thought it went well with my red shoes?

"I sincerely apologise to anyone I may have inadvertently offended," Diaz said in a statement. "The bag was a purchase I made as a tourist in China and I did not realise the potentially hurtful nature of the slogan printed on it."

Sigh. You are in CHINA. You buy a bag with a huge communist star on it. But then again, since when has communism hurt anyone, Cameron?

MIT Open Source

So, I downloaded an MIT course called "moral problems and the good life." I am not sure how much I'm going to get out of the lectures or readings, but I found some of the paper topics of particular interest. I think I'm going to assign them to myself, and do some research and then write a paper for my own personal edification. Here's the first one. Feel free to discuss and let me know your thoughts. I have never really thought about this before:


Is equality itself something of value? Are there specifically egalitarian reasons for objecting to inequalities? Or is the problem with inequalities that they result in unhappiness, or inefficiency, or some other disvalue?

Grace vs. Jell-o

An unapologetic ID-er, Michael Behe has written a book called, The Edge of Evolution: The search for the limits of Darwinism. Dr. Behe is a professor of Biological Sciences at Lehigh University, and his current research, ostensibly out of which came the book, involves delineation of design and natural selection in protein structures. Unfortunately, his work as a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture apparently disqualifies his opinions and findings in the eyes of academia and the media.

In the book, Behe challenges the randomness of mutations that is fundamental to Darwinism with his extensive molecular research. On his Amazon profile he says:

Darwin’s theory is an amalgam of several concepts: 1) random mutation, 2) natural selection, and 3) common descent. Common descent and natural selection are very well-supported. Random mutation isn’t. Random mutation is severely constrained. So the process which produced the elegant structures of life could not have been random.

Later, in response to the question, "What evidence speaks most clearly to the role of intelligent design in biology?" he responds:

The elegance of the foundation of life — the cell. Charles Darwin and his contemporaries supposed the cell was a “simple globule of protoplasm,” a microscopic piece of Jell-O. They were wrong. Modern science reveals the cell is a sophisticated, automated, nano-scale factory.

Now, I clearly do not appreciate the pressure students face from academia with respect to the acceptance of evolution as explained by Darwinism, nor can I effectively refute the current-held beliefs or opinions with scientific or biological evidence. And, there are many Christians who have decided that the randomness of evolution and faith in a loving God who cares enough for his creation to send his Son to die, are not mutually exclusive. I just don't count myself amongst them; and Behe and others like him are why.

First of all, I don't think you can be intellectually honest and also insist that random mutation is a proven fact. That there are many scientists who disagree leaves me to assume that the debate is still on-going.

Secondly, it seems like we are continually increasing our knowledge of what actually occurs on the molecular level, and what we learn often serves to make Darwin's randomness more and more impossible.

Finally, I can't bring myself to dismiss the wonder, glory, and elegance of creation and all its intricate designs, and opt instead for random molecular processes. It just doesn't point to the God revealed in Scripture.

As old-fashioned and conservative as it makes me sound (and even feel), I whole-heartedly embrace creationism as the act of a creative, mysterious and complex deity. This, of course, makes Jesus Christ all the more incredible, since Hebrews names him as the creator; and the creator then died in the place of his creation (not some random mutation). That, my children, is consistent with the creative, mysterious and complex God revealed in the Scriptures. And that is GRACE. He gets the glory.

Responses?

Mere Christianity

I just got back from Monday church, a little perplexed. The main McLean Bible Church pastor was speaking on like the founding principles of the church, and was saying some things that had a couple of us sitting uneasy. He was confronting the "emergent church", claiming that he believes that McLean Bible Church is part of a "growing minority" of churches that are sticking to historical doctrine and "true" Christianity.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that "in the end time, there will be false prophets" that will distort Christianity to justify their twisted beliefs. But there seems to be something so wrong about his vehement attacks on this "emergent church." I still can't quite wrap my mind about what I found so troubling about it.

Listen for yourself (audio on the bottom right, might take a day or so for them to load it up): http://www.frontlinearlington.com/

So on the metro ride home, I took out C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity," which I am currently reading. And this ending to one of the chapters seemed to make sense.
"I feel a strong desire to tell you, and I expect you feel a strong desire to tell me, which one of these two errors is the worse. That is the devil getting at us. He always sends errors into the world into pairs -- pairs of opposites. And he always encourages us to spend a lot of time thinking which is the worse. You see why, of course? He relies on your extra dislike of the one error to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors."

-A house divided cannot stand....

"Don't make me throwup!" - Bryson

"Reid Bryson, known as the father of scientific climatology, considers global warming a bunch of hooey."

In true Bryson fashion, using words like "hooey" and phrases like "don't make me throw up," he takes the power hungry, money grubbing, global warming fascists to task for being stupid; even if they are his former students, or students of his former students.

Yea, Bryson!

Global Warming responsible for Darfur

What a way to start off a Monday:

Climate change behind Darfur killing: UN's Ban
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the slaughter in Darfur was triggered by global climate change and that more such conflicts may be on the horizon, in an article published Saturday.
"The Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change," Ban said in a Washington Post opinion column.

Look right past the fact that it is PEOPLE killing PEOPLE, and the fact that allegedly this global warming is happening everywhere, but I've not felt a sudden urge to rise up and commit genocide. The complete absurdity of this argument astounds me. The UN, who won't send in peacekeeping forces, would rather claim that its a 'larger' problem, one that should be met and dealt with by carbon caps and hybrid cars. That anyone could rise up in front of a global audience, citing the authority of the largest international governing body in the world, and to claim this without laughing at the audacity of it is beyond me.

in response to complaints about my lack of participation in this blog community

Even though I'm not sure how I feel about Mr. Thompson yet...this was funny.



The House’s emergency war-funding bill contains several conditions on how the war should be run. They’ll never become law but they “send signals” they say. They’re big on sending signals in Washington. But what I was really surprised to find in the bill was what looked like $25 billion in pure pork. Since a lot of the people who voted for the bill campaigned against pork, I was puzzled.

I’m puzzled there’s $283 million for dairy farmers in an emergency war-funding bill. But there’s also $74 million for peanut farmers so, I figured our soldiers are eating a lot of peanut-butter sandwiches; they need more milk to wash them down with.

Hey, I’m trying to keep an open mind, here, okay?

But I also wondered why the bill gives $25 million to spinach producers. Our troops should certainly eat their vegetables, but unless it turns out that there’s a scientific basis for that Popeye spinach thing, I don’t get it.

I’m also trying to figure out what $400 million for rural schools has to do with the war — unless that money produces students smart enough to explain why this bill includes over $300,000 for the widows of two ex-House members, and $80 million for low-income rent subsidies.

There’s a lot in the bill I don’t understand, but this sort of makes sense. There’s $50 million for repairs to the plant that supplies electrical power to the Capitol — where Congress works. To fund and win the war, Congress does need electricity at least to do its job.

Ah, I get it. This bill isn’t just about funding the war for democracy and freedom in Iraq. It’s a political statement. And it’s about buying enough votes with pork in order to make that statement. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing, if Congress did have its power cut off every once in a while.

--Fred Thompson

Smitten with Kittens!!!

Caesar washes while Maia snacks...

New favorite game of "lets each play with one end of a string".

Ummmmm...yeah.

I have no excuse. I can try, but really I got nothing. Sorry dad.

They were best friends and they play together all the time. They keep each other company all day while we are gone and all night while we sleep. They really are cute together!

It was really quite hard to get pics of them because they never sit still. Always pouncing on each other or tearing around the room... SO much fun.

And they sleep all snuggled together... Best Friends!

No Hitter!

Medical condition = lots of money

Is anyone else tired of hearing about Paris Hilton???

Photosynth demo

File this under: "good idea"

wow. this really could be very cool.

Sands of Passion - An Al Qaeda Soap Opera

Oh.

My.

Goodness.


This stuff was literally making me fall out of my chair laughing in parts. There are 5 episodes so far and they all have at least one HILARIOUS line. Definitely worth your time.

I would give them a PG-13 rating...

The Goracle on Neptune?

It appears as though Neptune has been warming over the past quarter century. I blame wal-mart. And I blame the melting of the Martian polar ice caps on....George Bush. Yeah...that sounds about right!

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=265504461371071

Not for the Faint of Heart (or stomach)

Ok, for real. Don't say I didn't warn you...











I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.
That is one of the nastiest things I have ever seen.

Been slow for a while...

Thought I would jump-start things with a little Dilburt.









I used to laugh at Dilburt...
Now that I have a job I cry.



BOOOOOO Monday.