Where in the world have you been????

[HT: An about-to-be-married Pumba680]

When 4 is not enough....

Die, Cell Phone, Die!

I'm not a particularly big John Dvorak devotee....but occasionally he belts out a rant worthy of a good chuckle or two. His latest culprit? The mobile phone!

These devices have done nothing to improve the quality of life or the national productivity. If anything, they have done the opposite. Yes, they are great in an emergency and useful for finding someone in a crowd or for getting directions when you are poorly prepared and lost. But that's about it. Instead, they are used for needless chatter and to give the illusion that you are some sort of big shot as you bellow demands into your device while in a public place.

Personally, I hope none of the handset makers ever turn a profit and they all go dead broke. I feel the same way about the miserable carriers and service providers who are all one inch short of being out-and-out rip-off artists.

The bigger question is: How did we ever let this happen?

I admit that they do come in handy....but there are times where I wish I didn't have to rely on one so much.

Biblical proof that Koreans and Chinese are related....

Second Kings 24:6

More Covenantal confusion....

You have to appreciate the courage of C. FitzSimons Allison (ret.) in standing up to the utter nonsense that the Anglican powers-that-be are producing these days.

Surely what is becoming increasingly obvious is that we have two different religions in one church...

His response to Katherine Grieb's earlier proposal is a great example of seeing through her erroneous invoking of 'covenant' in defense of her sub-Biblical agenda.

Just because it looks like 'covenant' and quacks like 'covenant'....doesn't mean it's a biblical covenant! Bravo Allison.

[HT: Jeff Hutchinson]

Bloggers beware....

I understand the antipathy many of my friends have towards the blogosphere.

Kim Riddlebarger recently made this point well, showing how the web instantly makes 'everybody a theologian'! I wonder if it's yet another variation of the 'every member is a minister' confusion that is well-intended but not always well-founded. There are a lot of people 'blogging' that simply don't know what they are talking about.

An even greater concern to me is the level of vitriol that often ensues when discussion/debate demonstrates two (or more) groups on the opposite side of the fence. And this is where the blogosphere (just as e-mail has been for the past decade) is a two-edged sword. It has a great potential of disseminating helpful information...but it disseminates a lot of vitriol of people that would be better off guarding their tongue. Indeed it can be a fire, a world of unrighteousness (James 3:6). Blogging is yet another extension of the tongue.

But I wonder sometimes if people would say in person the same things they write on their (and other) blogs. It's a worthy question to ask before you post anything to the public or respond on someone else's blog.

This is one reason why I rely so heavily on journals and books from established schools and publishers. I just don't have time for empty rhetoric with no substance. Just give me your Biblical, exegetical, theological or historical argument.....back it up with documentation....and leave all of the personal antidotes out!! That doesn't mean everything in journals is worth reading. But on the whole, it's a more productive use of my time.

Life is just too short to be wasted reading armchair theology.

So I finally did it....

About 10 days ago, I splurged on a new MacBook refurb (from the Apple store) for $800 plus change, after my iBook of 38 months developed some difficulties.

All I have to say is.....once you go Mac, you never go back! These things really are amazing.

Time to mozy....

Need an easy, cheap and secure way to back up your files, pictures, etc?

Check out:


Pretty slick site.  Comes with good reviews.  So far so good!

[Note to Mac users -- Beta software is in the works....]

A collection of random recent thoughts...

I always liked US History....but why is it that it never occurred to me to ask (until now): "Why do we call it Rhode Island...when it's not even an island?" Click here if you are as slow as I am to ask that question...

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Is Godmen suppose to be 'Promise Keepers Redux'?


Is it just me....or does this choice of a picture for their front page strike you as odd, if not altogether out of place?? This guy looks like he's in some serious pain!!

Ayeeee...yet another evangelical fad that will probably become a distant asterisk in a few short years.

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I confess that I do love men's college basketball. 'March Madness' might be the best pure sporting event...after the World Cup, of course!

However, one thing that is getting more and more ridiculous is the filling out of brackets. You know, the pool where you have have to fill out every game for a small ($10 or $20) entry fee. Winner takes all! I don't understand why there is such a craze...except that it permits people to 'gamble' without really calling it 'gambling'!

But more than the office pools. What I don't understand is why these networks like CBS, ESPN, Yahoo, and others actually *pay* these so-called experts to give the hoi polloi advice on potential upsets (aka the 'bracket busters'). Like these "experts" really have any idea how these games are going to go!! Nobody has any clue about who could win these games in a 'one and done' tournament.

I still remember one of the first 'pools' I ever heard about. It was won by some girl who clearly had no clue about who any of the teams were. She picked a team because they had a point guard who was 'really cute'....and that team ended up winning the whole thing! When a girl wins booty of a pool with *that* kind of criteria for picking teams, that tells you everything you need to know about these commentators on TV and radio who really think they know what's going on.

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I should start a blog series of overused phrases in book/journal articles.

This week's phrase: "without a doubt"

I remember Bob Strimple mentioning this in a side comment a number of years ago, and he's right.

Consider something I heard on the radio a couple days ago: "Barak Obama is, without a doubt, a better candidate for the democratic party than Hillary Clinton."

Now think about that statement. What is this person trying to communicate? They are trying to communicate 'absolute certainty'!

But now think about the comparison a little more! Is Barak Obama really WITHOUT A DOUBT the better candidate? Putting political persuasions aside for a moment, I'm thinking probably not. And so what has the comment just created in the process of his comparison?!?! Doubt!!!! {i.e. 'I doubt that Barak Obama is really 'without a doubt' the better candidate!}

You see this kind of language frequently in religious, theological, and Biblical Studies' journals and books. And it really is pointless language.  'Without a doubt' adds nothing to the argument...and that's without a doubt!! :)

A Postmodern Sandwich

I like Doug Severn's (RUF Oklahoma Univ) haiku summary of Kevin Hart's, Postmodernism: A Beginners's Guide:

Postmodernism
Lack of meta-narrative
Jimmy John’s Sandwich

Nice!

It is funny to think about how people love to drop the word 'postmodern' into the course of a conversation.

So very trendy. So very high-brow. So very sophisticated-sounding.

But now you know....

Whenever anyone drops 'postmodern' into a conversation, remember they are only talking about...Jimmy John's Sandwich.