Careful Thought

Despite the dire predictions of the global whining crowd after Hurricane Katrina, no named (or unnamed) hurricanes struck the US this year.

Hurricane Season Ends Quietly

MIAMI (AP) - The mild 2006 Atlantic hurricane season draws to a close Thursday without a single hurricane striking the United States - a stark contrast to the record-breaking 2005 season that killed more than 1,500 people and left thousands homeless along the Gulf Coast.

Nine named storms and five hurricanes formed this season, and just two of the hurricanes were considered major. That is considered a near-normal season - and well short of the rough season government scientists had forecast.

“We got a much-welcome break after a lot of the coast had been compromised in the last several years, but this is a one-season type break,” said Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

In May, scientists predicted 13 to 16 named storms and eight to 10 hurricanes, with four to six of them major.

The 2005 hurricane season was the busiest on record, with 28 named storms, including 15 hurricanes, four of which hit the United States, including Katrina and Rita.

Don’t you hate it when the facts get in the way of a good rant?

When was the last time you sent a pizza to Israel? They deliver, you know. Here’s an update from Karen at PizzaIDF, which sends pizzas, burgers and goodies to Israeli Defense Force troops throughout Israel. Since Channukah is coming up you can also send jelly donuts and other Channukah treats.

We have had the privilege for some time now of sending Pizza, Hot Soup, Burgers and other special food items to our serving soldiers on behalf of you and many wonderful people. During the Lebanon war this summer we were able to send thousands of pizza pies to soldiers who were fighting in Lebanon and Gaza. We wish to thank you all once again on their behalf for all of your support.

Chanukah, the eight day long Jewish Festival of Lights, starts soon and you can treat the soldiers to traditional Jelly Donuts (sufganiot) to give them a brief holiday break from their arduous tasks. The soldiers always appreciate your gifts and especially your greetings, letting them know that they have support from all around the world and that people understand and appreciate their daily trials and tribulations at the forefront of the fight against terror. We live in uncertain times and our soldiers are often the target of unjustified criticism from many quarters, so your show of support is more appreciated now than ever.

You can participate in our Donut Project by going to our website, www.PizzaIDF.org . On each night of Channuka we will be sending donuts to soldiers in different parts of the country in addition to pizza, burgers and hot soup.

I’m pretty sure you’ve seen the variants of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas . I just received a new version, and being a former Marine myself (forgive me, Steve), thought I’d like to share it with you. It brought a tear to my eye, and puffed up my chest.

Different Christmas Poem

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light, I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.  My wife was asleep, her head on my chest, my daughter beside me, angelic in rest. 

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white, transforming the yard to a winter delight.

The sparkling lights in the tree I believe, completed the magic that was Christmas Eve. My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep, secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.

In perfect contentment, or so it would seem, so I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near, but I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.

Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear, and I crept to the door just to see who was near.

Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night, a lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old, perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.

Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled, standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

“What are you doing?” I asked without fear, “come in this moment, it’s freezing out here! 

Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve, you should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift, away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts.

To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light then he sighed and he said, “Its really all right, I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”

“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line, that separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me, I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

My Gramps died at ‘Pearl on a day in December,” then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘Nam’, and now it is my turn and so, here I am.

I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while, but my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag, the red, white, and blue… an American flag.

I can live through the cold and the being alone, away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet, I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.

I can carry the weight of killing another, or lay down my life with my sister and brother.

Who stand at the front against any and all, to ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”

“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright, your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”

“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least, “give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you’ve done, for being away from your wife and your son.”

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret, “just tell us you love us, and never forget

to fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone, to stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead, to know you remember we fought and we bled.

Is payment enough, and with that we will trust, that we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”

Makes me proud to be an American.

Pray for your fellow believers in the Episcopal church as they try to figure out what to do with Katharine Schori, the new Queen of Episcopalia, aka Presiding Bishop and Primate. She is in lock-step with the forces of darkness promulagating marriage and ordination of homosexuals to the Episcopal priesthood.

Ms Schori has tangled with the Rt. Rev. John-David Schofield, of the Diocese of San Joaquin, who has steadfastly resisted the church’s march down the postmodernist path. The Rev. Schofield has gone so far as to call for a vote of the churches in his diocese as to whether they should stay within the Episcopal Church.

Queen Katharine took the gloves off and sent him a nastygram. Here’s a piece:

“I certainly understand that you personally disagree with decisions by General Conventions over the past 30 and more years. You have, however, taken vows three times over that period to uphold the “doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church.” If you now feel that you can no longer do so, the more honorable course would be to renounce your orders in this Church and seek a home elsewhere . Your public assertion that your duty is to violate those vows puts many, many people at hazard of profound spiritual violence. I urge you, as a pastor, to consider that hazard with the utmost gravity.” ( full text here )

Yowzah. My hat’s off to the Rt Rev Schofield for sticking to his guns in the face of such vileness. He’s welcome in our church anytime.

Here is a piece on a Michigan kid who built a fusion generator in his garage.  Who says kids today won’t amount to anything?

On the surface, Thiago Olson is like any typical teenager.

He’s on the cross country and track teams at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills. He’s a good-looking, clean-cut 17-year-old with a 3.75 grade point average, and he has his eyes fixed on the next big step: college.

But to his friends, Thiago is known as “the mad scientist.”

In the basement of his parents’ Oakland Township home, tucked away in an area most aren’t privy to see, Thiago is exhausting his love of physics on a project that has taken him more than two years and 1,000 hours to research and build — a large, intricate machine that , on a small scale, creates nuclear fusion.

The article goes on to describe how he put the machine together and his future plans.  His mom was initially concerned, though:

Thiago’s mom, Natalice Olson, initially was leery of the project, even though the only real danger from the fusion machine is the high voltage and small amount of X-rays emitted through a glass window in the vacuum chamber — through which Olson videotapes the fusion in action..

But, she wasn’t really surprised, since he was always coming up with lofty ideas.

“ Originally, he wanted to build a hyperbolic chamber ,” she said, adding that she promptly said no. But, when he came asking about the nuclear fusion machine, she relented.

I don’t think I’d let him build a hyperbolic chamber, either.  There’s enough exaggeration as it is.

From the Llama Butchers :

1. How old were you when you learned to read and who taught you?   Good question.  Other than Mrs. Murray in the first grade I don’t remember anyone teaching me to read.  There were always books around the house, so I just picked one up and started reading.  I haven’t slowed down yet.

2. Did you own any books as a child? If so, what’s the first one that you remember owning? If not, do you recall any of the first titles that you borrowed from the library?   The first book I owned (that I remember) was Green Eggs and Ham.  I got it for my birthday in kidneygarden, took it to school and lost it.  I saw it the next day in the school office window, but was too intimidated to go get it.  Scarred me for life, it did.

3. What’s the first book that you bought with your own money?   Probably comic books.

4. Were you a re-reader as a child?   Yes.  I reread an Isaac Asimov sci-fi collection so many times the binding gave out.

5. What’s the first adult book that captured your interest and how old were you when you read it?   I would guess one of the Ray Bradbury novels.  I blame Bradbury for getting me hooked early on sci-fi.  I remember passing up a lot of good stuff so I could read his stuff.

6. Are there children’s books that you passed by as a child that you have learned to love as an adult?   Definitely Narnia.  Somebody told me they were religious.

(Also posted at Solid Rocks ) 

How frequently do you wrestle with God? Is it a daily thing or don’t you bother anymore? Are we supposed to wrestle with Him or should we just sit back and wait for the blessings to flow over us?

We just finished a study of the Minor Prophets and I was struck by how frequently the prophets went toe to toe with the Almighty because things didn’t make sense. Habakkuk is great example. He ministered and wrote in the late 600s BC, probably 609-598-ish, during the reign of Jehoiakim. The dominant player on the military-political scene was the rising Babylonian empire. These bad boys were particularly vicious, but it was clear from the word of the Lord spoken through other prophets that this Evil Empire was a tool in the hands of an angry God.

Judah repeatedly turned their back on God so the Lord decided it was time to exact judgment. God started by using Babylon to wipe out the Assyrian empire, which had taken the Northern Kingdom of Israel into captivity about a hundred years earlier. Once Assyria was taken care of, Babylon turned to Judah.

Here’s where Habakkuk comes in. The book is in the form of two arguments with God and a prayer. In the first argument (Hab 1), the prophet yells at God for allowing violence and destruction.

How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. ( Hab 1:2-3 )

God responds by saying that He’s about to bring justice on the violent:

I am raising up the Babylonians, that ruthless and impetuous people, who sweep across the whole earth to seize dwelling places not their own. ( Hab 1:6 )

The second argument asks why God would use the ungodly (the Babylonians) to judge the slightly less ungodly. God responds:

For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false.

Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.

“See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright but the righteous will live by his faith - But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” ( Hab 2:2,3,20 )

Suddenly the light goes on for the prophet and he utters an incredible prayer:

LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.

Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.

God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth. His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden.

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. ( Hab 3:2-4, 17-19 )

There’s an Aha! moment when, after wrestling with the Lord, Habakkuk realizes Who he is dealing with. I don’t think the prophet could have uttered the prayer in chapter three if he hadn’t wrestled and argued in the first two chapters. The Lord wants us to contend with Him, not to put ourselves in His place, but to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, just as Paul says in Philippians 2:12.

Had an interesting email exchange with a friend on the (far) left who complained that our taxes need to be higher and that corporations pay less in taxes than my mom.  Not sure where she’s getting her data, but my response was that that all those eeevil corporations do in return for lower taxes is provide jobs and raise the standard of living.

Harrumph.

That reminded me of the scene in Life of Brian where the People’s Front of Judea is complaining about the Romans:

Reg: “All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”

Xerxes:  “Brought peace.”

Reg:  “Oh. Peace? Shut up!”

Some folks just have a basic forest and trees issue.

“If you don’t want them to get your goat, don’t let ‘em know where you left it tied up.”

– Nortius Maximus

Fjordman posts an excellent analysis of faith trends in Europe and China: China is growing increasingly Christianized while Europe and the West is becoming islamicized.

Here’s a taste (but go here to read the rest of the article):

At the beginning of the 21st century, Europe is being Islamized, while China is being Christianized . This proves that if God exists He must have a sense of humor. Buddhism and Taoism still claim most worshippers in China but the state-sanctioned churches count up to 35 million followers. The underground churches are estimated to have 80 million members or more, about 12 million of them Catholics, the rest Protestants.

In a Beijing beauty salon, convert Xun Jinzhen explains why Christianity has become so popular: “ We have very few people who believe in communism as a faith, so there’s an emptiness in their hearts. ” Among the Chinese converts are some figures from the 1989 democracy protests . According to Han Dong-fang, “ I think human beings need something at a spiritual level. We don’t want to believe we are coming from nowhere; going nowhere. In China we have traditionally followed Buddhism. We had quite a deep religion. But communism destroyed everything. When communism became this corrupted thing which failed everybody, people still needed a belief. I think that’s the reason for Christianity in China. “

It is noteworthy that the capitalist economy of China and South Korea is booming at the same time as Christianity is spreading among Chinese and Koreans. Christianity is retreating in Europe, which is in serious economic decline. Korean and Chinese students of European classical music play Beethoven, Bach and Mozart while Western youth listen to Gangsta rap and enjoy Arabic music at Islamic cultural festivals. Will the dynamic of individualism bloom in China while it is suffocating in Europe where it was once championed?