Christmas Tree 2006

Here is a picture of our Christmas Tree for 2006.

Or is this from 2005... maybe 2004? The tree looked nearly identical for the past three or four years. Maybe next year we'll do something a little differently.

The tree looks great except it's lacking a little something... maybe it's just that it doesn't have any of these things under it yet.

The Ultimate Scavenger Hunt

I was looking at Scott Adams' (of Dilbert fame) blog this morning as I do every morning he has a new post, and he was talking about the tantalizing idea of having Bill Gates as the President of the United States. This post is a follow-up for a previous post where he mentioned this idea. In this post he shares a web address for a group that wants to have Bill Gates as our Commander in Chief.

Now, without going into all the impossibilities of this idea or exploring the virtues Gates might bring to the Presidency or the Unites States' economy, etc, I wanted to focus on one particular thing that Adams mentioned that got me thinking…

Adams joked that Gates, in the first week of his hypothetical Presidency, would probably "link Microsoft Earth to the government's spy satellites so you can look for Osama yourself" and commented that "terrorism is a technology problem disguised as a political problem."

This got me thinking: Why not privatize the hunt for international terrorist henchmen and Boogeymen Elites like Osama Bin Laden? There was already a $10million bounty on the head of Bin Laden, so the idea that the U.S. government and, indeed, the international community as a whole, doesn't want to turn loose the world's vigilantes is already invalid as an ethical dilemma. The bounty might have even gone up to $33 million and at one time folks were considering a $50 million award. I've lost track of what the purse is, at this point, but even Hollywood A-Lister, Bruce Willis offered a cool million to the pot.

We've/They've basically already decided to give the green light to every bounty hunter on earth to see if they can nab the ultimate skel.

There already are private, para-military groups for hire and they were extensively used in all the recent modern wars; both by our government and by private citizens or businesses like contractors who are hired to rebuild infrastructure in war-torn nations. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to offer these and other groups cash money – in large sums – for seeking out and capturing Osama and his kind.

I can see it now: Jack Walsh has Al-Nasser in a head lock while Marv tries to steal the bounty from him. That would be one heck of a scavenger hunt. :-)

George Clooney versus Brad Pitt verus Pastor Ted

George Clooney won the dubious title of sexiest man alive (again) in the latest of People Magazine's most anticipated annual national popularity contest.


Brad Pitt, who has, as you know, also claimed that title in the past took out a full-page ad in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter industry rags.


The ad looked like this:

Clooney, a guest on Letterman returned the favor by making fun of Brad. You can see the clip, gratis from YouTube...

The saddest thing is that Ted Haggard got dragged into all of this. Pfft. I guess if you make your own bed you have to sleep in it.

Video Games Tell Me I'm Old

I have recently felt a really strong desire to play video games.
It’s been literally years since I’ve played games regularly and the recent hype about the PlayStation 3, the Nintendo Wii, and awesome new games for the Xbox 360 have gotten me itching to play something again.

But here’s the thing: in spite of my desire to play some of these latest/greatest games, my old age has been resisting it.

I initially thought that my reservation toward these new fandangled machines were the lines that stretch three days into the future or price tags half way to buying a 1991 Honda Civic. But in retrospect, I think it might be because I’m afraid. How do I know? Well, while I tried to scratch the video game itch, I looked for PC titles that I can buy to install on my laptop for some quick, hip, first-person gaming mayhem. I know there are several new titles out now that are exciting and on the bleeding edge of graphics and AI technology (like Gears of War and F.E.A.R.) but instead of getting these titles, I gravitated toward buying Command and Conquer: Generals.

While C&C is among my favorite RTS titles and still a worthy purchase, it surely isn’t the bleeding edge. So what is it that makes me want to buy C&C instead of GoW or COD or something else? I think it might be my fear of new things. Read: my old age.

Well, as frequent readers will recall, I am definitely looking forward for Metal Gear Solid 4’s release in a few months and will have no reservations spending wads of cash and time to find my youth again!

My Christmas Wish List

This is a working document because, of course, the desire to have more stuff is never quelled; it's just the excercise of actively considering what you would like to have that is temporarily suspended.

Anyway, here is my list for now:

Canon XH-A1 (x2). This is at the top of my list. If I get nothing else for Christmas or for my birthday this year, I will still be very very happy. My birthday gift, incidentally, is often combined with my Christmas gift since my birthday falls on December 12 (or December 13, depending on which 'official' document you want to refer to.)

But the Canon is really a business expense - the fact that I am willing to forego a personal Christmas gift in lieu of a business capitol expense means I am very self-sacrificing and therefore worthy of said gift. Agreed?

Sony PlayStation 3 This is my obligatory PS3 entry. I do want one, but not as much as others. In fact, the only game I'm interested in playing on the PS3 is Metal Gear Solid 4 which probably won't release until a year from now anyway. Besides, I don't have time to play games these days. :-(

Cingular 8525 It's time for me to get a new cell phone. It just is. Not because I need cutting edge stuff or because I'm a gadget freak, but because my current phone is acting hinky. It drops calls for no reason, it rings when it's set to vibrate, it decides on its own accord whether it wants to activate the BlueTooth link or not, and is just generally speaking, getting old.

The Art of Re-Gifting

Pay attention, cheapskates. Your gig is up... unless you follow some (pretty self-evident) etiquette rules.

The full article can be found HERE.

Here is an excerpt:

Make sure it's new.

Leon Foerster, an insurance agent in Ripon, Wis., recalls receiving an 8-track player full of cobwebs as a wedding gift – a sure tip-off something is not new. Post recommends you don't regift anything that does not come with its original packaging and instructions. The least you can do is rewrap the gift and put a fresh card on it. A full 16 percent of regifters were spotted because the gift tag had the wrong name on it, Tassimo found.

You never want to give away a gift the original giver took great care to select, Post says, such as a homemade sweater or scarf. You should also hold on to handmade and one-of-a kind items. The most common regifted items, Tassimo found, are decorative household knickknacks like vases, paintings, and picture frames.

That reminds me...
One Christmas years ago, Ben brought a nice little Christmas gift mug wrapped in cellophane and containing some scones, coffee beans, tea bags, cinnamon sticks and so forth. This gift was put into our annual gift exchange pile-0-presents and ended up as one of the last gifts picked. It was an OK present - not the perfect gift for Kerman, who drinks neither coffee or tea - but a nice enough gesture nonetheless.
Except for one thing: the tag on the gift mug read, "Merry Christmas, Ben. From Larry" (or some other faceless co-worker's name.) We all had a good laugh and went home smiling. Except for Kerman who went home with an unwanted gift-mug; unwanted by both the original and ultimate recipient.

is $900 a great deal for a PlayStation?

Too bad, so sad. Bye Bye.
From engadget.com:

Overzealous eBayer drops $900 for "Sony PlayStations, 3 of them"

In what's sure to be a frontrunner for the "oh snap" moment of the day (or year), a presumably frustrated, delusional, and impatient individual apparently forgot to read the fine print on his latest eBay win. While it's no secret that PlayStation 3 units have been selling for incredulous prices, snagging one for $900 probably seemed like quite the deal at the time; however, the poor sap failed to realize that he /she just committed almost one thousand dollars to purchasing three original PlayStation consoles.

To make matters even worse, no games, controllers, or heartfelt sympathy was to be included, leaving the unsuspecting buyer in quite a bad predicament. No, we don't actually think (at least we hope not) that this fellow / lady went through with their purchase (although it was snatched up at the "Buy it Now" price), but if they did, we've got to look at the bright side -- that free shipping saved him / her a bundle.

The Sickening Inappropriateness of Liberals...

is laid bare for all to see. (No pun intended.)
The extremism and cultural rebelliousness of this sort of behavior is everything that is wrong with the liberal movement away from traditional values of decency and morality. It mocks all that is sacred and shocks for the sake of shock.
It's enough to make even 'normal' democrats to feel embarrassed to call themselves liberals.

(CBS/AP) SAN FRANCISCO Two peace activists have planned a massive anti-war demonstration for the first day of winter. But they don't want you marching in the streets. They'd much rather you just stay home. The Global Orgasm for Peace was conceived by Donna Sheehan, 76, and Paul Reffell, 55, whose immodest goal is for everyone in the world to have an orgasm Dec. 22 while focusing on world peace. "The orgasm gives out an incredible feeling of peace during it and after it," Reffell said Sunday. "Your mind is like a blank. It's like a meditative state. And mass meditations have been shown to make a change." The couple are no strangers to sex and social activism. Sheehan, no relation to anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, brought together nearly 50 women in 2002 who stripped naked and spelled out the word "Peace." The stunt spawned a mini-movement called Baring Witness that led to similar unclothed demonstrations worldwide.

Ms. Dewey

The web's hottest new search tool.

Ms. Dewey is a little slow but has an attractive interface. No gratuitous puns necessary.

visit www.msdewey.com

Some funny searches include:
"Yo mama", "why are you so hot?", and "Bill Clinton."
Also, mistyping words or typing celebrity names will evoke unique reactions from Ms. Dewey.

This is not the best tool to be using if you're trying to do research or in a hurry, but it's entertaining, for sure. Ms. Dewey is played by Janina Gavankar and her exotic look comes from her Indian and Dutch decent. Her official website is HERE.

(Oh, and don't bother going to MrDewey.com in search for a male counterpart... There's nothing there, girls.)

Happy Feet's Leftist Agenda

I haven't seen the movie yet but here is one review that you should see before you take your kids.

An excerpt from Ain't It Cool News' Massawyrm's article/review regarding Happy Feet reads as follows:

So let me take a poll. Raise your hand if you know that this film is about a dancing Penguin. Okay, all of you. Now keep it raised if you know that said dancing penguin gets kicked out of his community for dancing rather than singing. Okay, slightly less than before. Good, good. Not too many spoilers in the trailer. Now keep your hand raised if you know that said penguin is kicked out of the community by the town elder for Heresy against the Great Penguin in the Sky.
Huh? None of you? Really? You didn’t know that they ask him to recant his belief in aliens and his belief that it’s okay to dance despite being against the ways taught to the people by the Great Penguin in the Sky? What? You think I’m making that up? Think again. They never use the word Heresy and I believe the word they used was “Renounce” not “Recant.” But the context is about as plain as day.
You see, the penguins are starving. Almost to death. After talking to a predator sea bird that tries to eat him, our hero, Mumble, hears that there are aliens that abduct birds, probe them, then leave bright yellow tags on their legs to remind them of their abduction. Mumble believes every word of it and realizes that this must be what’s happening to all the fish. When the town elder accuses Mumble of being the reason the fish have gone away (because they are obviously being punished by the Great Penguin in the Sky for Mumble’s sacrilegious dancing) Mumble reveals his belief that aliens are taking away all the fish. This causes a hysterical screaming fit in which the town elder demands that Mumble renounce what he has just said or he will be banished, lest the town suffer the wrath of the Great Penguin in the Sky. When his father begs him to renounce what he’s said, Mumble refuses and is banished from Penguin society.

Here is the full article.

So is Happy Feet appropriate for young, impressionable children? That depends on whether you want your children growing up wearing hemp Che t-shirts or not. Just kidding.

Sort of.

Christianity Helps Ease Relations with Iraqi Muslim

Here's an AP story that won't get a lot of distribution. But I have it for you here:

US Soldier Says His Christianity Eased Relations With Iraqi Muslims

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A US Army officer says his Christian faith helped rather than hindered his relations with Muslims in Iraq.
In a speech at the Family Research Council, Lieutenant Pete Hegseth said the Muslims he dealt with respected sincere Christians as "men of the book and of faith." Hegseth said he and Iraqi Muslims were both able to talk in terms of serving God, and that united rather than dividing them.
Although political and religious freedom remains rare in the Islamic world, Hegseth said devout Muslims are fighting alongside Americans against radicals and insurgents.

Socialists Pick Woman to Run as President

When I saw this headline, I thought they were referring to the Dems and Hillary. :-

When "logic" ceases to be good.

What would you consider an animal?
The dictionaries describe the term as "a living organizm characterized by voluntary movement" (wordnet.princton.edu); "means any live or dead dog, cat, nonhuman primate, guinea pig, hamster, rabbit, or any other warmblooded animal, which is being used, or is intended for use for research, teaching, testing, experimentation, or exhibition purposes, or as a pet." (aphis.usda.gov); "1. a living organism having sensation and the power of voluntary movement and requiring for its existence oxygen and organic food. 2. pertaining to such an organism. 3. any animal organism other than a human being." (www.mercksource.com); "any member of the animal kingdom including multicellular marine organisms, worms, insects, spiders, crustaceans, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals." (http://www.mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/science/glossary.shtml)

If you see a squirrel or a skunk that got hit by a moving car and is dead on the side of the road, is it still an animal? Is it ONLY a carcass anymore? This is the absurd question that is being debated in one Duluth, Minnesota trial where a man was arrested for having alleged sexual contact with a dead deer. (Gross.)

Bryan James Hathaway, the alleged deer donger has a lawyer who is arguing that the statute that prohibits 'crimes against sexual morality' refers to having sex with "animals"; not carcasses. He's arguing that the dead deer is no longer a deer since it is dead.

Of course, Hathaway himself said in his police interview that he saw the deer in a ditch and didn't refer to it as a "carcass" so therefore his intentions and his own perception is clear: He wanted to get it on with a deer but all the deer he called up were busy washing their antlers that Friday.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Anderson argued: When does a turkey cease to be an animal? When it is dead? When it is wrapped in plastic packaging in the freezer? When it is served, fully cooked?
A judge should decide what the Legislature intended "animal'' to mean in the statute, he said. "And the only clear point to draw the line in that definition, I believe, is the point of death.'' Assistant District Attorney James Boughner said the court can use a dictionary to determine the meaning of the word, but it doesn't have to. "The common and ordinary meaning of a word can be found in how people actually use the word,'' Boughner wrote in his response to the motion. When a person's pet dog dies, he told Lucci, the person still refers to the dog as his or her dog, not a carcass.
"It stays a dog for some time,'' Boughner said.

Here's the rest of the article.
Sicko.

FasTrak Phishing

My friend Kerman told me that FasTrak had recently fixed a 'bug' in their automatic toll sensing devices to account for fast moving vehicles (read: me).
If this is true, it is a welcomed fix because I received a notice from FasTrak regarding a "toll evasion" that occurred in October. I'm pretty sure I wasn't driving too fast because I'm really paranoid about getting these types of notices in the mail.

I jumped through the easy hoops on the FasTrak website and took care of the 'violation'. No problem. But here is the thing I wanted to alert you to…

The notification I received suggested that I could take care of the fine/toll or dispute the violation by visiting their website at http://www.bayareafastrak.org/. Now, how many of you, without looking twice, could accurately type that URL into your browser's address field?

On my first try, I inadvertently entered ".com" instead of ".org" and found a site that looks like this:








Then upon retyping it, I discovered that not only did I enter .com instead of .org, but I included two "t"s as in "fasttrak". I'm sure these phishing sites that are designed to dupe you into thinking that you are entering a credit card number to pay a fine but instead you are just donating money to your local scam-artist latté fund have legal loopholes that allow them to keep operating, but it just doesn't seem right, does it?
















This one is the official FasTrak site.
Be careful surfing out there.

SAN FRANCISCO / School board votes to dump JROTC program

"San Francisco Ethics" throws out the baby with the bathwater.
The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps was voted out of existence yesterday.
SAN FRANCISCO / School board votes to dump JROTC program

It's quite a shame considering that it only costs $1.6 million annually (and $586,000 of that is Federally funded) which is a drop in the bucket for SF school district's +$300 million budget; 1,600 students are voluntarily enrolled in the program, and every one of those students love the program.

Why did Board of Education demagogues vote to ban the JROTC from SF High School campuses in a 4-2 vote? Because of SF hates the military, hates the military and they think that "don't ask, don't tell" is an anti-gay policy in contradiction to the districts 'equal rights for gays' policies.

Nevermind that the kids love the program that teaches them discipline, teamwork, and personal responsibility.

"This is where the kids feel safe, the one place they feel safe,"said Robert Powell, a JROTC instructor."You're going to take that away from them?"

"We're really shocked,'' said fourth-year Cadet Eric Chu, a senior at Lowell High School, his eyes filling with tears. "It provided me with a place to go."

Even Mayor Newsome was disappointed:

"You think this is going to help keep families in San Francisco?" the mayor added. "No. It's going to hurt."

Savage Nation

I was listening to a snippet of Michael Savage yesterday on my way to pick up the kids from school. Yes, I do listen to the right-wing shock-jock, but no, I'm not the biggest Savage fan out there. I especially don't think he's infallible like Keith Olbermann groupies think Olbermann is, as this entry will show. But I do think that many of his points are largely overlooked by the MSM (that's the right-wing bloggers acronym for "main stream media", in case you were wondering) yet resonate with the majority of Americans today.

In spite of that, there was one thing that didn't jive with what he said yesterday.

In one segment, Savage was taking calls and some bloke called in on the topic of Iran
versus Israel and the United States. He said that if one surveyed the history of the Bible, you would see that when God's people strayed from being faithful, God would raise up an enemy army that would smite them and send them back to dependence on God. Then God would destroy that enemy and God's people would be saved and simultaneously humbled.

Savage responded with one of his previously stated opinions that all the decadence and sinful pleasure-seeking that America (and, indeed the West in general) is guilty of doesn't hold a candle to the evil that is Islamofascism. You know; what with the beheadings and suppression and murdering of women, rival sects, and so-called "infidels". In short, God's ire toward the Middle East should be stronger than His judgment of the West.

The very next caller called in to discuss the candidacy of Rudy Giuliani for the 2008 presidential race. She asserted that his stance on terrorism was really strong and was therefore a good candidate for the office of the President. Savage retorted with a clever quip: "if the terrorists were armed with suicide squeegees, I would agree", implying, of course that Giuliani was good at curbing petty crime in New York City but not suited for the Presidency. "What is [Giuliani's] stance on issues that matter?" he asked rhetorically. Savage went on to state that Giuliani was in line with the farthest left of democrats when it comes to abortion and gay marriage issues.

But wait.

Didn't Savage just say that Islamofascist terrorism was the greatest threat and the greatest evil and that all the 'bath houses' and 'pleasure-seeking' Americans experience doesn't even compare to it? Then why the flip-flop when a candidate is strong on terrorism but not so much on those other issues?

I suppose you could argue that there are even better candidates out there that are tough in all those areas. But if that's the case, then just say that. The hyperbole about which 'sin' is the greatest sin is all just rhetoric anyway, isn't it? From God's perfect point of view, one sin is not more or less evil than the next. Either is enough to cast you into eternal separation from Him so what's the diff?

Opposites Attract

Here are two clips from Woody Allen's talk show from the late sixties.
This really proves how civil-minded people - no matter how opposite in their political or religious beliefs - can, in fact, get along. This just doesn't happen these days (think Bill O'Reilly on Letterman a few nights ago. Agg. Painful.)

Enjoy these clips:

The Haggard Ted Haggard

Well, say what you will about these scandals - they will be endless and progressively more commonplace as the End Times draw nearer - but, I for one am not totally surprised. I am disappointed and eye-rollingly fed-up, but not totally surprised.
In case you haven't heard, Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of New Life Church has been implicated in a shameful controversy regarding his alleged use of methamphetamines and his gay sex with male prostitutes.
Yes, of course a man is innocent until proven guilty but like OJ Simpson's and Scott Peterson's, there are some accusations that needn't be examined that closely. Besides, Haggard admited that he is guilty of at least some of the accusations leveled against him. (Not to mention the fact that there are voicemail recordings of Haggard asking for meth from his pusher!)

I never heard of Haggard until yesterday when the news about his scandals broke. And it wasn't until today that I searched the web for news and articles about him.

It seems that Haggard, though he boasts 45,000 followers, isn't as conservative as many conservative evangelical leaders out there. The Southern Baptist Convention, of which our church is a member, has actually made no moves to associate itself with Haggard's NAE. Apparently, to Haggard's shagrin:

"The Southern Baptist Convention and the NAE need to draw closer together. Both need the other. The Southern Baptist Convention needs to connect with the rest of the evangelical body of believers, and the rest of the evangelical body of believers needs to be there with the Southern Baptist Convention.
When the Southern Baptist Convention launched their evangelism effort in Detroit, they were heavily criticized. But if it would have been an NAE member, another evangelical group could have been there to defend them. That's a function that NAE can do. Franklin Graham is in hot water over some of the things he said about Islam. It would be great for NAE to be active in helping explain Franklin's position.
Instead of ministries having to defend themselves, the representative voice for 50 million American evangelicals could step up and explain them. It would be a much stronger presence."

That was Ted Haggard in Christianity Today, June 2003. His desire to grow his association and affiliate itself with the SBC is understandable, but thankfully, the SBC did not reciprocate that desire.

Further, the NAE, not necessarily under Haggard, had actively wanted to associate itself with the National Council of Churches (NCC) which is a non-denominational group that "promotes harmonious relations among Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, practitioners of traditional Native American religion and many other faith groups in a society that is increasingly multireligious" (from the NCC website.)

James Dobson of Focus on the Family has also resisted Haggard's unorthodox platforms (from Chron.com):

One of Haggard's biggest leaps came when he said he believed global warming
was occurring, and that stopping climate change should be an evangelical priority.
His position drew a rebuke from some prominent evangelicals including James Dobson of Focus on the Family, leading Haggard to keep the association out of at least one religious environmental protection campaign this year.

So even though the lesson here is to avoid following or idolizing leaders - political or religious - without the sound foundation of Absolute Truth (read: The Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ) and that prominent Christian leaders and associations like Dobson or the SBC are also fallible and can easily face scandal like Haggard does today, I'm just glad we've managed to stay above the white noise thus far.

God willing.

FFF

Tuesday, October 31 was the annual Fall Family Festival (for the children it's aka "FFF") at the kids' school. Zach went as race car driver Jeff Gordon – or at least, one of the Dupont Team's NASCAR Drivers – since there was no number "24" anywhere on his fire suit. Hannah went dressed as a "Hello Kitty Butterfly" – whatever that is. She had the wings of a fairy (which, traditionally has the wings of a butterfly), the ears of Hello Kitty and the outfit of a ballerina. I guess Hannah was dressed as Hello Kitty dressed as a ballerina dressed as a butterfly-fairy.

The kids had good fun though, even if it was freezing cold that night… about 54°F (by California standards, that's considered cold.)

The FFF this year seemed at least about 40% smaller than last year's event. There were way fewer booths and not as many inflatable jump-house-type of games either. I think the season is ripe for Tri City to make a strong push and start stealing away some of the local attendees for our own Harvest Festival. Better start planning…