Forrester Footnotes

Death from the sky; death demanding a "why"

2010-04-06T06:29:00.000-07:00

The personnel of the US Military hold within their highly trained and motivated hands the technologically advanced tools of death. Their ability to take a life has repeatedly been illustrated over the past decade with our many battles in the Middle-east. This power, when supported by solid and accurate information and in the hands of responsible humans is still frightening in its severity.

Never has this been driven home for me more than the recent video of military operating from a flight platform delivering death to innocent civilians and media far below on the ground. While this story has been told and an investigation has been urged by Reuters officials, only now do we have actual video from the perspective of the helicopter and the soldiers who delivered death from the skies. (Fox News, MSNBC, WikiLeaks ) The video that has been released is obviously from an internal military source who feels strongly that this is wrong and took the risk to leak the video.

This video and the associated dialog of the soldiers is sickening. They are disassociated from the scene, and it is obvious - especially from our hindsight perspective - that they have misunderstood the situation. Where they saw AK-47's and rocket launchers we now know were really cameras and tripods. Where they saw a gathering of "insurgents" we now know was simply a gathering of civilians totally oblivious to the fact that death was hovering just over their heads with weapons of mass destruction targeted on them.

The very best that we can say is that we "F'd" up - we very badly screwed up in that situation. Unfortunately, I'm sure that what will be said by terrorist group recruiters is that this is further evidence of the terrible wickedness of the United States and decadent Western nations. They will see in that video the absolute depravity of our soldiers and their lust for murder and destruction. Too harsh of a description? I might have thought so before watching the video; now I feel that their accusation might have merit. The soldiers are desperate to kill; repeatedly they beseech their handlers for permission to rain down a hail of death and destruction. To the man who has a hammer everything appears to be a nail. To the man in an armored attack helicopter with a powerful machine gun everything appears to be a target and an insurgent.

The US - Obama and his administration - must not bury this. We must not ignore it. We must not deny our mistake. We must address this direct and fully. We must admit our mistake. We must admit our overzealous rush to determine that this was a situation that required a deadly response. We must bring those involved into a court marshall - we must decide if this was justified, if it was a mistake, or if it represents a failure of our entire policy and approach in that region.

If we do not approach this correctly I fear that the next generation of reaction out of that region toward we Americans will be more vicious and much more terrifying. Far from providing security for Americans the US Government has just guaranteed far more of a threat than we previously had. This episode will recruit strong and zealous young men and women into a war that will have no end; a war that will continue to spray the blood of the innocent across the pages of history; a war that will have no meaning or purpose except to make more wealthy those manufacturing the weapons of destruction and to make more frightening an existence on this lonely planet in a cold galaxy.

Properly addressed, however, and this situation could spell a turning point for America with the people of Arab states. Will we have the courage and the character to do the right thing? Will Obama? Will the Republicans? Will anyone?

Update 4/11: Gates on the Sunday circuit - "killing was justified". Me: "Bullsh*t". And, not only will this in fact effect our image abroad, it damages our image here. As a life-long Republican, fiscal conservative, and one who voted for Regan, and every Bush to come along - it damages my image of the U.S. policy. It just stinks, Mr. Gates. Bullsh*t.

ONVIF "plug-fest" wrap-up

2010-02-26T09:55:00.001-08:00

This week I attended the ONVIF "plug-fest", where the various members of the ONVIF organization got together to test interoperability. This committee endeavors to create a standard for interoperability between security cameras, DVR's, other devices and the software that uses and manages these devices. I came to this party from the perspective of this software, in particular in testing the capabilities of my video streaming and viewing component. This streams video from the cameras in MJPEG, MPEG-4 and H.264. In short, it displays pretty pictures (hopefully). Each came to this "plug-fest" to test their conformance to the ONVIF specification, their interpretation of the text and requirements it laid out, and (ahem) their success in coding to that interpretation. This last ensured there was some rapid fixes being made on the fly to adjust code that may have performed a task not intended (often mistakenly called a "bug"; really just a rebellious feature).

The attendees came from local companies here in Stuttgart Germany, from other European countries and from as far away as Japan, Taiwan, Korea and India. It was a pleasure to meet and work with engineers from Sony, Samsung, Canon, Panasonic and Vivotek as well as EU companies such as Axis, Bosch, Softhard, and Dallmeier. Each brought a product in various stages of development. Some brought a production device with possibly a firmware in development for testing, while others brought circuit boards with cameras attached via a wire harness. The latter were the most interesting - it was entertaining watching them search for screwdrivers to attach power supplies and to see all the wires. It felt more like a robotics convention.

The spirit of this "plug fest" was great, and the ONVIF coordinators helped ensure this spirit - while many are direct competitors with each other the spirit was one of inquiry and learning. This is "geeks" coming together to test their creations. We'll leave it to the marketing boys to duke it out in the press and market. These were techies hooking up wires and watching messages flowing across the network. PTZ cameras swung wildly and images streamed as we made sure our mad-scientist inventions had come to life as expected. While I appreciate the stern warning of the organizers that we were not allowed to share pricing information for anti-trust reasons, I'm not sure any of us even have any idea of the price of our products. All we cared about was if our code could talk to the camera, and did it give me what I expected. No? Hmm, ah - that's an optional feature of the standard - got it.

In the end I hope that everyone has great success with their products and they sell a million of them, thus funding work on yet more "toys". I'm sure as we all refine our products in conformance with the language and intent of the ONVIF standard some of the fun will be taken from these plug-fests, but I also expect that the scheduled follow-up test meetings will also have the joys of success as features work ("yes!"), and the anguish of "huh? You didn't receive my message? Hmm - let me have a look."

Seriously: Did The Onion invent Scientology?

2010-01-30T12:30:00.000-08:00

Just admit it: The Onion invented Scientology. They simply had to. Every time I hear something about Scientology it seems so bizarre, so brazenly stupid that I expect to see the "ONN" logo in the corner indicating that it's another masterful piece of Onion reporting.

It's not, of course - but it could be.

Take the story of the actor Larry Anderson, who served as the cult's introductory spokesman for years, offering credibility to the credulous. He's left the cult and is asking for a refund of the money that he prepaid for services not yet rendered. They've refused, of course, since he won't agree to go crawl under a rock somewhere and not speak badly about the cult.

While that story is silly enough - it's the link from that article page off of Tampabay.com to his introductory video that just had me alternating between bursts of laughter and spasms of rage. I've included the four YouTube segments for your viewing pleasure below.

Tell me if you don't find the statements that Larry (or rather the brainwaster - I mean brainwasher who wrote the script, that is) so brazen, transparent, and obvious. Seeds of paranoia are sown, the government is out to get is and to control you, bla bla bla. Yes, we are a religion - the IRS says so and dozens of court cases say so - yes, we can be trusted cause we say so, etc. It is a propaganda piece designed to poison minds who are ill-prepared. It's sickening, really, and just amazing that it continues to remain a viable corporate entity with tax-free status as a church. Despicable.

Massive Credit Card Cancellations?

2010-01-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

This actually might be a good thing. With the new legislation about credit cards, intended to stop card institutions from gouging customers these banks and what-not are resorting to other tactics to generate revenue, according to MSNBC.

The good thing about this is that I expect people (like myself) who have kept cards around "just in case", and who are hit with big fees if they don't use them, to simply cancel them. I'm reviewing, for example, my American Express and a very low-credit limit Visa that I've carried for almost 20 years. If they are going to do this, hasta la "visa", baby. Maybe many others will simply eliminate their cards and (gasp) we'll return to a cash/sanity economy. (I'm not holding my breath, though.)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Islam, that religion of "Peace"

2009-12-27T04:45:00.000-08:00

Ever since 9/11 the portrayals of Islam as a "religion of peace" have bothered me. Anyone who has studied Islam at all both historically and in its various modern forms will know that the statement is simply untrue. When politicians parrot it they are either ignorant, are attempting to "bring out the best" in the Islamic community, or they do understand how devastating Islam can be and are attempting to pacify them. Islam has one goal: to dominate and subjugate the entire world under its rule and under Allah. You will either convert, will become subjugated, or you will die. It's that simple.

An excellent documentary on the subject is the movie "Islam: What the West Needs to Know". (Netflix, Amazon, also on Google Video). This should be required viewing in our schools - yet I fear that we are too "sensitive" and politically correct to take such a step.

Sharia law is the legal framework that Islamic people are ruled by. While in historic times it was praised for being much more fair and just than other legal systems - and is even an antecedent and inspiration for common law and our own constitution - we Americans would never wish to live under such a system.

It always befuddles me that liberal and well-educated Americans decry honest denouncement of Islam as being politically incorrect. They refuse to allow honest discussion about Islam. Yet, they simply do not understand what would happen to them should they fall under Sharia law.

For example:

The 16 year old girl executed in Iran for not being chaste (in the public square, no less).
On a Muslim woman with a Christian husband: Divorce him.
Is it not convenient that the Prophet said that anyone who criticizes the Prophet should be killed? You do know the penalty for blasphemy? So much for your "First Amendment" protection. So much for freedom of speech.
In Indonesia you can be stoned for adultery (Note the date of that article - Sept of '09, not 1509. That's today. Now. Want that in America?)
If a child is born of Muslim parents, it is not permissible for him to leave Islam.
Honor killings of women/daughters by husbands and fathers.
Update: Stinks to be a Sikh in Muslim/Taliban controlled areas. Pay jizia or lose your property.

Make no mistake - this is an on-going and high stakes war. Islam is almost as old as Christianity and claims a pedigree that predates it to the time of Abraham. Today it is very active. Even now as you are reading this apologists and strategists are promoting their agenda in a variety of ways. Their spokesmen release statements whenever a "Muslim" does some violent or atrocious act by denouncing any suggestion that the act was in the name of Islam as bigoted or racist. There are websites dedicated to educate and push back such as JihadWatch.org.

Americans like to think of religion as a personal decision - as something that each individual believes and observes. Islam is not a personal religion. It is a corporate system of governance and permeates every aspect of life. If a cleric issues a "fatwa" it is considered binding. We think of the "dark ages" when the Roman Catholic Church was powerful and was able to dictate even the laws and actions of civil leaders. In our own country we joke about the abusive and controlling church leadership who tried to make this country a "theocracy". That is the goal of Islamic clerics - you will be required to obey and to live under their control.

Am I being overly critical? Research what happens in countries that are tightly controlled by Islamic leadership - countries that are filled with a strong majority of Muslims. Look at Indonesia and African countries. Read the very well-written book Infidel; this will give a personal account of how women are treated even today in these countries.

If "Islam is a religion of peace" is true - if all of these violent acts and abuses are not in line with Islam, then what is the harm is strongly denouncing them? Why would Islamic clerics not join with civic leadership and help to bring those who do stuff like "honor killings" to justice and see them serve strong prison sentences. If these actions are not in line with Islam, they should be denounced loudly and strongly. The reality is, however, they are not. We would do wise to fully understand the foundation, history, and current manifestations of Islam before it is too late. This is not being a bigot. This is not racist. This is not an anti-liberal stance - it is not an ignorant stance. It is a wise and educated and very realistic assessment of the situation that we are facing. If we value our American ideals of individual freedom of religion and the pursuit of happiness; if the experiment in our country means anything to us and to this world, we would do wise not only to ensure that we continue to be true to our roots of freedom, but that we defend ourselves against the invasion of Islam. We successfully fought against Nazi and Communist Soviet Union threats; this is no less of a threat we now find ourselves faced with.

Men in Funny Dresses...raping children

2009-12-23T14:01:00.000-08:00

Every now and again I find a link to yet another program, article or what not about the scandal - I'd say atrocity - of priests raping children. This video is about a year old from this time and done by the BBC's program Panorama.

Every time I encounter one of these I get mad - really mad. I have a son who is of an age that were we good, devout Catholics would be of a prime age for abuse. That makes me doubly mad.

Anyone who is still a Roman Catholic needs to seriously investigate for themselves this scandal and the policies that enabled it. This is real. It's serious. It has not been resolved. It will continue. The men in funny dresses that swing smoking censors around while chanting in an ancient, dead language are dangerous. They are dangerous to our intelligence and they are dangerous to our children. They should be considered as such and treated with extreme caution. Those who are noble have nothing to worry about in having this attention; those who have skeletons in their proverbial closets should fear. I suspect, however, that the relationship of the noble to the sinister is far imbalanced toward the sinister.

More Resources:

Wikipedia on the scandal
The Boston Globe's coverage
Second Irish Bishop offering to quit - oops!
Movie: Deliver us from Evil. Stream from Netflix or order from Amazon
BishopAccountability.org
Pope under fire

Sony updates Playstation's policy.

2009-12-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

I received an automated email from Sony. Everything Sony does has a sort of flippant flair to it. This one does not disappoint. It seems they've updated their privacy policy and would like we users to know about it. That's nice enough; the part that's especially "precious" is this paragraph:

If you do not agree with the new Privacy Policy, please contact
Customer Service to terminate your PlayStation(R)Network account(s)
and do not visit our websites. Continued use of your PlayStation(R)Network
accounts or any SCEA website means you agree to the new policy.

Basically, if you don't agree with it, F off. Sweet. Maybe they should send out their updated policy on memory sticks?

No "botax" - A tan tax?

2009-12-20T05:27:00.000-08:00

In a move that will surely send a shudder of terror to high school girls across the country our fearless [baz]zar of health Harry Reid has removed the so-called "botax" and replaced it with a tax on tanning. Yes, you heard right - to pay for this monstrosity of a health "reform" bill our Robin Hood warriors have decided that highschool girls who tan will now shell out 10% of their bill to pay for his.

He had originally proposed a 5% tax on cosmetic surgery procedures; the medical community proved to be a formidable opponent to that. He now is picking on the tanning industry who doubtless have any strong forces in the ready to swoop onto Washington.

For my part I find this shriekingly stupid on several fronts. First - tax on tanning? WTF? Second, I absolutely hate how government looks through the economy to find defenseless industries that they can slap with a new tax. Tax on gas. Some have proposed a tax on driving in general. Tax on "bad" food. Is there no end to this insanity? [answer: no]

Oh - my bad. Think of the children. They're simply trying to make sure that kids have health care. What kind of a mutant Neanderthal am I?

A View into Economic Realities

2009-12-07T04:53:00.000-08:00

Lest anyone think that the meltdown over junk mortgages and other factors was not real, there are examples very near to my house. Take, for example, a subdivision that never quite made it out of the starting gate. This project has sat dormant for the past couple of years - enough time for pine trees to reach about 3 feet high in some places. The grass is like a nice wheat field and when I walk through the area I can hear the scurrying of mice and what not in the grass.

It always makes me a little sad when I see it. There are 4 model homes partially completed. They long ago removed the office trailer though the railing is still there. The houses are framed, have windows and roofs and look like they would have been nice homes for someone. There just were to be no "someones" who could have bought them due to the economic timing; they now sit lonely as a reminder that this economic downturn is all too real.

What is the story? I'm not sure. Was this a small eager developer who got caught over leveraged and is now out of business? A large developer who decided to cut their losses? (Probably, given how large the development was.) This represents loss of work and income for countless craftsmen, truck drivers, real-estate agents, and vendors who sell the parts that make a house a home.

See the photo album here.

Field of Dreams...shattered

Can you solve the maze?

2009-11-23T04:27:00.000-08:00

Australian Scientology in Hot Water

2009-11-22T04:29:00.000-08:00

I suppose a pragmatic argument can be made that many types of religion serve a positive and practical purpose in society (though, see). Scientology is not among those qualifying for such a defense. After wielding the power of intimidation against the press for some many years, the past couple of years have seen more willingness by many to speak out against the abuses by the church. The latest are comments and an article in Australia.

In France they have been convicted of fraud and brought within a sight of being stripped of their church status. Literally from Scientology's doorstep The St. Petersburg Times has done an expose series on various aspects of the "church" (an excellent read).

ABC Nightline has done a two part series into David M and the church. (See Tom Cruise receiving an award. Is it just me or does he look genuinely insane? If not that, completely deluded.)

In part one of the Nightline series there was a very interesting comment by one of the former members that the church has the power over eternity. Where have we heard this before being used to control members? In fact all the brands of Christianity and Islam hold eternity over the heads of members, either implicitly or explicitly. Growing up in the Adventist Church I lived with the constant threat of being stricken from the Book of Life. The terror of seeing that day when Jesus comes in the clouds to receive his own, and watching all my family rise into the sky to meet Him while I watched from the ground laced my every decision. With Catholicism and many types of Protestantism the fear of eternity suffering in the flames of hell is the hammer to drive people into the particular direction that churches and leaders want their "flock" to go. Guilt over the suffering of Christ is also used, especially in recruiting help for some goal. Mel Gibson's movie drove a spike in returning people to religion and motivating them to prosthelytize the lost.

Talk of Scientology always brings up the question for me, "What is a religion?". We protect the religious freedoms of people in this country; as a necessary side effect to reach this goal, we provide a protecting bubble around religions. They receive tax exception and first amendment protection for what they say as part of their religion. Scientology receives this same protections in this and other countries. Why? Because they declared themselves a religion? Because they have unprovable history and metaphysics? Because they evangelize and claim to provide help and healing for people? Because they call themselves a "church"?

In fact, in my mind they are no church and they are dangerous. Yet as I denounce their right to be labeled and protected as a "religion" I am well aware that other religious groups and sects also could come under the same scrutiny; who would survive an inquest into the efficacies of their teaching, history, practices and prophecies?

At about -5:50 into the second ABC Nightline video the Scientology spokesman avoids the interview questions on Scientology's theology and teaching by hiding in a cloak of church secrecy and spiritual sensitivity. When asked questions about Xenu, volcanos and teachings by L. Ron Hubbard their official spokesperson refuses to answer the questions as "offensive" (always a good hiding place. Love this guy.) and inappropriate. He denounced what we commonly find on the Internet as vulgar misrepresentations. He refuted them but was unwilling to offer clarification to what we find described on the Internet. What religion does this? Why would anyone want to join a religion that refuses to honestly disclose its own teaching? In the end he rips off his microphone and walks out of the interview as he promised. (My response? What an ass.)

Scientology is dangerous. It is not a church. It needs to be exposed now before it modifies its tactics and becomes more mainstream and acceptable (see Mormonism and Seventh-day Adventist). It needs to be stripped of protections before time itself protects it. Some guy goes out into the desert and invents a religion by declaring that an angel visited him and dictated a holy book. It's crazy, but through force of intimidation and military prowess it eventually (with time) establishes itself as one of the "Great Religions". A thousand years later a guy sticks his head into a hat and an angel helps translate a lost holy book and now and entire state of our nation is identified with this religion. If Scientology is allowed to continue, 100 years from now will we be calling it one of our "Great Religions"?

Update Dec-08-2009: Good summary of Scientology's recent troubles and history.

Dead man...walking?

2009-11-09T03:33:00.000-08:00

I found this story of the Brazilian man who attended his own funeral intriguing. He "died" in a car crash and the next day the family held a funeral for him. Problem was, he didn't get the memo that he was supposed to be dead and strolled into his funeral.

I'm sure that's not the first time that this situation happened. What I found intriguing was this quote:

The sight of Ademir Jorge Goncalves alive shocked relatives, some of whom tried to jump out of the windows of the funeral home in southern Brazil.

I don't doubt that seeing him alive was shocking. It's the ones who tried to jump out of the window that is strange. The dissonance between what they believed to be true - based on vague or second hand evidence - and what they could actually see was true was too much for them to handle. Since many in these Latin, Catholic-infused, countries believe in spirits and ghosts the combination of "facts" drove them to a faulty and weird conclusion: The dead man's ghost had just strolled into the room.

Was it the emotion of the situation that caused the panic and confusion? Was it the religious soaked culture that virtually "saw" ghosts and spirits in every shadow? Was it simply a normal reaction? I imagine that I also would have been very confused at my Grandfather's funeral had he strolled into the room during the service. Yet why would we not immediately believe our own eyes and search for a reasonable explanation?

Carl Sagan addressed this in Demon Haunted World. Our minds are so easily fooled that even solid facts are at first rejected in favor of our long-held beliefs. In this case, the man who attended his own funeral had not been in the car that crashed - someone else was in the car. Lacking the advanced testing capabilities of dental records or DNA I don't suggest that they were wrong to conclude that he was the driver - especially since he was nowhere to be found. Yet, deciding to jump out of a window when he walked into the room is a ridiculous response; I doubt this response would have happened if the culture did not believe in ghosts and spirits of the dead.

Netflix returns my game - woot!

2009-10-07T09:08:00.000-07:00

I had been watching a movie from Netflix. I hadn't realized that my son had taken it out of the PS3 and popped in one of his games. The next morning I ejected the "movie" and slipped it into the Netflix sleeve and sent it back. Later I noticed the movie that I had though I returned and the realization that I'd just returned a game sunk in. Oh no.

On their site Netflix says that they'll simply automatically return personal CD/DVDs if they are mistakenly sent in. Sure enough, a couple of days later I got an email about it and the next day a envelop with my game in it.

Kudos to Netflix. Now to return their movie.

Kudos, this time, to AT&T

2009-09-28T16:06:00.000-07:00

I inadvertently left the international calling plan on my account from my last trip to Germany - last year. I had previously seen the item on my bill, but since it had "iphone" in it I assumed that it was just the iPhone charge. With my recent upgrade to the new iPhone the data plan is now is a different amount. Hmm, so what was this $25?

Yup, this was the international calling plan for the iPhone, Brook confirmed. After researching when it was added and that it was not being used she went ahead and credited 10 months of charges for me. Nice - they didn't have to do that. Normally, she informed, they only go back 3 months. She was polite, she was quick, and she gave me money. Sound perfect to me!

Kudos (this time) go to AT&T.

Velvet Assassin - meh

2009-09-21T19:06:00.001-07:00

I just finished playing through Velvet Assassin. Some games I go through again after completing it, either in a harder setting or to just make sure I've achieved all the "dings". Not this one - once through is quite enough. In fact, I'd recommend skipping it all together. It seriously was not worth the full retail price, and I doubt I'd recommend picking it up for 29.99. The game play is shallow and redundant. There are simply too few variations. It's all sneak and kill interspersed with an ample dose of try, die, retry cycles. The stealth mode is inconsistent with the soldiers often walking right by you without detecting you, while other times they see you from far off. There's very little that Velvet can do if she is detected in most situations except run, try to blast away, or simply lay down and die.

If there was a redeeming aspect to the game it is the reminder that war sucks and the insanity that was Hitler's Nazi's was a blemish on history that, like the blood that was spilled, will not soon wash out. Visually the game is dark and sinister at times - oh, and Velvet running around in next to nada is ok, for about the first millisecond.

Probably better than this game is to rent Schindler's List and Defiance to be reminded of the history a bit.

Your game doesn't own my PC

2009-09-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

I just bought Velvet Assassin. It didn't get particularly high marks by the pundits, but it's supposed to be similar to another game I enjoyed, Splinter Cell. What drives me crazy is that no where does it say that this is a "steam" game. OMG I absolutely hate games that use Steam. It installs a client that wants to run all the time, and they expect you to activate and try games through their online connection. The installer forced me to create a Steam account before I could continue. I tried to cancel, but it simply cancels the who installation. Really funny thing is that "abcd1234", "abcde12345" were already taken. Guess there are others who aren't too keen about this stupid roadblock to game-play.

I've always hated these types of "services" because they are so transparent in their attempt to suck you into their online world and sell you more crap. We'll see how this one works out and how easily I can disable it. What I hate is that even though I exit Steam, launching the game relaunches it.

Update: So far I'm underwhelmed by this game. Very limited attack moves, very repetitive "levels" and my left pinky is sore from having to sneak by holding down the Ctrl button. ~~There's not even a toggle for "crouch" like some games - you have to hold the Ctrl button down to sneak while using your other fingers to control movement.~~ There is a configuration to enable toggle. The engine is not as good as what the "Clancy" games use, especially not like Splinter Cell. There are no frontal attacks that I can find. If she gets seen she's usually dead.

So far I give this a 4/10. The scenery is good, though mostly dark. It's basically a grayscale game, but some of it looks cool.

iPhone Revolution; why I endure AT&T a bit longer

2009-09-08T13:25:00.000-07:00

There's a great write-up analyzing both the iPhone/Apple haters and what Apple has done with the iPhone to cause a revolution in the cell phone space. We've all seen the haters - "Yay me, I'm da man cause I chucked my iPhone out and am doing something radical - going against the current. I'm a non-conformist... I'm a... (moron?)." Many of the public haters have a vested interest; something to gain by being the contrarian.

I've had my issues with my iPhone. My last one had a bum touchscreen that finally stopped responding to my loving touches about 75% up the screen. There was this dead band. Thing was, it was sort of a fun challenge to still get things done. I also hated how long it took to sync it, and the earphone jack got stuck again. I also think there was simply a hardware issue with my first generation Intel based iMac. (I've had no issues that I can see paired with my MacBook Pro.)

Mostly I had issues with AT&T - OMG they were so brain-dead as a corporate structure it still boggles my mind. They were a petri dish for a MBA class on what not to do. I was so turned off after ordering my new iPhone (and never getting it) that I was motivated to go back and reevaluate what I'd do phone-wise. I looked at several of the new phones including the new Pre. (It didn't look bad, but my Palm OS horror stories are even longer than iPhone ones). In the end I note that many of the newer phones are much better now that the iPhone has kicked sand on everyone. The presence of the iPhone has been force in the market that has so disrupted the landscape that it has scared everyone into looking at this space differently.

This has been great for customers - for us. As this entry from 2006 suggested, Apple has "the ability has the ability to disrupt the entire distribution channel, which is currently controlled by cellular service providers." I think it has, and I think it will continue.

In the meantime, I simply could not find an iPhone replacement that did as well as the iPhone. I'm not thrilled about AT&T; as disorganized as they are, they treated me much better than Verizon did when I had issues with my Trio. (Verizon never solved the problem of dropped inbound calls, and persisted in suggesting that I was making up the issue to get a new phone. My Trio was new. I left. A tin can and string would be preferable.)

First Mac OS X Application

2009-08-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

I've really liked what Apple has done with the Mac and their OS X. It looks great, works well, and has become very productive. I've liked it so well that I now have 3 Macs - an older PowerBook, a first-generation iMac, and now a MacBook Pro.

I figured it was time to play with developing applications on OS X. So I've downloaded the Xcode 3.1 environment, bought a Dummies book (@grantbob - shhh!) and started playing. I first downloaded the latest Xcode but it turns out that it requires Snow Leopard to run and I've not yet received my copy.

The approach to developing applications is wildly different than Microsoft's with

their Developer Studio tools and .Net. Microsoft's tools are much more straight-forward - creating the proverbial "Hello World" application is trivial while it was a little more involved in Xcode

The dance between Xcode and Interface Builder will take some getting used to, but the tools appear to be very good. They are complex and present a steep learning curve. It would be tricky for new programmer to simply download the Xcode and creating a hello world in a single unaided session. However, the Xcode application also comes with templates and with what appears to be a very complete tutorial and online book.

What impresses me is the emphasis on modularity and object orientation. This emphasis is part of the learning curve; in the long run, however, it probably presents a good discipline that allows for large and complex programs that are more modular than some C++ programs are on Windows.

Blackberry Bold? Or overpriced brick?

2009-08-23T14:49:00.001-07:00

I had an opportunity to play with the Blackberry Bold today. There's a new corporate AT&T store near my house. Since I'm a glutton for punishment I wandered into it today to take a look-see. In a word, I was not all that impressed with this flagship smart phone.

The phone was big - bigger than my 1st generation iPhone. It was both wider and thicker. It did weigh less though, but that's because it feels, well, cheap. I've seen Blackberry's hit the floor a number of times. Battery, body and battery door all bounce in different directions making a very gratifying "crash!". Owners simply put them back together, turn them on, and go on with life.

Speaking of a crash - the very nice girl that helped me crashed the phone trying to show me something on the browser. We locked it up good and could not get it unstuck. She finally popped it open and took out the battery. It took several minutes after she reassembled it until we were able to use it again. As she said, Blackberry's take the longest of any of their phones to turn on, and I believe it. It was horrible. This little hourglass kept flashing - and after it came up we had to go through the initialization questions again.

It did have a very nice screen - she showed me an "HD" movie and it looked very nice. And the little phone has one heck of a set of speakers on it. She turned it up and let's just say you'd make a scene in your local coffee shop.

Email and text-oriented stuff like dialing and the contacts list were excellent. As a phone I think it would work exceedingly well; as an email client it is legendary. As an iPhone replacement, however, I'm worried that it will leave me disappointed. I'd need to play with it more in the real world - unfortunately, I suspect they'll not lend me one to play with for a week. Test drives have not yet made it to the telecommunications industry.

Pandora Broken on my OS X?

2009-08-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

Pandora is one of those site and applications that runs pretty much anytime I'm awake. I have been running it from my MacBook Pro; this morning I tried to launch it and the site is dead to me. The frame of the Pandora site is up and Flash is loaded but the "movie" is not running. Looks like something on my Mac is hosed and Flash or Pandora is misbehaving.

I upgraded my Flash and Air, but Pandora still is dead. I even tried the typical reboots, clear cache, logged out of Pandora One and back in - nothing seems to work. All the 3rd party Pandora applications also do not work.

Strange thing, it is broken for both the Safari and Firefox 3.5 browsers, so it appears to be a Flash issue. At this point I'm finding nothing about it at all and no way to troubleshoot it. Sux.

Ideas?

Update: I found the direct link from the Pandora site to their desktop application that is written on top of Adobe AIR. That downloaded and runs just fine. I had intended to install it anyway since it runs outside a browser.

Maybe I should have done this about AT&T

2009-08-14T17:08:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

"Lala - AT&T screws up orders and can't fix problems... lala..."

er, um. naw

AT&T follies, part (lost track)

2009-08-12T04:36:00.000-07:00

After having no luck actually speaking to a human, I decided to try my hand at AT&T's "Contact Us" from the web site. In the very limited space I attempted to give the abbreviated description of my issue. They reply:

I have reviewed your account and find the credit was issued to your account on 08/11/09 in the amount of $322.92 for the iphone that was sent back by store. I see that you have already contacted customer service regarding this credit, and your concerns have been resolved.

To recap Mr. Forrester, you have already called customer service and a credit was issued and your concerns resolved. I hope the information has been helpful and resolved all your issues. Thank you for being a loyal customer of AT&T we appreciate your business and look forward to serving you for many years to come. Once again my name is Jewell [name blanked] and if you have additional questions about this issue please reply to this email. If you have a new inquiry or future inquiry, please log back into your My Wireless Account and submit a new email correspondence request.

Nice try. Guess that looks good on the statistics when a support manager's telling his or her boss what a great job they're doing. Unfortunately (for me), I've still not received a credit from AT&T. No Jewell, this issue is far from resolved. I responded to her email with a recap of my own. I'm not optimistic.

Update: I'm happy to report that on 8/13 a credit hit my bank. No iPhone yet - probably won't be one for now...

AT&T: Issue resolved (not!)

2009-08-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

I got a nice text message last Friday from AT&T that stated "Issue resolved". Hmm, wonder what that means. I don't have a shiny new iPhone, I don't have a credit back to my bank account, and I've not gotten any calls about resolution from anyone. Nice game, guys.

Fail.

I spoke with AT&T again today to find out what "resolved" means. In fact, I'm (by chance) speaking with the exact same person I spoke with last week. She has no idea what's going on, and after 2 minutes reviewing my account, is asking me the same questions she asked me last week. Wow. Just wow... Where'd you buy the phone. Did you speak with the store? Which phone did you purchase? They didn't notify you?

Funny thing is, once again the AT&T person attempts to contact the store, but they didn't answer. "Hello?" Is anyone piloting this ship?

My best guess at this point is that they have no idea what's going on, and their business systems and procedures do not allow and enable them to actually resolve my issue. They texted me because I was very insistent that if I did not hear back from them last week I was going to file a dispute claim with my bank and claim fraud. (I have - oh, I'm sure AT&T are shaking in their proverbial boots over the power of the little guy to ruin their day...not.)

Epic Fail.

AT&T Follies part 2

2009-08-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

Well, after talking to Customer Service two days ago I discovered that calling the AT&T 800 number simply connected me to a person who knew less than I did and had less access to information than even me. They couldn't see my transaction, could not see that my phone had been sent back, and had no way to verify that I had been sent any email. They could see nothing that the store did. Sort of makes sense; sort of.

They promised to have the store resolve this and call me by yesterday 8pm. They didn't (as expected). Today I get a nice call from Monica who's job it is to be pleasant and grandmotherly to angry people like me. We vent, they apologize, they call their manager they call back and say "Good news, I've gotten your credit expedited. It will be credited by the 14th". What? This is the 7th. Wow - by then the 30 day automatic credit for the returned phone would have almost kicked in. Thanks for nothing.

This is truly ridiculous. Apple has so messed up their stores that you have to stand in lines outside the store just to talk to a "specialist" to buy, well, it seems, anything now. I guess I could go stand in line for my iPhone replacement and then wait forever while they provision it. I was hoping that the AT&T store would be able to perform the task quicker. Silly me.

What's really stupid is that no one at AT&T seems to really want to sell me an F'ing iPhone. Do they really hate Apple that much? In all these conversations no one has said, "Congratulations - just stop by the store and they'll give you your new iPhone that you've already paid for." Instead they seem to want to give me my money back...eventually, after waiting for a really long, long time. Like one of my co-workers just mused, sounds like they just don't want you as a customer.

Sounds like it.

------

Update 8/7: Just got a text from AT&T saying my issue is "resolved". As yet, I'm not sure what this means. No credit processed and visible on my online bank. We'll see what's there tomorrow.

I love cell phone companies (and other lies)

2009-08-05T16:01:00.001-07:00

Yes, yet another massive screw up by a cell phone company. Surprised? You must be still in the cell phone honeymoon stage on your first phone. You'll see soon enough.

I've had horror stories with T-Mobile, with what used to be Bell South Mobility, and with Verizon. I'm working my way through AT&T currently and setting my sights on the next candidate for totally screwing up something for me.

The current situation: I ordered my new iPhone about a month ago. Good thing - recently my original iPhone has lost part of the touch screen. It's a band toward the top that prevents dialing, prevents selecting the first items in lists, and places off limits any icons in the 2nd row. A Google search finds that many have encountered this; not much to do.

Anyway, July 9th I ordered my new phone. I received an email confirming the purchase; this email indicated that I would receive another email when the phone shipped in an estimated couple of weeks. That was my last email. After unsuccessfully trying to contact the store by phone I decided to fight traffic and head back into the store today. "Sorry sir, your phone was in the store for 7 days and then shipped back."

What? Good grief! as Charlie Brown would declare. I got charged $322 anyway, thank you very much. I never received an email or call. I double checked. Nope.

Here's the great part. I'm at home on with customer service and they find no record of the purchase, the $322 charge, of a sent-back phone - nothing. Pleasant.

I am troubled by the trend I've seen in recent years. Businesses have gathered an ever greater density of customers; they've never found a way to support those customers in any way resembling the service that one would have received "in the old days" from your (say) local neighborhood proprietor. Businesses have all the earmarks of big Government. They draft a playbook for mass sales, yet have no pages for actually supporting those sales. They pump up the volume of new customers then struggle to supply the technological bandwidth to even sustain them; customer service is caught in the middle trying to answer questions, cool tempers, and find some way to achieve a positive outcome. I feel for them; I think they give up, are poorly trained, and too often just could care less.

When the guy who sold me a phone which they sent back can not give me a refund, but instead has to wait for the 30 day period to some computer can automatically issue me a credit - that's a breakdown of the system. It's a piss poor design of the business process. When I can't then call the national customer service and get any results - when they themselves can't even see the transaction since it was from a "core store", that's just crazy.

I can tell more stories about these big telecommunication companies; other people can relate more stories, and even worse ones. I can switch - it's jumping from one cauldron into another. It's switching from the terrible Republicans to the terrible Democrats. I may actually receive a call from a manager - hell, it might even be a VP like when Verizon couldn't figure out why my phone failed to receive phone calls without first dropping them for 3 months. Did the VP solve my problem? Naw. He just sounded "nicer" when he apologized for my pain and anguish, but offered no solution.

It's the big cell phone company today. Might be an insurance company tomorrow not wanting to pay for the stitches in my thumb. Satellite TV and cable companies. Internet providers. Power and gas companies. There are so many of these huge institutions that control many of the specifies of our lives; we don't live in America any more. We live in AT&T, DirecTV, Blue Cross, City Bank land now. I pity the control freaks out there; they're powerless to attain any level of true control beyond simply not using the many products and services from these companies. Hard to do in todays technological society.

...god how I miss my rotary phone and old TV. Not getting a good signal? Move the rabbit ears. Don't like the program? Twist the channel knob. Nothing good on? See that volume button? Push it.

...ah, that's better...hmm, do I really need a phone?

Wonder where my new Mac Pro is made?

2009-08-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Doesn't surprise me...much. I ordered a Mac Pro laptop. It's on a FedEx plane. Not from Cupertino - I was pretty sure Steve didn't assemble it in the Apple headquarters' garage. I didn't, however, expect it to be drop-shipped direct from Shanghai. Interesting world we live in now...

Aug 4, 2009 11:33 AM

Left FedEx origin facility

SHANGHAI CN

View Larger Map

Update: My son thinks this is so cool. I said, "It's on a plane from China." He replies "Even as we speak?" Even as we speak, I affirm. "Wow, that's so cool. I love when you say 'Even as we speak' - it's so current."

Interesting world...

National Immunization Awareness Month

2009-08-03T17:44:00.000-07:00

August is National Immunization Awareness Month.

When my son was born there was a discussion between his mother and I about "do we or don't we" immunize. She in particular had been impacted by the propaganda from the alternative crowd of the horrors of immunization. Yes, the discussion of autism came up, even back then. Our pediatrician at the time did give her a little flier on the subject, but was pretty exhasperated with her, and actually got very "snippy" with her on it. That didn't help. Fortunately, today there is an even greater and easier access to good information.

In the end I felt that the evidence was clear - there was no evidence supporting a link to autism, and the positives greatly outweighed the potential negatives, especially with the extremely low odds for negative side effects. We immunized fully.

I have never regretted this; I regret, however, that there are still those who are still suspicious and stubborn and who have been "poisoned" by the irrational thinking of the pseudo-scientific businesses. Fortunately, there is alternative information about this alternative thinking. I understand the emotions of the issue; I also understand the emotions of those who's children have contracted a preventable disease because a group of parents are too stupid to educate themselves; are too suspicious to trust those who know best; have been indoctrinated by people who have products to sell that will only sell if people stop trusting those with the best knowledge and start to believe the vacuous claims of these alternative medicine companies.

It was a tough question; however, as one who grew up seeing the very real effects of polio on my father's generation, I fully understand how real these epidemics were - and can be once again. Jenny can chant "Green our Vaccine" - it is green. It has been made even greener as a precaution. It's safe and the evidence is there to support that. Stop with the false claims and nonsense and listen to the evidence. Let this be the month of education...of awareness.

Dara O'Briain

2009-08-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

He's pretty funny. NSFW (generally - he's Irish with a good command of the language)

For example, he's pretty much figured out the best diet plan.

Beer Summit; Diplomacy at its best

2009-07-31T05:27:00.000-07:00

As promised, the President and VP sat down with Gates and Crowley over a beer to talk out the details of the racially charged incident the week before. I'm not naive enough to believe that this was, as the President stated, just a few guys sitting down at the end of the day having beers. Each had their own motives for being there, and politics and image was probably shared by more than one of them. Gates did have a Sam Adams and Crowley a Blue Moon - I believe those are motivation enough to drop by for a beer :)

I'm glad it happened, however. I think it should be the model for solving other problems, especially racially charged ones. Biden had a Buckler, which is non-alcoholic; it's not the social lubricant of the alcohol that is the key, it's the "regular guys having a beer" that seems to be the key ingredient. It seems to infer equality in a normal, non-threatening friendly situation. It's hard to be really angry with a guy who's popped open a beer and with whom you "clink" bottles with.

This is not to suggest that this one conversation solved all the tensions between these men; they talked, they listened and they came away with a different perspective.

Abandoned Places Guild

2009-07-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

33 part guild to abandoned places.

Powell Weighs In (and right well)

2009-07-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

See, this is why I really wanted Powell to run for president. He's just so level headed and fair, and a sharp thinker. Guess that's why he's not bothered running for president :)

Anyway he offers his insights into the situation by pointing out where both Gates and the officer could have done better. He also wisely points out that Gates was tired from his trip. I'm a bear when I'm tired after traveling.

I'm still waiting to see how Beer Diplomocy works out. If it goes well, maybe we should try it with Iran and North Korea? (um, might not be the best approach with Iran I guess?)

Gates: "Time to move on"

2009-07-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

I agree with Gates when he suggests it's time to move on. Everyone's said their piece, made their points, and (hopefully) learned something about race relations in America.

Lesson: Listen and ask questions first. Would have saved Obama from stepping in the poo.

Lesson: Humility and humor can defuse any situation, quickly. Gates would never have ruffled the officer's feathers if he'd simply have laughed off the situation and right away offered to show ID. We all forget keys, locks jam, doo-doo happens. Explain it, laugh, and move on.

Lesson: Some people can be grumpy and indignant, especially when they've returned from long trips. Patience, and a calm attitude seem like an officer's best friends (which Officer Crowley appears to have demonstrated). And when an angry person (any person, black, white, or martian) is demanding your name and badge number, give it to them. If they want to stomp off and make a fool of themselves, no worries.

Lesson: The Internet has changed everything. Government officials can not abuse power (as much) these days without it showing up on the Internet and going viral. People have high definition cameras in their phones, which are Internet connected. We can "live blog" an abusive situation in seconds. Racist cops (I'm sure they exist) will star in their own career impacting show on YouTube.

Lesson: The Internet has changed everything. Be polite. Never know when someone will put that video of "that jerk" on YouTube and everyone can see what a child you are.

Lesson: Delicate one - many of us white people are are tired of being called "racists" by misbehaving and immature people of other races. We work hard and most of us believe in treating everyone with dignity. However, we also are human and react when we are confronted with a 'tude. Chill. Even if some of us have developed a bit of an attitude about "Blacks" there has been a reason. We observe. We learn. We have experiences. It's not the media that has "programmed" me into thinking that drivers who are talking on cell-phones have dropped 50 IQ points and are Mobile Idiots. It's experience. Yet, be patient with us. I believe that most of us really do want to get along better with people who are not like us.

Lesson: Delicate one - if you are Black, there is a history and a struggle that none of us White Folk can ever understand. You have a much harder situation than we do. I can be rude occassionally, mostly with no wide impact. When you are rude people (wrongly) say "Gosh, Black peole are rude." Again - wrong. It happens. You need to be careful of your actions in public since you represent your brothers and sisters in a cause. Think of yourself as a very important ambassador. Gates was a terrible ambassador for both his color and for Americans. Fair disclosure: I'm often a terrible ambassador for my color and for Americans. I'm working it out, you should too.

Lesson: Obama has nailed it 100%. Let's all have a beer and talk it out.

Gates arrested; Obama complains

2009-07-23T04:38:00.000-07:00

Let me see if I've got this straight - a man breaks into a house. Police arrive and want to know what's up with that. Fact is, it is a black man. In Chicago.* Fact is police tend to take an interest when anyone is seen breaking into a house.

But that's not the part that Obama is calling "stupid". No, it's the fact that the police arrested this man who just broke into a house. From the reported story, it sounds like Gates initially refused to show ID, and got a little defensive with police, accusing them of being "racist".

Again, let me review the facts. (Arrest report here. It's insightful.) A man breaks into a house and is seen - not sure by whom. Police are called. They show up and confront the person they find in the house. Now think about it: How are they to know that this person is the owner of the house and lives there. The only evidence that they have is that this guy was reported having broken into this house. Owners don't generally do that.

Yes, we've all forgotten our keys and had to resort to extreme measures. But if you've just broken into your own house, you know - you know - that you've just done something that could look suspicious. If the police show up, a little humility and humor would go a long way. "Yes officer, I just had to break into my own house. Forgot my keys." And then the next part would be crucial to defusing the situation: "Here, let me grab my wallet and show you my ID that has my address and my picture on it."

The police would have seen his picture, checked the address. They would have seen the sheepish, borderline embarrassed look of a person who's just gotten caught doing something very human, and the whole thing would have been over. "Thanks for coming out, officer." It doesn't sound like this is what Gates did. Instead, this personal friend to the president and Harvard scholar thought that the police should have simply believed him with deference and left - by following proper police procedure which they would have done for any color man Gates retorted was that the officer was a racist.

CNN is running their "Black in America". Guess what. Being black in America means that you have to live by the same rules and endure the same discomforts that the rest of us do. That includes the requirement to be humble and compliant when police confront you after you break into a house.

Final observation: Had this man who broke into Gate's house not been Henry Louis Gates Jr., scholar and owner of this house -- had it instead been a white guy coming to steal his TV, and had police come out and simply taken his word that this was his house. What then would Obama had said? Would the police still have been accused of "racism" for leaving the white guy there? Would they (properly) have been called "stupid" for having not followed proper police procedure and allowing a thief to run free in Gate's house? Of course. Fact is, the police had to insist that Gate show them identification to prove that he lived and owned that house because that was police procedure. They need proof that this was not an illegal situation.

If you actually read the arrest report it is very obvious that the police officer was ambushed and immediately "race baited" by a belligerent Gates. I've seen this. I've experienced this. Gates acted arrogantly and improperly. He deserved to be arrested. Obama, by defending him, deserves to be criticized. While there are many examples of racial inequity in America, this is not one of them. Instead this is simply bad behavior by an arrogant Harvard scholar who thought he was above the law and should be treated with deference due to his connections and position. Were this a white guy doing the same to a black man the outcry would be deafening.

Update: Cambridge Police Officer To Obama: Butt Out of My Arrest

Update: Cosby aka, used to be funny weighs in. BTW, He makes a lot of sense, though his "defense" of the President speculates too much.

Update: Whitehouse to People: Er, what The President meant was...

Update 7/24: HuffPo covers it. It's surprising to Obama that this is exploding like this. Naw, ya stepped in it dude, er, Mr. President Dude, Sir.

Update: CNN Editorial: She gives good insights drawn from both her experience and academic background into the situation law enforcement finds themselves in.

Updated updates: Um, what I should have said...

I imagine Obama was, as reported, very surprised at the reaction. He never imagined that we'd react to his reaction in the way we have. And here I thought it was usually the V.P. that steps in poo.

=======================

*(I actually tried to find crime statistics by race. I found crime statistics. A Crime Risk Index was illuminating, showing how much above the national average many of the categories of crimes were, including robbery. I also found a breakdown of the Chicago crime by many factors (I'm sure Boston stats could be found too). Race was not one of them. It seems that some feel that the collection and publishing of crime statistics by race is a form of racism. I would disagree. Facts are facts. If the common racist misconception that black men commit a disproportionate amount is crime is wrong, publish the data proving this.)

Stunning video

2009-07-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

This video on Vimeo is very cool - very well done, creative and has a touching story line. Definately watch it through to the conclusion.

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

Large drives; larger problems

2009-07-19T05:31:00.000-07:00

Computer drives are getting cheaper for more; in fact you can buy a 1 terrabyte drive for about the same cost of a night at the movies. It's easy to simply add files without thinking since there is so much space. I find myself wondering where all that space has gone.

I've been using FolderSizes to manage my various disks and really like it. This one is a commercial product - I tried some of the freebies and this case you seem to get what you pay for. The Pro is $50 and the personal version $25. Personally I've found it well worth the cost.

The main feature that I like is its most direct - it shows you how much crap you have in your folders, organized by size. This is where I find the most surprises when I first scan a drive. It's when I remember "temporarily" backing up all those files to that folder that I forgot to remove when done.

The Pro version can be used to monitor network drives and include handy features like scheduling to scan drives during off-time. A nice feature is that when you find a folder that has files of interest, you can delete them right from the FolderSizes interface; I don't usually do it this way because it wants to move the files to the recycle bin (there might be a way to change that - haven't looked.) But what's nice is you can also pop up a windows explorer window with a right click menu.

It might be trivial, but one of the best features about it is that it feels and looks professional. It is quick, does stuff in the background has a nice layout and nice set of features and is stable. Some of the free ones felt clunkie, crashed and were slow. This one looks like a great software package written by a single programmer, but done well.

Update: Ok, not a single developer working out his garage any more. Seems business is good and according to Mark Richards the chief nerd they now employ a number of developers to work their magic.

Swedes fund solar panels

2009-07-19T04:17:00.000-07:00

Seems a government sponsored program to pay for up to 60% of the investment cost of installing solar panels is more then twice as popular as they projected. Wonder what would happen here if, say Georgia, funded the same?

http://www.thelocal.se/20664/20090715/

OMG R we this dum?

2009-07-14T19:07:00.001-07:00

Say it ain't so, we just can't be this (um) uninformed, can we? I'm moving to Ugoslavia...

I demand a fence be built for our safety

2009-07-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/14/arizona.grand.canyon.death/index.html

er, maybe not...

Homeopathic Doctors Spoof

2009-07-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

EllenWhite.org is Ellenwhiteexposed.com

2009-06-13T06:26:00.000-07:00

I really don't pay attention to the SDA question anymore, as should be obvious by my silence. I just finally got tired of the ranting and endless debate on unsolvable questions. It's like arguing about what color Unicorns are, or what their favorite foods are.

It seems that the site "Ellen White Exposed" has changed its domain name from ellenwhite.org to ellenwhiteexposed.com. I'm sure the Ellen White foundation badgered them until they simply decided to change the name.

I'm going through the site and auditing the links. If there is a dead link or an incorrect one, drop me a note or simply comment on the blog posting and I'll fix it. Also, if I've made any factual errors - or if you simply disagree with my conclusions :) let me know too. If you post with your true identity I'll probably publish the comment; if anonymous I'll just fix the error.

OMG - H1N1 Flu just a state of mind?

2009-05-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

So I was over at The Loom catching up on my blogs after an exhausting week. Carl freaked out over this article. Thought I (naively) - "How bad could it be?" After all, often peeps tend to hyperventilate over stuff they simply don't agree with. This is no such case.

There are, occasionally, articles that border on the criminal. This is such a case. That there could be a person who reads that article and decides not to take any precaution other than filling her mind with positive thoughts just seems inconceivable (to borrow from Princess Bride). Fortunately there is little danger, at least at this point, of wide-spread exposure to a dangerous flu strain. It appears currently to be a somewhat annoying but fairly harmless strain of flu - at least when compared to other flu strains. Yet, this could change. And this [censored myself] person is spreading lies.

Lies. Then there is the kooky. Drug cartels? We're talking about flu here, Marianne. Yes, the cartels are dangerous too but their airborne virus's usually come out of the point of a gun and are generally aimed at specific hosts. ...oh my...

Can we try to "pray" people like this away? Or may I modify her #2 point? Can we just send her to Mexico?

NEAP Testing and states

2009-04-29T06:28:00.000-07:00

Having a son in 4th grade I think a bit about the quality of education. Blake just had the standardized testing that all 4th graders must endure. The "No Child Left Behind" law has had an impact, but the jury is still out as to whether or not it's going to be a positive one.

This chart shows some interesting results comparing between the NEAP and states ranking of students. Not a good omen for Georgia. The article it was linked from is a bit dated but also not encouraging. I'm hoping not to discover how badly my son was educated 10 years from now.

Banned from Facebook? aka, New Virtual World Order

2009-04-22T05:17:00.000-07:00

Gosh! Who'd have ever thought that Libby would be the sort that Facebook would determine was worthy of banishment. In fact, however, this is exactly what has happened. A simple Google search will turn up a number of such events - many of whom had no idea that they were even under a "terms of service" (Like Libby) let alone what those terms actually are.

This brings a thought to my mind. We live in a very very different world. Most of us are used to living in a country where we have rights, legal recourse, and the ability to protest something. Be it ever so minuscule, we have power. On the web, however, this is not the case. We now live in a virtual world where the rules and actions are governed by corporate self-interest, and where you - that single person among millions of other "users" - is of little value to the corporation. They do as they wish to protect whatever they wish to protect.

Less you think I'm whining about some corporate conspiracy think again. I've almost always come down on the side of a business to create a product and attach whatever strings to its use they'd like. Even in situations like this I still tend to lean toward that position. Yet we as people need to understand how tentative our situation is. Should Google decide, your blog will disappear forever and there is nothing that you can do to recover it or your good name. Google/YouTube have banned even the Marvelous James Randi's account with no warning. Fortunately he has the power of his stature in the Skeptical community and resources beyond you and I as individuals. RIAA, YouTube, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft. These are the new House of Representatives and Senate in the new virtual country that we live in. User be warned: The technology and communication channel that you have come to depend on and even earn your living with can disappear in an instant, and there is very little you can do beyond sending an email petitioning the decision...and waiting....and waiting.........and waiting.

You are the gentleman sitting in the lobby with hat in hand nervously waiting to find out if you will be seen today, or need to come back tomorrow and wait...and wait...

Video on "Open Mindedness"

2009-04-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

This video is very well put together and very clearly articulates the difference between truly being open minded (but sentient) and having a mind into which just any idea can fall and sprout into idiocy.

(Via PZ/JREF)
Update: Link to the video producer on YouTube

Laws of physics

2009-03-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

Laws of physics in action outside my office. It's not a great picture - iPhone drive by, but it looks like yet again two cars decided to test the laws of physics and enjoyed the resulting collision. On the far side there were two cars, one onto the curb. Not sure if the two collided or if one ran the other out, but it looked like someone got hurt. People are 'tards at this intersection. First they get desperate to get thru it at any cost, and second they always assume that a person is turning if they are coming from one of the sides. Whenever I go straight I simply drive through the intersection laying on my horn.

Update: There seems to be a bad accident at that intersection every couple of weeks. Peeps are retarded there. Just this week there was a 3-car physics experiment with one up in a flower bed and another in the center median (I guess that's a redundancy...).

Wall Street Journal 50% increase in rates

2009-03-03T07:41:00.001-08:00

It took a crazy "ninja" increase in their online subscription to motivate me to post a blog entry (after being lazy for some time), but when I saw a charge for $150 on my online bank statement from the Wall Street Journal online subscription I was seriously miffed. It was bad enough that a year or so ago they raised it to $99/year without telling us [though it could be that a letter - that looked like junk mail - did arrive]. This ninja increase of 50% is crazy. I could understand if I had the print version. This involves hard costs of print and distribution. And I understand that there are real costs associated with producing an online journal. But when the online is almost the same price as the print? Crazy.

The economy is in seriously bad shape, and companies are watching their bottom line fade like so much disappearing ink. They are looking for more sources of revenue and finding none, so they are simply raising rates. Our local country water just did this. There is a bad drought here in Georgia and we are all under severe water restrictions. Add to that the fact that many of us are really working hard to be good citizens and are doing a variety of things to reduce our water consumption. This translates into a dramatic reduction in revenue. The solution? Dramatically raise the cost of water. Crazy.

I can't cancel my subscription to the county water supply. I can, however, cancel my subscription to WSJ.com, which is exactly what I did. I'm sure I can find something better to do with that $150.

I love "thinking" people...

2008-02-19T05:16:00.000-08:00

...especially those whose thinking is warped. Take for example this video of an elderly orthodox Iraqi Muslim who, based on the Qua ran has concluded that the Earth is flat and the Sun is smaller than the Earth. His authoritative source of knowledge doesn't teach it so he rejects it - in fact he rejects modern Science wholesale since it is contrary to his holy book.

Then these southern lovelies who have decided who to vote for by comparing their fitness against the Bible (well, their own interpretation of the Bible). The funny thing is to see this woman pastor pontificating about Bush not following Scripture when there are those who would slam her for daring to step into the pulpit or a leadership role.

It really is frightening and somewhat discouraging to discover how some people process information and come to conclusions. The idea that people can formulate a position from rumor and personal perceptions with no effort or ability to verify and process truth is disappointing. But what is even stranger is that these people vilify and demonize those who actually do practice good thinking processes and come to different conclusions.

I really feel sad for the young girl - she has no idea what she's talking about. She's just parroting the same attitudes that she's surrounded by. Very sad.

Puggie says, "Brrr!"

2008-01-24T15:11:00.001-08:00

It was a pleasant -4 this morning here in Chicago. I'm looking forward
to mid 50's in Atlanta. Cold is relative...

Airport Security Follies Essay

2007-12-30T05:34:00.000-08:00

The NY Times has a gem of an opinion piece written by a pilot about the inanity of airport security and the TSA. While I personally find very little difficulty in flying beyond the torturous experience of queuing up through security, I find the various policies absolutely frustrating. So, now the TSA is going to ban certain types of batteries. What the heck? Battery bombs? Yes I'm well aware of the purported problems with lith-ion batteries catching fire, but come on already.

Unfortunately, once freedoms and rights have been given up to the machine that is government - controlled as it is by inane people - those rights are almost impossible to regain. What is so easily given can be only extricated from the fingers of government at the threat of either great violence or great protest. Oops - now we sound like terrorists.

Personally I'm tired of living in a society filled with drones who trust their government and expect it to create for them a nice cozy safe world. My water bottle is not explosive. My nail clippers are not a weapon - my fists and feet can do far more damage by themselves. A trained person can cause more damage with a credit card than with a nail file. They can kill you with a pen much quicker. For what it's worth, I can probably knock a flight attendant out with my large Bible. Where will all of this finally wind up? With us being required to strip from our street clothes, put on hospital gowns, be handcuffed and escorted into a seat where we are enchained for the duration of the flight? Con-Air here we come. Silly, you say - but that's security.

Don't get stopped in Utah

2007-11-29T04:29:00.000-08:00

Some would say, avoid the state, but Utah is a beautiful area. But this video that's floating around the blog'spere is fairly enraging. A young guy with his pregnant wife are pulled over and he winds up tazered and arrested. IMHO the cop is way out of line. But as most of us know, you just don't argue with cops. They have badges and guns, and way too much power. Polite and contrite is best. Amazingly enough, it appears that this guy still has his job.

Homeopathy - sounds like sociopathy

2007-11-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

I stumbled on an excellent article in a blog post on homeopathy and its dangers. I recommend a read-in-full. It so reflects my feelings as I've listened to the dribble that passes for science among many I encounter here in Bible Belt Land. For some reason the home schoolers in this area demonstrate a strange kinship with the homeopathic industry. I'm constantly presented with "suggestions" for everything from Blake's stuttering to flu. I try to retain an open mind, yet my more skeptical nature constantly kicks in at many of the suggested remedies.

The most recent suggestion (from his teacher) was that my son may be ADD and should get a battery of tests to determine if he is suffering from an allergic reaction to environmental toxins. While I'm sure that there are environmental toxins that we react to and know for a fact that many of us react badly to them, is this the cause for his lack of interest in Math? Sure he's distracted and won't focus on homework, but is this caused by an allergic reaction? Could be. Maybe he just doesn't like math. Or there could be a need to diagnose the reason medically. But if the doctor were to confirm that he's ADD and prescribe Ritalin (I'm not a fan of, btw - but it does have its place), I can even now hear the crescendo of protests at the medical establishment wanting to "drug my child".

Too much like the health advice I encountered growing up SDA...

50 Years and counting

2007-09-30T05:52:00.001-07:00

A number of the family got together to celebrate my aunt and uncle's
50th anniversary. This is a shot of the group. My brother and I had a
great round on the golf course earlier in the day. The weather was a
cool 92.

New Apple Store

2007-09-22T07:16:00.000-07:00

I still remember hearing about the first Apple store opening in New
York I think. People said they were crazy. Yup, like a fox.

The Mall of Georgia is the latest sighting of the seemingly unstopable
incursion of Steve Job's band of artistic nerds.

They are giving away T-shirts to the first 1000 people; I'm seriously
wondering if there might be that many in the line in front of me. The
Northpoint community church drummer in the line with me thinks its
close...

Updates on my other blog...

Music scholar barred from U.S.

2007-09-20T06:42:00.001-07:00

This N.Y. Times story profiling Ms. Ghuman, a musician who's been barred from re-entering the U.S - and not told why - is frustrating.

I find it disturbing how many of these types of "security" nightmare stories I've seen during the past 5-6 years. As I read this story I could feel just a little of the helplessness that Mr. Ghuman must feel every day about this situation.

When freedom is something that a government gives the people they are really not free. When the people have given power to their government they can not expect their government to freely give back to them. Freedom must be a right demanded by the people that comes from their will and ability to constrain their government's ability to restrict their freedom.

We've allowed our government to become so powerful that they can restrict freedoms to "protect" our security - and they are not held accountable. When they can do this even to non-citizens and not be required to disclose their motives and reasons, at some point they will have the ability to freely treat you and I in the same way; in fact they already can, if you are accused of "terrorism".

I hope it's not too late for us.

See also: MTV Singer visa revoked, this blog posting,

This is your life...

2007-08-28T04:53:00.000-07:00

... on GA 400. Mix 1 part rain with 10 parts traffic, don't mix or
stir, just let it sit for an hour or so... and voila! Instant Atlanta
traffic.

Update: 1:45 commute this morning...we need to win that lottery...

Testing mobile blogging

2007-08-27T11:21:00.001-07:00

This is a test from the iPhone of mobile blogging. (whew, already
tired of typing).

Night for Africa

2007-08-25T04:43:00.001-07:00

Northpoint Community Church held a fund-raiser "A Night for Africa", last night ("fun raiser", as Lanny thought it was). It was a good time and somewhat educational. Jeff Foxworthy was the headliner - he had gone with the 410 Bridge group to Africa. They also played video from their trip and had slides showing some of the depressing statistics about life in Eastern Africa. They handed out these informative "passports" at the event.

While they did highlight some of the issues with water availability and quality, and the mortality rates of children, they didn't much mention the rampant AIDS problem (as I recall). I'm on the donor list of Doctors without Borders, so I get alerts and newsletters about many of the issues in Africa. Amazing how wonderful our quality of life is in sharp contrast to others' around the world.

Naturally, what's a fund-raiser for Africa without representative indigenous smiling faces. There was a young lady who's been sponsored by an American couple - and who wants to be the first female Kenyan president in, say, 2030. There was also the talented Daraja African children's choir. In all it was a good night, though I wish they had highlight a bit more the real depth of the problems in Africa. However, had they done that there probably would be those who felt that they were using emotional manipulation (can't win sometimes, I guess). I did like the philosophy of 410 Bridge, which is to work with the Compassion International and local organizations rather than come in with their own Westernized agenda.

Generally I'd rather see funding for humanitarian efforts go to dedicated organization rather than through church organizations, which too often focus more on the "soul" than on solving the physical problems. Telling someone that one day they'll be happy in heaven doesn't make their life here on earth any better. Yet must of the focus of this event is on addressing the very real problems that exist in the here and now.

Photoset from Germany

2007-08-20T16:46:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded the pictures from the Germany trip. Dumb flickr has a 200 picture limit, but I think all the recent trip pictures are still visible.

Green with Envy

2007-08-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

My co-worker and I agree: Germans are much more green conscious than we Americans. Everywhere I looked I saw evidence - at least superficial evidence - that they value being ecologically friendly. There were lots of smaller cars, lots of riders on the trolleys, and lots - I mean, lots - of bicycles. While the motivation might not be ecological alone (extremely small and rare parking spaces in many areas, and 1.35 € per liter for gas also stimulates the more lofty values) still the fact is they are driving small cars, they are riding their trains and trolleys, and most impressive, they are riding bikes and scooters in far greater numbers than I've seen anywhere here in the States.

While in Frankfurt I observed a young professional lady coming out of one of their massive business towers. She was dressed in a business suite (with skirt) and high heels.

She looked like she was walking toward the crosswalk, and I guessed that she was probably heading up to the train station. Instead she walked up to a bicycle that was chained to a sign, unlocked it and off she peddled, presumably toward home or off to meet friends for dinner. I would find it extremely surprising to see a suit-clad man mount a bike much less an attractive woman over here. To them it is just a regular, and prudent mode of transportation.

Other examples included the rare use of air-conditioning, sod and grass growing on rooftops, and automatic shutter systems that reduce the glare of sunshine into buildings. They are very keen to not give you a bag at the grocery store (yet will happily if you request one). Sure - some of them drive absurdly large Mercedes, and sports cars. And I'm sure if one looked deeply enough there would be more examples of rampant waste. However, the point is you'd have to look - unlike here where one is constantly dodging urban assault vehicles that suck gas at from between 5-15 miles per gallon.

Yes, we love America - and we have reason to be proud of our achievements. We do, however, need to remember that the world that we live in is fragile and we can (and have) wound it. Here in Atlanta we have one of the worst air quality (I use the word "quality" loosely) situations of any North American commuting city. We also have one of the worst public transportation systems, and we all drive with mostly a single commuter per car. I would hope that we are motivated by either shame or by some form of greed into doing better ecologically. Reducing our dependence on foreign oil is a noble goal; changing our driving culture from the tankish to the stylishly small will dramatically increase that reduction. (Now where are the keys to my Hummer...just kidding.)

Notes from Germany

2007-08-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

First, Karlruhe Germany is great. The people are very friendly and just awesome. The city here is very cool and seems like a great place to live and hang out. Lots of shops and street cages. People just seem to appreciate each other and life. The seem just like i imagined.

I have learned:
iPhone (with which i am writing this, via WiFi) is dangerous for Europe. While it is great that it will seamlessly switch from WiFi to edge in the states, here that costs $. Several times I noticed the "E" rather the wireless symbol. There is no way to just disable Edge. Ouch.

Websites automatically send me to German language pages. I even log in to my normal iGoogle and it's all in German. Weird, really, especially when you've logged into, say Yahoo or Google who I'd have thought would know that I'm normally English speaking. But Blogger and Yahoo email are all in German over here. I even had trouble bringing up the English version of Google since it wants to redirect to the .de site. It makes it tough for Americans who travel to see their stuff.

Euros are expensive - 1.47 $ for a €

Europeans are much more "green" than us. Lots of examples.

Good grief! Trains and trolleys, bikes, scooters and small cars. They do people moving much better.

My manager asked when I wanted the transfer to Siemens Germany. Almost right-very nice here. The lifestyle is much better in many ways to suburban. But there is no place like home... I'm off to Paris tomorrow.

Antichrist calls protestants Antichrists

2007-07-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

Growing up as a Seventh-day Adventist it seemed that every time you turned around someone was spouting off about how the Pope and Catholicism was the Antichrist and the beast of Revelation 13. We were taught that the wound was inflicted in the past, but that the beast was to be healed of its wound and march to kill all of us SDA's who keep the law (yada yada).

It's only fitting, then, that the Pope would issue a 16 page document calling the non-Catholic churches sort of "wanna be" churches suffering from a wound (See ~~CNN article~~ (removed) and FoxNews). Nice. Whatever. I love this quote:

The document said the Council's opening to other faiths recognized there were "many elements of sanctification and truth" in other Christian denominations, but stressed only Catholicism had all the elements to be Christ's Church fully.

Exactly what are those "elements"? Hmmm, one could only speculate in an unflattering way... I seriously hope that Protestants don't sit passively and let stuff like this float by unchallenged.

Update: What we meant was...

Protest editorial against Bush

2007-07-04T12:12:00.000-07:00

He was my president. I voted for him. I supported him. I now regret that vote and no longer support him. This after much thought and a shifting of perspectives informed by education. We were white-hot angry at Clinton at his wranglings and legal manipulations. We boldly declared that it was about character and honesty. What the hell is commuting Libby's sentence? (See cartoon) Traditional Japanese leaders would step down if they had made a mistake as grave as our attack on Iraq under a false premise. Indeed, they'd commit seppuku.

While I may not share the anger, I certainly resonate with the sentiment:

Update: I was told that this post seems a bit angry (and that it might turn people away). Ding! I am ticked off about this president (finally). I didn't start that way. I supported him. But I do find it super interesting that the religious right descended on Clinton like a flock of vultures when he played with Monica and lied under oath, yet they've not so much as lifted a pinkie of protest with all the things this administration has done or allowed. They whined about Clinton's pardons, yet at least he had the decency to wait for a period of mourning. Bush had his gun cocked, aimed and ready to fire at the drop of the gavel. He commuted Libby's sentence, and could yet pardon him alltogether.

Just after 9/11 I was glad that we had a president of conviction and strength, and I was glad that he was responding in strength to the "terrorist" threat. Mostly I supported the invasion of Afghanistan if for no other reason than I don't like theocracies; the Taliban are no friend of humanity. Yet I'll never forget the sickened feeling I got when I started hearing the administration float the word "Iraq" and "Hussein" into the public awareness. It seemed so transparent to me. Baby Bush was gonna finish off what Daddy Bush left undone (as it were). Sure, there may have been a long series of atrocities against humanity, and sure Iraq may have been supporting terrorists. But suddenly the "war" changed from justice for those who attacked us to a global war against every Tom, Dick and Ahib that looked at us wrong.

We well know the Iraq war history. Little resistence. No WMDs. No Bin Laden. No after-war plan and certainly no exit strategy. No joy. Enter Guantanamo (see description) America's little terrorist camp - er, torture - eh, I meant to say, America's little terrorist inquisition (crap! freudian slip again) - It's our detention camp, ya, that's it... - that used International legal loopholes to pay bounties and gather suspicious looking characters from all over the world and beat the hell out of them and humiliate them trying to ascertain if they are bad guys. If they were not enemies of America before we grabbed them they certainly are after we finished up with them in Gitmo. We know that there have been innocent people dragged there. But isn't this, after all, why in this country we believe so strongly in due process and individual legal rights? Isn't this why we have an open process? If the humans that are in this country have these rights, are we saying that other humans -- just because they are really naughty -- do not? Have you actually seen some of the people who enjoy the rights of this country and who are in Super Max prisions? Naughty indeed.

So am I a little ticked off? Yes. Do I think other people should be too? Yes.

Sharpton vs. Hitchens on moral absolutes

2007-07-02T04:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not particularly fond of either of these guys, especially Sharpton. He strikes me as the classical definition of a "blow hard". Hitchens, for all of his intellectual acumen is generally so abrasive that any merit his arguments about religion and the practice of religion may have are lost. This debate was especially fun to watch, though the debate would have been all the more entertaining were it between Dobson and Hitchens.

As for moral absolutes verses relativism, the question of how we prosecute people is flawed in this context. We prosecute people because we are a society founded on the rule of law. We arrive at this structure as the descendants of England and highly influenced by French thought, which itself was influenced by the classical societies of Rome and Greece. While our founder's motivation may have included theistic leanings law itself is viewed as an impartial arbiter to ensure freedom and the smooth operation of society. ("Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.")

To complain that removing the Ten Commandments will lead to the destruction of the rule of law is a flawed argument, and religiously motivated. This country was never founded on, nor enforced, the Ten Commandments. We have no laws enforcing "Thou shalt not covet" and no method of prosecuting someone for coveting or not holding God in highest regard. Were we to truly have as our foundation the Ten Commandments we would need to prosecute Atheists for breaking the first. These are religious laws that inform the spiritual mind. They are higher, or deeper, than our normal civil laws that are created as a response to societal problems.

To illustrate the difference between our laws and the Decalogue, consider the laws regulating traffic. Shortly after automobiles were invented two things happened. First, guys wanted to race and second the flow of cars through the streets resulted in chaos. Civil leadership understood that in order to facilitate growth and protect people laws were needed. As time progressed the laws, regulations and conventions evolved into what they are today. I well remember intersections regulated by lights with just a green and a red. Such a light would spell disaster today in many busy city intersections. The yellow along with delays provide a buffer that prevents desperate idiots from crashing into too-eager drivers who zoom out at the first glimpse of a green light.

To say that our laws are founded on the Ten Commandments is to hijack modern thought with ancient theology. Even the Christian who has understood the differences between the old and the new covenants understands that we are no longer bound under the Decalogue. The Ten Commandments simply are insufficient to regulate our societies, and would lead to a level of intolerance that is unacceptable. Unless we are prepared to outlaw any religion except Christianity or draft vague definitions of terms such as "god", "covet" and "lie" we have no possibility of enforcing the Ten Commandments.

While the Christian may believe in moral absolutes, this is very different than asking how we prosecute criminals. They are criminals, by definition, because they have been found guilt of breaking one of our criminal laws -- not for having broken some moral absolute. They are prosecuted for driving under the influence, or for having sold drugs. The fact that the various laws on our books can be grouped under one or more of the Decalogue does not in fact mean that our laws are derived from it. We have, as a society, decided that we do not want to allow dangerous drugs to be sold or people to drive unsafely. Fairness, and freedom dictate that one person's actions should not impede the freedom of another's.

Home Improvement Follies

2007-06-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

This one falls squarely into the category of "Oh Crap!" Seems that we had someone over working on the roof. Ya gotta love how builders do crappy jobs knowing that by the time you figure out that the nail holes in the roof they've left leak they'll be long gone. So we had nail holes that over the centuries have started to leak. Lovely. So the fix-it guy put a pan into the attic in case it rained, but didn't remove it. So, your's truly wandered into the roof to retrieve said kitchen pan...

Yup - you really do fall through quickly if your foot slips off the beam. Imagine my foot dangling through and you get the picture as it was all of a sudden like. If it didn't hurt so bad it would have been funny...well, it was funny all the same.

Pope's dresses

2007-05-24T04:50:00.001-07:00

"Dahhhling, your drag is divine, but your purse is on fire!"

Habeas Schmabeas

2007-05-04T04:22:00.000-07:00

They won a Peabody award for it in 2006. I didn't hear it back then; I listened to it this morning and it made me mad all over again. Here's from their site:

The right of habeas corpus has been a part of our country's legal tradition longer than we've actually been a country. It means that our government has to explain why it's holding a person in custody. But now, the War on Terror has nixed many of the rules we used to think of as fundamental. At Guantanamo Bay, our government initially claimed that prisoners should not be covered by habeas—or even by the Geneva Conventions—because they're the most fearsome enemies we have. But is that true? Is it a camp full of terrorists, or a camp full of our mistakes?

When I first heard that we were aggregating "prisoners" at Guantanamo Bay I was very nervous about it. As a Bush supporter I, at the time, supported his aggressive counter measures toward those who were waging an unconventional war against us. But over time I started to wonder just what we would emerge as once this was all "done" - if it ever was done. What would our nation look like?

There is an America that we all think is, then there is what our leaders and politicians are molding it into. There is what Evangelicals want to mold it into with their "wedge strategy" and for some the goal is to transform this into a theocracy. Um, that's not worked well in the past as I recall. We have been a nation of laws and of personal rights. We believe that it is better for a guilty man to walk free than to have an innocent man imprisoned. But I'm wondering if that's changing by our apathetic attitude toward Guantanamo. Is our need for security allowing our government to exchange security for human rights? I certainly hope not. I certainly hope that we will use our important voting power to ensure that the America that we want -- that we teach our children that it is -- continues: An America that values human rights and personal freedom over security.

Personally, this may be one of the first elections that I do not vote Republican. (Though, anyone but Hillary...)

Shooting at VT

2007-04-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

The shooting at Virginia Tech is horrifying and an example of the worst in humanity. Researchers and analysts will dissect every aspect of the event, and families and students will for years to come have to live with a reality that most of us never experience.

Already people who are against guns and pressing for greater gun control are making bold statements in an attempt to capitalize on the fear and horror of this situation. The Australian prime minister reaches across the ocean to toss in his two cents worth from a country that has totally banned guns.

I have only one question for him and all those who are for greater gun control: If we had not been so successful in eradicating guns from our society, do we think that there might have been someone equipped and prepared to stop this madman before he killed 33 people? As it stood, there was simply no one who could stop this person since we are essentially unarmed and unprotected.

For years those of us who are against strict gun control have been saying that when it is criminal to own guns only criminals will own guns. This is a prime example. When a society is unarmed they are unable to protect themselves from the person who is armed and who totally disregards societies norms and laws. It is illegal to kill someone in cold-blooded murder. This guy didn't care. Society finds this behavior unacceptable. This guy didn't care.

If someone had had a gun that day, they could possibly have stopped this gunman. However, that person would well have faced legal consequences for having broken the law and carried a gun onto campus.

People say, "I'd rather be arrested than killed." While that makes a lot of sense, we all wind up playing the odds. We abide by society's laws and norms and take the chance that something like this doesn't happen. For those at Virginia Tech the odds were against them. They were unarmed, and the worst that could happen did.

Update: Tom Plate would not agree with my position. Ted Nugent would. I agree with him too.

Ten Commandments Weekend at 3ABN

2007-04-05T16:15:00.000-07:00

I'm always tempted to call 3ABN "3 A Bad Network". I'll resist.

But if you're a fan, be sure to tune in May 5,6 for the 10 Commandments weekend (link broken). I'd need to check, but it's probably the weekend after the All Grace Weekend? Maybe not.

I'm a bit disconnected from the facts but still tied into the Adventist grapevine. I never liked the network and even more dislike the goings on with Danny Shelton. (Linda Shelton has a nice website by the way. And personally, I believe her.) I think the who situation is despicable and gives much evidence to the bankruptcy of that religion. Geez: why can't we just all get along :)

"Planet Earth" and Global Warming

2007-03-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited about the new Discovery Channel series entitled Planet Earth (page is very "heavy".) It promises to bring images from unreachable parts of the Earth (for most of us) right into our living rooms. What kills me, however, is the spot that they just showed on Friday's Oprah. It was a segment on the polar bears filled with global warming statements both in the video and from Oprah.

I'll be very disappointed if they turn the show into a political platform, especially for bad science. If you watched the video from the previous posting, or have done your own research and seen the evidence of weather patterns over the past several 100,000 years: truly we've had an impact on our environment, but it pales compared to the impact the Sun has had on this planet.

Ice core samples taken from Antarctica and from the NGRIP & GISP2 in Greenland have provided many insights into the weather trends, especially since the last ice age.

Personally I hope that the show simply shows the reality we live among rather than be used as a soapbox. On the other hand, I'll be sitting front and center - and controlling the remote to be sure :)

Global Warming?

2007-03-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

While I believe that we Americans are silly in our dependence on foreign oil, and that we are way too dependent upon our individual automobiles for our daily commutes, I also find the current "debate" about "global warming" much too sensational and biased.

Here are a couple of balancing statements shedding some light to the other side.

Update: Meh - both the videos have been removed.
BBC Video, NYTimes

Debt Elimination Scams

2007-03-02T07:18:00.000-08:00

Legal ways to wipe out debt without paying for it? Don't believe it. Even if true, it would be wrong. See my writeup in my Biz blog.

Travolta: Scientology could have saved Anna

2007-02-28T14:51:00.000-08:00

By now, even if you're not a star-gazer you've no doubt heard of the death of Anna Nichole Smith. Travolta (drop the 'T') has come out stating that Scientology could have saved Anna. Oh brother. Nice - and easy - to speculate now that she's dead. For all that matters, a good 12-step program could have done wonders for her - or being lost on an island for a few months with just a soccer ball for a friend.

It is so easy to speculate as to what could have saved poor Anna now that it's too last to test his theory. Narconon has also been discredited and criticized by experts in the field. What is clear is that she's gone, but the scrambling after money and control of her estate and name will continue. And, if Travolta's comments are any indication, people will continue to use her as a spring-board to promote all sorts of oddities.

Sad.

Update: Not to sound callous, but it didn't save his son.

Ah, Springtime in Georgia

2007-02-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

True to form, it's the end of Feb and the flowers are popping up, trees starting to bloom and we're enjoying sunny days in the upper 60's. I'm a sunshine sort of person - don't like cold and dreary. I guess that's why I really didn't enjoy Michigan much.

Funny how people are just more pleasant as the weather becomes nicer. Funny how hard it is to get work done, also. Speaking of getting work done, though, check out the progress on the personal finance site I'm working on. It's coming along nicely. You can create a user (important first step!), setup your monthly budget and enter planned expenditures. Already you can visualize your future with balance projection and monthly spending breakdown charts. Update: for my own personal finances I took a job with Siemens instead :)

So, if that's wrong...what is true then?

2007-02-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

There is a phenomenon that I've observed. When you have a radical paradigm shift after leaving an environment like Adventism or some other closed culture where you are taught ideas that are later refuted, something clicks inside our head. The person one day stands back and looks at the world and pauses, and asks, "So, which part of what I believe is real and true and what else might be wrong?" If X idea was totally unfounded and has been proven to be false, what about Y or Z?

This leads some to question Christianity, the Bible, and even religion in general. This can be especially troubling, when in the process of attempting to honestly understand what is real and true, the searcher is presented with something as fundamentally flawed as the age of the Earth. If one grows up in a fundamentalist community – which Adventism is – they are generally taught that the age of the earth is somewhere between 6,000 to 10,000 years old. We were also taught that carbon dating schemes were flawed and that Darwin was the anti-Christ. Yet when the mass of the scientific community, through a variety of radiometric and other dating methods, all come up with an age for the Earth greater than 10,000 years (conservative ice layer counting methods show at least 50,000 years) one begins to not only doubt the conclusions of their fundamentalist community but the methods of deriving truth.

This brings the honest and earnest searcher back to some very fundamental questions: How do we think? How do we know? How do we know that we know? (Epistemology) How can we be certain? What is the role of faith when faith has proven to cause so many problems in this world – our present "war on terror" is really a war between warped faith and our own perception of what is right and what our role in this world should be.

At a more basic and focused level the Christian who has left, or is seriously questioning Adventism starts wondering what they should believe and how they go about arriving at truth. This is one of the most serious issues with the dishonesty of Adventism and other flawed systems of belief that persist in a self-preservation mode. When what they insist is true is shown to be false everything else – even truth – is questioned. For those of us unfortunate enough to have grown up in fundamentalist environments, we discover as adults that we were never taught as children how to think and arrive and truth, but rather were simply feed someone else's version of "truth". (Think Mormon, Islam, Hindu, LSU fans – why are they what they are? Because they were brought up to believe it.)

While I don't have an answer that is a panacea I do have a suggestion. If we (as Christians) are to start over in our quest for truth we have to walk back through history. There was a guy named Noah, and one named Abraham and one named Moses. These guys all claimed to have met, talked with and followed a God who simply called himself "I am" (a philosophically perfect description for God). Following their generations we arrive at the conclusion that they all were looking forward to some event – to someone. About 2,000 years ago it is said that that event happened and that someone came. Our search for truth must start with that event and with that someone. If the story about that event is wrong and that someone was not who he said that he was then it's all a lovely story. However if he was indeed who he said that he was – and more importantly if his mission and his accomplishment is accurate, then the importance is greater than discovering the age of the earth.

It seems to me that it is understandable and profitable to stand back and gaze thoughtfully at the world and ask, "What is true?" But it seems that our search must have a starting point – a reference point – in order to produce accurate conclusions. Science can tell us what they see; it can not tell us what truth is. Hollywood can delight our senses; it can not soothe our souls. America can "win" a war on terror; she can not solve the sin problem. If there is an ultimate truth and an ultimate being, he exists outside of and apart from us (he can not be found within as Buddhism teaches); a good starting point is to look again at the man and the claims of Jesus Christ.

Oh, and the age of the Earth? Who cares? In no place does the Bible set an age for the Earth – nowhere. Theologians (cf James Ussher) have added up the time periods documented in the Bible and have derived an age for the Earth. They have come up with a dating method; any serious study on the various methods for dating the Earth will mention the Biblical methods. Yet, when crosschecked with the other methods there is a huge difference. Christians, then, naturally conclude that all the other methods are flawed since they go "against the Bible". But do they contradict the Bible or do they contradict our interpretation of the Bible? Indeed, no where does the Bible define the duration of time between creation and the Fall. That period could have easily been thousands or even millions of years. And Genesis 1 says that the spirit moved over the waters of the deep – where did the waters come from and upon what did they sit, and for how long had they been sitting before God decided to stir them up and create us? So, is it the Bible that speaks error or is it our traditional and fundamentalist interpretations that have been culturally and traditionally handed down?

Indeed, if Genesis 1 doesn't say what we've thought the consequences are insignificant; If Jesus doesn't say what we think he says, however, Christianity has built its house on a sandy flood plain. More important than the age of a rock is the question of the solidity of the Rock we base our faith upon.

Letter from a reader

2007-02-10T17:08:00.000-08:00

The following is two emails posted together, with the writer's permission. It is, unfortunately, typical of a lot of people who still find themselves in Adventism.

* * *

Dear Curtis:
God Bless You. I have been reading your blogs for several months now. I was baptised into the SDA church almost 15 years ago. I converted for my wife who is a 4th generation SDA (her ancestors in Indonesia were converted by missionaries about 100 yrs. ago). I remain in the SDA church only for my wife's sake as it would break her heart if I left. My experience has been primarily in Indonesian and Filipino SDA Churches which are very conservative and probably the way Caucasian American SDA churches were in the 1940s.

I want to leave the SDA church for the same reasons you did. I don't buy EGW's nonsense. In fact, I consider the Investigative Judgement to not only be non-Biblical but blasphemy against God and slapping Christ while he is on the cross. I also despise the Sunday Law doctrine which is not only absurd on it's face but foments intolerance toward other Christians. I have been somewhat vocal about my views to the point where the pastor of my Church threatened to disfellowship me if I persisted. My crime amounted to me e-mailing him that I believe in the immortality of the soul (it's what separates us from the beasts), Christ IS our Sabbath, EGW is NOT a prophet, the Investigative Judgement and 1844 time setting were hideous and egregious errors and the Sunday Law teaching is ridiculous and borders on being hateful toward other Christians.

I don't blame my wife. She was indoctrinated into this since she was a baby. I just keep on loving her as Christ loves the church and am waiting on the Lord to give me relief from this situation. It is very hard going to a church Sabbath after Sabbath that I no longer believe in and I can't even sit through Sabbath School anymore as it is 80% EGW and 20% Bible in the quarterlies. I would like to continue to keep the Sabbath(out of love for God only, realising it's not necessary for Salvation) and would prefer to attend a Messianic Jewish Synagogue(I actually tried one and LOVED it but my wife didn't she thought they were a bunch of "hippies").

The SDA obsession with the end of the world is depressing. Christ WILL come again but the time is NOT for us to know. Why can't we have a good life on this earth while we're preparing for the next. It seems like the SDAs HATE this life and dwell on their nihilistic nonsense. But I love them anyway and have nothing against them, but they can be very annoying at times.

I have a friend at my Church who converted from Catholicism to SDA(for his wife). He mentioned to me all the years he was a Roman Catholic he NEVER heard the Catholics say anything bad about the SDA church, but the Catholic "bashing" in the SDA church gets kind of tiring. By the way, I was a "New Ager" and especially into the Baha'i faith before I converted.

I'm getting ready for church. But tomorrow I am sneaking off to a Methodist Church where I will really be fed spiritually. I'll have to remember the bring a good book thing for SS and Church. I tell you the truth I feel like Sabbath School is a waste of my time. It's way more EGW than Bible. And the sermons are EGW, Sabbath, Sunday Laws, End of the world, where's the gospel? I am so glad I am going to Methodist Church tomorrow where I will hear nothing but gospel.

I feel there is some hope, my wife doesn't seem to buy all of the SDA stuff and I think while she calls me a "rebel" she actually agrees with me and doesn't want to admit it. Because in her culture, you do not change the religion you were born into I think she remains SDA more out of a sense of "duty" more than anything else.

I'll just smile and make the best of it. It does make me angry when SDAs tell me if I leave the Church I will become an atheist. NO WAY I will ALWAYS believe in God and now that I have a true understanding of the Gospel I believe in Christ MORE than I EVER did. And I have mentally and in my heart left the SDA church I only go there physically against my will.

Have a wonderful day.

In Christ,

Freedom of Religion = Right to be Dumb?

2007-01-25T05:22:00.000-08:00

Let's face it: politicians have been practicing this ever since politicians realized that it worked. It is the practice of publicly and boldly implying a half truth about your opponent. In this recent case Scientology is striking at psychiatry by implying that it, or its drugs, is responsible for crimes. The half-truth is that people who have a pattern of doing crazy things are given drugs in an attempt to either calm them down by suppressing certain mental patterns, or by increasing say the level of serotonin to keep said person smiling. When the drugs either fail to work as hoped, or are not taken as prescribed, they are blamed by another group of crazy people - Scientologists.

Is it any wonder that some people simply shake their head at religious people? Does religion abuse its rights, especially in this country, by saying things that are false but difficult to disprove? Cults, and those sects with cultic tendencies, make truth claims that are esoteric and difficult to disprove because of the element of truth that they embody. They take something that is either truth, or appears to be true, and twist it into a form that is both false and dangerous - and difficult or tricky to disprove. Take, for example, the fight over the Ten Commandments. Who wants to lead the fight against Church leaders who publicy proclaim that God is mad at America because we've removed the Ten Commandments from our public buildings. It's like fighting against God.

True, psychiatric drugs might be like mini nuclear bombs - area of effect rather than precision. And it is also true that the drugs themselves can cause problems. But they do tremendously for the many people who suffer from mental disorders that if left untreated can be life threatening. To suggest that these drugs are responsible is irresponsible and a throwback to a dangerous era where emotion and religion ruled over reason and truth. Scientology? They need to exercise their right to remain silent for a change.

Drowning in dumb

2007-01-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

Well, actually the subject is on drowning in debt, but I like my title better. I'm talking about a recent 20/20 special on the subject of basically how dumb we Americans have gotten about our finances. (I hear my non-American readers chuckling in the background). The program aired last night (Friday Jan 20) and is entitled "Flat Broke: Begging And Borrowing In America". I'd highly recommend it.

Over the past year I've been researching and working on a web-based software to help manage cash flow and eliminate debt. An interesting experience got me thinking along these lines: several years ago the start up that I worked for was not doing well. They had already had three rounds of layoffs (etc - typical start up story). I decided we needed to be debt free. We didn't have much debt since we drove old/paid-for cars, but still had around $12k in credit card debt. So my wife would get one of the bills and ask how much to pay off. I'd generally just guestimate: "How much is it? 4000? Ya, pay half." One month I got a little too aggressive and we almost didn't have enough cash left for the next-month's rent. The difficulty, I found, was in aggressively paying off the debt while maintaining sufficient cash available to meet other short-term and longer-term requirements and goals. More on the software later.

The question I pose is this: given the many things that the Bible speaks regarding debt, and given the mental and spiritual torture that many experience while drowning in dumb, er, debt, is it wise to following the currently popular financial formula? If the borrower is slave to the lender (ah, priceless), then isn't the path to freedom obvious? Check out the 20/20 program and check out my friend Dave Ramsey while you're at it. In debt? This is the year for freedom.

The Anti Anti Baptists?

2007-01-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

It seems to me and a lot of other people that Baptists are just against everything. Now Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton (yes, you heard that right) are joining forces to attempt to fix the image problem that Baptists have gained by being against everything.

"Regrettably, the word Baptist has become synonymous with an anti-everything posture. Anti-women, anti-public education, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish, anti-Disney. The perception that the Southern Baptist Convention represents all Baptists is one reason we met in Atlanta to plan a celebratory gathering that will reshape public opinion about Baptists."

Yup. But the same is starting to be said for Evangelicals in general. With the narrow and staunch stance of the likes of Dobson and Robertson on abortion and homosexuality, it's no wonder we are known as a bunch of angry activists trying to force an agenda that many don't care about.

Ponder this: If Jesus said we'd be known by our Love, does this mean that we today are simply misunderstood or not what He intended?

Happy New Year

2007-01-08T05:17:00.000-08:00

As that famous philosopher Yogi Berra quipped, "It's deja vu all over again." Of course, he's also credited with "When you see a fork in the road--take it" which provokes all sorts of deep thought and possibilities. But it's another new year again. It seems just yesterday that Libby and I were at a neighbor's New Year Eve's party watching the host working on her first hangover of the year. This year was much more tame as we and a small group of friends bemoaned how awful Dick Clark sounded for a guy who looks 27 still.

So what's this year going to bring? We've already discussed Pat Robertson's prediction, which prompted a "no duh" reaction from a friend. Terrorism? In 2007? Ya think? Tough call there Pat. But what else? Will the Democrats actually do something or just enjoy the Country Club membership like my party did? Will oil production peak (has it already?) or will hybrids save the day? Speaking of oil, will Americans finally start to understand the effects of a large nation who soaks up so much oil that it drives up the price and spews pollution into our already choked atmosphere? Yes, I'm talking about China and as they catch up to us and remind us of how we've been; will we finally start to take notice of the practice and change our wandering ways? Is this the year we dump the large SUV, not because we can't afford to drive it, but because we simply want to be more energy responsible?

Speaking of apathy, what about the average Seventh-day Adventist? Will this be the year that all the Adventists who know there is "something wrong" finally "search the scriptures to see if these things are so"? Those who who are too busy, comfortable or afraid: will they (you?) finally take a step back and look at the evidence that has been presented and decide once and for all what they should believe?

So, will this be a pivotal year of change, or will it simply be deja vu all over again? I guess that is up to us. One thing is clear: just like our oil will eventually run out and our cars will sputter to the side of the road, ultimately we all will understand the truth about God clearly. Some possibilities?

There is no god. We die and our life was all that we had. In this case the good and the bad we do leave their impact for better or for worse. (A happy, positive Christian with faith in a good God almost always impacts the world for better.) I'm not betting on this option, by the way. Update: Leaning this direction due to total lack of evidence and a strong case against religions of all type.
Adventism is true. But in this case we have to define "Adventism". Is it what they believed from 1840-1855 or what they developed after 1855? Is it what was taught by Ellen White or simply what the church matured into and the current statement of belief? Is it the bland, watered down version modern Adventists adhere to or the sharp extremes "historicists" insist upon? If correct, it calls upon Adventists to dedicate 100% of their time and resources to warning the world with the "3 angels" messages. Living in the antitypical "Day of Atonement" has a price - a steep price.
Adventism is false. Then it is dangerous to remain in it. Like the Mormons, though you may have many family members and friends who are Mormon, if your church is teaching a false gospel Paul insists that they are accursed. To remain is to continue to support, promote and breath deadly error that steals the soul of life-breathing oxygen of the truth in Christ.

I know many will look for other options relative to Adventism.

It's mostly true, but there are some problems.
It used to be more cult-like and had many errors, but we've steadily dropped them. (I'll check back with you in another 150 years and see how you're doing.)
No denomination is perfect - they all have their errors. I mean, what's with this "Left Behind" and double predestination stuff? (And speaking in tongues, praying to Mary, holy laughter, gems from heaven, and what's up with Benny Hill - er, Hin?) At least Adventists are not as bad as all that?

And it goes on. But the question in 2007 remains: What is truth? Specifically, are Adventisms unique truth-claims in fact true?

Must we keep the 7th-day Sabbath in order to avoid the mark of the beast?
Did Christ end the gospel dispensation, close the door to and leave the Holy Place in heaven and open the door to and enter the Most Holy Place in 1844?
Did 1844 begin the Day of Atonement? Are we currently living in it?
Was Ellen White in fact a prophet "just like Jeremiah"? Is she credible and to be believed and obeyed above my own judgment of scripture? Does her "borrowing", strange memory, strange early behavior matter?
Is Daniel 8:14 and Daniel 7 linked to Lev. 16 such that it teaches 1844 began the investigative judgment in heaven and the start of the Day of Atonement.
etc. etc. etc.

Is 2007 Deja Vu all over again? Or is this the year that Adventists decide to be honest with themselves and motivated to either fully understand and admit what Adventists believe and stand for, or discard the errors and walk more fully in the power of the true gospel?

Now this is scarey

2007-01-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not talking about his predicted terrorist attack...I'm taking about him. He's fruit loops. A nutty bar. Kuku for cocopuffs. Yup. Monsieur Pat Robertson. (separated at birth?)

In one corner of the ring we have guys with bombs telling us god told them to blow stuff (Americans and Jews mostly) up. In the other Pat telling us god is telling him stuff like impending terrorist attacks and insightful tidbits about American foreign (feigned?) policy. The sad thing is that all his 70+ year old viewers are scared to death now of this year now.

I guess I had my fill of "god told me" growing up so when I hear this guy rambling I just yawn and shake my head...Some Christians are just disturbed...Did we not learn anything from William Miller and company? Or Chicken Little?

Update: Guess I'm not the only one cringing.

Merry Christmas! (And Happy Birthday Jesus)

2006-12-24T17:24:00.000-08:00

Some people love this time of year. Some love the time just after it's all over (but before they have to go back to work of course.) Some (like me) love summer, just because it's...summer :) I mean, why couldn't tradition have chosen June 25, when it's warm?

I've often thought that a "perspective" book, or T.V. special would be illuminating. What are the various perspectives on this time of the year. There's the Christian perspective, of course. This is our time of year. But there is also the Jewish, Muslim, and Hindu view. (Search youtube.com for "Merry Christmas Southpark" for example) They all, along with the Atheist, see this from an external perspective. Yet if my informal surveys over the years are valid, a lot of them like this time of the year for a variety of reasons. Business is good. People are (ahem, sometime) more cheerful, and hey, kids love ole' saint Nick.

But there is also the perspective of the lonely and the alone. If Christmas is about family and giving, those who are alone and have nothing to give can feel like this is not at all the most wonderful time of the year.

Then there is the perspective of the soldiers stuck in Iraq and other places around the world. A Soldiers Christmas is to be away from family and loved-ones struggling to understand why "we" are still in Iraq.

Wherever you are this year, and from whatever your perspective: Merry Christmas to you. I sincerely hope that this year has been good and the next better. But more than anything, I hope that you are able to brush aside the trees, the traffic, the gifts and yes maybe even the guilt and see through it all to the real point. Jesus Christ, born in mystery, who lived a truly amazing life, was killed and then reported to have been resurrected. Jesus is the reason. Forget our theologies. Forget our politics. Forget our pathetic history and total inability to kindly represent him. Forget us this season and instead understand who He was, and is. Set out on a journey that begins this season - a journey to understand the man who is God, Jesus Christ.

New Chaplain for Southern Adventist University

2006-12-22T12:06:00.000-08:00

This post will only be meaningful to Adventists, but is about exciting news. I'm not sure if it is officially public yet so I'm going to speak with a bit of vagueness. Libby was just speaking with a friend who's going to be the new Southern chaplain, replacing the irreplaceable Ken Rogers. This is truly a case of the Incomparable following the Unsurpassed.

This new chaplain has a wonderfully cheerful and enthusiastic personality, is both intelligent and creative, plays the fiddle and loves Jesus very much.

Oh, and even though he's a friend he's not in any way theologically aligned with my theological protests of Adventism. Yet he has a wonderful understanding of grace and of the cross.

Congratulations! I'm thrilled: Southern is lucky and Gordon Bietz and company have made a great choice.

Experimental Wiki

2006-12-20T05:58:00.000-08:00

Update: Wiki is currently unavailable.

In this day in history: December 16

2006-12-16T05:40:00.000-08:00

Yes, the infamous and no doubt exhilarating Boston Tea Party. That's right, boys and girls. You think the buzz you get from the caffeine is something, just wait till you see how it feels to defy Britain and toss all that tea into the harbor. The after-party was interesting too.

Also on this day, the The Porajmos. "On December 16, 1942, Himmler ordered that the Roma candidates for extermination should be deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau." Of course, there are those who would like to deny the Holocaust or revise (viewer discretion advised, and see opposing.) our understanding of it. This, of course, all while presently Iran is hosting a "conference" on the Holocaust.

Oh, and also on this day UN General Assembly resolution 4686 revoked Resolution 3379, which essentially called "Zionism" racism. In fact the UN had consistently referenced Zionism as racism along with discussions of the racism in South Africa.

And on a lighter note

2006-12-15T20:26:00.000-08:00

I stumbled onto Eskiv, a web-based game. Now, I can't be held liable for lost wages, broken marriages, and starving livestock due to gamer addiction. But the game is interesting. In the age where millions, even billions are spent by game companies to create slick, sophisticated games this one was probably written by a college student while watching reruns of Star Trek. It is reminiscent of classics like pong. See if you can beat my all-time score of 135 (after a frustrating hour, and at first being beaten by my son and his friends - but Dad rose to the challenge).

Now, what does this all have to do with a blog mainly focused on theology and spiritual matters? Just this: At first you'll score somewhere around 35. Then you'll get the hang of it and do 50-65 pretty easily. As you get your timing and concentration down you'll start hitting 90. Once you get really addicted, er, good at it you'll get over 100 and might top my score of 135. But there will be a point where you will fail. It's inescapable.

This is like attempting to keep the letter of the Law. You'll start out pretty bumpy, but as you get into the swing of it you'll starting "doing better". After a few years of struggling and modifying your environment and behavior, you'll start to at least appear to be "better". But the more you understand about the full depth of that law and what it truly means, the harder and harder it becomes to do all the various aspects of the law to the full spiritual extent of it in God's eyes. Eventually you will fail. True, you can ask for forgiveness, and start again, but eventually you will fail again, and again, and again. (Play the game a couple of times for living illustration.)

The New Covenant is based on better sacrifices and on better promises. We have died to the law and live for Jesus. We stop trying and allow the third member of the God-head, to come into our lives and He starts dodging the flying balls and controlling our path. We fail; He does not. Our "Sabbath Rest" is to rest in Christ. "Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will get you rest." Stop struggling. "Be still (stop trying) and know that I am God".

Born to be Free

2006-12-14T05:31:00.000-08:00

Living Hope Ministries, primiarily focused on exposing the errors of Mormonism and reaching out to those with questions, produced a video on the remarkable transformation of the Worldwide Church of God from genuine cult status into grace.

The Google video of it (dialup format) and the link to the video on their site.

I showed the video to Libby (my wife) last night and it brought her to tears. If you are currently an Adventist or in some other church that has strong legalistic tendencies, please watch that video. If you have a friend or family member who is, buy it and send it to them. Ask yourself this question: Do I see anything familiar in the testimonies of those who came out of cultism and into the truth of Christ?

No, Adventists do not have many of the strange beliefs that Armstrong taught. But yes, we used to (and some still do) take the extreme positions against the Trinity, and yes SDA's took and take the same extreme positions about the Sabbath, Law of God and about being God's only true church.

I remember when this all happened. I was pastoring at the time and had a number of members remark to me that "it was happening" just like EGW predicted. What was happening, I asked? "Widespread apostasy from the Sabbath." Yet these Adventists had no idea what the WWCG taught and believed, and just how legalistic they were.

Note this comment (Update: looks like you need to log in to access it. SDA's hate free-speech :) by "sdazeal" on RevivalSermons.org - the whole denomination apostasized? And see this write-up by ultra-conservative "sdadefend". They bemoan the "apastasy", yet fully admit that Armstrong introduced heresy - but won't consider that "Sabbath keeping" is a part of that heresy. Wow! Watch this video.

Nice to hear an older Adventist say this

2006-12-13T11:54:00.000-08:00

He and I probably could find points to disagree on if we were to try. But I sure like what this 85 year old Adventist said in ~~this interview~~ (alas, no longer available), especially the last question.

There are two radical statements that you'd not expect to hear from an older SDA in Michigan.

"Probably this earth was here before the creation week made by God at some time" (I agree btw, no flames please )
"Salvation is a gift. It cannot be earned through good works on our part. It is received by grace, through faith in Jesus Christ our savior"

Bravo to you Robert Borrowdale, age 85.

On EllenWhite.org and other "contra" sites

2006-12-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

Recently the question came up: "Why if I disagree with ellenwhite.org and some of the other sites do I repeat what they write and link to them?" Me, disagree with them? Naw. Though I may disagree with some minor point or conclusion on "those" sites - the same can be said of any site. My main concern with them has been one of tone and presentation. (My previous blog posting) When people come to a website that is poorly formatted and presents the content in a disorderly and "bombastic" way, the style and presentation can tend to fan the flames of prejudice. There is a great wall to break through when one is trapped into a closed and warped system of belief. I do wish that ex-sda.com could reformat their site. I applaud the work that Dirk has done on ellenwhite.org, and Dale Ratzlaf's new site redesign is awesome.

I highly recommend that you browse and study the content on ~~ellenwhite.org~~ ellenwhiteexposed.com, www.lifeassuranceministries.com, and ex-sda.com and other sites. Look to see if those things are true. We have nothing to fear by viewing true facts, and through prayerful and careful scrutiny, errors are exposed and the truth emerges. But, maybe this is just what Adventist leaders and apologists fear most...

New Danish "ex" Adventist website

2006-12-12T05:48:00.000-08:00

Martin Hansen has launched a new website designed to help provide information and materials to Danish speaking Adventists and those seeking details on Adventism. The URL is http://www.exadventist.dk

"It is my prayer that this site will bless many former Adventists, Adventists and Christians, in their search for truth, fellowship and most of all in their relationship with Jesus our Lord, Savior and awesome God."

It's important to recognize that not all the people who have been approached by Adventism over the decades speak English. In fact, most of the membership is outside the U.S. Adventism is established in 202 countries and materials have been translated into 885 languages.

While we in the U.S. probably have been exposed to the strongest statements and claims about Ellen White and her "inspiration", we also have had the benefit of a strong emphasis on Justification by Faith and on the cross over the past few decades. Other countries were brought into the church under the older, much more legalistic and disturbing version of Adventism. Today they are appalled with how the churches in the U.S. behave. When I was at Andrews in the Seminary, it was said that women's ordination has been blocked largely because of the conservative nature of the World divisions. (I'm for ordination of women, recognizing that the Bible is strangely silent on pastoral "ordination", even of men.) Indeed, lately I've noticed much apologetic writing is by South American theologians. The historic, conservative torch is passing from North Americans to those outside this country.

People in other countries need to understand the errors in the Adventist theological house and the historic oddities that are often denied or trivialized. I'm excited at this new Danish website and hope that materials become available that Martin can use. (Fortunately, most Dane's can read English.) If you know of any materials that have been translated into Danish, please drop me a note.

Beginnings of Sabbath Teaching

2006-12-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

I would like to present two quotations just as a thought that I will follow up more on later as it distills in my mind. The first is a quotation from Ellen White from an early vision while the second is a couple of paragraphs of history. The first then:

There I was shown that the commandments of God, and. the testimony of Jesus Christ, relating to the shut door, could not be separated, and that the time for the commandments of God to shine out, with all their importance and for God's people to be tried on the Sabbath truth, was when the door w, as opened in the Most Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary, where the Ark is, containing the ten commandments. This door was not opened, until the mediation of Jesus was finished in the Holy Place of the Sanctuary in 1844.

I saw that the present test on the Sabbath could not come, until the mediation of sins in the Holy Place was finished ; and he had passed within the second vail; therefore, Christians, who fell asleep before the door was opened in the Most Holy, when the midnight cry was finished, at the seventh month 1844 ; and had not kept the true Sabbath, now rest in hope; for they had not the light, and the test on the Sabbath, which we now have, since that door was opened. I saw that Satan was tempting some of God's people on this point. Because so many good Christians have fallen asleep in the triumphs of faith, and have not kept the true Sabbath, they were doubting about it being a test for us now. [The Present Truth August 1849 v1 #3]

The second is from the history of the Seventh day Baptists:

The study of the Scriptures in America brought Samuel and Tacy Hubbard to the Baptist principle of believer’s baptism in 1647, and membership in the First Baptist Church of Newport, Rhode Island. Beginning in 1665, their family and several others became convinced of the seventh day Sabbath and joined in fellowship with Stephen Mumford and his wife who had held Sabbath convictions while members of a Baptist church in Tewksbury, England. ...

A similar separation occurred in 1705 in Piscataway, New Jersey, when a deacon of the Baptist Church, Edmund Dunham, became convinced of the biblical basis for Sabbath observance. Dunham and sixteen others withdrew to form their own church. A third group of churches came out of the Keithian split from Quakerism in the Philadelphia area about 1700. ...

Did Ellen White mean to imply that the Sabbath was not introduced until 1844, and that light about the Sabbath was not available until Christ opened the door to and moved into the Most Holy Place after shutting the door to and leaving the Holy Place? After ending his mediation in the Holy Place (whatever that means...)?

Just a question...cause it looks like people were teaching about the Sabbath a long time before the Adventists latched onto it...

Personal site down/being moved

2006-12-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

I'm in the process of moving my site (www.cforrester.org) and it may be unavailable until Sunday, 12/10/2006. If it is unavailable, the content is mirrored here.

Update 12/9: It appears to be up and working, and the "DNS" (domain naming system, how the name www.cforrester.org is translated into the actual address of 65.181.154.59) appears to be updated - at least it is in my corner of the world.

You're not gonna kill me are you?

2006-12-08T07:07:00.000-08:00

“When the Sunday laws are passed will you persecute and try to kill me?” I was asked this question again and it breaks my heart. Many Adventists, especially those who have been brought up among the more traditional version of Adventism, so thoroughly believe “the story” that they think we who have left will be foremost in pressing for their death.

I can hear my non-Adventist readers: “huh? What the heck?” I share your sentiments, yet with knowledge. The story goes something like this: “We” (that’s Adventists) are God’s true remnant and “you” (that’s the other Christian churches, and we former Adventists) are Babylon. Adventists keep God’s true Sabbath, which is the seal of God while other Christians keep Sunday, the Mark of the Beast. Soon Sunday laws are to be passed forcing everyone to worship on Sunday, and reinforced with a death penalty for those who don’t. Seventh-day Adventists will be odd man out – they will be condemned to death and the nominal Christians, filled with hate, will grab their pitchforks and torches and hunt down Adventists to throw them in prison and kill them. All of this because the Seventh-day Adventists are keeping all the commandments (while the rest of us are only keeping 8 or 9).

Where does this doomsday view come from? Though the Bible does teach of plagues and persecution (which we see even today) this comes primarily from Ellen White. But the origins of it stretch back even into the Millerite 1843/44 movement (and I would argue the sentiment emerges from the Protestant vs. Roman Catholicism conflict); there was a strong “us and them” sentiment between those who heard and believed the “midnight cry” about Christ’s return in 1844, and those who did not – the nominal or popular churches. Later, this sentiment resulted in the shut-door teaching (only Adventists were and could be saved, all who rejected 1844 are rejected by God) and was ultimately injected into the Sabbath vs. Sunday argument.

With that much-too-short background in mind, let me just say this. There have been Adventists who I wanted to chase out of town with a pitchfork. This had nothing to do with Sabbath – they were just obnoxious. But Jesus taught love, forgiveness and long-suffering. “Turn the other cheek” does indeed mean what it says: turn the other cheek even if you are being mistreated for all the wrong reasons. If we are crucified to the world and have risen to newness of life in Christ, we walk in the personality and character of Christ. We believe in kindness to the suffering and obedience to our leaders. As Americans we believe in full freedom for all religious – or non-religious – views. The Atheist, the Muslim, the Hindu, the Sikhs, and the New Agers all have a right to believe as they wish and practice their religion. And yes, Jews, Seventh-day Adventists, and any others have a right to be as legalistic and strict as they desire and worship or keep Sabbath, just as the Evangelical asks for the same grace for not keeping any day above the other.

The bottom line is this: I no longer believe your claims that Ellen White was a prophet and I don’t buy the Adventist eschatology (last day events) any more. It is flawed, confusing, not Biblical, and has suspect origins. Yet you have a right to believe it. I have a right to speak against it and you have a right to speak against me. But I have a responsibility to treat you with love and respect and our government has a responsibility to ensure that the environment we live in allows all religions – even Christianity – equal protection under the law. And if some crazy Evangelical leader (I’m looking at you Dobson) tries to press for any laws that prevent any religion full freedom it is my duty as an American to oppose him. Yet, I don’t see anyone pressing for Sunday laws; against abortion, yes (and rightfully so). But relax: no one hates you. No one’s conspiring against you. The pope’s more worried about Islam and pedophile priests than Adventists. The Jesuits are busy at the moment.

Oh, and one more thing: God loves you more than you know. You have the assurance of salvation even if you don’t feel like it. You are accepted by God because of the perfect sacrifice of His Son. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Creator of the Universe and everything in it, co-eternal with the Father; Jesus has saved us and by grace, through faith we have the full assurance that we can come to the Father and be found acceptable – in Christ. And if you still wish to keep the Sabbath after grasping all of this, and understanding that the Law – the 10 commandments – truly are part of the old covenant that we are no longer under; if you want to worship on Saturday and keep Sabbath no one cares. That is your choice and it will be respected. But understand this: if you tell people that they must keep Sabbath to be saved, we must disagree and help people to understand what the Bible truly teaches.

But please, don’t think that just because many of us can no longer believe the claims of Adventism and have separated ourselves from it that we have become bloodthirsty. Your apologists want you to believe that we have fallen. They want you to believe that we are denying the spirit of Christ and have rejected truth. They want you to believe that we have joined with Babylon; this simply is not true. We simply have studied to see if these things are so and have concluded that there are too many problems to trust ourselves to Adventist teachings any longer. We’re not conspiring against you…relax: we’re still willing to be your friend and to talk to you. Now, are you willing to still be ours?

Update: Maybe there are laws being passed...enforcing Sabbath?

Reviewing 1843/44 Adventist Materials. Wow.

2006-12-03T21:56:00.000-08:00

Over the last week and this weekend I have voraciously consumed materials from the Millerite and early Adventist period. This included articles from Ellen White along with many of the pioneers such as Joshua Himes, James White, Storrs, and Joseph Bates. Additionally I've read later works related to the Shut Door by W.W. Fletcher, "Days of Delusion" by Clara Endicott Sears (1924), and modern compilations on websites. I also have works such as Movement of Destiny (Froom), Origin and History of the Seventh-day Adventists (Spalding) and a rather poorly preserved original copy of The Great Second Advent Movement by Loughborough; I again reviewed some of these materials.

Though I will write more details at some point, a couple of observations are worth noting.

1. William Miller, and the attending preachers, made a false prediction. Not once, or even twice, but multiple times. Amid a din of resounding "duh's", this comes as no surprise, especially to we Adventists; his charts and doctrine were used (though not necessarily by him) to predict the end of the world and set several exact dates for Christ's return.

2. The society of Millerite Adventists can safely be called "cultic". Sears' title rightly employs the word "delusion" - the followers became fanatically deluded to the point of burning their earthly ships behind them. They left crops, sold or destroyed property, and destroyed their reputations and relationships for a message taught from charts by fire-breathing preachers. The heart-wrenching story of Mary Hartwell is especially touching, yet frightening.

3. The post-1844 Sabbath Adventists held and taught the Shut Door: only those who had believed in the 1843/44 experience and had come out in faith for the "midnight cry" were among the wise virgins who had brought oil sufficient to meet the bridegroom when he came. Those who rejected the "midnight cry", and who did not believe were among the foolish virgins, and were forever lost. Probation had closed since Christ had moved from the holy to the most holy place in the sanctuary in heaven.

4. Ellen White was not only a proponent, but supported the false doctrine from vision. Further, the many articles teaching and supporting the shut door were under her watch; I find not one article or statement by her condemning the teaching during this period. James White was editor of The Present Truth and The Advent Review. More Quotes

6. In reviewing the materials, and practices of those early Adventists I would hope I would have been among those to quote "no man knows the hour". Given the rampant lack of Biblical education and sophistication, however, it is not surprising that so many were swept into it. This would have made me part of "Sardis", and as a result, I would be considered lost and a part of the wicked and foolish virgins.

7. Given the strong and erroneous statements on the sanctuary, Sabbath and especially the Shut Door, I find myself recoiling; especially given that Ellen White heartily supported the Shut Door and from vision. Reading a few clipped quotes is amazing enough; reading the whole articles from the original publications is eye popping.

8. Would we today have believed and joined the Seventh-day Adventists? If we had watched the extremes of Millerism, observed the repeatedly failed prophecies, found their concept of the sanctuary teaching un-Biblical, and had seen Ellen White, James White and the other Seventh-day Adventist pioneers for seven years teach that the door of probation was forever shut to all but those who had believed in the 1843/44 "midnight cry"; would we - could we - have had confidence in the prophetic message of Ellen White and the exegetical and doctrinal methods of the Adventists?

I realize that friends who hear that I have "left" or apostatized feel sorry for me and consider me deluded. When ever a person we speak with even hears a hint that we are "out" or don't believe, they almost always say something like, "please don't try to convince me that I don't have to keep the Sabbath." How I wish they could and would read these materials about those early days. These documents are a portal into the thought patterns of these early pioneers. They start to explain the inexplicable and convoluted nature of the sanctuary teachings today.

Crazy Amos Torments the Millerite Adventists

2006-12-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

You know doubt may have seen the chat/gamer acronym ROFL LMAO. If you don't know what it means, ask your teenager. When they get done ROFL they may tell you :)

I'm reading some of Days of Delusion - A Strange Bit of History and finding the view of 1843/44 enlightening. Chapter 10, however has a story that had my face hurting from laughing. Yup, strange sense of humor. It's short - give it a read. I don't know who this guy was, but I think I like him.

O.R.L. Crosier - Father of anti-sabbatarianism?

2006-12-01T19:25:00.000-08:00

I have been reading everything I can find written from about 1843-1851 that relates to our pioneers, and in particular, the solid belief in the shut-door teaching. (I highly recommend reading this work by W.W. Fletcher. ) In case you're new to all of this and are an Adventist, there are some very stinky stuffs that we find when digging under the rocks of that early period. But that's for another day.

We SDA's considered Crosier as the architect of the sanctuary message~~, having it pop into his head while cutting through a cornfield. (The idea is pretty corny, so...)~~ (Corrected: it was Hiram Edson who had the thought popped into his head). Crosier published. Ellen White heartily endorsed his article "The Law of Moses". He, after renouncing those ideas and separating from the sabbatarians was written a letter inquiring what his current position was. One of the questions was:

5. Furthermore, if you feel free to do so, will you say whether you enjoyed your mind better while keeping the Sabbath than since? If so, what was the cause. Those here that keep the Sabbath say they enjoy themselves better than before, because they keep all the commandments.

His answer is very insightful:

5. What enjoyment I had while trying to keep the Sabbath is not to be placed to its credit. I had as much before, and more since. My observations and experience have convinced me that there is no real Christian enjoyment in attempts at Sabbath keeping. The enjoyment persons have in such attempts spring from other sources -- from having the prejudice of early and erroneous education satisfied, and from preventing disunion among believers, and from truths they may hold in practice. The Sabbath is legal, not Christian; therefore it cannot yield Christian enjoyment. It carries with it the spirit of "bondage" as all know who have tried to keep it; and torments with a constant consciousness of coming short of meeting its imperious demands. How often have I heard Sabbatarians say, "We can't keep it: we do the best we can; yet we can't keep it according to the Bible." The reason is, it was never designed for Christians to keep. Hence there are no directions in the New Testament how to keep it, nor to keep it at all. The Sabbatarian leaders never considered me sound on that question. I could not "wrest" the plain language of Scriptures to suit my prejudices and theories with so much facility as they. I had to admit it all, though my prejudices made the Scriptures appear to contradict themselves, and then decide what was duty from what seemed the balance of obligation, all things considered. Of this my article in the Day Dawn is proof, which Sabbatarians quote in a mutilated form. I subsequently saw the full and harmonious testimony of the New Testament against Sabbatizing. The testimony being clear and abundant, removed every doubt from my mind, so soon as I dared open my mind to receive it. Then the truth afforded me Christian enjoyment. Excited feeling is no evidence of Christian enjoyment or Christian character. It may spring from various causes and be had by the worst of men. Christian enjoyment, as such, can only spring from a sincere reception, confession and practice of the truth.

I love that last sentence.

This is a Bible???

2006-11-29T16:29:00.000-08:00

Call me sentimental, old fashioned and definitely call me behind the times. To me, when I see a book with a nice soft, flexible leather binding, gold trimmed pages that are thin and well printed in columns, that's a Bible. I don't have any other books that are printed that way.

I guess I knew that these were coming out even while I was still in, Adventism that is. I knew about the KJV Study Bible with Ellen White comments. I hated it even back when I still supported her, both because it was the archaic KJV and because it had her comments embedded into it and played right into the hands of those who claimed we held her equal to Scripture.

I also knew about the Blanco Bible, the Clear Word. I voiced my concern about that one to him while at Southern studying for the Ministry. He just added my concerns to the list entitled, "Why we will NEVER recommend Forrester." (whew!)

So, today I'm at the local Adventist Book Center (they answer the phone "ABC Christian Books" um, yeah...) to pick up a copy of The Clear Word - my very first - and was stunned by another "Bible". I was $90 (there is a version that is $140); It is KJV, but I flipped it open just the same. I really wondered why it was so expensive. The binding was very nice and the print was beautiful. I flipped through a bit of it and suddenly faultered: did this have the apocrypha in it? The chapter titles and text were strange? It seriously took me a second to realize what I was looking at - I had to flip to the table of contents to see that it had the Old Testament, New Testament, Patriarchs and Prophets, Prophets and Kings, oh my goodness!

All within the same binding was both the Bible and Ellen White's "Conflict of the Ages" series books -- all bound together looking like a large Bible. To a person who knew nothing of Adventism this would appear that they held the Old Testament, New Testament and those other books all to be inspired Scripture (and we know that many conservative Adventists honestly believe it to be that way.)

A generation from now they may well consider her simply to be an extension to the Bible. This looks exactly like the Mormon books. So: they've finally done it. They've created a Bible that proves their theology.

Update: Here's a link to ABC listing of one of the leather bound editions of the Conflict of the Ages series that looks like a bible. This was not the one, however, with the KJV. Still looking for it. This might be it, though cover is not the same. History of Redemption Bible (update: link broken.)

Dale Ratzlaf responds to Adventist video

2006-11-28T09:50:00.000-08:00

The Adventist church is fighting back against "us" with a vengeance. They are taking legal action against contrarian websites. They are publishing books. They are holding "conferences" and releasing the video onto the Internet. One of the video sessions is essentially a personal attack against Dale Ratzlaf wrapped in a defense of Ellen White.

I read Dale's response letter to Jud Lake's video and I agree with him. Humorous is the suggestion that Ratzlaf is the "fountain head of all the critics". True, he's known and is read, and true many people have had their eyes opened by knowledge and perspective gained from reading Cultic Doctrine and Sabbath In Christ. (Personally, I've not read any of Dale's books or any other "former"). But he hardly is the source of criticism. If anyone in our modern times is the fountain head it would be Walter Rae and his exposure of Ellen White's "borrowing". The real source is the obvious problems themselves.

I watched both Lake's and Knight's presentation. I am struck with how sarcastic and demeaning they sound, and how they appear to ridicule Adventists for holding in high esteem Ellen White's writings ("dysfunctional use"), all the while using the same tone to ridicule those who point out the problems. Lake's tone and off-hand comments are carefully designed to ridicule and discredit Ratzlaf.

Read article

Who needs a Savior?

2006-11-27T17:36:00.000-08:00

I just listened to this one today and thought Andy did an awesome job of illuminating how we all need a savior. Libby perceptively (is that a word?) noted that he did a good job of describing the role of the old covenant law as a tutor to reveal our desperate need for a Savior.

I'd definitely recommend that you order a copy, or drop me your address and I'll send you a copy free.

Here's from the description:

Christmastime is the only time in history when a Savior was sent to humankind. The fact that God sent a savior means that we need saving. We all have something that we need to be rescued from. We need a Savior - someone to save us from our sins.

Sunday Laws are a comin' !

2006-11-26T07:19:00.000-08:00

I was browsing some of the articles at Adventist Affirm. A thought struck me as I was reading Sunday Laws in an Age of Freedom. The article uses as a springboard the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court to examine the Sabbath question and its validity. Let me preface my remarks by observing that the article, while I don't share the perspective on the subject, is well written and appears thorough, and his observations are good.

My thoughts are two:

1. I don't know anyone -- anyone -- who reveres Sunday near the way Adventists revere Saturday/Sabbath. I have heard friends and acquaintances talk about how their family behaves on Sunday - it is a family day. They never call it Sabbath. No one talks about a Sunday law. I can't even imagine anyone at my church desiring the passage of a Sunday law that enforces all to not work on Sunday; I know that none would support a death penalty associated with that law.

If the present "blue laws" had not been passed in a previous era, they would stand no chance of passage today. Our corporate and retail environment would prevent it. Christians simply do not have the power today - look at roe v wade and abortion.

2. Revelation 13 is very clear - in a vague way - that something will happen. In the time of Christ Jews were waiting for the promised Messiah to deliver them from Rome and establish the eternal kingdom. The Messiah came and left and many, since they were expecting something else, did not recognize Him.

I believe that it is the same with Adventists. I applaud them for studying prophecy and for attempting to understand. I simply think they've reached a wrong conclusion. Like U. Smith and others who saw Turkey as a fulfillment of prophecy and other "current day events" as evidence of prophecy unfolding, Adventists saw the Sunday-law activity by "fallen" churches as fulfillment of Revelation 13. They already knew that Saturday and not Sunday should be the Sabbath and were convinced that this was "it".

It seems to me that the only churches that are persecuting people are the legalistic and zealous churches -- like Seventh-day Adventists. Adventists have from the beginning punished anyone who doesn't conform to the societal theological norm. Those, like us, who question established theological pillars are persecuted. If employed they are fired. If in lay-leadership positions they are either removed or passed over for appointment. And if one "leaves" Adventism they are shunned and whispered about. Adventists fight for religious liberty but will fire someone for not being a good Adventist. Let that settle in your mind: Adventists feel that it is wrong to fire someone for observing Sabbath for their conscience, but if a person leaves Adventism for their conscience their livelihood can be removed and the family thrust into financial trouble.

For any system of thought the foundational concepts are the most important. An incorrect starting point must of necessity arrive at flawed conclusions. Adventists have started from the Old Covenant laws, have elevated Sabbath to supreme importance, and have naturally concluded that the "Sunday" churches will fight as hard to establish Sunday as Adventists have fought to establish Sabbath.

As food for thought, then: The starting point must be Christ, the Cross, the Resurrection and the true knowledge of the saving Gospel. The fraud that Satan perpetuates, then will be a doctrine that denies the pure gospel in some way. Legalism has always been the substitute for faith in Christ.

Google quote of the day: Liars

2006-11-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.
- HL Mencken