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Location: MInneapolis, Minnesota, United States

I am now a simple Grandpa who's life is made richer as each grandchild is born. My wife and I have raised five children and the 30 year love labor of raising them has begun to yield sweet fruit..... And then there are fruits of 30 years in ministry ... I am a satisfied old man full of the joy of the Lord.

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Human events online, the national conservative weekly, has commissioned a list of the 10 most dangerous books of the 19th and 20th Centuries, and Catcher In The Rye was not mentioned anywhere. The list is a who's who of destructive ideas. And we all know, ideas have consequences.
The List.
1. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels (1948)
2. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler (1925-26)
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao by Mao Zedong (1966)
4. The Kinsey Report by Alfred Kinsey (1948)
5. Democracy and Education by John Dewey (1916)
6. Das Kapital by Karl Marx (1867-94)
7. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan (1963)
8. The Course of Positive Philosophy by Auguste Comte (1830-42)
9. Beyond Good and Evil by Freidich Nietzsche (1886)
10. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money by John Maynard Keynes (1936)

I think that communist ideology is over represented but I understand that the whole of it brought about the murder of over 150,000,000 people in the 20th century. I also would put Playboy magazine on this list but fully think the Kinsey Report represents it and it should be number 4 with a bullet. I think Comte and Nietzsche were good choices. I had never heard of Keynes. Never took a business course in my life. But my favorite of the whole list was John Dewey. Whenever I hear his name I think of the devastation of our education program in the US and I just get angry. Stupid people, stupid ideas, death and destruction, just because some liberals were bored with the status quo. Yup, that about sums it up for me. ;-)
You can read the whole thing here.

New Blog Movie

A trippy and provocative new 9 minute long movie on the future of blogging can be viewed online here. It is projecting into the future, in a science fiction type manner, where blogging and the internet will take us in 2014. It is well worth viewing. Almost a mirror of reality.

I found it while previewing a site called A Physicist's Perspective for this weeks Christian Carnival. Great Stuff.

Monday, May 30, 2005

The Words To Taps

For memorial day I thought I would post the words to taps.
I was raised as a military kid and heard taps almost every evening. Most people don't realize that there are words to this trumpet melody.
Day Is Done,
Gone the Sun,
From the Earth,
From the Hill,
From the Sky,
All Is Well,
Safely Rest,
God Is Nigh
My thanks and my families thanks to all of the military stationed around the world that provide stability to this fragile earth. May we always remember them in prayer.
Thanks to the Blackfive blog for this memory.

Saturday, May 28, 2005

Kindergarten Krime

It looks like the majority of expulsions in the schools in the US are in the K-1, K-2 grades.
Kids are causing headaches and disrupting classrooms as early as the age of 4.
It is hard to tell if this is the fault of the kids or the teachers.
I think it is the fruit of non-biblical, permissive parenting of children.
What do you think?
The full story is here.

Avian Flu Pandemic A Near Miss In December

After reading this post by Sally O'Reilly I sit stunned. The Avian Flu outbreak last year was just like the movie. Literally. Millions upon millions could have died. (9%) A pandemic was just barely averted. It was too close for comfort.

Read the true life adventure story here.

Friday, May 27, 2005

Cosmetics linked to problem in infant sons

Sadly this is a sign of the age we are in. We are technologically wise but foolish in God's truth.

The Minneapolis (red) Star and Tribune has published an article taken from research at the University of Minnesota that shows a direct connection between the chemicals in pregnant women's makeup and genetic deformity in infant male genitals. These chemicals are also used in some plastics.

The chemical class called phthalates can be found in the urine in pregnant women who wear makeup with this class of chemicals in them.

You can read the whole article here.

What I again find correlation with is the idea that vanity in all of its forms bring untold trouble to mankind. What other, yet undiscovered, links are out there, yet to be found, that reveal that the main cause of our sorrows is the very lifestyle we live? Am I suggesting that women discard all makeup? No ! If the barn needs painting, paint it. Just be content with older technologies before jumping head long into the newest gloss or adhesive. Women have worn makeup for years without these results. They were just more natural in source.

Every new technology is not necessarily from God. For example, birth control, abortion, nuclear weapons, and cloning.

More Viagra

For the last two days my blog statistics have gone through the roof. Unfortunately it was not because of anything profound that I said. All I did is report on a study that came out from the University of Minnesota and posted it on my blog on April 4th. Now, a month and a half later, the item finally makes the MSM. Viagra is linked to blindness in some users.

The result of that report on Sprucegoose is that Google sent me over 100 hits yesterday and now, at 2 PM on Friday, I have over 156 . Site Meter predicts that I will have 200 hits today. That would make this the best day yet for this blog.

Whatever...!

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Faith Healing At The U of MN

Now let me get this straight. The University of Minnesota is being sued for its support of faith healing? Or....? Huh?
Read Faith-Based No More here.

The pipeline that will change the world

It is 42 inches wide, 1,090 miles long and is intended to save the West from relying on Middle Eastern oil. Nothing has been allowed to stand in its way - and it finally opens today

Read about it in The Independent here

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Voyager 1

I remember standing on the roof of our house as a teenager and watching the new Echo satellite pass by overhead. It was the USA's first satellite and was simply a big Mylar balloon. It was a propaganda effort to reassure the citizens that the US did have a space program. Amazing stuff for a teenager over 40 years ago.

Then, 26 years ago, I again was fascinated by our first spacecraft sent out to explore the solar system. Voyager one continues to speed away from the sun and broadcast reports back to us about what it is finding. And what it is finding is better than science fiction.

Voyager has entered this solar systems final frontier after passing by all of the planets. It has come to the point where the sun no longer has influence. It is leaving our solar system and entering true "space." It is called the termination shock region. It is 8.7 million miles from the sun. Oh, did I say it took 26 years to get there? Whew!

You can read about it here.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Quote

Here is a great quote from C.H. Spurgeon.

Feeding Sheep or Amusing Goats?
by C.H. Spurgeon

An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord, so gross in its impudence, that the most short-sighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate, even for evil. It has worked like leaven until the whole lump ferments. The devil has seldom done a cleverer thing than hinting to the Church that part of their mission is to provide entertainment for the people, with a view to winning them. From speaking out as the Puritans did, the Church has gradually toned down her testimony, then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses.

My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the Church. If it is a Christian work why did not Christ speak of it? "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." That is clear enough. So it would have
been if he had added, "and provide amusement for those who do not relish the gospel." No such words, however, are to be found. It did not seem to occur to him . . . .

Again, providing amusement is in direct antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all his apostles. What was the attitude of the Church to the world? "Ye are the salt," not the sugar candy -- something the world will spit out, not swallow . . . . I do not hear [Jesus] say, "Run after these people, Peter, and tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick, Peter, we must get the people somehow!" Jesus pitied sinners, sighed and wept over them, but never sought to amuse them. In vain will the Epistles be searched to find any trace of the gospel of amusement . . . .

Lastly, the mission of amusement fails to effect the end desired. It works havoc among young converts. Let the careless and scoffers, who thank God because the Church met them half-way, speak and testify. Let the heavy laden who found peace through the concert not keep silent! Let the drunkard to whom the dramatic entertainment had been God's link in the chain of their conversion, stand up! There are none to answer. The mission of amusement produces no converts. The need of the hour for today's ministry is believing scholarship joined with earnest spirituality, the one springing from the other as fruit from the root. The need is biblical doctrine, so understood and felt, that it sets men on fire.
Thanks to Aaron for this quote that the Berean Call put online. It really fits today even better than when it was written.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Viagra For Sex Offenders?

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Scores of convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in New York have been getting Viagra paid by Medicaid for the last five years, the state's comptroller said Sunday.

Audits by Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office showed that between January 2000 and March 2005, 198 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Those included crimes against children as young as 2 years old, he said

.

You can read the whole story here.

Crop Failure

A study of genetically altered corn fed to mice revealed some dark and disturbing things that people have been saying now since the biologists began playing Frankenstein. The ones being fed genetically altered corn got sick.

You can read about it here.

My Son's Graduation (Values And Virtue)

Yesterday we celebrated my youngest child's graduation from High School. We, like all good families, bought him an iPod. ;-) He has done a good job of keeping it together and finishing the race and we are proud of him. He plans to go to the U of MN and major in constitutional law.

This means that, after 21 years of tuition payments totaling around $210,000, I finally wrote my last check to the school. Putting five children through private schools is not easy or cheap. Of course this is on top of my regular income and property and sales, etc. taxes that I pay as every citizen of the US does.

I just couldn't, in good conscience, put any of my children in the public schools. They were not an option 21 years ago and they are not an option now. What good does it do a country to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, and not teach virtue? "Who's virtue", you ask? "My idea of virtue" I reply. The schools do not teach absolute virtue anymore. They teach relative virtue. And as a result, they do not even have the power to teach the 3 R's.

Virtue and values are vital to any society. If you have them, you can have a peaceful and prosperous society. If you do not have them, then it makes no difference what level the people can read at. There will not be peace. Strife will be everywhere.

Now the only question is, whose values and virtue do we choose?

Thursday, May 19, 2005

The Nuclear Option

I don't see the filibuster in the Senate to be politics as usual. I see it as a desparate fight by the wicked to preserve their wicked ways. Not that the Republicans are righteous. It is just that the fight is clearly over retaining abortion in this land. Two new pro-life justices would overthrow abortion. And abortion is not just the only thing. New justices who fear the Lord would also overthrow some of the pornography and homosexual "rights" that have been invented recently.

Wickedness is not just political opinion. It is wicked. It is a desire to throw off the restraints of religion and to allow society to digress to its lowest common denominator. It is an overthrow of the foundations that hold up the culture that society is living in. This is the spirit at work in this land. "The One who sits in heaven laughs." (Psalm 2)

God presides over heaven's court;
He pronounces judgment on the judges;
How long will you judges hand down unjust decisions?
How long will you shower special favors on the wicked?...
(Psalm 82 NLT)

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Security

I heard some disturbing stuff tonight on O'Reilly. Baggage handlers are stealing from our unlocked baggage. So much for security.

My problem with it is this. If the handlers can take things out of our baggage undetected then they can put things in our baggage undetected. Disturbing.

Crime Statistics

Maybe I am just a little sheep in the barnyard of big politics but I think that all police departments should be required to report the crime statistics in a day by day manner. It should be public and on the internet. We should be able, as citizens, to track crime as it happens and therefore be able to watch more diligently when seasons of high crime happen. This should be implemented immediately and be simple to access and understand.

Here is a sample of crime statistics from Chicago. If Chicago can do it, why can't Minneapolis?

I feel that the obscuring of crime facts is politically motivated. Nobody wants to look bad or have to be responsive to the citizens. But, isn't that what government is for? Shouldn't they respond to citizens? Shouldn't there be accountability? And who knows, maybe some crimes could be solved this way?

Find Cheap Gas

Here's a useful little item. You can now find the cheapest gas nationwide on a "Cheap Gas" web site. You can go to it here.

It looks like the cheapest gas in the Twin Cities area is in Forest Lake right now.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Blogging Some "Inside" Thoughts

Some events lately have helped to mature my thinking about why I am blogging. As time goes on, the curious readers, who once wanted to know what I was up to, have stopped reading the blog. (It never ceases to amaze me about who does read the blog and where do they find the time and why did they care?) These readers who are dropping off are mostly people who are in relationship to me as part of the church or even members of my family.

The novelty has worn off. And although I might have something useful or helpful to say from time to time, they soon find out that I am not the source of their daily happiness or spiritual manna for the day. Actually this is good. My purpose for blogging is not to become the guru for the next generation. That would be counter productive in the Kingdom of God. He alone is the wise King.

Instead, my goal should be to simply be a light shining in the darkness, giving hope and some direction and encouragement, to others who are on the journey to Jesus.

But the lovely thing about our weaknesses, our limitations, is that they work for our good and the glory of the God we know through Christ. The light we have for the world is a light that God has made to shine in our hearts; it didn't rise from us. It is treasure God put in "jars of clay" to show that the power is from him and so the glory should be his. (2 Corinthians 4:6-7)


If the "arrows" on my blog site don't point to Jesus then I am making a big mistake and should stop blogging.
Someone ( I think it was James Denney) once said, "No one can, at the same time, show himself to be clever and glorify Jesus Christ."

Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! (Revelation 5:12)
Yet, the blog continues to grow. Losing the first wave of readers and developing a second layer of people who, I think, come for two main reasons. First, there are those who come because they are watching what the "competition" is doing and then second, and more importantly, there are those who are slowly being added because they find here something that gives them hope and encouragement in their daily walk.

I live for the day that someone will say, "Thanks, that encouraged me. And now I have found a way to put my feet upon the Rock."

"The Whore Lived Like a German"

Here is some fascinating reading. I am so thankful for the love of Jesus that sets us free from the law of sin and death.

He who the Son sets free is free indeed....
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty....

This is from the web site for Spiegel Online

In the past four months, six Muslim women living in Berlin have been brutally murdered by family members. Their crime? Trying to break free and live Western lifestyles. Within their communities, the killers are revered as heroes for preserving their family dignity. How can such a horrific and shockingly archaic practice be flourishing in the heart of Europe? The deaths have sparked momentary outrage, but will they change the grim reality for Muslim women?
The harsh life that comes from living under the law is a life full of pain and sorrow. In an attempt to be more "righteous" than those around you, one begins to go to extremes to prove their devotion in an external way. Yet the heart remains dark. Now these families are without their loved ones and they have taken a turn towards severity that can only be restored by the Truth of the love of Jesus.

Oh! Neighbors, please hear the cries of the Living God for love, kindness, gentleness, and peace. It is about Him, not about the law. We are to be like Him, not like the dead letter of the law. He is the law in the flesh. He is the direct representative of who God is. There is no other. All others are men. It is Jesus (Isa) who will return and establish God's Kingdom on the earth. The law cannot do what the heart is unwilling to do. It is meant to teach us about our need for a Savior. "Please Lord, open their ears."

News Weak

I think Michelle Malkin said it best when she said, "Newsweek Lied, People Died".
Hidden agendas and prejudical attitudes always end up making us look like foolish and selfishly ambitious spin doctors. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that "ideas do have consequences." In this case, the consequence is the death of others. Bad ideas can destroy your children, your family, your business. What are you going to base your ideas on?

I only hope and pray that this desecration of the sacred (to Muslims) is not real and not a practice of our military. Dishonoring anybody or anything is a bad idea to a God who asks us to honor. Honor doesn't just end at honoring our father and mother. It only begins there. We are to "give honor where honor is due." Here is a people, our neighbors, who revere, however mistaken, a book that gives definition and focus to their lives on the earth. Why do we feel we need to dishonor it?

Our simple duty is to give the greatest honor to God, Jesus, and the Bible. If we lift Him up He will draw all people to Himself. Of course you can't lift up truth if you don't know Truth.
You can only lift up that which you know. If you don't know the beauty and glory of Jesus you can never lift Him up. Instead, like the foaming failures of history, an ignorant man attacks that which is not like himself. (In this case the military of the US) For he sees himself as of the highest honor no matter how mistaken he is.

But it is yet another thing when we project upon others our prejudices and bigotry and create lies that have the consequence of bringing about the death of others. But the News Weak authors will probably blame others for this because the idea of personal responsibility for what we do and say has almost been eliminated in the Western world. Newsweek lied, others died.

Friday, May 13, 2005

U of MN Tuition Too High

Tuition has increased at the U of MN much faster than wages for most lower middle class Americans. That means that folks like myself and my family cannot afford to go to college anymore. We make too much to get aid and too little to be able to pay ourselves. My children have had to work almost full time while going to college, but they have avoided the huge student loans that many students take out.

The tuition has jumped 73% in five years. Wouldn't it be great if our salaries increased that fast? It is expected that tuition will continue to go up for at least the next two years at the rate of 5.5% per year for a total increase of 84% in seven years. If you were making $50,000 per year eight years ago and had an 84% increase, you would be making $92,ooo per year now and could easily pay the tuition increase. But then that is just a daydream.

When I started college in 1964 tuition was $165 per year! Books ran about the same amount so you could go to school for about $330 a year. Now, one book can easily cost you the amount I used to pay per semester. Tuition alone is 49 times the amount I used to pay. Average Twin Cities tuition and fees is $8,029 per year. If you made $2 per hour in 1964 and had a 49 x increase in salary you would be making $98 per hour now !

We are clearly developing a worker bee class of people through the public schools but our universities are clearly eliminating the middle class. Soon it will just be rich bosses and worker bees again like it is in most third world countries. Paganism has a price.

New Tongue Twisters

I have always loved to play with tongue twisters.
Here are a few I have never heard before from a (can you imagine) tongue twister web site !

A Box of Biscuits
A Box of Mixed Biscuits
And a Biscuit Mixer.
Big Billy, who had a big belly was also a big bully

How much caramel can a canny cannibal cram into a camel,
if a canny cannibal can cram caramel into a camel ?

Good Goodie Twoshoes took two shoes to the Goody Showshine shoe shop
I like Goodie Twoshoes best. It is really tough. Enjoy!

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Homosexual Foster Parent Facts

In the drive to achieve marriage rights, one of the "selling points" that the homosexual community uses is the fact that they can't (in most places) adopt or raise foster children. The argument goes like this... "We can't have children so we should be able to adopt or take in foster kids and raise them." The out cry speaking against this usually says, " But you are morally inferior and will abuse these kids." Then the response to that usually goes something like this. "We do not molest children, the vast majority of children that are molested are molested by heterosexuals." But is that true?

If you do the math, homosexually makes up no more than 5% of our population. Of course the majority (95%?) of child molestation statistically should be by heterosexuals. But these figures are not correct. The data is in. It is about to be published in the mainstream but it has already been published by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Let's take a look at the statistics, being generous and kind as we deal with them.

The Illinois Family and Child Welfare department has reported that homosexuals accounted for 34% of the foster kids molested from 1997 through 2002. That is 7 times higher than what we would expect if homosexuals and heterosexuals molest at the same rate.

When examining all of the news stories in all of the worlds largest newspapers from 1980 to 2003 homosexual molestation appeared in 63% of the reported cases.

In 2004 there were 29 molestation stories about foster parents: 19 of these were homosexual (18 male and 1 female offenders) They abused 28 boys and 1 girl. In the 10 stories about heterosexual events, 10 males molested 16 females. Thus 66% of foster parent molestations reported were committed by homosexuals. They accounted for 64% of the victims.

Ten ministers molested their foster-children. 7 of them were homosexual (12 victims) 3 were heterosexual (6 victims) If this were representative of society we could conclude that 75 % of society must be homosexual. But the facts are that only 5% of society is homosexual (actually even less than that) And this 5 % accounted for 75% of the victims.

Ironically, in this newspaper examination, 7 men who won "foster parent of the year" awards or were reported in the news to be "exceptionally caring" were later found to be predators.
4 of them molested as homosexuals (7 victims) and 3 molested as heterosexuals (8 victims)

These are real events reported in the public newspapers. Although homosexuals make up only a small fraction of society they accounted for 35% and up to 75% of all these tragedies.

Here is a link to the information I used to write this article.

You cannot abandon yourself to sin (either homosexual or heterosexual) and not pay the price.
Sin has consequences. Lust is never satisfied. If you focus on your sexuality day after day you will find yourself doing things you never could have imagined when you started down that road.

If you are interested in these sorts of factual information a good source is a place called the Family Research Institute in Colorado Springs, CO Here is their link.

Quote

Don't try to get rich
by extortion or robbery.
And if yoiur wealth increases,
don't make it the center of your life. Psalm 62: 10

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Why We Pray For Our Leaders

Today there is a report of a hand grenade being thrown towards the stage that Bush was standing on in Tbilisi,Georgia. The grenade did not go off. It was a dud. Or it might have just been a publicity threat. But that is how easy it is for the direction of this world to change in one instant. "Human existance is as frail as breath." (Ps. 39:11)

Christian Carnival 69

The 69th Christian Carnival is up and running at Semicolon. Sherry has done a remarkable job of organizing and posting over 60 best of the best Christian blogs from this week. Stop in if you have a chance and enjoy these offerings. You can go to the link directly from here.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Psychology, The Church Substitute

More and more, the priests and pastors of today's society are being replaced by a new generation of people who do the work of "healing" and holding society together. These people are the psychologists, social workers, and professional counselors. And they don't have a clue about what is needed ! Let me start by telling two stories.

The first one comes from 28 years ago. It is about when I resigned from my job at the Tennessee Psychiatric Hospital. I was seeing some success in reaching and helping street level drug addicts and alcoholics. But I was instructed that I was getting too involved with the clients and needed to maintain a more "professional" distance. (And this is even more curious because the program I worked with was designed to be "outside of the institution" and was totally street level. )

I maintained the position that you really cannot bring about any real and immediate change without personal involvement. Anyhow, the idea of being a "professional" was far from my idea of what was really needed in life. Hey, it was the 60's, "all you needed was love." I decided to follow the advice of Eric Hoffer. (You can read some of his best quotes here) I simply dropped the professional world and became a construction worker, leaving all of my education behind to pursue "intellectual fulfillment".

As things had it, I slowly but surely became even more productive in guiding others as a construction worker than as a professional. Needless to say this deeply affected my approach to life.

The second story is about many people over the years. People who are from all sorts of backgrounds, cultures, and circumstances. People who have all different sorts of disorders.
Personality disorders to paranoid schizophrenia. People who, after they hear the truth, and in an honest and personal way are shown where the boundaries and realities of life are, slowly heal over time.

People that are really, on the bottom line, only given two therapeutic words. "Repent" and "forgive." Then, again (and sometimes again), over time, they are encouraged to give up the "hammer" in their hands, that they are hitting themselves with. They are welcomed into a "therapeutic community" called the church. A place where hypocrites cannot long endure. A place of honesty and openness. A place where everybody wears their personal brokenness openly and honestly. A place where, the people who have been there a while, are the same person this week that they were last week.

These sort of churches have to be built from the ground up. There has to be a unity that cannot be obtained in "outcome based" churches or in "religious" meetings. They require a lot of reality and light. People have to be who they say they are. Doctrine ? Historic, creedal.
But they need to be full of the fruit of the spirit. Patience is vital, kindness (the real kind) invaluable. A people who actually don't "consider a wrong suffered."

The counselors of this age offer nothing. They offer empty, hollow, shifting and changing, ideas and help. They offer "professionalism." And the broken people stack up like cord wood.

Friday, May 06, 2005

Psychology, The Church Substitute

As some of you know, I was a therapist at the Tennessee Psychiatric Hospital for 3 1/2 years before quitting and beginning a new career in construction. Later, due to the amount of ministry load I had along with my construction responsibilities, I quit construction and went full time in the ministry without salary or support simply because I had no time left to do anything else.

Now it is 28 years later. I have learned a few things during that time. I am going to share some of them here but before I do I would like to make it clear to the more anal readers that these are my observations and opinions and are not the result of "scientific studies" or "statistical analysis."

Let me begin by saying Psychology is a newbie on the scenes of mankind. It has to prove itself. I see some good and useful things coming from psychology but these things probably could be coming from other disciplines if psychology did not exist.

The classical studies that were taught to me when I was an undergraduate and in Psyc 101 are not really taught anymore. The first study is one in which 10 people with disorders were followed along with 10 others as a control group. One group was given "therapy" while the other was not. The ones who did not receive therapy recovered at the same rate as the ones who received therapy. The verdict? Therapy was not necessary.

The second study took a group of similar individuals and found that one individual who received therapy actually did better and went further towards "self actualization" than anybody else did. The problem is that one individual in the group also did much worse than anybody else did. So for one person, therapy worked and helped. But for the other, therapy lead to a downfall and seemed to be at the expense of others who did well.

These were, as I said, classical studies. Replicated and verifiable. What I have to say today is simply my opinion and observation over the years. I will write more about this tonight.

Explorer To Firefox

For those of you who have had problems viewing this blog I think I have finally found out what the problem is. I finally have enough reports of people who have to scroll down to the bottom of the page in order to view the latest post to see the common thread. The problem is with the web browser you are using. If you would pry your fingers off of your old friend Explorer and make the very pleasant move to Firefox you will have a lot more success.

Firefox is faster. It has more useful features. And is much more secure than Explorer. You can make the switch now by going to here and downloading the free application.

You will be amazed at how much faster it is and you will be blessed because it protects you from spyware. And the best thing? It is free and comes in almost any language.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

The 68th Christian Carnival

The 68th Christian Carnival is up at Kentucky Packrat.
You can read this weeks best of the best here.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Three Political Blogs Become One

Little Green Footballs, Armed Liberal, and Roger L Simon are merging to make one big mega blog. (With advice from Instapundit) Why do I feel like these guys will end up chasing the dollar and racing to the middle like every other politician in recent history? Why is it that the nature of man is to become BIG? Bigger than anybody else. Big for big's sake.

It as if they think that big is good. Little is bad. Isn't this simply the fallen nature of man striving to make a name for itself? Big churches, big schools, big government, big cars, big houses, etc.
Of course I have to admit that little is not very exciting, but I know that this lack of excitement is a direct result of my lack of thankfulness for what I do have, and a fallen desire to have more.

At the Tower of Babel man began to express his ambition in terms of building a city and a tower and drawing all mankind to this project. Isn't a "city of faith" and a "prayer tower" the same thing as what happened after the flood? Isn't God's command to "go" ? Isn't the model of the family to constantly break up the main household into little households that grow on their own?

I am sorry, I just don't see how bigger is better. In education, government, Wal-Mart, and Enron, and farms, bigger is not better. How come it is better in blogs? We have all the search robots trained to search the thoughts of man on the internet without the necessity of getting big. Isn't this good enough?

Well, thanks for listening.
You can read about it here.

What If 666 Is Really 616?

Here is a funny post. As you know there has been a breakthrough on reading a huge amount of old manuscripts by infrared methods. The manuscripts were found in a dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt. Some of the manuscripts are fragments of the books of the New Testament and are older than any current fragments. The report is that this fragment shows the number of the beast in Revelation to be 616 not 666. Oops!
You can read about it here.
Now before you sell all of your heavy metal albums lets wait to see if this proves to be a valid report and if there is any other evidence that confirms this report. But somehow, 666 just doesn't have the clout it used to have.

Monday, May 02, 2005

Time Traveler Convention

For those of you who have missed it... there is a time traveler convention on May 7 th.
But you can still make it. After all, you can travel through time.
Can you get your head around this concept?