Give thanks for health, strength, family, friends, salvation, cranberries...

There are many things to be thankful for at Thanksgiving, not the least of which it turns out are cranberries. The small red fruit that graces many tables around the country every Thanksgiving has a great many health benefits including fighting cancer, preventing plaque formation on teeth, treating urinary infections, and dealing with stomach ulcers. It may also increase levels of good cholesterol while simultaneously decreasing the levels of bad cholesterol. Who would think that being healthy could taste so good!

Falling Back to Sleep

An exciting annual event will be taking place this weekend that will bring excitement into the humdrum lives of many people. What is this wonderful thing that is going to happen? The end of Daylight Savings Time and the beginning of the last week of October. Don't forget to reset your clocks this weekend as we gain an extra hour of daylight on Sunday morning. That means that all of the sleep deprived people out there will receive the benefit of a whole hour extra of sleep. That is unless it is wasted by staying up an hour later than normal on Saturday night...

This is the final time that the clocks will be set back in October. Beginning next year, Daylight Savings Time will begin the second Sunday in March, instead of the normal April, and will run longer than normal as it continues all the way to the first Sunday in November. Why, it may be asked, is this dramatic change going to occur? Why the attempt to confuse the traditions of time? It was decided by in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 passed by the United States Congress and then signed into law that an experiment would be conducted beginning in 2007 in which Daylight Savings Time would be extended in an effort to decrease energy consumption. If the experiment turns out to be failure and the American population continues to use up energy at its current rate, the Congress has the ability to reset the times back to their original schedule as implemented back in 1986.

Until March, enjoy the extra hour!

Carpe Diem

There is always a fear of the unknown. I would have to say that one of my biggest fears--even bigger than my fears of fire, ladybugs, and spiders--is the fear of possible failure. When I have an opportunity to do something, I always have a voice in the back of my head asking me all sorts of scary "what if" questions, such as "What if I sound stupid?", "What if I can't do what is asked of me?", or "What if I make someone mad?". It is a paralyzing voice that keeps me from seizing the moment and making the most of my life. One of the best quotes I have heard recently was "Better to have tried and failed than to have failed to try." I am not sure who said it, but it is something I have been thinking a lot about lately. I cannot go through life afraid of doing things and holding myself back from a fulfilled life just because I am afraid of failure. There are so many possibilities that are just waiting for me if I just let myself try, fail or not. I will never know the what the results would have been and be continuously regretting not taking advantage of the situation given me with new "what if" questions coursing through my brain: "What if I had done it?", "What if I hadn't waited so long?", "What if I had seized the opportunity?". I am not saying that I should be rash and rush into doing things without giving any thought to the outcome, not at all. I am merely saying that I should not hold myself back due to irrational fears that have more to do with my pride than anything else. I need to learn to seize the day.

Like a Phoenix

Yes, I know it has been just about exactly two months since I last wrote here on my blog, and for that I am very sorry. More to come later...

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine?

The latest on the raging debate among astronomers as to what exactly constitutes a planet may leave out what has been our solar system's ninth planet for the last seventy or so years. The definition of a planet that has been submitted for a vote to the general assembly of the International Astronomer's Union would demote Pluto to a "dwarf planet" and would leave textbook editors, schools, and solar system modelers scrambling to make changes accordingly. Although Pluto would no longer be a part of our major planetary system as it has been for oh so many years, it will still be out their orbiting our sun exaclty as it has been and will always be looked upon with fondness.

Update: The new definition has been approved and Pluto is now officially a "dwarf planet", although it is really more an "ex-planet".

Felicitations on this Day of Independence!

As you spend the day celebrating with food, fun, and fireworks, don't forget the reason why we have this yearly festival. It all goes back to a Declaration of Independence:

"When in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and orgainizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness...

...We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States."

John Adams, one of our most prominent founding fathers, wrote the following in a letter to his wife, Abigail, on the day after the Congress voted for the thirteen American colonies to be free from the rule of Great Britian:

"But the day is past. The second day of July, 1776, will be memorable Epocha in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations, as the great Anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp, shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time forward forever."

The day after the writing of Adams' letter, July 4, 1776, was the day on which the Congress convened in what is now Independence Hall and approved the Declaration of Independence. It is that day that we continue to celebrate annually even now, 230 years later.

Happy Fourth of July!!!!

Tolerate the Intolerance?

One of the big issues of our modern world is the issue of "tolerance" and "acceptance", especially of homosexuals. It is not a big surprise when the secular culture preaches the message that homosexuality is no big deal and is just an "alternative lifestyle", but when the church starts to do the same thing I begin to get worried. It is not as though the Bible is not clear on the issue so that it has to be argued and debated among Christians, at least among true, Bible-believing Christians. Here is just a sample of what the Bible has to say:

"Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable." - Leviticus 18:22

"If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." - Leviticus 20:13

"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." - Romans 1:26-27

It seems pretty clear to me that homosexuality is not something to be condoned, no matter how much the world and men say that it should be. There is an old saying that says that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will eventually come to believe it. I think that saying can easily be applied to our situation today.

One of the most popular articles on the Yahoo news site this morning was one entitled "God and gays: Churchgoers divided". The entire article made me sad. It makes it seem that the churches are just stubborn and behind the times in changing their views on homosexuality.

"Many, gay or straight, seek a community of souls that welcomes them and shares their sense of the Scriptures and the sacred.

It may mean staying in their church of a lifetime, finding ways to accept - or overlook - teachings with which they disagree.

Most people (72%) have stayed with one religion all their lives, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup survey of 1,002 adults June 9-11. Brian Flanagan, 28, a cradle Catholic, openly gay and studying to be a theologian, says not even an unbroken line of rulings from the Vatican can drive him from his church because what truly matters is the "way it talks about Christ, about God.""

In other words, homosexuals want a church that overlooks the fact that the Bible says that what they are doing is a sin and that just talks about the loving, caring, nice aspects of God. They do not seem to want to deal with the fact that God is also a wrathful God who detests sin of all kinds. There is a penalty for sin: death. That is why Christ had to die, to pay that penalty for those who will accept what he did and repent of their sin and ask for forgiveness. Yet, people do not want to face the fact that what they are doing is sin. They just want a place to go to where they can feel good.

The article also goes on to state that:

"Once, black people, women and homosexuals were viewed the same way by the leading theologians of the times: "They were all cursed by God in Scripture, inferior in moral character and willfully sinful and deserving punishment," says the Rev. Jack Rogers, former head of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and author of a new book, Jesus, the Bible and Homosexuality.

Eventually, most churches found a biblical basis for changing their stance on race and gender but not on homosexuality."

There is a difference between gender, race, and homosexuality. The Bible says absolutely nothing about it being sinful to be a woman or to be black or Arab or Hispanic or Caucasian or oriental. In fact, it is very positive when it comes to women and different races. Just open up your Bible and read it. The Bible is not positive at all, however, when it comes to homosexuality. As I pointed out earlier, it says clearly that homosexuality is a detestable act.

The last section of the article is given the heading "Churches slow to change", as if it is a bad thing. It then points out that:

"The largest U.S. denominations - Roman Catholics, Southern Baptists, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and Lutherans in the Missouri Synod - clearly proclaim that homosexual behavior is a sin.

They don't allow a different theological direction, however welcoming individual congregations may be. Change is not on their agendas."

Even though this strong stance on the issue was made to seem like a bad thing in the context of the article, it made me proud to be a member of the Southern Baptist church. I pray that it will continue to resist the influences of the world and maintain the stand that the Bible is the ultimate authority and that God does not change with the culture. The movement towards the liberalization of the church is not, as the article seems to say, a good thing when it means moving away from the basis of the Christian belief so that the church can be a fun, accepting social club.

God does love homosexuals and yes, we should be accepting of them and loving them as people who, like everyone else in the world, including myself, are sinful and in need of a Savior. However, God does not love homosexuality, and we should not accept it as an acceptable practice, no more than we accept murder, adultery, and stealing.

The Loss of Sense and Cents

I read some of the greatest words of sense that I have heard in a long time while reading the editorials today. Orrin Pilkey talks in his article about the stupidity of rebuilding along the Gulf Coast with the recent experience of the destruction of last year's hurricane season and the knowledge that more big hurricanes are coming in the near future.

"Today, the new hurricane season begins, in a time of rising sea levels and increasing intensity of storms. It makes no sense to simply rebuild and even increase building density after Katrina. It might be difficult to accept, but reconstruction near the beach should be prohibited. Strong consideration should also be given to halting future federal storm bailouts, including taxpayer-supported flood insurance and the handout of post-storm cleanup and reconstruction funds - all of which only encourages rebuilding in the most dangerous locations. Government purchase of vulnerable beach properties, as costly as it might be, would pay off in the long term."

I have been considering almost the same thing ever since the advent of Hurricane Katrina's destruction of New Orleans last year when the question of whether or not to rebuild came up. People have been building along the beautiful shore in a place that is widely known to be venerable and dangerous, and yet they are shocked when their property is destroyed and demand for the government to bail them out year after year. How much longer will it last?

Not long after the Hurricane Katrina vs. New Orleans fiasco last year I was reading Bob Sheets and Jack Williams' book Hurricane Watch. It was a very interesting and insightful read, especially with all of the Hurricane talk in the news and everywhere else at the time. The part of the book that stuck with me the most, though, was where they wrote, pre-Katrina, about what would happen if New Orleans was indeed hit by a large storm. It was scary how well they had predicted the things that would happen, including the impossibility of complete evacuation with the amount of warning that would be available at best, the overflowing of Lake Pontchartrain, the inability of the pumps to handle the direct hit of a hurricane, the flooding of certain parts of the city, and the awful conditions that would be faced by those unable to evacuate the city. The things that happened with Hurricane Katrina should not have been a surprise but were merely the fulfillment of previous predictions.

Yesterday I came across an article in the news that helped move me even further towards the opinion that the city of New Orleans should not be rebuilt, at least not how and where it was. It seems that New Orleans is not only below sea level, but has been and continues to sink even further. The levees that were built were not able to withstand the surge of the storm since they had sunk to lower than they were supposed to be, making the city that much more venerable.

I realize that there are many people who call New Orleans home and do not want to move from there. They want things to go back to the way they were. Perhaps if I were to actually live down there I would have a different opinion. As it is, I have never even visited New Orleans. However, does sentimentality really make for a good reason to rebuild a city with billions of taxpayer dollars when there is a very good chance that it will be facing the same kind of destruction again in the near future? Why do people insist on building multi-million dollar homes, not just in New Orleans, but all over the Gulf Coast in the face of such odds? And why does the government insist on subsidizing it year after year?

The meteorological community is predicting another active hurricane season this year. The news is full of headlines such as "US weather experts forecast above-normal hurricane threat", "Forecaster expects active hurricane season", and "Forecaster sees nine Atlantic hurricanes in 2006". However, people seem to still feel invincible as they rebuild buildings and homes that may have to rebuilt again by the end of the summer. More money will be poured out as people insist on living in places that are almost assured of destruction and then demanding financial aid when that destruction arrives. No, I do not have the answers and solutions to the problem, but I still continue to wonder why people continue to put themselves and their property in the path of such danger and then expect not to pay for that decision. It is as if they have lost their sense and so are willing to lose both their own and the tax payer's cents.

Our Long Lost Relative

It seems that elephants and people have more in common than previously thought. Not only do we both cry at the death of a loved one, we both have a hard time getting ourselves motivated to get onto the treadmill to exercise. Maggie, the only elephant in the entire expanse of the state of Alaska, has a brand new $100,000 treadmill on which to walk, and yet she seems to have no real desire to use it. Pat Lampi, the zoo's director, predicts that it may take a year or more to get her to walk on the machine. So much for a New Year's resolution.

Ouch.

We now know that the people a long time ago were suffering under the hand of their "friendly" tooth doctor. A really old tool for torture has been discovered--an ancient dental drill. It seems that ancient people also had to endure the nasty drill...but with out any novacaine. There is only one thing to say...ouch. That'll teach them to brush and floss.

The Mouse Maze for the Rat Race

There are many things in our lives that we just seem to take for granted. It has been brought to my attention this morning that I have always just accepted the existance of cubicles and believed that they must have just always been since the beginning of the business office universe. The fact that the cubicle had to be invented by someone at some point in history had never crossed my mind. But that has all changed now that I have learned of the existence of a creator. Yes, there was intelligent design behind the cubicle, it did not just evolve by itself along with the myriad of desks and file drawers contained within. That creator was a mere human being who went by the unassuming name of Robert Propst.

NEW YORK (FORTUNE Magazine) - Robert Oppenheimer agonized over building the A-bomb. Alfred Nobel got queasy about creating dynamite. Robert Propst invented nothing so destructive. Yet before he died in 2000, he lamented his unwitting contribution to what he called "monolithic insanity."

Propst is the father of the cubicle. More than 30 years after he unleashed it on the world, we are still trying to get out of the box. The cubicle has been called many things in its long and terrible reign. But what it has lacked in beauty and amenity, it has made up for in crabgrass-like persistence.

Next time you enter an office building and you feel like a mouse entering a maze with no cheese at the end (unless your coworker is nice enough to offer you some), you will now know who to blame for it.

How Bizarre

The weather has been really strange this winter. First we got lots of snow and freezing cold temperatures before Christmas. Then January came and it seemed that spring had arrived along with it. In the last week or so we have had snow, freezing cold, almost 60 degree temperatures, and now a tornado watch to go along with our thunderstorms. Soon it is supposed to be cold and snowy again. I suppose that is what comes with living where we do.

In other news, I found this quote the other day among some old papers and thought that it was very accurate:

"Everyone is biased. It is just a matter of which bias is the best bias to be biased by." - Bill Jack

It would go well back with my post on the failure of objectivity, but if I did put it back there in the January archives nobody would ever read it. Thus, it gets put here where it obviously does not belong and feels out of place, like I am trying to pound a puzzle piece into the wrong jigsaw puzzle.

Yes, once again I have failed to post anything truly meaningful or inspired. I have been overthinking this blogging stuff again and have paralyzed myself and kept myself from writing about anything. My life has also been falling to pieces around me, so once it finishes its decent and falls back into place my words of wisdom, or unwisdom as the case may be, will become more abundant. Just please be patient with my disjointed and sparse posting.

Arachnid Hit Men

It is good to know that there are good spiders out there in the world, namely the "assassin spider" which preys on other spiders. It is comforting to know that, while performing its good deed of ridding the world of other spiders, it is completely harmless to humans, at least according to Charles Griswold from the California Academy of Science. Unfortunately, these wonderful creatures can only be found in such places as Madagascar, South Africa, and Australia. I guess that is just one other reason to move to the land down under.

I'm Still Here

I'm sorry I haven't posted on here in a while. I have been really busy lately, and this just got pushed to the bottom of the list of priorities. I am still alive and I hope to be able to write a better post than this on my blog soon. Have a Happy New Month's Eve!

Just a Second

Most people complain of a lack of time in their busy lives to do everything they want to. For those people the following news will bring great joy: The official time-keeping officials have added an extra second to our lives. Yesterday at exactly 7 PM Eastern Standard Time the minute became 61 seconds long just for that special moment in history. Why, do you ask, did they do such a thing? It seems that our precious world is not as young as it used to be and is slowing down. Scientists say that this deceleration is due to the moon's gravitational pull on the Earth. An article from the Associated Press says that "The same force that brings the tides is putting the brakes on the earth, albeit very slowly." I sincerely hope that all of you enjoyed the extra second in your lives and put it to good use. Speaking of time keeping and time passing...Happy New Year!