Norm Viss Schreef

100 Days

2009-04-26T20:53:00.002+02:00

Today I happend to see the press conference from the White House about the swine flu.
It is so absolutely refreshing to hear people from the administration who speak clearly, use the English language well, seem to know what they are talking about, and are honest about the situations and complexities the face (as far as one can tell: I realise that not everyone is honest all the time, and government officials in general should not be considered honest until proven so. Don't send any responses along that line. I know what you are going to say and in general I agree with u. ;-).
That for me is one of the biggest positives of the last 100 days.
I am loving it.

Literally risen

2009-04-12T07:46:00.002+02:00

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that — pierced — died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

Seven stanzas at Easter
John Updike

If you're going to apologize, do it right

2009-03-08T09:27:00.002+01:00

more about "Congressman Offers Preemptive Apology...", posted with vodpod

Misunderestimed

2009-01-13T09:28:00.000+01:00

This is how GW characterized a part of the stress with the press he experienced during his terms as President.

Through it all, it's been -- I have respected you. Sometimes didn't like the stories that you wrote or reported on. Sometimes you misunderestimated me. But always the relationship I have felt has been professional. And I appreciate it.

Misunderestimed.

Ah, I see.

100 Things

2009-01-09T13:11:00.002+01:00

President Bush has published a document outlining 100 accomplishments of his administration during the last eight years. Click here to read the document.
Just one thing: he forgot to number the items, as Jon Stewart pointed out.
Consistent to the last day.

Just less than two weeks left

2009-01-07T13:58:00.001+01:00

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

The Bush Years: Farewell, Mr. President

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

George Will doesn't like it either

2008-12-22T21:53:00.002+01:00

George Will is not known as a flaming leftist liberal.
But he has often been a harsh crisitc of GW Bush.

And he thinks very little of the administration's use of TARP funds for the auto industry. At least the fact that the administration has made Congress moot:

The president is dispensing money from the $700 billion Congress provided for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The unfounded assertion of a right to do this is notably brazen, given the indisputable fact that if Congress had known that TARP -- supposedly a measure for scouring "toxic" assets from financial institutions -- was to become an instrument for unconstrained industrial policy, it would not have been passed...

The administration has not confined its aggrandizement of executive power to national security matters....

Most of the administration's executive truculence has pertained to national security, where the case for broad prerogatives, although not as powerful as the administration supposes, is at least arguable. With the automakers, however, executive branch overreaching now extends to the essence of domestic policy -- spending -- and traduces a core constitutional principle, the separation of powers...

Read the whole article here.

Blunders everywhere

2008-12-14T22:07:00.002+01:00

An unpublished, 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure.

This report was written by a Republican, and contains many quotes attributed to men like Rumsfeld and Powell. The accuracy of those quotes is not denied. They are shocking.

Click here for the article and to read the actual report.

The hanging

2008-12-09T17:37:00.004+01:00

President Bush is almost gone.
On Saturday a painting of him was unveiled in the White House.
He began his remarks like this:

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Welcome to my hanging. (Laughter and applause.)

Finally.

(Note: please do not think I want the President dead. That is not the intention of this blog post. I repeat: I DO NOT want the President dead. I prefer he serve out his sentence as most impopulair president ever while remaining alive.)

Unthaw

2008-10-21T07:43:00.004+02:00

Our President continues to amaze with his ability to torture the English language.
In a rountable meeting on the economy yesterday he said the following:

As I said Friday, this thaw -- took a while to thaw, it's going to take a while to unthaw. But it's -- but the attitude here is a little different than it might have been a week ago.

First of all - I think he meant "freeze". Our economy is freezing up, not thawing out. Freezing is a longer process than thawing.
And of course the opposite of "thaw" is "freeze". Not "unthaw".

But who cares?
Nobody is listening to him anymore.

Michael Palin for President

2008-10-17T12:55:00.001+02:00

After all, anyone can become President of the US!

Absolute disaster

2008-09-24T09:04:00.006+02:00

Hopefully I won´t have to write (or think!) about the disaster of the Bush presidency very much longer.
The absence of GW from the presidential campaign of McCain and Palin says more than enough.
And now the disaster with the banks and Wall Street: the same kind of incompetence that characterizes the war in Iraq, combined with the lack of leadership that shows an understanding of the facts and a capability to deal with them properly. Just read this incoherent answer of GW to a question from a reporter (here is the whole press conference):
At first I thought we could deal with this -- deal with the problem one issue at a time. We made the decision on Fannie and Freddie because there was systemic risk to our mortgage markets. And then obviously AIG came along -- and Lehman came along and it was -- it declared bankruptcy; then AIG came along and it -- the house of cards was much bigger, beyond -- started to stretch beyond just Wall Street, in the sense of the effects of failure. And so when one card started to go, we were worried about the whole deck going down, and so therefore moved, and moved hard.
And now the proposed solution: abandon the principles of a free capitalistic society and put the financial power in the hands of the government, and, in reality, one man: the Secretary of the Treasury.
Fortunately it seems that some Senators - Republican and Democrat - are desiring to think twice about this plan.

"This is what I love about this whole thing. This is what Congress said today. 'The days of getting money just for the asking are over.' And then they asked for $700 billion. See, you know the way a bailout works? Here's the way a bailout works. A failed president and a failed Congress invest $700 billion of your money in failed businesses. Believe me, this can't fail." --Jay Leno

"As if all this news is not bad enough, today, President Bush announced he's on the case. Because if there's one name that comes to mind when you're in a no-room-for-error crisis, it's George Bush." --Bill Maher

"Oh, and he is pissed about the trillion dollar thing. Usually, when he spends that kind of money on a country, he gets to bomb the shit out of it, too." --Bill Maher

John, George and their girls

2008-08-12T15:00:00.000+02:00

Well, it has started...

2008-07-07T07:57:00.003+02:00

Started is probably not the best word, because it has been going on for a while.

I think I have in this weblog predicted that McCain will win the presidency (I am not saying I want him to win, I don't know who I would vote for). He will win it the same way GW won it - by scaring the (the shit out of the) American people (to death) about Muslims and terrorism (take your pick of expressions).
Yesterday I got my first forwarded email with the "facts" about Barak Obama. Its one of those mails whose content you can't verify, because most of the sources are not mentioned, and those links you can click on lead you to expired pages or super-conservative websites that sell T-shirts to young tight-breasted teenage girls with the slogan "Up your arsenal" on them.
Just a few of them, because I don't want to promote this stuff, but you get the idea:
Obama's cousin Odinga in ran for president and tried to get Sharia Muslim law in place there. When Odinga lost the elections, his followers have burned Christians' homes and then burned men, women and children alive in a Christian church where they took shelter.. Obama SUPPORTED his cousin before the election process here started.
My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian - NOT EXACTLY, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her own interviews. Not to mention,
Christianity wouldn't allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.
My Name is African Swahili - NOT EXACTLY, your name is Arabic and 'Baraka' (from which Barack came) means 'blessed' in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama.
I Never Practiced Islam - NOT EXACTLY, you practiced it daily at school,
where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years, until
your wife made you change, so you could run for office.

I guess it was too much to hope this could wait until after the summer....

Toning down

2008-06-12T06:48:00.003+02:00

Mr. Bush is toning his rhetoric down, even to the point of admitting that he regrets some of his rhetoric in the past. See this article in The Times, and also this one.

In his "joint press availability" with Angela Merkel of Germany yesterday, he said this:

Q Mr. President, on the way to Europe, you gave a very interesting interview for The Times newspaper in which you basically said that you regret your war rhetoric. Now I'm wondering, do you actually just regret your war rhetoric, or do you regret having gone to war with Iraq?

PRESIDENT BUSH: I don't regret it at all. Removing Saddam Hussein made the world a safer place. And yes, I told the guy -- the guy said, now what could you do over? First of all, you don't get to do things over in my line of work. But I could have used better rhetoric to indicate that one, we tried to exhaust the diplomacy in Iraq; two, that I don't like war. But, no, the decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision.

Yeah, what can one say?
Good direction.
Too late.

P.S. Language remains a problem with him. The word rhetoric has a negative connotation (think propaganda). I would think a president would want to avoid all rhetoric if he (or she) could, not wish for better rhetoric.
It's like saying you want better torture.

Hillary and June

2008-05-26T09:31:00.004+02:00

There's a lot of nonsense and idiocy that goes around in Christian circles about Bill and Hillary. This, for example.
And now the criticism about her remarks about the history of presidential primary contests that were not resolved until June. Any reasonable reading of her comments (see them below) cannot lead to any other conclusion than that she was making a very legitimate historical reference.
I still don't understand the Christian vitriol against a woman who remained married, and, as far as we know, faithful to her husband. If you want to attribute sinful motives to that, then you should provide substantial background for your argument. Or you should be one of her elders who can help her.
Otherwise it is gossip.
And gossip is not very Christian.

W.T.H.?

2008-05-20T17:23:00.001+02:00

What is it with these Republicans?

Golf court

2008-05-16T05:55:00.002+02:00

This is making the rounds big time on internet these days, but if you haven't seen it: Bush shows solidarity with the families of those killed in Iraq.

And Keith Olberman's comments:

Qualified

2008-05-15T11:42:00.002+02:00

Boy,the last 8 years have sure proved the truth of this quote.
Aren't you worried about the future?

"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."

Douglas Adams

O.M.G.

2008-05-06T08:23:00.001+02:00

As of today only 258 more days.

Quit Complainin'

2008-05-02T10:11:00.000+02:00

Most expensive places to buy gas

Rank	Country	Price/gal
1.	Sierra Leone	$18.42
2.	Aruba	$12.03
3.	Bosnia-Herzegovina	$10.86
4.	Eritrea	$9.58
5.	Norway	$8.73
6.	United Kingdom	$8.38
7.	Netherlands	$8.37
8.	Monaco	$8.31
9.	Iceland	$8.28
10.	Belgium	$8.22
111.	United States	$3.45

They will get a candidate.....

2008-04-25T11:45:00.000+02:00

"The primary race is dragging on and on and on.
But the Democrats are trying to put a good face on it, they're confident, they say now, absolutely they will have a nominee for president by McCain's second year in office.
So there.
They're ready to go."

--David Letterman

Woodcarving

2008-04-21T09:46:00.006+02:00

My wife asked me to get a woodcarving for our mantel while I was in Ghana.
It was not an easy thing to do, because we did not want a tacky souvenir wooden evil-looking mask.
I finally found these. We like them very much.
They are Chiwara carvings, from Mali. Male and female antelopes, who according to the legends advised the Bambara people about agriculture and social values at the beginning of the world. The sun and the moon meet and unite, and peace and prosperity reigns.
We hope that peace and prosperity also reign in our house.
And we will keep on praying for that.

A new wall

2008-04-18T09:19:00.002+02:00

Is this the only thing the Bush administration can think of to create and ensure security in in Sadr City?

America's weapons

2008-04-15T13:44:00.003+02:00

On Sunday evening I saw the film "Why we fight", a documentary about America's military-industrial complex.

I was sitting on a bed in resort hotel 25 miles to the west of Accra, with my friends Alan and Sally Lee. We were watching the film on a laptop, each person with his own set of headphones. This is how the family Lee watches movies when traveling, or at home and when they don't want the neighbors to hear the film's dialogue or soundtrack (apparently the neighbors can hear through the walls).

Anyway: pretty good film. Not at all Micheal Moore. A serious documentary, to be taken seriously.

It begins with an articulate and passionate speech by President Dwight Eisenhower: his farewell speech given in January 1961. In the speech he warns America about building up an industrial military complex, in which, for the first time in history, weapons will be produced just to have them, and not because of a specific war threat. He warns about the moral and spiritual implications of that for the country, as well as its impact on economics and peace issues. Great speech.

Well, as you can guess, America didn't listen, and the weapons industry has become big business. And the film asks the question what kind of influence these big businesses had on the decisions surrounding the Iraq war.

I could easily connect this film with what I had experienced that Sunday morning, in an international church in Accra. It was "International Sunday", in which the congregation was paying respect to all the countries represented in the church. At the beginning of the service (which lasted 3 hours, including a good sermon by a Nigerian), the representatives of each country paraded into the church, while a woman gave facts about the country.

When the American group paraded in (I didn't join them, as I was traveling on my Dutch passport), it seemed the clapping was a little less. And I felt shame when the lady read the list of primary exports of the United States, and weapons was prominent on the list. The only country to have that on the list.

This is really too bad. What can a simple citizen do about it?

Accra

2008-04-10T16:00:00.005+02:00

Here are some pictures of Accra, taken from the Jamestown lighthouse. this is one of the oldest and poorest sections of the city. You can see it in the pictures. Not particularly shocking for me, I've seen lots of this kind of stuff before, but you sure wonder what might happen if the West took some of the money being spent in the Middle East and spent it effectively here. (I am experienced and smart enough to know that that is a simplistic thought, and the folks on the ground here in Africa share a lot of responsibility also. But still.....).

Ghana

2008-04-07T09:14:00.002+02:00

Today I leave for a week in Accra, Ghana.
I need to get a change of scenery, and out of all the options this seemed the best one.
I will meet a couple of friends there - an American couple we have known for years, and a Dutch man who is setting up a business there.
I'm looking forward to warm weather, renewing freindships, and making aquaintance again with West Africa.
It's been almost 21 years since we left Nigeria, so I am interested to see how things are there and what kind of memories rise to the surface.
I am also interested to see how missions has changed.
Hopefully it has........
Maybe I can blog from there, I don't know yet.

It's all good

2008-04-01T15:57:00.001+02:00

The idiocy continues......

Criminals?

2008-03-29T14:26:00.003+01:00

I thought we were fighting a War against Terrorists.
Now I will grant you that a terrorist is a criminal.
But a criminal is not necessarily a terrorist.
A terrorist commits his or her crime for political reasons.
A criminal commits his or her crime mostly for personal reasons.

Yesterday President Bush kept calling the people the Iraqi government is trying to get rid of in Basra criminals.
...any government that presumes to represent the majority of people must confront criminal elements or people who think they can live outside the law. And that's what's taking place in Basra and in other parts of Iraq. I would say this is a defining moment in the history of a free Iraq.
...And one of the early questions I had to the Prime Minister was would he be willing to confront criminal elements, whether they be Shia or Sunni?
...And of course, routing out these folks who've burrowed in society, who take advantage of the ability to be criminals, or the ability to intimidate citizens, is going to take a while.

So why does Bush use the word criminal?
It is one thing to help the Iraqi government root out criminals.
It is quite another to be engaged in getting rid of terrorism.
So which is it, Mr. Bush?
Could you, for once, be clear on something, and give us some confidence you know what you are talking about and can explain it?

Questions

2008-03-19T22:28:00.004+01:00

President Bush made a speech today, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war.
I have a few questions regarding some things he said (quoted verbatim):

"The men and women who crossed into Iraq five years ago removed a tyrant, liberated a country, and rescued millions from unspeakable horrors."
Is the country liberated? The oppression of Saddam is gone, but is the country now liberated?

“The battle in Iraq has been longer and harder and more costly than we anticipated”
Why didn’t you anticipate that?

“The terrorists who murder the innocent in the streets of Baghdad want to murder the innocent in the streets of America.”
How do you know this? And why would they, when they didn't want to do that before April 2003?

“The gains we have made (because of the surge) are fragile and reversible.”
What are you doing to make sure they are not reversed? Because in the same paragraph you say: “The surge is working. And as a return on our success in Iraq, we've begun bringing some of our troops home.”
A quote from somebody else: "There are those who say the Iraqi Army can control Iraq without the Americans. But they are liars. Without the Americans it would be impossible for us to control

Iraq

."
COL. ALI OMAR ALI, an Iraqi battalion commander in Mosul.

“For the terrorists, Iraq was supposed to be the place where al Qaeda rallied Arab masses to drive America out.”
Can you show this is so, in the light of the fact that Iraq housed no al Qaeda before April 2003?

“By spreading the hope of liberty in the Middle East, we will help free societies take root -- and when they do, freedom will yield the peace that we all desire.”
Can you give any examples of this so far, or show any demonstrable progress since September 11? (Besides the Iraqi elections, on which the verdict is still out, and which needed massive American support.)

“The battle in Iraq is noble, it is necessary, and it is just.”
Was it necessary to eliminate the threat of WMDs? Aside from the bravery and skill of our troups (which they would show in any battle anywhere), what has been noble about this war? There are very few world organizations or leaders, even (or especially) religious ones, who call it just. Why is that?

Rockin in the free world

2008-03-03T10:14:00.003+01:00

I have long wanted to place this clip on my weblog, but I haven't found it until now.
It's from Fahrenheit 9/11 (I didn't care for the film that much, mostly because I thought it was not so well done.)
This is at the end of the film, with scenes from the film shown around the music. I had heard that Micheal Moore wanted to use the song by The Who, Won't get fooled Again, but didn't get permission from the rock band.
Neil Young was willing to let this song, written at the time of G. Bush Sr., to be used. (By the way, I think Sr. was a much better president than Jr.)
Anyway, here it is.

Money! Bombs! Jesus!

2008-02-07T10:38:00.000+01:00

Great article today on PoliGazette about the Republican Party.
Click here for the whole article.
A few lines to give you an idea:

The Republican Party consists of three wings.

First, there’s the Money! wing, whose guiding principal is: “Money. More.” Then the Bombs! wing, whose guiding principal is, “Grrrr! Rrrowf! Rrrowf!.” And finally the Jesus! wing which believes God made gays on the seventh day at a wild post-creation party. (During which God did several things even He can’t remember. And woe unto he who remindeth Him.)

We are down to three Republican candidates, and each is not only a representative of one wing of the party, but the mathematically precise representative of that wing. Each of the three is the perfect embodiment, the distilled essence, of his wing of the GOP. Quite frankly, it’s eerie.

Money! Mitt Romney.
Bombs! John McCain.
Jesus! Mike Huckabee.

Most election years you get a candidate who represents Money! and one for Bombs! and one for Jesus! And in the end, the GOP weights their selection, with Money! naturally carrying the most weight, while Jesus! gets lip service and one chance to embarrass the country before all of western civilization. But this year there is no compromise. No synthesis. No candidate who represents anything other than his own wing.

The only uniting factor this year is that Bombs! and Jesus! really, really despise Money!
Bombs! and Jesus! united in a burning hatred of Money! Wow. I don’t know who wrote this script, but I have to say, as a Democrat, I’m liking it.

Deficits

2008-02-04T20:46:00.000+01:00

News Item:
President Bush introduced a $3.1 trillion budget on Monday that supports sizable increases in military spending to fight the war on terrorism and protects his signature tax cuts.
Bush projects that the deficits, which had been declining, will soar to near-record levels, hitting $410 billion this year and $407 billion in 2009. The all-time high deficit in dollar terms was $413 billion in 2004.

According to FactCheck.org the Clinton Presidency did balance the budget and erase the federal deficit:

This chart, based on historical figures from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, shows the total deficit or surplus for each fiscal year from 1990 through 2006. Keep in mind that fiscal years begin Oct. 1, so the first year that can be counted as a Clinton year is fiscal 1994. The appropriations bills for fiscal years 1990 through 1993 were signed by Bill Clinton's predecessor, George H.W. Bush. Fiscal 2002 is the first for which President George W. Bush signed the appropriations bills, and the first to show the effect of his tax cuts.

Jim Wallis and Jon Stewart

2008-01-29T08:36:00.000+01:00

Ninehundredthirtyfive false statements

2008-01-23T13:39:00.000+01:00

The Center for Public Integrity reports on its investigation into the information disseminated by the Bush Administration in the run-up to the Iraq War.
The web page is here.
They count 935 false statements, 232 made by GW himself.
According to this report many of these statements were made in spite of what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis.
From the web page:

Bush and the top officials of his administration have so far largely avoided the harsh, sustained glare of formal scrutiny about their personal responsibility for the litany of repeated, false statements in the run-up to the war in Iraq. There has been no congressional investigation, for example, into what exactly was going on inside the Bush White House in that period. Congressional oversight has focused almost entirely on the quality of the U.S. government's pre-war intelligence — not the judgment, public statements, or public accountability of its highest officials. And, of course, only four of the officials — Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz — have testified before Congress about Iraq.
Short of such review, this project provides a heretofore unavailable framework for examining how the U.S. war in Iraq came to pass. Clearly, it calls into question the repeated assertions of Bush administration officials that they were the unwitting victims of bad intelligence.

It will be very interesting to see what the Republican candidate for President does with GW during the campaign this coming fall. And the role Iraq will play.
It's already clear that all the candidates, including Republicans, are calling for honesty en bipartisanship in Washington, and using hard language to describe the mess there. The same language GW used in 2000.

I still maintain that on a moral scale of nature of wrongdoing and effects on people's lives these false statements are far worse than lying about a blow job in the Oval Office.
Pardon my French.

P.S. If you look on the website of The Center for Public Integrity, and read about mission and staff of the Center (click here to do that), and decide that this is all propaganda of the liberal media, you are welcome to do that.
I would then sure like to see some proof from you that this data is not accurate (other than your screams of: "Liberal, biased media!").

Beggar

2008-01-17T10:59:00.000+01:00

Imagine the President of the United States of America, with hat in hand, begging the leader of a third world country for anything.
Today George HW Bush did just that.
Click here for the rest of the story/commentary.

I don't know what you think of Maureen Dowd.
Sometimes you hate her, sometimes you love her.
This, from yesterday. Click here for the whole thing.

It took Mr. Bush almost his entire presidency to embrace diplomacy, but now that he’s in the thick of it, or perhaps the thin of it — given his speed-dating approach to statesmanship — he is kissing and holding hands with kings, princes, emirs, sheiks and presidents all over the Arab world and is trying to persuade them that he is not in a monogamous relationship with the Jews.
His message boiled down to: Iran bad, Israel good, Iraq doing better.
Blessed is the peacemaker who comes bearing a $30 billion package of military aid for Israel and a $20 billion package of Humvees and guided bombs for the Arabs.

help desk

2008-01-09T21:38:00.001+01:00

Desmond Tutu

2008-01-05T11:47:00.000+01:00

Archbisshop Desmond Tutu was interviewed last night on Dutch television.
If you want to watch the interview, you can. It lasts about 80 minutes, and you'll have to be patient through the first 2 or 3 minutes, as that is in Dutch. The rest is English.
Click here.
Well worth seeing.
Great interview, great person.
I'm sure he's not perfect, but he glows with a supernatural (I'd say it was divine) strength, love, grace, peace and joy.
Amazing, when you consider the difficulties under which he has had to live and work.
We all were able to follow the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commision in the 90s.
The work of this Commission was, during those years, very impressive.
Still is.
I am struck again by the combination of grace (amnesty) and truth.
The goal of the Commission was to be graceful, but they knew that could only be accomplished by having the truth be exposed.
Liberating for victim and perpetrator.
If this isn't gospel-driven, I don't know what is.
Great inspiration for 2008.

Married

2007-12-31T14:38:00.000+01:00

Our son Ben married his Ramona last Saturday in a beautifully decorated old church in Hilversum, followed by a celebration in a cafe behind the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
For more pictures, click to my daughter's weblog.
I officiated the ceremony. I usually don't do that sort of thing for my own children, because I want to stand next to my wife and be husband and father on these occasions. But one thing led to another, and there I stood.
It was great.
The blessing is always the climax of any wedding service for me.
In order to bless Ben and Ramona with both hands (otherwise you have to choose which partner gets the blessing!....;-) I had to hand the microphone to the person standing close by.
Turned out to be my youngest son Will, a best friend of Ben.
Just today, when I saw this picture, I realized that he was blessing them too.

Revelation

2007-12-26T06:53:00.000+01:00

It seems that people needed a special revelation (in addition to the Holy Writings) in order to understand and/or be filled with wonder at the birth of Jesus.
The shepherds saw angels and Gods glory in the sky.
The Wise Men a star.
Mary and Zacharia received a visit from the angel Gabriel.
Joseph dreamed.
Simeon experienced a direct revelation from the Holy Ghost.
We do not know how Anna received her prophecy.
We do know that she was a widow for eighty four years, serving in the temple, worshipping, fasting and praying night and day.
Elizabeth's baby lept in her womb, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Why do we look down on special revelation of this kind in our time?
It seems that those folks needed it.
Why wouldn't we?

Christmas Mash-up

2007-12-25T08:36:00.000+01:00

This video is going around the blogworld now.
Have a great Christmas!

Frozen mist

2007-12-24T08:02:00.000+01:00

We had a fascinating weather phenomenon here on Saturday.
The thick mist in the air froze on everything.
It made quite a different picture than ice.
A real Narnia wonderland.
Two pictures.

Mid-Life

2007-12-18T13:08:00.000+01:00

‘To hold the same views at forty as we held at twenty is to have been stupefied for a score of years, and take rank, not as a prophet, but as an unteachable brat, well birched and none the wiser.’

— Robert Louis Stephenson

Sometimes you can learn something from another weblog.

Lawsuit

2007-12-14T07:02:00.001+01:00

I haven't blogged here for more than a week.
Don't worry, I still think George Bush is, at best, incompetent.
And I still believe neither HIllary, Obama or Guiliani will be the candidates for President.
But I've got something else on my mind.
I'm being sued. Yep, sued. I guess I'm American after all.
It's like this:
I own a duplex of rental appartments in Willow Grove, Pa.
Have for 30 years.
Last March a lady fell on the sidewalk, broke her wrist, and is suing me for damages.
"In excess of $50,000."
Turns out the person managing the property (a professional realtor) did not keep the insurance up to date, so I am not insured for this.
I've been busy looking for a lawyer to defend me, no easy job from this distance.
Fortunately my son and daughter-in-law are studying law at Rutgers in Camden, and they have helped me get some good referrals.

But that doesn't soften the blow of having to write a check for a large sum of money that will gain me exactly what I would gain if I took that cash and threw it in the fireplace (except that I have the joy of knowing I am helping the lawyer pay for his yacht.....;-).

This situation does raise interesting faith questions:
1. How important is money to me really?
2. Do I really believe that God will take care of me and my retirement?
3. And how do I not let these circumstances ruin this holiday season in which we will be together as a family to celebrate the marriage of Ben and Ramona (our second child and his wife)?

OK. Deep breath. Let's go.

If it's broke, fix it

2007-12-05T14:35:00.001+01:00

Here's a little parable about the George Bush government and some marriages:

Health Insurance

2007-12-05T07:47:00.000+01:00

Today's my day off, and there are some interesting things going on in the world, so there may be a couple of logs today.
This one is about health insurance, which is a hot issue on the candidate trails.
Michael Moore's Sicko is now playing in Holland, but not at a convenient time for me today, otherwise I would go see it.
I read the weblog Real Live Preacher.
Guy is a pastor of a small church in Texas and a crackerjack writer.
He almost joined the ranks of the uninsured.

Jeanene and I work hard. We’ve never been unemployed. In fact, for the last decade, we’ve had three jobs between us. We don’t smoke and we don’t take risks. We’ve never had a single major medical incident. You’d think a company would want to insure us. No. And we came just that close to being uninsured.

Read the whole thing here.
Something needs to be fixed, and I hope you guys elect someone who will fix it.
But I'm not holding my breath.

Predictions 2008

2007-11-28T09:31:00.001+01:00

It's a little early for predictions for 2008, but here are some of mine:

1. The situation in Iraq will stay quiet. Bush will claim credit for that.
2. Progress will be made in Middle East peace talks. Bush will claim credit for that.
3. A surgical airstrike will be made against Iran to take out a facility which, as will be claimed, is being used to make an A-bomb. No all out war, just a (successful, of course) surgical strike. Bush will claim credit for that.
3. Neither Hillary, Obama or Rudolph will be the candidates. Both the Republican and Democratic candidates will be white Anglo-Saxon males, middle of the road, with very few real differences between them. They will both look like Bush.
4. The election will be again decided with a 51-49% margin in the popular vote. The Republican will win (see points 1-3 above). Bush will take credit for that, even though the Republican candidate will not want him to campaign for or with him.
5. Essentially, nothing will change. Bush will take credit for that.

Shit.

Think positive

2007-11-25T21:20:00.000+01:00

"The reason I don't worry about society is, 19 people knocked down two buildings and killed thousands.
Hundreds of people ran into those buildings to save them.
I'll take those odds every day."

Jon Stewart (I'm sure he didn't think this up. A writer did.)

About being positive.

Kiva 2

2007-11-21T15:54:00.000+01:00

Well I signed up for Kiva yesterday.
The site is so busy that they are only allowing people to make loans of $25,00.
I made two. I was interested in variety: man/woman, city/rural, Africa/Asia.
One to Iyabo Adesat of Nigeria (Lagos).
She deals in paper and needed $400,00.
Within a few hours she had it.
The other to Shavkat Tohirov of Tajikistan.
He has five sheep and needs $200,00 to buy feed for them.
Yesterday his loan was completed also.
Today I got this email regarding him:

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Shavkat Tohirov by MLF MicroInvest-Tajikistan in Tajikistan. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 4 - 10 months, MLF MicroInvest-Tajikistan will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

I'll keep you posted.

Kiva

2007-11-17T09:00:00.000+01:00

Last night in my down time I was zapping and came across Oprah Winfrey.
There was Bill Clinton.
I have already said on this weblog that I like him a lot better than I do G.W.
Oprah was promoting Clinton's book "Give" (the programs are shown here much later).
A website that specializes in microcredit was mentioned.
www.kiva.org
Click here for the the information on the Winfrey site.
You can choose a small entrepreneur to whom you want to make a small loan - as little as $25.00.
Via the website you can follow the project and keep track of the repayments.
When you money is repaid (without interest) you can reinvest it in another business.
As far as I can see it looks pretty reliable.
The default rate is about 0.2%.
I think I might give it a try.
I'll keep you up to date about how it is going.
Sounds like fun!

The world is getting better!

2007-11-09T08:18:00.000+01:00

I have believed for a long time that the world is getting better, not worse.
I have seen two things recently that help confirm that for me.
One is the quote below.
I must admit that I no longer know where the quote came from.
I usually check out my internet sources pretty well, so I believe it is from a reputable source.
The other is a talk given by the Swedish scientist Hans Rosling.
Fascinating to watch, and not only because of the excellent presentation.

It's not very popular to believe that things are getting better.
People will consider you a heretic along the lines of someone who doesn't believe in hell.
For some reason we enjoy being pessimistic.

As I’ve pointed out several times already, annual per capita income (in real dollars) was $90 in 12,000 BCE. It took nearly 14,000 years for it to double to $180 in 1750. By 2000 it was $6,600 a year! The number of people in the world living on less than a $1 a day (in real dollars) was 84% in 1820. Today it is less than 20% and expected to be less than 10% by 2020. All of this during a period when the world population grew from less than 1 billion people to 6 billion people! Furthermore, in all but a handful of nations the number of number of children dying before their first birthday has fallen to well under 10% (less than 1% in developed nations), life expectancy has risen by 50-100%. No nation that engages in open trade with other nations has experienced famine in the last fifty years. Disease after disease is being eradicated.
We live in an era of the greatest expansion in widely shared wealth and health in the history of humanity! By historical standards, the last 300 years of human history are just stunning.

Click here for the Hans Rosling video.

Non Sequitur

2007-11-08T08:05:00.000+01:00

It's always a lot of fun to watch or read a Bush press conference (not).
You don't even need to be a Hollywood writer on strike to find funny things.
Like this non sequitur:

Q Okay. Mr. President, with oil approaching $100 a barrel, are you concerned that your hard words for Iran on its nuclear program are helping drive up oil prices, which can end up hurting the U.S. economy?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No. I believe oil prices are going up because the demand for oil outstrips the supply for oil. Oil is going up because developing countries still use a lot of oil. Oil is going up because we use too much oil, and the capacity to replace reserves is dwindling. That's why the price of oil is going up.

I believe it is important for us to send clear signals to the Iranian government that the free world understands the risks of you trying to end up with a nuclear weapon. And, therefore, we will work together to try to find if there's not rational people inside your government who are tired of isolation and who believe there's a better way forward.

Coiffure

2007-11-07T07:18:00.000+01:00

It must be contagious.
President Bushes' language dexterity, I mean.
I saw this in a Press Briefing with Dana Perino:

MS. PERINO: The President vetoed this bill because he felt it was fiscally irresponsible. The House passed a bill that was $14 billion; the Senate passed a bill that was $15 billion. And when they got together to work out their differences, they came out with a bill that's $23 billion. This is an authorization bill; not a penny goes out of the coiffures to pay for any projects. It is a chance for members of Congress, from all areas of the country, from both sides of the aisle to come forward with their ideas for what they think would be the best project.

It's probably because coiffure is a French word, and the French President is visiting in Washington now.

On another off-pitch note:
The response to the events in Pakistan shows again the lack of principle of this Administration and its penchant to interpret events only in light of: what is good for us?
The difference between the response of the White House to Burma (where's Burma?) and Pakistan is striking.
Even Dana Perino admits that.

The business of Death

2007-11-05T07:51:00.000+01:00

This video found on Boing Boing.
I like the being buried in the forest idea.

Health Care

2007-11-02T10:30:00.000+01:00

Excerpts from the New York Times. For the whole article, click here.

“My chance of surviving prostate cancer — and thank God I was cured of it — in the United States? Eighty-two percent,” says Rudy Giuliani in a new radio ad attacking Democratic plans for universal health care. “My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England? Only 44 percent, under socialized medicine.”

It would be a stunning comparison if it were true. But it isn’t. And thereby hangs a tale — one of scare tactics, of the character of a man who would be president and, I’m sorry to say, about what’s wrong with political news coverage.

You see, the actual survival rate in Britain is 74.4 percent. That still looks a bit lower than the U.S. rate, but the difference turns out to be mainly a statistical illusion. The details are technical, but the bottom line is that a man’s chance of dying from prostate cancer is about the same in Britain as it is in America.

Anyway, comparisons with Britain have absolutely nothing to do with what the Democrats are proposing. In Britain, doctors are government employees; despite what Mr. Giuliani is suggesting, none of the Democratic candidates have proposed to make American doctors work for the government.

As a fact-check in The Washington Post put it: “The Clinton health care plan” — which is very similar to the Edwards and Obama plans — “has more in common with the Massachusetts plan signed into law by Gov. Mitt Romney than the British National Health system.” Of course, this hasn’t stopped Mr. Romney from making similar smears.

The fact is that the prostate affair is part of a pattern: Mr. Giuliani has a habit of saying things, on issues that range from health care to national security, that are demonstrably untrue. And the American people have a right to know that.

Dignity

2007-11-02T08:22:00.001+01:00

For those who think I am not capable of a critical note about the Clintons........
Click on the comic for a bigger version.

Big difference

2007-10-26T11:04:00.000+02:00

"It makes a big difference when you have someone in the statehouse willing to take the lead."
PRESIDENT BUSH, referring to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s response to wildfires in California.

Ah yes - the problems with Katrina were not at all the fault of G.W. or the Federal Government.
The problem was the statehouse in Louisiana.

Mr. Mukasey

2007-10-23T10:59:00.000+02:00

A few lines from an article written by Jed Rubenfeld, a professor of constitutional law at Yale Law School, about the (maybe) new Attorney General:

At his confirmation hearings last week, Michael B. Mukasey, President Bush’s nominee for attorney general, was asked whether the president is required to obey federal statutes. Judge Mukasey replied, “That would have to depend on whether what goes outside the statute nonetheless lies within the authority of the president to defend the country.”

....Before voting to confirm him as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, the Senate should demand that he retract this statement. It is a dangerous confusion and distortion of the single most fundamental principle of the Constitution — that everyone, including the president, is subject to the rule of law.

According to Judge Mukasey’s statement, as well as other parts of his testimony, the president’s authority “to defend the nation” trumps his obligation to obey the law.

Under the American Constitution, federal statutes, not executive decisions in the name of national security, are “the supreme law of the land.” It’s that simple. So long as a statute is constitutional, it is binding on everyone, including the president.

If Judge Mukasey cannot say plainly that the president must obey a valid statute, he ought not to be the nation’s next attorney general.

Mrs. Cheney

2007-10-18T09:06:00.000+02:00

Mrs. Cheney was interviewed by Jon Stewart.
I'll quote a bit of the interview and then place the clip.
The relevant sections beginswith about 2'44" left.

Cheney: "On 9/11 we thought we would be attacked again within six months, maybe even within six weeks. It's been more than six years. That is not an accident. I think the Administration deserves a lot of credit for that."
Stewart: "Well it was eight years between the first bombing of the WTC and 2001, so maybe....."
Cheney: "Well, in the periode between the first bombing of the WTC and 2001 the terrorists were not reluctant to attack American interests. There were worldwide bombings going on....."
Stewart: "You know they have been doing that all these past six years. England, Spain...."
Cheney (leans forward with intensity): "We're talking about American interests!........."
Stewart (can't believe he's hearing this): "Aren't we interested in.......? I'd assumed they are our allies, but alright......."

Here's the clip:

Procrastination

2007-10-15T07:49:00.000+02:00

With thanks to The Evangelical Outpost.

Genocide 2

2007-10-13T18:33:00.000+02:00

Last Wednesday, George Bush made comments about genocide in another part of the world.
Congress passed a resolution condeming de killing of 1.5 million Armenians by the Young Turk leadership in 1915-17 as "genocide".
Here is our President's - remember, the one who knows so much about what genocide is and can articulate it clearly - said about that:

On another issue before Congress, I urge members to oppose the Armenian genocide resolution now being considered by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. We all deeply regret the tragic suffering of the Armenian people that began in 1915. This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings, and its passage would do great harm to our relations with a key ally in NATO and in the global war on terror. Thank you.

What is the right response, Mr. President?
Can't you say one word about that?
I realize that this is not much more than a political ploy by the Congress.
But the President's response is no less a political game.
Defense Secretary Gates stated that 70% of the supplies going to the war in Iraq go through Turkey.
OOOOhhhhhhhhh.
For Jon Stewart's take:

Genocide

2007-10-07T17:54:00.000+02:00

Today Wolf Blitzer interviewed the Foreign Minister of Sudan, Lam Akol, on Late Edition.
Mr. Akol has an earned Ph.D in Engineering from a British university.
Mr. Blitzer wanted to make him uncomfortable about the role of the Sudanese government in the devastating events in Darfur. And rightly so.

Mr. Blitzer mentioned that the term “genocide” has a very precise legal definition and meaning. It is not used lightly or without care. Click here for the Wikipedia discussion. Or google genocide if you want more.
Only the United States, of all the countries of the world, have called the destruction in Darfur “ genocide”.

Mr. Blitzer then showed a clip of President Bush speaking in a Security Council Meeting on Africa at the United Nations last week. Mr. Bush said this (for the whole thing, click here):

And I want to thank Chairperson Konar for the leadership of the African Union. After all, you deployed 7,000 troops. But 7,000 troops is not enough, if you believe what's taking place on the ground is genocide. Maybe some don't think it's genocide, but if you've been raped, you think it's -- your human rights have been violated. If you're mercilessly killed by roaming bands, you know it's genocide.

The response of Mr. Akol was immediate and devastating. I can’t quote him exactly, but his remarks were to the effect that, as horrible as rape is, that is not genocide. Nor is someone being killed by roaming bands genocide. Mr. Blitzer and Mr. Bush had handed him his point.

In other words, he beat the leader of the free world hands down in clarity and being able to explain his point.
The Foreign Minister of Sudan! Check out their website here!
It seems to me the leader of the free world, committed to world peace and security, should be able to speak clearly and coherently about what genocide is.
It is terribly important that he be able to do so, especially to those being killed and raped.
Let's get someone in there who can.

Childrens do learn

2007-10-02T14:08:00.000+02:00

As Jon says, this one is even funnier when you leave it in context.

Still good

2007-09-28T09:02:00.000+02:00

I've read Wizard of Id for more than 40 years.
Still good, and relevant.
LOL!

Misrepresentation

2007-09-24T15:25:00.000+02:00

I sometimes get comments from people who say they would prefer the steadfastness of GW Bush and his commitment to his own principles now matter what to the lying of Bill Clinton.
They refer in a general way to Clinton's public and court-room lying.
Generally they don't specifically say it, but they mean the affair with Monica.
It is not said whether they think (or know) that Clinton has lied about other things.
I think that lying, in general, is a pretty bad thing.
One should not do it.
But lying is also a subtle thing.
And betraying trust is a part of it.
One can betray trust without telling a deliberate lie.
Not telling the whole truth is one way.
Shading things to make a situation look to be something it isn't.
And the responsibility of the leader of the free world to not betray our trust in these ways is pretty great.
I follow the website Fact Check.
It reports on misrepresentations of facts by politicians of all kinds, and the government in general.
The latest article tells about the misrepresentations in Bushes' latest news conference about children's health insurance. Click here.
And about the situation in Iraq. Here.
Given the scope of the effects of these misrepresentations, I still choose those of Clinton any day.

Latest late-nighters

2007-09-21T10:14:00.000+02:00

"How many saw the president's speech last night? He pre-empted regular programming, which is nice, because viewers tuning in to see 'Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader' for once got to feel they actually were. Yeah, he offered really no new strategy that I saw, but, of course, a new slogan: 'Return on Success.' Sounds like a Dr. Phil book." --Bill Maher

"Did you know last night's presidential speech was the first one broadcast in Hi-Def? And again, I don't think President Bush quite understands what that means. If fact, when they told him it was Hi-Def, he said, 'Oh great. Does that mean we don't need that lady with the sign language up in the corner anymore?" --Jay Leno

"In political news, Vice President Dick Cheney is very upset about the way General Petraeus has been treated by the Democrats. Vice President Cheney said it is horrible that people mock and insult a soldier. I'll be sure to pass that on to John Kerry when I see him." --Jay Leno

Yesterday in Australia, a TV comedian dressed himself up over there as Osama Bin Laden and got within feet of Bush's hotel. They got him, and the Bush spokesman said it was obviously not the real Bin Laden because they caught him." --Bill Maher

"Last night in this state of California, the first Republican debate was held at the Reagan Presidential Library. The candidates tried to distance themselves from President Bush. Apparently, the first step in distancing yourself from President Bush is appearing at a library"--Conan O'Brien

"This is the week that Congress sent the president a bill to bring the troops home, which, of course, as he promised he would do, vetoed it. The president said setting a deadline for withdrawal was setting a date for failure. And we all know, this is a president who likes his failures unplanned and spur-of-the-moment." --Bill Maher

Keys to success

2007-09-16T11:48:00.000+02:00

Posters

2007-09-15T07:39:00.000+02:00

If you follow Christian blogs you know that selfmade posters have been very popular lately.
You can make your own here.
TeamPyro has made quite a few criticizing the Emerging Church.
Click here and scroll down.
And of course a number of Emergent people have made their own.
You can see some of them here.
Kind of cute stuff.
I like this one:

Actually, I've been trying to work on an equal basis with women (in and outside of the church) for some years now.
It's not easy for me to do sometimes, because of biases from my background.
But it has made my life much richer.
Thank you, ladies.

Followup Mr. Bumbler

2007-09-11T12:50:00.000+02:00

Here is an excerpt from the interview with Bill Clinton on Larry King.
The subject is the capture of terrorists (like last week in Germany) and whether Clinton is optimistic or pessimistic about the future.
Again - whether you agree with him or not, there is an ability to think clearly, articulate, and presented a balanced and nuanced view, the kind of thing we sorely miss nowdays.
Notice here that he credits Bush with the fact that there has not been an attack on US soil since 9/11.
Take a few minutes to watch....

Mr. Bumbler

2007-09-11T10:54:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I saw a bit of the interview with Bill Clinton on Larry King Live.
Clinton is so articulate and in command of the facts and issues (regardless of whether you agree with him or not).
And our Mr. Bumbler is still going around the world.

One a week

2007-09-10T10:07:00.000+02:00

Senate Guru 2008 has published a list of scandals involving Republicans in 2008.
There has been one a week - actually more: one every 5.7 days.
See the list here.
A number of commenters want to know where the list of corruption in the Deomcratic party is. Wouldn't it be more fair to publish that list also?
Good question, but not really relevant.
My mother always said that it doesn't matter what the other boy does - you keep your own nose clean.
And another person comments - right on the money: Actually, since W has been in power, I have had a hard time reconciling the depth of the corruption with the lack of outrage, or even coverage.
Bingo.

Kickin' ass

2007-09-07T15:50:00.000+02:00

CNN reports the following (and I have read it in other sources, too):

WASHINGTON (CNN) — When President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq last weekend, he made clear he was pleased with what he saw.
"The security situation is changing," Bush told reporters during the visit. "There's more work to be done. But reconciliation is taking place."
But according to the Sydney Morning Herald of Australia, the president gave a more-to-the-point assessment to Australia Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile.
"We're kicking ass," Bush said to Vaile Tuesday, according the Herald, after the deputy prime minister inquired about his trip to Iraq.

I know whose I'd like to kick........

English

2007-09-03T07:48:00.000+02:00

Last week the videoclip of Miss Teenage South Carolina answering a question with complete nonsense spread like wildfire over blogworld. Click here to see it yourself if you haven't already.
Recently I've come across a blog dedicated to pointing out the wrong use of the apostrophe. Here is the blog. You'll find examples like:

Ladie's room.
Gordon win's again.
Abuse for writer's.

I'm (notice the apostrophe) proud to announce that I corrected one of these in the main evangelical missions magazine, EMQ. They had their Reader's Respond section until I, in a gentle mail, reminded them that it should be Readers Respond. Really - I did it very nicely, and it was immediately changed.......

This one has nothing to do with the apostrophe, but it is hilarious. It comes from a report about the Philadelphia Phillies losing to the Florida Marlins (it was a crucial game).

Anyway, the last at-bat is described this way:

Rollins then flew out to center on the next pitch to short-circuit the rally and deflate any momentum Philadelphia had still been carrying from its four-game sweep of New York earlier in the week.

Can't you just see Rollins flapping his arms and levitating while the stadium crowd goes crazy, wondering if he really will make it to center field, and, if he does, ready to believe in miracles and immediately join this church?

For those of you who don't know what is wrong with this sentence, it should be flied.

Ah - English is difficult. Just ask our Commander in Chief.

You knew I'd somehow get to him, didn't you?

Partisanship

2007-08-30T16:14:00.000+02:00

In remarks about the resignation of Attorney General Gonzalez, President Bush made the following statement:

After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position, and I accept his decision. It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons.

It is very clear that partisanship is as bad in Washington as it has ever been.
Surely it has not gotten better since Bush took office.
He was the one who promised he could reach across political lines, having been so successful in Texas. He saw it as his moral duty.

Although you can't directly blame a leader for the failures of his followers, a measure of competence is how you get people to follow you and your ideals.

Again: a failing grade.

Moms (sigh): we're so glad they love us

2007-08-27T08:50:00.000+02:00

Cheney

2007-08-21T09:20:00.000+02:00

This interview of Jon Stewart with the biographer of Dick Cheney Stephen Hays is really good.
Worth taking the time to listen to. Jon is really good at getting to the real issues.
But first, watch this:

God loves the world according to Pyromaniacs

2007-08-12T17:32:00.000+02:00

If you want to experience first-hand what kind of exegetical summersaults Augustinians have to perform to explain how God can love the world while condemning some or many to hell, check this link to Pyromaniacs.
I read this blog because I want to be balanced in my reading, but I disagree pretty thoroughly with their theology.
And I find it interesting that there are almost no dissenting voices on their comments any more. People have given up trying to interact fruitfully with them.
But - check it out for yourself.

Talbott (2)

2007-08-12T17:04:00.000+02:00

Talbott also makes this observation: God commands us to love Him above all else, and to love our neighbor as ourself.

According to the Augustinian view, there are people whom God does not love, people whom He sends to an everlasting hell. The book of Romans says, for examnple: " Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated."

Interesting that God commands Jakob to love Esau as himself, but God feels free to hate Esau.

Last Picture

2007-08-12T15:22:00.000+02:00

The last picture before we left La Fayette, where we've been the last ten days. I think I have not mentioned here that we have been on vacation in Philadelphia and Georgia the last 2 weeks. We go back to Holland on Friday.
Hooray for the Dutch vacation practices!

Thomas Talbott

2007-08-07T21:56:00.000+02:00

While on vacation I have read a book by Thomas Talbott about universal reconciliation. The book is called “The Inescapable Love of God”. It is a fascinating book, because it approaches this subject from a philosophical and logical viewpoint, and less a theological one.
A few quotes from the book:

“A cardinal doctrine of Christian faith is that God, being a loving Creator, is at work in the world redeeming sinners…But Christians have often disagreed among themselves about the extent and the ultimate success of God’s redemptive activity, and those disagreements reflect surprisingly different conceptions of the divine nature. The conceptions are so different, indeed, that some might wonder whether all Christians in fact worship the same God.
Here is a relatively easy way to understand these issues and to organize our thinking about them. We begin with an inconsistent set of three propositions:

1. It is God’s redemptive purpose for the world (and therefore His will) to reconcile all sinners to himself.
2. It is within God’s power to achieve his redemptive purpose for the world.
3. Some sinners will never be reconciled to God, and God will therefore either consign then to a place of punishment, from which there will be no hope of escape, or put them out of existence altogether.” (pg 43)

Talbott comments that there are Bible verses that seem to support each of these propositions.
Talbott comments further that each of the three main streams of theological thinking in the church reject one of these three propositions – and thus a proposition that seems to have Bibical support!

Augustinians (and Calvinist and the Reformed) reject the first proposition, believing that God has elected a select group of people for salvation. Propositions 2 and 3 stand, because Gods will to save some cannot be thwarted and hell is real.
Arminians (evangelicals) reject proposition 2. God does want to save everyone, but because people have a free will, they are free to reject God’s salvation. God is thus not able (or He limits himself because of man’s free will) to save everyone.
Universalists reject proposition 3. God does desire to save everyone, and He will accomplish His redemptive purpose. An eternal Hell with no hope of restoration cannot exist.

I quote again:

“So here, then, are three quite different pictures of God: According to the Augustinian picture, God’s redemptive purposes are not thwarted, but He is limited in in love; according to the Arminian picture, God’s love is unlimited, but His redemptive purposes are thwarted by factors over which he has no control; and according to the universalist picture, God’s love is unlimited and his redemptive purposes are unthwarted as well. Accordingly, a question that may now arise is: “Which of our three pictures best preserves the praiseworthy character and glory of the divine nature?” And, two additional questions: “Which picture, if true, would provide the firmest foundation for hope? – and which seems the most likely to cultivate our fears?” (pg 48)

Pretty interesting stuff. I'd be interested in what you think.

Incompetence again....

2007-08-03T14:22:00.000+02:00

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates offers a blunt review of the (political) situation in Iraq after his visit there.
Reflecting on the difficulty of political reconciliation there, Gates said:

“We probably all underestimated the depth of the mistrust and how difficult it would be for these guys to come together on legislation, which, let’s face it, is not some kind of secondary issue.”

I don't have the training, expertise and experience of American diplomats, but my experience with living in other cultures makes me understand in a second how difficult it is to deal with mistrust among cultural and tribal groups. This is a job that will take decades.

It's too bad incompetence is not an impeachable offense.
In a parliamentary system of government, these guys would have been out on their ears long ago.

Logic

2007-07-25T21:26:00.000+02:00

President Bush made this statement in his speech yesterday in South Carolina, while he was trying to drive home his talking points:

Some note that al Qaida in Iraq did not exist until the U.S. invasion -- and argue that it is a problem of our own making. The argument follows the flawed logic that terrorism is caused by American actions. Iraq is not the reason that the terrorists are at war with us.

Apparently, someone who notes the simple fact that al Qaida wasn't in Iraq before the botched US follow-up to the invasion, and wonders what that has to say about our being in Iraq and the war on terror, is guilty of flawed logic.

The person asking that question is not suggesting that the terrorism is caused by U.S. actions.
I know, because I have the same question.

The questions we want answered are:
1. Al Qaida was not in Iraq before we invaded, and could come into Iraq because we botched the follow-up. Can you say what went wrong and what we could have done differently? That is an important question, not to harp on mistakes of the past, but to learn for the future. (Imagine that we do invade Iran sometime...)
2. What do we need to do to keep al Qaida from coming into other countries in the Middle East? We know the Taliban is regaining strength in Afghanistan. How can we prevent al Qaida from coming in with them?
3. Why should we trust the intelligence information you now present to "prove" al Qaida is in Iraq and what their intentions are any more than the intelligence information upon which you went to war?
4. How's the hunt for Osama bin Laden going?

If any of my 5 readers can show me where my logic is flawed, I'll write an email of apoplogy to the President.

Demotivation

2007-07-23T09:04:00.000+02:00

At DESPAIR, INC., we believe motivational products create unrealistic expectations, raising hopes only to dash them. That's why we created our soul-crushingly depressing Demotivators® designs, so you can skip the delusions that motivational products induce and head straight for the disappointments that follow!
Here are a couple of their posters. Great idea! I feel better already!

We almost had 'em!

2007-07-20T20:36:00.000+02:00

One language

2007-07-18T16:56:00.000+02:00

Our administration is trying to insist that English be the only spoken language in the U.S.
They are pursuing that goal with their usual competence:

Winner or loser?

2007-07-18T07:48:00.000+02:00

The other day I read this piece in the Washington Post: Why Bush is a Winner.
I thought it seemed to make some good points.
Then today I read an answering piece: Why Bush is a Loser.
The real title should probably be: Won some, lost some.

The primary task of a President is to represent his country.
People should see in him - what he is like and how he acts - the basic core values of our country, and be able to depend on them.

And on that score, Bush is a loser, in my book.
His inability to articulate clearly and with nuances.
The fact that torture and wiretapping are associated with the United States.
World-changing decisions based on faulty intelligence and unfounded assumptions.
New Orleans: "you're doin' a heckuva job, Brownie!"
Al Qaeda is rebuilding and Osama is still at large.
Scooter Libby pardon.
Administrative chaos at the Justice Department and Walter Reed.

A recent example is the answer Bush gave to a question from a reporter about the morality of senior administration officials (whoever they were) leaking the name of a CIA agent (the press conference of July 12). Here is the Bush response, and it is so different from his statements in the 2000 campaign about restoring honesty and morality to the White House. His policy had been to fire anyone leaking information from his administration. That was a campaign promise. Bush had told voters at a campaign event in Pittsburgh that his administration would "ask not only what is legal but what is right, not what the lawyers allow but what the public deserves." Remember?

As the one representing our values, this non-answer speaks volumes about how bad things have become:
I'm aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person, and I've often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, I did it. Would we have had this, you know, endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter? But it's been a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House, and it's run its course and now we're going to move on.

Distraction

2007-07-15T23:13:00.000+02:00

My sermon this morning was disaster.
A combination of: difficult subject (The parables of judgement by Jesus), wanting to say too much, a few listeners whom I knew didn't agree with me, and a congregation that was tired after a week of an evangelistic sport camp.
Anyway, I was able to sleep on the couch for a while this afternoon.
Later I finished two paintings I had started.
Since last January I have taken up painting.
It's a great distraction.
And today was no exception.
Her is one I finished:

The Zimmers

2007-07-14T00:33:00.000+02:00

Heard of The Zimmers yet?
I'll bet you have.
A British rock band with the oldest members in the world.
Art, the lead singer, is 90, Buster, at 100, is the oldest member.
Protesting against the way elderly people are treated in our society.
I think this is a big problem in Western Europe.
Good on you, Zimmers! Sock it to 'em!

Their song?
My Generation, by The Who.

Take a look! Here are the lyrics...for those of you who are too old to remember this song.

People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Just because we get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
Why don't you all f-fade away (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
And don't try to dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
I'm not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-g-generation (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby

Why don't you all f-fade away (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
And don't try to d-dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
I'm not trying to cause a b-big s-s-sensation (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
I'm just talkin' 'bout my g-g-generation (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby
People try to put us d-down (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Just because we g-g-get around (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
Yeah, I hope I die before I get old (Talkin' 'bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby

The perfect husband

2007-07-13T09:10:00.000+02:00

Stop Gay Marriage Now!

2007-07-10T17:03:00.000+02:00

The Religious Right has been has been fighting now for years to stop Gay Marriage, one of the reasons being that when gays marry, it weakens heterosexual marriage.
Now the the correctness of that position is becoming crystal clear.
Marriages of important (Christian) people are failing faster than we can keep track of them.
The latest is David Vitter.
Read the commentary of Jon Swift on it here.

Withdrawal

2007-07-10T13:02:00.000+02:00

I've never been ashamed of reading the New York Times (online).
A pretty good editorial about Iraq.
Some quotes from it.
Read the whole thing here.

It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit....
While Mr. Bush scorns deadlines, he kept promising breakthroughs — after elections, after a constitution, after sending in thousands more troops. But those milestones came and went without any progress toward a stable, democratic Iraq or a path for withdrawal. It is frighteningly clear that Mr. Bush’s plan is to stay the course as long as he is president and dump the mess on his successor. Whatever his cause was, it is lost....
Despite President Bush’s repeated claims, Al Qaeda had no significant foothold in Iraq before the invasion, which gave it new base camps, new recruits and new prestige. This war diverted Pentagon resources from Afghanistan, where the military had a real chance to hunt down Al Qaeda’s leaders. It alienated essential allies in the war against terrorism. It drained the strength and readiness of American troops.
And it created a new front where the United States will have to continue to battle terrorist forces and enlist local allies who reject the idea of an Iraq hijacked by international terrorists. The military will need resources and bases to stanch this self- inflicted wound for the foreseeable future.
There are already nearly two million Iraqi refugees, mostly in Syria and Jordan, and nearly two million more Iraqis who have been displaced within their country....Beyond the suffering, massive flows of refugees — some with ethnic and political resentments — could spread Iraq’s conflict far beyond Iraq’s borders....
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have used demagoguery and fear to quell Americans’ demands for an end to this war. They say withdrawing will create bloodshed and chaos and encourage terrorists. Actually, all of that has already happened — the result of this unnecessary invasion and the incompetent management of this war.
This country faces a choice. We can go on allowing Mr. Bush to drag out this war without end or purpose. Or we can insist that American troops are withdrawn as quickly and safely as we can manage — with as much effort as possible to stop the chaos from spreading.

Torture

2007-07-09T09:43:00.000+02:00

An article in Harper's Magazine about torture and the Bush administration.
Some excerpts:

One of the truly disturbing aspects of the Bush Administration’s program of “enhanced interrogation techniques” is that there’s nothing new about them. Each of the techniques is well known; each has a very long legacy. The practice of waterboarding, for instance, was closely associated with the Spanish Inquisition, and appears diagramed and explained in woodcut prints from the early sixteenth century. Similarly, the practice we know as the “cold cell”–or hypothermia–was carefully developed by the Soviet NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB, as a means of preparing prisoners for interrogation. The Soviets used the motto “no blood, no shame,” and the same motto recently emerged in units of the American armed forces in Iraq.

Many of these techniques were also practiced during World War II and the years leading up to it. They were certainly not practiced by the United States, however. The practitioners were German, particularly the Geheime Staatspolizei or Gestapo and the Sicherheitsdienst or SD, the intelligence arm of the SS. The procedures were known as “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or in German, verschärfte Vernehmung…

Critics will no doubt say I am accusing the Bush administration of being Hitler. I’m not. There is no comparison between the political system in Germany in 1937 and the U.S. in 2007. What I am reporting is a simple empirical fact: the interrogation methods approved and defended by this president are not new. Many have been used in the past. The very phrase used by the president to describe torture-that-isn’t-somehow-torture–”enhanced interrogation techniques”–is a term originally coined by the Nazis. The techniques are indistinguishable. The methods were clearly understood in 1948 as war-crimes. The punishment for them was death.

Pardon me Mr. Libby

2007-07-05T17:39:00.000+02:00

Certainly not the last word on this here.
Probably not even the smartest word.
Seems like a real dumb move by Bush, especially in the light of current public opinion.
Here are some comments I read on Right Reason: the weblog for conservative philosophers (for you Right Wingers who think I don't read anything from the Right. For more proof that I keep informed on opinions from the Right, click here.):

Strange coincidence that Marc Rich's lawyer (Rich was pardoned by Clinton at the end of his term and that of course is getting lots of press again now. [NV]) was none other than Scooter Libby. One good turn deserves another. I especially enjoyed the arguments on NRO and elsewhere that there was no underlying crime, so of course there was no reason to prosecute. Seems like I have heard that argument before...must be a trick of the memory.

What a fall - from the promise to "restore honor and dignity to the White House" to be defended (by several of the usual Republican suspects on cable tv) by the pathetic, "Well, Clinton made some really bad pardons." But I guess that promise was already rendered a bad joke a long time ago.

Liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, it appears to me to make no difference. The action seems to be that those with money and power take good care of one another.
So even when political parties change, the rules don't.

Married

2007-07-04T21:15:00.000+02:00

Today our son Ben married his girl Ramona here in Heemstede.
The Dutch laws about weddings are different than those of the U.S.
A minister has no official right to wed a couple.
Only a specifically appointed official of the township may do that.
He or she always wears a black robe.

It is a very offical ceremony: the couple is asked specifically if they will uphold the responsibilities laid upon them by the laws governing marriage, and after they say "yes" the official proclamation is made.
Witnesses are asked to sign the marriage certificate.
This is in case the marriage certificiate is ever lost, and the township records are lost. Someone can always prove they are married by calling the witnesses.
The church service for Ben and Ramona will take place next December. That was the only time we could get our whole family together.
Strange as it seems to American ears, that's the way things are here.
Anyway, we're grateful and thankful for them. They are a great couple.

But this is a pretty nice couple too, right?

Here are the four of us:

For and against

2007-07-03T07:49:00.001+02:00

Women through the ages

2007-06-24T22:10:00.000+02:00

What can compare to a beautiful woman?

A classic contest

2007-06-21T13:00:00.000+02:00

Issues

2007-06-19T08:30:00.000+02:00

Wanna be more involved in issues that affect us all?
Wanna think about them more?
Wanna do something about them?
No better way than write a song.......

Flight of the conchords

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Father's Day

2007-06-17T19:42:00.001+02:00

None of you would teach your children these things in this way, right?
Fathers - you may want to think a little bit deeper and longer about your example to your kids.

Lightening strikes the wicked

2007-06-11T08:40:00.000+02:00

You've probably seen this, but if not, it's a "blast"!