iPandora

TREE HUGGING EX-VEEP Al Gore is under fire for apparently failing to practise what he preaches, spending $30,000 on gas and electricity at his Nashville estate last year – 20 times the national average.

Al Gore nabbed in $30,000 electricity shocker

Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth”

Hey Matt,

Considering that you are in the field of customer service and technical support with computers I was wondering how you’ve received Windows Vista. I’m sure you get a lot of questions on the topic with new computers and such and I guess I come somewhat as a customer as I just sold my desktop and purchased a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop with Vista Home Premium.

I’m going back to school, going to finish up some basic stuff at Sac City before I go to UC Davis in 2008 where I get a 66% discount. Aviation Science & Engineering is my field of choice. Hope to have my degree by 30.

Here’s the specs:

Intel C2D T5600 (2MB/1.82Ghz/667Mhz FSB)
15.4 Ultra Sharp TrueLife WXGA
2GB DDR2 667
ATI Mobile X1400 256MB (128 dedicated, I believe)
100GB, 7200RPM
Windows Vista Home Premium
84Whr, 9 cell, Lio-Battery
10/100 & Wireless
DVD/CD-RW 8X
3Yr Warranty

Cost me $1540 after $560 of savings!

So what are you opinions and impressions of the OS?

Yesterday I read an article on the Google News Aggregator about how James Cameron, the director of the film “Titanic” was working on a documentary regarding a tomb in Jerusalem which some think contains the bodies of the famiy of Jesus, including Jesus himself. The article breathlessly crowed about this sensational find, leaving by the wayside several pertinent facts.

This morning, scanning the Google headlines again, I came across an article which loudly proclaimed the truth such as the paper yesterday decided to forgo. A headline does not get much more damning than this “Scholars Across The World Expose Jesus’ Tomb Hoaxumentary”. What was odd this morning was the number or articles rehashing the story from yesterday in breathless excitement and the few stalwarts which state the real facts and the point of this story being moot as of nearly 10 years ago.

BocksBlog: No Need to Yell, Only a Challenge for Some who Need to Step Up and Could – Feb 24/25

BocksBlog: Hollywood Hype: The Oscars and Jesus’ Family Tomb, What Do They Share?

The BBC reported today on a study done by the Pew Internet and American Life Project which finds that people who use wireless internet access are more involved in the internet than those who do not. I’d like to know who thought it might’ve been any different.

Think with me. User one has a desktop sitting in the corner of their bedroom with internet access, he’s busily wasting precious time waiting for myspace to load and error and his wife calls for dinner. He must leave his computer or risk being inserted bodily into the cyber world of myspace by way of a hole in his monitor made by his head following a massive shock from the rear of the head courtesy of said wife waiting with dinner. Now see user two, with his laptop and wireless internet access conveniently available from a neighbor with an IQ less than pi, who despite all the warning and handy setup options from his wireless setup wizard, did not set up any security. His wife calls for dinner as he savily updates his Facebook profile. He brings his laptop with him to the table and he and his wife, both on their respective laptops, proceed to have a quiet candle-lit dinner, exchanging sweet nothings using over Google-talk via the Jabber protocol on the Meebo.com website.

Seriously, who thought it could be any other way. Geeks rule.

I will say nothing of the plot to save from spoilers, except to say that the story of the movie has little indeed to do with the content or supposed storyline portrayed by the trailers. But Bridge To Terabithia made me shiver with excitement, nearly cry with pathos, and feel very good at the end. Yes, it almost made me cry. I highly recommend for anyone 8 and over. Younger children will not understand. Adults will enjoy it by themselves as much as with kids. See it.

I have recently made friends with a young Navy man. He’s based an hour away from where I’m at, and some mutual friends have been driving to pick him up on weekends so he can go off-base for his few days off. Recently he decided to attend church with us, and wore his uniform to the service. Our church is very military friendly, with several members and relatives and friends of the church family in the various branches. But while I was discussing the topics of going off-base, uniforms, and various and sundry other random topics which were relevant at that time and no longer.

My Navy friend, with a serious look on his face, told me his officers and other members of the military have told him it is unwise to wear ones uniform off-base into public places such as malls. He having personal experience, concurred that he no longer wears his uniform off-base except for special occasions. He says that when he goes to malls or other public areas he gets “looks” which are less than friendly or encouraging. He says that one particular jeweler at a local mall in his home town, while purporting to be friendly to military members due in part to its owner being ex-military, actually charges premiums to members of the military.

This is serious news. Ever since Vietnam, when the military were vilified and ostracized, called “baby killer” and worse. When the name of our boys were besmirtched by communist-sympathyzing elites with microphones and cameras to talk to. When the current generation of teachers and professors and academics of all flavors cut their teeth on lies and grew misshapen and twisted in a continual flood of hateful, vitriolic, and false attacks on the bedrock, the foundations of America and the world. We are in serious trouble. If we cannot put aside our differences and at least support our troops, no matter the cause of battle. If we cannot see a just battle and righteous war when it is looking us in the face. We are in serious trouble.

I genuinely fear for America. And as America reviles its own hope for defence of freedom, justice, and the American way, the real supermen and superwomen, we stand to lose so much more than our freedom. Man cannot take away our soul, but if we’ve already sold it…

Michael Crichton Is Right!, By: Joseph L. Bast

3. What Crichton Says about Global Warming

Early in the book, Crichton has one of his characters define global warming as “the heating up of the earth from burning fossil fuels.” (p. 80) Not so, says another character, who defines global warming as follows:

… global warming is the theory that increased levels of carbon dioxide and certain other gases are causing an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere because of the so-called ‘greenhouse effect.’ (p. 81, italics in the original)

The second definition is correct. “Global warming” really is only a theory, not a fact, and the words Crichton chose to italicize are all key terms in the scientific debate over whether the theory is correct or not. Over the course of the book, other characters document the following flaws in the theory of global warming:

most of the warming in the past century occurred before 1940, before CO2 emissions could have been a major factor (p. 84);

temperatures fell between 1940 and 1970 even as CO2 levels increased (p. 86);

temperature readings from reporting stations outside the U.S. are poorly maintained and staffed and probably inaccurate; those in the U.S., which are probably more accurate, show little or no warming trend (pp. 88-89);

“full professors from MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Duke, Virginia, Colorado, UC Berkeley, and other prestigious schools … the former president of the National Academy of Sciences … will argue that global warming is at best unproven, and at worst pure fantasy” (p. 90);

temperature sensors on satellites report much less warming in the upper atmosphere (which the theory of global warming predicts should warm first) than is reported by temperature sensors on the ground (p. 99);

data from weather balloons agree with the satellites (p. 100);

“No one can say for sure if global warming will result in more clouds, or fewer clouds,” yet cloud cover plays a major role in global temperatures (p. 187);

Antarctica “as a whole is getting colder, and the ice is getting thicker” (p. 193, sources listed on p. 194);

The Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica has been melting for the past 6,000 years (p. 195, p. 200-201); “Greenland might lose its ice pack in the next thousand years” (p. 363);

I also recommend reading an article in Newsweek magazine published in April of 1975 titled, “The Cooling World”.

I’m getting so tired of this fear mongering by the crazy socialists; I dare not even call them liberals now because they care NOT to liberate us from anything but merely enslave us into their self pleasing agenda of death. They are socialists of the highest order. Al Gore of all people and yet he is listened to!? Once a politician ALWAYS a politician. Once he lost the election he naturally had to make himself a niche in the world to make a living. He’s not a scientist, he’s a talking head. To even think mankind can effect the global environment is ego-centric and ludicrous.

Socialists are always accusing the President and the Republican party of fear mongering but the last time I checked we were in fact bombed with two planes on 9/11. The last time I checked those radical Muslims hate the west and continually wish it to death. Yeah, so lets just ignore 9/11 and the general threat of Terrorism for global warming or any other of the socialists crack pot ideas. It just sickens me. Here in California, the craziest of states, CRV taxes went up (which if I get the refund money have to pay taxes on), and we all have to pay for recycling fees of our TVs and LCDs, as if I don’t pay for it when I go to the dump.

Global warming seems to me to be a cult, a fad and merely a theory. We all can love our environment and protect it as we should, for we are commanded to take dominion and “tend to the garden” but this agenda of “global warming” is only for power and money; which are the goals of post-modernism.

Toward a more Savage Nation

Selwyn Duke Selwyn Duke
February 23, 2007

The Savage Nation is a land where political correctness finds no safe harbor. Savage unabashedly waxes patriotic, as he fights the culture war with a battle cry of “Borders, language and culture.” He rightly sounds the alarm about radical Islam, the invasion by illegal aliens, the ACLU, feminism and the homosexual mafia, enduring the slings and arrows of those who would tarnish the tellers of truth. He rails against the moral decay represented by pop tarts, Howard Stern, gangsta rappers and the prevalence of pornography.

Yet, despite Savage’s impressive credentials as a traditionalist, he is no blind flag-waver or party loyalist. An independent thinker, he casts the discerning eye within as well as without, exposing America’s true characteristic faults, as opposed to the imaginary ones of leftist conjurers. And his ire is no respecter of party lines, as he has often roasted George W. Bush on the same spit that has impaled the president’s most ardent foes.

Lastly, although Savage is certainly versed in the hyperbole and acid-tongued rhetoric that are staples of talk radio, any honest listener is quickly struck by how his presentation is more sophistication than savagery. He not only nimbly segues from the emotional to the dialectical, from the earthly to the ethereal, and from satire to sober analysis, but is also equal parts philosopher, preacher and poet. He is unafraid to invoke biblical passages when providing insight on today’s woes and demonstrates a grasp of history impressive enough to convince one that he has not forgotten the mistakes of the past. Simply put, he talks about everything the major presidential contenders should but never will.

Though I don’t think Savage should run for office or any such thing, I agree in principle for what he states. We need more people like him in our culture. Much of what people have dismissed him for has come to pass. I’ve been listening to him for a couple of years now, and if you take the time to really listen to him you’ll realize you’re getting a REAL human being and not some waterboy. His “agenda” is heartfelt and sincere and I believe is the best remedy for saving America; because in all honesty its closer to the truth than many other commentators in the media.

Except from, “Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture,” by Gene Edward Veith, JR. published 1994. pgs 64 – 68.

Human Language And God’s Language

Christians can agree with postmodern theorists that meaning is made up of language. But where as the secular theorists assume that language is only a human phenomenon, Christians go much further.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shine sin the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it… The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen this glory, the glory of the One and the Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:1-5, 14)”

Language – God’s language – existed before human beings and before the physical universe. Language is indeed intrinsic to thought and to personality itself. God’s Word in an intrinsic part o His unfathomable being.
Furthermore, God’s language made the world. The universe was created, according to Genesis, by a series of speech-acts. (“God said, ‘let there be light,’ and there was light,” and so on [Gen. 1:3].) The Word of God brings into existence whatever He declares. “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made…. for he spoke, and it came to be” (Ps 33:6, 9). Before God spoke, “the form and fullness to existence. The order of the universe, the reality of scientific laws, the language like codes of DNA, and the mathematical consistency of physics all have their origin in the Word of God.
Like God, human beings have language. God is personal, capable of thought and of relationship, which are mediated through language. Adam and Eve could speak because the were created in God’s image. The source of their personality, including their capacity for language, was the personality and language of God. Genesis, however, makes clear that there is a difference between God’s language and human language, even before the Fall.

“Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man call each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. (Gen. 2:19-20)”

Significantly, God gave human beings a certain autonomy of language. Adam was allowed to make up his own words for what God had made. “Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.”
This distinction between God’s almighty words and human words, which are transient and arbitrary, means that human language is not sacred as such. It is likely to be changeable, limited, and somewhat clumsy. Just as there must be a vast difference between the infinite God and the limited thought sinless creature, there is an innate gap between human language and God’s language. This gap and the limits of human language became even more profound and complicated with the Fall.
The devil used words to seduce Adam and Eve into sin. He invented lies, severing language from truth. The devil, or serpent, cast doubt on God’s Word (“Did God really say, ‘you must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” [Gen. 3:1]). Even sinned; then the talked Adam into sinning. They then used language to rationalize what they did and to berate each other. They hid from God’s voice (“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the OLRD God…and they hid” [Gen 3:8]).
The sinfulness of human language built through history until God executed a special judgment against language itself. “Now the whole world had one language and a common speech” (Gen 11:1). The unity of the human race and the ability of everyone to understand each other seem a utopian ideal, but these noble-sounding goals forget the reality of human sin. Human unity meant that the potential for tyranny, idolatry, and every kind of evil was only magnified. As these unified people began to build themselves a great city with a tower that reached the heavens, God intervened.

“If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. (Gen. 11:6-7)”

After Babel, human language is confused. We can no longer fully understand each other. Although our language presumes to erect structures that reach the heavens, in reality we are using our words to rebel against God’s Word.
God’s Word creates and condemns, but it also redeems. God called the Adam and Eve, and gave His Word as a promise to all the patriarchs. God revealed Himself in human language in the words of the prophets and in the inspired text of the Bible. God’s Word is not only far above human language, but it is of a different order completely. God’s Word is Jesus Christ, the Second person of the Trinity. God’s language is not merely meaningful sounds or marks on a page, but God’s mind, His self, His only begotten Son who became incarnate in the world that He Himself had spoken into existence: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (Jn 1:14). The Incarnate Word died on the cross to atone for all of human sin. Pentecost undid the curse of Babel when the gift of the Holy Spirit enabled the apostles to preach in a way intelligible to speakers of many languages (Acts 2:1-12).
God continues to work in a powerful way by means of His Word. Whenever we read the Bible, whenever a pastor preaches a sermon on a text of Scripture, whenever we explain the gospel to someone, the Holy Spirit is at work. “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edge sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb 4:12). Just as God’s Word called the universe into existence from nothingness, so God’s Word can create faith in the formless void of a sinner’s heart. “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).
Postmodern theorists are right when they focus upon the centrality of language. For them, however, language is a prison house a cultural creation. They say that there is no transcendent logos, no meaning outside of language. They assume that there is no God. For those who do believe in God and in transcendent logos who in Jesus Christ, the case is more complicated.
Yes, human language has gaps, limits and slippage. Our language is clumsy; using words to express what we mean is sometimes like trying to thread a needle while wearing gloves. But human language is a sign, a trace, of divine language. Language may get in the way sometimes, but it is also revelatory. Meaning is not only subjective; the external world is itself grounded in the Word of God, which established its form and gave it an objective meaning. When we study science, we are not merely making up mental models, but we are, in a sense, reading the divine language inscribed into the universe. Language in not merely a prison house; God’s language can break in from the outside and give us freedom.

Apparently, by studying chimpanzees and their hunting habits, scientists who look inside the box for the answers to life the universe and everything are now surmising and postulating that it was women who invented the first weapons. Previous ideas ranged along the lines of hairy man-beasts sharpening sticks and poking each others eyes out around the camp fire until some extra-cranially-endowed-but-still-hairy man-beast decided these sticks would work great for poking the bad guys too and for making instant shish-kabobs out of the various food groups comprising their diets.

I knew all along, the women are the violent ones. The guys really just want to stay home and play video games. The women are the ones that get all worked up when the guy goes over to his buddies house and plays video games there, the guy couldn’t care less. Not that I have any proof that I’ve known this, but I did.

Of course, you know what this means: the women finally have proof they’ve actually lead a society in the past. I mean, think of this, the classic image is of the cave man, hairy-crap-for-brains himself, clocking the women over the head and dragging her off the to the cave to cook and clean for him. Then through the ages it’s always been the men, apparently, who’ve gone and done the fighting and dying and ruling and trying. The women gave advice, patched the guys back together, and sighed and rolled their eyes as the men went back out and started fighting again. And the women claim they should be running things. Well, apparently now there’s proof that the women really have done it before. So now I don’t feel so bad about voting for Hillarious Rodamn Clifton.