Campus Crusade for Kitsch

TWU: News & Events: "'Kitsch” may be a new word for some people, but it has existed for many years. In the contemporary world it is evident in everything from “Jesus is my homeboy” T-shirts, to the commercializing of Christmas; the sentimentality of what was once sacred and meaningful replaced by cheap reproductions. This September, Trinity Western University art professor and kitsch expert Betty Spackman, released her debut book, A Profound Weakness, Christians and Kitsch, a collection of questions and discoveries from her own artistic journey which grapples with kitsch in the western world."

Talk about a Quagmire

Transterrestrial Musings: "As this bloody and futile war enters its fourth year, the casualties continue to rise, and while it's hard to know how many American soldiers have been lost, due to a secretive Roosevelt administration, many analysts think that the number of deaths in brutal battle is now approaching a quarter of a million."

The wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time?

A proud member of the UN

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iran leader defends Israel remark: " Iran's president has defended his widely criticised call for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

Attending an anti-Israel rally in Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his remarks were "just" - and the criticism did not "have any validity".

His initial comment provoked anger from many governments, and prompted Israel to demand Iran's expulsion from the UN...

Shouting 'Death to Israel, death to the Zionists', the protesters dragged Israeli flags along the ground and then set them on fire."

The Cover Up

BREITBART.COM - Just The News: "In each of the counts, the basic allegation against Libby is that he lied to investigators or Fitzgerald's grand jury about his conversations with reporters. He is not accused of purposely revealing the identity of a covert officer, the potential charge that Fitzgerald was initially appointed to investigate. "

No crime, just a cover up. It's always about the cover up.

Strong, Sweet Smell Reported in Manhattan

That is news.

Michelle Malkin: DEMONIZING CONDI

Michelle Malkin: "No, Condi isn't possessed; the photo was manipulated."

Media bias (Condi's freaking eyes) that you can see with your own freaking eyes.

MY ADVICE TO CHRISTIANS, JEWS, HINDUS, ETC:

Instapundit.com: "MY ADVICE TO CHRISTIANS, JEWS, HINDUS, ETC: Start blowing things up and beheading people. This will gain you enormous solicitude from the powers-that-be:"

Read the whole thing.

The Gospel According to Anne

MSNBC.com: "They've been worried about her. After 25 novels in 25 years, Rice, 64, hasn't published a book since 2003's 'Blood Chronicle,' the tenth volume of her best-selling vampire series. They may have heard she came close to death last year, when she had surgery for an intestinal blockage, and also back in 1998, when she went into a sudden diabetic coma; that same year she returned to the Roman Catholic Church, which she'd left at 18. They surely knew that Stan Rice, her husband of 41 years, died of a brain tumor in 2002. And though she'd moved out of their longtime home in New Orleans more than a year before Hurricane Katrina, she still has property there—and the deep emotional connection that led her to make the city the setting for such novels as 'Interview With the Vampire.' What's up with her? 'For the last six months,' she says, 'people have been sending e-mails saying, 'What are you doing next?' And I've told them, 'You may not want what I'm doing next'.' We'll know soon. In two weeks, Anne Rice, the chronicler of vampires, witches and—under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure—of soft-core S&M encounters, will publish 'Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt,' a novel about the 7-year-old Jesus, narrated by Christ himself. 'I promised,' she says, 'that from now on I would write only for the Lord.' It's the most startling public turnaround since Bob Dylan's 'Slow Train Coming' announced that he'd been born again."

Only Liberals Need Apply

Dr. Helen: "Here is another USA Today article looking at the disturbing trend of fewer men attending college--especially liberal arts colleges (gee, there's a surprise). It is easy to see why boys avoid these types of feminine empires--to succeed, one has to adopt a liberal point of view."

The Mental Ward (Churchill)

The Mental Ward (Churchill): "Todd Beamer, one of the heros of 9/11 doomed flight 93, is a graduate of DePaul University! He received his masters from the same school that financially supports Ward Churchill, who called the victims of 9/11 “little Eichmanns”."

Starbucks with a God on cups

Yahoo! News: "Coffee drinkers could get a spiritual jolt with their java in the spring when Starbucks begins putting a God-filled quote from the Rev. Rick Warren, author of the mega-selling The Purpose-Driven Life, on its cups."

Out of the mainstream...

Shock Jock's Audience Is Beating Him to the Door: "Air America, the liberal talk network carried on WWRC-AM (1260), went from bad to nonexistent. After WWRC recorded a mere fraction of a rating point in the spring with syndicated shows from the likes of lefty talkers Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo and Stephanie Miller, Arbitron couldn't detect a measurable listenership for the station this time around."

In Her Shoes (2005)

In Her Shoes is a great movie.

Warm, sad, very funny and spot on perceptive.

The best movie of it's kind since As Good as it Gets, except that there's no strong male character here (at least not as strong as Jack Nicholson).

Great movie. (Disclaimer: Of the 40 people in the theatre last night, I was one of 3 males.)

My Rating: Own it

Myths About Gun Control By John Stossel

RealClearPolitics - Commentary - Myths About Gun Control By John Stossel: "'Don't tell me this bill will not make a difference,' said President Clinton, who signed the Brady Bill into law.

Sorry. Even the federal government can't say it has made a difference. The Centers for Disease Control did an extensive review of various types of gun control: waiting periods, registration and licensing, and bans on certain firearms. It found that the idea that gun control laws have reduced violent crime is simply a myth.

I wanted to know why the laws weren't working, so I asked the experts. 'I'm not going in the store to buy no gun,' said one maximum-security inmate in New Jersey. 'So, I could care less if they had a background check or not.'

'There's guns everywhere,' said another inmate. 'If you got money, you can get a gun.'"

To see gun control laws in action, watch the movie Lord of War.

The Democratic Civil War

WorldNetDaily: Sheehan thrashing 'war hawk' Hillary: "Cindy Sheehan, the so-called 'peace mom' on a crusade to end U.S. involvement in the Iraq war, is publicly blasting Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for her continued support of the ongoing conflict."

Preview of coming attractions...

Babysitter twofer

Kate was our most recent babysitter and Emily was for a time before that. Both were CU students that we worked with in CCC. Now they are both in Russia, sharing the Gospel.

This is why we do what we do.
My Life Commentary: in the nature with God: "In this country, the outdoors is referred to as nature. My teammates, Kate and Steph, went to meet with a new Russian friend and upon deciding how they should spend their time togehter, Masha asked, 'Would you like to go to the natyre?' So Kate, Steph, and Masha strolled through the nature, got to know eachother, discussed life, and talked about God. As they talked, Masha confessed that she had never heard the word grace before, neither in English nor in Russian. She had believed in God all of her life, and also believed in Jesus, but had never heard the entire Gospel before. The three girls stood on a peninsula overlooking the lake, and Masha prayed to recieved Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. God had been working on her heart preparing her for this moment. Masha was just waiting for someone to tell her."

ScrappleFace: Senators Not Qualified to Question Miers

ScrappleFace: Specter: Senators Not Qualified to Question Miers: "'Most of us in the Senate used to be lawyers,' said Sen. Specter, 'and you can't expect a simple ambulance chaser to understand the kind of weighty issues that come before the Supreme Court.'

The chairman noted that Senators not only 'lack the intellectual heft' to comprehend Constitutional law and formulate questions about it, but many of them became lawmakers through 'what amounts to a popularity contest.'

'The average senator holds his seat thanks to personal wealth, political cronyism and the ability to perform for the camera,' Sen. Specter said. 'Those are hardly qualifications for scrutinizing a potential Supreme Court justice about the various theories related to original intent.'"

Gorgeous views can be seen...

If you want to buy our house, click here.

Please do. Then we can move to Boston.

Update: Yu-Gi-Oh cards on basement desk, sold separately. And what's up with the paint in the master bathroom. Looks like someone forgot to finish their photoshop sweetening. ...What a bargain! Spacious! blah blah blah...

stronger than the scumbags. . .

Instapundit.com -: "Here's some gloating from a Marine. Excerpt: 'The fact that there wasn’t a major mass casualty of voters, SBVIED in polling centers or assassinations conducted that the foaming mouth reporters could get in the middle of just reinforces how far the Iraqi forces have come and how they are getting stronger than the scumbags. . . . Reporters countrywide saturated the area days prior to the elections to hopefully catch the US forces failing. Well too damn bad it didn’t happen so pound sand! . . . I know that if there were an unsuccessful election, it would have been nothing but 'Breaking News' shots about how we failed.'"

Mark Twain: On Risk

Eric Swanson: "'Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.'--Mark Twain in Life and Leadership, Volume 5, Issue 7"

Well said.

Well, on to Boston.