The Peaceful Gnome

and

Hey, why didn't they tell me we were under martial law? Man, I had to find out about it on YouTube, how lame is that?

Faith alone, or faith + some work of mine?

BOHICA! Bi-Partisan support always means the little guy is getting the wrong end of the stick, again.

Serenity and I went to Pinnacles National Monument on Wednesday afternoon, we didn't do much Wednesday beyond setting up camp and hanging out at the pool in the campground, you know Serenity and water! :-) On Thursday we went on a hike on the Moses Spring–Rim Trail Loop, as the web site says this is a 2.2 mile loop, 1 1⁄2 hours elevation gain: 500 feet Moderate This loop is a good choice for rock formations, talus caves, and the reservoir on a short hike and also a good choice for children. Flashlight required in cave. Along the way we saw a tarantula: We also saw numerous lizards, rare California Red Legged Frogs in the reservoir, a half dozen striped snakes hunting the frogs, and a bat that flew at me inside the cave. It was a fun hike! Click here for some more pictures of the hike. On Friday morning we were awakened by a raccoon raiding our camp. We were sleeping outside on the ground, I had placed my shoes by my head and put my wallet and watch and keys inside of them. I...

The closer the "election" ( yeah, like they really count votes, don't make me laugh ) gets the less I feel like I'll be able to cast a vote. Palin sounded OK in that first speech but as time has gone on I've heard more of her views and liked her less each time. As a full tilt pre - millennialist she has an unfortunate attitude toward Israel, like most pentecostal fundamentalists she sees the current nation state of Israel as somehow fulfilling biblical prophecy, this is just plain wrong . The end result of this belief system is that Israel can do no wrong and the United States must fight all of Israel's enemies, with no questions allowed about whether or not those fights are actually in the best interest of the United States. Today I read a speech she was going to give to an anti-Iran rally in New York . This bizarre pack of half truths and distortions is such a hate filled screed that it has finally cured me of any lingering effects of the brief Palinma...

From Ron Paul's official site: Texas Straight Talk A weekly column Posted by Ron Paul (09-22-2008, 02:12 PM) Predictions vs. Reality in Iraq On September 10, 2002 I asked 35 questions regarding war with Iraq . The war resolution passed on October 16, 2002. Now today, as some of my colleagues try to reestablish credentials regarding spending restraint, I want to call attention to my 18th question from six years ago: “Are we willing to bear the economic burden of a 100 billion dollar war against Iraq , with oil prices expected to skyrocket and further rattle an already shaky American economy? How about an estimated 30 year occupation of Iraq that some have deemed necessary to "build democracy" there?” Many scoffed at my “radical” predictions at the time, regarding them as hyperbole. Six years later, I am forced to admit that I was wrong. My “radical” predictions were in fact, not “radical” enough. I warned of a draining 30-year occupation. Now, ...

The other day I was talking about how good wine is, but I left out the prime passage used by the anti-booze folk: Proverbs 23:19-21, 29-35 Moderation though is what is taught, not total abstinence.

William Grigg says it well on his blog, Pro Liberate : Picture the world financial market as a hugely overbuilt skyscraper resting on a badly compromised foundation. The core pillars supporting the structure are rotten and about to collapse, and the failure of any one would rapidly induce failure in all of them. The sensible approach would be to get as far as possible from the impending collapse. The Power Elite's approach is to force the commoners to work in the basement shoring up the mortally stricken building while the Important People evacuate. That won't work, of course, and the inevitable collapse will wipe out those left in the basement -- but, hey, that's just the price that has to be paid to save the Important People, who are, after all, more Important than the rest of us. Deranged financial commentator Jim Cramer didn't take refuge in metaphor to express -- and endorse -- the perspective presented in my illustration. "Frankly, I don't really ...

He's off to prison for 25 years. Well the owner of the company is anyway, though I think just the obnoxiousness of the ads ought to have earned Smilin' Bob himself at least 20 years! Now if they can just round up the rest of the snake oil salesmen preying on the gullible on TeeVee... pretty much everything they try and sell you on the idiot box is a rip off. (Side note: I've told Serenity that if she sees something on TV she can't have it, ever! :-) My take is if you need it they won't bother to advertise it.) Don't expect to see much of Smilin' Bob in the near future. By: Mark Kernes Posted: 08/29/2008 CINCINNATI - Don't expect to see much of Smilin' Bob anytime in the near future. You know Bob: He's the guy at the suburban pool party who loses his trunks, and when he climbs out, all the women point and stare at his (unseen) ****, while other men look vaguely fearful - or who looks supremely confident watering h...

When we were at Chevy's for Lora's birthday lunch they plopped a sombrero on her and sang happy birthday, the sombrero now occupies a place of honor in our library at home :-) (Photo taken with phone, sorry for the lack of quality)

I've been "tasting" quite a lot of good wine of late. As we have gone on doing this over the last few years the quality of wine we are able to tolerate has changed. Once we could buy any old supermarket Cab and be content, not anymore. Now we are drinking wine that costs twice as much and tastes twice as good. Still, wine gladdens the heart of man... Psalm 104:14-15. Of course I try and keep in mind Proverbs 20:1 as well.

I thought I'd give a little rundown of my week so far. Sunday - Wednesday = Work. That's about it for those days, once you've gone to work for 12 hours the day is over. On Thursday Mike, Lora, Serenity and I had lunch at Chevy's to celebrate Lora's 27th birthday, that was fun. Then in the evening Serenity and I were off to San Francisco for the Symphony . Dinner was at California Pizza Kitchen. The program was Leonard Bernstein in celebration of what would have been his 90th year. The music was awesome, a combination of symphonic pieces and bits of West Side Story and other musicals, including some terrific singers, even MTT and the audience sang! On Friday Lora, Mike and his girlfriend Maryann and I went out to dinner at Strizzi's in Livermore followed by wine tasting at First Street Wine . Today I cooked and froze a big batch of spaghetti for lunches, baked a loaf of bread with the bread maker Maxine gave me, did 2 loads of laundry and went with Lora t...

I sent in my bail out request to the Fed last week so I'm expecting one of these letters (American version) from Ben Bernanke any day now: Filthy thieving Demopublican Obamaites and Republicrat Pailinoids are all scrambling to bail out the filthy rich after they made a huge steaming pile of stupid investments, and WE get to pay for it. Happy happy joy joy!

Lora and Serenity got to go to the 2008 Not Back to School Picnic, I had to work :-( Here is the group photo from the event.

My recent post (September 7, 2008) on age segregation generated a comment from Peter Gray , a research professor of psychology at Boston College, ...a specialist in developmental and evolutionary psychology and author of an introductory psychology textbook, Psychology , now in its 5th edition. Someone who has "credentials" agrees with me. Cool. :-) So, I'm linking to his Psychology Today blog Freedom to Learn about the subject here , if you are interested in the subject these are terrific resources. Two recent entries in particular address the age segregation idea. From September 9: Why We Should Stop Segregating Children by Age: Part I--The Value of Play in the Zone of Proximal Development From September 17: Why We Should Stop Segregating Children by Age: Part II--The Unique Educative Qualities of Age-Mixed Play There are other interesting posts about education there as well, enjoy! As a bonus here is an excerpt from his first post on Freedom to Learn : "I ha...

"...for those who believe that the current conniption somehow presages the collapse of the American empire, please note that the sound system of elite service described above is backed up by the most powerful military machine in the history of the world (including a nuclear arsenal that can obliterate any nation at any time), directed by a militarized state that has never shown the slightest hesitation in using violent force against its own people should they step too far out of line. It's not going to collapse overnight because of a well-cushioned crash on Wall Street or a few botched wars. It still has many miles to go – and much blood yet to spill – before it faces the inevitable axe of history. " From Chris Floyd , read the rest here , him and Fred Reed , all the news you need to bother reading ;-)

The following is from Fred Reed. Everyone with a triple digit IQ ought to read everything Fred writes :-) From Out of a Rotting Log by Fred Reed by Fred Reed Just dragged my scrawny carcass in from Washington, the heart of darkness, with the usual sense – usual now – of having visited an asylum. I figure Salvador Dali designed the government. Or maybe Ionesco or Someone deeply twisted with a sick sense of humor. In the airports, the same obedience training – take off your shoes, belt, watch, fillings, prostate, so we can to learn to respect the authority of low-IQ federalized renta-cops with the psyches of school-yard bullies. God save us from the congenitally unimportant. From PA systems came the same pointless security-babble having nothing to do with security, in the same over elocuted I-wanna-lick-the-microphone female voices. Well, it’s not quite pointless. We must condition the rubes, give them an inspiriting sense of danger so they will do as they are told. It’s awful. I’m goin...

In light of the accelerating meltdown of the financial markets , combined with the widening of the war into Pakistan... here is the song of the week : We're going to hell in a handbasket, and fast .

There is an interesting conversation on Gene Veith's blog about using the REAL name of The LORD, which is Yahweh or something close to that. Ever since I first learned many years ago that LORD in most English bibles is actually a substitution for the Tetragrammaton YHWH I've said "Yahweh" whenever I read LORD during my personal readings. I do have one bible translation on my bookshelf that uses "Yahweh" instead of LORD, that is my New Jerusaelm bible, it's a Roman Catholic bible but it's very readable. It includes the apocrypha, which was the primary reason I bought it. There is a good two part blog post on Corrigenda Denuo about the subject as well. Part 1 Part 2 I am of the opinion that following an old Jewish superstition about not using the name of God outloud is a mistake and that we Christians should certainly use it in our prayers and in our translations of the bible and in our liturgy. Though I did see one comment in the Veith conver...

I just found this amusing. It's from xkcd .

Woo Hoo! Pastor Ledic's sermons at Messiah Lutheran Danville are now being podcasted! Naturally nothing replaces being there in person and receiving Absolution and the Blessed Sacrament, but for those times, like this week when I had a bout of some vile 24 hour bug, or the previous weeks when I was traveling on vacation, now I can at least hear the word preached by my own pastor. Again, WOO HOO! :-) Go to this page to subscribe via rss.xml or to listen on the web if you don't have an MP3 player. In my opinion you can never have too many good Lutheran, Law and Gospel, Christ and Him Crucified sermons on hand for emergenicies.

Testing a new gadget, RefTagger, John 3:12-20 Hey, it works! That is so very cool! :-) Just type in the bible reference and it pops right up for you, no coding or anything to do. I'm very happy to have that available. Thanks Logos!

Since, as Lutherans, we must confess that the governing authorities are instituted by God, and since Paul was referring to Roman Emperors who were persecuting Christians and since George III was not nearly as bad as Nero, we must admit that this whole "revolution" idea was just wrong and hasn't worked out very well anyway, I propose we listen to and agree to the following message from our rightful sovereign: A Message from the Queen To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas , which she does not fancy). Your new Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will appoint a Governor for Ame...

Science has proven that everything we do is because of our genes!

from the bail out of Fannie and Freddie... as usual the taxpayers get the steaming pile... From I can haz bailout?

This would be fun to have on hand in case Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses come to the door, vacuum cleaner salesmen as well ;-)

It has come to my attention that Sarah Palin has announced that she will be homeschooling her kids this year and her husband was home schooled too! Yet more reasons to like her. :-)

This is an excerpt from a longer blog post called " Why I walked out of church " The same problems are caused when we segregate children by age in schools, but here it's even more important because it tends to interfere with the very gospel: Age segregation It would behoove some of the leaders in church to read The Death of the Grown-up . While some of the book becomes a little too nostalgic for specific generations and, oddly, jazz music, it nails it on the idea of how we segregate by age and, sadly, create a self-feeding monster that means teens look to each other for cues and kids look to each other for cues, and the adults "leading" them are pandering to them to get their attention. The end result? Idiocy. Never-growing up. Never asking for behavior beyond what we have let them tell us is normal for their age. They only learn to function in their age level and have no examples or incentive to reach beyond that and mature. We make no demands on their behavi...

Unfortunately, abortion has become a political football, since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that effectively overturned all state regulation and/or abolition of abortion on demand. In essence, the federal courts have seized lawmaking ability from the state legislatures. So, abortion opponents have been pursuing a strategy that involves overturning the decision, either by a Constitutional amendment (which requires too many majorities to make this a likelihood), or the more common strategy of seeking to secure a pro-life president in the hopes that pro-abortion justices will retire or die in office on his watch, so that the pro-life president can appoint pro-life justices in hope of eventually overturning the decision over the course of time. This strategy has been a failure. Read the rest here , especially the portion at the end excerpted from Ron Paul's book.

I've posted new photos to Flickr from our Oregon Trip , also some from an early birthday present Lora got yesterday from Grandma and Kari. I'll post pictures of the set up canopy when Lora gets it set up.

Usually the Onion has satire, this time, simple facts :-) 6-Year-Old Stares Down Bottomless Abyss Of Formal Schooling August 15, 2008 | Issue 44•33 First-grader Connor Bolduc does not have the capacity to imagine the scope of the hell he is in for. CARPENTERSVILLE, IL—Local first-grader Connor Bolduc, 6, experienced the first inkling of a coming lifetime of existential dread Monday upon recognizing his cruel destiny to participate in compulsory education for the better part of the next two decades, sources reported. More.

Last week mom and I watched part of Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention. Some time into it, I'm not sure just how far, we both announced to each other that we were done with it, bored and somewhat dismayed at the vacuous platitudes he was spewing. We shut it off, I'll say 1/2 way through and yawned and went to bed. Tonight we watched Sarah Palin's acceptance speech to the Republican Convention. We both stayed glued to the TV the whole time! We were most impressed with her speech, agreeing with most of what she said and impressed with her delivery as well. About 1/2 through this speech instead of turning it off I turned to mom and delcared "I wish Sarah Palin was running for President!" So, at the moment, barring changes in what I know of the candidates, I'm leaning very heavily toward McCain and might vote for a Republican over the Libertarian for the first time since Ronald Regan.