The Peaceful Gnome

That's a quote from a character in the film Breaker Morant . Lord Kitchener: Needless to say, the Germans couldn't give a damn about the Boers. The diamonds and gold of South Africa they're after. Major Bolton: They lack our altruism, sir. Lord Kitchener: Quite. Michael Shermer has an interesting post over on Skepticblog.com where he endeavors to demonstrate just how altruism might have evolved in spite of "The Banker's Paradox." It's a plausible story, untestable though as far as I can tell. Still it's at least a way it might have happened, or maybe not, who knows? :-)

This evening is " Earth Hour " when we are encouraged to make a statement about CO2 emissions and global warming. I was considering doing it here at the house until I found out that if we turned off our lights, which are low energy CFL bulbs throughout the house, and burned candles instead we would actually be increasing our CO2 output for the night! So, unless I can convince the inhabitants of the house to sit around for an hour with no lights on, or just one candle maybe, then we'll probably skip it. You coal burning folk in flyover land better cut the lights though! Here is an email that I received on a list I subscribe to that explains it all: This year, 2,848 cities, towns, and municipalities are joining the eco-blackout. The event’s organizers say that they are shooting for 1 billion people to participate. And during Earth Hour, what will most participants use for illumination? Candles. The Earth Hour website is filled with announcements – from New Zealand to...

I was reading the daily office in the Treasury of Daily Prayer this morning, and lamenting the fact that I can't read music and thus can't chant the offices of Matins and Vespers the way they really ought to be done. So I decided to search on Google to see if there was any mp3 or CD or what have you of the music that goes with the TDP versions of the offices. Sadly, nothing turned up. I then tried to find a program that would allow me to input the music into my computer and generate a midi of it... heh, those do exist but most cost money and really would require me to actually understand what the heck I'm doing, which if I did would mean I could read music and thus really would not need to do it in the first place. Then I thought of searching on the Concordia Publishing House web site . Nothing there either. So then I sent an email to a certain CPH editor there who has a blog called Cyberbretheren letting him know my desperate desire for such a product. I wrote: I love ...

I wonder if he's a Christian? Many residents of Nagasaki were Christians back then... this is more Weirdness from Strange Herring: 93-Year-Old Certified as Survivor of Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Attributes Longevity to Being in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time from Strange Herring by Anthony Sacramone Yes, I know, this is the Chinese symbol for longevity, and he's Japanese, I know, I know -- GET OFF MY BACK! [Tsutomu] Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on Aug. 6, 1945, when a U.S. B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He suffered serious burns to his upper body and spent the night in the city. He then returned to his hometown of Nagasaki just in time for the second attack, city officials said. “As far as we know, he is the first one to be officially recognized as a survivor of atomic bombings in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” Nagasaki city official Toshiro Miyamoto said. To have survived one blast is astounding. To have survived both blasts is a miracle. To ...

For many years, prior to returning to the Lutheran Church, I attended various Episcopal churches around the Bay Area. I especially loved the liturgy as they celebrate it, and the Book of Common Prayer is a masterpiece. Sadly they really are like this video below describes ... I used to frequent Grace Cathedral in San Francisco where I experienced both glorious Easter Vigil Liturgies that could make you weep, and visits by the Dalai Lama; both wonderful Evening Prayer services and "Aztec Dancers." When I tried to find out just what they believed about Christ and the Eucharist and Sin and other questions, I got vague hand waving answers that said nothing... so, now I'm a Lutheran, a Confessional and Liturgical Lutheran. To prove you can never make me happy now I think I have too many firm answers, I want more "freedom" to make up my own way ;-) Here it is, I am Episcopalian. Enjoy! Make sure you watch it all the way through, the punch line is pretty far...

To confirm what we already knew: Daily Red Meat Raises Chances of Dying Early . Well duh. Eating the equivalent of a hamburger a day increases your chances of death by 30% in a ten year study. They give various possible explanations for this and emphasize that you don't need to be vegetarian, just cut way back. I still think mostly vegetarian is the way to go, with occasional time outs for special treats ;-) My favorite part of the article is this: The American Meat Institute, a trade group, dismissed the findings, however, saying they were based on unreliable self-reporting by the study participants. "Meat products are part of a healthy, balanced diet, and studies show they actually provide a sense of satisfaction and fullness that can help with weight control. Proper body weight contributes to good health overall," James H. Hodges, the group's executive vice president, said in a written statement. Heh. I can hear the tobacco growers now: "Tobacco product...

Woo Hoo! Happy Birthday Serenity! Photos are Here , slide show below:

Very cool series of photos showing a recent underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga, be sure to go and see the entire set of 12 photos at Big Picture :

This lent our church is using O Sacred Head Now Wounded as the theme for our mid-week services. This is a great hymn, based on a long Latin poem the last part of the poem was translated into German by the prolific Lutheran hymnist Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676). The music for the German and English versions of the hymn is by Hans Leo Hassler , written around 1600 for a secular love song, "Mein Gmuth ist mir verwiret." The tune was appropriated for Gerhardt's German hymn in 1656. Johann Sebastian Bach arranged the melody and used it five times in his St. Matthew's Passion ; this arrangement has come to be known as Passion Chorale 7676D. Bach also used this melody in the opening choral and triumphant final chorus of his Christmas Oratorio , BWV 248. I love it so much I thought I'd share some of it here: Lyrics (J.W. Alexander's version, 1830) O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down, Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;...

I disagree with both sides of this one :-) I'm with Ken Miller and Francis Collins, who are mentioned in the interview by the way. Ken Miller page is here . Francis Collins wiki entry is here .

Patrick is one of the best-known of the missionary saints. Born to a Christian family in Britain around the year 389, he was captured as a teenager by raiders, taken to Ireland and forced to serve as a herdsman. After six years he escaped and found his way to a monastery community in France. Ordained a bishop in 432, he made his way back to Ireland, where he spent the rest of his long life spreading the Gospel and organizing Christian communities. He strongly defended the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in a time when it was not popular to do so. His literary legacy includes his autobiography, Confessio , and several prayers and hymns still used in the church today. Patrick died around the year 466. [From " Commemorations Biographies ," Lutheran Service Book , LCMS Commission on Worship] The Lorica or Saint Patrick's Breastplate I bind unto myself today the strong Name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three. I bind this day ...

I have just finished reading "Why Evolution is True" by Jerry Coyne. I seldom bother to review books here but in this case I'll make an exception. This was one of the very best discussions of evolution I've read since the passing of Stephen J. Gould a few years ago. Not only does Coyne explain evolution in a clear, concise and easily grasped manner that is hard to argue with, he also specifically addresses many of the objections commonly presented by Young Earth Creationists and Intelligent Design advocates. What he was not able to do, in my opinion, is make a plausible case for the origin of life itself. He postulated the "naked reproducing molecule" that then responds to natural selection and "voila!" LIFE! Heh, not even. I will give Coyne credit here though, he, unlike most of the more rabid fundamentalist atheist evolutionists, does admit that there are major problems with the experiments and ideas so far presented on the origin of life...

Looks like it might be fun to watch this, I don't imagine it's going to be too popular with radical left wing Obama worshipers though.

Banks Didn’t Pay into FDIC Fund for 10 Years, Reserves Down to 43 Cents and a Pez Dispenser from Strange Herring by Anthony Sacramone You see, Congress didn’t think the banks had to make those contributions to the insurance reserve fund because they had so much cash, so what were the odds on a financial meltdown so disastrous that they couldn’t pay back all their depositors if they had to? House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank agreed that officials believed at the time that the good times would last and that bank failures would not be a problem. “We had this period where we had no failures,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview yesterday. “The banks were saying, ‘Don’t charge us anything.’ “ I know what you’re thinking: “Thank heavens the government is in charge of cleaning up this mess.” But you’re being sarcastic, no? Via The Consumerist Posted in 2 + 2 = Whatever I Damn Well Say It Equals, Another Year Another Credit Card Bill

My favorite is "By the time you get up your public school friends are on their way home." :-) Serenity knows that one!

I am currently reading a book called "Why Evolution is True" which sets out to prove Darwinism. A frequent assertion of Darwinists is that evolution pretty much disproves the existence of God. I, of course do believe in God, I also believe that at some levels evolution certainly occurs. My own views on the subject are not yet totally settled but at the moment they seem to match those of the Discovery Institute's Michael Egnor as described in a post reproduced below: My Reply to Timothy Sandefur: The teaching of only the strengths of Darwinism in public schools is inherently the propagation of atheist belief. from Evolution News & Views Timothy Sandefur, a Panda’s Thumb contributor and an atheist, is a leader in the Darwinist crusade to censor balanced discussion of evolutionary theory in science classrooms. Mr Sandefur responded to my open letter to the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, a Darwinist organization that lobbies for censorship of dis...

Now that Citi Bank is owned by FedCo... (pardon the cussing, but dealing with any branch of FedCo is bound to bring it out in anyone) The New F***ing Citibank - watch more funny videos

Oh yeah, here is a graphic video from Glenn Beck that shows just what is going on, how our money is quickly becoming worthless, thanks FedCo! Buy gold if you can... me, I'm investing in beans and rice ;-)

It's time to set my clocks forward at the command of a stupid government drone with no clue. Because everyone else stupidly goes along with it, I have to as well, otherwise I'll never be on time to anything. Bah! What an absurd waste of time this is. Ah well, I'll be short an hour of sleep until next fall now. Curse you government drones!

In January I declared that paper magazines were dead and books might soon follow. The hold up for me was the absence of a really good portable reader on the market. The Kindle 1 looked sort of iffy and got mixed reviews, plus I wasn't about to plunk down $400 for something I couldn't hold in my hand first. I'm glad I didn't get one then. The other day I saw a lady reading from the new Kindle 2 on BART. I went over and asked her how she liked it and she gave it rave reviews all around, and she was a former Kindle 1 owner. She let me look at it and hold it. I have decided that, as soon as I can save up the dough, I'm so going to get me one of those! Here is another review of the new Kindle 2 from cyberbrethren. I do like reading paper books, but some books are really too big to carry with you, like Stephen J. Gould's " The Structure of Evolutionary Theory " that I've had on the shelf for several years, unfinished because I can't carry it...

Commemoration of Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas by  William Weedon from the  Treasury  and our Synod's website: At the beginning of the third century, the Roman emperor Septimus Severus forbade conversions to Christianity. Among those disobeying that edict were Perpetua, a young noblewoman, and her maidservant Felicitas. Both were jailed at Carthage in North Africa along with three fellow Christians. During their imprisonment, Perpetua and Felicitas witnessed to their faith with such conviction that the officer in charge became a follower of Jesus. After making arrangements for the well-being of their children, Perpetua and Felicitas were executed on March 7, 203. Tradition holds that Perpetua showed mercy to her captors by falling on a sword because they could not bear to put her to death. The story of this martyrdom has been told ever since as an encouragement to persecuted Christians. The  Treasury  supplies an additional, beautiful account by Tertullian of their martyrdom.  Glory ...

Given and shed for you for the remission of sins from Cranach: The Blog of Veith by Veith Next in Luther’s SMALL CATECHISM , the Sacrament of the Altar: THE NATURE OF THE SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR What is the Sacrament of the Altar? The Sacrament of the Altar is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink. Where is this written? The holy evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, together with St. Paul, write thus: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to His disciples, saying, ‘Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way also He took the cup after supper, gave thanks and gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it all of you; this cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the remission of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, ...

Correlation does not always imply causation, but it does often enough to make it worth a second look.

Short video about Obama's Elf...

Don't know (or care really) if this is authentic, but it could and should be: Actual 'Letter to the Editor' from the February 5th edition of the Wichita Falls , Texas Times Record News... Dear IRS, I am sorry to inform you that I will not be able to pay taxes owed April 15, but all is not lost. I have paid these taxes: accounts receivable tax, building permit tax, CDL tax, cigarette tax, corporate income tax, dog license tax, federal income tax, unemployment tax, gasoline tax, hunting license tax, fishing license tax, waterfowl stamp tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, liquor tax, luxury tax, medicare tax, city, school and county property tax (up 33 percent last 4 years), real estate tax, social security tax, road usage tax, toll road tax, state and city sales tax, recreational vehicle tax, state franchise tax, state unemployment tax, telephone federal excise tax, telephone federal state and local surcharge tax, telephone minimum usage surcharge tax, telephone state and lo...

I have long been in the habit of carrying a book with me wherever I go. This has been an ingrained behavior since I could read, at least that is my recollection. Here at work it sometimes gets me funny looks when I grab my book for a quick trip up the elevator to pick up something from a resident for example. My contention has always been that it's in case the elevator breaks down. Well, today my habit proved it's wisdom as I was, for the second time since I started working here in 1990, trapped on the elevator for a time. The elevator shot past the 26th floor, which is the top floor, and stuck about 3 feet higher than the floor level. I was only in the elevator about 20 minutes, but that would have seemed much longer without a book to read! :-) So, always carry a book, you never know when you'll be stuck with nothing to do. When, for some reason, like I just finished the book I was carrying that day, I don't have a book to take with me I stick my pocket size...

Young Earth Creationists frequently make the claim that before the fall there was no death , not in humans or in animals. For this reason alone evolution must be rejected out of hand, it simply cannot be true. Granted, they then go on to try their best to disprove Darwinian evolution on "scientific" grounds but I do not find their reasoning on this subject to be very convincing. Still, it seems the death question is their biggest objection. Today I was pondering Genesis 3:22-24: Genesis 3:22-24 (ESV) 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Several thoughts ...

Knowing practical things vs. knowing edu-trivia some government hack has decided you should know at age 7 or 12 or 18... Here is some important and practical stuff I know: One of the skills Serenity has learned is "Opening a wine bottle with a cork screw." Does a mighty fine job at it too. :-) The other day she cooked a nice omelet all on her own, with me hovering nearby just in case, but she did it all. She continues to teach herself reading, much of it on the computer but also following the liturgy in church, reading signs and magazines she picks up. It's pretty impressive actually, and totally "stress free." Two days ago, having been banished from TV for a week for having an overly snarky attitude in church, she got bored and redecorated her room. Having done the work herself it's amazing how clean she has kept it the last two days, when mom cleans the room it returns to a shambles in mere seconds ;-) All that to say I think Serenity learns a l...