joyfulchristian

Woo-hoo!

It's now less than 24 hours until my wedding!  Yay! 

Between the wedding, packing, and moving I probably won't be blogging much for the next week.  Have fun ya'll!^*

^*  Just kidding Sarah, I know it's really "y'all!"

Note to systems designers

I don't care what anyone else tells you; any registration process that does not allow the registrant to choose their own personal ID code is fatally flawed.

That is all.

Now that would be cool

While in D.C. last week I thought of something that my Dish Network DVR is missing.  I wish I could log onto their website and add new timers to my DVR online.  Now that would be cool.

Interesting

So I was just sitting here thinking, "Woah! Five days from right now I'll be married!"

That was followed by, "Hey, aren't I supposed to be more nervous than this?"  I mean yeah, there have been moments that hit me like bricks (Like adding Nicki and her daughter Larissa to my medical insurance), but I've not found myself freaking out or anything.

I'm going to take this as a good thing.

I hope know one is jumping

... onto this bandwagon.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton turned furious and considered legal action after learning bestselling author Ed Klein would allege in a new book: Bill Clinton raped her -- resulting in the conception of daughter Chelsea Clinton!

[...]

"I'm going back to my cottage to rape my wife,"  Klein quotes Bill Clinton as saying during a Bermuda getaway in 1979.

In the morning, the Clintons' room "looked like World War III. There are pillows and busted-up furniture all over the place," an unnamed source tells Klein.

Okay, a few points here.

1. Have we not learned our lesson about anonymous sourcing?  Klein better be able to back this up.  If not, he should be sued.
2. Legal question.  Drudge says that Hillary is considering suing for libel.  On what basis would such a suit be based?  I can see where Bill would have grounds to sue for libel, but Hillary?  Doesn't libel usually indicate the person has been defamed?  If so, what sort of message does this send to genuine rape victims?
3. Maybe I'm just being naive here, but while I can easily believe a great deal about Bill Clinton on the subject of sex, I just can't seem buy rape.

 

Aprapos typos

Insert standard boiler-plate warning that taxes are involved in this post here.

I was checking out the tax news today and found this headline: (Note: I'm not sure these CCH links last.)

Code Sec. 42: Loans Classified for Purposes of Low-Income Hosing Credit (emphasis added)

I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be Housing, but we all know that when it comes to the government, somebody's getting hosed.

One step at a time

This looks promising:

Kuwait appointed a woman to its cabinet for the first time in its history today, marking another victory for women's rights activists just a month after they won the right to vote in the Persian Gulf state.    

Prime Minister Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah appointed Massouma al-Mubarak as minister of planning and as minister of state for administrative development affairs, Kuwait's state news agency KUNA reported today. Ms. Mubarak, 54, is a political science professor at Kuwait University and has been a leading advocate for women's rights in the country. She replaces Sheik Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah in both posts.

Let's hope this is substance rather than show.

Oh please!

Okay, this has been bothering me.  I've been seeing  these ads for "Call Ahead Seating" from Outback Steakhouse.  From the way they go on, you'd think they'd just invented the concept of reservations at restaurants.

I get so sick of this stuff

Russell Crowe's wife says there's no excuse for his phone-throwing tantrum. No, really, she does:

Russell Crowe’s wife said today there was no excuse for his telephone-throwing tantrum that left a New York hotel clerk with facial cuts last week.

On the one hand, I'm glad to finally see a celebrity do something like this and have his family willing to publicly say he was wrong.  On the other hand, I am so sick of hearing about this whole thing.

What Crowe did was wrong not to mention, probably, criminal.  He should be punished.  However, there is no reason I can think of to keep telling me about this.  Leave it alone already!

What if?

Marvel Comics used to have (may still for all I know) a series by that name.  The basic gist is that they would take some of their most common stories (frequently involving the origins of a particular character) and tweak it, some times in a very small way.  The point was to show how a very small difference could drastically change events.

I was thinking about this while watching the History Channel.  They were discussing the destruction of Archimides's works were destroyed with the loss of the Great Library in Alexandria.  It raised the obvious question, "What if the Great Library had survived?"  When you realize all the items we KNOW were lost, to say nothing of those treasures we have no clue about, it becomes a really staggering question.

Why is it

... that radical leftists think stripping nude makes a powerful statement for their causes? Here we go again:

The organisers of World Naked Bike Ride 2005 said protests were expected in a number of countries, including Canada, the US, Ireland, Italy, Latvia and Israel.

In London, crowds gathered as 100 cyclists left Hyde Park Corner.

Most of the riders had stripped naked for the 10km ride past Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, Covent Garden, Oxford St and the US Embassy.

Some bikes carried banners reading "Oil is not a bare necessity but a crude obsession" and "Support the trade justice movement".

Actually, I've come to the conclusion that they just like being naked and figure this is a way to kill two birds with one stone.  Except, of course, that many of them would cringe at the thought of killing a bird.

I just flew back from D.C.

... and boy are my arms tired.

More later.

You can't make this stuff up!

I can't even begin to think of anything to say:

An Australian woman was found to be carrying 51 live tropical fish after custom officials were alerted by "flipping" noises coming from beneath her skirt as she arrived at Melbourne airport.

On closer inspection, officers discovered the woman had strapped on an apron of plastic water-filled bags containing the fish, the Australian Customs Service said.

"During the search, customs officers became suspicious after hearing 'flipping' noises coming from the vicinity of her waist," said the statement.

I'm speechless.

Here's a hint

To all you people puting banner ads on websites, here's a hint.  Banner ads with annoying noises that I can't shut off don't make me want to buy your products; they make me want to find your server and blow it up.  At least briefly.

Insomnia

It's not all it's cracked up to be.

Quick thought

Since the Dutch and the French votes rejecting the EU constitution I've seen the results chalked up to all sorts of reasons.  Except one.  No one in the chattering classes seem to think that the no votes had anything to do with people thinking that the resulting super-state would be a bad idea.

Well it ain't truth in advertising

*** Warning! Warning! Danger Will Robinson! Accounting lingo ahead! *** 

You'd be amazed if you knew how many taxes "tax-exempt" organizations are subject to.

Can I get an interpreter here?

So the Dutch voted against the  EU constitution.  Let's see what the Prime Minister has to say:

Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch Prime Minister, said that the ratification process should continue, but admitted: “I am extremely disappointed. This is a result you can’t misunderstand. It is clear we have to fully respect this result.”

Well, I'm glad  that he recognizes that this result can't be misunderstood (though I'm sure a few folks will try), but I'm confused what he means by "fully respect" the result.  Why do I have this nagging suspicion that that doesn't necessarily mean "abide by"?

The state of man

Some people like to think that mankind is "getting better all the time."  As a Christian I believe that one of the fundamental truths of the human race is that we are a fallen race.  That is to say that we fall short of the absolute moral and ethical norms that we ourselves believe to be right and good, and that we always will.

Unfortunately, we sometimes get quite clear evidence of that:

Five children have been arrested over the attempted murder of a five-year-old boy who suffered "horrific injuries" after apparently being tied around the neck with a rope and beaten.

Police are searching for another two or three youngsters in connection with the attack in woodland in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire.

A senior detective said the victim had "marks around his neck that could be consistent with ligature marks" and "the injuries look quite horrific". He also had bruises over his body. The boy was found at around 6pm on Tuesday wandering close to his home in the Chickenley area of Dewsbury.

Police arrested four local children - two girls aged 11 and 12, and two boys aged 11 and 12 - several hours after the boy was discovered, and a fifth, a 12-year-old boy, yesterday.

The details of this attack are truly horrific.  That they could be perpetrated by those so young is almost beyond belief.  Almost.  Unfortunately, I do believe it.  I'm afraid it will keep going on like this until the end.

Yeah, that could be a problem

All is not well in Euroland:

The under-fire euro fell further on Wednesday, slumping to an eight-month low against the US dollar amid rumblings over the long-term future of the eurozone.

The fresh selling was prompted by a report claiming that Hans Eichel, the German finance minister, and Axel Weber, the president of the Bundesbank, were present at a meeting at which the possible break-up of European Monetary Union was discussed.

The German Bundestag is also said to have commissioned a report on the legal repercussions of a country wishing to leave the EMU.

Germany’s finance ministry labelled the talk “absurd”, while Mr Eichel and Mr Weber issued a statement saying the euro was a “unique success story”. But the damage had been done.

Although most currency analysts regard the break-up of the eurozone as an extremely faint prospect, they said the potentially disastrous repercussions of such an event mean it could not be totally ignored.

I would still call the break-up of the Euro an extremely faint possibility.  Still, I find it quite remarkable that people are discussing it at all.  I don't know what will happen from all this, but I find it quite remarkable that the European governments are suddenly being forced to hear from their people.  That's always a good thing.

The meaning of friendship

Michael Ubaldi explains for those not paying attention why the US might treat Japan better than South Korea.