How Bad is Ida?

It’d be worse if I lived in Mobile, AL or the very western Florida panhandle I imagine, especially later tonight and tomorrow morning.

Still, to give you an idea of what things are like at 12 am EST on Nov. 10, 2009 in Goulaville: The video game geeks are dribbling into Wal*Mart to get their copy of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. No tropical storm is going to deter them!

It’s pretty much a light rain being blown about by gusty winds right now. Good sleeping weather. I, however, have an appointment with Doctor Who: The War Games. Which will make for a late night, as it’s a four hour marathon Who, the second longest ever.

Yawn. Time to get started.

NET Bible and Kindle: Now Better Together

Originally only available in noteless text form, the Kindle Net Bible is now available with notes and a working hyperlinked table of contents for books and chapters, according to Todd Lingren at bible dot org.

The direct Amazon download page for the Kindle NET Bible with Notes and working links is here.

Now I must go repent of coveting my neighbors’ Kindle.

Hillary Clinton, Missionary

You’ve all heard the quote by now:

““The percentage of taxes on GDP (in Pakistan) is among the lowest in the world… We (the United States) tax everything that moves and doesn’t move, and that’s not what we see in Pakistan,”

To be fair, that’s a bit out of context. See the full story here in the Daily Times.

Still, it struck me that Madame Secretary sounds awfully Nineteenth century Christian missionary. You know, the old “We’re gonna save the natives from themselves by bringing them Christianity AND Western culture AND a decent dress sense AND….” thing.

Tsk tsk. Isn’t it supposed to be more like Gene Roddenberry’s ”IDIC” from Star Trek: “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination”?

An excuse to take pot shots at liberals and geek out on Trek ? I couldn’t resist.

Why does Wal*Mart “Eye Urban Expansion in US”?

From a Financial Times story here.

We all know why without reading the story. You can hardly drive in the country without passing Wal*Mart after Wal*Mart. Women across the US make their travel plans based on the availability of Wal*Mart bathrooms. That’s when you know you’ve arrived.

And I hear the expansion to the Moon and Mars are being held up by the slow economy.

Pass Me a Comma, Quick!!

From an Associate Press story on New England’s need for evangelism:

Several groups trying to re-ignite New England’s faith are theologically conservative, such as the Southern Baptists, Presbyterian Church in America and the Conservative Baptists’ Mission Northeast. They say a reason for the region’s hollowed-out faith is a pervasive theology that departs from traditional Biblical interpretation on issues such as the divinity of Jesus, the exclusivity of Christianity as a path to salvation and homosexuality.

“…the exclusivity of Christianity as a path to salvation, and homosexuality” corrects a few zillion fundamentalist Christians, sweating bullets.

Sometimes an extra comma or two is a good thing, AP. A few extra words wouldn’t hurt, either.

HT: Duane Smith at Abnormal Interests

I Like Your Quote….

Amidst all the hubbub about Chicago losing the 2016 Olympic bid from both ends of the political spectrum, allow me to inject a note of reality:

You don’t lose a contract bid in the first round unless you made a lousy bid in the first place.

Nuff said.

A Day Late, A Blasphemy Short

So I missed International Blasphemy Day, September 30.

But I was reading The Mormon Mirage, which says lots of mean things about Mormonism’s god and his prophet. Does that count? Howabout watching some James White videos on Islam, since he’s so well known for his PC speech.

Okay, belatedly I’ll say The Mighty Thor wears his hair like a girl and the Pink Unicorn needs a good brushing and horn polishing. So there.

Sticks and stones are dangerous, especially wielded as a rod and a sling stone by a shepherd like David. But words can only increase the lawsuit.

There. Got my Psalm 23 reference in there.

I Confess….

Every time Jimmy Carter opens his mouth in public, I think about moving North of the Mason-Dixon Line just to disassociate myself from him.

On the other hand, every time someone like Faithful Word Baptist Steven Anderson spouts off, I think about becoming a Southern Presbyterian or Southern Episcopalian to disassociate myself from him.

BANG BANG BANG BANG!

I’m confident no one at CNN reads this blog so I can say that without fear of causing a panic.

Our wired world has its drawbacks as well as it advantages, it seems.

Oh, and since CNN isn’t reading this, I can report that the Gulf Coast is in the midst of an INVASION. Dead bodies carpet the ground.

I’m talking about the twice yearly lovebug infestation, of course. Since we had a great deal of rain last month, we now have a bumper crop of the flying pests. In fact I’d say this is the worst we’ve seen from them since Hurricane Katrina. They are so numerous at least a pair follows one into the house every time one walks in from outdoors, and they often simply hitch a ride on your shirt.

Oh, and the link to Wikipedia is just for you, Jim West, Your Blogness.

Galgala, Gilgal… The Jericho Cave

The latest archaeological discovery of Biblical interest out of the Middle East: a cave in the Jordan Valley that corresponds to the rough location of Galgala on the Byzantine mosaic map at Madaba.  Some people have equated Galgala with biblical Gilgal, but the Haifa University Professor in charge of this dig, Adam Zertal, has apparently previously identified another site, Khirbet el-Unuk, NE of Shechem, as Gilgal.

This news story is so new there is not much to report. Jim West has posts about the cave here, here, and here. Todd Bolen has some links to some photos and information on the Medeba map at his BiblePlaces Blog. No doubt there will be more news to come in days ahead.

UPDATE 6-23-09: It being a slow depravity day, Jim West posts more photos from the cave here.