Sonspot

Dianne Feinstein and Jim Talent have an article addressing ways to slow the production of Methamphetamine (spotlight: RCP). This is an issue that hits close to home. The area I live in is being ravaged by this evil drug. I see more and more people in the office/hospital because of the effect of this menace.

I should say that I see creatures that were once people, but are now little more than paranoid homicidal sore ridden skeletons. Just two days ago my life was threatened by one addict when I refused to give him a certain drug he wanted.

The two Senators want to restrict the sale of pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in Methampethamine:

- Move cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter.

- Limit the amount one person can buy to 9 grams a month -- that's the equivalent of 300 30-milligram pills.

- Require purchasers to show identification and to sign for cold medication.

This will help, but it's not enough in my opinion. I think pseudoephedrine should be made a schedule II controlled drug like Dexedrine and morphine. Schedule II drugs can only be obtained by prescription from an MD with a DEA #. This way the drug can be tightly controlled and monitored by the DEA just like the other scheduled drugs are.

That, or outlaw the drug all together. What's a few more runny noses if it will end this pox for good?

I don't care about reading minds, I just think the contraption looks way cool.

-Only 23% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 read a newspaper regularly. (The Washington Post)

I only read my local paper. The only reason I do that is to read the district court section to see if anyone I know has been bad.

-The average wedding in the U.S. now costs more than $26,000. That's a 50% increase since 1990. (Knight Ridder)

My wedding was expensive, but nothing near that price. Now if you added in the honeymoon (St. Thomas) the figure is pretty close.

-More than 17,000 people are currently hiding in the Federal Witness Protection Program. (Newsweek)

-College seniors will enter the best job market in four years, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. Companies plan to boost their hiring of new graduates by 13%. (USA Today)

After much reading, browsing, mulling and contemplating regarding what to post today I've come to a conclusion,I have nothing to say.

Nada, nyet, zilch, zero.

With that, I'm going to do what any good blogger with nothing to say would do. Don't worry I'm not going to blog about my cat, don't own one (terribly allergic). No, I'm going to post a list of what music I'm currently listening to.

House of the Rising Sun: I love that song. The whole creepy church organ with the wailing vocals. Lamentations of a tortured soul, enslaved by his addictions. Crying from the beyond with warnings to avoid the path that dead ends. Anything from the Animals is good, but this is their best work.

Dragging the Line: I like the base line to that song. Heard it in a car commercial. Love the line about the guys dog eating purple flowers. I find it funny the things people feel compelled to share with others in their songs.

Godzilla: Blue oyster cult. This song just simply rocks. It rocks in the best way too, it doesn't take itself seriously. Rock is always best when its free to be silly and fun.

King of the Road: Roger Miller. There's another artist that knew how to inject carefree humor into his work, country no less. That's a hard medium to be irreverent in, so many sad cul-de-sacs one can end up in.

Dang Me: Okay, I'm in a Roger Miller mood these days. This one is funny, but you can tell that just beneath the surface there is a man who is suffering. The song leaves no doubt that this guy's life is in a free fall and the landing will be nasty.

Going up the Country: Canned Heat. Unique vocals, a flute, and a great beat. Needs to be listened to on a sunny summer day with the top down driving some backroad.

Suspicious Minds: Elvis. I used to hate listening to Elvis, but the guy has just grown on me. The end part of this song with the women back-up singers screeching, the drummer breaking it down and Elvis being Elvis is just incredible. It gives me some idea what made this guy so famous.

Happy Together: The Turtles. It's a fun song to sing along to okay!

Cherish is the Word: The Association. A guy chorus belting out a great melody is not usually my thing, but they pulled it off well.

On The Road Again: Canned Heat. Powerful song. Sitar, harmonica, a driving base, and again those odd vocals. Another great song to cruise to.

Boys of Summer: Don Henley. I grew up in Florida and this song has a special significance. Even if it didn't it's one of the best crying-over-lost-love songs out there.

You are My Shining Star: The Manhattans. I could've sworn this was an Earth, Wind, and Fire song. Either way, it's a great song to sing along with.

Sundown: Gordon Lightfoot. One word "raunchy". The song is simply cool. It reminds me of dark pool halls and midnight drives to nowhere in particular.

Well maybe tomorrow I will have something good to say, otherwise I'm going to have to buy a cat.

According to an article on CNN. com steroid use among girls is on the rise:

An alarming number of American girls, some as young as 9, are using bodybuilding steroids -- not necessarily to get an edge on the playing field, but to get the toned, sculpted look of models and movie stars, experts say.

I find this hard to believe. One of the biggest reasons women cite for not resistance training is fear of getting larger.

Overall, up to about 5 percent of high school girls and 7 percent of middle-school girls admit trying anabolic steroids at least once...

Again, that's an awfully high percentage. if 5-7% of GIRLS are really trying steroids, the percentage of boys must be near 50.

I'm not saying the numbers are wrong but, as a homeless advocate told me once, advocates lie by a factor of three. However, steroids fit in with our society so well, it could be that pervasive. Depressed? take Prozac. Hyperactive? Take Ritalin. Weak/skinny? Take anabolics.

-The majority of Judges on 10 of the nation's 13 appeals courts were appointed by Republican presidents (The Christian Science Monitor)

That's interesting, but not surprising. There has been a Democratic presidency for only eight of the last 25 years.

-Of the 300,000 high school students who took the new SAT last month, just 107 achieved a perfect score of 2400 (AP)

That seems like a very low percentage, maybe too low. What it means is debatable. Either the new test is harder or the old test was too easy or kids aren't as well taught as times past.

In Italy, 97% of the population describe themselves as Catholic, but only 30% attend Mass weekly. In France, only 5% attend church every week. More Europeans, in fact, attend soccer matches on Sunday than Mass (Newsday)

5%?

It appears the mystery surrounding the finger found in a container of Wendy's chili has been solved. It was a hoax. Anna Ayala, the Wendy's customer who claimed to have found the dismembered appendage has now been fingered herself as the originator of the hoax and is being charged for grand larceny.

One question still stumps investigators though, who's the owner of the finger? Unless Mrs. Ayala decides to point the person out, we may never know.

In high school I worked as a cook at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. There was an urban legend about the place that involved a mishap with a rat. According to the legend the rat fell unseen into one of the cookers and was accidentally sold to a customer as part of their extra-crispy meal. Of course this never happened, but I can't tell you how many times I was asked if the story was true. Usually the queries would come up while the questioners were eating KFC chicken. A little late for all that don't you think?

Yeah, the story was way bogus. It was a mouse, not a rat, and it was sold as original recipe not extra-crispy.

Just kidding.

Who will win?

Answer here.

I personally thought the loser would've put up a better fight than that, but he was out of his natural element. Put the two in a river and I think the outcome would've been much different.

Also known as the reason behind my unfounded overconfidence:

"People who do things badly, Dr. Dunning has found in studies conducted with a graduate student, Justin Kruger, are usually supremely confident of their abilities -- more confident, in fact, than people who do things well."

But wait, there is hope:

"Unlike their unskilled counterparts, the most able subjects in the study, Dr. Kruger and Dr. Dunning found, were likely to underestimate their own competence."

In other words, being humble will make you smarter. The worse you think you are at something the more competent at it you'll be. It all makes perfect sense.

So let's stop trying to boost kid's confidence, it's only making them dumber. Show them just how bad they really are at stuff, that is, if you love them and want them to succeed.

Positive reinforcement is the new enemy of this age. Throw out the gold stars, toss the plastic medals, and silence the atta boys. We must battle these with all our hearts, and in order to win we must believe we will fail.

It's been said that you can tell a lot about a person by the kind of company they keep. And we've all known people (or have been people ourselves) that, while they themselves may be wonderful individuals, get muddied and brought low by shady friends.

In a way this could possibly be what has happened with obesity. The CDC is currently going through a wilderness experience over the health risks of obesity. By itself obesity appears to be a harmless soul, jolly even. Many of the great people we've known in our lives were obese, almost defined by it even. For example, would Santa be Santa if he had six-pack abs?

So it is with the eye of a concerned parent that I am now going to inspect some of obesity's compatriots a little closer.

Osteoarthritis and obesity are like brothers. You see Osteoarthritis without obesity no doubt since he seems to be everywhere at once. However, osteoarthritis appears to be more severe in the presence of obesity. Obesity seems to magnify his bad qualities.

Adult onset diabetes is in the same boat with osteoarthritis. Both are seen alone and are nasty characters all by themselves. But obesity just seems to put them up to things when it's around, making them more bold and uncontrollable. Experience has shown that if obesity is removed from the scene diabetes becomes much more compliant. In some cases diabetes has been known to disappear altogether when obesity isn't around, it gets lonely I guess.

Hyperlipidemia, hypertension and coronary artery disease (who are, in fact, brothers) round out obesity's motley crew of friends. These guys cause havoc aplenty just in the presence of each other, so how much obesity plays in worsening an already bad situation is hard to calculate. My gut tells me that he is anything but a calming influence though.

Colon cancer has been seen with obesity at parties, but it is unknown how much he is really influenced by him.

To me it appears that obesity isn't the Beaver Clever he's now trying to make himself out to be. In fact he is more like the Eddie Haskell of the disease world. Not very threatening on his own, but can cause a lot of damage if around other diseases that are willing to be influenced by him.

A new extreme sport is about to hit U.S. shores. What makes it so extreme you ask? It combines all of the track and field sports into one giant "Double Decathlon".

"The double decathlon is structured like a decathlon with the ten “non-decathlon” events interspersed among the decathlon events."

To be successful at this sport one will need great courage, strength, endurance and intelligence. Of course that means I will be skipping it.

Pastor Marty Minto was apparently fired from his talk radio show gig after responding to a caller who asked if the pope was going to heaven. Mr. Minto said that yes, he would, if he was born-again and believed that Christ died for his sins. (spotlight: Wittenburg Gate)

Now saying such a thing is akin to questioning if a sailor loves the sea. But you know, some sailors don't love the sea. Being pope is not like a get out of hell free card. A pope has to believe in the sacrificial death and resurrection of Christ in order to be saved, just like the rest of us.

Another recent phenomenon (to me anyway) that may have spurred this response by Mr. Minto is the seemingly growing group of "Christless Christians". People who call themselves Christians, but don't agree with the basic tenets of the faith. Each member of this group seems to have their own individual twist to it, but they all subscribe to the idea that Christ was not born of a virgin and was not the son of God. To them Jesus was basically just this great guy who said some cool stuff that got taken way out of context by misguided disciples.

In this age of relativism people hate to see hard lines being drawn. People hate to be limited in anyway. However, that doesn't change the fact that hard lines must, and do, exist. For example, the shortest distance from me to you is a straight line. No way around that. I will leave the next example to God himself:

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. "

The January 12th issue of JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) contains a review of the book "Unfiltered: Conflicts over Tobacco Policy and Public Health" (will need subscription to access). The book describes Eric A. Feldman and Ronald Bayer's research into the impact of public health policy and smoking rates in eight industrialized countries (including the US).

JAMA states that "Unfiltered concludes that scientific evidence did not determine tobacco control policy, the power of the epidemic of tobacco-caused deaths in motivating action was common to all countries."

This finding did not sit well with the reviewers at JAMA, who appear to think the book's conclusion incomplete since there was no call for heads to roll inside the Tobacco companies.

Deciding to roll their own, the reviewers light-up this diatribe:

The "Lessons learned" might have included a primer on Tobacco industry tactics, including infiltration of legislative bodies and influence on their actions, (and) efforts to undermine scientific evidence on adverse health effects of smoking... "

The reviewers conclude by snuffing out any confusion as to what the next front in the War against (politically incorrect) vice is, with this statement:

"Those concerned with limiting obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease arising from unhealthful food consumption driven by multinational corporations will likely find many parallels in tobacco."

It appears the righteous among us will continue in their quest to save us from ourselves (and from rich, litigation ripe, multinational corporations) by any means possible. May I suggest avoiding the urge to crucify our good brothers, personal responsibility and individual freedom, in the process?

The Centers for Disease control appear to be internally conflicted over the health consequences of obesity:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated today that packing on too many pounds accounts for 25,814 deaths a year in the United States. As recently as January, the CDC came up with an estimate 14 times higher: 365,000 deaths.

and this:

CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said because of the uncertainty in calculating the health effects of being overweight, the CDC is not going to use the brand-new figure of 25,814 in its public awareness campaigns and is not going to scale back its fight against obesity.

Why is it so difficult to decide whether being overweight is unhealthy? Why such erratic swings in the numbers? It's all very strange. If I were a cynical man I would think there was some kind of bureaucratic power struggle going on over funding at the CDC.

Now that American Idol has eroded down to the final seven I feel it's time for me to pick a horse. Anthony Fedorov is a dark horse indeed if for no other reason than Simon considers him a personal whipping boy. But there are other reasons that make Mr. Fedorov a very long shot to win, ranging from his milquetoast persona to his nearly absent charisma.

However, the kid's got a great story and I love great stories. He's an immigrant from eastern Europe who required a Trach. as a child due to respiratory difficulties. His parents were told that he would never be able to even speak, much less sing. But sing he does, albeit music that reminds me of elevators and grade school dances.

In the end, I'm a sucker for underdogs with great tales of triumph over daunting obstacles. After all, isn't that the whole idea of the American dream and, in a microcosm, this silly show?

The abortionists are continuing their drive to outlaw prenatal ultrasounds (spotlight: Right Wing News). It's hard to kill what you can see, even if it is only "a mass of cells". The abortionists know this and are simply protecting their industry.

I've posted my opinion on this before.

This week's sample:

Good looks add an average of 5% to a person's earning power, according to a new study by the federal reserve. Men are most helped by being tall, women by being slim. (CNNmoney.com)

I've heard this all my life. But I believe that self esteem has more to do with it than "looks". If people think your nice to look at, likely so do you. This tends to make one more assertive, which is a definite plus in the business world or anywhere else.

Americans discard 133,000 obsolete personal computers everyday. (U.S. News & World Report)

That's nearly 50 million a year, can that be right?

70% of Americans think the tax code is too complicated, but 51% wouldn't want to give up any deductions to simplify it; 45% support eliminatiing them. (AP-Ipsos)

Oh my, a poll from the AP, now where's my grain of salt. This isn't an either-or game. Why present it as either simplify the tax code and have higher taxes (through no deductions) or not simplify and have lower taxes? Oh yeah, it's the AP.

For the first time in 14 years, inflation is outpacing the average American worker's wage increase. Prices in 2004 were up 2.7%, while wages rose only 2.5%. (LA Times)

Another poll from another questionable source. I have two words to explain this," gas prices". My work here is done.

Scientists begin to unlock the secrets of papyrus scraps bearing long-lost words by the literary giants of Greece and Rome.

They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.

-Was there a template manuscript (known as Q) of which was used by both Mark and Matthew?
-Is there a copy of a Gospel written before the fall of Jerusalem that would confirm that Christ did infact predict its fall?
-Which is the oldest gospel?
-Are there other Gospels?

We may find answers to all of these questions and more!

here.

Another big myth that is not addressed here is the "more is better" thinking. I'm not talking about overtraining so much as overthinking. It's weightlifting for Pete's sake, not physics. Keep it simple, make a routine and stick to it. (That last sentence was directed at myself).

Captain Ed over at Captain's Quarters has a post railing against the unwillingness of Republicans to stop the Democrat Filibuster:

Not. One. Dime. The next time Ken Mehlman sends you a request for money, that's the message he needs to get back. We ponied up in 2004, and in 2002, and in 2000. The GOP not only has not delivered, its current leadership won't even try.

In response, poster Carol Herman submits this refreshing POV:

I don't think there's any need to panic.The MSM is just trying to get all the conservatives to get knots in their underwear. Frist is going to do what it takes to clean out the problem. You just can't rush this surgery at all. Though you can sure spook conservatives!

I'd like to see what happens when this thing finally gets dragged to a vote. Because there are democrats who are not about to commit suicide. You can kind of count them, now. Hillary and Schumer. Lieberman. Feinstein. (Not Boxer!) But Feinstein's race for re-election is ahead. (So's Schwartzenegger's.) '06.

Not that the democrats wouldn't mind seeing GOP blood spilled. Frist's and DeLay's. That would be a double-whopper. And, it would give the MSM the power of maginalizing bloggers. The right wingers would limp along on a broken wing. For no reason at all. Why's that?

The fears are spooking some within the GOP tent. (Not all.) You couldn't be someone who voted for McCain, for instance, and be a true, blue blooded American Conservative. Millions aren't. And, this is just something that should have most of you just rolling your eyeballs in your head. Why are you making Howie Kurtz' day? Or those goofs at C-BS? They've done anything for you, lately?

What happened with patience? Even if there's a traffic jam coming up. What are you going to do? Drive your cars over the cliff's edge? Up ahead the democrats, now with only 45 senators to call their own; are trying to get the republicans to commit suicide.
Geez.

You want something, by the way, that's not all that easy to accomplish. McCain's jumped. And, this is supposed to upset the applecart? Ya know, the best revolutionary instruction ever! Was given right at the beginning. Don't shoot till you see the whites of their eyes. Good advice. Sit on your powder. The game is only first setting up. And, the odds are good that MOST of the AMerican People are ANGRY AT THE EXTREMISTS. Ya know what? I hope the GOP can get along very nicely without their own extremists. And, I don't think Hillary's gonna twirl herself in the chair in the Oval Office. Her best bet is to be the veep to a McCain nod by the democrats; who have no other viable choices.

And, everybody's in a panic over what? That you won't get everything you want by Sunday? Listen to me. My mom used to say "It's a wise child that cries for the moon, for they learn their disappointments early in life." You'll have them if you think America is ready for more medicine to be thrown down the average American's throat. Ain't gonna happen. Saner heads will prevail. And, in politics its the long view that usually wins. There's no football to toss. And, spitting at your own team isn't the best way to handle what's ahead. Dr. Frist is there because within the Republican party there's a LONG VIEW to consider. There's time before you start screaming "spineless."

Even more to the point, the MSM wants the upset NOW. And, Frist is willing to wait. Most Americans, I am willing to bet, won't blame the republicans if the democrats close Congress down! We're not in Vietnam, anymore. The democrats can blink first, ya know?

On a lot of blogs I visit the responders to a post are more interesting to read than the actual post itself. I've always thought that it might be worthwhile to have a blog that did nothing but highlight the best comments made at other blogs. Given the number of blogs out there, coupled with the fact that I'm not all that creative, there is likely someone that is already doing this. Even so, I would like to add to that work today.

Over at Evangelical Outpost, Joe Carter has a post about the need for Christians to cast away the Gods of information. At one point Mr. Carter states that he thinks some Christians must view heaven as a Boring place:

"How many of us evangelicals have sung a hymn about spending eternity worshipping God and secretly believed that heaven must be an incredible bore? No doubt one reason for our attitude is that we already give such devotion to another. And, like Jehovah, Technology is a jealous god."

In response George Maddox posted this inspirational piece:

Heaven a bore? We worship God by living. We worship by absorbing the wonder of creation through our senses, by being impressed by concepts so huge we can’t comprehend them, by loving, singing and dancing with sheer joy at the wonder of feeling.

We worship by grasping and valuing realizations and insights that allow us to see truth, wiping lies from our eyes and seeing colors of reality.

We worship God by making love to our wives. By looking at beauty, touching it and letting it touch us. By smiling, laughing, eating, sleeping and enjoying peace.

Too many people think worshiping God requires a sacrifice because liars have convinced them that God wants sacrifice. What father wants sacrifice from his children?

Anyone who waits till Sunday to worship God has the world in his eye and can’t see that our senses, or intellect, our sexuality and emotion were made by God not Satan. That lie steals worship from God and gives it to the liar.

Bored? Knowing God makes life itself a celebration every day. There are no special holidays because every day is a holy day. There is no natural because it is all supernatural. The rocks will sing and the heavens declare his glory, and I will be dancing and singing to the music and the song.

And when I am tired I will sleep, and dream of walking, flying, running and loving in God’s creation, and so worship God even in my sleep.

Church is just a place to go and rest after worshiping God so hard during the week.
Bored? I don’t think so.

Cool.

I wandered across this article at Blue Goldfish today and would like to toss in my 0.02 cents.

The heart of the matter is the scandalous failure to live what we preach. The tragedy is that poll after poll by Gallup and Barna show that evangelicals live just like the world. Contrast that with what the New Testament says about what happens when people come to living faith in Christ. There's supposed to be radical transformation in the power of the Holy Spirit.

First of all I find it fascinating that the author thinks he knows the purpose of the holy spirit for every individual. His criteria appears to be charity, fidelity, racism and divorce rates. These are fine markers and are helpful in determining the overall health of the evangelical community (Maybe) but instead of digging into the ever exasperating "why" the author simply concludes that the reason for the apparent debauchery is hypocrisy. But the "world" in this case is much different from the world of the first century. We no longer have slavery, there are civil rights, women's rights etc. So of course Christians look more like the world, the world has become more Christian!

I don't have access to the actual polling numbers, which is fine because I don't want to go off in arguing over numbers. This is what I want to get to:

Cheap grace is right at the core of the problem. Cheap grace results when we reduce the gospel to forgiveness of sins only; when we limit salvation to personal fire insurance against hell; when we misunderstand persons as primarily souls; when we at best grasp only half of what the Bible says about sin...

What is the definition of a savior? A person who rescues you from harm or danger.
Why did we need rescuing? Due to the sin of Adam all of mankind fell and was cut-off from a relationship with God.
Is there any other way in which we can find salvation except through Christ? No. The 10 commandments could only expose sin, it did not have the power to forgive sin.

It is tempting to want to grab the reins of your life from God and direct your own sanctification(or another's). I'm just as guilty of this as anyone. I used to smoke cigarettes and struggled for years trying to quit. I thought, "what kind of Christian do I look like to the world with such a nasty habit?" But what was important to me was not so important to God. What was so important to God at the time was that I learned financial responsibility so that I would have the money to help my family when disaster struck. So the author needs to give God some credit. He loved us so much that he died on a cross to save us. I find it hard to believe that God will suddenly give up in disgust, suffering some kind of buyers remorse.

Here. I do hope he wasn't injured.


Update
Warning: I linked to this video without investigating the site first (bad idea). The rest of the site is rather um...adult.

17 ways to keep your blog obscure (spotlight: Evangelical Outpost)

It is a funny read but, you know, I'm getting pretty tired of being told that I'm not blogging right. That I should be concerned with traffic, and if I'm not, then I'm either a liar or I'm simply involved with keeping a journal, not a blog.

I once tried to make it as a song writer when I lived in Nashville, TN. I loved to write music, it was all great fun. I gave no thought to it outside of learning the craft and making the song sound right to me. However, once I started playing in clubs around the city and getting to know other songwriters all I ever heard was how I was supposed to write. I must write on certain themes only, I must write with a certain singer in mind, the song must have a bridge, the song must not be over three minutes long etc. One day I realized that I didn't like writing music any longer, in fact I hated it because it moved from something I loved into work.

There's nothing wrong with work, but I've already got a job thank you very much. So I'm fine with being part of the "tail". Good hours, no pressure, and I can write about any damn thing I want as much as I want. Like Kristofferson said in the classic "Me and Bobby Mcgee", Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose. Which by the way had no bridge, was well over three minutes long and I'm positive he wasn't thinking about Janis Joplin when he wrote it.

The Delivery.

...the first safe and effective Polio virus vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk and his group at the University of Pittsburgh. The April 6th issue of JAMA has a piece regarding this that goes into all the back-biting and all-too-human subplots, but this part is the only one that really matters:

In 1955 there were 28,000 cases of Polio; two years later, there were 5485.

Thankyou Mr. Salk

-Among physicians 50-65 years old, 52% say they would not choose medicine as a career today, according to the AMA. Citing longer hours and lower take home pay, 64% say they would not encourage thier own children to follow in their own footsteps. (The Miami Herald)

I would add that the climate of fear produced by uncontrolled litigation has added to the stress and displeasure felt by many physicians.

-Nearly 30% of Americans now choose cremation upon their death. if current trends continue, by 2025 about half of all Americans who die will be cremated. (USA Today)

-40% of Americans say preparing their tax return is the most stressful thing they do all year. Only the Holidays rate higher on the stress scale with 49%. (Harris Interactive)

The Griffin/Bonnar fight was unlike anything I've ever seen. The UFC seems to deliver on the promise made by professional "wrasslin", to marry entertainment with highly skilled fighting. I just hope these guys get paid well for the pounding they take.

Of course I only think that because I didn't completely embarrass myself taking it.
Test.

Those are who my beliefs most reflect according to this survey. Man, my Pentecostal church is not going to be happy to hear about this:)

I'm sure it was her wish to die of thirst even though she isn't terminal and had a living will, right?

Mullinax said that Ms. Gaddy has testified in court that she has "prayed over" Mae, and is convinced that it is "time for her to go". Whether the fact is relevant or not remains to be seen, but apparently Ms. Gaddy is also the sole beneficiary of Mae's will.

The next case will be of someone who has no physical disabilities, but is mentally incapacitated only. After that the very young will be "attended to".

Here.

-Last December's Tsunami killed up to four times as many women as men, Oxfam reported. Women were more likely to stay behind in the rushing waters to gather up their children.

-There are 800 million cars on the world's roads today. By 2050 the number will be 3.25 billion.

-The baseball steroids scandal is having an impact on the trading card market. A Mark McGwire rookie card that sold for $8,600 in 2000 is now valued at $600. A rookie Sammy Sosa card once valued at $1,200 is now worth $200.

-American Indian teenagers commit suicide at triple the national rate, and die in alcohol-related incidents at 17 times the national average.

-The U.S. labor market has finally gained back all its losses from the 2001 recession. With 262,000 new jobs created last month, 300,000 more Americans are working than in Feb. 2001.

-Afganistan's opium production is down for the first time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. The country still supplies 87% of the world's opium.

-The 180 million cell phone subscribers in the U.S. spent 1.2 billion last year on ring tones and other personalization gimmicks, and 1.4 billion on cell phone games.

Wretchard of Belmont club made a comment regarding lying that I find interesting.

It is becoming too expensive to maintain an elaborate lie. The effort necessary to maintain apparent consistency with verifiable information simply grows to high too be worth it.

If this is true, it would seem that as information becomes ever larger and more available, lying would become defunct. Unable to perform its primary function, hidding the truth, lying will simply be dropped like a broken tool or an old slang word.

The Pope is near death. Not being Catholic, I never paid much attention to him. I have learned more about his heroism and grace over the past few weeks than my previous three decades on earth.

I was going to wax on about how terrible it is that Christianity has become so fractured, but realized that it really isn't the case. Go to any family reunion and everyone groups with their own clan or go to any thanksgiving dinner and everyone groups with their own blood etc. Beyond all of that we are still a family though. Maybe I'm being naive, but I think the same holds for Christianity as well. We're all brothers and sisters in Christ. That is where the similarities end however. But the Lord seems to like diversity and is big enough to accept the rosary or the revival, the Mass or the sunrise service as equally acceptable worship.