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Whirled Views 10.17
Good morning! Lynn’s sleeping in this morning, so I’m subbing for her. 
Today’s movie quote: “We all know most marriages depend on a firm grasp of football trivia.”
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back to top80 Comments to “Whirled Views 10.17”
There are a lot of things that people know.
This one qualifies for a six yard penalty. Play will resume with a new fifth down.
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I think it’s Diner. I never saw it, but I remember watching Siskel and Ebert showing a clip about a guy testing his fiancee’s football knowledge.
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1/7
As I stated yesterday, I am announcing the four winners of my contest for worldmagblog participants. The basic theme of the contest is rewarding persons who express their opinions, values, and beliefs in a forceful manner without engaging in personal attacks or pursuing a race to the bottom in a forum where many people often race to the bottom, sometimes disappearing out of sight in the process.
After I decided not to worry about being fair or objective, I recognized several common threads among my winners:
In one way or another, each is a radical moderate. (One or more may feel this label does not apply to them. They may flame me about it if they choose or they may choose to refuse the award.
In some way I feel a personal connection with the prize winner. This is the opposite of the usual prize disclaimer; I feel perfectly comfortable with such bias as long as I acknowledge it openly. Any winner, of course, can deny with complete honesty and sincerity, that they ever met me.
All display qualities such as intelligence, skill, honesty, self-control, wit, scholarship, and courage how they express themselves. To those who say, Random, you wouldn’t know these qualities if they hit you on the head, I reply, How come my head is sore?
(Because I am a sorehead, actually. This is true.)
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2/6
The four categories are:
Loyalists: conservative Christians
Rebels: atheists, agnostics, homosexuals, liberal Christians, pagans, people you wouldn’t want your son or daughter or cat or dog to marry, anybody else you don’t like or don’t approve of.
Hard to classify
Wild Cards
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3/7
Sometime before the end of 2007, I will donate $100 to the charity of each winner’s choice.
The fine print:
Charity must be a 503(c)(3) charity recognized by the IRS.
I will use the deduction on my federal tax return.
You have to trust me that I made the donation. (Or not, as you prefer.)
This promise is void and null if I (a) die, (b) become incapacitated, or (c) go bankrupt between now and the end of 2007.
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4/7
Loyalist winner: Pauline
radical moderate: Although clearly a Christian, and clearly conservative, Pauline is clearly moderate in her religious and political beliefs. As I grade on a curve, I am describing her as a radical moderate in comparison to the run of the mill (please walk don’t run as the mill grinds you very finely) worldmagblog participants.
personal connection: Pauline has Jewish ancestors. She comes from a troubled family. She is building a happier family with spouse and children. (If this is not true, do not disillusion me, please.) Like me, she has struggled with overeating and weight issues.
qualities example: Pauline recently wrote about how each person has a “God-shaped hole” in their personality, and how God fills that hole for the person. While this statement did not convince me to become a believer (any more than any other of the arguments I read here) I thought it was an eloquent and elegant statement of belief.
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5/7
Rebel winner: Coyote Blue
radical moderate
She grew up in an evangelical family. As she is a lesbian, I suspect she experienced frustration and conflicts growing up. However, she does not express herself with bitterness and rancor as she posts on worldmagblog and as she expresses disagreement with many of the political and religious arguments and opinions expressed here.
personal connection: Coyote Blue is a lesbian. My daughter (who may be a lesbian or may be bi-sexual—I don’t care) lives with another woman. Fine with me in both cases.
qualities example: As she comments on various political and religious topics, it is clear that Coyote Blue has done considerable reading and has experienced and observed much in her life. When she lamented as being seem as “nice” she developed an increased tartness without turning nasty. When I teased her that she should become a “biker babe” she played along with my silly conceit with amiable good humor.
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6/7
Hard to classify winner: Musing
radical moderate
Musing has described himself as a religious believer, but he eschews the Bible literalism and abhorrence of evolutionary theory so typical of worldmagblog. Musing always expresses himself with careful, calm precision, even when personal attacks fly in his direction.
personal connection:qualities example: Musing shows considerable knowledge on topics such as the history of Christianity and on topics such as Biblical exegesis and hermeneutics (words that I have to look up and surely don’t use properly) as well as on the evolutionary theory. As with all the winners, he is clearly smarter than I.
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7/7
Wild card winners: Tim Phillips (TJ) and (Anna) Cameron (Phillips)
TJ nominated himself, but I perhaps get the last laugh as I award the prize to him and his wife as an exemplary conservative Christian couple. I also suggest that wmb participants read and participate in TJ’s fine blog, Gairney Bridge.
http://gairneybridge.reformedblogs.com/
radical moderate
The Phillips always express themselves judiciously and moderately even when they disagree vehemently. My biggest disagreement with worldmagblog in is with the over-excited and overly hyperbolic attitude displayed about the topic of homosexuality. One day when I was feeling thoroughly fed up with an egregious display of intemperate discourse, I asked for wmb readers who considered themselves devout Christians but didn’t believe in such immoderate ways of expressing themselves to email me privately. Several people sent me pleasant emails; one of those correspondents was Cameron.
personal connection:qualities example: As I said, Tim is one of the best debaters on worldmagblog, even though we debate on whether debate is a useful activity.
Besides my disagreement with conservative Christians about homosexuality, I consider wmb to be rife with what I consider a weird kind of sexism, revealed in part because of the man is head of the family doctrine and in part because of the vociferous twisting of the perfectly reasonable concept of feminism into a bizarre stereotype of feminists as left-wing pro-abortion advocates.
A while back, I came up with the whimsical idea of selling flash drives imprinted with “Jesus Saves” on them. I consulted with Tim and Cameron by email to see if my posting such an idea on wmb would be offensive. Tim replied that he did find it inappropriate; Cameron replied that she did not. They seemed to be able to disagree with each other in this regard with good humor and tolerance. I hope that I am not presuming here or causing tension, but this struck me as an example of an exemplary couple.
TJ has already indicated his preference for a donation:
“It is the home missions board for my denomination, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church: http://www.outreachnorthamerica.org.”;
I will make such a donation as their prize before the end of the year. I await word from the other winners. For those who didn’t win, I invite you to tell us why you deserve a prize and make a donation in your own name.
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Anyone notice what Rush Limbaugh has done with Harry Reid’s letter about the “Phony Soldiers” comment? (Signed by, among others, Hillary Rodham Clinton)
Hilarious! Classic Rush…
My favorite line from his “press release”:
“gem of colossal ignorance”
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Then my marriage is doomed. I’ve wondered, at times, exactly what the problem was. Hmmmm.
Random, You’re a pretty cool person. You made excellent choices.
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Random, I think you made good choices. They are all very “nice” (sorry CB) people.
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I guess the rest of us can go back to being mean.
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Random:
Thank you for your commitment to the discussion here. There is something there that belies your own professed “radical agnosticism” — Pauline, I suspect, got it right.
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Scott Robinson wins! Diner, which is one of my all-time favorite moves, is correct. Modell, played by Paul Reiser, uttered this line while listening to the character Eddie (Steve Guttenberg) test his fiancee on Baltimore Colts trivia. She had to have a passing grade or the wedding was off. Extra credit: Who was the subject of the question Eddie let her have credit for in order to pass?
The prize this morning, in honor of Lynn, is a digital pass to sleep in this morning. So if you’re at home, go back to bed. If you’re at work, snooze at your desk.
ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz….
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Thanks, Mickey, but I don’t think I can snooze at my desk. Drool on the keyboard and all that…
Again, from the one clip I remember seeing, was the subject Alan Ameche?
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Sleeping at the desk was easy on my last job. Since it was a ministry if you got caught with your eyes closed, you could pretend you were praying
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# 9: Random, thanks for your kind comments, your gracious donation/award, and your free advertisement for my blog.
I will note a couple of things in irony (and which actually support some of your commentary). With regard to our relationship, I will assure you that my wife and I practice what you would probably term as “a weird kind of sexism,” but which would properly be called Biblical headship. You will note, though, that I do not lord over her (indeed, the goal is to love her as Christ loved the church), nor do I keep her locked up in a closet (except on federal holidays). You disapprove of the “feminist” label as a kind of stereotype, but I would venture to guess that a proper Biblical household relationship, while it might not be palatable to certain “liberal” ideals, is quite stereotype shattering as well. Your comments seem to demonstrate this, and I see that it is something which, though you might not agree with entirely, you are somewhat at peace with.
The irony, which I think you will find both amusing and satisfying, is that (on this side of the keyboard at least) I did not in reality “nominate” myself. My wife read your comments about me being probably the best debator, and she suggested that I ask you if I had won (I had completely forgotten about your contest). So, you see, this is another indication of a compatible (arrrghhh, talk about Freudian slips: I originally typed “combatable” here) coupleship at work.
Lastly, Random, I will pay you a complement: you have helped me become a more patient and gracious blogger on WMB. As I pointed out a couple of days ago, the temptation in this medium is treat people with more hostility and less patience than you would ever do with a friend or even acquaintance in the real world (i.e., face-to-face). It is very easy to sit back and drop e-bombs knowing that you will almost certainly never meet the person on the other end and have to answer to him/her for your thoughtlessness. Having someone else with whom I fundamentally disagree, and yet having that person not only behave kindly, but also encourage others to do the same, is something that I do respect. Bravo.
Now I will have the joy of informing my lovely bride that we have both won. Have no fear (and this should please you as well as chip away at stereotypes again): I asked her opinion a couple of days ago about the charity (we discussed a few different choices), and she agreed with me about Outreach North America.
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Scott is right again. Take the rest of the day off, digitally, of course. One of the Diner guys, I believe it was Shrevie (Daniel Stern), blurted out “Alan Ameche” during the test. He did it out of excitement because it was one of the few answers he knew.
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In # 18 I wrote “Your comments seem to demonstrate this…” when I should have said “Your comments seem to demonstrate that you at least acknowledge this…” (i.e., your comments seem to indicate that you see that our relationship is different from the perceived “stereotype”).
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BTW, Random, my offer from yesterday still stands: I will send you a book, free of charge, as long as you agree to write a review of it on your blog. I haven’t actually thought of a book yet, and unless you agree I don’t want to divert too many brain cells to the endeavor.
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Mickey! I was so not sleeping!
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Uh-oh.
Hate Crime! Hate Crime!
James Watson, the Nobel Laureate scientist who’s world renowned for his pioneering work in DNA research, is being investigated for possible hate crime violations in England for stating a wrong opinion on race.
http://tinyurl.com/2b5n26
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Lynn – # 22 – I had to laugh at Mickey “telling” on you and then your protest. (Remind him to read Kristin’s thread – separation of faith and work!)
My husband does that type of thing to me all the time. If he knows I take a 20 minute nap during the day (because I’ve been awake half the night) he’ll tell people how I sleep half the day etc.
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Oh … hi … Lynn. I see your computer’s back up. Welcome back to WMBland!
Hey, don’t hit me with that scepter …
… Ouch!
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Should one of the most brilliant men in history, one of the most insightful scientists of all time, whose pioneering work in DNA research led to all sorts of breakthroughs, be “investigated” by the UK government for a possible hate crime because he believes blacks are less intelligent than whites?
I hope the Christians in the UK are speaking out against this travesty as forcefully as they’re speaking out against the proposed law criminalizing anti-homosexual speech. If they’re not, then they deserve to lose their right to believe and speak as they wish on the topic of sodomy..
You don’t have to be a racist to understand what a travesty, what an outrage, the James Watson case is. a 79 year old man, who’s made inestimable contributions to our understanding of humanity, a Nobel Prize winner for science, being threatened with prosecution for disagreeing with the prevailing orthodoxies on race. No matter if you’re David Duke or Anthony Bradley, you should be outraged at this bit of news. World should be reporting it, but I don’t look for that to happen, although they’re all bent out of shape about anti-gay speech about to become illegal.
http://tinyurl.com/2b5n26
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Night Train, are they planning on doing the same with Charles Darwin, who had some unsettling things to say about other races (and women as well)? I can’t see them digging up his plot at Westminster Abbey.
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Mickey writes:Hey, don’t hit me with that scepter …… Ouch!
Take that…and that…hey! don’t think I can’t see you hiding under that desk!…
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VS,
My wife does that to me too.
I take a 20 minute nap on Sundays, and she says I sleep all afternoon. In reality if I slept all afternoon, I’d be really groggy the rest of the day, and wouldn’t sleep that night… Misery. So I just take enough of a nap to refresh.
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Random,
Like I said – choice is good. Making good ones is always better than making bad ones. Luckily, most folks are usually the only ones that have to live with them good or bad – unless society has given you great power over others. As a spouse, parent or boss, the choices are much more difficult to make well and live with even if right. Just ask Bush – it’s all his fault and he is hated by many
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Well done, Random Name! Your choices are some of my favorite people here on WOTW. Congratulations to all the winners!
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My husband tells people I sit around all day watching soaps and eating bon-bons, when in reality it’s blogging and cheese puffs.
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Excellent choices, Random Name.
I am not looking forward to your six-month sabbatical. While I do not always agree with you, I very much appreciate your observations (and enjoy the stories about RG!).
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Night Train #23/#26: Unless you’re stirring up a riot or otherwise overtly inciting people to real crimes, expressing beliefs like Watson’s should not be a crime. That’s true whether it’s about homosexuality or about race.
I’m not often in agreement with you, but I’m with you on this one.
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Make It Man – That’s how I am – 20 minutes is good. Much more than that and it’s worse than none. And my husband gets more sleep in one night than I get in two!
kBells – That (32) was funny.
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Is this newsworthy? Richard Roberts has just announced that he’s taking a leave of absence from Oral Roberts University.
http://tinyurl.com/23g7c9
Of course, the LOA only extends so far. He’s not quitting his real bread and butter, which is the TV gig:
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Random, those were excellent choices indeed!
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Actions speak louder than words. When I think of Oral Roberts and his family, I’m afraid my mind does not immediately leap to the lost, the sick and the hurting of this world.
It goes to money.
And using Jesus’ name to get it. 
Sarcasm off, I actually think the school may produce fine graduates. But the fund raising tactics taint my view. Anyone else feel that way, or should I return to my morning devotions?
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Kbells,
Can’t stand the puffs at all, how horrid, but I must be addicted to Cheetos Crunchies. When ever I see them in the store – they must be mine. I sometimes avoid the chip aisle as a result but, this is difficult and I sometimes backtrack from the check out line after further consideration. Now they come no trans fats too! I once stole some from a friend when I asked for a few in a dream and was refused -and I rarely dream at all – or I am too old to remember them!
I call it CrunchyCheetophobia – as in fear of not having any
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Oral Roberts U – Isn’t that the place where the father said if he didn’t raise something like $10 million dollars that God was going to strike him dead? It seems like I recall this was in the news a few years ago.
I know what Bugs Bunny would have to say about that
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Hey Make It Man. How’s it going. I am just about done with my daughter’s Hope chest. It is turning out really pretty. I raised the panels with solid Walnut and made the rails and stiles from quartersawn red oak. From one wood worker to another, what do you think?
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Yes, that’s the one and only Oral Roberts, Anlir.
He also claimed around the same time that the The Devil attacked him while he slept and tried to choke him to death. Which doesn’t make much sense. From the heavenly death threat he received, it seems much more plausible that it was Jesus trying to choke him to death. Now, had an invisible being attempted CPR, I’m pretty sure that would’ve been Satan.
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Anlir, ORU is also the Alma Mater of Kathie Lee Gifford, Pastor Ted Haggard, and none other than Ned Flanders! GO ORU!
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Ned Flanders went to ORU? I didn’t know that. Well, ol’ Ned’s alright in my book, no matter what Homer says. So at least some of their grads turn out OK.
I was aware of Ted Haggard, but not Ned.
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I have seen the prayer tower at ORU but I was never really impressed with Oral Roberts theology. From what I remember a lot of his sermons were a prosperity type of theology which is totally at odds with the Bible.
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Wow! Crude Oil hit $89 a barrel today – a new high. The lefties will have us riding bikes and eating tofu instead of corn (like the Chinese used to) before a llama can honk up a decent spit
Oddly, they will be sucking Evil Oil Company Executives blood in the 500th round of Senate and Congressional hearings too while totally throwing out their complete belief in science, in this case the science of supply and demand, to tell us how horrible these ‘wanna kill little people’ hating executives are – and how America messed up the world because we are so vile and disgusting in our energy using lifestyles
It shouldn’t take them more than week – Ooooppsss – too late – bad guess! They already started – never mind.
Hope, they take alGores Nobel Peace Prize away for his hypocrisy too
Naw, that will never happen – his message, even if false and exaggerated, is worth way more than his deeds and liberal socialist wish for control over every aspect of your life – which they seem to not notice in the least. Go figure.
Don’t worry about the much higher home heating oil prices looming for the coming Winter either. Just turn off the heat and put on a coat for Heaven’s sake and take comfort in knowing that alGore is suffering way worse consequences than you with him having to face potential financial ruin. Remember, he is the one paying those huge heating costs for his many huge houses, private planes and cars – and paying for Carbon Offsets too. Hope these indulgences make him feel better about you peddling away like crazy – just so you die from the cold. He is only thinking of your ignorant welfare because you can’t, no matter how warm and toasty he becomes
Oh, and remember to hug the shoulder of the road while peddling your bike through the snow, as Hillary’s motorcade sweeps swiftly past you, while you on your way to work. She’s on her way to tax the devil out of the evil rich so you can get a free gallon of gasoline, if you are no rich, from her,….errr…. I mean the government, if you promise to vote for her of course. You won’t have a job by then but so what, you can always set yourself on fire with your free gallon of gas and take the loved ones, of your choice of course, with you – which is as near to the same thing as you can get to voting for a card carrying socialist
You can set the fire alight with that worthless dollar bill the lefties created in so short a time while in power too.
Not to mention they are in fill charge and responsible for the war in Iraq – for nearly a whole year now, less a couple of months, too.
I love it when the planets line up right before an election. Watch what happens to you when they do – or have not done in their case. They make the do nothing Republican congress look like an bunch of dam building beavers right before winter. Take heart in their rhetoric, as they they try to kill you not so slowly. You got to love it
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Man, I am gonna have so much fun with Llama if Hillary gets elected
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Mickey #25: Welcome back to WMBland!
Hey! put a space in that name– WMB land! We are anything but bland around here. There are several who spice this place up on a regular basis!
Was that thunder I just heard? Cool! We need the rain!
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Hot off the wire services:
Texas Governor Rick Perry endorsed Rudy! for President.
Fred Thompson mad as hell. His campaign spokesman said “Get a rope”.
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Man, I am gonna have so much fun with Llama if Hillary gets elected
Anlir, don’t you mean when, not if?
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Desperate times call for desperate measures. 4th tier presidential candidate Sam Brownback, who apparently was born without a sense of shame, has hit upon a scheme to revive his moribund campaign. Like many other immoral men grasping at power, Brown has evidently adopted the philosophy of “when in doubt, play the race card”. He’s proposing a national apology for slavery and segregation.
http://tinyurl.com/2b955h
And please don’t tell me that this is a highly principled, moral position. He’s been in the Senate for years, and it never occurs to him to propose this legislation until his presidential campaign is on its deathbed?
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Night Train, I don’t have time to give you the answer I promised you before.
However, in the meantime, I will mention that you are reminding me a bit of Nick Peters, a poster on the “classic WMB” who does not seem to have crossed over into the “New and Improved WMB.” You’re style is not exactly the same as his, but I am wondering a bit.
Well, I will give you the explanation you asked for, as I get a chance.
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I know it Random; I’ve been thinking the same thing the past couple of days.
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Thank you to all, and to TJ for your comments.
Briefly, in regard to your offer to send me a book, I will accept your offer.
I have a pile of books to get to, so I don’t promise any particular time when I would get to it, and given my sarcastic tongue and heretical attitude, the review I would write might shed more sarcasm than enlightenment.
In the meantime, I ordered by interlibrary loan, the complete works of Roger Williams. He managed to write a lot, not to mention that his flowery 17th Century discourse is hard on my simple brain, so I doubt I will get through more than .2% of it before I have to ship it back. Perhaps seeing his own words before me will do more to convince me of your point of view than all the apologetics in the world, but I doubt it.
I have yet to hear from the other winners. Perhaps somebody leaked my decision to them and they went into hiding.
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That’s hilarious. Of course you don’t have time. There IS no answer as to how your claim – that because dollar bills and gold coins are inedible they’re also imaginary – can possibly be true. As I explained on this thread
http://tinyurl.com/3ywz8j
you were trying to be profound about race, and you used a poorly thought out analogy. Your point was that race is imaginary, and to demonstrate it you said money is imaginary, and if you don’t believe it try eating a dollar bill or a Krugerrand. Well, they’re certainly inedible, but they most certainly are not imaginary. I have several dollar bills in my wallet, and a Krugerrand or two in my safe deposit box. They are very, very real. And I never asked you to explain what you meant; I know very well what you meant. But what you said was that because dollar bills and gold coins are inedible, they therefore don’t really exist, and are merely figments of peoples’ imaginations. That’s what you said, and when I ask why you said that, you keep promising to give me a long drawn out explanation about race and money, etc, and what you really meant. I don’t need that. I just want you to tell me how it follows that if dollar bills and gold coins are inedible they’re also imaginary. That’s all. You can’t, of course, because the idea is nonsense. But rather than admit that you got in a hurry and used a poorly thought out analogy, you keep implicitly insisting that it’s all true, and when you have sufficient time, you’ll be able to make it clear. Give it up, man. Do you know how silly this makes you look? All because you refuse to say “Yeah, I really goofed that one up”?
Also, I take it you and VS are wondering if I’m Nick Peters. No, I’m not. I guess I’m wondering why you’re wondering that. But that’s alright. Pentamom hasn’t made the switchover, either, that I’ve seen. Did it ever occur to you that I might be her? And I guess you didn’t notice that I was posting on WMB Classic long before the switchover, right along with Nick Peters. (And Pentamom, for the record.)
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I’m just curious, Random and VS – is my style better or worse than Nick Peters’ style?
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Night Train, you are definitely not Nick Peters. Your style is very different. I enjoyed reading your defense of the evangelical churches in the other thread. Nick’s comments are usually short and to the point and personal opinion. Can’t say I always agree with you, but you are thought provoking.
Random, you and Night Train are having this thing about gold today. During all the craziness in the 80s, the Japanese used to serve chocolate mousse with gold shavings. So gold is edible.
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Random, I thank you for your gracious offer to accept my book. I will put my brain cells to work in order to find just the sort of thing to send your way. And I would expect nothing that sarcasm from you, as long as it is good-natured. Do me a favor though: if I haven’t mentioned to you in a couple of weeks that I’ve thought of it or sent it (of course, you’ll have to email me your address privately for that to happen — you could email Cameron if you prefer, though), give me a reminder/nudge on the blog.
As I have alluded to you before, I am not a particular fan of Roger Williams. I certainly am not critical of his basic Christian beliefs, but he was a little too hard to please and a little too confused about a few things (but then aren’t we all).
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Thanks, NJL. I’m surprised that anyone (let alone two) thinks I’m Nick Peters, as, since you point out, it would be hard for our styles to be any more different. I’m guessing it’s because for the past few days I’ve been hammering away at Anthony Bradley’s dishonesty about how evangelicals are pretty much just as racist as they were in 1958. To say such a thing is not only asinine, it’s morally reprehensible. But I’m “hassling a black guy”, which I take it you’re not supposed to do under any circumstances, so I must be Nick Peters. I posted the thing about James Watson facing hate crimes charges in the UK for saying blacks are less intelligent than whites because, first, I think it’s an outrage that anyone should be punished for what they believe, let alone a scientist widely referred to as “one of the Immortals; second, WOW has an article up about the UK trying to criminalize anti-gay speech, so I thought it was very timely. So I’m guessing that VS and RN think I’m hung up on race or something, so I might be Nick Peters. But I actually post on lots of topics, and again, as you point out, it would be hard to imagine two people whose styles were more different.
Thanks again.
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BTW, if I do decide to send you something apologetic in nature, rest assured it will be a bit more involved that the standard Josh McDowell/Lee Strobel stuff that usually gets recommended (the are both fine gentlemen, I just don’t cotton much to their methodology — a bit pedestrian, imho). I plan to send you something that will at least address some philosophical issues and expand your mind a bit. You’ll need it after reading Williams.
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Night Train,
I said I’ve wondered if you might be Nick but hadn’t thought an awful lot about it as I normally didn’t read many of Nick’s comments. I do read yours – sometimes – part of them anyway. You tend to appear a bit high strung, hyper or overly uptight. And you actually post much lengthier comments than what I am recalling that Nick did.
But no it’s not hard to imagine two styles more different.
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Random- The other day we were trying to guess what your gravatar is, and you said you would reveal it to us. Are you so busy with the “Random Awards” that you forgot? (Good choices, BTW.)
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Hi Random!
I’ve been very busy lately, just taking a few minutes I don’t really have now (need to do laundry, get younger son to bed, and get to bed myself) to find out if I won (since I remember yesterday you said you’d annouce winners today).
And I did! Thank you. (I wondered, for a while, when CoyoteBlue was wondering whether I wasn’t too moderate to be considered a true conservative, whether I hadn’t ruined my chances. That, and the fact that your contest wasn’t motivating me to be reasonable or nice – that’s just the way I am.
My favored charity – and I’m happy to have the chance to give a “plug” for them, in addition to your generous gift – is Heifer International (www.heifer.org). $100 would buy two flocks of chicks (or geese or ducks) and a trio of rabbits. The recipients will be trained how to take care of their animals to provide food for their family and additional income (from selling eggs and offspring) – plus the animals provide free fertilizer for the fields! (The birds also control weeds and insect pests.) And some of the offspring will be given to someone else in need, so that people who used to be so poor they needed charity now have the joy of giving to others, and keeping the gift going.
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#61 And, you argue with nitpicking rather than by broader issues. You will get on your high horse about one word, or the phrasing of a sentence, and then completely ignore the *point* of what was being said.
Also, Nick Peters was definitely Catholic and didn’t go too long without mentioning that fact. His posts were shorter.
But, I think people are putting you in the same category, because you seem very preoccupied about race, and generally seem rather intolerant of other races.
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Oops, I was speaking to Night Train in #64, not VS.
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Thanks, TRS. I appreciate the constructive criticism. And you’re right that I do tend to get sidetracked off on to rabbit trails which tend to derail any profitable discussion, a la the inedible/imaginary/gold thing with Random. So I’m dropping that discussion right now. And I’ll try to watch that in the future.
But I must say that I’m mystified that you think I’m “rather intolerant of other races”, as I don’t recall every saying anything that would give people that idea. What makes you think that?
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So few have written such as Josh McDowell, “Evidence that Demands a Verdict” OR “More Than a Carpenter” - – - these books have impacted the world which we as Believers will never know. Yes, they tell of all the Prophecies which have come to pass, and also explain the remote chance any of this taking place ……. and has anyone read what a SMALL CHANCE that would be? I doubt it.
God in His Word has said:
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1 Corinthians 1:27
18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. 1 Corinthians 3
Let us try to reason and pray for the so called “wise” letting them come as little children, let us not esteem one man over another, let us not forget the “foolish things of the world to confound the wise” –
God knows the hearts of every soul, after all, HE created each and every one of us -
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random name post 3,
you are a very insightful individual and this effort is nothing short of brilliant. You have some deep insights we perhaps can discuss sometime.
It is an honor that your would award me “hard to classify”.
In fairness to you, we will be making a $100 donation to the Kiva microloan program in honor of this award.
And thanks for all you do to make this blog a civil and intelligent (not to say funny) place to post!
Thanks for your efforts!
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1/2
Everybody I know has a cold. Now the cold knows me. I am staying home sick today.
Also, we may have our first windstorm of the year today. Last year our power went out nine times. We have a generator which I have never gotten to work properly. We now have a supply of wood which I cut with my chain saw without killing myself for our wood stove. We have some ice so stuff in our refrigerator won’t spoil quickly.
At the moment I am sitting home with my work laptop snuffling.
I have a lot of writing I want to do. I doubt that I will get to all of it. If so, many would call it merciful.
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2/2
I knew right away that Night Train is not Nick Peters. It is very difficult to imitate someone else’s writing style. I have considered, mostly as a joke (I joke around a lot as a lot of people have failed to notice) setting up a different screen name, using different computers so I would have different IP numbers (fairly easy for me to get use of other computers) and logging in with other “identities” and pretending to be someone other than I am, for example, pretending to be a conservative Christian. My purpose would be malicious, perhaps, such as parodying conservative Christians.
To bring it off would be far too much like work, and I am a lazy person. Also, I have spent years learning how to imitate myself, and only recently have I begun to achieve that goal, so why put a lot of effort into pretending to be someone else? Finally, even if I was able to bring it off for a day or so, by that time I would be laughing so hard you would hear me laughing, and I would give the game away.
Also, it would be difficult to parody conservative Christians more than they sometimes parody themselves.
Nick writes concisely and to the point. In that sense he is a pretty good writer.
Nick plays a coy game I would call “peek-a-boo.”
My granddaughter loves peek-a-boo. It seems to be a key element of toddler humor. However, she is now a preschooler, and as she recently told my daughter’s Out-of-Law partner (her birth mom), “You are deciding too many things for me. I am almost grown up. I should get to decide more things for myself.” She is three years old.
I will tell her, “If you are almost grown up, you are almost too old to play peek-a-boo.”
Nick Peter’s peek-a-boo game runs: Am I a racist?
I told Nick that I think race is mostly a social construct. He said to me, Try living in a black neighborhood if you really believe that. I said, I taught at a multi-racial high school and I moved to be close to the school and I and my wife and daughter lived on a street where most and maybe all of the other faces were black.
Nick never replied. I interpreted that to mean that Nick was in his silence was calling me a liar. As almost everyone at worldmagblog knows, I am a very sensitive person and my feelings are easily hurt by things you post about me, so I was and am very hurt. I might not speak to anyone here for six months.
Also, I think Nick mostly wants to snipe at people about race and ethnicity, but is uninterested in and unwilling to carry on a conversation. If Nick shows up again, I may snipe at him from time to time, but unless he is willing to take part in a normal conversation, I will no longer make any effort to answer his questions seriously and converse with him.
I have never figured out what Nick thinks is his point is in posting on worldmagblog. Many people wonder the same thing about me. Hint: my blog is called “Vanity Press.”
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I can’t even imagine a lefty like Anlir having any fun
Anlir, Ask Hillary why the Lib Socialists caused the credit and housing collapse on their watch so the poor, poor people, only they love so much and have these loans and losing theior homes could suffer so horribly
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#13 Kbells
I guess the rest of us can go back to being mean.
Get with it. You are falling down on the job. This is your final notice. Your next pleasant, polite message will be the last one you will be permitted to make. Just saying you are mean doesn’t mean you are really mean. And don’t try to tell me that your messages will revert to the mean because the stock market is a random walk.
#33 mmacmurray
Excellent choices, Random Name.
You’re are not supposed to always agree with me. I am a radical agnostic (despite what Harris imagines in #14) and you are a Christian.
However, I appreciate your appreciation and I invite you to visit my blog from time to home when I am on sabbatical.
#62 Peter L
I screwed up my Gravitar. How many Randoms does it take to screw up a Gravitar? Only one, but you have to pick out the specific Random out of a crowd of generic Randoms. If I find time and I figure it out, I will blow up my Gravitar. If I don’t figure it out, I will blow up my Gravitar, and you will have to spend hours picking pieces of Gravitar out of your monitor.
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#63 Pauline
First, you are too moderate. You may be expelled from worldmagblog one of these days for excessive moderation. Bob Marley sang, “Lively yourself up” I want to her you sing “Extreme yourself up.”
I am very familiar with Heifer International. It is on my “short list” of charities to donate to, so your win means I get to do something I was planning to do anyway. How cool is that!
Lively up yourself and don’t be no drag
Lively up yourself, ’cause this is the other bag
Hey, lively up yourself and don’t be no drag
You lively up yourself, dig it, the other bag
Hey, you rock so, you rock so, like you never did before
You dip so, you dip so, and you can dip thru my door
You come so, you come so, oh yeah, like I do adore you
You skank so, you skank so, and-a I can assure you
You can lively up yourself and don’t be no drag
Hey, you lively up yourself, can you dig it?
Hey (you rock so, you rock so), like you never did before
You dip so, you dip so, can you dig it?
You lively up yourself and don’t be no drag
You lively up yourself, ’cause this is the other bag
Hey, lively up yourself
Lively up yourself, other bag
Can you dig it? Can you dig it? …
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I like Bob Marley’s music, and Lively Yourself Up has a catchy tune, but when I read the lyrics, they don’t make much sense.
It occurs to me that Bob Marley was smoking too much ganja when he wrote that song.
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#68 Musing
You have some deep insights we perhaps can discuss sometime.
This is the trouble with giving in to blackmailers. They never stop making demands. I have been found out! I admit it. I admit everything. Just tell me what I have to admit!
Kiva Microloan program is also on my short list. Double cool!
Not to say. It’s OK. Go ahead. Say it again.
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Random – I hope you feel better soon. And I hope I feel better soon, too. (I’ve had a cold as well.)
Do you know how confusing it is for a woman to have a cold & hot flashes at the same time?! Should I put on a sweater but take off my slippers, or keep on my slippers but take off the sweater?
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I have some idea because my wife is at the age where such things happen and she tells me about in detail.
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Karen – Check out John Lee, MD’s website.
http://www.johnleemd.com/
I’ve used the natural progesterone for years and it has made a difference!
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Night Train: James Watson is also a fervent believer in evolution. Hmmm . . .
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RN: Since Musing rarely seems to show up on this blog except to ask me endless questions . . .
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