Good Handful of Kernels

This is a good video on several fronts. Good talk for leaders.

On Barrettes and The Little Girl Who Will Wear Them In Our House

Whoa! So the Boomershines are having a girl.

We have a culture in our home where the needle is bent way…toward…boy. There are four little boys who love sticks and shoving, battle scenes, spider-hunts, and Lord of the Rings. We have a large box that is simply called “The Weapons Box.” Their movie choices are decidedly ungirly. In fact, if this weren’t a Christian home, the official slogan of our boys might be the famous line from Little Rascals, that they strive to be, “A He-man so manly, that if he fell off a building, he’d go out of his way to land on a girl.” But no, the boys think that line is funny, but not applicable to them.

Chrissy and I have considered it a treat and a privilege to start with four boys. Kar, Had, Linc and Knox have been an immense joy to us. They have made it easy for us to concentrate on what it means to raise a future man. We have been able to focus on a certain set of sub-values (values emphasized secondarily to love for God and neighbor) such as valor, gumption, chivalry, fortitude, steadiness, resolve and pluck. We know what we are aiming at, but the doing of it is a challenge.

And now? And now we welcome this little girl bringing sugar and spice with her. Now we must purpose to be more soft and gentle with our new addition. There will have to be much less tossing and swinging of the infant. There will undoubtedly have to be a line in the budget for dolls. There might be some pink things and tea parties. There will be more dress up, lost scrunchies, talk of ponies, and softness than we are accustomed to. There will be much longer hugs for scraped knees and fewer admonitions to “be tough.” There will be an all new sort of wardrobe, many pounds of accessories, hair entanglements, princess-speak (and now Haddon has a fighting chance to get the kitchen set he’s always wanted).

Claire Danielle

There will be new sorts of lessons for us parents, too. We will need help learning how to redeem biblical girlhood. And now I’m on the clock as I’ve got 22+/- years to psych myself up before walking her down the aisle to her chivalrous choice.

We are going to call her Claire Danielle. My grandpa’s name was Clair, and you can read here why we loved him so much. And she is named for my least favorite sister, Danielle; I am hoping that naming my daughter after her will help me like her better. (Actually…Danielle is just the sort of aim we have when bringing up a little girl.)

Life just got fuller and more expensive and more soft. We are in for it!

We can’t wait.

What Would Your Death Letter Say?

Ray Ortlund Jr. found this letter in his father’s desk after he had passed away.

Hopefully my death will affirm the Gospel.

HT: Challies

Blog Recommendation

I’ve been lousy at posting and reading blogs for the last two crazy months. And I’ve gotten really good at not posting, not checking my stats and hitting the “mark all [waiting posts] as read” button in Google Reader to clean out the piles.

But I always read 6YearMed. It’s not pretty and clean and light. But it is real and heavy and ugly sometimes. Danielle is a pediatric resident telling hospital life (and death) like it is.

It sort of helps me live out my former dreams of being a doctor, but this isn’t the same as my previous attractions to Rescue 911 and Cops.

But it also helps me be less glib about all the parts of life that are easy to take for granted.

Rep. Randy Forbes Takes Exception

Is America still a Christian nation? Yes.

The Animated History of Money

I Know, I Know

It’s been quite a famine of postings over the past month. How should I pacify you? How about you get to know Joe while I’m getting some semblance of routine down again.

I’ll aim to start posting again soon.

“Thou Art Coming to a King…”

HT: Ortlund

TBAP Turns 3 Today!

…and on we roll.

My Soul is Craving Hard After the Memory of a Smell

I asked my brother to send me a picture of some Michigan lilacs (they are sparse here).

"God's Glory in Grandma's Garden" - Ross Boomershine

No, Not How to Fight

No, the thing I loved was the interpretation. Sid Ceasar in front of his televised and studio audiences.

Over and Over

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, Chapter 4

And Also On that Note

I saw this Woodrow Wilson quote engraved in 3′ letters above an arch across the street from the TN State Capitol today:

“America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured.”

Wilson used these words to issue the U.S. into WWI. I’m not confident that those principles are the aim anymore.

A Move Backward Is Afoot

There is good movement abroad for churches to move back to the fundamentals of the faith, to put aside the petty, to teach the congregants to be concerned with the true fundamentals of the faith as were fought for and defended throughout history and then elucidated somewhat in the early 1900s by Torrey, et al.

Lately, we have been making much of molehills and sidetracks and have forgotten our center, causing us to be be weak at our center.

It reminds me of the John Adams quote I’ve quoted here before about why we do hard things so that our liberties and studies can be expanded over generations. But when our liberties, boundaries and opportunities are expanded like this, it makes it easier to stop thinking about the core of what makes us as Americans or Christians, which is those founding, central, philosophies and Gospel.

I was thinking that when I read this today by William Hazlitt (1778-1830):

“When a thing ceases to be a subject of controversy, it ceases to be a subject of interest.”

When a generation fights and bleeds for political freedom or inerrancy or the deity of Christ, the next generation assumes it. But the problem with assuming something is that over generations the thing is sometimes held more cheaply. As a Christian, I want to be centered on pure Gospel and cleave to the list of fundamentals (the Creed) that was ingrained into a memorized list in my head. As an American, I want to be centered on life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, limited government, earnest capitalism, etc. As an educator, I want to go back to the basics and teach kids how to learn and to exceed the prescribed expectations of a meager community.

Sometimes the means are a subject of controversy. The fluid, easy, quiet thing would be to go with the flow. “Why teach Latin?” “Why talk about the atonement?”

Why does all this trying to go back to the core feel so much like rebellion?

Swine Flu – The Journalistic Scaredemic

A guest entry by Christie’s cousin, Larry J. Miller, M.D., who is highly esteemed for his excellence in medicine and his medical inventions, including the EZ-IO which is saving lives around the world every day. He is mostly esteemed by us simply for being a kind and gracious man.

Swine Flu is a new strain of influenza that has caused very few deaths in the USA. That being the case, why are Americans in a state of panic over the Swine flu?

The answer is that the media (CNN, ABC, NBC, USA Today, along with other publications) have stirred the public into a virtual frenzy. They are bombarding us with hysteria. They love it. Nothing turns them on more than to sensationalize mountains out of molehills. In the case of the Swine Flu, the media is guilty of causing an epidemic of panic. They are guilty because they relentlessly hype this dubious threat into a certain deadly pandemic.

Let’s look at the facts:
Seasonal influenza causes thousands of deaths every week during flu season in the USA. The CDC estimates that seasonal flu causes over 36,000 deaths per year (200,000 hospital admissions) and over 500,000 deaths per year in the world. Does the media discuss these statistics? No. Why? Because these are boring facts – not sensational news that bolsters their ratings and increases their revenue.

How is Swine Flu different than regular seasonal flu?
It has become the “boogie man”, used by the media to terrorize the public. And they are getting away with it. Yes, the Swine Flu will eventually kill more people in the US, but the chance of it becoming more dangerous than seasonal flu is unlikely. Unfortunately, the media is even scaring medical and public officials into irrational behavior. Why are they closing schools for Swine flu (that is credited with a couple of deaths) but not for seasonal flu (that kills hundreds every week)?

What other biological threats do we encounter every day?
Tuberculosis, Streptococcus (flesh eating bacteria), AIDS, Hepatitis, Pneumonia, Influenza, Staphylococcus, E Coli, Salmonella, Shegella, and the list goes on and on. Thousands die every week from these infections; some are incurable and untreatable. I would much rather be infected with Swine Flu which is susceptible to several antiviral agents, than to have MRSA that often cannot be cured.

As EMS leaders what should we do?
We already have protocols that address exposure to dangerous biological threats. As long as we practice our usual and customary universal precautions we will not contract Swine Flu or any of the far more dangerous biologics we encounter every day. We do not have to change any policy, protocol or procedure. We do have to use common sense and notify supervisors or medical control if we are concerned about a particular incident.

We live in an environment of danger from infectious diseases. Swine Flu is only one of them. How do we stay healthy? Most folks have a strong immune system that protects them. In medicine we work in the midst of such infections, but rarely contract them because we use universal precautions (gloves, masks, and gowns) to keep us safe.

What we in the medical field need to do, more than anything else is to remain calm and reassure our patients that the sky is not falling in. Be understanding and prepared, but do not get caught up in the hype and hysteria. We need to be a voice of sanity in an insane world.

During the last great war, Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” That has not changed.

As a rational scientific community, we should reprimand the media for their irresponsible behavior. Force them to develop a balanced approach to a potential problem. As it stands today, they have inadvertently become the problem. They are the Epidemic (Scaredemic).

Larry J. Miller M.D.

I Just Got So Excited Your Honor

I don’t think the plaintiff thought this was as funny as I do. I laughed through the whole story, especially the Justice’s snarky remarks.

Court Upholds 10-Year Penalty for Robber’s Flub

By ADAM LIPTAK

WASHINGTON — “This,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said Wednesday in announcing one of the term’s less momentous Supreme Court decisions, “is the case of the bumbling bank robber.”

The bank robber, Christopher M. Dean, was wearing a mask and waving a gun when he entered a branch of AmSouth Bank in Rome, Ga., in 2004, saying the usual things. Everyone, as instructed, got down. He walked behind the teller counter, grabbing cash with his left hand and holding his gun with his right.

The gun accidentally went off, hurting no one. Mr. Dean cursed and fled with $3,642.

Read the rest…

Visiualization of the Budget Cut

HT: JT, et al

Spread the Fever

I believe that every serious Christian needs to be classically grounded, not only to understand the history of our own civilization, but also to contend for truth in the marketplace. So I hope that you will check for a classical Christian school in your area — as a place for your kids and as a cause to support.

Chuck Colson – Breakpoint

Pondering the Good Ol’ Days

Chicago Tribune – 1934

Fun Story from MLB Yesterday

Identity Crisis for Newcomer

Paul Tripp Is Always a Blessing

I can’t wait for this new find to arrive.  And actually, I haven’t been on this site before, it looks like there is a good amount of free audio and video here.

Enjoy.

Clear Christianity

Mike Huckabee interviews former model Kathy Ireland who gives a clear testimony of her conversion to Christianity and a wise and beautifully-concise summary of her conversion to the pro-life position.

Click here

I Love Super-Summaries

Here is a great blog post that summarizes (maybe not perfectly, but pretty concisely) the big idea from the biggest minds in Christian philosophy in the past 1,000 years.

I would summarize it here, but it’s worth spending a little time perusing.

Ten Lessons from Great Christian Minds

Easter Blessings

Ode to Smiling

It’s Been Boring Here Lately

I feel like the butcher who backed into a grinder and got behind in all my work. TBAP has been too quiet (except some good baby name suggestions), and Ryan has been ill.

To inject some antidote, I give you a good old-fashioned hockey fight. Turn up the volume, grab a hot dog and soda, sit on the edge of your seat:

There Are Perks to Living in the South

Choose Where You Let Yourself Be Interviewed

Glen Beck puts the AG of Connecticut on the hot seat exposing the buffoonery.

Part One (start at 1:15):

Part Two:

The Glory of Homemade Croutons

Christie makes bread sing when she makes croutons.

Sister #2  found this article online at Unexplained Bacon and knew I would find it tasty.

Don’t Forget to Remember

In literature as in love, courage is half the battle. Likewise, in virtue as in fashion, tradition is the surest guide to the future.

– Sir Walter Scott