SPQR

Birds named

My vote- "Lo and Behold"
Sarah's vote- "Butter and Margerine"

We wrote each on two bits of paper, Sarah picked with her eyes closed and the winner was...

Lo and Behold.

I really like it.

Name my birds

Sarah and I were just given two lovebirds from a friend at church. We bought a little cage and everything.

These aren't really our birds. I just grabbed this off the internet. They look reasonably close.

So now we own two little yellow lovebirds. I've never had a bird, but these guys are really pretty neat.

Anyway, we have no names for them. Please offer suggestions. You can't really check the sex without a blood test, so gender specific names don't matter.

Hillary seeks 'common ground' on abortion

Fewer abortions? Who can disagree with that?

This from Drudge:
Proposing new political language about abortion rights for an increasingly skittish Democratic Party, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that friends and foes on the issue should come together on "common ground" to reduce the number of "unwanted pregnancies" and ultimately abortions, which she called a "sad, even tragic choice to many, many women."

But then she offered warm words to opponents of abortion and said that faith and organized religion were the "primary" reasons teenagers abstained from sexual relations.

In light of recent accounts from the front lines like this, I welcome attempts to reduce the number of abortions from anyone.

Does this signify a new direction for the party of Jackson? Perhaps not.

If, at the 2008 Dem Convention, both Prolife and Pro Choice speakers spoke, (like the Republicans usually allow) would this be a good thing?

I don't care one bit for Arnold Schwarzenegger's politics, but its probably a good thing that he spoke last summer.

Isn't diversity of thought a virtue?

Well well well

What is more humbling than breaking your ankle at school?

Being pushed around campus in your wheelchair by a 105 pound 14-year-old girl?

Nope.

Asking that girl to carry your bag, because it keeps falling out of your lap?

Not even close.

Maybe the purple streamers wafting from the handlebars?

Try again.

How about having a student break your wheelchair, leaving you to hobble around on (painful) crutches, ensuring that you will be late to each and every class for the forseeable future?

A couple of hours ago a student hopped into my wheelchair, and zoomed out of the room.

I could almost see the Road Runner-style puffs of smoke trailing behind him. This was immediately followed by an equally cartoonish crashing sound as he crashed into a railing, and one of the small front wheels exploded into tiny fragments of pity.

It really did sound kind of like clanging pots and pans.

Fortunately, this is South Florida, and stores offering old-folks products abound.

In case you are wondering, this is not the same student who spewed in my backseat last year.

The student assured me that he would buy a replacement wheel tomorrow morning.

In other news, Sarah and I are really looking forward to the Bougainvillia Ball this Saturday in the Keys. We've been invited by my uncle and aunt Jeff and Liz, and Brynne and Bo will also be there.

PCA minister dies mid-sermon

This is a PCA church meeting at RTS Orlando. Wow.
Their homepage is here.

Preacher Dies During Sermon About Heaven

Jan 10, 10:43 PM (ET)

OVIEDO, Fla. (AP) - A Presbyterian minister collapsed and died in mid-sentence of a sermon after saying "And when I go to heaven ...," his colleague said Monday.

The Rev. Jack Arnold, 69, was nearing the end of his sermon Sunday at Covenant Presbyterian Church in this Orlando suburb when he grabbed the podium before falling to the floor, said the Rev. Michael S. Beates, associate pastor at Covenant Presbyterian.

Before collapsing, Arnold quoted the 18th century Bible scholar, John Wesley, who said, "Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done ... I go to be with Jesus," Beates said in a telephone interview.

Several members of the congregation with medical backgrounds tried to revive the minister and paramedics were called, but Arnold appeared to die instantly, Beates said.

Arnold had been the senior minister at the church until the late 1990s when he began traveling to Africa and the Middle East to teach pastors. The cause of death was believed to be cardiac arrest. He had bypass surgery five years earlier.

Beates also recounted Arnold's death in an e-mail he sent to members of the Central Florida Presbytery.

"We were stunned," Beates said. "It was traumatic, but how wonderful it was he died in his own church among the people he loved the most."

I broke my ankle getting to work yesterday

Try to be gentle on old planet earth by comuting by bike and what does it get you? Well, in my case, a broken ankle.

As I arrived at school and preparing to stop at the door of my room I swung my leg over the back of the bike to dismount as I was slowing down. At that moment, my rear bike rack decided to free itself of its mounting on the frame below the seatpost. So the rack (with my work clothes on it) rotated backwards jamming against the tire. Just as I was standing on one pedal. Did I lose you?

So the bike stops with me hanging off the side. Both ankles twisted in a cartoonish spaghetti like movement.

So there I was, laying on the sidewalk, my bike beside me, one earphone still in blasting "Morning Edition".

After 15 seconds an elementary student walked by, and in my best attempt to sound calm in the midst of tremendous pain, I said "Good morning Jacob, would you mind getting Mr. McLaughlin, please?"

So off he goes, I get a ride to the hospital, a smurf blue cast, approximately 800 Xrays and a diagnosis of "broken ankle, young man."

The bones were out of place a bit, so they twisted my cast so everything is lined up. In a week they'll take a look to see if it is staying in place. If not the doctor informed me that they'll have to operate, and graphically described the procedure using scary words like "steel plate", "multiple screws" and "yes, you'll get a shot or two."

I'm a wimp with needles.

The narcotics I'm on knock me out. And when I'm not sleeping I am trying to keep my focus. I keep spacing out.

I'm planning on being back teaching Monday, I'll let you know how it goes.

Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern

While researching on the internet in preparation for an economics class lecture on free market competition for tomorrow, I discovered this declaration that describes my ideas very well.

I have been struggling with my understanding of the failure of the church to fulfill her obligations to the poor, and how to approach this in the high school class, in light of the doctrine of free market inerrancy advanced by the text book.

I recognize that capitalism and economic competition certainly is the best system available, but is far from perfect, as evidenced by 12.1% of Americans being poor. Did you know that the poverty rate in the black community is 24%? I had no idea until recently.

This 31 year-old document is very much relevent today.

Chicago Declaration of
Evangelical Social Concern
As evangelical Christians committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and the full authority of the Word of God, we affirm that God lays total claim upon the lives of his people. We cannot, therefore, separate our lives from the situation in which God has placed us in the United States and the world.
We confess that we have not acknowledged the complete claim of God on our lives.
We acknowledge that God requires love. But we have not demonstrated the love of God to those suffering social abuses.
We acknowledge that God requires justice. But we have not proclaimed or demonstrated his justice to an unjust American society. Although the Lord calls us to defend the social and economic rights of the poor and oppressed, we have mostly remained silent. We deplore the historic involvement of the church in America with racism and the conspicuous responsibility of the evangelical community for perpetuating the personal attitudes and institutional structures that have divided the body of Christ along color lines. Further, we have failed to condemn the exploitation of racism at home and abroad by our economic system.
We affirm that God abounds in mercy and that he forgives all who repent and turn from their sins. So we call our fellow evangelical Christians to demonstrate repentance in a Christian discipleship that confronts the social and political injustice of our nation.
We must attack the materialism of our culture and the maldistribution of the nation's wealth and services. We recognize that as a nation we play a crucial role in the imbalance and injustice of international trade and development. Before God and a billion hungry neighbors, we must rethink our values regarding our present standard of living and promote a more just acquisition and distribution of the world's resources.
We acknowledge our Christian responsibilities of citizenship. Therefore, we must challenge the misplaced trust of the nation in economic and military might - a proud trust that promotes a national pathology of war and violence which victimizes our neighbors at home and abroad. We must resist the temptation to make the nation and its institutions objects of near-religious loyalty.
We acknowledge that we have encouraged men to prideful domination and women to irresponsible passivity. So we call both men and women to mutual submission and active discipleship.
We proclaim no new gospel, but the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who, through the power of the Holy Spirit, frees people from sin so that they might praise God through works of righteousness.
By this declaration, we endorse no political ideology or party, but call our nation's leaders and people to that righteousness which exalts a nation.
We make this declaration in the biblical hope that Christ is coming to consummate the Kingdom and we accept his claim on our total discipleship until he comes.
November 25, 1973, Chicago, Illinois