Blogs

I promise, I have a very long blog post almost finished. I'll get it up here real soon now. In the meantime, I've moved all my "ooh shiny!" linkage to Twitter.

That this is becoming a pattern.

The grade school Christmas Winter Concert that was postponed from last month finally went on last night:

Doug TenNapel:

It’s not hateful or intolerant to vote that marriage should remain between a man and a woman. Tolerant isn’t a position, it’s how you treat people who hold positions you hate.

It also isn’t tolerant to believe that all ideas have equal merit. This is an irrational position I’m embarrassed to even bring up.

[From Big Hollywood » Blog Archive » Real Tolerance Training: Christian = ‘Intolerant’]

Yep:

As many have observed, the insistence that there are no absolute truths is a self-defeating position. The insistence on tolerance via indifference is equally self-defeating. At its core is the belief that there is nothing worth believing to the extent of rejecting other alternatives.

True tolerance is allowing others to be wrong without disrespecting them. It is not pretending that there is no wrong or right.

Not:

I know you will all be shocked, but the TV folks haven’t scheduled this much TV coverage for an inauguration since Clinton was Inaugurated in 1993. I know, shocking, isn’t it? Imagine that? TV hasn’t been this excited about a presidential inauguration since Bill Clinton! [From Obama’s Inauguration Sold to Highest Bidder, TV Not This Excited Since Clinton in ‘93]

(via New Wineskins)

Here we are at virtualfretnoise.com at last. I've upgraded to drupal 6, though that probably won't make any difference to readers. One change is that comments are enabled. I installed a spam-fighting system (Mollom) that will hopefully make it possible to leave comments on and open.

This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. It's certainly the best Christian apologetic I've ever read. There's little doubt that the reason I feel this way is in large part due to me being a presuppositionalist, too.

If you watch the video, you'll get a nice intro and a better summary of the book and Keller's overall approach than I have the attention span to do here. "Confident and humble" is a good description and a theme that repeats several times in the book.

Keller admits when the arguments are less than completely satisfying (as no argument about theodicy can be, for instance), but does not shy away from being quite forceful when the arguments are strong. He takes on tough issues like theodicy and Christianity's claim to exclusivity.

Keller means for this book to be a modern Mere Christianity . He believes C. S. Lewis' arguments from the 1940's don't resonate with our post-post-modern culture. I think he has succeeded and that this book should be considered on a par with Lewis' classic.

It's going to be a weird Christmas. My mother-in-law fell and broke her hip a couple of months ago. My wife and #2 son have been taking care of her the past couple of weeks and will be staying until New Year's. Then she's going to come stay with us until she's up to living on her own again.

Meanwhile, #1 son and I have been "putting our feet on the furniture and smoking cigars." We'd have been going out and doing stuff, but the snow's kept us at bay most of the past week.

We won't get our Christmas cards out until after New Year's — again. I don't remember, but I think we finally just gave up last year. There were some "creative difference" about the format of the letter that we never got around to settling. We'll try to get something out by Valentine's Day.

I've been doing a bit more reading the past couple of months. I'd almost forgotten how much fun that is. So while I'm with the folks, I'm going to see if I can do some more. Here's what I'm taking with me, we'll see how far I get. There's a lot of plane and airport time coming up.

I don't have a vote and don't think I have much influence, either. In spite of that, here's what I want:

• someone that will recruit the best candidates: this means as much of a "full-spectrum" conservative that is electable for any given race (we probably can't get a DeMint elected in NY, but we shouldn't have to settle for RINOs in the South and West)
• someone that can ably defend conservative ideas without compromise or apology: i.e., Mel Martinez was not a good choice
• someone that is totally, unabashedly, eloquently pro-life
• someone that will reform the NRSC and NRCC: end the support of incumbents in primaries

And finally: someone that will reform the Presidential primary process. Open primaries got us McCain, GWB and Dole. Perhaps the GOP could encourage a move to closed primaries or caucuses in states that have been having open primaries. I'd like for the next GOP Presidential candidate to be selected by Republicans.