New Book Review Rating System

Pam, the love of my life, mentioned the other day that a movie reviewer had rated a particular film as worth $10. That suggested to me that all such ratings could be much better done than 1-10 or thumbs up or 4 stars. Since I do quite a few book reviews in this blog, here is my new rating system.

Buy the Hardback
Buy used Hardback
Wait for Paperback
Buy Used Only
Borrow Only
Don’t Bother

Feminazism

There is still a large fringe of the feminist movement that hates men and families and all the trappings. They feel that even for those women who choose a traditional family life, they are copping out. Fox News offers this:

Born Again Feminism for the 21st Century
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
By Wendy McElroy
ARCHIVE


March is Women's History Month, with a focus on the past raising questions about the future. Gender or left-wing feminism has defined the mainstream movement for decades, but can it carry feminism into the 21st century and away from the accusation of irrelevancy?

For example, in 1980, the term "sexual harassment" was virtually unknown. Today, it is a legal reality that every campus and workplace confronts. If gender feminism successfully recreates itself, then your day-to-day life may continue to reflect its vision, not yours. Linda R. Hirshman, co-author of the book Hard Bargains: The Politics of Sex, offers a glimpse of that vision. She recently published an article titled "Homeward Bound" in the liberal magazine American Prospect (12/20/05).

Hirshman dismisses what she calls "choice feminism." Instead, she argues for a return to "a judgmental starting point" by which incorrect choices are to be shunned, choices like the traditional role of wife and mother.

Hirshman writes, "Now the glass ceiling begins at home. Although it is harder to shatter a ceiling that is also the roof over your head, there is no other choice."

The 20th century gender war was fought largely in the workplace and on campuses; the 21st century's battleground is the traditional family. According to Hirshman, failure to deconstruct that one institution is the explanation for feminism's failures elsewhere.

Don't miss this point. The feminazis are intent on destroying the traditional family. Combine their effort with the gender challenged agenda and liberalism in general, and you have the perfect storm. The Bible speaks against and predicts it.

Evolution-Humans Evolving?

Fox News Reports on a recent studywhich concludes that Humans Still Rapidly Evolving. Since the article is written in appropriately dense scientific language, I was compelled to take Foxes word for it. Here are a few out takes from the Fox article. But you can read the original.

Study: Humans Still Rapidly Evolving
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
By Ker Than

A comprehensive scan of the human genome finds that hundreds of our genes have undergone positive natural selection during the past 10,000 years of human evolution.

"This study addresses the question 'Are humans still evolving?', and the answer is 'Absolutely,'" study team member Benjamin Voight told LiveScience.

The new study links genetic changes to major events in the history of our species.

"There have been a lot of recent changes — the advent of agriculture, shifts in diet, new habitats, climatic changes — over the past 10,000 years," said Jonathan Pritchard, a human geneticist at the University of Chicago who led the study.

The researchers also found positive selection in four pigment genes important for lighter skin in Europeans that were not known before. Scientists think humans evolved lighter skin in Europe as an adaptation to less sunlight.

The study, which used data collected by the International HapMap Project, is detailed in the March 7 issue of the journal Public Library of Science-Biology.

Maybe I'm just a really dumb layman on this stuff, but in reading the Fox article and the study article, all of the changes that were discussed looked like minor changes within a species. Why spend all that effort to talk about minor changes over 10,000 years? Does anyone have any doubt that humans adapt over generations just like Darwin's Finches or the Bible's examples of animal breeding.

But the headlines and the articles seem to want to convince us plebes that all of this is part of evolution. Show me a super human race and I'll believe. But in fact, I argue that the human race is devolving, not evolving. When we see how many intellectual giants there were in the US 230 years ago, an evolving population should be producing 1000's of Jeffersons, Franklins, and the like. Where are they? Instead we have Edward Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, not to mention Edwards, Kerry, and the other presidential candidates of 2004.

Evolution? Bah! Humbug!

Science
Darwin
Creation Science
politics

Teachers Who Indoctrinate Kids

There is no subject more perplexing to me that the denial by those on the left that teachers and professors are indoctrinating our kids with leftist thinking. This is not a new phenomenon. In 1968, while I was at Mt. Sac Jr. College in Pomona, CA., I had a political science teacher who was a good teacher and we got along great. In fact, even though we were polar opposites on the issues, he gave me very high marks on my essays and recommended a career in politics. But I turned in one essay entitled "Stereotypes are Real." It was as well researched and written as anything I ever turned in. However, his bias finally couldn't take it any more, and my grade reflected it.

This wasn't an isolated example, but at Cal State Fullerton (now CSU Fullerton), Cal Poly Pomona, and UCLA, the professors were almost all pointedly liberal.

28 years later my 16 year-old tells stories almost every day of the leftist and anti-Christian bias of teachers at his school. Being very bold, he is happy to debate them, and being very charming, the teachers seem to enjoy the exchange as well.

But my son pointed out last night that it is difficult to hold on to your opinions when the teacher has so many advantages: Education, position, age, experience, just to name a few. This power advantage is why all Americans should be concerned about the way teachers are intentionally using that power advantage to move a leftist, anti religious agenda. Does anyone doubt this is true?

schools
teachers
liberals
politics

Who is Happiest Among Women? Housewives?

My neighbor with whom I debate politics from time-to-time agrees with me on very little. But we have this in common. We expect the pendulum to swing to and fro in a predictable way. This is very true of a place where science, philosophy, and politics cross paths. Every new science headline results in a potential new philosophical direction, which might also be used to political advantage.

In my lifetime, we saw science come to the conclusion that women and men were more alike than different. This resulted in a philosophy called Feminism, and established a new cause for the left, who is always happy to find a new group of victims to add to the fold.

Now science is concluding that women and men are really very, very different. New philosophies are developing which suggest that women need equal treatment (the Bible has said so for thousands of years), but that it is very reasonable for women to want to be Mom's and homemakers who have no real ambitions in the world of commerce. Writes Charlotte Allen of the Independent Women's Forum in the Sunday LA Times "Current Section on Sunday, March 5, 2006:"

The return of the happy housewife

BETTY FRIEDAN, it seems, died just in time to roll over in her grave.

A new study by two University of Virginia sociologists concludes that stay-at-home wives whose husbands are the primary family breadwinners don't suffer from "the problem that has no name," as Friedan famously wrote in 1963. In fact, the majority of full-time homemakers don't experience any kind of special problem, according to professors W. Bradford Wilcox and Stephen L. Nock, who analyzed data from a huge University of Wisconsin survey of families, conducted during the 1990s.

Here are the figures, published in this month's issue of the journal Social Forces: 52% of wives who don't work outside the home reported they were "very happy" with their marriages, compared with 41% of wives in the workforce.

The more traditional a marriage is, the sociologists found, the higher the percentage of happy wives. Among couples who have the husband as the primary breadwinner, who worship together regularly and who believe in marriage as an institution that requires a lifelong commitment, 61% of wives said they were "very happy" with their marriages. Among couples whose marriage does not have all these characteristics, the percentage of happy wives dips to an average of 45.

Check out the next article from Mona Charen.

women
feminism
gender politics
traditional roles

Population Trends - Part II

As has been noted elsewhere in this place, and by such pundits as Pat Buchanan, the most advanced cultures on the planet are experiencing population declines. In some cases, like the US, this decline in population among native borns is being made up for by immigration. In other places, like Japan and Russia, there is an actual decline taking place.

No one is raising a red flag about this trend. Sure Buchanan is, but no one takes him seriously (I don't take much of what he says very seriously.) But on this, he is raising an issue that will impact the human species in ways that are not being thought through. It is unlikely to effect an old guy like me very much. But my kids should be evaluating their own plans and futures based on a World that may be faced with significant issues over a lack of population.

Since I criticize other "thinkers" for failing to point out the bright side of such things as global warming, let me expose a couple of the bright spots on this issue.

God is in control. Just as David was chastized by God for counting his troops instead of relying on God, ultimately God will adjust the population based on His overall plan. In a natural sense, as populations decline, folks will start increasing their output, so to speak.

The adjustment we are seeing take place now may be just the thing we need to get some countries or cities into a more manageable size. Mexico City, Brazilia, and other cities are out of control. China, Indonesia, India likewise.

Here is the theological question: Does God allow war, disease, homosexuality, and abortion to increase as a natural way to control population?

Science
Population trends
Demographics

Mona Charen on "Feminism Isn't Dead"

In the ongoing discussion regarding the differences between the sexes, I think Mona Charen, conserative columnist extronidaire, makes a great example. It is hard to argue against the proposition that men tend to be more logical and women more emotional in argumentation. But Mona Charen is one woman who gives lie to that stereotype. Her columns commonly provide by far the most organized and logical expression of the wisdom of the conservative point of view available.

This is certainly true of a recent column posted at NationalReviewOnLine The column is a review of a new book by Kate O'Beirne, "Women Who Make the World Worse."

Feminism, far from promoting the happiness and well-being of women and society, has instead left great swaths of melancholy in its wake. O'Beirne cites "One large study of well-being data on one hundred thousand Americans and Britons from the early 1970s to the late 1990s found that while American men had grown happier, women's well-being had dramatically fallen during the period . . . women were 20 percent less happy."

How could women not be less happy. They have given up so much to get so little.

Population Effects, Trends, and Such

David, the one in the Bible, the one after God's own heart, found himself in a lot of trouble for deciding to count his troops. He wasn't trusting God. However, on other occasions, it was clear that it was ok with God to do counts of the entirety of Israel. No small part of the old testament is devoted to population information.

Mary and Joseph ended up in Bethlehem at the end of Mary's pregnancy because Herrod wanted a Census.



It is hard to drive to Palm Springs from West Los Angeles, CA., and not at least contemplate the nature of population. I found this density map here, which has several other cool maps showing the changing density of the Los Angeles basin over the past 50 years.

Science
Population trends
Demographics


My family lives in one of the more densely populated places on earth. Our own neighborhood is single family dwellings on 1/4 acre lots, so not that dense, but there are plenty of apartments and such in the area.

Living in "the city" offers lots of good things, like easy access to stores, cultural activities, financial and other business resources, etc. However, there are some negatives, too. Traffic, noise, and just that hemmed in feeling.

I suspect that some combination of abundant resources and the hemmed in feeling is the root of many evils that are hitting our headlines these days. It shouldn't surprise anyone that when populations are well fed and dense, the slow down reproductive activity. We have done so in the US and other Western Cultures.

But would it be a stretch to say that slowing down reproductive activity leads to things like abortion, homosexuality, and sexual acting out. Look for more on this subject in the weeks to come.

Palm Springs - Just the Wife and Me

We're heading to Palm Springs for the weekend. This reminds me of some marriage advice that I heard a while back, and that we try to follow. One night per week is date night. One weekend per quarter is for a romantic getaway. Then we added this one. One week of vacation each year is just for us. No kids. We aren't close to 100% in following this advice, but most of my best memories of the last 19 years are those dates, weekends, and vacations with Pam.

P.S. For info on the watercolor above go here

George Bush - Not an Enigma

The left thinks he's got hidden agenda's, is out to help special interests, and can't be trusted. I think psychologists call this projection.

George Bush is just George Bush. No suprises. Straight talk. Straight shooter. History will see another Truman. Hated by the other party during his time in office. Admired later.

IMAX - Special Effects Are So Much Fun

Thirty-eight years ago I was being a tourist at the Santa Monica Pier. There was a little shop showing a completely new thing. At the time I thought I should forget everything else I was doing or dreaming of doing and invest everything in what they were doing. They were doing Laser Holography. Just little 3D pictures, but a technology virtually unknown at the time destined to have a major impact in so many places.

I don't think that visit started my love affair with 3D, but I just think 3D is great fun. So, I have seen almost every IMAX film ever produced in 3D (and most of the 2D ones, also.) I think my first time was at Pearl Harbor, or was it Cape Canaveral. Most of the time, it is just down the street at the Museum of Science and Industry near USC.


I haven't seen this one yet, but I saw its earlier version. Coming March 3 to many IMAX Theaters is Deep Sea 3D. Nobody does nature films better than IMAX. Take the whole family.

Movies
Science
Nature
Imax

Antarctica Losing Ice - Should You Care

Antarctica Losing Ice, Contrary to Expectations
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing Editor
posted: 02 March 2006
02:01 pm ET

Joining the growing list of places on this planet that are melting, Antarctica is losing some 36 cubic miles of ice every year, scientists said today.

Hot Topic

The Controversy

* Conflicting Claims on Global Warming and Why It's All Moot
* Baffled Scientists Say Less Sunlight Reaching Earth
* Scientists Clueless over Sun's Effect on Earth
* Key Argument for Global Warming Critics Evaporates

The Effects

* Greenland Melts
* Ground Collapses
* Allergies Get Worse
* Rivers Melt Sooner in Spring
* Increased Plant Production
* Animals Change Behavior
* Hurricanes Get Stronger
* Lakes Disappear
* Seas Rise

What about the potential positive effects.
* Deserts bloom
* Areas now uninhabitable become good places to farm, live.
* Some species gain from warmer climate
* More rain creates more clouds, creating cooling in some areas
* The list could go on for pages

The Possibilities

* More Rain but Less Water
* Ice-Free Arctic Summers
* Overwhelmed Storm Drains
* Worst Mass Extinction Ever
* A Chilled Planet

What About Positive Possibilities

* More water in some places that really need it
* A warmer planet
* Mass extinction of some species with mass increase in new
* Change in weather patterns creates great new tropical resort areas.

Strange Solutions

* Space Ring to Shade Earth
* Longer Airline Flights



For comparison, Los Angeles consumes roughly 1 cubic mile of fresh water a year.

The south polar region holds 90 percent of Earth’s ice and 70 percent of the total fresh water on the planet, so any significant pace of melting there is important and could contribute to an already rising sea.

It's nice that the article says "could contribute." But, the dynamics of oceans and weather systems is so complex that no one has a clue.

"This is the first study to indicate the total mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet is in significant decline," said Isabella Velicogna of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The study is detailed today in the online version of the journal Science.

Other studies have documented rapid melting, unprecedented in modern times, in Greenland and around the North Pole. And rapid melting of individual glaciers has been noted in Antarctica.

Note that the article specifically says modern times. Many studies have shown that these kinds of changes have happened before.

For now, the newly measured melting might seem like a small quantity. The loss of ice in Antarctica amounts to about 0.4 millimeters of global sea rise annually, with a margin of error of 0.2 millimeters, the study concludes. There are about 25 millimeters in an inch.

For those who aren't very good in math, lets put this in perspective. If this were an accurate estimate, and it continued at this pace for 100 years, there would be a total sea rise of 2 inches.

However, computer models run in 2001 predicted Antarctica would gain ice during the 21st century due to increased precipitation in a warming climate. But the new study, based on satellite measurements between 2002 and 2005, shows the opposite.

Here is the important, critical, should be headline making, paragraph. COMPUTER MODELS RUN IN 2001 are already turning out to be dead wrong. All of the global warming hystaria is based on computer models like this. They have a horrible record of accuracy. Here they are admitting that a recent, state of the art, model is just completely wrong based on current actual data. Where is this a headline? If this model is wrong, maybe they are all wrong. Maybe we are actually headed into an ice age.

Antarctica is twice as large as Australia. The ice sheet, which covers about 98 percent of the continent, has an average thickness of about 6,500 feet—more than a mile.

Coming Late to "24 Hours"

I am not usually out ahead on things like style, culture, etc. Maybe I'm a slow learner, or just a true conservative. For instance, I was dead last to buy a leisure suit. So late was I that within 30 days no one would be caught dead in one. I'm so far behind that one of our young adults in church complimented me on a shirt one day, then said: "If you're wearing it, I guess I should get rid of all mine of that style."

Thus it should be no surprise that Pam and I just started watching "24 Hours." We have sometimes watched 4 hours at a stretch. But then, those who are hooked aren't suprised. For the 6 people in America that like thrillers and haven't yet done "24 Hours," be prepared to do very little else for a few months of your free time.

Television
Culture
Suspense

Why The Bible Recommends Optimism

Philippians 4:6 "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." The New Living Translation




Twenty five years ago today, my partner, Terry Brown, and I started our little company. We've had great times together and have experienced almost everything imaginable, both good and bad. And we thank God for all He has done and for His provision.

Monday was one of the hardest, most troubling days in that 25 year history. We are at the end of our slow season, cash is at a very low place, and we have to move a 25,000 square foot factory. It seemed for a few hours to be overwhelming. But, of course, God is always right there, and his comfort came over me. Moreover, there was clarity in that moment. A clear idea of what was the best way to proceed, and absolute peace that He is my provider.

The next day, a friend said that it is a shame that so many waste so much time and energy worrying about the future, clouding judgment, and interfering with creativity. That same energy could be used to brainstorm new directions and pray for God to show us the right path.

Bible
Theology
Optimism
Business

Some think that optimism or pessimism is just something you are born with. I think not. God wouldn't direct us to be something we can't be.

"Comes a Horseman" by Robert Liparulo - Book Reviewhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Having just finished ShooFly Pie(See Review here) and Chop Shop, it was easy to view Liparulo's prose as kind of so-so. But, 30 pages in, and reflecting back, it was only by comparison. Sure, Tim Downs writing is so smooth, it melts in your mind. And if Liparulo only scores a B in artistry, Comes a Horseman gets a solid A in suspense. Just when you settle in for a decent read of a pretty good book, he hammers you with the first "thriller" scene. It is so vivid, that there is little wonder that he has already sold the movie rights.

The setting moves across the globe and the centuries. The history alone is worth the read. And there is a major Christian thread dealing with end times theology. If you like Ted Dekker and Randy Alcorn, you'll like this one. You may have guessed by now that I give all three thumbs up to Comes a Horseman.

Christian Books
End Times Theology
Mystery Novel
Book Review