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That sign hangs on our borders. I am not talking about our immigration policy and it’s ethics. This is the sign that hangs in the face of the millions of Iraqi refugees. According to Time Magazine (March 12, 2007), the war in [tag]Iraq[/tag] has displaced nearly 4 million people and as many as 2 million have left the country all together.
Most of the countries that have carried the burden of the [tag]refugees[/tag] are in the Middle East–Syria, Jordan, and Iran. This makes sense since many of these refugees either have family or relationships with people in those countries, and those countries border Iraq.
Outside of these neighboring countries, Sweden has taken in more than 11,000 Iraqis. Compare that to the United States which has been reluctant to open the doors to these refugees. In 2005, we admitted 18 Iraqi refugees, and 202 in 2006. The State Department claims it will admit up to 7,000 more, with special considerations to Iraqis who work for the US government. Continue reading ‘“Please Do Not Disturb”’
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This post does not aim to answer the question: “What is the purpose of blogging?” It seems to me that question has become as trite as “What is the purpose of life?” But having been reading blogs for three or four years now, I have noticed that for some people [tag]blogging[/tag] is just a hobby (something they do for fun or to exercise their creative edge), for some people it is a way to articulate their thoughts and reflections or life’s circumstances (like a journal), and for some people it is a way to make money. Continue reading ‘When blogging is more than just a hobby’
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We should note that when [tag]Jesus prays[/tag] that we may all be one, he is not praying for some kind of sociological or theological or ecclesiological or liturgical [tag]unity[/tag]. He is not asking for a homogeneity that levels all diversity and brings plurality into a single “authorized†manifestation of the Christian life or community… Jesus is praying that you and I would live in a similar kind of relationship with God that he has as the revelation of true humanness in the image of God
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Although I have been somewhat more familiar with the reality of [tag]slavery[/tag] today (about [tag]27 million[/tag] according to reliable estimates, just google “27 million”), The LA Times had a story in its oped section by [tag]John Miller[/tag], a former State Department official outlining the [tag]slave trade[/tag] that I appreciated, especially as he painted a more personal picture of this great evil. You’ll find that not all of slavery is sexual and not all of it is overseas (there is a disturbing trend of increasing slavery in our backyard), but the overwhelming majority is gender based–mostly girls. Another point worth noting (somewhat of an affirmation of the Church), the writer points people interested in combating this evil to local churches who are actively working in putting an end to this trade.
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Third in my countdown of favorite, must-have freeware applications. Check out the previous review.
It seems to me that we are entering an age where having an online presence is an important element of relating to and learning from one another. Apart from the plethora of myspaces, facebooks, and blogs, more and more people are registering their domains and publishing their stuff online. Apart from this blog, for example, I have several other sites, including my family’s website (mostly pictures of Layla), which actually is on a wordpress platform, and a new site tied to a fantasy baseball tool.
Though it may not hurt for people to learn html as a language, [tag]NVU[/tag] makes it easy for anyone with basic computer knowledge to publish a website. There are many, expensive web publication softwares. You can pay for those things, or download NVU for free, and get started on building a professional website with no need to know html. But what is also cool about this [tag]freeware[/tag] is that if you want to learn html or if you actually enjoy programming in html, you can do that as well.
I love that I can [tag]create websites[/tag] in a matter of minutes, switching back and forth from WYSIWYG view and html code. It makes programming easy, and I am learning more about the mechanics of programming.NVU does have some limitations. I have not been able to create or edit php files (wordpress is mostly written using the php language). And I do wish it had a better file transfer (i.e. FTP) functions. Otherwise, I love NVU and recommend it highly.Download
here.
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Just picked up the news that Starbucks stores around the country will be offering free tall drip [tag]coffee[/tag] on Thursday, March 15, from 10am to noon. I’m just not sure which [tag]Starbucks[/tag] to go to…
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[tag]Money[/tag] doesn’t make you [tag]happy[/tag]. I now have $50 million, but I was just as happy when I had $48 million.
– Governor [tag]Arnold Schwarzenegger[/tag], Money Magazine, March 2007, Page 88.
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Hearing God by [tag]Dallas Willard[/tag] was published before his recent trilogy of books on spiritual formation. Perhaps [tag]Hearing God[/tag] was meant as a sort of introduction to his later works. What I appreciate about Dr. Willard’s writing is that he works hard to bridge theology with praxis. He lays out the teaching of scripture, but looks for ways to answer the “so what?” question.
In this book, Willard leads the reader to develop a conversational relationship with God. What does it mean to hear God? How does God speak to us? Willard acknowledges that too many people (especially church leaders) exploit and manipulate situations by claiming that “God told me that…” In this book, he takes the mystery out of listening to God, where it is not an act reserved for the few, but one that should be available to all. Continue reading ‘Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God’
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Second in my countdown of favorite, must-have [tag]freeware[/tag] applications.
Apple was not the first developer to release a [tag]music player[/tag], but as far as music players go, Apple has created one that is simple to use with several neat features that earns it a spot in my countdown. I am sure that most people (i.e. most of you who are reading this post) are familiar with iTunes and you probably have an iPod that works with your iTunes software. I don’t have an iPod but find myself using iTunes regularly.
Here are some things I like about [tag]iTunes[/tag] and why (if it’s not) it should be your default music player:
- It is easy to create playlists. In fact, there are options where iTunes creates automatic playlists based on the kind of music you listen to and what it finds on your computer.
- When the music is playing, it has beautiful visualization.
- The way music is sorted makes it easy to find what you are seeking.
- iTunes’ integration with the Apple store makes it easy to purchase music and videos.
- iTunes allows an easy way of sharing your music on the network. I love this feature. I have my iTunes running on my server (that has all of my music), and I can access my music on my other computer anywhere in the house
- Create your own iMix. If you think you have the best playlist, you can publish it as an iMix and make it available in the iTunes store for the rest of us to enjoy. For example, I have an iMix of a Bible Study series I did–Faith and Hip Hop (looking at Jesus, faith and the message of Hip Hop), inspired by Jesus and the Hip-Hop Prophets: Spiritual Insights from Lauryn Hill and Tupac Shakur
If the above reasons are not convincing enough, try playing around with the latest version of Windows Media Player. I consider myself somewhat computer savvy and I am still at a loss as to how to get WMP 11 to work. There is nothing intuitive about it. And the worst part is that Microsoft took the things that were familiar and worked well in previous versions of WMP, and hid them or got rid of them.
iTunes will probably be my default music player for a while, and though there may be software like Winamp that are decent (with features and configurations not found in iTunes), iTunes’ integration of the music store gives it an edge over any of it’s competition.
Download here.
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There are sites like lubbock online and the galleries at moore that give us a little fun to customize candidates, but with the national elections being almost 20 months away (there are several elections between now and November 2008) I’d like to figure out a way to build my own candidate.
Back in the day (you know, like in 2004), elections were like In ‘N Out. There are a couple things on the menu, and you just pick the combo you want. But with nearly 25 candidates (just counting the two major parties) who have either expressed serious intent to run or are actually running, this is more like a Del Taco menu. Among the 25 who are running, you gotta figure that there are little pieces of each that are attractive, but no one candidate probably has all the values that are close to my heart.
We can take the wisdom of McCain (I think he’s the oldest one running), with the financial backing of Clinton, maybe some of the convictions of Kucinich (my anti-war piece). A little bit of Obama (when it comes to inspiration, he’s got it) and mix that with Brownback (both Catholic and Evangelical). I’ll call it, Combo #17.
Wouldn’t that be something?
But then I realized something… If Combo #17 is anything like a Del Taco combo, I’ll probably get the Montezuma’s Del Taco’s Too-Many-Choices-Too-Early Revenge.
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