I'm a Murderer -- How About You?

You can't call an abortion "murder" or a doctor who performs abortion "a murderer". At least, you can't without it being considered "hate speech".

Canadian Christians have been jailed for standing near an abortuary and speaking out against abortion. And not for calling the woman in question a murderer, but simply for speaking words of life to her and encouraging her to reconsider her decision.

Which brings us to PETA.

PETA is now referring to the killing of an animal for meat as murder. Presumably, those who eat meat are murderers, or, in the case of western society, guilty of hiring contract killers.

How likely is it that the State will condemn PETA for calling meat-eaters murderers? How likely is it that the government will pass a law requiring PETA to either stop saying this, or, barring that, require PETA to stay at least 200 yards (or metres) away from a restaurant, abattoir, or any other place where meat is either produced or consumed?

The answer of course, is zero.

The reason is this: PETA may call others murderers for eating meat, but it's not going to "stick"; it's not going to bother anyone unduly, because the accusation has no foundation in reason or fact.

Not so with abortion. The response of the pro-choice crowd towards the accusation of murder is fierce precisely because it has some basis in fact -- abortion is the willful, intentional destruction of a human life.

The same with homosexuality. If someone were to suggest that heterosexuality was intrinsically unnatural or disordered, it is unlikely this person would be hauled before some HRC and slapped, fined and humiliated for discriminatory hate speech. Why? Because it is understood that the accusation has no basis in fact. It is precisely because there are rational reasons for viewing homosexual behavior as unnatural and disordered that the opposition is so fierce and the demands for speech suppression so acute.

Something to chew on.

You Pick the Headline

Picture this: seven people are killed by a Palestinian blast that destroys the home of a Palestinian militant. The Palestinians assume that the Israelis did it, so they fire 50 mortar shells and rockets at southern Israel. In response, the Israelis target Hamas militants preparing to lob more bombs at them from the Gaza Strip and kill three of them.

You're the BBC. So, how do you write it up?

Here's the headline: Israeli air strike targets Hamas.

Here's the first sentence of the article: Palestinians mourned as 14 people were killed in Thursday's violence.

The casual reader is left with the impression that the Israelis are the aggressors and that they caused 14 deaths. You have to read through the body of the article to learn that the Palestinians had lobbed 50 mortars and rockets at Israel before Israel lifted a finger.

Let me ask you this. If 50 rockets and mortars were fired by a neighboring country or territory, however disfunctional, into your country, wouldn't you feel your country had the right to respond?

What should the headline have been?

Palestinians Bomb Israel; Israel Responds With A Surgical Strike
Palestinians Bomb Themselves And Israel, Prompting Israeli Response
Once Again, Palestinians Disrupt the Peace in the Middle East

Perhaps you can come up with a better headline.

Israel is not perfect. But the land of Israel is the apple of God's eye. And the same prophetic voices that predict the coming of the Messiah at the end of the Age also predict that the Jews will be restored to their land and that they shall, in a time of great national crisis, "look upon Him whom they pierced, and mourn as for an only Son".

Don't bet against Israel.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

I'm Going To Try Again...

I've been trying to help the global warming alarmists by feeding them scary scenarios. A month or so ago, I suggested they blame the shark attacks along the US coasts on global warming. Less than a week later, they did.

So now, I'm going to try it again. The latest salmonella scare, and the ban on tomatoes -- find a way to blame it on global warming.

Mexican Bathtub Cheese

I've had many things to worry about during my lifetime.

It started with yellow teeth. I was assured I would "wonder where the yellow went", if I brushed my teeth with Pepsodent. (I'm still wondering -- where exactly does the yellow go?)

Then, there was "jungle breath". That's definitely worth a worry.

Followed by ring-around-the-collar.

I've survived all of these psychic traumas, barely.

But now, thanks to Drudge, I have something new to worry about -- three words I never suspected would appear together in the same sentence:

Mexican. Bathtub. Cheese.

Seems it's a form of unpasturized cheese, and it's causing a resurgence of T.B. in the USA.

Mexican Bathtub Cheese.

I'm trying not to have a bad hair day over it.

He (Obama) Can Turn The Tides

I came across the lyrics to this song. I believe it was originally about God.

No more.

Obama's candidacy represents a sea-change in the cosmos. Here it is.

He (Can Turn The Tides)

He can turn the tides and calm the angry sea
He alone decides who writes a symphony
He lights every star that makes our darkness bright
He keeps watch all through each long and lonely night
He still finds the time to hear a child's first prayer
Saint or sinner call and always find Him there
And though it makes Him sad to see the way we live
He'll always say, "I forgive".

He can grant a wish or make a dream come true.
He can paint the clouds and turn the grey to blue.
He alone knows where to find the rainbow's end.
He alone can see what lies beyond the bend.
He can touch a tree and turn the leaves to gold
He knows every lie that you and I have told
Though it makes him sad to see the way we live
He'll always say, "I forgive".

Let's see how these lyrics play out as the presidential campaign proceeds.

Obama-ooma-mow-mow!

Good news for this overheated, on-fire world!

Obama hasn't even been elected yet, and already he's saying that, due to his nomination and inevitable presidency, we will look back to this moment in time as the point in human history when the oceans began to recede.

Presumably, Obama plans on anointing Al Gore V.P. so Al can be Aaron to Obama's Moses.

Stop the planet.

I want to get off.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Climate Control Magic

The difference between magic and faith is that magic seeks to control the forces of life -- natural and supernatural, while faith seeks to submit to and cooperate with the authority and power of a beneficent Creator.

In centuries past persons would consult a witch, pay a fee, and cast a spell to secure a desirable outcome. (This occult practice continues today.)

In other words, you could control the natural world, but first you had to pay.

Which brings us to today and the great pending global warming shake-down.

Yes, we can control the natural world.

But first, we gotta pay.

According to Drudge, the cost of combatting global warming is going to be $45,000,000,000. That's 45 Billion dollars.

(Did I say 45 Billion? My bad. The amount cited is $45,000,000,000,000. That's 45 Trillion -- 45 Billion - you wish!)

With the ideology of global warming gaining hurricane force, we better all get ready to cough up.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

BCHRC

I've been following the British Columbia "Human Rights Commission" hearings on Mark Steyn avidly this week -- I assume you have too.

If not, you can follow Andrew Coyne's blog at macleans.ca. The hearings begin around 9 am. Pacific time.

And, you can always find out what's on Mark Steyn's mind over at marksteyn.com.

The HRCs are being ridiculed and held in contempt by those whom they are currently targeting. And, rightly so.

Canadian Human Rights Tribunals are oppressive, arbitrary, ideologically-driven, and led by biased people with axes to grind. (Other than that, I suppose they are not so bad.)

The current approach of ridicule and contempt is the right one.

Up until now, it has been mainly individual Christians who have fallen under the path of the Canadian HRC juggernauts; mayors forced to proclaim Gay Pride Days (and then, Weeks), printers forced to print homosexual propaganda, Christians commanded to shut-up and pay restitution to those whose feelings they may have hurt).

Now, it is a national magazine, and, all of a sudden, the issue has become magnified.

Let's hope that a strong light is shone on these wretched HRCs where rules of evidence are replaced by arbitrary decisions and hundreds of years of British jurisprudence is set aside.

Wacko Church of England Bishop

A senior Church of England bishop has reportedly compared people who ignore climate change to Josef Fritzl, the Austrian who kept his daughter locked in a cellar for 24 years.

— "we are in effect locking our children and grandchildren into a world with no future and throwing away the key,” he wrote in the letter entitled "following our dream," distributed around the Diocese of Lichfield.

This is either delusion or lunacy. Or, because Anglicans like to see themselves as balanced, perhaps we can be charitable and say it is equal parts of both.

Church leaders who reject the life-changing power of the gospel for political commentary are a sad lot.

As for me, I am not ashamed of the gospel [as written and presented in the New Testament], because I know that it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone who believes.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Poll of the Day

This from today's Globe and Mail:


Wilfrid Laurier University says it "recognizes the legal principle of the presumption of innocence" and therefore awarded an MBA student accused of setting up an elaborate terrorism-support network a $5,000 prize for his entrepreneurial acumen. Do you agree with the university?

Yes
25%
518 votes

No
75%
1572 votes

The presumption of innocence is a legal concept related to trials. It does not mean that individuals and organizations cannot apply good judgment and common sense to life situations, or to consider a person guilty prior to conviction. Otherwise, it would be improper if not illegal for authorities to jail an accused prior to conviction.

It appears that the West, having rejected Christianity, is now in the process of losing its mind.

I've been trying since I started this blog to figure out how to upload photos to it. I think I finally figured it out.

Prayer of the Day - Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim, through this barren land;
I am weak, but Thou art mighty,
Hold me with Thy powerful hand:
Strong Deliverer, Strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my strength and shield,
Be Thou still my strength and shield

Open Thou the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing streams doth flow;
Let the fiery cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through:
Bread of heaven, Bread of heaven,
Feed me now and evermore,
Feed me now and evermore

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Bear me through the swelling current,
Land me safe on Canaan's side:
Songs of praises, songs of praises
I will ever give to Thee,
I will ever give to Thee

Have a day blessed by great Jehovah-God, watching over you.

"The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have begun an investigation into alleged criminal conduct by members of the Canadian Human Rights Commission." -- Ezra Levant

Good. It's about time. They deserve all they get.

Catastrophic Climate Change: It's Getting Better All The Time!

Oh, thank-you.

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.

Thank you.

Who am I thanking?

His Royal Leftist Prince Charles.

A year or so ago, Al Gore said we had five short years to get the job done. Or, maybe it was ten.

Whatever.

I thought, OK, ten years to worry about GLOBAL WARMING !!!! and then, it will be too late. The planet will be doomed, and we can get on with enjoying what is left of our destructive, guilt-ridden carbon-stained lives.

Now, His Leftist has brought us a ray of relief. Only 18 months to go!

This from the UK Telegraph:

"Prince Charles: Eighteen months to stop climate change disaster."

I can live with that. Eighteen months, and then we'll all be happy. Doomed, but happy. Happily doomed. Doomedly happy.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Who Says PEI's Healthcare Is Second-Rate?

-


Who says PEI's healthcare is second-rate?




I know a patient.




He's on some meds.





They're working great.




But he needed a blood-test to see if he could continue on them.





He took the blood tests this morning.





The lab processed the results this afternoon.






The Doctor called the family at dinner-time today and gave them the results personally over the phone.





I know.





Because the family was us.




And the patient was our dog, Robbie.




And the Doctor was our Vet.




And that's the way the Ball bounces.



-

Princeton Prof: Fetuses are Like Plants

"In my view, fetuses that die before they're ever conscious really are a lot like plants: They're living things, but there's nothing about them that would make us think that they count morally in the way that people do."

So says Princeton philosophy professor Elizabeth Harman in an article by Thaddeus M. Baklinski.

But wait a minute. According to the Swiss, plants have rights and intrinsic worth and dignity.

Shouldn't the ungodly secular left at least give unborn humans the same presumptive rights as a dandelion?

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

You Can Drive My Car

Paul McCartney's new eco-friendly car was flown 7,000 miles from Japan, creating a carbon footprint almost 100 times bigger than if it had come by sea, equivalent to driving the car around the world six times.

But, by gosh, it's going to look so eco-friendly.

In fairness to Sir Paul, he didn't know the car, which was a gift, was going to be flown over.

We Can Work It Out.

Rice Crispies: The Not-So-Silent Scream

According to the Weekly Standard, the Swiss government has gone nuts and their brains turned to mush:

"At the request of the Swiss government, an ethics panel has weighed in on the "dignity" of plants and opined that the arbitrary killing of flora is morally wrong. This is no hoax. The concept of what could be called "plant rights" is being seriously debated.

"A few years ago the Swiss added to their national constitution a provision requiring "account to be taken of the dignity of creation when handling animals, plants and other organisms." No one knew exactly what it meant, so they asked the Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology to figure it out. The resulting report, "The Dignity of Living Beings with Regard to Plants," is enough to short circuit the brain.

Indeed. And all this from a secular Europe that worships at the rights-altars of abortion and euthanasia. It seems to affirm Bill Gothard's theory of displaced conscience -- whenever man suppresses God-given conscience, the concience pops up in some other area, as in, killing unborn humans is OK, but save the whales!

You can read the whole article at The Weekly Standard.

Meanwhile, over at SDA, they are weighing in on global warming and killer cornflakes. Here's my take on how vegetable rights could morph into cereal rights:

While on the subject of not eating corn flakes, I think what they do to the rice to turn it into crispies is unnatural and cruel. How would you like to be put in an oven? When put in a bowl of milk, you can hear the plaintive cry of the rice grains as they snap, they crackle, and they pop -- and who wouldn't?

The crispification of rice violates the whole fundamental notion of rice-rights upon which Canadian society is built.

And don't get me started on Quaker Oats. How would you like to be shot from a gun?! I can still remember the sound, as a boy growing up in Peterborough, Ontario, of the cruel cannons booming and the lingering smell of blasted oats.

Financial Quote of the Day (QOTD)

From this morning's National Post:

"But at the same time, it’s hard for the market to know when a recession will end when you’re not sure if it has begun yet."

Indeed. As that great financial prognosticator, Bob Dylan, once put it:

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.

Christian Horizons

A Christian group, Christian Horizons, has been hauled before a human rights court and found guilty of discrimination, required to pay a fine, take Soviet-style state-mandated re-education classes, etc. etc.

Same-old, same-old, in godless Ontario.

The group provides assistance to the disabled. They were not charged with discriminating against their clients. The problem was with their internal moral code -- sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, etc. were no-nos.

Which is a no-no now in Ontario and the rest of Canada, where the right to practice homosexuality is protected, but not the right to practice Christianity.

The argument is made that since the organization receives government funds, it should come under the government's sexually amoral human rights code.

"If you’re taking government money, then you are subject to government regulations which obviously prohibits discrimination."

I'll believe that the day I see the Ontario government require someone to re-hire a confessing pederast. Of course the government allows discrimination -- based on its values and views of right-and-wrong.

What is at issue is the right of persons to dissent from State-approved orthodoxies and ideologies.

The argument over receiving government funds isn't worth much. Those funds are first extracted from tax-paying citizens, including Christians, who have as much right to participate in society as anyone else. They were being paid for a service they were providing. As Christians, they have a conservative moral code. Others don't. They do.

The Tolerance crowd oozes intolerance. They just can't handle the very values they claim to espouse -- tolerance and diversity. Instead, they demand rigid conformity to their beliefs.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Canned Pop Comes to PEI

My days as an activist are over.

Canned pop has finally arrived on Prince Edward Island. Undercover operatives are standing down. It's a small step for man, but one that comes with a lot of fizz.

On the downside, the government slapped a big tax on each can, so I'll still be bringing in the 2-litre plastic bottles from Ontario.

Global Warming Jumps The Shark

In a blogbit I published on April 29th, I suggested authorities blame the recent rash of shark attacks off the USA on global warming. I was throwing them crumbs.

Five days later, here it is, in the U.K. Observer, dated May 4, 2008:

Surge in fatal shark attacks blamed on global warming

...."Another contributory factor to the location of shark attacks could be global warming and rising sea temperatures. 'You'll find that some species will begin to appear in places they didn't in the past with some regularity,' he said."

You couldn't write fiction as good as this.

Could this be the moment when the global warming alarmists jumped the shark?

This just in...

Here's the screaming headline from the Canadian Press article, as it appeared in the Globe and Mail:

N.B. [New Brunswick] FLOOD LEAVES... WATER PROBLEMS

Do ya think?

It's Cold Out There, Wood-Chuck Chuckers!

According to scientists, the Earth is likely to get colder for the next 10 years, but just because the Earth is cooling, we shouldn't doubt that it's getting warmer.

Got that?

Here's the money quote: "Those natural climate variations could be stronger than the global-warming trend over the next 10-year period,'' Wood said in an interview. "Without knowing that, you might erroneously think there's no global warming going on.''

Well, yes. A cooling globe does tend to have that effect on one.

Global warming becomes more of a religion every day. We walk by faith, not by thermometers!

For the full article, visit Drudge.

Shark Bait

I'm going to give the global warming movement a helping hand.

I know, I know. I've been ragging the alarmists and tormenting them with my blog jabs.

But now, I'm feeling a bit sorry for them. Nature just isn't cooperating with the script. It was so cold in Toronto today, people were wearing winter coats. What a sorry bunch.

So, here's my gift to them.

There's been a rash of shark attacks off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the USA lately.

BLAME THEM GLOBAL WARMING.

I'm surprised they haven't already thought of this.

Let's see how long it takes for someone to propose a link between the shark attacks and climate change.

And that's the way the Shark Fin bounces.

The Toronto Transit Commission Strikes Again

Although I'm mostly retired, I've got a bit of residual consulting work in Toronto. Downtown. Last Sunday, the TTC promised, as in PROMISED, to let us know by 4pm whether they were striking. Silly me. I believed the TTC. Logged on at 4pm for the news. No news. Finally, at around 5:15pm, I figured I had to make a decision -- my downtown hotel reservation had to be cancelled by 6pm. So I left our Toronto condo and headed downtown, so I would be in downtown Toronto for Monday am. business. That cost about $140. When I got to the hotel, and checked in, I learned that the strike had been averted. Too late for me. I had to pack, check into the hotel, early next morning check out of the hotel, deal with downtown parking, etc. etc.

All because a union leader failed to keep his word.

This same guy promised to give Toronto residents 48 hours notice of any pending strike action. As in PROMISED. He broke that promise too. The union went on strike, suddenly, at midnight Friday. A lot of people were stranded. I was driving back into Toronto on Sunday, with more work downtown, and, once again, I needed to know: is the TTC going to be on strike, or not? The legislature met, and ordered the TTC back to work. The left-leaning CBC dutifully reported that the TTC planned to honor the government legislation and return to work. As if defying the law would have been a possible and perhaps reasonable response for a union. Is the rule of law really that tenuous in today's rights-obsessed Canada?

Anyway, I found out in time to cancel tonight's reservation at the Holiday Inn on King. And, with the Lord's help, I'll be in downtown Toronto tomorrow morning fulfilling my contractual promises. Still, the contempt that the TTC has shown for the citizens of Toronto lingers, along with the sharp memory of personal uncertainty, inconvenience and expense. Here's my point: I would like to see the TTC Union leader arrested and thrown into jail.

Is that too much to ask?

Climate Change and the Coming WWIII

Just when you think the global warming hysterics can't get any worse --

The UK Telegraph is reporting that climate change "may put world at war"

"Climate change could cause global conflicts as large as the two world wars but lasting for centuries unless the problem is controlled, a leading defence think tank has warned."

Read that last bit slowly. As big as WWI and WWII, but lasting for centuries.

You might as well throw in Ted Turner's prediction of cannibalism for good measure.

About the only thing they haven't predicted yet is intergalactic conflict.

But, I'm sure that's coming.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

It's Earth Day in Toronto

I have some distressing news. You know how we had Earth Hour a few weeks ago, right? That was where people did token things like turning off a light in the name of whipping catastrophic global scorching.

OK. We got through that.

Today is Earth Day. Worse than that, I did a Google search and discovered that the entire month of April has been designated Earth Month.

Your intrepid reporter was in Toronto today for Earth Day. Here's my on-the-spot report: the downtown today was inundated with people wearing fresh new T-shirts with the inscription Toronto Tourism - Earth Day - or something to that effect.

According to a googled press release, they are also planting trees. Let's hope they plant enough trees to offset the effects of manufacturing and transporting those T-shirts.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2008/18/c7191.html

And that's the way the johnny-on-the-spot Ball bounces.

German Ingenuity: Something to Chew On

At times you may wonder, "is moseying over to The Way the Ball Bounces really worth the effort? After all, there are some keystrokes involved.

Here to answer your question and end all doubt, I give you: The German Auto Restaurant

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2008/04/080409_germany_auto_restaurant.shtml

And, if that's not good enough for you, I've got video:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7336490.stm

Now just think how impoverished your life would have been if you had never heard about the German Auto Restaurant.

And that's the way the German-engineered Ball bounces.

Episcopal Pap

"It's not about having answers as much as it is about engaging a story. It is about your story and how your story connects to an ancient story of desert wanderers that, in time, came to see that humanity and this energy they called God mingled and existed through Christ and thus, exists in all of humanity."

"this energy called God"? Really? God is something less than a person, something less than what humans are? Star Wars was right, and the Bible is wrong?!

"mingled and existed through Christ". Mangled syntax. Hard to know what this is supposed to mean.

"and thus, exists in all of humanity". The Episcopal Church has gone Oprah. God exists in everyone. No need to be saved if God exists in all of us. Just recognize the divinity within.

Is this the message of the Bible?

It is not.

There is an urgency to the gospel message. We are lost. We are perishing. We must be saved. God has done something. He has offered Himself. He has given us Christ -- someone human like us -- as an object of faith to believe in. There is an imperative to the gospel. You must repent and believe in the lifesaver God has thrown out to you.

This urgent imperative is lost, all lost, in the pap that passes for Episcopal belief today.

The Episcopal Church does not need polite people that put getting along and being polite above all else. They need prophets who will tear a strip off of the faithless leaders that are leading this church into ruin.

God, please raise up prophets within and to the Episcopal Church, through Jesus Christ, Amen.

Quebec Shoots Itself In Its [Subsidized] French Foot

The wandering contributor "frappeur" has sent this in.

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=0a7aa6e7-2068-4f52-84de-3dcfb3002eb7

It's a story about the French-dominated government of Quebec doing its best to wipe out English in the province of Quebec (using tax subsidies provided by English-speaking Canadians to do so -- how these guys have any self-respect is beyond me).

In spite of laws forbidding it to do so, the Quebec government has apparently been (gasp) posting notices to businesses in the verboten English. Seems that North American businesses like to do business in English.

Surrounded by a sea of English-speaking people, I interpret "French Only" edicts as "you are not welcome here".

I would respect the Quebec government if they were at least consistent. Let's see them publish all of their North American tourist advertising and information IN FRENCH ONLY.

And that's the way the English-speaking Ball bounces.

Reproductive Freedom's Shining [Hoax] Moment [updated]

Update: It was a HOAX.

Like many modern art projects, this appears to be nothing more than an egotistical "artist" seeking to draw attention to herself. The art itself, like many if not most modern "art" projects, is utterly without merit.

- - - - - - - - - -

Here's a story Drudge is covering today.

Art major Aliza Shvarts has taken the enshrined right-to-control-my-body mantra to new, dizzying heights.

For nine months she has artifically inseminated herself, gotten pregrant, and then induced miscarriages.

She has made an art project of it all, featuring video recordings and collections of blood.

We are wading in the depths of human degradation here, folks.

And those on the left can have nothing to say against it. They have already stated that a woman has the unqualified right to "control her body". So, there can be no moral objection to this life-destroying, self-destructive, soul-destroying behaviour.

It was for such degradation, and worse, that Jesus came to bear the sins of many (he didn't just come to save the "respectable" from their sins.) If the world was ever to wake up and agree that it needs a saviour, there is only one.

His name is Jesus. Saviour of the world. Light of the world.

We need him now.

Jesu, mercy.

Good luck with this...

The latest from the BBC's all-bad-all-the-time AGW alarmism:

"For the past 2,000 years, the [global average] sea level was very stable, it only varied by about 20cm," said Svetlana Jevrejeva from the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL), near Liverpool, UK.

"But by the end of the century, we predict it will rise by between 0.8m and 1.5m.

I'm not sure what more can be said. The scientists have 2,000 years of actual evidence, including much warmer times when great land masses such as Greenland were "green", in which world sea levels varied by a mere 10 inches.

However, they also have computer models, fed with data and assumptions, that enable them to predict sea level rises of three-five feet in the next 90 years.

So which do they go with -- hard historical evidence or speculative computer models?

Hint: only one will result in massive amounts of fresh AGW funding.

Here's what I want to know: are AGW alarmists buying up real-estate that is one block in from coastline properties?

Or do even they believe their predictions may be only so much hot air?

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

This is Cool!

http://www.ip-adress.com/

Try it!

Thou Shalt Not Kill Fish

The BBC is shocked. Europe is shocked. Here's its shocking headline: "Shock at polar bear's carp kill". I told you, they're shocked.

A polar bear kills some fish -- and Europeans are in shock. They're upset that the once-cute-and-cuddly Knut has grown up into a wild animal. "

Come to think of it, this is a perfect example of how liberal ideas about life are continually undermined: if we treat the polar bear like a cuddly domesticated pet, he'll behave like one. To this can be added:

* If we build basketball courts, we'll keep kids from getting into drugs and gangs crime

* If we flood welfare recipients with government services and easy-money, they'll turn into productive citizens

* If we are nice to terrorist-types, and appeasing to their religion, they won't attack us

It gets worse:

There is speculation that Knut killed the carp just for fun. Going further, a German news website accuses Knut of murdering the carp "senselessly murder[ing]", to be exact.

Is it even possible for fish to be "murdered"? Is it even possible for an animal to "murder" anyone. Apparently so. In the morally barren landscape which is post-Christian Europe, it's murder to kill a fish, but a sacred right to slaughter the unborn.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

I'm Such A Clever Boy

Still doin' my income taxes. I'm on the home stretch! I've calculated our combined taxes owing to the penny. Thanks to the miracle of income tax software, I can fiddle with the amounts. I've been adjusting the amount of charitable donations that I claim vs. my wife.

Initially, the total amount we owed ended in 28 cents. By clever manipulation of the charitable donations, and dogged persistence, I managed to reduce the total amount owing down to a 27 cents ending. I didn't stop there -- I kept on going. Got it to 26 cents. Then 25. Then, 24 -- until, finally, I got it down to a breath-taking 23 cents. I'm saving five cents!

I'm declaring complete and total victory over the nefarious Canada Revenue Agency!!!!!!!!

And that's the way the taxed-to-the-max Ball bounces.

Wheelchair-Bound Bank Robber: It's An Equality Issue

I've got some great news. There's a story out of Palo Alto, California that a bank was robbed by a guy in an electric wheelchair. Even though his getaway would have been a slow-speed chase, he managed to elude capture. Police don't know whether the wheelchair was just a prop or whether the robber was truly disabled.

I'm rooting for it to have been a truly disabled person. This would be a great day for the disabled, to show that, in spite of their disabilities, they are able to function as full participants in American/Canadian life.

But what about the getaway? Doesn't it seem unfair that the police should be able to run and use cars when the wheel-chair-bound bandit is cemented to his wheelchair?

I think this deserves a human rights hearing.

In the interests of fairness, when a bank is robbed by a physically disabled person, the police should not be allowed to walk fast, run, or use cars. They should be compelled to either use their own pursuit wheelchair, or, barring that, hop on one foot. The disabled should have an equal chance to escape.

Anything else would be discrimination.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Expelled: The Movie

Vicki told me about this movie about a year ago. It will be out later this month. Go and see it! It's by Ben Stein and it's all about how the educational system of America has locked-in Evolution and locked-out consideration that the universe looks designed and may in fact be designed.

I went to the associated Blog. The venom was poisonous. People hate the idea of Intelligent Design. They mischaracterize it as an argument that says, "God did it". That's not what Intelligent Design does. It suggests that the evidence of the universe points to design. Period.

And, it does.

I responded to the venomous posters. I used a variation of C. S. Lewis's classic argument that says if our brains are uncreated and undesigned, and the universe purely materialistic, then we have no rational basis for trusting anything that comes out of them. Here's the way I put it to them:

"Interesting to listen to the mockers. They act as if [they think] their thoughts mean something. Yet, if they believe their brains are unplanned, undesigned and made of evolutionary junkyard parts, surely they would doubt the veracity of anything emanating from them — nothing more than mindless chemical drips, really. And yet they deify and idolize their own thinking!

Abstract thought.

Such a wonderful conundrum to those who believe in a closed-system, purely materialistic, mindless, unfeeling, and indifferent universe.

Mock on!"

Ratcheting Up the AGW Rhetoric: Keep Your Eyes On Your Thighs

For some weeks now I've been wondering how the global warming alarmist crowd could ratchet up the rhetoric any further. We've had "earth has a fever", we've had "planet is on fire", we've had flooded coastlands and disappearing islands.

Credit the left's Ted Turner for the latest in hyperbole.

AGW will lead to cannibalism.

This from NewsBusters: "Not doing it will be catastrophic. We'll be eight degrees hottest in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals."

Notice that he links the "us" in which he finds himself not with the us who will have died but with the us who will have become cannibals.

But this leads to a world of important questions.

How long can cannibalism last? Is it sustainable? Are scientists looking into the important issue of "Long-term sustainability in a cannibalist-led future"? Are funds being granted? Are graphs being plotted? Are symposiums being planned? Has CBC lined up David Suzuki to do spot promotions?

Meanwhile, if you find yourself in the presence of Ted Turner -- "A man after your own heart" -- I would remind you all to "Keep Your Eyes On Your Thighs".

It's enough to make you want to swear off meat.

And that's the way the non-vegetarian meat-eating Ball bounces.

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

The great, wide-open state of Maine lies just to the south and west of us in PEI. We can get down to Bangor, home of the Bangor Mall, home of Uno's Chicago Grill, home of the Uno's Deep-Dish Pizza, in 8 hours.

The 2007-08 snow season in northern Maine smashed the old record (of 181.1) inches set in 1955. Caribou has now recorded 182.5 inches of snow this season.

Back in 1955, snow was just snow and lots of snow had a name: it was called "winter".

Now, it's "climate change", and it's a calamity.

And that's the way the snow-covered Ball bounces.

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRrrrrrggggggggH!!!!!!!

That's the sound of income tax forms being filled in by this taxed-to-the-max Canadian. I just discovered that "I may be subject to Alternative Minimum Tax".

Oh, joy.

And, no, this does not mean that the government has come up with a lower tax rate for me. It means, that it didn't like the number it came up with the first time, so it's going to try again. "Alternative Minimum" means the minimum the government can live with out of me for the next 12 months.

So now I get to fill out form T691 !!!

I'm boldly going where I've never gone before; I'm indicating whether I have capital cost allowance and carrying charges claimed on certified film property acquired before March 1996 etc. etc. And I do mean etc. etc. I think the film property thing is asking me if I developed any rolls of film at WalMart prior to March 1996. That's so long ago, I can't even remember if I had a camera then. Prior to 1996. That's a full twelve years ago. The federal government gets ahold of something and it just will not let it go.

In another part of the QuickTax universe I come across a "partial list" of possible deuctions. Are you ready for this? Here we go:

Abatement - Refundable Québec

Acoustic coupler (Line 330 - Medical expenses)

Adoption expenses

Adult basic education tuition assistance

Advertising and promotion (commission)

Air conditioner (Line 330 - Medical expenses)

Air filter, cleaner or purifier (Line 330 - Medical expenses)

Alberta - Provincial tax

Alimony payments made

Allowable amount of medical expenses for other dependants

Allowable business investment loss (ABIL)

Ambulance

Amount for an eligible dependant

Amount for children born in 1990 or later

Amount for infirm dependants age 18 or older

Amounts transferred from your spouse or common-law partner

Amount transferred from a child - Tuition and education

Amount transferred from a dependant - Disability

Animals (Line 330 - Medical expenses )

Annual union, professional, or like dues

Armed Forces and police deductions

Artificial eye

Artificial limbs

Artistic activities

Attendant care expenses

Audible signal (Line 330 - Medical expenses)

Aunt - Amount for infirm dependants age 18 or older

Aunt - Disability amount transferred from a dependant

And that's just the "A"s!

OUR INCOME TAX SYSTEM IS TOO COMPLEX. HELLO?! IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE LISTENING? OUR INCOME TAX SYSTEM IS TOO COMPLEX. HELLO?! HELLO?!

A number of years ago populist politician Preston Manning suggested a simplified Income Tax form for the Liberals:

Line A: How much money did you make? __________________

Send it in!

I'll feel better when this is over.

And that's the way the tax-time Ball bounces.

"Everyone here is hungry. They want to see a change,"

Pray for Zimbabwe.

Elections today.

The people are suffering because of one man.

It Is More Blessed To Give Than Receive

Feeling that you've missed out on the economy?

1. There are schools available. No charge through grade 12. Subsidies available for further education/training.

2. Libraries are also free.

3. 80% of life is "showing up".

4. Contrary to popular belief, the world does not revolve around you.

5. Stop thinking about your rights and instead think about your responsibilities -- see (3) above.

6. Stop thinking about yourself, and start thinking about others -- their goals, aspirations, dreams, feelings, expectations.

7. Stop thinking "instant gratification" and instead think "deferred gratification". Take steps now that will benefit you down the road.

8. Stop thinking "how can I get?", and instead think "how can I give?".

9. Stop thinking you are poor. If you have "free" healthcare, and a "free" education, even if you don't have a dime to your name, you are wealthier than many if not most people on the planet.

10. Remember, it is more blessed to give than receive; and if you give, it shall be given unto you. Life is about responsibilities, and "showing up", not about rights and entitlements. No one has been dealt a perfect hand in life, but those who get on with it are the ones who come out winners.

Pet Peeve: Canada's T3 Income Slip

Yes, boys and girls, it's Tax Time in Canada!

Nothing quickens the pulse of a vigorous Canadian more than this.

Not Spring, not the Stanley Cup play-offs, not even Roll-Up-The-Rim. Yeah, tax-time!

My pet peeve today is Revenue Canada's, excuse me, the Canada Revenue Agency's, T3 form.

Here's the order in which the boxes appear on the actual form: 24 - 25 -26 - 13 - 18 - 10 - 11 -12 -21 -22 -23

Here's the order in which QuickTax processes them: 25 - 18 - 19 - 15 - 11 -13 - 14 -20 - 16

If you click on the QuickTax "Other Boxes" tab, a bonus box appears - box 17 !!!

The first box that appears on my T3 slip is box 24. Where do I put it?

Guess what?

According to QuickTax, "Boxes 24, 26, 10 and 12 do not need to be entered."

On my slip, all of these boxes have values in them. Not needed. Most of the other boxes have nothing.

Then why do we have them?!

Pardon Me If I Misspoke My Misstatement

"I say a lot of things -- millions of words a day -- so if I misspoke, that was just a misstatement.''

The above is Hillary Clinton's quoted response to being found out exaggerating her account of a trip to Bosnia 10 years or so ago -- sniper fire, running for cover, and all that.

Millions of words a day?

Let's analyze that.

There are 24*60*60 = 86,400 seconds in a day. To speak millions of words a day, Hillary would have to speak, at a minimum, 2,000,000/86,400 = 23.15 words per second, for every second in every minute in every hour in a day.

I wonder how many numerically-challenged reporters and analysts picked up on this?

This is the Day the Lord Has Made - Easter 2008

We're just back from the late-night Saturday evening Easter vigil at St. Peter's Cathedral, so we've got a jump on things.

I don't want to give away the plot, so I'll just say things didn't turn out the way most people expected.

The women in our group are quite insistent about some startling claims.

Peter's lacing up his sandals and high-tailing it up to Galilee, where he's going to await further instructions.

We expect by Monday the High-Priest and religious authorities will be in full-fledged damage control.

And Judas, nobody's heard from him for a day or so. We're looking into rumors.

For the anti-God, anti-Jesus, anti-faith forces, this is an absolute disaster.

I can say no more.

Go to church. Find out for yourself.

He is _____ !

And that's the way the resurrected Ball bounces.

The Death of God - Musings on the Saturday of the Church Expectant

Yesterday represented the complete and utter triumph of man against God.

The messenger of God, along with his thorny message, is dead.

Today we bask in our triumph. God sent His Son and we killed Him!

Jesus words won't torment us any more!

We will soon forget him. Sure, he healed a lot of people, but we didn't kill him for that. We killed him because he, by his words and actions, condemned us. If we had allowed him to continue, he would have de-throned us. Wounded our pride and self-esteem. Threatened our sovereignty and independence.

But we took things into our own hands and put nails in his. And our nails were stronger than his fleshy hands!

We proved that man, in unity with a rebellious cosmos, is more powerful than God!

In time, this man Jesus will fade into a distant memory.

A hundred years from now, no-one will even remember he existed.

And we can go back to doing the things we love to do.

With God out of the way, nothing can stop us now....

Why do I hear the sound of a ticking clock in my ears?

And what is that sound of a distant rumble?

Why I Call This Friday Good

He was wounded for my transgressions.

He was bruised for my iniquities.

His self-giving astonishes me.

That is why I worship him.

And, when I try to be more righteous, more like him, and fail, I hear him say to me, "I am the way".

I lean on the one who on this day hung on a cross.

For me.

Separation of Church and State in the US

The ACLU behaves like secular fundamentalists wishing to clear-cut America of deeply entrenched cultural symbols and practices.

The US Constitution does not dictate a rigid separation of Church and State as commonly supposed; it prevents the establishment of a federal State religion, such as Anglicanism in England, which was, and is, the official state religion -- with the Prime Minister appointing bishops, etc.

As far as I know, there is nothing in the Constitution that would prevent a State (or a city for that matter) from declaring a particular religion as its official religion; the prohibition is just at the federal level.

Furthermore, the idea that views rooted in religious beliefs and values have no place in the development of government policy and laws (for example, abortion) is just wishful thinking on the part of secular fundamentalists. Tragically, this notion has been widely accepted in Canada where persons of religious belief are effectively shut out of public life and discourse, and where courts have actually ruled that the religious beliefs of parents cannot be taken into account when considering public school policies (such as indoctrinating children in homosexuality from kindergarten on).

As for the ACLU and its goal of stripping America of religious symbols and practices in public life, I believe it is mistaken. It is one thing for a government to reflect the cultural symbols and practices of an established and deeply entrenched religion; it is quite another for the government to establish this religion as the official religion of the State.

US Christianity is a broad cultural phenomenon, and having the 10 Commandments in a court house, or a Cross in a government-funded war memorial reflects nothing more than broad cultural realities, and does not represent the official sanction of a specific faith, e.g., Presbyterianism or Roman Catholicism; nor does it coerce individual citizens in any way to participate in a specific religion.

I read recently that in NYC schools, the Menorah is OK and the Muslim Crescent is OK, but a Nativity Scene is not.

For an article about the ACLU seeking to ban the cross in a public, government-funded place, go to

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060825/news_1n25cross.html

The IPCC Weighs in On Clouds

Climate-alarmists have been getting a little testy by all the bad press this year's cold winter is bringing. Turns out their modeling really doesn't factor-in clouds.

Clouds.

Aren't they a pretty important part of the overall weather/climate equation?

Perhaps in response to this, the scientists of the IPCC have just released the following scientific bulletin.

Visual cue: imagine "We Are The World":

Rows and flows of angel hair,
And ice cream castles in the air,
And feather canyons everywhere,
We've looked at clouds that way.

But now they only block the Sun,
They rain and snow on everyone.
So many things we would have done,
But clouds got in our way.

We've looked at clouds from both sides now,
From up and down, and still somehow,
It's cloud illusions we recall,
We really don't know clouds, at all.

I Remember That Pizza Well!

I'm going through my receipts as part of my annual Income Tax ritual. Right now, I'm working through the receipts for last year's missions trip to Zambia.

When I get done with these, I'll plow into this year's trip.

I'm holding in my hand a receipt for an Ask Pizza & Pasta, 74 Southampton Row, London.

I don't recall the exact pizza I ordered, but I do remember the circumstances. I had just fought hard to get into London with my luggage. I was checked into my hotel. And I was treating myself to an evening meal. (Who can tell if I was "due" to eat or not -- with jet-lag it's hard to figure.)

I waited at the restaurant while they made my 5.25 GBP pizza, and then took it back to my hotel room.

Where I enjoyed it immensely!

It's funny how receipts can trigger memories.

And that's the way the pepperoni Ball bounces.

Global Warming Analysis: Fact vs. Interpretation

A good lens for analyzing the global warming narrative is fact vs. interpretation. Consider the following article, and try to sift through fact vs. interpretation.

What snow? This year could be one of the warmest on record
Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Reuters
Published: Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Reuters © 2008

FACT: ... the start of 2008 saw icy weather around the world from China to Greece.

INTERPRETATION/CONJECTURE: But despite its chilly start, 2008 is expected to end up among the top 10 warmest years since records began in the 1860s.

FACT: "So far 2008, for the globe, has been quite cold, only just above the 1961-90 average," said Phil Jones, head of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia which supplies global temperature data to the United Nations.

INTERPRETATION/CONJECTURE: And an underlying warming trend, blamed by the U.N. Climate Panel on human use of fossil fuels, is likely to reassert itself after the end of a La Nina cooling of the Pacific in the coming months. There were similar conditions in 1998 and 2005, the hottest so far, Jones said.

FACT: China suffered its worst snowstorms in a century in January and February. At least 80 people died and the government estimated costs at more than 150 billion yuan (US$21 billion), including animal deaths and crop losses.

FACT: Sandstorms hit Beijing on Tuesday and residents rushed to hide from the dust mixed with petals from the city's magnolia trees.

FACT: During the northern winter, snows also fell in unusual places such as Greece, Iraq and Florida. Experts say climate change will bring more swings as part of a warming that will bring more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising seas.

FACT: U.S. ski resorts reported above average snowfall.

COUNTER-FACT: But not all places have been chilly -- Jones said western and northern Europe were the warmest parts of the northern hemisphere in the first two months of 2008. [What does this mean -- "less cold"?]

COUNTER-FACT: NASA satellite data this week showed the thickest and oldest ice around the North Pole has been disappearing.

COUNTER-FACT: Finland had its warmest winter on record. High-speed ferries between Helsinki and Tallinn in Estonia, normally halted for months by winter ice on the Baltic Sea, started earlier than ever in mid-March.

COUNTER-FACT: In Norway, many ski resorts have deep snow even though the winter has been the third warmest on record -- scientists say a spinoff of climate change may be more precipitation.

INCONVENIENT FACT: Electricity prices in the Nordic region halved this month to 27.5 euros (US$43.48) per megawatt hour from late 2007 highs because hydropower reservoirs were full and warm temperatures curbed heating demand.

When it's warming, the facts speak for themselves; when it's cooling, the facts require interpretation.

"If It's Getting Cooler, the Warming is Slowing"

Any religion worth it salt has a decent measure of mystery. Consider Christianity. Anyone who pretends to comprehend either the Trinity or the Incarnation is deluded.

So, it's reassuring to see that the secular religion of Anthropogenic Global Warming is no different. Add to the certainty of the science mysterious global warming mysteries.

Consider the following article from NPR (National Public Radio) in the US:

"The Mystery of Global Warming's Missing Heat" by Richard Harris [Sounds like an old Hardy Boys - "The Mystery of the Missing Heat"]

"There has been a very slight cooling [of the oceans], but not anything really significant," Willis says. "....And it may be that we are in a period of less rapid warming."

[Notice that, in the interpretation of the data, slight cooling = less rapid warming. Is there any chance at all that a slight warming would be interpreted as less rapid cooling?]

"But in fact there's a little bit of a mystery. We can't account for all of the sea level increase we've seen over the last three or four years," he says. "One possibility is that the sea has, in fact, warmed and expanded — and scientists are somehow misinterpreting the data from the diving buoys."

[Notice that the bias is to believe the sea is still warming even when the evidence points in another direction.]

Then, they go on to blame the clouds:

"Unfortunately, we don't have adequate tracking of clouds to determine exactly what role they've been playing during this period," Trenberth says.

Oh-oh. The environmentalists want to control our lives, and there's a critical dimension that their modelling doesn't cover?! Are they Joni Mitchell fans? Have they looked at clouds from both sides now, and yet concluded they really don't know clouds at all?

"It's also possible that some of the heat has gone even deeper into the ocean, he says. Or it's possible that scientists need to correct for some other feature of the planet they don't know about."

[Scientists "correcting" the data. Do we have any idea how much of the current "facts" of global warming are based on scientists "correcting" the data to fit their assumptions?]

"Trenberth and Willis agree that a few mild years have no effect on the long-term trend of global warming."

Remember -- if it's getting cooler, it's weather; if it's getting warmer, it's climate change.

To this maxim, we can now add another, "if it's getting cooler, the warming is slowing".]

Beaten to a Pulp or Nurtured Back to Health?

Over at SDA (smalldeadanimals), Kate has linked to an article about a man who attempted to knock down a power line and ended up getting damaged in the process.

Having just returned from Africa, this made me think of how this man was treated versus how he might be treated in other cultures. I am told that in Africa if someone is caught stealing he is quite likely to receive a beating from the village before being handed over to the police who will likely administer another thrashing. For a murderer who escapes justice from the law, he faces justice from the tribe, which can be just as fatal.

In other cultures, a man like this would likely have been beaten to a pulp or left to die. In our Christianized culture he will be nurtured and restored to health in spite of his anti-social act. Even though Canada has turned away from God, and America shows a similar secularizing bent, we both are still fairly drenched in the elevating effects of the Christian faith.

Even the secularized liberal left owes a great debt to the Christianity it so openly despises.

To check out the article, go to:

http://www.islandguardian.com/archives/00001878.html

Have a blessed day.

Examine My Pulse, My Urine, My Stool...

Er, not mine, the Dali Lama's.

"They can examine my pulse, my urine, my stool, everything", he reportedly said, in response to authorities' claims that he was inciting violence in Tibet.

I suspect his speech must lose (or gain) something in the translation.

I think he's saying he's an open book and has nothing to hide.

For some reason, I prefer the British/English way of putting it.

And that's the way the Open Book bounces.

QOTD (Quote of the Day): Marshall McLuhan

This from an NP article by Robert Fulford: “Politics offers yesterday’s answers to today’s questions.”

Official bilingualism, anyone?

* * *

Canada's official bilingualism (French/English) seems increasingly irrelevant in today's English-centric, multicultural world. If Toronto were to be bilingual, it might, arguably, be English-Chinese rather than English-French. Ditto for Vancouver.

If you go around the world, the lingua franca that is spoken throughout, from east to west and from north to south, in airports and hotels, is English.

We Are In A Climate Death Spiral !!!

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/tm_headline=8216-shrinking-ice-cover-shows-we-are-in-spiral-of-decline-8217&method=full&objectid=19892113&siteid=50082-name_page.html

I think this is a much better alarmist article than the one I cited in the previous post.

"the polar ice cap has shrunk by almost a third ...".

"the cap has shrunk by an area about seven times larger than the UK."

"the cap has shrunk to about half the size it was then (60s and 70s)".

Shrinking ice cover shows we are in "a spiral of decline".

Now that's alarmism! All he needs to do now if throw in some anecdotal information about floods, droughts and heatwaves in divers places, and, presto!, you've got yourself Apocalyptic Anthropogenic Global Warming (AAGW)!

“If you look at the floods we had this summer, the drought they are currently having in Australia and the heatwave of 2003 it’s another climate extreme."

“This event, plus others reported in recent years, puts the fact that man is responsible for changing the atmosphere beyond reasonable doubt."

Except it doesn't. The conclusion does not necessarily follow. It's also consistent with what we would see if the climate was simply changing due to natural causes.

As it has done since the world began.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Those Madcap Ice Caps Crack Me Up

The ice caps are melting.

It doesn't take long into a read to see that the person who wrote it really wasn't thinking. Consider this from the BBC website:

"The rate at which some of the world's glaciers are melting has more than doubled, data from the United Nations Environment Programme has shown. Average glacial shrinkage has risen from 30 centimetres per year between 1980 and 1999, to 1.5 metres in 2006."

Pause. Stop. Think.

There are how many centimetres in a metre? I'm guessing 100. Average global shrinkage used to be 30 centimeters per year. That's 30% or .3 of a metre. In 2006 the shrinkage was reportedly 1.5 metres. That's 150 centimetres. If these measurements are accurate, then the difference between the 1980 - 1999 period and 2006 is not just "more than doubled", it's a full 5 times greater.

That's problem number one.

The second problem is that it is comparing a trend 1980 - 1999 with a single point year - 2006. What if 2006 was a spike year? I understand that in the past six months the glaciers have been growing again. Why does the data stop at 2006? Why isn't the fact that the glaciers are growing back included in the article?

The third problem is the weasel word "some", as in "some of the world's ice caps are melting". What does this mean? Are some of ice caps not melting? If so, why don't we hear about them?

The fourth problem is the alarmism. The usual alarmist narrative goes like this, "it's not too late, but we must act immediately". They never say, "it's too late", and they never say, "it's impossible to stop or correct". It's always possible, but it's going to take big bucks and relegation of control of people's lives to Big Environment. And it's gotta happen NOW.

Now, let's check the article:

"Dr Ian Willis, of the Scott Polar Research Institute, said: 'It is not too late to stop the shrinkage of these ice sheets but we need to take action immediately.'".

Immediately. Must - act - immediately.

Oops.

Didn't act immediately. Finished reading the article. Delay of 5 minutes occurred.

Too late.

We're doomed.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Gay Porn Required Reading in Illinois School

An Illinois high school has made a novel featuring explicit homosexual sex required reading for its students.

This is the response of the media, so far:






Nothing.

As I have said before, homosexual behaviour is "merely" sinful; the ideology that today accompanies the practice of homosexuality, because it is false and enslaving, evil.

Apparently nothing short of the return of Christ who comes with a two-edged sword will staunch this evil flood. Western-funded homosexual rights has now hit Africa, and continued western aid is being tied to Africans getting with the homosexual rights program.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/03/12/gay-porn-required-reading-ill-high-school-media-silent

It's The "She" Part That Bothers Me

I'm reading about the Canadian accused of pederasty in Thailand. His current sexual partner is a Thai transvestite. So far, so good. What could be more natural in this age of all-encompassing sexual equality than for a pederast (don't forget, he didn't "choose" his sexual orientation) to hook-up with a transvestite? Transvestites, after all, are the new gays. We know this because liberal church leaders are getting "with it" and adding "transgendered" to their list of sexual equalities to be righteously promoted by the Church.

What bothers me is when the Reuters reporter refers to the Thai transvestite boyfriend as "she".

He is not she.

It is common for liberal, with-it persons to cater to males who would rather be thought of as females by referring to them as "she". But I think this is an offense to women. He is not a she. A male is never a woman, even if he submits to genital mutilation and reconstruction. He remains a neutered male.

Words matter. Reality matters. Male and Female. Created He Them. In His Image. For His Glory.

The devil likes nothing better than to mar the image of God in a human being.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

"Province seizes 9,780 cans of pop"

In this crazy, mixed-up world, it's nice to see that Prince Edward Island remains an oasis of sanity.

I'm beginning my re-entry process back to Canada from Africa. I thought I better check the Charlottetown Guardian for news of the Fair Isle.

The headline -- "Province seizes 9,780 cans of pop" -- reassured me that all is well.

The law is being enforced.

Undercover police (I kid you not!) investigated and caught the perp red-handed, er, blue-handed, er, whatever.

We can tolerate a lot of behaviours on PEI, but we draw the line at drinking pop in cans.

That's a bridge too far, even for easy-going Islanders.

And that's the way the confiscated Can bounces.

QOTD (Quote of the Day): Kierkegaard

This from MCJ blog:

"Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible". - Søren Kierkegaard

You know what?

There's an element of truth to this.

The word of God is like a bowling ball rolling down the lane -- people better either get under it, or jump out of the way; otherwise, it's gonna knock 'em down.

I'm Off to Zambia

I'll be leaving for the airport shortly. Heading up to London, then down to Lusaka, Zambia.

I'll try to provide some updates on my missions blog -- http:goodnewsforzambia.blogspot.com.

I'll be teaching Apologetics and NT Theology at Trans-Africa Theological College in Kitwe, Zambia.

Please pray for me that God will open a wide door for presentation of the gospel and that the grace of God would prevail.

Thanks.

Improving on the Lord's Prayer

The Ontario Legislature has used the Lord's Prayer since who-knows-when. Ontario's present leader, Dalton McGuinty, who is a professing Roman Catholic, wants to get with the times: "I've asked for a parliamentary committee, with representation from each of the parties and the Speaker's involvement as well, to take a look at how we can move beyond the Lord's Prayer to a broader approach that is more inclusive in nature."

Move beyond the Lord's prayer. Think about that. Move beyond the prayer that the Lord Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth, gave his disciples. Move to a broader approach.

He wants "broader"? How about this:

"Dear God, whomever (or whatever) You may be: bless us as we reject the narrow way announced by your (alleged) Son to pursue the broad and easy way of believing "whatever". Not in Christ's name we pray, Amen.

That should do it.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

The Run-Up To Easter

We've come to expect faith-negating articles and exposes on the run-up to Easter. You can usually count on the CBC to come up with something. Last year it was Tom Harpur's The Pagan Christ. ( I'm still waiting for their expose on Mohammed.)

Wonder what they'll come up with this year?

Meanwhile, to get the holy season rolling, over at the BBC, an article assuring us that the Crucifixion really wasn't that bad:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/02/ncross102.xml

Re-Branding Lent

You can file this one under, "the world gets crazier by the day".

Dutch Catholics have a terrific idea for bringing peace on earth and promoting good will among men. They want to re-brand Lent as "Christian Ramadan".

I can't quite figure out if it's to appease Muslims or encourage lax Catholics to be more observant, i.e., more like Muslims.

The triumph of Islam is inevitable if Christians are just going to lay down and hand over Western culture to Muslims.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/12/wlent112.xml

The end of a love affair

My love affair with Canada's National Post is over.

It began the morning it hit the streets -- Conrad Black's newest creation contained an astonishing array of brilliant articles. Mark Steyn. Barbara Kay. Christie Blatchford.

Over the years Steyn went. Blatchford went.

At some point the paper was sold to the Liberal Aspers.

In past years I've noticed a leftward drift in this paper that many people still view as rabidly right-wing.

They came out in favour of same-sex marriage. And yet they are still considered right-wing in Canada!

More recently, they are in the habit of using the amoral term "sex-worker" for prostitute. Like it or not, human sexuality has a moral dimension. It is not helpful to ignore this. And yet they are still considered a right-wing paper!

The nail in the coffin was Saturday's Sex and Love Issue. Every section, including the Financial Post, was saturated with coverage of so-called Love and Sex. But it wasn't about Love. Love is caring for a failing-health spouse in his or her final years. Love is sacrifice. Love is sticking with a partner when things gets sticky. It was about Sex. Loveless Sex. They carried articles on Swinging and Couples having sex with other couples. Another article was aboutPornography.

I skimmed over the headlines, read none of the contents, and said, "goodbye National Post".

The Love is gone.

Global Warming/Cooling: It Could Cost Us Double

The evidence continues to pour in that the planet is on the verge of a cooling cycle. Check this out:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4248062.html

You realize what this means, don't you?

If global cooling is a real threat, this means we have two crises on our hands.

We are going to have to combat global warming and global cooling AT THE SAME TIME!!!

We are going to have to buy Carbon Offsets, and then Carbon Offset Offsets to offset the carbon offsets.

This is going to cost us even more than we thought!!!

We need to put David Suzuki in charge of all of this NOW.

And let's put the unbelieving politicans in JAIL, as the David has suggested.

Return Roadtrip!™ Day Six: Ontari-ari-ario!

Auburn, Indiana - Toronto, Ontario

A nice breakfast at the superb LaQuinta in Auburn Indiana, and then on our way by 8:30 am.

Running low on gas again, so I pulled off the interstate and headed into Olivet, Michigan. A nice little town with no pay-at-the-pump so I had to actually go inside and pay for the gas and talk to the friendly attendant, who was likely the owner. Then across to the local cafe for a take-out coffee. The owner was on duty, reading the paper and listening to Johnny Cash. He said he likes to listen to the oldies on Sunday mornings.

It was a pleasant experience. I'm going to try to get off the Interstate and into a little town at least once each day on future journeys. We miss so much whizzing by on the Interstate.

Arrived in Port Huron for a final Bob Evans biscuits-and-gravy (no, boopchile, no catfish this trip!) and then crossed into Ontario. Homeward bound! I try to get the Garmin to show miles in kilometers so that the Garmin matches the road signage. Finally figured it out, and while I was at it changed from the voice of American Jill to British Guy and then finally decided to stay with American Jack. I'm pretty sure that American Jill was getting annoyed with me anyway. Did I detect a bit of an edge in her voice when she kept repeating, "Recalculating! Recalculating!"?!

I don't really like driving on Ontario's 400 series of highways. The posted speeds are two low, and the drivers do not drive in a flow; they are erratic, in-and-out. I don't like it. There were one or two harrowing moments. One guy made such a sharp lane change I thought he had lost control of his vehicle and was heading for the shoulder and beyond. Nope. He was just speeding and passing on the right and he just kept on going.

Arrived in Toronto at our condo at 5:05 pm. Journey's end! Robbie was very pleased to be "home", as we all are.

During the drive, we've been listening to Lee Strobel's The Case for the Real Jesus. He's got those Bill-Murray-Chicago-style flat vowels. How come Chicago has fat pizzas and flat vowels, has anyone ever pondered that?! I'm paying special attention to everything he says because of my upcoming teaching assignment in Zambia. More on that later.

Approximate distance travelled: 700 km.

Total distance: around 3800 km

Eight states and a province.

Return Roadtrip!™ Day Five: Land of Lincoln and NASCAR

Fenton, Missouri - Auburn, Indiana

Left the Drury Inn and Suites in Fenton, Missouri and hit the road at around 8:30 am. Took the St. Louis bypass and rounded St. Louis into Illinois. Through Illinois into Indiana. I remember that there's a Uno Chicago Grill in Indianapolis. I wonder if the Garmin Nuvi can help out? I select Food/Lodging and key in "Uno Chicago Grill". Bingo! There are two up the road in Indianapolis. I select one, and, presto!, up comes the address and telephone number! I use my Tracfone, call Uno's and put an order in -- say we'll be there in an hour. The Garmin directed us to Uno's and got it almost right, but I had to call to fine-tune exactly where they were located. The pizzas were waiting for us.

This... changes... everything. Imagine being able to find a restaurant from an in-car device, order ahead, select it, and it directs you to the restaurant -- how cool is that?!

Update on Day Three. I mentioned the bad weather and careful driving from New Mexico up to Tulsa, and the overturned fire truck in Amarillo. Turns out the fire truck was part of a 40-car pileup, with one fatality. I had noticed big rigs had exited I-40 and were parked on secondary roads and wondered about that -- turns out I-40 eastbound had been closed. It must have opened just as we drove into town because there was a sign saying it was closed ahead, but it wasn't.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/texasfire/2232378321/

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/020108/new_9478688.shtml

We thank the Lord for protecting us.

We are staying tonight at the LaQuinta in Auburn, Indiana, using a coupon.

Love the coupons!

Approx. distance travelled: 650 km.

Return Roadtrip!™ Day Four: More Throwed Rolls

Tulsa, Oklahoma - Fenton, Missouri

We stayed at the La Quinta in Tulsa. It's in better shape than the Baymont. After breakfast, we loaded the car and headed out of town. We travelled up toll-road I-44 and stopped at a McDonalds that straddles east-bound and west-bound I-44. Then to the Missouri border, Joplin, Springfield, and across Hwy 360 to Ozark Missouri and Lambert's -- Home of the Throwed Rolls. Can't get enough of the throwed rolls, the huge portions, and the continuous offer of "fixin's" from circulating staff at Lambert's.

From Ozark back up to I-44 and on past Lebanon, Rolla, Cuba, and Sullivan to Fenton.

We are staying once again at the Drury Inn and Suites at exit 272. The Drury Inn is really growing on us. We feel it's the best value of all the places we've stayed at. We should try to make it more of a habit.

An easy, sunny day's drive. We're planning on eating at the Bob Evan's right beside the Drury Inn.

Approx. distance travelled: 600 km.

Return Roadtrip!™ Day Three: "You Can't Beat Old"

Tucumcari, New Mexico - Tulsa, Oklahoma

We woke to thick fluffy snow on the car. If the snow had been pancakes, they would have been delicious! We overheard breakfast conversations about car accidents, fatalities, and highway closures. So, when we hit the road, we were alert and careful.

It was a two-hands-and-two-eyes on the road kind of day.

Driving through Amarillo, we saw a full-size fire truck at the side of the road. Wheels up. We figure it may have been heading to some kind of early morning emergency call, and "lost it". East of Oklahoma City, we saw two wrecked cars. It looked as if one had run into the other. Everybody, slow down! (And what's with the cars and trucks that don't have their lights on in bad weather, hello, knock-knock!

Gotta tell you about something that happened on day two. At one point on our drive through New Mexico, I noticed that trucks ahead of us were spitting up stones that were flying up and hitting us. Usually when this happens I look to see what kind of cargo they are carrying. In this case, I couldn't see any kind of "leakage". So we soldiered on. A few miles later, we saw a U-Haul truck travelling on the paved side of the road, and going slowly. As we drove by it, it spray a huge amount of stones, stones that were where they should be, at the side of the road and out of the way of traffic. I shouted out something that I think perhaps was not entirely sanctified. Here this poor soul probably thought that he was doing us all a favour, when in fact he was wrecking our paint jobs.

And, as it turns out, our windshields. I noticed today we now have an unintended souvenir of our return trip -- a chip in our windshield.

There's a moral there about unintentional sin, how it is inevitable as we go about our daily life on earth. Grabbing the parking spot that someone else had their eye on, running over someone's foot with the supermarket cart, that sort of thing. But, I'm on the road and don't have time to develop the sermon. Suffice it to say, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us".

We arrived in Tulsa, windshield chip and all, and hooked-up with our old friends Jeff and Gail Monroe, from Tulsa and ORU (Oral Roberts University) days. When it comes to friends, you can't beat old!

So, here's to friends, old and new, including those I have met over the internet as a result of this blog.

Approximate distance (safely) travelled: 800 km.

Return Roadtrip!™ Day Two: "You Can't Beat New"

Winslow, Arizona - Tucumcari, New Mexico

We had a great breakfast in the Turquoise Room at La Posada and hit the road. It was cold, snowing, blowing and drifting snow today on the route east into New Mexico. I had to do some two-hands-on-the-wheel driving.

I had lunch at Blake's Lotaburger in Albuquerque, "a New Mexico owned and operated fast-food favorite with 76 locations statewide". I wasn't too hungry so I just had the Kiddy burger; really good. On the receipt, it said that this was Blake's Lotaburger #10 -- this means that there are only nine in the whole world that came before this one. How exciting is that?! I had never been to a Lotaburger before, and had no idea it was a New Mexico chain. I'll make it a point of trying to go to one from now on when in New Mexico. I like to support and try out regional chains.

We blew on past Santa Rosa, NM because we wanted to get within shooting distance of Tulsa tomorrow. We decided to stay in Tucumcari. But where? It has to be pet-friendly. I was planning on staying at a Comfort Inn, but when we took the exit, we saw a sign for a "Just Opened" Quality Inn at $59. If there is one thing I've learned from my roadtrips when it comes to lodging it is this: "you can't beat new". Last year we stayed at Holiday Inn Expresses on the way down. Uniformly, the new ones were great; the ones that weren't-so-great were the older ones in Branson, MO and Winslow, AZ.

I went in and asked if they accepted pets. "Yes, a $6 charge." Six dollars I can go along with. Pet charges are all over the map. The lowest, of course, is "free" -- pets can stay at no extra charge. Six dollars is probably the next lowest. Then, 10 dollars at La Posada. $25 at the Holiday Inn Express Santa Rosa (ouch!). Whenever I get a big charge like this I tell Robbie that we're going to have to get rid of him, but it doesn't bother him at all. Apparently his theology runs towards the doctrine of "eternal security", and he knows we would never get rid of him! At the Scottsdale Renaissance, the fee was $75 per visit. I didn't mind this too much for two reasons: firstly, we were staying on points so the room for the entire week was "free", and, secondly, it is per stay not per day and we were staying for a week. The highest rate I'm aware of is at the Marriott's TownePlace Suites, which is a hefty $100 per visit. Can you imagine staying there for one night and getting hit with a $100 add-on pet fee!

Back to the Quality Inn. Next, I asked them if the motel was really new. No, it's the old Holiday Inn that's been bought. But the beds are new and the rooms have been made-over. You can't beat new. But if you can't get new, then at least try to get refreshed and refurbished!

The price was right and the motel has two additional features that we value. Both are time-savers. Can you guess what they are?

1. The room is on the ground floor with an exterior door, so you can drive your car right up to the room. Believe me, this saves time when you have a dog and a bunch of stuff to carry in.

2. The motel has a restaurant onsite. This saves time for weary travellers at the end of their day. You don't have to get back in the car until morning!

A third bonus at this place is the sign advertised "Free Hot Breakfast" and at this location that means we get a coupon and a credit at the restaurant in the morning. So I can get eggs and pancakes. I figure this is worth at least $10.

Thank you, Lord, for safe travel today. You are wonderful in every way and we stand in awe of You.

Approx. distance travelled: 700 km.

Return Roadtrip!™ Day One: Beauty on Display

Scottsdale, Arizona - Winslow, Arizona

A take-it-easy departure day. Loaded up the Matrix, programmed the Garmin Nuvi for the Radisson Ft. McDowell and got underway.

I wanted to get to the Radisson Ft. McDowell for the Cowboy Breakfast. I followed the Garmin directions, until it declared that we had arrived -- and we were in the middle of nowhere! I tried re-entering the address, and it could not locate it. Our first mis-adventure with the Garmin. Fortunately, I had a general sense of where we were and where we needed to go. So we got to the Radisson, and I had my Cowboy Breakfast. Of course, it wasn't as good as I remembered it -- it never is.

The drive up to Winslow, Arizona on Hwy 87c was indescribably beautiful. Gaspingly beautiful. First, the saguaro cacti. Man, do I love them. Now imagine a whole field of them as far as the eye can see. Then, 30 minutes later, indescribably beautiful winter scenese up in the mountains -- the coniferous trees laden with fresh-fallen snow. Divine Creator, take a bow! (Can "wow" be considered a word of worship -- I hope so!).

We arrived at La Posada in Winslow, Arizona for a reprise visit. This time, we are in the Mary Colter room, complete with a lavish balcony. Very quaint. Also, very cold. Still cold after dinner, so we asked to be moved, and got put in the Alice Fay room, where we stayed last March. Smaller, but warmer. We'll take warm.

In the Turquoise Room, we had a special appetizer. It was corn bread made by native Indians, along with a hummus spread. Not just ordinary corn bread, my friend, not by a long shot. Firstly, it was blue, not yellow, and, secondly, it was thin as paper and rolled up, thinner than paper, in fact. Impossibly thin. And extremely fragile. Our waiter, Nathan, told us it is a paste that is put on a hot rock and then rolled up. It was very delicate. Fun to try.

A good start to the return journey.

Approximate distance travelled: 300 km.

Return Roadtrip!™ Day Zero

We've had a great week in Phoenix/Scottsdale and we'll be departing today. Our destination is an easy 1/2 day drive up to Winslow, Arizona -- "It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin' down to take a look at me!".

We've got the iPod charged and freshly uploaded with Clapton, the cell phone charged, the Garmin destinations written down and ready for entry-- we're ready to go!

Roadtrip!™ Day Seven: "By The Time I Get To Phoenix"

Winslow, Arizona - Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona

A great breakfast in the Turquoise Room at La Posada -- Arizona Green Chile Eggs -- and on our way to Phoenix. We drive west up to Flagstaff and then head south on the alternate route to Sedona. Beautiful God-created Sedona. All caught up with new age delusions. Such a shame. God's word and God's grace cuts through all the nonsense. God is so wonderful in Himself; why do people feel the need to create alternate spiritualities? If they only knew Him...

We get back on to Highway 17 and head south down into Phoenix. The Ponderosa pines of Flagstaff and northern Arizona give way to the Saguaro cacti of southern Arizona.

We get to Phoenix and arrive at the Renaissance Scottsdale Resort. We learn that we have been upgraded to a suite. Yeah! We'll be here a week, so the extra space is great. The bell hop drives in a golf cart thingy to our parking lot area, and then uses the golf cart thingy to drive our luggage up to our room. Robbie, our cairn terrier, seems to know that we have "arrived". He is very excited. We set him up with a blanket on the sofa, and he settles right in.

We are right across from a lovely mall - The Borgata. We choose a Japanese restaurant and have a fabulous, memorable meal.

We have arrived -- thanks be to God!

Approx. distance travelled: 300 km.

Roadtrip!™ Day Six: Groovy Nuvi

Santa Rosa, New Mexico - Winslow, Arizona

I'm not sure if Groovy Nuvi would be understood as English by someone dropping in on the planet from a previous generation, but anybody familiar with 60s slang (groovy) and 21st cc technology (Garmin Nuvi GPS), will get it.

The GPS has sure paid off. Not just in making it easier to navigate through unfamiliar cities on unfamiliar roads. I pressed one of the map-screen buttons and got a whole dashboard screen of information -- including the GPS' real-time satellite calculations of my speed. Turns out the Toyota Matrix is under-calibrated, and when it indicates I'm going 75 mph, I'm only going 72! This allows me to drive a whole 3 mph faster and maintain a good conscience!

Even more important, I forgot to get gas last night in Santa Rosa and the warning light came on this morning, and we were driving the I-40 Interstate, where the GPS instructions run something like, "drive 400 miles and then turn right"! Yikes! I pressed the Garmin, and press, press, presto! -- a list of all the gas stations both behind us and in front of us with exact distances to a tenth of a mile to each! Turned out there was one up ahead about 25 miles. What a relief to know this. Still, I sweated it out as the Matrix gas guage fell to clear below Empty. I eased off from 75 mph to 65. Good thing I did. When I finally filled-er-up at the Chevron, it took a full 12 gallons and a bit. The gas tank capacity on a 2006 Matrix is... 11.9 gallons.

So, thank you, Garmin Nuvi!

We decided to forego our planned side-trip up to Santa Fe, and instead blew by Albuquerque and stopped at the Big Sky Casino to check out the Restaurant. Not really hungry, but who can pass up a six-egg scrambled eggs-with-sausage-and-bacon-etc. breakfast for $3.99?! We shared it (which means for me it was about a 4 1/2 egg breakfast).

On into Gallup, New Mexico, home of the famous El Rancho Hotel, which housed all the movie stars of a by-gone era, and then to the Arizona State line and on into Winslow, Arizona. The scenery through New Mexico is simply breath-taking. I enjoyed every inch of it. We checked in at the historic La Posada Hotel. We are staying in the Jimmy Doolittle room. I'm not sure if the Lord is trying to tell me something or not. I hope not.

We visited the Standing On The Corner Park and helped the two local businesses that abut it by buying a CD at one and a mug at the other. We went for an exquisite meal at the Turquoise Room that is part of La Posada Hotel.

Tomorrow, it's on down to Phoenix!

Approx. distance travelled: 600 km.

Roadtrip!™ Day Five: Chill Out: Green Chile/Red Chili

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Santa Rosa, New Mexico

Breakfast at the Sheraton and on our way. Stopped in Clinton Oklahoma at the Cherokee Trading Post where one of us bought a couple of pairs of turquoise earrings. Hint: it wasn't me. On into Texas and lunch in Amarillo at the Bourbon St. Cafe. We had steak and eggs. On into New Mexico and its wonderful 75 mph speed limit. Stopped for the night at the Holiday Inn Express. Diner at the American Comet II. We had a cup of green chile which was out-of-this-world-hot, but good! Also a cup of chili con carne. Both excellent.

Tomorrow we plan to detour up to Santa Fe on our way to Winslow Arizona and La Posada Inn.

Approx. distance travelled: 700 km.

Roadtrip!™ Day Four: "Oklahoma City Is Mighty Pretty"

Tulsa Oklahoma - Oklahoma City Oklahoma

This is our "rest day". Drove down I-44 and then got the bright idea of taking Route 66 the rest of the way from Chandler down to Oklahoma City, since we were only travelling a couple of hours today. Delighted to see one of the tiny Phillips 66 gas stations in Chandler. Passed one of the 66 sights -- the rare round barn in Arcadia, OK.

A few miles past Arcadia we came to a modern Route 66 wonder -- Pops, a crazy glass structure that features a glass wall of filled pop bottles; you have to see it to believe it. Outside is a huge structure that is in the shape of a pop bottle, complete with straw. Inside, there is every kind of pop imaginable, including a healthy stock of pop from Mexico.

Down through Edmond Oklahoma to the Sheraton Midwest City, where I had booked ahead at a non-refundable rate. I was disappointed in the location -- it's in the middle of nowhere, but the room was great. Its a convention hotel so it is empty on weekends. When we ate in the dining room, we had it all to ourselves.

I visited Bricktown, a fledgling tourist area, and, more to my liking, the Cattle Exchange, the largest cattle exchange in the state of Oklahoma. What could be better than being around the smell of cattle in a place where cowboy hats are not out of place?

And, on that rhetorical note, we are finished for the day.

Approx. distance travelled: 200 km.

Roadtrip!™ Day Three: Everything's OK in Tulsa OK

Fenton Missouri - Tulsa, Oklahoma

Breakfast at the Drury and on our way. Stopped in Rolla, MO to check out the Drury there and get gas. Stopped in Lebanon MO at the Walnut Bowls superstore, or, at least, one of them. Detoured down from Springfield to Ozark, MO to eat at Lambert's, "Home of the Throwed Rolls". Huge serving of roast beef, complete with a server throwing hot-out-of-the-oven rolls at us -- what more could a guy ask for?!

After lunch, installed the Garmin 680 GPS "personal travel assistant" and whamo -- worked right out of the box with easy set up. What a thrill the GPS was, to see the road before us all mapped out and voice instructions on when and where to turn. Wow!

Drove down to Tulsa and checked in at the Baymont Inn. Ate at the Lone Star. Dropped by to see our friends the Monroes.

Approx 700 km.

Roadtrip!™ Day Two: Obits for Frosty the Snowman

Auburn, Indiana - Fenton, Missouri

The La Quinta in Auburn was an excellent stay - spacious, clean room on the ground floor. Decent breakfast in the morning.

We hit the road around 7:45 am. and drove down through Indianapolis. Stopped at a McDonalds and had to buy an 85 cent container of milk to put in our coffee -- just like last year. I just don't understand why a national chain doesn't have national standards -- and wanting milk rather than cream in coffee is not exactly an unusual choice.

From Indiana down into Illinois, which always feels weird to me because when I think of Illinois, I think of Chicago, and I think of Indiana as being west of Chicago and therefore Illinois. What is Illinois doing south of Indiana?!

Lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Effingham, Illinois. Got some sale items for our Samaritan's Purse shoe boxes. Saw a working oil well.

On down into Missouri and to St. Louis. St. Louis is a tough town to drive in or through. The downtown is ancient and congested. All the routes in and around St. Louis are complicated with ramps going up, down, around, in and out. And to add to the complexity, beside the main highways they have these perimeter roads that run along side of them. But if you take one, you don't have a nice, easy exit -- you are off on this big long road that leads to who-knows-where.

Got to our destination -- Fenton, Missouri, just south of St. Louis, in good time, so I searched out the nearby Costco, and went to Best Buy, thenCostco, then back to Best Buy then back to Costco and finally bought a Garmin GPS unit, or, personal travel assistant I think they call it. Paid more than I wanted to, but I wanted a bigger screen, and the cheaper one didn't have Canada loaded in it. The GPS should be fun, if I can figure out how to get it going.

Dinner at a Bob Evans beside the Drury Inn & Suites where we are staying for the night.

We drove approx. 700 km today.

Today marked the end of snow, but it's still cold. Toronto was January; Auburn Indiana was February, and Fenton Missouri is like March in Ontario; we hope that tomorrow's destination, Tulsa, will be like April!

Roadtrip!™ Day One: Going to the Dogs

Toronto - Auburn, Indiana - approx. 680 km.

Having just finished a New Testament Theology course at Tyndale, we are on our way to Arizona.

We were on the road by 7am. Crossed into the USA at Sarnia, Ontario / Port Huron, Michigan.

Every border crossing is different. This one, the border guard questioned us about agricultural products, or, to the layman, food. Bananas? We were eating the last two as he queried us. Other food? We dutifully declared our egg sandwich and salmon sandwiches without incident. Then he asked us about dog-food. Yes, we had Eukanuba Weight-Control Mature Dog dogfood with us, in labelled plastic containers.

It was at this moment that US homeland security leaped into action to secure the homeland. Dog food of unknown origins cannot be allowed in the US, so we had to hand it over; the agent confiscated it, and we watched him pour a four-week supply into a garbage can.

Sniff.

Once into the US, we took the first exit to look for a Pet Store. We found one and replenished Robbie's supply.

We're getting good mileage out of our iPod, having pre-loaded a J.I. Packer series on Renewal into it. Our song of the day: Chuck Berry's "I'm So Glad I'm Living in the USA". We start each day with Willie's On The Road Again.

We pulled over in Auburn, Indiana, and used a RoomSaver coupon to get a fine room at the La Quinta Inn ($65). A bit of shopping at the WalMart across the street. Dinner at Applebees.

A good first day -- and Robbie has brand-spanking-new dog food for the trip!

We have much to be thankful for.

George Bush Does It Again

If there was ever any doubt that George Bush is E.I. - Evil Incarnate, this should remove it.

Snow has fallen, for the first time in 100 years, on that bastion outpost of George Bush's evil empire -- Baghdad. The dastardly George Bush isn't content to merely overthrow establishment dictators, he is thwarting the world narrative on global warming. Does this man have no shame?!

George Bush. E.I.

E.I.E.I. - Oh yeah!

Taxes, Schmaxes -- Aren't You Glad You Don't Live in Canada?!

I've just spent the last week of my life doing the bookkeeping for my little software training/consulting company. Since I never intend to sell this business, as far as I can tell the sole reason I have to account for every little McDonald's coffee bought on a business car trip from PEI to Toronto is so I'll know how much money to fork over to the government. Perhaps I should put that the other way around -- so I'll know how much money I get to keep.

In Canada, we have a federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) which is known in some jurisdictions as a Value Added Tax (VAT). It was 7%, but has been reduced to 6%, and now 5% by our Conservative government in Ottawa. Good for them. But, I still have to account for each penny of GST paid for the period September 2006 - August 2007. Which means my eyeballs have been staring at receipts going back 16 months.

We also have provincial sales tax (PST) in Canada, similar to a US state sales tax. The provincial sales tax varies from province to province. You have to know how much it is so you can extricate the GST. Let me give you an example. You buy something in Ontario, and the total cost is $10.00. There was no PST, so the formula for extracting the GST is 6/106, which should give you something close to 60 cents.

But what if there was PST too? Then, the formula is 6/114 - which accounts for a 6% GST and an 8% PST.

But wait! What if you didn't purchase the item in Ontario, you bought it in PEI? Here, the PST is 10%, so you might think that the formula would be 6/116. And you would be wrong! Why? Because in PEI, the amount that the provincial tax is based on includes the GST paid. That's right, the province of Prince Edward Island TAXES A TAX! So, the formula for PEI is 6/116.6. (Note to math teachers reading this: please feel free to use these examples as a classroom exercise!)

Every quarter I have to account for my sales and revenues, and GST collected, subtract GST paid, and forward the ever-hungry maw of the Federal Government the taxes I have collected on their behalf. You heard that right. Every business owner in Canada is, in effect, a tax collector for the federal government. And we don't get paid for doing it. They don't even thank us! Of course, being a very small business owner with, shall we say, limited staff, I only calculate my GST paid out once a year, so I simply pay them the GST I have collected each quarter. The problem with this? Sometimes I have not billed a client within the time frame for which I must report income. Sometimes there are billing issues that can take weeks to iron out. Yet, the government demands this form be completed, and even sends threatening letters from people in high places if I fail to do so! The second problem is, it's just plain inconvenient. I may not be in my office. I may be overseas. I may be ill. I may be indisposed. Yet the grinding wheels of government turn inexorably.

I am always happy to have a business trip to the States or oversees. The accounting is so much simpler!

The time spent performing GST calculations, and the money spent on accountants to deal with the GST, amounts to a huge drain on productivity in Canada -- as is all the minutae of accounting that goes into the reporting of a small Canadian business.

I'm all for simplifying the Canadian tax system.

On the positive side, if you would like to know what I was doing in Calais, Maine on September 11th, 2006, I can give you a detailed blow-by-blow account. And I've got receipts to back it up.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

firesong.ca is launched!

My Christian music website is now up and running. To check it out, go to

www.firesong.ca.

The site was built using iWeb and is uploaded to the .Mac site. It's too easy!

Happy New Year, everyone!