Quote of the Day

"Christian artists today, in whatever genre, will have no cultural impact as long as they merely follow the culture and try to emulate non-Christian artists. The very culture is crying out for something different, a way out of the current aesthetic and philosophical dead-ends. Christians, who have a basis for art that secularists lack, can lead our civilization out of its wilderness. If, that is, Christian artists can get in touch with that basis in the creativity of God, if they can take their part in the Christian artistic tradition, and if they can recover art as a Christian vocation."

-- Gene Veith

Kids need a dad and a mom

It's not just about role models, although it includes that, but providing the full range of human love and nurturing and discipline that comes from having two parents that naturally complement each other, not just physically but psychologically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Like the dovetailed joints in a woodworker's finished, prize piece of work, the strongest bond comes from the two interwoven pieces that mutually supportive link.

A married mom and dad are the most stable home for a child. They are the foundation for raising healthy and well-rounded children. Yes, people aren't perfect, and problems happen in every family, but the snuggest fit -- for the sake of the child and the family as a whole -- is produced when two parents, a unique man and unique woman, are paired together. It's most conducive for the effectiveness of each parent, and the best for the complete wellbeing of the child. (Someone should tell Britain.)

[Hat tip to DrudgeReport]

Where there's smoke, there's Dave

Today's Bee has an interesting story: How to grill on the cheap.

Marriage- no matter how the courts abuse it

1. From the dissent in the recent decision handed down by the California Supreme Court:

Nothing in our Constitution, express or implicit, compels the majority’s startling conclusion that the age-old understanding of marriage — an understanding recently confirmed by an initiative law — is no longer valid. California statutes already recognize same-sex unions and grant them all the substantive legal rights this state can bestow. If there is to be a further sea change in the social and legal understanding of marriage itself, that evolution should occur by similar democratic means. The majority forecloses this ordinary democratic process, and, in doing so, oversteps its authority.

[W]e should hesitate to use our authority to take one side in an ongoing political debate. The accommodation of disparate views is democracy’s essential challenge. Democracy is never more tested than when its citizens honestly disagree, based on deeply held beliefs. In such circumstances, the legislative process should be given leeway to work out the differences. It is inappropriate for the judiciary to interrupt that process and impose the views of its individual members, while the opinions of the people are still evolving.

2. Dinesh D'Souza writes,

It is the essence of democracy that people should be able to decide the moral rules that govern the nature of a community. If people don’t have that power, then they are living under an autocracy...

How, then, can a court invalidate the referendum and over-rule the will of the people? Basically through a kind of legal fraud. The court has to pretend that there is a right to gay marriage even though it is nowhere evident in the state constitution. Read the constitution, hold it up to the light, squeeze lemon juice on it–you won’t see a right to gay marriage in there. It is simply not an enumerated right, nor is it a right that can be clearly derived from other enumerated rights...

3. Dr. Dobson rightly recognizes it as a "judicial shotgun wedding."

4. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod offers a small but informative pamphlet about the broader issue, from a Biblical perspective: What about Homosexuality?.

5. To find out more about how to stand up for marriage right here in California, go to ProtectMarriage.com.

[Hat tip for a portion is given to Rodmitch]

No loving God waiting for you, just more karma

Some view the cyclone damage in Burma in terms of a metaphysical chain reaction, and miss God in all of it. Go here for bad karma.

Supper

I am attempting this. Or something close to it. We'll see how it turns out. I've had trouble keeping the fire hot enough.

Edit: Done; here it is. Check out the smoke ring!

Senior Recital at UCLA this weekend

The bouquet.



The dad.



The mom.



The star!



The food.



Okay, enough of the "thes." This is a jacarundi (sp?) tree on campus.



Our campus tour. "Follow me, Hobbitses!"



Royce Hall.



The inverted fountain.

Mother's Day

L and her sister and I invited her mom over for supper Saturday and then took her downtown for a performance of Mozart's Requiem and Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna. Sunday, we helped my siblings whip up lunch and then went to see the local high school Spring musical -- a family favorite -- The Music Man.

What did you do to celebrate your mom?

A good commercial

Happy Pentecost!

Here's what happened in various places, in case you missed it.

In ours, we sang tons of hymns about the Holy Spirit and learned about God giving His church basically a big ol' kick in the seat and getting them going forward to bring His gospel to the world.

Quote of the Day

"Whether taking Jesus as everybody's favorite CEO for book titles or whether using the cross for advertising logos, the co opting of Christ for business hijacks the Gospels and Christ himself. Capitalist and consumerist culture becomes the context into which the gospel is made to fit, into which Christ conforms, rather than the reverse.

"Christian retailing has accomplished its goal of getting the word out: enlisting consumers to wear T shirts and jewelry as fishers of people, and enlisting golfers to use witnessing golf balls. The message being heard, however, might not be the one intended. The true message of the cross, it seems, is getting lost in a sea of commerce. The commercials are too loud.

"We need to drive our discipleship deep in the personal form of life, eschewing the commodity form of life. To embrace the commodity form, even in the name of evangelizing, exploits the faith and abdicates our calling. Most times it simply makes us look silly. A commodified gospel does not a good gospel make. So too, commodified disciples do not good disciples make."

-- Stephen Nichols

[Hat tip to Loose in the Vineyard]

The good kind of surprises

It's what a lot of people knew about McCain, plus a little bit more. The nifty thing is, this is the second time in the last two weeks I've learned information like this from non-McCain-related sources.

Given that the guy's a Republican, I doubt anyone could have contrived this stuff. If that's what you think, you don't know military folks. You also don't know how inept my political party is at coordinating conspiracies. I think McCain's heroism is a good story that people have looked into, and it's worth telling. No spin needed; it is what it is. Pretty impressive.

Mutual Fund comparison tool

T. Rowe Price didn't pay me to post this, but a friend at work passed it along.

Our broker charges a fee for buying funds of their big competitors, so we're not into any T. Rowe Price stuff. But, it's cool anyway.

Bluetooth

According to the Times of London in their article about wi-fi device implants in your person, it was "[N]amed after King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark and Norway, who unified warring tribes in the 3rd century. Bluetooth was likewise intended to unify different technologies."

We're a couple of old souls, anyway

We went and had a photograph taken on L's birthday last week.



Convincing, eh?