Eclectic Amateur

STFW

The new equivalent to “Read The FINE Manual”.

I had a brilliant idea today. Somebody should write a Java equivalent of Expect. I was all set to hack on it tonight. Of course, such a thing would need a name. “JExpect” ought to be about right.

Sigh.

At least the thing already exists as Free software, and I can just pick it up and see how well it works. Hopefully well; Expect is addicive and insanely useful once you get into the hang of using it to automate things.

Levis: Made In (Anywhere But) America

*sigh*

I was making a list with my wife the other night about all of the iconic American products which are no longer Made In America™. I had to stop because it was too depressing.

Along with his chronicling of the Electrolux debacle in Michigan, Dale Price mentions the news that Levi’s are no longer Made In America but are simply MIA.

Did you know that Etch-A-Sketch™ was made not far from here in Bryan, Ohio? The Ohio Art Company now does all it’s manufacturing in China.

(Bryan is a neighboring town to my hometown, and had one of the Episcopalian churches in our shared ministry cluster when we lived there. It’s not a ghost town, but I think “vibrant” is … ahem … a bit of a stretch.)

peace,

Snowbow!

There was a small, faint, but still unmistakable “rainbow” in the clouds today over the field behind our house as I drove home today. What else can it be but a snowbow?!

I needed that.

One small step for the 4th Infantry Division, one giant leap for mankind

Just got the news that the ace of spades has been trumped.

I can’t help but celebrate a bit, and rejoice at this bit of good news for Americans and Iraqis alike.

While I know that this does not mean the end of violence in Iraq, I do hope that this turns out to be a major step forward to giving the long-suffering people of Iraq some well-deserved peace.

Score one for the good guys

Ann Arbor Schools found to have violated student’s Constitutional rights by censoring her due to her religious beliefs.

Quick summary: in March, 2002, Pioneer High School held “Diversity Week” to (along with the standard race/religion/multiculti stuff) promote “diversity” as relates to sexuality — in other words, a pro-gay agenda. (Diversity will not be achieved until all think alike, you know.) This included a panel “discussion” of “Homosexuality and Religion”, where the school approved six local clergy to all come and have a panel discussion regarding religiously postive views of homosexuality. (Two of the clergy were Episcopalian, of course.)

Student Betsy Hansen asked to be part of the panel in order to express a dissenting viewpoint. She was denied. She was then offered the opportunity to present a two-minute speech at a separate assembly, which school officials then censored because it didn’t promote “diversity” enough.

What’s really sad is that some of these people probably do not in fact “get it” that having a public school promote “good” religious views (pro-gay) and censor “ungood” religious views (2000 years of Christian teaching on morals, longer if you count Judaism) might, just maybe, be covered by the First Amendment’s prohibition on “establishment of religion.”

I’ve noticed some commentors take Mark Shea to task for his use of the phrase “gay brownshirts” to describe this kind of bullying tactics (and worse) to intimidate those who would dare to disagree with them. I will simply note that it was the judge who compared the school administration to Nazis this time:

“Isn’t this cultural hegemony, where you’re only going to present one view to the exclusion of others?” Rosen asked, demanding to know why school officials were afraid of letting students consider diverse viewpoints.

“Don’t you think that smacks of government and religious totalitarianism. Isn’t that what this government was founded to get away from?” Rosen asked. “Isn’t that how we got to book burning in Nazi Germany back in the 1930s?”

Congratulations to Betsy Hansen, Rob Muise, and the Thomas More Law Center for this win.

UPDATE: Henry Dieterich (through the unfair advantage of knowing the principals of the case) did, in fact, blog on Betsy Hansen’s win first and has some good observations.

DISCLAIMER/PROCLAIMER

Just in case there’s any possibility of ambiguity or misunderstanding, and because I know that Bishop Barbara Harris is not the only one who has fogotten this Word:

Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.

— Colossians 3:11 (RSV)

It ought to be perfectly clear that this leaves no room for black and white, either — a gulf much less than that between Greek and Jew. Bishop Harris is oblivious to this, as she tries to turn the enforcement of the apostacy into a race issue (with the apostates assuming the mantle of Dr. King). In Bp. Harris’s universe, I guess Bp. Vicki Gene Robinson is an honorary black man.

BUT…

… the other side of this coin is that there is no room in the Gospel for any nonsense about white racialism, either. NONE. Or for anti-Semitism, as well. While there are various tribes populating the world, there is only one race, and that is the human race. We are all fallen sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, parents of the dying race. In Christ, the new Adam, we are joined with him and become part of the new race, the living children of God.

In the one nation of ultimate importance, there will be no “white homeland” or “black homeland” or even “Jewish homeland” — all the nations shall bow to the One who is King of Kings, and every nation, tribe, people and language shall be represented.

And anyone who says otherwise is “creatively reinterpreting” Scripture as much as Barbara Harris or Vicki Gene Robinson are.

To Mark Shea, Adrienne Truett, and Owen Courrèges for your links to my pictoral fisking of Barbara Harris’s race-baiting. And, of course, to all of you who read and appreciated it.

To whoever emailed it around with the subject “cheap laugh but true” — THANK YOU! I got quite a laugh out of that evaluation.

Oh, and as for you other people (you know who you are) — I had no idea who Amber Frey was. I am pretty sure she is not a relative. And I do not have any photographs.

Corporate Client Afflictions

From Rhymes with Orange — a not unrealistic look at way too many projects I’ve seen:

Caught up

As both of my long-time readers can tell, I’ve converted Eclectic Amateur back to Blogger. Hopefully, Bloogle is better now than when I gave up on it in disgust. Oh, and despite certain

snarky comments, I’m turning Haloscan comments on.

Creative Income Sources

Punjabi, the Indian puppet has some great ideas on how to turn

lemons into lemonade:

Interviewer: Punjabi, I know you’re from India. Did you study with a yogi?

Punjabi: Oh, no, no. I came to this country to study mathematics at the University. But people thought that because I was from India, I must meditate. They all asked me to teach. I said to myself, “What the heck? You just close your eyes.” I supported myself through college.

Interviewer: Really? So you don’t meditate?

Punjabi: I do now.

Read The Whole Thing™.