The Playbook

Algeria
Vietnam
Iraq

Liberals
Peace activists
Media

Terrorists
Guerrilla tactics
Country building

The pattern is repeating itself again, which is good and bad. Read about it here - how to win and lose in Iraq. And here is a .pdf that is an actual military report from retired General Barry R. McCaffery regarding the surge. It is compelling reading.

Make sure you pass the word.

Uh...what?!?

Update: Scott and I have started a new site, Patriots & Tyrants, which is focused specifically on American politics. You can read about the premise here. We hope that you will find the site and the topics worthwhile enough to participate. Thanks.



You know that ever-so-tolerant, ever-so-loving evangelical Christian community? The one that would prefer to abolish all differences between the denominations? The one that believes that, as long as you believe in Jesus and hear him speak to your heart, that you're okay? The one that wants everyone to praise God and commit their life to Jesus? The one that wants to eliminate creeds?

Well...they have lines they don't cross, either. At least, James Dobson does, and he's going to use that line politically.

Talking about potential Republican Presidential candidate Fred Thompson, of whom I don't know much, and Newt Gingrich:

• Dobson "has never known Thompson to be a committed Christian—someone who talks openly about his faith." (Emphasis is mine.)
• "We use that word—Christian—to refer to people who are evangelical Christians...Dr. Dobson wasn't expressing a personal opinion," said Dr. Dobson's spokesperson.
• Gingrich was the "brightest guy out there" and "the most articulate politician on the scene today." Huh? Gingrich has skeletons falling out of his closet, but I guess he's been forgiven.
  

So the left/right litmus test is abortion, and the inner-right litmus test is evangelicalism. I was floored, but I shouldn't have been. Oy!

Abolition of Private Property in America

Scott sent this link to our homeschool group a couple years ago. He said that this was a "must-see presentation". I agree with him.

Judica, Fifth Sunday in Lent

Readings and sermon

Revelation 17 Bible Study

Seven Feet, Six Inches

Sunday, March 25
Sixty-something degrees
Sunny skies
No precipitation

That's the perfect recipe for bringing out the basketballs and shooting hoops in the backyard. Good times all around. (No pics; I was too busy having fun, too.)

In order for the kids to have a chance at making baskets, we have the hoop set at the lowest setting, 7.5 feet. Just high enough for the kids to make baskets, and low enough for a few blog-friends to slam dunk the basketball and make fools of ourselves.

The Artist started by practicing her dribbling and shooting layups - a hard-to-comprehend concept for her, still, but she is improving.

The Engineer used the new kickball, and for the first time made a basket all by himself. The smile on his face was beautiful to see.

Good times all around. And it's only March. :-)

Laetare, Fourth Sunday in Lent

Readings and sermon.

Diversity Training

Mrs. Quipper and I are persons of color.

You don't believe me? Then you haven't been to our house...








































For all of you homeowners that love whitewashed walls, this will give you a change of scenery without giving you a heart attack...I hope. Heh, heh.

Hey, It's Late...And Getting Colder

When you're a Project Manager, your staff is converting a system in the middle of the night, and you need to keep tabs on the activity, you find things to keep yourself awake.

I found this:



Take a look, if you can spare 75 minutes. The show was aired on Britain's Channel 4.

By the way...after hitting 65 degrees or so on Wednesday, my neck of the woods is back down to the low 30s and snow. Thank God for global warming; who knows how cold we'd be without it!

No, I'm Yoda

Some people who view this blog might not like this thought, but...

I am Yoda! Don't let anyone else tell you that they are. LOL!

To My Artist

Dearest Artist,

Today is a very special day for you. Your age no longer has only one digit in it; it now has two.


I wish you a very happy, fun and wonderful 10th birthday. Double digit ages mean lots of neat things. Your mind continues to develop, and makes you think some things your little brother says sound really, really silly. They weren't silly five years ago when you said them, but your brain now realizes that they were pretty silly.

Your body continues to develop, too. You may find that walls jump out at you once in a while (maybe Emily at church can explain that phenomenon to you), and the growing pains will still occur. Other things will change that you and Mommy will have plenty of chances to talk about, too.

Mommy and I need to help you pay more attention to, and understand, things that are going on in the world around you. Some of them will sound really ugly to you, while others will sound really exciting. After we talk about some things, you will probably say, "Why did they tell me that?" How do I know this? Because I asked myself the same question after my mom and dad talked with me many times.

The way you have fun will change, too. Sooner or later, you may not want to play the same games with your brother, or even with me. But that's okay, because we will have new games to play instead. And maybe we can work more on playing basketball this spring and summer, and help you become really good at making baskets.

For everything that will change, there are many things that will remain the same. I will expect you to trust, listen to, and obey your parents, grandparents and anyone else who we allow to have charge over you. I will expect you to respect other people and their property. I will also expect you to give your best effort in everything you attempt, whether it is in piano practice, tae kwon do, baking, or anything else you want to try.

Mommy and I will always pray for you to be safe, healthy, and faithful. I will always be there for you, even if it means you have to call me on the phone when I travel to Florida. I doesn't matter whether you want to tell me good news, have a question, or are sad. You can always talk to me.

And, finally, Mommy and I will continue to love you as we always have, and always will.

Happy birthday, sweetheart!

Love,
Daddy

Reminiscere, Lent 2

Readings and sermon

Need Your Help for an Experiment

Note: For various reasons, I have chosen to no longer participate in the experiment explained below. Out of respect for the co-sponsors of the experiment, I am keeping the content of this post as is.


We'd like your participation, if you are willing:

Remember Horton Hears a Who? All the Who's make a noise at the same time, and even though they are small they get heard?

A number of us bloggers want to try an experiment. We want to gather 30,000 bloggers together to shout all at once, and see how loudly we get heard. Why 30,000? Because that is the number of people originally represented by 1 congressional district in the United States. It is a small number when you think of it, but it can have a huge voice.

Here's how it works:

1. Send an email to brian@bravehumans.com with the subject: Yop!
2. In the body of the email list the name of your weblog, and the URL.
3. Your weblog will be added to the list of participating weblogs.
4. Tell your friends who blog about it, and urge them to send in their weblog as well.
5. When the list reaches 30,000, a date and a word will be listed on the page. On that date, every weblog on the list agrees to make a single post with the word as the title. The content of the post should be about what you want for the world, whatever that may be. The purpose is not to make a particular political statement, but simply to make a noise. If 30,000 weblogs all post the same unusual word, it WILL be heard.

Have you ever wanted to shout to the world? Here's your chance.

Some of you might be asking, "What if you don't get 30,000 participants?" That's a great question. My perspective is that it proves how difficult it is to communicate with 30,000 people, let alone 570,000 people, which is approximately how many people a congressman represents today. (Yikes! No wonder we don't get heard!)

So, we either prove that 30,000 WILL be heard, or that it's difficult enough to communicate with 30,000 people, which is 19x less than today's congressman needs to communicate with.

And, finally, here's the fine print:

• Please don't use e-mail to spam people about this; we want this done through the blogosphere by people who want to participate. Feel free to post on it (you can pilfer my text if you'd like), link to this post in your blog, or refer others to this post when you comment on other people's blogs.
• E-mails sent to the address above will be deleted after being added to the list. The e-mails will neither be collected nor responded to.

We just want to see how loudly 30,000 bloggers can get when they all make a noise at once.

Thanks,
Quipper