CalvinDude.com

Gov. Ruth Ann Minner has directed Delaware’s state climatologist to stop using his title in public statements on climate change, citing a clash of views on global warming and confusion over the position’s ties to the administration.

Yup. There is no politics here. Furthermore, everyone agrees with Global Warming….

There is quite a bit I disagree with Dr. Peter Leithart on. This, however, is not one of them.

H/T: SpideyGeek

Well, I just got back from watching the Avs play an excellent 11 and a half minutes of hockey. Unfortunately, it was at the end of 48 and a half minutes of hockey so uninspiring it would have killed Mozart’s muse. Almost midway through the third period, just after I told my brother-in-law, “It’s nice to see that the Avs are playing poorly as a team, you know, rather than just individually sucking” they were down 3-0…and that’s when they finally scored.

And then they scored again. 3-2. The crowd was rocking! We had a chance.

And then Minnesota scored off a broken play (one of the Avs players–I didn’t catch the jersey number and haven’t read the post-game reports on-line yet) took a shot from the point and broke his stick instead of shoot. Minnesota picked it up, and since the defender was now sans stick, skated in to the other end to get the goal. It was 4-2 then.

And then SVATOS happened :-) That’s right, Svatos scored with about 2 minutes left in the game. Unfortunately, that’s where it would end: a 4-3 loss.

The first two periods were quite boring. The Avs looked like they didn’t even want to be on the ice, let alone win a game. For those two periods, they deserved to lose. For ten glorious minutes, they almost pulled out a victory. They needed fifteen glorious minutes. Too little, too late.

Oh well. The great part about the game was the fact that I got to hang with my sister, my bro-in-law, and my litlte nephew Stirling. Stirling, of course, did not realize that everyone was there to watch the game. He thought everyone was there to provide him a magical playpen. But while the Avs were faking their way through the first two periods, Stirling provided enough entertainment for us. Then, he actually let us get into the game when it got exciting at the end.

And finally, yes it was great to get away and do something different ;-) Instead of the usual work->home->work routine, I got to mix it up a bit. I only wish Denver was a bit closer and Avs tickets were a bit cheaper…but you can’t have everything!

Tonight I will get to fulfill my hockey dreams and become a truly transcendent, enlightened being. I shall become one with my inner Svatos. I shall channel the spirit of Sakic. The universe will bring forth awesome ’80s tunes blasted at 130 decibels.

I shall be there at the Pepsi Center watching ye olde Colorado Avalanche take on the Mini Soda Wilt tonight! And yes, because I am mocking The Wild here in the blog…they will probably win.

But that will allow me to channel my anti-Forsberg hatred once more. So BRING IT ON!!!!

Those pesky NYU College Republicans are at it again!

They’ve decided to do a game on campus called “Find the Illegal.”

The NYU College Democrat response was typical:

College Democrats president and CAS senior Nora Toiv called the event ignorant and dehumanizing.

“The event is offensive because by playing a game like this, you make light of a real-life situation,” Toiv said. “To ridicule what is often a very traumatic experience is hateful.”

Breaking the law is “a very traumatic experience” now. Perhaps I’m not grasping the logic there. Should we be making it more comfortable for people to break the law? Should we encourage it and reward it to ensure no one is offended?

Let’s put this in practice. Suppose that I break into Toiv’s house and eat all the food in her fridge, use the bathroom and leave the toilet seat up, sleep in her bed, etc. If she calls the cops, I could go through what I would consider to be a very traumatic experience. Therefore, she ought not call the cops. Instead, she should subsidize my illegal behavior, lest my feelings be hurt.

But that’s not all. In typical liberal fashion, Miss Toiv plays the hate card (yet again):

“It’s the issues they address and the way they address them that seem to always be targeting fellow students and staff at NYU. It’s hateful,” Toiv said. “Why can’t you talk about something that doesn’t personally attack several students?”

Oh, one cannot escape the irony. This paragraph should have been written:

“It’s the issues they address and the way they address them that seem to always be targeting fellow students and staff at NYU. It’s hateful,” Toiv said while targeting her fellow College Republican student in a manner that can only be considered hateful. “Why can’t you talk about something that doesn’t personally attack several students?” she continued with her personal attack on those pesky, evil Republicans.

By the way, this also tells me that Toiv knows illegals who are attending or working at NYU, or else she is lying. Thus, Toiv is an accessory to the illegal activity or ready for public office.

Despite still being snubbed by the “official” media everywhere on planet Earth, the Internet (which Algore invented, Gaia rest his soul) shows the truth. Sunday I set the traffic record for this website so far this year, and by nine this morning I already was on pace to break that record!

Eat that Rudy Juliannknee!

Unfortunately, the campaign trail is long, hard, and troublesome. This is why I need to commence begging.

Your “gift” of $1, $5, or $10 million will help me win this election. And if it doesn’t, it will fund my recall campaign. And if that doesn’t work, it will help me buy my own island off the coast of Isla Nublar so I can rent Bill Gates’ personal army and invade Washington.

Granted, that will take several donations to accomplish (just paying the lawyers for step 2 will cost more than the net worth of J.K. Rowling and Beckham combined).

But that brings me to my international policy. Did you notice that Rowling and Beckham have both been to California? This can only mean trouble. And if you want a candidate who wants what you want, I can be that person. All it requires is the aforementioned donation of $1, $5, or $10 million.

If you act now, I’ll even throw in a hefty free* gift guaranteed to make you get out and vote for me! What is it? It’s a bust of Hillary!

Also, if you act now, I’ll ensure you a nice spot in my downline, which will guarantee you an income stream of at least $47.85 for the next 27 years**.

Finally, the “NO SPAM” clause on my internet newsletter will let you opt in to “NO SPAM” emails, which will fill your inbox so that there will no longer be room for spam.

Donate today. Your country needs your money.

* The “Free” gift cost $11.95 plus shipping and handling; it “Free” because it is not in jail.

** These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA.

One of my friends was the camera operator for this film. It pokes fun at old Sci-Fi films and is actually quite funny, unless you try to take it serious–in which case, you’re quite funny.

I thought I’d pass it on to help promote it a bit. Click the link and watch it! You know you want to!!!!

In several different discussions lately, atheists have been demanding to know what the Bible’s definition of something is. Their demands have an extremely limited merit, but the approach being used is completely farcical. In both of the most recent examples (example one and example two (see also the follow up in the comments with “Doubting Tom” this post)), the atheist demands “chapter and verse” for the definition of a theological term.

Specifically, we have the most recent request of Tundaz (linked in example one above) stating:

Please state the Bible’s definition of ‘omnipotence’ for the record, noting the chapter and verse if you will.

His request was echoed by Gray_Mouser too.

The problem with this is that the Bible is not a dictionary, nor is it to be used as such. There are only very rare instances when the Bible specifically states out an explicit definition in a matter that would satisfy today’s atheists. But this is to be expected in a book that is meant to have a universal, trans-cultural appeal.

Atheists—no, let us get even more specific: Modern Westernized atheists account for one very small slice of all the cultural viewpoints that have ever existed. Were the Bible penned to address every whim of modern Westernized atheists, the Bible would have remained meaningless for thousands of years, incomprehensible to any other culture.

The modern Western philosophical method of defining terms—of explicitly stating them in the midst of a comprehensive philosophical argument—is not only historically limited to just a few hundred years, but is also not even the way that anyone speaks normatively today. There is a reason that philosophy books have a limited appeal while James Patterson and Steven King are read by millions.

The average person speaks colloquially, using words defined by their context set in the conventions of society. Language is fairly “loose” when used in this manner, but it is how every culture converses, and it is how modern Western philosophers speak when they are not writing stuffy books.

The Bible’s intention was not that it would be understood by only the selected philosophical elite, but that it would have a universal and transcendent scope. The uneducated farmer in the Nile Delta in 200 AD could understand the point of Scripture when it was read to him; he would not need a modern philosophy degree to “get it.”

So, to demand “chapter and verse” where a term is defined ignores 1) the cultural context of the term’s usage—that is, how it was used conventionally; 2) the textual context of the term’s usage—that is, how it was used in the text itself; and 3) the anachronistic aspect of inserting a philosophized back into a colloquial work.

While the first two points should be fairly self-evident, I will clarify what I mean by the third point. The term “omnipotent” is not found in Scripture. It is a term that systematic theologians came up with to describe one of the various attributes of God that can be discovered by reading the text of Scripture. As such, the “definition” of the term is the distillation of multiple points drawn from various sources, linked by a common bond. In the case of omnipotence, the common bond is the concept of the power of God. The meaning is defined not by a single verse, but by every verse that deals with God’s power.

That this can be summarized in a modern definitional form by systematic theologians does not mean that the modern definitional form is found in an explicit statement in the Bible itself; nor should it. The onus, at this point, is on the atheist to demonstrate how this is not a perfectly reasonable manner in which concepts can be conveyed to the vast majority of people throughout all history. In other words, the atheist needs to demonstrate why the Christian must be compelled to give him a definition in such a narrowly constructed manner as the atheist requests.

Loftus is once again concerned about the number of hits I get on my website. This is fairly amusing to me. I do check my stats from time to time, but I’m nowhere near as obsessed by stats as Loftus apparently is.

In any case, since Loftus thinks I get “barely…two hits a week” and since I relish disproving Loftus as much as the next man:

In case of clipping, click here to open graphic in a new window.

These stats were generated 18-Feb-2007 10:40 EST

Yup. Two hits per week is what I see.

I happened to see an interesting thing on YouTube the other day. It can be found:

Part 1
Part 2

It’s a 20/20 show from 1980. Yup, 27 years ago.

How does it start? “Tonight on 20/20. Is your home a death trap?”

Yup. The media hasn’t changed… Especially when you consider it was Geraldo giving the report! (Unfortunately, that portion isn’t in the above links–the above links just deal with the Video Disk…by which I mean the huge record-sized disks, not DVDs…) It’s very funny watching their predictions about what might happen, and then comparing that to reality.

Ahhh, blessed irony!