Impressing Europeans

European political editor Robin Oakley to McCain and Obama on the October 13 CNN program “Newsroom”:

While we’re on the symbolism, let me remind you how many Europeans see U.S. voters—as a trigger-happy bunch with a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other.

We do tend to cling to our guns and religion.

Does either of you senators have any serious plans to reduce the number of guns available in the U.S. or even dare to suggest it? That really would impress the Europeans, that you stand for change.

I can only hope that “impressing Europeans” is way down the priority list for both candidates.

Powell Endorses Obama

As Robert Novak predicted back in June, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has officially endorsed the candidacy of Senator Obama.

“I think we need a transformational figure. I think we need a president who is a generational change and that’s why I’m supporting Barack Obama, not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Senator John McCain”

Some pundits have stated that their belief that Powell’s endorsement is based more on his treatment by the Bush administration than on his ideological affinity with Obama. Powell could have avoided some of this criticism if he would have stated what specific “transformations” Powell would like to see and for which specific positive “changes” he believes Obama will serve as the agent.

The following Powell comment, however, is telling…

“[The Republican Party] has moved more to the right than I would like to see it.”

I am surprised, given this comment – bogus, in my opinion – and Powell’s positions on issues like abortion, gun control, and affirmative action, that the former Secretary of State still identifies himself as a Republican.

9/11 Retrospective

On this seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I offer my prayers to the families that lost loved ones that day and for all those that are serving in the war against Islamofascism.

Worth a look…the Patriot Post’s “Day of Terror: A September 11 Retrospective“.

Huckabee: Shift Back to the Issues

Mike Huckabee calls for Republicans to “shift [away from Lipstickgate nonsense and] back to the issues“. I could not agree more.

Chaput Rebukes Biden

Great rebuke from Archbishop Charles Chaput in response to Biden’s comments made during Meet the Press:

If we claim to be Catholic, then American Catholics, including public officials who describe themselves as Catholic, need to act accordingly. We need to put an end to Roe and the industry of permissive abortion it enables. Otherwise all of us – from senators and members of Congress, to Catholic laypeople in the pews – fail not only as believers and disciples, but also as citizens.

Amen.

Full text at: http://www.archden.org/repository//Documents/ArchbishopChaputCorner/Addresses/PublicServants&MoralReasoning9.8.08.pdf

Above Biden’s Pay Grade as Well?

Senator Joe Biden appeared on Meet the Press on Sunday to discuss a number of issues, including his views on abortion.

MR.BROKAW: If Senator Obama comes to you and says, “When does life begin? Help me out here, Joe,” as a Roman Catholic, what would you say to him

SEN. BIDEN: I’d say, “Look, I know when it begins for me.” It’s a personal and private issue. For me, as a Roman Catholic, I’m prepared to accept the teachings of my church. But let me tell you. There are an awful lot of people of great confessional faiths–Protestants, Jews, Muslims and others–who have a different view. They believe in God as strongly as I do. They’re intensely as religious as I am religious. They believe in their faith and they believe in human life, and they have differing views as to when life–I’m prepared as a matter of faith to accept that life begins at the moment of conception. But that is my judgment. For me to impose that judgment on everyone else who is equally and maybe even more devout than I am seems to me is inappropriate in a pluralistic society.

I. Sen. Biden has stated here that he accepts that life begins at the moment of conception. I happen to share this belief with the Senator. CCC 2270 states – pay attention here, Madame Speaker – that:

“Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person—among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life”

II. Sen. Biden goes on to say later in the transcript, that he voted against telling everyone else in the country that they have to accept my religiously based view that it’s a moment of conception.

Unless I am mistaken, Biden seems to have admitted that he believes abortion to be homicide (since, after all, abortion destroys the life that he agrees begins at conception) and yet, even now, supports a woman’s right to engage in homicide as long as she “only” terminates the life of her unborn child(ren).

A good followup question for Sen.Biden would be: “How do you morally differentiate various forms of homicide such that one type – e.g. abortion – is right (and/or legal) while other types are wrong (and/or illegal)?”

Such a question should not be above the pay grade of a man seeking to become the next VPOTUS.

A Taylor is Born, Part II

Sophia Anne Taylor was born yesterday at 08:10 AM to Brandon Eugene Taylor and Tiffany Lynn Taylor. She was delivered in Independence, Missouri at St.Mary’s Hospital and weighed in at a small but feisty 6 pounds 9 ounces and measured 18 inches in length. As was the case with Caleb, we had plenty of grandparents on hand to witness the miracle.

For Caleb’s part, he was amazed and delighted at his new sibling. We have been told to expect jealousy to eventually rear its ugly green head,but for now, Caleb’s reactions to Sophia have been spontaneous reactions of loving affection. His willingness to give his favorite Transformer to the baby so that she had at least one cool toy with which to play was the kind of selfless act I have been working hard to encourage.

Babies have the tendency to inspire us in all sorts of ways – from giving a gift of a favorite toy to experiencing profound insight:

If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle. — Vincent van Gogh

Tiffany and I appreciate all of the well-wishes and congratulations from family, friends, and co-workers. Your support and sentiment have meant a lot to us.

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You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works!   – Psalm 139:13-14

Children too are a gift from the LORD, the fruit of the womb, a reward. – Psalm 127:3

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P.S. For those that were speculating…yes, I did in fact cry for the second time in my adult life when I first saw my daughter emerge into the wider world.

Words To Live By

Mahatma Gandhi’s seven social sins:

1. Wealth without Work
2. Pleasure without Conscience
3. Science without Humanity
4. Knowledge without Character
5. Politics without Principle
6. Commerce without Morality
7. Worship without Sacrifice

Romney No Historian?

From Mitt Romney’s “Faith in America” speech on December 6:

“Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom.”

I found much to appreciate in Romney’s speech. This ahistorical statement, however, made me wince. Even a precursory perusal of the history of Christianity and Judaism gives lie to the statement that “religion requires freedom”.

Meat for the Freezer

I was fortunate enough to take a nice 6-point whitetail buck on the opening day of rifle season. As I am fond of saying – “happiness is a freezer full of meat”. Here are the particulars:

• Time: 09:35 CST
• Method: Stand Hunting
• Firearm: Remington 700 BDL SS DM 7mm Rem Mag
• Ammunition: Winchester 150 gr. Supreme Ballistic Silvertip
• Shot Placement: Single Shot, Heart (entrance at left shoulder)

Sarko the American

From French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress on November 7:

“The men and women of my generation heard their grandparents talk about how in 1917, America saved France at a time when it had reached the final limits of its strength, which it had exhausted in the most absurd and bloodiest of wars.

The men and women of my generation heard their parents talk about how in 1944, America returned to free Europe from the horrifying tyranny that threatened to enslave it.

…France will never forget the sacrifice of your children.”

Gratitude is very becoming, Mr. Sarkozy. Bravo. I hope that this serves to help dispel the belief that Europe is unified in its antipathy for the United States.

Words To Live By

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2258:

“Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains for ever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being.”

A Day at Sequiota Park

Caleb and I spent a great day out at Sequoita (“Many Springs”) Park in a section of Springfield that was, until 1969, the village of Sequoita. From 1920 to 1959 the area was designated a Missouri State Park and used as a fish hatchery for bass, trout, crappie, and perch. Since 1959, the area has been a very popular Springfield City Park.

The biggest attraction of the park is its three caves. Sequiota Park is one of the few places in Springfield with non-commercial public caves located on-site.

Here is Caleb exploring “Walk-all-the-Way Cave”. A small store was opened and operated out of this cave for a short time after the Civil War by Major Charles Galloway, one of the park’s former private owners. Just to the left of this cave is the smaller “Crawl-all-the Way Cave”.

The largest cave in the park is Fisher’s Cave (also known as Springdale Cave and Brashear’s Cave). Fisher’s Cave is considerably more extensive than the other two caves, extending nearly half a mile underground. It was once, while still privately owned, possible to take boat tours back into the cave to view its formations and its waterfall a quarter of a mile from the opening. I understand that it is still possible to gain permission to explore the cave. If it is not too difficult to do so, perhaps I will grab my canoe and do a bit of spelunking.

Here is Caleb throwing rocks into the pool of water in front of Fisher’s Cave. Approximately 5-11 million gallons of water a day flows from the spring that feeds this pool.

The caves are not the only attraction at the park. Caleb also enjoyed

climbing the rocks…

hiking the dry creek (once we found his shoes)…

exploring some hidden places…

feeding the geese…

and playing in the playground…

The one thing I did not allow him to do was to swim in the duck pond. He did manage, however, to strip down to his underwear before I stopped him and made him get re-dressed. I can certainly understand his disappointment. In fact, had the water been a little clearer and the park a little less crowded, I might have let him splash around a bit. In fact, I might have joined him for a dip.

Today provided a great reminder of just how wonderful an autumn day in the Ozarks can be.

Password Cracking with GPUs

From engadget.com – (“Elcomsoft turns your PC into a password cracking supercomputer (gulp)” – 10/24/2007):

“Russian outfit Elcomsoft has just filed for a US patent which leverages GPUs to crack passwords. Their approach harnesses the massively parallel processing capabilities of modern graphics cards to make minced-meat of corporate-strength password protection.”

I can see it now…more stringent export control on graphics cards

Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands

 I am a sucker for these kinds of stories…

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From seattlepi.com (“Couple make burglar clean up at gunpoint” – 10/18/07):

“My husband Adrian caught the thief red-handed in our home,” she said. “And what is even crazier, the man even had my husband’s hat sitting right on his head.”

Adrian McKinnon held the suspect, 33-year-old Tajuan Bullock, at gunpoint and told him to sit on the floor until he decided what to do.

“We made this man clean up all the mess he made, piles of stuff, he had thrown out of my drawers and cabinets onto the floor,” Tiffany McKinnon said.

When police arrived, Bullock complained about being forced to clean the home at gunpoint.

“This man had the nerve to raise sand about us making him clean up the mess he made in my house,” she said. “The police officer laughed at him when he complained and said anybody else would have shot him dead.”

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From Yahoo News (“135-lb mayor puts burglar in headlock” – 10/24/07)

It’s not a good idea to mess with the mayor, even if he isn’t very big. Mayor Matthew Godfrey and his wife were awakened early Wednesday when somebody tried to break into their house through a side and then a rear door. Godfrey jumped out of bed, checked on his children and went outside.

“He was heading across the front lawn riding a bike of ours,” Godfrey said. “I ran him down and tackled him, wrestled him and put him in a headlock.”

He held the man down while his wife called 911.

Godfrey, a long-distance runner, stands 5-foot-6 and weighs 135 pounds. Poorman [the offender], 20, weighs 163 pounds on a 5-foot-11 frame, jail records said.