Phil Hendrie has a blog Phil Hendrie, the funniest man in radio, now has a blog. Not only does he have a blog, but it is a highly-charged political blog, with a "I'm a liberal but support George W. Bush" point of view. Check out the first post for an overview of where he is going with it.  ¶ 7:27 AM 0 comments

  WFB on ID Our founders made a wise choice when they separated church from state (establishment clause). However, as we have seen, shifting interpretations of the establishment clause have now led us to a situation where God cannot even be mentioned in public schools (or, at least, the education establishment, with the help of the ACLU, has made us believe so). William F. Buckley has some interesting insights into how this has affected our schools and the teaching of evolution. Will allowing a discussion of philosophy into the teaching of evolution confuse students?

While I support ID, I am a bit wary of how quickly they are trying to get their beliefs/findings/philosophy into the public school system. A better course of action may be to let ID mature and gain more adherents in the scientific community before trying to change school curriculums (curriculi?). Will forcing ID into schools now really benefit us in the long run? The first step, at this point (and a huge one) would be to simply ask that the possibilty that evolution does not fully explain life be discussed, and that students understand that the theories associated with it come from a Philosophic Naturalist (read: no God) background.

Categories: Intelligent Design, ID  ¶ 10:03 AM 0 comments

  Thoughts about Disneyland I took my family to Disneyland yesterday. We live close by and have annual passes, so this is a somewhat regular event. Disneyland is celebrating its 50th anniversary and has a quite spectactular fireworks/multimedia show. Until last night, the centerpiece of this show has been Sleeping Beauty's castle, which gets lit up to match the theme of the current segement of the show. For example, during the segment on the Haunted House, images of ghosts are shown flying over the castle.

Last night, we had the privelege (and luck) of being told about a new addition to this show at the "It's a Small World" attraction. For the first time, they duplicated the fireworks show over this area of the park and, most spectacularly, they projected digital imagery on the facade of the Small World ride itself. For example, during the Haunted House segment, we got to see images of the ride itself, including the stretching elevator and hitchhiking ghosts. This, combined with the fireworks and music, was just something amazing to behold.

So all this fantastic entertainment got me thinking: what is the morality of spending the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of dollars on amusing people? I am big Disney fan for the most part and enjoy taking my kids to the parks, but this got me thinking of how much value we, as Americans, place on being entertained: Amusement parks, movies, television, video games. If we have enough money left over after paying the bills to use it on entertainment, then don't we have enough money "left over" to support another missionary or help our church?

As my children grow up, I need to be sure they understand this. We will probably still keep the Disney passes, but to ensure that they understand the privelege they have in going to Disneyland and the choices we (as parents) have made in order to get the passes must be made clear.

Categories: Disneyland, entertainment  ¶ 10:01 AM 0 comments

  I'm back I've spent quite a bit of time trying to decide what to do with this blog. I have been unhappy with some of the formatting issues and the level of support for categories. However, I think I have them solved and will continue to blog right here at blogger - at least for now. Look for more regular posting from me starting this week!  ¶ 9:07 AM 0 comments