Category: Culture

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Twitter freedom

The world has changed.

I’ll be honest- I’m having trouble working today.  As the fraudulent Iranian election returns began to come in last Friday night, I began following feeds from Tehran on Twitter.  For hours I watched the news happen in real time, following links that thousands (both inside and outside of Iran) were posting.  Some tweets were being done by students at Tehran Univ. as their friends were being beaten and attacked in the street outside!

Today I can’t stop, even though I have work to do; here’s why.

WARNING: This is a graphic photo showing a dead protester.

I don’t know Continue reading “Twitter freedom”

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The garden again

Please note this:

But the clothes are an expression of a more disturbing, and rising, trend of teenage sexual behavior: Oral sex. More than half of teens (55% of boys, 54% of girls) have engaged in oral sex, according to the Center for Disease Control. Moreover, because it is not actual intercourse, kids do not consider oral sex to be unsafe, or even to be sex.

and now this:

Gen. 3:4,5  But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Everyone knows that the Dragon Deceiver was Continue reading “The garden again”

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Living in 2009

Gotta love this!

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2009 when…

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven’t played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail Continue reading “Living in 2009”

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Prayer for the President

This is not the post I thought I would be writing two or three weeks ago.  After reading the following paragraph, perhaps you will be forced to confront the uphappy truth that I have now realized: our country only has one president at a time, and the one we’ve got is the one we’ve got.

BARACK OBAMA

‘Obama is overwhelmed.‘

Perhaps it’s just some Obama ally speaking out of school. But these are probably some of the most terrifying words to come from an unidentified source in some time:

Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been “overwhelmed” by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest.

Geraghty goes on Continue reading “Prayer for the President”

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Pestiferous

Ahh… now that’s a word!

In a technical sense, it means to bring or spread disease.  When I saw it used on a recent blog post, however, that wasn’t what came to mind.  Rather, I was thinking about a combination of “pernicious, evil” and “annoying or troublesome”, all alternative uses.  Here’s a partial list of my choices:

  1. Media lies- great distortions of some important truth, endlessly repeated to push a destructive agenda.  “It’s not a baby, it’s a fetus” comes to mind.
  2. Pornography is all it’s forms- the beauty and joy of marriage turned into poison.
  3. Consumer debt for depreciating things- buy what you can’t afford today while hoping you will win the lottery next week.
  4. My sins- the bad habits I can’t seem to break, and especially the unnoticed failings which offend God or hurt others.
  5. Mosquitoes- precisely!

What do you think?  For some inspiration, click on the link above and then click on the “Hear” button.  Just the sound of it should help you build your own list…

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Vanessa- an update

Vanessa Liu, our Chinese guest for Christmas, left yesterday, and we miss her so much!  As planned, we took her to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY last Wed.  The exhibits are both comprehensive and impressive, and Vanessa mostly listened, kept her Chinese dictionary at the ready, and seemed to enjoy herself.  She saw and heard many things that were new to her.  At supper the next day, we had a long discussion about “faith in evolution” vs. faith in Christ, and she restated her commitment to evolutionary beliefs.  Those are, we believe, the major impediment to her conversion, since she has been taught them constantly since childhood.  The good news is that she now has the other side, presented thoughtfully and respectfully.  In addition, she participated in giving and receiving gifts (I got a quill and ink set, for instance), attended many church services, went dancing with us on New Year’s Eve, spent several hours discussing his trip to China with our cousin, John Graham and even did some target practice.  As we parted, and some of us were close to tears, she stressed that she wanted us to visit her in China.  I hope we can! 🙂

Here are some pictures of our adventures together: Continue reading “Vanessa- an update”

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Our gift from China at Christmas

We have a special gift with us this Christmas.  Vanessa Liu, our daughter’s Chinese roommate at OSU, has come to stay over the holidays,Rene & Vanessa at Christmas 2008 and in only a few days she has become dear to our hearts.  (Here she is with Rene, her friend from OSU who brought her down.)  We talk about China & America, the ways our two cultures are different or the same, and why we do all the things we do.  She has been helping clean and decorate some, she went to the ornament exchange with the CPC ladies Mon. night, and yesterday she had fun feeding the chickens.  She will join us in gift giving and receiving on Christmas day, and be at a big family dinner this Sat.  Though she doesn’t understand much of it, she has also joined us in corporate & family worship.

This Sun. evening past we had Continue reading “Our gift from China at Christmas”