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An Exciting Week

Greetings fellow conspirators (don’t ask, I just wanted to say something different),

I have had quite a week, and I’m sure your just withering away in your chair waiting to read about it since you were deprived of my brilliant and witty writing last week. Ahem……so anyway this week I got to meet General Abizaid, the recently retired CENTCOM commander (CENTCOM stands for Central Command, which is basically where all the top military decisions of the United States are made). He came to OSU to give a talk about the state of the Middle East and how Continue reading “An Exciting Week”

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Barack Obama is white!

Stanley Ann DurhamThere… I’ve been struggling with this for months, and now I’ve said it. So, before you click past, aghast at such umbrage, may I point out a simple fact: Sen. Obama’s mother is white. Of course, his father is a black man from Africa, making him very precisely an “African-American”. Nevertheless, with inter-racial parentage, it stands to reason that he is just as much white as black. In truth, he is mulatto, a term I became more familiar with in the first stages of Sarah’s courtship with Dani Auguste. (In Haiti, by the way, these folks are typically from the upper classes and are given respect as a matter of course.) This tension was brought to mind while reading this article today from the Wall Street Journal, and I think it makes an excellent point. Somehow, Sen. Obama’s vision and Continue reading “Barack Obama is white!”

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Political at OSU

Lydia is under the weather this week, so here’s a quick post with a snippet from a recent e-mail:

    I’m only going to tell you about one thing because I it is really interesting. I went to a Hillary rally on Thursday night and got to see the real deal. I also was, at one point, a foot away from her and could have shaken her hand and gotten her autograph if I wanted to (as everybody around me was doing). But I didn’t want to. I went there to see her and take her measure. I got a real good picture of what she plans for our country, and I don’t like it. But after seeing her I can say I respect her as a person, if not as a politician.

She hopes to be back on the blog next week…

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Valentine’s Day, Courtship and Flowers

Beth’s Valentine rosesAfter a violent storm last week (no power for 2 days, trees down, 7 barns gone) it’s been great to have some good weather and to enjoy some flowers on the special day for love- Feb. 14th. Beth and I celebrated with some friends from church at Porcini’s last night. It was very good food (shrimp for me), great conversation and loads of laughs as 3 new couples were gathered up front for the “Cathy Mitchell version” of the Newlywed game. For those of you who attended, you know what I’m talking about 🙂 For the rest, imagine trying to guess your spouse’s answer to some trivial question about your honeymoon while everyone else (who already know the answer) stare at you, grinning from ear to ear. Beth’s Valentine roses- in the sunlightApparently, Beth & I have managed to avoid the spotlight for these annual events, so Cathy has sworn to get us up there next year. <note to self: begin planning west coast business trip for next Feb….> We’ll see!

Now, for the curious among you, who have noticed a word in the title Continue reading “Valentine’s Day, Courtship and Flowers”

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Happy New Year (Guo Nian Hao)

Happy New Year friends and family!

No, I have not mistaken the time, for the new year has just come around and up here there is much celebration. I am talking of course of the Chinese lunar new year which was on Thursday, Feb 7. The Asian community at OSU had many parties and it felt a lot like international new year, only all in Chinese ;)> This year is the year of the rat Continue reading “Happy New Year (Guo Nian Hao)”

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World Magazine vs. New York Times

It appears that I am the official recipient of a “fuss” (see below :-), and in response to both my news-aware daughter and anyone else who might be getting a daily dose of “liberal”, I offer World Magazine. It is an excellent source of news and commentary, both timely and with an eternal perspective, from a consistent, Christian worldview. It’s a natural fit for some of you; for others, who have no particular religious faith, I especially recommend it because it is a source you can trust to do one thing well– present an alternative perspective to the NYT and all other “mainstream” media. Why would you want this? If God is no more important in your life than the score of last week’s football game, why should you care? Oddly enough, there is a very good reason– civic responsibility. To be specific, the quality of life your grandchildren will experience will be directly affected by the cultural foundation we all lay today. If all you read is the NYT, your part of that foundation might well be rabidly, lopsidedly secular. In reality, the founders of this country, along with the majority of great men and women since, were not atheists and were either believers or at least church goers who had bought the Reformation worldview.  Whether  you agree with it or not, understanding the moral framework which produced the greatest democracy in human history is a goal worth spending some time to reach.

Here’s an example.  Good from Bad… Homosexuality: The cultural mainstreaming of homosexuality is liberating those seeking to escape it is an article which addresses a failure of the church, an unexpected consequence for the radical left and good results which come from misguided (at best) intentions.  You will never see this in the NYT, because they abhor it’s implications.  You must have a subscription to read the whole thing, but “just a taste” for $5 online isn’t a big investment.  It might make you mad, or it might really help you, but it will never parrot the NYT’s line of thought.  Try it, then come back here to let me know what you think…

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A feeling of spring

Friends and Family,

This week I had a wonderful conversation over dinner with a friend of mine, named Hongmei, who is native to Qingdao, China. I met her through IFI; she is a respiratory doctor in China and is at OSU as a visiting scholar doing research. She is not a Christian, but is interested and impressed with Christianity which is why she has been attending the potlucks on Friday nights. We got together at the cafe in the RPAC and had dinner and talked about ourselves and about Qingdao. She is very nice and has said she would love to have me visit her family while I’m in Qingdao, and she wants to take me around and show me the sights!

I had my first Math midterm this week and, Continue reading “A feeling of spring”

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Classes and Midterms

Busy week, and Midterms are coming up. I would say that this quarter is really my first quarter. Last summer and last fall were just a warm up, really. I don’t want to burden you with my woes (of which I have very few I’ll have you know, one of the few being sleep), but hopefully you’d like to hear about some more cheerful things.

This Tuesday I had to hand in my first draft of my report on Hu Jintao, the chairman of China. He is actually NOT president since that office does not exist in China. He is chairman of the three “branches” of the government: the political party chair, the military chair, and the legislative chair. It amounts up to about the same thing as president, but as I was very pointedly lectured by my illustrious Chinese professor Continue reading “Classes and Midterms”