This time it was a lousy day to fly

Today, I had planned to take a friend up flying with me.  We've been talking about it whenever we ran into each other for probably most of the 5 years since I got my lisence.  Alas, when I first called up the ASOS at KVTA at 08:30 this morning ceilings were at 800 feet.  When I called again around 10:00 it was down to 600 feet.  At that point, I called my friend and told him we'd have to try another time.  He was actually pretty cool about it.  I didn't cancel the reservation, though, I had reserved the plane for 3 hours (from 13:00-16:00), so I figured if the ceilings came up a bit, I'd at least do some pattern work.  However, I called the FBO and told them, I wouldn't be there before about 14:00 (so they could keep it warm in the hangar).  When I called the ASOS number again a little while later the ceilings were back up to 800.  Then around 12:30, I looked online and noticed that they were up to 1000 feet (my magic number), so about 13:15, I grabbed my headset and headed to the airport.  When I got there, they started preheating (did I mention the temp was -1°C or 31°F).  It was kind of chilly when I did my preflight, but I finished that up and climbed in.  The engine turned over on the second try and I let it idle at around 1000 rpm to get the oil flowing and warming for a bit while I finished up the checklists and listened to the ASOS.  By now, the ASOS was reporting winds out of 270@04 (right down the runway), altimeter 30.25, temp -1°C, dew point -2°C, and ceilings at 1200.  Okay, that gives me a couple hundred feet above pattern altitude before I hit the bottom of the clouds which at this time, I have to assume mean ice (did I mention the temperature).  Call CTAF, announce I'm taxiing (not that anyone else was on the frequency, but...), and head down to the runup area.  Do my runup, turn on the cabin heat, last look at the checklist, announce I'm taking runway 27, remaining in the pattern.  Taxi out, advance the throttle and we're off.  I still love that takeoff roll especially when I'm solo, leaping into the air, I remember that first solo 6+ years ago.  Okay, climb to pattern altitude and I'm beginning to wonder about that 1200, it is getting hazy at about 800.  Pull the power abreast the numbers, flaps, watch airspeed, VSI, hmm... a bit of a crosswind when I turn final, but we can handle that.  Nice smooth touch down, flaps up, advance power, rotate and we're off again.  Yeah, it is getting hazy at 800, but I'm not seeing any rime, so I'll do the 3 landings to keep my legal to carry passengers for another 3 months.  The last landing wasn't my greatest, but then I'm probably my own worst critic.  It was a pretty lousy day to fly, but there is still something special about being up in the air, even if it is only for about 25 minutes.  Hopefully, I can find a nice day in Jan to take my friend up.

A Universalist, huh?

I've mentioned here before that I regularly read Rev. Bob Cornwall's blog.  He posted something there last week (a week ago today to be exact) that I wanted to comment on, but I didn't get to it this week.  He's prolific enough that this one has already fallen off his front page.  I wish I had the time (and enough interesting things to say) to write that much.  Oh, well.  The entry was mostly an excerpt from a book by William Barclay.  Barclay was a much better biblical scholar than I will ever be, but he describes himself as a Universalist and goes on to explain why.  What is really interesting to me, is that, while he can back it up biblically better than I ever could, he describes almost exactly the place I reached during one of my undergraduate religion classes when we were discussing process theology.  I didn't even realize I was a Universalist.  Anyway, go read it.  I'm going to have to see if the local library has a copy of that book now.  As a result of this and a couple of other things I've been looking into lately, I've also added a couple of new books to my Amazon Religion Wish-List (to the left).

Blindsided by Grace - thoughts

I just finished reading Bob Molsberry's book Blindsided by Grace: Entering the World of Disability.  I won't call this note a review because it isn't.  I'm not going to critique the book in any way.  I will, however, recommend it unabashedly.  I've known Bob and Ann for almost 2 years(?).  I was on the Ohio Conference UCC's Board of Trustee's when Bob's name was brought forward by the search committee for Conference MInister although I was unable to attend the meeting where he was introduced to the board and I was off the board by the time he started the job, but I met hime not too long after.  I like Bob and he's not a bad preacher, either. :)  When I saw that he had written two books, I certainly wanted to read them, but I didn't buy them then.  Now I wish I had.  I read Tour de Faith: A Cyclist's Lessons for Living a few months ago and as a cyclist (somewhat out of practice of late) myself, I could relate to some of his stories, and I enjoyed it very much.  But this one touched me more.  The book is basically (as the subtitle suggests) about how Bob dealt with the devastating 1997 accident that cost him the use of his legs.  The closest I've come to what our society would call a disability was my back/nerve issues prior to my 1998 back surgery.  I had to make some adjustments to compensate, but as I read Bob's book, I wondered how I would respond in similar circumstances.  I hope I'd do half as well.  I also appreciated his perspective on life since the accident and especially the story about taking the youth group to Mexico after the accident.  The disabled ones in the group were those who couldn't communicate.  I don't have the book in front of me and I know I'm not really doing him justice, pick the book up yourself.  You won't be sorry.

Beautiful day to fly

Wow, what a gorgeous day yesterday.  I'm sorry I didn't have my camera with me.  I was feeling a little out of sorts when I headed to the airport where I had a plane reserved for 17:00.  I decided I was just going to do some takeoffs and landings and call it a day, but when I got in the plane and got airborne it was too nice to cut it that short.  I did a few short field and soft field takeoffs and landings and then I headed northeast to look at the leaves.  It was 27°C, winds 100@05, altimeter 30.38, and smooth as glass. It looks like the colors will peak in the next week around here, but they were still pretty impressive.  This was one of those days when you realize what a privilege it is to be a pilot.

Some other stuff I've seen on the net recently

I haven't had the time or motivation to write much here lately, but did want to post some links to some of the stuff that I've been reading.  This post will be dedicated to the aviation stuff, I may do a similar post for religion and/or politics soon.  I really enjoyed Don Brown's "Say Again?" column that he did for a number of years for AvWeb (thanx to Don for providing the link to the archives).  Don is a retired air traffic controller out of the Atlanta ARTCC (Atlanta Center).  As a new pilot and then a new instrument student and finally as an instrument-rated pilot, I appreciated Don's perspective from the other end of the radio.  Don retired from the FAA in 2006 (I believe), but I recently discovered that he continues to write about the aviation industry in his Get the Flick blog.  Some of what he writes is political, too.  He doesn't have anything good to say about they idea of privatizing ATC (and I have to say I mostly agree with him on that).  Anyway, here are a couple of his recent (or even not-so-recent) posts that you might be interested in.

• Controllers have cure for the energy crisis 
• This is the clearest explanation of the problems with airline delays, to use Don's line "it's the runways, stupid"
• More on the same problem 
• This one is about the FAA's NextGen.  The problems can't all be solved by new technology, it still requires people and we've been losing them on the ATC end of the radio at an alarming rate the last few years due to the FAA's refusal to bargain in good faith with the controllers.
• And this one, points out that now is the time to fix the FAA before it is too late.

Another blog I've  been reading lately is JetWhine.  I loved the picture of the flight crew in this post, he's right it wasn't that long ago that flying (not to say anything of military aviation) was seen as a (primarily) male endeavor.  There was also this note about the new Jeppesen VFR+GPS charts.  I can't wait for these to make it to my part of the country.

Busy, busy, busy

Folks, I must apologize for my silence these last few weeks.  There are a lot of things I could write about right now, but I'm just tired so all I'll do is fill you in a bit on what has been going on.  A week or two before my last entry, Matt had the hood of his car pop open while he was traveling at 75mph on the freeway headed home from his reserve unit.  The wind caught the hood and slammed it into the windshield.  He wasn't hurt, but the insurance company called the car a complete loss.  Then a few days after the last entry, he was staying at a friend's house on his drill weekend.  He went to open the window and discovered that this one didn't have counterweights and it slammed back down on his finger.  See the x-ray below.  He has since had a pin inserted to hold the bones together while they heal.

Then, the remnants of Hurricane Ike moved into the area and through a wierd encounter with the jet stream resulted in tropical storm force winds (with hurricane strength gusts) hitting our area.  It took the carport off the house and dropped it on the wife's car, so we've been dealing with insurance companies, too.

 

 

Will VORs and ILS Really Go Away?

Flying Magazine has a weekly e-mail newsletter you can subscribe to and I do. Normally, what I read there is mostly a recap of news stories that I probably heard of through one of the many aviation-related RSS feeds I follow, but this morning's had a brief article by J. Mac McClellan under the "Left Seat" banner (which I haven't yet seen posted to their website, I'll update this post with a link back to it if I see it show up there) that I thought was pretty interesting. I don't like posting someone else's content in its entirety but I think this is worth it.

Will VORs and ILS Really Go Away?

It was more than 15 years ago when Richard Collins and I met with the then head of FAA airway and navigation and planning, and he laid out a detailed plan that would have decommissioned virtually all VOR stations and ILS equipment in less than 10 years. GPS, with the added accuracy and dependability of wide area augmentation system (WAAS), was going to make navigation stations bolted to the ground unnecessary and irrelevant. Obviously, it didn't happen.

Now the FAA is talking about starting to scale back the national network of VOR stations by 2010 because GPS and WAAS are a reality and we really don't need those costly to maintain navigation radio stations. Will it happen this time? I doubt it.

It would be easy to blame the many thousands of general aviation airplane owners who have not yet installed a GPS with certified IFR capability, and the much larger group yet to embrace WAAS. And that group, through AOPA and other associations, will complain, but they are not the real drag on transition to GPS, WAAS and the next generation (NextGen) air traffic control system. The real foot dragging comes from the airlines.

Though Garmin in particular has delivered many thousands of WAAS-equipped GPS systems for personal and business airplanes, the jets, especially the airlines, lag behind. Even the best-equipped business jets have been slower to get WAAS equipment approved and installed than piston singles.

Part of the reason is that certifying anything -- particularly primary navigation systems -- is just more complicated, costly and time consuming for a transport category airplane than for a light airplane. Another issue is that the flight management systems (FMS) found in nearly every jet guide the airplane anywhere by already using a combination of inputs from GPS, inertial navigation sensors, VOR and DME to navigate. A WAAS GPS adds very little tangible capability to a jet. And because the giant majority of runways used by jets -- particularly the airlines -- have ILS approaches, WAAS adds nothing to lower approach minimums as it can at small airports served only by non-precision approaches.

When you consider the dire financial straits of the airlines, and the huge cost of putting an airplane out of service to install an expensive and redundant GPS WAAS system, the airlines' enthusiasm for WAAS is really diminished. They already have the equipment to fly direct en route to an ILS approach with minimums down to a half-mile visibility or less. No way they want to spend money for benefits that are in the future, not today.

A notable exception among the airlines is Southwest, which is spending millions to bring its fleet up to required minimum performance (RNP) capability, including WAAS, in the hope it can fly precise departure and arrival procedures and save a few miles per trip. But as far as I know Southwest is alone among the major airlines in spending millions now in the hope of getting it back in fuel savings over future years.

So, sadly, I think a combination of factors will keep the FAA paralyzed. It will announce again, and again, that it is moving on, but the primary user of the ATC system, the airlines, won't follow. Even if the FAA sets a hard deadline and warns that it will shut off VORs, and then ILS approaches, on a firm schedule, it has no credibility. It has made such announcements before and they were ignored, and the schedule was not followed.

Some wag once said that changing the ATC system is like overhauling an engine while it's running. And that's very true. So far the inertia to preserve the status quo is more powerful than any benefits of change that can't be immediately converted into cost savings. When will all of this change? I don't know, and neither does the FAA.

What it takes (costs?) to become a pilot

Wow, two posts on flying in one day. That hasn't happened in a while, but I wanted to put something up about this before I forgot about it. There was a great post over on the Southwest Airlines blog about GA flying. Also, be sure to read the comments.

---Jim

How do I remain sharp when I can't fly that much

A problem I've had ever since I got my license, is that I can't really fly as often as I'd like. With the price of oil going up, avgas prices can't be far behind which only makes it worse. So the question is, what can I do to remain sharp when I can't fly and to make the best use of my time when I do get to fly? I welcome the thoughts of anyone out there who may be reading my blog (does anyone really read my blog?), but I'll list a few of the things that I try to do when I can't fly.

1. I read as much as I can about flying. I don't subscribe to as many magazines as I used to, but the ones that I still read cover to cover are: Aviation Safety, IFR, and IFR Refresher. I also read quite a bit from AOPA Pilot and AOPA Flight Training, and occasionally Flying.
2. I use the technique that my first instructor taught me, of armchair flying. That is, I'll plan a flight or pick a flight out of my log book and sit in my favorite chair and go through all the motions flying the flight in my head.
3. Go to the airport and watch/listen to the other planes/pilots.
4. Listen to ATC on my laptop.
5. Lately, I read blogs about flying, too. I happened across http://www.bloggingpilots/radar the other day which will provide me with more flying stuff to read and they are on Twitter, too.
   
6. Hope I hit the lottery so I can afford to fly as much as I want to (yeah, okay, not really, but it is nice to dream).
   

You'll notice, I didn't include 'use Flight Simulator' in that list. Frankly, I don't own a copy of MS Flight Simulator or the like anymore (I owned a Mac copy 20 years ago). One of these days, I may invest in a copy of On Top, but I haven't yet. The big problem with all of those options is that I don't use Windows as my primary OS except on the work-supplied laptop (where I can't install software that doesn't have a work purpose). Plus, it would help to have a bigger screen and yoke/pedals to make the most of those software packages. I'd like to think these help keep me a little sharper, but the fact is, I still could afford to spend a few hours with an instructor to knock some of the rust off. In fact, I need to get an IPC in to be IFR-current again. Oh, well. Last night, would have been a fantastic night to fly, tonight wouldn't be bad either. Well, off to dream about flying.

The true impact of McCain/Obama on personal income tax

By now, you've no doubt seen the ads by the McCain campaign stating that if Obama is elected your taxes are going to go up.  It turns out, the Washington Post analyzed the tax plans of the 2 campaigns back in June and your taxes will indeed go up if you make over $603,403/year.  For those making less than $111,000 you'll get a bigger tax break under Obama, from $111,000 to $226,000 about the same and from $226,000 to $603,000 you won't see any significant change in your taxes.  [start_sarcasm]Yeah, that's going to really hurt the middle class.  Oh, wait, the middle class goes up to $5,000,000/year, right?[end_sarcasm]  I have to admit, I didn't notice this story at the time, but Fred Anderson took note of it here (though he also got it elsewhere).  Oh, and you remember those temporary tax cuts in 2000 (2001?)?  That's where the increases come from, we just go back to where the tax rates on the top end of the scale were during the boom times of the late 90s.  They were a real drag on the economy, right?    I love the graphic, so I'm including it here, too.

That kind of reminds me of another graphic that Fred found that I thought was amusing (and unfortunately too true).

A bad day flying beats a good day doing just about anything else

Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I had posted anything here.  I got the chance to go flying on 17 Aug.  I originally hoped to fly down to Charleston, WV to visit a friend from college that I haven't seen in about 20 years, but at the last moment, she couldn't get away to meet me for dinner, so I flew locally.  One of my goals, when I get the opportunity, is to land at an airport I've never been to.  On 17 Aug, I got the chance to fly KVTA-4I3-4I9-KMNN-KVTA which added 2 new airports to my list (which now totals 37, I didn't land at 4I3, but I've been there before).  I was, however, reminded of why I prefer not to fly in the afternoon in August.  Even though it wasn't as hot that afternoon (28°C, atl 30.04, winds calm) as it has been this week, it was still pretty bumpy at 3000 AGL.  It was a pleasant way to spend 1.2 hours (on the Hobbs).  I've also been trying (though not succeeding as much as I should) to ride my bike (I'll have to put a picture of it up here soon).  My last ride wasn't too much fun, for some reason I felt lousy before I even started and my legs felt like crap for the whole ride, but I still averaged over 15 MPH, so...  I didn't get lots of sleep during the Olympics, often staying up to watch some of the live coverage until 01:00 or 02:00 (occasionally 03:00) EDT, I haven't watched much of the Democratic convention, but I'll probably post something political tomorrow.

08-08-08

Yeah, that isn't how I'd normally write the date, but as of 12 minutes ago, that is today's date.  If you've had a television on in the last month or so, you are aware that today will be the opening ceremonies at the Olympics in Beijing.  I'll probably watch at least part of them although I don't get the thrill out of that that I did back in the 1970s.  I don't remember the Olympics in Tokyo (my excuse is that was only 2) and my only memory of Mexico City is a little bit of the closing ceremonies.  I wish I could say I remembered Bob Beamon's incredible jump or the raised fists of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, but I don't.  I only vaguely remember athletes running all over the place on the field in the stadium during the closing ceremony.  I also remember similar scenes from most of the Olympics since (with the exception of 1980 in Moscow which we boycotted and I believe didn't get any television coverage in the US).  I guess I have lots of memories and dreams tied up in the Olympics.  As long as I live, I'll never forget Jim McKay coming back on the air to say "they're all gone" in 1972.  The travesty of the gold medal game in basketball in those same Olympics.  Mark Spitz.  Being haunted a bit by the fact that the name of the guy who lit the torch in Montreal in '76 was Stefan Prefontaine.  Realizing sometime after those Montreal Olympics that I was never going to be tall enough (or talented enough) to play center for the US basketball team in the Olympics and starting to wonder about this team handball thing (a sport I believe I've only ever seen on TV twice and both were just brief glimpses during Olympic coverage).  I bought my first color TV so that I could watch the LA Olympics in color in that big 19" screen (it replaced the 9" black & white that I had used throughout college) in 1984.  It was probably inevitable, but I think the Olympics lost a little something when they let the pros in, but most of the athletes from "the other side of the Iron Curtain" were pros for years before that.  Still, I did enjoy watching the original "Dream Team" of Magic and Michael and Bird in 1992.  I have a new HD TV for this year's Olympics and I'll watch a fair amount of the competition, but I'll probably be annoyed that all we see is the Americans.  Oh, I'll root for many of the Americans competing, but they aren't always what I want to see.  Sometime back in the 80s In 1976, I saw a series put together by Bud Greenspan called (I believe) the Olympians Olympiad.  The ones that I still remember were about the runners.  In particular, since that time, I've been fascinated by Emil Zatopek and Abebe Bikila.  I never got to see either of them run, but they are fascinating stories.  Yes, I'll root for Michael Phelps to break the Spitz record, but I doubt he'll set world records in all of his finals.  I'll watch the US basketball team in hopes of seeing them play as a team and not a bunch of selfish whiners.  I'll definitely root on the US softball team though they probably won't need it, they should dominate the way Magic and Michael and Larry did hoops in '92.  But, I'm mostly hoping that I'll see something that will stick with me, remind me that there is good in people, take me back to my youth.  I hope never to see another day like that tragic one in Munich, but if there is, I'll probably be watching just like I did when I came home from school for lunch that day.  The Olympics are back.

 

This was one of 2 signs like this along the road in Nicaragua that we drove by nearly every day.

Update: 2008-08-09 00:52 UTC - corrected the info on the Bud Greenspan series

Check these out

Okay, these links are to a couple of posts in Fred Anderson's blog, but he actually is pointing to stories written by two others.  I thought they were both pretty good, so I figured I'd share them.  The first was written by a Unitarian (not sure who the author actually is, I haven't followed the links to see if NonnyMouse is identified further in the original) and discusses forgiveness after the tragic shooting at the church in Knoxville on Sunday.  The second is actually from the Huffington Post and I agree with Fred, I wish the Obama campaign would follow this advice.  By the way, where did the McCain campaign come up with the notion that calling his add "low politics" was somehow "playing the race card"?  McCain used to be someone that I admired even if I didn't entirely agree with him, but lately, not so much.  He's abandoned some of the positions I admired and is falling in line with everything that I detest about the current administration.  It makes me sad.

More on Ellie and other random thoughts

I guess I didn't mention in the last post that Ellie's middle name (Noel) was because she was a Christmas present to the kids (yes, I know it was July, but we explained to them that she was part of their Christmas present).  I still find myself tearing up from time to time.  I think the worst part for me is that I wasn't here.  I was in DC at SANSFIRE, which was a lot of fun, but that meant I wasn't here and didn't really have a chance to say goodbye.  Well, I guess it must be real because I just brought her ashes home.

On a brighter note, we have a functioning pool again.  The pump broke the night before I left.  Fortunately, the water has been just about perfect this year, so we just shocked the pool a couple of extra times while we waited for the new pump to arrive.  It got here on Monday, I got home on Tuesday, but didn't feel like doing anything about the pool, I was still trying to deal with Ellie not being in the house.  Yesterday, was pretty warm, but they were calling for rain, so I figured it was a better idea to try to mow the lawn after work.  This morning (I took part of the day off, since I was in class Saturday and Sunday last weekend at SANSFIRE), Shane and I finally got under the deck and disconnected hoses (trying not to lose too much water), pulled the old pump out, put the new one in and reconnected hoses.  The water is flowing again and should clear out the cloudiness (which really wasn't too bad and there was no live algae that needs to be dealt with) in about 3-4 hours.

Ellie Noel (19 Apr 1995-28 Jul 2008)

I'm pretty sad this evening.  Ellie joined us when she was 3 months old, 13 years ago this month.  This afternoon, she succumbed to congestive heart failure.  We have pictures (not digital) of her when we first brought her home.  In those days, she used to trip over her ears and get me up in the middle of the night every night (even recently, I used to joke that I only got a good night's sleep when I went out of town, though if I'm totally honest, she was sleeping through most of the night for the last few months).

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

A good Saturday night at the races

We sold our old house to Sherry's best friend, Cyndy and her husband, Beau, 9 years ago.  For about 15 years now, Beau has been racing at the Columbus Motor Speedway.  He was twice track champion in the street stock/sport stock division and has finished 2nd or 3rd in the points several more times.  A few years ago, Sherry and I started going out to watch Beau on Saturday's as our "date night."  Growing up I was always more a fan of open-wheel (Indy car) racing than stock cars, but Beau is starting to win me over.  Anyway, 2 weeks ago, Beau set a new track record in qualifying at 15.833 seconds, unfortunately, he got boxed in relatively early in the feature and ended up finishing a ways back (I don't remember 9th, 11th, something like that, I could look it up, but it isn't that important).  Last week, he was fastest qualifier, but the features got rained out.  This week he was again fast qualifier.  Since the track is small and the features relatively short (normally 25 laps in the sport stock division), they invert the qualifying order to set the field for the feature.  The fast qualifier pulls a number between (I think) 6 and 12 and that is where he/she starts 2nd fastest starts 1 spot in front, etc.  The idea is to make the races a little more competitive since the fast qualifier would almost always win if they got to start on the pole in such a short race.  Well, he was fast qualifier (16.089, I think, it doesn't really matter) and drew the worst possible number for the inversion, 12.  That meant he started on the outside of the 6th row, I think 20 cars started the feature, so more cars in front of him than behind him.  The cars in the outside rank got a great start and Beau had made up 3 or 4 spots by the end of the 1st lap.  By the time the first caution came out on lap 8, he was already up to 6th.  He had moved into 2nd by the time of the final caution on lap 15 and after a great restart won the race going away.  That was his first win in over a year and, I believe, moved him up to 3rd in the point standings.  Congrats, Beau

A few random thoughts for a Tuesday evening

As I sit here watching the All-Star game and hoping the NL wins (if only because one league shouldn't dominate for a decade at a time, well, that and I'm a Reds fan, of course), I'm happy to see Josh Hamilton did so well last night in the Home Run Derby (though I didn't actually watch it).  And, here he just got a hit leading off the bottom of the 6th inning.  But, this post isn't really about baseball.  This week, I read these two posts on marriage and the church.  The first argues that the church should get out of the marriage business entirely, that it is (and should be) a completely civil function.  The second, which is from Kim Fabricius (whose "10 propositions" posts are always thought provoking even if you don't entirely agree with them).  I was especially interested in a couple of his points.

2. A marriage is not to be confused with a wedding. “A wedding is only the regulative confirmation and legitimation of a marriage before and by society. It does not constitute a marriage” (Karl Barth). A ceremony does not make a marriage, consent makes a marriage. And even in the ceremony, and even in the Roman Catholic Church, the ministers of the marriage are the bride and bridegroom, not the minister. Indeed it was only with the Council of Trent in 1563 that the Roman Catholic Church insisted on an ecclesial occasion, and mainly to ensure, through the presence of witnesses, that the marriage was, in fact, consensual. In short, a church wedding does not create a marriage, it recognises and blesses a marriage that already exists. Nor should consent itself be taken as a punctiliar act but as part of an ongoing project of mutual discovery and affirmation. It is always sad to hear a couple say that their wedding day was the happiest day of their lives.

...

5. Although marriage is complete without procreation (Genesis 2:24) and remains complete after the kids have left home, marriage is the God-given unit for the birth and nurture of children (Genesis 1:28). There is, however, a teleology to raising children, namely that they may grow up to experience the joy and freedom of faith. “This means,” as Bonhoeffer says, “that marriage is not only a matter of producing children, but also of educating them to be obedient to Jesus Christ,” so that they too might become friends of God. The obedience course begins by telling your children that Jesus loves them – even when they are disobedient. As for the learning curve (or slider!), I recommend a Hauerwasian pedagogy: “Start with baseball and also teach them to read. Don’t teach kids a bunch of rules. Help them submit their lives to something that they find to be a wonderful activity that transforms them.”

...

7. Tina Turner puts the problem – and the question I always put to dumfounded couples whom I prepare for marriage: “What’s love got to do with it?” Stanley Hauerwas: “Christians have far too readily underwritten the romantic assumption that people ‘fall’ in love and then get married. We would be much better advised to suggest that love does not create marriage; rather, marriage provides a good training ground to teach us what love involves.” Thus, most provocatively, to disabuse us of conventional notions of Mr or Miss Right, Hauerwas’s Law: “You always marry the wrong person.” (As Henny Youngman jested: I married Miss Right. I just didn’t know her first name was Always.) Thus does marriage become Luther’s “school of character”, or, better, a “class of character” in the school of the church. Of course a relationship begins with the chemistry of attraction, but unless it does graduate work in the art of loving, it shouldn’t be surprising if it ends in an explosion.

 and

10. Finally, if the heart of marriage is friendship, if marriage is for procreation in a gratuitous rather than an instrumental sense, as overflow rather than essence, then do we not open the way for the blessing of same-sex relationships? I think we do, though I think the term “marriage” is unhelpful. (And by the way, whatever the social and legal conventions, homosexual Christians, like heterosexual Christians, may have a vocation as parents in the church.) This view presupposes that natural law arguments against same-sex relationships are otiose – but then I think that the concept of natural law is otiose in a theology of marriage too! The point is this: if Luke Timothy Johnson is right to suggest that “If sexual virtue and vice are defined covenantally rather than biologically, then it is possible to place homosexual and heterosexual activity in the same context,” it is also possible to see same-sex relationships, blessed by the church, as an analogue of the relationship between God and his people, and a model of the church’s own proper economy of grace. In short, nihil obstat.

Finally, (for this evening), I came across this new blog by Fred Anderson, a retired Presbyterian minister.  I was impressed/moved/touched/challenged by his very first post which includes a statement of faith.  Read it for yourself here.

TdF

I probably first heard about the Tour de France when I was a kid, but I didn't really pay much attention to it until Greg Lemond won it in the early 80s.  I sort of followed it during the Lemond/Hinault/Indurain years, but it didn't get a whole lot of coverage here in the US.  In 1996, one of my co-workers at the time was into it and it was much easier to follow then after the arrival of the internet.  Of course, there has been a lot more coverage of the race in the last decade with Lance's arrival on the scene.  I must admit I haven't been following it as closely this year as I'd like to.  I haven't watched every stage on Versus like in past years, though I still check the results everyday.  I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed that Contador and Leipheimer won't get a chance to defend their podium positions.  Especially since about half the Astana team are ex-Discovery.  I am, however, enjoying the fact that both American teams, Columbia and Garmin-Chipotle are doing very well (Kirchen rides for Columbia, and Vandevelde rides for Garmin-Chipotle).  I hope they keep it up, but things should really get interesting starting tomorrow (the first mountain stage) with  its finish at Hautacam.  That one, I will watch live.

All 50 states before 51st birthday

I thought I had already posted this months ago when I started the blog, but I guess I hadn't so I'll do it now.

Two years ago, I went down to FL (well, AL) for my flight review and while I was there, Clint told me I could have the plane on Saturday afternoon to fly wherever I wanted for little more than the price of fuel (much better then than now).  I took it and flew to Pascagula, MS.  That made the 44th state I had been in at the (then) age of 44.  That was when I made it a goal to visit all 50 states by age 50 (before my 51st birthday).  I've since added 2 more states (AR and ME), so I am currently at 46 states and age 46.  I lost a week of vacation this year, though, which (combined with spending 1.5 weeks in Nicaragua) means I'm not sure if I'll be able to add another state this calendar year.  The only ones I still lack are LA, MT, AK, and HI.

The ORCC All-Star softball game

Sunday afternoon, the ORCC All-Star softball game was held at the VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe.  Team 2 was made up of players from the OU branches (Chillicothe, Lancaster, and Zanesville) and team 1 was made up of players from OSU-Newark, Miami University-Middletown, and UC-Clermont.  Erin got to play in the game and played well.  She entered the game batting in the top of the 3rd(4th?) inning and doubled in the first two (tying) runs for the OU team, but got stranded at 3rd base.  She then played the rest of the game in right field where she ended up making 2 plays.  The first one was chasing a ball that got by the first baseman and skidded on the artificial turf off the wall and back toward the corner.  She picked it up and threw to third to hold the runner.  The other play was a fly ball after the other team had retaken the lead, where she didn't get a good break and made it look like she was going to miss it, but she did catch the ball to end the inning and kept the lead from getting any larger.  In her final at-bat, Erin was called out on a pitch that was about at her ankles.  Sigh... Team 1 beat team 2 by a score of 4-3.  Still, the girls had fun.

Odd perspectives based on experience

I've long been fascinated by weather.  While I've never purchased a home weather station, I've often thought about it and I'm a Weather Channel junkie.  Weather became even more important to me when I learned how to fly.  Pilots (literally can) live or die by the weather.  If you read my earlier entry this evening, you'll note that it was raining and overcast nearly all day today.  The reason for the title of this post though, is that I realized as I was driving to Cincinnati and back (and to some extent during the game) that I was trying to estimate the ceilings (I estimate that they ranged from about 200' to maybe, briefly 1200 or 1500') and visibility (actually pretty good most of the time) and determine in my head whether the weather was MVFR or IFR (it was IFR pretty much until I got home).  Normal people don't worry about that, but this flying thing has (somewhat) changed my perspective on weather.  It isn't good or bad, just different and it struck me today, so I decided to write about it.

Trip #2 to GABP

Prior to this year, I hadn't seen the Reds play in person since sometime before they moved into Great American Ballpark.  That changed when Sherry and I went to see them for Fleece Blanket day in April when we got to see Johnny Cueto pitch.  For that game, we sat in the outfield just to the foul side of the left field foul pole.  Last night, on a whim, Sherry and I decided to attend today's day game, so we went online and I got tickets in section 424 (seat map can be found here), the lower part (6 rows) of the upper deck directly behind home plate.  It was raining all the way down to Cincinnati.  When we got in the stadium we went to the Home Plate Grill for lunch and to wait out part of what ended up being a 1:45 minute rain delay.  The game was scheduled to begin at 1:15PM, first pitch was 3:00PM.  The batting order was

1. Jerry Hairston, Jr - SS


2. Jay Bruce - CF


3. Ken Griffey, Jr - RF


4. Brandon Phillips - 2B


5. Adam Dunn - LF


6. Jeff Keppinger - 3B


7. Joey Votto - 1B


8. Paul Bako - C


9. Bronson Arroyo - P

In the bottom of the first with one out, Bruce doubled, then Griffey followed with HR #604 which gave him 5,001 total bases for his career (the 18th player in major league history to achieve that).  The picture below is Griffey touching the plate, Bruce is waiting for him, Phillips and Dunn are by the on-deck circle.  In the outfield, you can see the smoke coming from the stacks and they have just changed the 603 to 604.

Arroyo went 6 innings, Weathers, Burton, and Cordero each threw an inning and the final was Reds 3, Nationals 0.  By the way, I think Arroyo was robbed when they ruled his triple was an error by the left fielder.  It sprinkled a few times during the game and it was overcast the entire time, but it didn't start really raining again until just after the game ended.  By the time we got home, we had some blue sky here (though ceilings were probably below 2000' the entire time until we got to Pickerington).

My flight review

Yesterday (well, it will be 2 days ago by the time this gets published), I had my flight review.  For those who don't know, private pilots in the US are required to have a flight review with a flight instructor at least every two years in order to continue to fly (to maintain an ATP requires more frequent recurrent training).  With the thunderstorms the night before, I had difficulty sleeping (and more importantly getting up when the alarm went off), so I was afraid I was going to be late.  It turned out, the instructor's power went out overnight, so his alarm didn't go off.  I ended up actually arrive right at the time that I had scheduled the review for, but the instructor ended up being about 30 minutes late.  That was okay, though, I had blocked out 4 hours for the 1 hour of ground instruction and 1 hour of flight instruction required by the FAA.  I actually had hoped to make this both a flight review and instrument proficiency check, but we ran too late to actually accomplish the latter (I'll try to schedule some time with the instructor next month to get that done).  I did finally fly a complete GPS approach (the GPS27 @ KVTA).  It actually was extremely hazy and we encountered the base of the clouds at about 2700 feet (MSL), so I might as well have done nearly the entire flight under the hood given how little I could actually see.  While doing some of the touch and goes, I was able to see some of the flooding in the area (we got 5" of rain overnight).  We got another 2+ inches last night and the radar is looking like we'll get a good bit more tonight.

Firefox 3 has arrived

I've been a big fan of the Firefox browser since (probably before) v1.0. Yesterday, they finally officially released v3.0. I had heard that sometime last week the last release candidate started reporting itself as v3.0 (not v3.0RC3), so several hours before the start of their well documented attempt to set a new "Guinness world record" for downloads in a 24-hour period, I went and grabbed RC3 and installed it (I later compared the MD5 with the "official release" and they were identical, so I guess I beat the rush). As I had anticipated, given all the hype, when the magic hour of 10:00PDT (13:00EDT, 17:00UTC), their servers melted down. My first thought was that all the hype was monumentally stupid if they hadn't planned for a huge spike in traffic at the appointed hour. To their credit, after a few hours, they managed to get their servers stable enough that people could actually reach them consistently. The thing that I was most looking forward to was that FF3 is faster and uses fewer resources than 2.0.0.14 (which introduced a memory leak that was getting really annoying). I don't really care that much for the new features, I just wanted my old reliable FF to run faster and not cause my laptop to start swapping after an hour or so. FF3 accomplishes that, so if you're looking for a faster, smaller browser head over to getfirefox.com. Now my only question is will the linux version be able to do the MLB Gameday thing for the Reds games. For some reason, lately it hasn't worked for me on my Ubuntu laptop (I could have sworn it worked at the beginning of the season, but...).

Father's Day, family, and traveling

Happy Fathers Day!!! Today has been a beautiful day, sunny, barely a cloud to be seen, high in the mid-80s. As I stated on twitter a few hours ago, today I "celebrated" Father's Day by mowing the lawn and vacuuming the pool. Okay, to be fair, Erin did finish the yard, and Sherry wanted to learn how to use the new mower (a zero turn), but we decided we'd do that another day. I did get in the pool after I finished vacuuming. The water temp is 86°F, so it is quite pleasant. I'm home again after spending last week in PA and NJ. I got to spend a couple of days with my baby sister (okay, she just turned 40, so she probably shouldn't be called a baby anymore, but...), her husband and my nephews, and spent 3 very productive days in NJ at the annual Cyber Security conference and spending face-to-face time with some of the other members of the team. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire week. The older of my nephews is at a big invitation-only showcase for high school junior baseball players being held at the Metrodome in Minneapolis. It wraps up today, I believe. I also had the opportunity to have dinner on Tuesday evening with a few of my friends from my days with Monmouth Civic Chorus. It is hard to believe it is 16.5 years since I moved back to Ohio from NJ. I drove out because the company isn't paying for much of anything these days. I did manage to pay less than $4.00/gallon of gas, but I saw a number of stations on the way where the price was over $4. That said, our gas prices are still cheaper than most of Europe. Ah, well.

Renewed Third Class Medical

Well, I'm legal to fly again (as I noted on twitter). My medical had expired on Saturday, but I had my appointment with the AME this morning and am legal again. Alas, from now on, I must carry my glasses with me for near vision (I wear them all the time, so that isn't really a big deal). I asked the doctor what the difference was between a third class and a second class since I'm considering pursuing my commercial license in the next year or so. He told me it was all about vision. With my glasses, I actually met the standards for a second class. Of course, for the training (and checkride) I don't need the second class, only to "exercise the privileges" of the certificate.

Shane is home

Well, it has been a long year, but Shane's unit returned from its second tour in Iraq at 4:00 yesterday morning (30 May 2008). There are more pictures here and the video below.

McCain, Hagee, and Parsley

Well, the media didn't give John McCain the crap he deserved for his "Jeremiah Wright"-problem, but at least he has finally cut his ties with John Hagee and Rod Parsley.

Happy Memorial Day

I spent most of the holiday driving (yes, even at nearly $4.00/gallon), but I didn't want the day to go completely by without thanking all those who have served and especially those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy. On a related note, Shane is back on US soil and should be home before the end of the week. My thanx to all of you that have been praying for him for the past year.

Pastor Ruth is installed

I posted this over on the Grace UCC blog, too, but I'm posting here too because my job as search committee chair is now officially concluded.


On a beautiful, if a bit chilly, Sunday afternoon, Pastor Ruth Farrell was installed today as pastor and teacher of Grace UCC. Rev. Dr. Forrest Hoppe, Association Minister, and Rev. Eric Williams, chair of the Association Department of Church and Ministry officiated over the actual installation and the moving message for the afternoon was delivered by Pastor Ruth's father, Rev. Dr. (LTC) Bruce Farrell, a chaplain with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard who recently returned from a year in Iraq. LTC Farrell (yeah, he told me not to call him that, he prefers Chaplain, but he's not writing this blog entry :)) promises that he will be back for a visit with his wife (who was unable to be with us this afternoon because she had babies to deliver this weekend as a midwife in Pennsylvania) in July or September. So, today we celebrate God's blessings as we begin what we all trust will be a long and fruitful ministry together in Lancaster, OH.

Congrats, OU-L Softball team

Even though they were missing a few players due to illness and other previous family commitments, the #2 seeded OU-L Cougars came to play on Saturday in their matchup with UC-Clermont. With the grey skies and the threat of rain hanging over them, they played a tough team from southwest Ohio. UC-Clermont took a 1-0 lead in the 3rd inning. In the 5th inning, Steph and Erin started off the inning reaching on bunt singles, then were sacrificed over to 2nd and 3rd before being stranded. By the way, Erin hustled on that (remember I said bunt) single despite the ankle, but told me later that they ankle was killing her the rest of the game (she started and played all 9 innings in right field, going 1-for-3 at the plate). UC-Clermont stretched their lead to 2-0 before OU-L came back to tie it at 2 in the bottom of the 6th on back-to-back hits by Courtney and Christine and Christine's aggressive base running. The game ended up going into extra innings with neither team really threatening in the 8th. In the bottom of the 9th, Heather led off with a double that nearly left the park in left center and the next batter, Liz, ended it with a home run to left to give the Cougars a 4-2 win and the ORCC Conference Tournament Championship (in addition to being regular season co-champs with Newark) when Newark failed to show up and forfeited the rematch.

Bill Moyers gets it

I found this link on Kent Siladi's blog. I've always admired Bill Moyers and in this clip he says a lot of what I've been thinking about this whole Jeremiah Wright/Barack Obama "controversy". Note, it is almost 6.5 minutes long and I think some of the most important parts are in the last half.

Erin's Softball Season, so far

With rain outs (not entirely unexpected in March/April), the season is starting slowly, but with the potential to pick up in a hurry. Out of the first 4 series, only 1 could be played and the OU-L 2008 team performed well enough. Their second opportunity took place on a day that I already felt a little guilty about because we (Sherry and I) had ticket to see the Reds at Great American BallPark. Okay, so they weren't great seats, but they were okay and we paid less than $40 for the 2 of us. So, although (as I said) I already felt a little guilty at blowing off Erin's softball games, I didn't let it become debilitating. Late in the game in Cincinnati I get a call from Erin who is at one of the Miami University branches (Hamilton or Middletown, it clearly doesn't matter too me much). It turns out without us parents there, she became reacquainted with her batting stroke including a double off the wall (that she swears should have been a home run). Late in the second game, Erin was coming around to score and what happened next is lost in mists of pain and pain relievers. As close as I can tell, Erin reached the plate (scored!), then possibly slid across the plate or digs in the soft earth at the end, resulting in Erin's ankle attempting to move in ways that are completely in opposition to the laws of nature. In other words, she tore something. Several days of trying to get members of the medical profession to speak English has resulted in the doctor stating he believes something is torn, but that it can't be made any better in the near term by surgery or whatever and that no more significant damage is likely, so she'd like to soldier on through the games against OU-Chillicothe on Sat (3 May), and Southern State on Sun (4 May), leading up to the actual ORCC tournaments (which the doctors have already verbally agreed to). It turns out, these OU-L Cougars may have a legit shot at the Conference Championship after splitting a double header today with OSU-Newark. The score was 4-3 on tie breakers in the first game (OU-L win) and 7-6 in the second (OSU-N won). The teams look to be well matched so whatever edge one team can get (like a powerhitting left-handed catcher getting back in the lineup) could be all the difference. She is moving more and more daily with relatively little discomfort (there will be some discomfort for a while, but she'll deal with that after the season). We shall wait and see.

It was a good day to fly

Yeah, I know, I owe a post (and pix) about Nicaragua, but I'm not blogging about that tonight. I just got done updating my web logbook, I updated the underlying database on Tuesday, but I use static web pages for this, so that I don't have to constantly query the backend databases. I went flying on Tuesday. I originally thought I'd just go around the pattern a few times and get the landings to remain current to rent at VTA, but when I actually got airborne, I felt the pull to just go fly a little. It was a little bumpier than I anticipated, some clouds were rolling in as I flew though no rain even that evening. You can see the logbook entry, so I won't bother recapping that here other than to note that I tracked radials to the APE VOR, practiced some steep turns and generally enjoyed my day.

I'm back and still alive

Yes, I made it back from Nicaragua, though the flight(s) home were more of an adventure than we had planned on. It was a great trip and I'll post about it (with pictures) sometime in the next few days. I've been pretty tired since I got home though, hence no new posts until now. Today is opening day at the Columbus Motor Speedway where my friend Beau Davis races. I hope the rain holds off long enough to get Beau's race in.

Update: The entire racing program was rained out last night, so opening night will be next Saturday night.

Trip to Nicaragua

Folks, my apologies for being rather slow with my posting of late. I will be even slower the next 2 weeks since I will be out of the country and without internet access (oh no, a fate worse than death). I will be in Nicaragua as part of the delegation from the Central Southeast Association of the Ohio Conference of the United Church of Christ to establish a partnership between our Association and Iglesia Mision Cristiana. Their annual meeting begins on Thursday, 27 March. A delegation from Nicaragua will be in the Columbus area at the end of April and beginning of May for the Spring Meeting of the Association. I've never been to Central America, so I'm excited about the trip (despite the fact that I don't speak any Spanish). I'm sure I'll have pictures and stories when I return.

Easter trivia

As you may or may not be aware, the date of Easter is set based on the lunar calendar. Specifically, Easter (at least in the west, Orthodox Easter is a different date), is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. Since the spring equinox occurs on 20 March, the earliest that Easter can occur is 22 March. The latest Easter can occur is 25 April. This year, Easter falls on 23 March. The last time that it occurred this early was 1913, so there are some people alive who have seen it this early before. The last time it fell on 22 March was 1818 (so no one alive now saw that one). The next time it will fall on 23 March is in 220 years (2228) and the next time it will fall on 22 March is 2285, so I don't expect to see it. :(

Jeremiah Wright and why the mainstream media doesn't get it

I started a rant about this earlier, but never actually posted it. In the meantime, some better writers than I have posted some good articles, so that I don't have to. This one points to several of the best, so I'll just point you there. Also, check out this story from The Christian Century from last May about Trinity UCC. Also, I thought this note from Rev. John Thomas was great. My last thought on the subject for today, I read another story today that I can't find a link to now (I'll update when I find it again) that made a good point. During the 80s and 90s, white preachers from the "Religious Right" could get away with saying how screwed up our country was and be invited to the White House. The article clearly said it better, I hope I can find it again tomorrow.

Walking in a winter wonderland

We've gotten about 12 or 13 inches of snow so far and it is still falling, so we're not going anywhere today. The snow is almost over Ellie's back. See more of the snow pictures here.

Christian Principles in an Election Year

I first saw this over on the UCC blog (the original from the National Council of Churches is here), but I thought it was good enough to repeat here.

Your church, your communion, and the National Council of Churches USA do not endorse any political party or any candidate.

Be that as it may, our Christian faith compels us to address the world through the lens of our relationship to God and to one another. Public discourse is enhanced as we engage civic leaders on the values and ethics affirmed by our faith. At the same time, religious liberty and the integrity of our democracy will be protected as candidates refrain from using faith-based organizations and institutions for partisan gain. We offer these 10 principles to those seeking to accept the responsibility that comes with holding public office.

1. War is contrary to the will of God. While the use of violent force may, at times, be a necessity of last resort, Christ pronounces his blessing on the peacemakers. We look for political leaders who will make peace with justice a top priority and who will actively seek nonviolent solutions to conflict.

2. God calls us to live in communities shaped by peace and cooperation. We reject policies that abandon large segments of our inner city and rural populations to hopelessness. We look for political leaders who will re-build our communities and bring an end to the cycles of violence and killing.

3. God created us for each other, and thus our security depends on the well being of our global neighbors. We look for political leaders for whom a foreign policy based on cooperation and global justice is an urgent concern.

4. God calls us to be advocates for those who are most vulnerable in our society. We look for political leaders who yearn for economic justice and who will seek to reduce the growing disparity between rich and poor.

5. Each human being is created in the image of God and is of infinite worth. We look for political leaders who actively promote racial justice and equal opportunity for everyone.

6. The earth belongs to God and is intrinsically good. We look for political leaders who recognize the earth's goodness, champion environmental justice, and uphold our responsibility to be stewards of God’s creation.

7. Christians have a biblical mandate to welcome strangers. We look for political leaders who will pursue fair immigration policies and speak out against xenophobia.

8. Those who follow Christ are called to heal the sick. We look for political leaders who will support adequate, affordable and accessible health care for all.

9. Because of the transforming power of God’s grace, all humans are called to be in right relationship with each other. We look for political leaders who seek a restorative, not retributive, approach to the criminal justice system and the individuals within it.

10. Providing enriched learning environments for all of God’s children is a moral imperative. We look for political leaders who advocate for equal educational opportunity and abundant funding for children’s services.

IRS v. UCC

You may have heard by now that the IRS is investigation the UCC (and threatening loss of tax exempt status) because of the speech that Sen. Obama gave at last year's General Synod in Hartford, CT. There has been plenty of coverage, so I won't rehash too much of it, but it still seems an awful lot like it is politically motivated (whether by more fundamentalist members of the UCC as has been rumored or by someone out to embarrass Sen. Obama remains unclear). The invitation (one of dozens of speakers including Bill Moyers and Lynn Redgrave) was to a UCC member to discuss how his faith affected his life in politics. The invitation was extended before he became a presidential candidate and the leaders at Synod went out of there way to make sure that there was no campaigning allowed and didn't come close to an endorsement, so it is hard to see how they could have violated the tax exempt status. Regardless, after 7 months (and coincidentally just before the Ohio primary?), the IRS makes it public that they are investigating. While they probably have an obligation to investigate to avoid the appearance of impropriety, the facts here would seem so overwhelming that they ought to quickly end the investigation by finding that the denomination did nothing wrong. The facts are so overwhelming that a prestigious Washington, DC law firm has agreed to take the case on for free and the lead is a former Solicitor General of the United States who (I believe) has never lost a case before the US Supreme Court. Sigh....

Some random thoughts

It has been a while since my last entry. I've just been busy. Erin's season ended with a heartbreaking 3 point loss to UC-Clermont in the ORCC semifinals. OU-L led most of the game (by as many as 10 in the second half), but some questionable officiating late and just not hitting some of their late shots cost them. It was a disappointing ending, but they had a pretty good season (18-14 or something like that)

Ohio got a lot of attention due to the tight Democratic race for President. I was actually kind of hoping that this past Tuesday would put an end to it until the conventions because, frankly, I'm tired of it. Alas, that was not to be, but at least I won't get all those automated calls in my answering machine (at least until Oct).

The Buckeyes men's basketball team got the win they needed to keep any hope of an NCAA bid alive when the upset #15 Purdue in overtime on Tuesday. Now they need to do the same to Michigan State and get a win in the Big Ten tournament or they'll be going to the NIT.

They're calling for the biggest storm since 1993 (I honestly don't remember a bad storm in 1993, but that's what they said on TV this evening) in the next 2 days. We've been getting hit with storms every Tuesday and Friday for the last 2 months, but they're talking about 5-12" out of this one. I don't mind, I love snow.

Thoughts from a middle-aged middle-class guy

I read two interesting posts on the God's Politics blog today that got me thinking and I wanted to put some of those thoughts down in writing, but I may not be able to do them justice in such a short time. The first post was this one by Tony Jones. I have to say that a great deal of what is coming from the "emergent" community resonates with me. Anyway, I agree that

Carried into the modern world by the French and American revolutions, individual rights became the foundation of liberal democracy, clearly the most robust and equitable of all systems of government yet conceived. And although it happened more slowly than many people would have liked, the concept of individual rights brought about great goods like ending government-backed slavery, women's suffrage, and the civil rights movement.

But as he points out, it goes further than that. We who call ourselves Christians are called to go further than be concerned with our own individual rights, we are called to be concerned with the individual rights of others. Part of me thinks that is easier for a middle-aged (or approaching it) middle-class guy like me who isn't worried about if I'll have anything to eat tonight or whether my kids have jackets and socks and underwear and a roof over their heads. On the other hand, I'm constantly reminded of those who have practically nothing who still seem to find it in their hearts to be more concerned about others than themselves. I wonder if I could do the same. I'd like to think so, but I honestly don't know. Sherry just got back from El Salvador and the stories she tells of the people they worked with there (and in Ukraine where she is going again in April) are gut-wrenching. The stories she tells of some of the people who went down to "help" are sickening (maybe I'll expound on that later). Anyway, I'll be interested to see what he says in part 2.

The second article was this one by Becky Garrison. She writes about discovering she is directly descended from Rev. Roger Williams who founded Rhode Island. He had some very strong views on the separation of church and state based on the very real persecution that he was fleeing. As far as her question about whether religious leaders should be endorsing candidates, they are human beings, too. As individuals they have every right to support the candidate of their choice, but as she points out, they must be careful not to become "political pawns." To borrow a phrase from the Quakers (see also this) religious leaders have an obligation to "speak truth to power." When they cease to be able to take their chosen leader to task for his/her failure to do the right thing (like torturing prisoners to name just one example), then they lose their moral authority. The other extreme though, and something that bothers me a little about this year's election, is the apparent requirement that candidates have to have some strongly held religious beliefs. While I don't think that is necessarily a detriment, it also certainly isn't a requirement to be able to govern and I'd rather the politicians be going to church for reasons other than political expediency.

OU-L women win 2nd round tournament game

Erin got a fair amount of playing time including the last 7+ minutes of the game. The OU-Lancaster women were the #3 seed, so they had a first round bye and didn't have to play on Saturday. This evening, they played OSU-Lima and dominated them pretty much from the start. On Saturday, they'll be playing the #2 seed, UC-Clermont. OU-L handed them their only conference loss of the season last month, so they'll probably be out for revenge, but if the OU-L women can get double-figure scoring out of 5 players again like they did tonight, it could be a good game and OU-L should have a good chance.

A good evening for flying

It was a pretty nice day today, so I called over to the airport and checked to see if they had a plane available. They did, I got to fly the G-1000 equipped Cessna 172 again. I took off late enough that I decided to make my landings night landings, so I'd be current again for carrying passengers at night. I've updated my various web pages that have my log book info linked from my web page. It was 1°C with light winds out of the southeast. I mostly practiced normal stuff, tracking a course, holding at the VOR, slow flight, steep turns, etc.

Search committee duties almost complete

Well, we're almost there. This morning we held a trial sermon at Grace UCC. After the service, the congregation voted overwhelmingly to extend a call to Rev. Ruth K. Farrell and she accepted. As chair of the search committee for the last 10 months, this is a huge relief to me and the rest of the committee and we're all excited about her coming to Grace.

The US has lost all moral authority

This makes me embarrassed to be an American. The CIA director just admitted in testimony before Congress that the CIA did waterboard some detainees (remember, they aren't prisoners). Now the White House press secretary says we could do it again. I'm waiting to hear John McCain to respond to this. As a former prisoner-of-war, I'd expect him to come out strongly against this. He, better than just about anyone on the national scene, should be able to tell you that (episodes of 24 not withstanding) when you torture prisoners, the information you get (I won't call it intelligence) is worth almost nothing. They'll tell you anything just to get you to stop. I could go on, but it was covered better than I could ever do it here and here. I especially liked the last paragraph of that first story:

Alexis de Tocqueville, the French historian, politicist, and observer of 19th century America, observed that "America is great because America is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." It is important for people of faith to impress upon Americans and our leaders in Washington that America's goodness, and hence its greatness, is seriously compromised by the practice of torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatments of detainees.

As the LA Times pointed out, Congress has twice passed laws requiring the military and the CIA to obey the Geneva Convention, but the White House (and the apparently spineless Attorney General) continue to be unable to see what the rest of the world knows...

Super Bowl

As you already know if you saw my post 2 weeks ago, I'm not at all unhappy with the outcome of the game that just ended. Given that a lot of folks weren't giving the Giants much of a chance (even as well as the Giants have played the last 4 or 5 games), I thought they played very well. I'll admit I was a bit nervous when the Patriots scored in the 4th quarter, but Eli Manning did a great job of leading the team down for that winning score. The defense really won it for NY though, they kept pressure on Brady the whole game and never let Moss or Malroney hurt them. 11 consecutive wins on the road (although the Super Bowl is a road game for both teams, so....), pretty impressive. So, the Manning brothers win consecutive Super Bowls. Congrats, Giants. Next year, it will be my Browns.

I like this guy

I was browsing some of the blogs I follow and today came across two posts that I enjoyed from a Disciples of Christ pastor in St. Joseph, MO. The first one was an interesting look at Lent from someone who didn't observe it growing up, and only discovered it in seminary. As a UCC PK, I've known what Lent was for as long as I can remember, but that doesn't mean that I always take it all that seriously (hey, I'm human), but this did get me to stop and think for a moment. This year, I'll try to be more serious about my observance of it. The second one was about the movie Juno which I haven't seen yet, but probably will. By most accounts it seems to be a good movie, though in the last day or two, all of the sudden I'm seeing arguments on whether the movie is "pro-life" or "pro-choice" or whether Hollywood is selling out to the "Religious Right" (as if they'd have each other), give me a break. I couldn't help but chuckle at this passage on abortion though (as it largely describes my feelings, though obvious the particulars are his -- and in case you're counting there are at least 5 hands there).

I feel more than a bit conflicted about it. On the one hand, I'm a card-carrying liberal with a lot of white male guilt, so the last thing I want to do is tell a woman what to do with her body. On the other hand, I'm a father, because two women felt very strongly that abortion was wrong for them and made an adoption plan instead. On the other hand, that was their choice and who am I to say what is the right choice for someone else when it comes to such a personal and painful issue? On the other hand, even if I remain unconvinced that life begins at conception or even the first trimester or even beyond that--I'm not sure when it begins, I still believe the potential for life is there. I've counseled couples who grieved over a miscarriage and that grief was real--we did not have a funeral but we did grieve together. On the other hand, so many anti-abortion people are just so arrogant and mean and ridiculous--you want to stop abortion but you're against sex education and birth control! What's up with that? I could go on.

Oh, and finally, I was also amused by a story in today's Columbus Dispatch about the problems being caused by the fact that St. Patrick's Day falls during Holy Week this year (drinking your green beer to excess doesn't exactly seem appropriate during Holy Week).

I'm alive again, and the blizzard (not) of '08

Well, at 23:00 last night the temperature was 54°F, at midnight it was 44°F, and at 07:00 this morning, it was 14°F. That drop reminds me so much of the blizzard of '78 (wow, was that really 30 years ago last week?). Alas, this time, we got the rain to start, but didn't get the snow. We did have wind gusts of about 60 mph this morning. Meanwhile, it could be worse, Matt is dealing with -26°F and a broken windshield this morning, Shane is still in Iraq, and, at least, I'm on solid food again (you don't really want to know what I've been through since Sunday morning, trust me on this one). On the other hand, if you're looking for a way to lose 8 pounds in 2 days, this one works, but I'd just as soon pass.

Dealing with Grief

My wife's uncle died last week. She flew down to North Carolina to attend the funeral and visit with several of her cousins. When I was traveling to NC on business a lot a few years ago, I always arranged to have dinner with him and the other 2 siblings (only 1 of the 3 is now living) that were still alive. I enjoyed the visits, but I hadn't seen him in several years. I've always had a hard time with how to respond to death. There are no words, I know that, but I want to say something. This week I came across a blog post that reminded me, we already had some instruction in how to deal with it. It was there in the book of Job all along. What is required of us is silence. Just to be there and be silent. I think I can handle that.

Shalom,
Jim

Cincinnati Reds Winter Caravan 2008

Well, it is 9°F/-13°C outside and I just got back from treating myself to an early birthday present. I didn't decide for sure until last night that I was going to go, but since I had never been to a Winter Caravan and they were right here (well, in Dublin up by my old apartment) the night before my birthday... Marty Brennaman, Wayne Krivsky, Brandon Phillips (he got the biggest applause when they finally walked in), Lee May, and Matt Maloney were present, Tom Browning joins this group tomorrow. They were 10 minutes late arriving and the whole thing didn't start until about 19:30 (it was scheduled from 19:00-21:00). When they did the Q&A, the very first question for Krivsky was "When are you going to lock up Brandon to a long-term contract?" Which, of course, caused the crowd to go nuts. His answer was, "Soon, I hope." The next biggest applause were when Marty introduced BP saying he "got screwed out of the Gold Glove." The team hasn't exactly decided how they will honor Joe Nuxhall this year beyond having his name on the jersey sleeve, but Junior had a great idea that I hope they will follow through on. It would be black jersey's with the players names and Joe's number for opening day, then auction them off on reds.com after the game with all the money going to Joe's foundation. That would be pretty cool. Once the autograph session got started, I actually got a few minutes to talk to Marty because Krivsky was being interviewed by some TV guys. We talked about Joe and the Big Red Machine. I didn't say much to Krivsky and I had to wait for Brandon to finish his TV interview and the line was long so I didn't get to talk to him much either. It was kind of cool meeting Lee May, but he was gone before I started following the Reds. I talked to Maloney for a while since he was getting ignored at the end of the line. He's looking forward to the opportunity to compete for a spot in the rotation next month. Only 23 days until pitchers and catchers have to report. I apologize for the quality of the pictures, but I forgot my camera, so these were taken with my cell phone.

Marty

Brandon Phillips

Matt Maloney

Martin Luther King, Jr Day

I was only 6 when Dr. King was assassinated, I remember the TV coverage very well. I knew of him, but I didn't really understand what he was all about at the time. It was in the mid-70s that I finally read about him and Gandhi and really came to appreciate what he stood for. Today is the holiday celebrating his birth/life/legacy and to remember that there is still work to be done. Pastor Bob Cornwall has two excellent stories up on his blog today. The first talks about a sermon Dr. King gave a month before his death entitled Unfulfilled Dreams. The second one discusses remarks that Barak Obama made yesterday at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (Dr. King's former church). I especially appreciate the second quoted passage. I am so sick of all the negativity and mud-slinging in politics today. All these politicians who claim to be Christian/religious don't seem to remember the Golden Rule, do they? I sometimes yearn for a parliamentary system where the legislature can be dissolved and new elections called in a matter of weeks rather than the current system here in the US where Congrescritters essentially have to start running for reelection before they are even sworn in and the Presidential race lasts 2 years. If more folks running for office felt the way Sen. Obama speaks here, perhaps so many of our young people wouldn't be disillusioned by the process. Ah, well. I hope you all had a good holiday.

Football

Sigh... Well, the Buckeyes didn't do it in the National Championship game (though they were really there a year early anyway) and the Browns couldn't pull it together against the Bengals to get into the playoffs. Then the Colts had a letdown last week and the Packers couldn't do it last night (I thoroughly enjoyed watching last week's game in the snow from the comfort of my nice warm, dry living room). I guess I'll have to root for the Giants in the Super Bowl, since the first team I really followed and rooted for was the 1972 Dolphins. Until a few years ago, I could have told you the entire starting lineup on both sides of the ball (that won't make a new friend of mine very happy, since she is a huge Patriots fan, but...). Go Giants, ruin New England's dreams of a perfect season!!!

Homelessnes

I came across this item today. A study in Dallas that determined that for less than the cost of 1 year's services to the homeless you could actually end the problem. I'm sure there are other issues that would need to be addressed (see the comments in the original post), but it does make one wonder.

The Middle East

I hesitated a long time before even starting to type this because I really don't plan for this blog to become too political, but with Shane still in Iraq, these things are on my mind. While I have some theological disagreements with Pastor Nathan, I find myself mostly in agreement with this sermon of his and I appreciated Deanna Mershed's response. It was also heartening to hear the Israeli Prime Minister last week admit that continuing to expand the "settlements" and otherwise not keeping their agreements wasn't helping the situation. I fear that it will take generations to rebuild the good will we, as a nation, enjoyed around the world as recently as the immediate aftermath of 2001-09-11. Sigh...

Search committee

As you may or not be aware, since last April I have chaired the Pastoral Search Committee for Grace UCC. I'm happy to report that it looks like the end is in sight. At last evening's meeting of the Church Council, we set the date of 10 Feb for a trial sermon and congregational meeting. The entire committee is quite excited about our candidate although I'll withhold details about her until the letter has gone out to the congregation other than to say that she is a 28-year-old single woman and, like me, also a PK. It has been a long and very busy year since we began the process in earnest, and I think the entire congregation will be happy to see the new pastor called (and installed).