Category: Politics, Religion & Money

Bible Tech

This week’s Boston Sunday Globe had an article about The Massachusetts Bible Society’s struggle to survive in the Internet Age:

The Massachusetts Bible Society, a 197-year-old organization that distributed Bibles to seamen during the war of 1812 and welcomed 19th-century immigrants to Boston’s docks with free Scriptures, has sold its downtown building, is about to close its wood-paneled bookstore, and is trying to reinvent itself for a world in which the latest theological treatises are just a mouse-click away.

If the link above to the full article doesn’t work (registration may be required) click here. Hey, look at that. Comic-books are mentioned…

… and a now-missing set of 1940s Bible stories published by the editors of DC Comics, has for years been housed at the Boston University School of Theology.

As I explained previously in this blog, during college I was an Evangelical Christian. Or at least I tried to be. Although I am no longer a church-goer, that doesn’t mean I don’t read the Bible. But these days I read it online.

Bible Link

Another previous post was about my new SanDisk flash drive with U3 software. Recently, a U3 version of a free program called Bible Link Basic became available. There are add-ons that cost money, but I’m a relatively casual Bible reader.

    Click here

Here’s a screen grab of the small toolbar that comes up when Bible Link is started. From the toolbar you can search the Internet or view local copies of two different versions of The Bible. Click the toolbar image to see a full-size copy of the Bible viewer. Additional translations are available for download at reasonable cost.

The reduced images of the viewer above show how you can navigate by dragging the numbers on the right; (1) for books, (2) for chapters, and (3) for verses. Another neat feature is you can either read just the New American Standard or King James version, or you can view both, one above the other.

So here already is another nifty U3 application for flash drives. I never quite saw the need for a PDA, but this approach to portable applications and data is making a convert of me.

PD is not PC

The model for this blog is Mark Evanier’s News from ME. Ain’t no secret or shame in that. Swipe from your superiors, I say. Evanier is a successful writer of books, cartoons, comic-books and TV shows and, as Randy Newman sang, he loves L.A.

By clicking here you will see that Mark has mixed feelings about this TV ad being broadcast in Missouri, featuring Parkinson’s Disease sufferer Michael J. Fox.


If the area above is blank, blame YouTube™!

MJ Fox isn’t asking for money here, he’s asking for votes. And he’s right — sometimes the late Tip O’Neill’s maxim that "all politics is local" is only partly true.

Right is Wronged


Click picture to watch video.

In high school I was a Lutheran, and in college I became an Evangelical Christian.  Ultimately, I rejected that particular expression of faith, but I still have friends who remain Evangelical Christians, and I respect them very much.

I feel my former belief gives me some insight into aspects of the current state of Republican politics.  George Bush is no born-again Christian.  He has claimed to be, but he isn’t.

One True Believer who is apparently now disillusioned with Bush is David Kuo.  He was on The Colbert Report last night.  I haven’t watched this yet.  I just wanted to get it posted before bedtime.  I’ll add a comment if he says anything that hits a nerve.

She said, he says…

Today, the news is that George Bush wants the PM of Iraq to know he has all the time he needs to build a political consensus and quell domestic violence.

Bush Reassures Iraqi That There Is No Timetable for Withdrawal

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: October 17, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 — President Bush reassured Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq on Monday that he would not set a timetable for withdrawal of American troops and would continue to support the prime minister, despite recent reports that military officials and some Republican lawmakers were dissatisfied with the Iraqi government’s performance.

Gosh, now I wonder where the idea could possibly have come from that the Bush administration is getting frustrated and might impose some sort of time constraint?

Rice makes unannounced visit to Baghdad

Secretary of state says Iraqi leaders have limited time to settle differences

Updated: 2:56 p.m. ET Oct 5, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, making an election-season visit to Iraq, said Thursday that its leaders have limited time to settle political differences spurring sectarian and insurgent violence.

We’ve got to get out of there.  Now.  It would be far cheaper and safer to simply give Iraq the money it needs to rebuild.  Send the National Guard home where it belongs, let half of the regular Army rest, and redeploy the other half to Afghanistan.  I’m no military strategist, but this is obvious.

Even SteVphen


Click picture to watch YouTube™ video

I confess to being late coming to the fold of Stephen Colbert fans.  It was an article in Newsweek early this year that brought him to my attention.

Before getting his own show, Colbert was, of course, on The Daily Show.  Steve Carell (who, by coincidence, graduated from the same high school that I did in Massachusetts*) was also on the show, but he left to join the cast of The Office.

Lately Jon Stewart, perhaps feeling nostalgic for the good old days, has been running clips of Steven and Stephen in action together.  Click the picture to watch.  Some of this is outright hilarious comedic acting.

*Acton-Boxborough Regional High School