This is really freaky--you can see out, but not in. Theoretically. But would I fully believe that nobody could see in? I'm not sure. Definitely not for the faint of heart or hyper-modest.

Posted at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I like Sarah Palin. A lot. She'll come under fire for lack of experience and gravitas (could she go toe-to-toe with Putin?), but I think she'll do fine. She's good people, and pretty spunky from the sounds of it.

Four good candidates. For me, it's a win-win election. I have definite views about what the country needs right now and where we need to go. For that, I lean rather strongly toward Obama. I have concerns about him, but more concerns about McCain and areas in which his views don't represent where I feel we need to go. If we hadn't just undergone eight years of George Bush's wrecking ball, with debris scattered everywhere, I would easily vote for McCain.

But they're both good men. To me, there's no need to demonize any of the four candidates, and I hope (with little real hope) that this campaign can stay civil. They're all good people, and I'll probably be happy whichever way it goes. (Cindy McCain would make the best First Lady.)

Two months to go. Lots could happen. One of the biggest McCain negatives, for me, is that he's using a Karl Rove disciple to run his campaign, and we're seeing Rovish tactics. This turns my stomach, and I hate seeing McCain diminish himself this way. If Obama bows to similar tactics, I'll be similarly disappointed.

But right now, I want to, for the most part, rejoice knowing that whoever wins, the country will be better off.

Posted at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Watching Morning Joe right now. The press is going nuts trying to figure out who McCain's VP will be--with the announcement only two hours away. They keep ruling out people--Pawlenty and Romney, for sure--and keep putting people back into play.

I say: Tom Ridge. Yes, he'll anger the pro-life base. But I've thought Ridge ever since the Rick Warren thing, when McCain said, "My administration will have pro-life policies." Doesn't mean everyone will be pro-life personally. But the policies they put forth will be pro-life.

Or at least, that's what McCain is saying in the interests of getting elected. If elected, I wouldn't expect exclusively pro-life policies.

I just think McCain will go with someone he likes and can get along with, and by all accounts, that is Ridge.

Posted at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Great speech, as expected, by Barack Obama. But I want to talk about the post-speech pundit coverage.

Keith Olberman has to go. He is so utterly, profoundly partisan. He loves--absolutely loves--to hear himself talk, and he does wax with considerable poeticness. He's an articulate guy. But tonight, I heard him practically giving political speeches in favor of Obama. He gushed like a geyser. I kept switching back to Fox News, the bastion of Republicanism, and found far more objective, balanced coverage. And for me to say that is quite an admission.

Olberman has to go. NBC is flush with great journalists--Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, David Gregory, Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell. Why, of why, do they feel compelled to put their most partisan voice, Olberman, as anchor of their political coverage? It just amazes me. Because on all other fronts, MSNBC has the best political coverage, in my book.

CNN just doesn't have the stable of heavyweights. And although I consider Wolf Blitzer to be fair and objective, I just can't listen to him. The beard and voice combine in some insidious way to drive me nuts.

Olberman has to go. I like his show--he's a very, very good show host. It's a creative, funny, fun show. But please, don't let him out of that cage.

Posted at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ate at McDonald's today. In my quest to place my order ASAP, I deftly weaved back and forth between the lunchtime lines, picking my spots and seizing openings. However, it didn't seem like I was gaining any ground.

Finally, people cleared out and I realized: I was the only person still in line. Everybody else, including people who arrived after me, had placed their orders and left.

That, my friends, is the very definition of servanthood.

Posted at 01:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So now we've got a new furnace, heat pump, humidifier, and water heater. The shower sputtered rusty water for a few seconds this morning.

A green-lit touchpad thermostat now hangs on our wall. It has all kinds of options. I believe I can adjust the new humidifier to make it rain inside. I'm wondering what happens when, some morning, it is displaying a Green Screen of Death. Will I need to reboot the house?

Posted at 07:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This morning, sparks flew on MSNBC's Morning Joe when David Shuster, in kind of sideways manner, told host Joe Scarborough that he was being unduly biased in favor of John McCain. You don't come on somebody else's show and accuse him of something. Joe basically tore Shuster apart. It was not pretty.

Just now, I watched Chris Matthews talk condescendingly toward his co-anchor, Keith Olberman, and Olberman grimaced over it. I've seen this one coming for a long time. MSNBC is putting Olberman front and center, even though he's a lightweight compared to Matthews (staffer in the US Senate, speechwriter in the Carter administration, six years as an aide to Tip O'Neill, and 15 years of print journalism for the San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle).

If I were Matthews, I'd be a bit perturbed at being forced to play second fiddle to Olberman, a sportscaster who was re-engineered into a political pundit. Matthews brings a tremendous sense of history to politics. Olberman is highly articulate, funny, and quick on his feet--but he's a lightweight. And an extremely partisan lightweight.

So as I said, to me, it was only a matter of time before Matthews had enough letting a sportcaster anchor MSNBC's political coverage.

Posted at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today, as I write, two guys are installing a new furnace, humidifier, heat pump, and water heater at our house--the whole shebang. Just did the roof a couple weeks ago. Molly and Jordi are locked in the bedroom.

A banner year, indeed, for the Dennie Household finances. Bring me your tired, your poor, your endless homeowner bills yearning to be paid.

Posted at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As the Olympics comes to a close--a true "coming out" event for China--I thought I'd share some information from Fareed Zakaria's superb book The Post-American World, which I mentioned in an earlier post. He has lengthy chapters on China and India. Here are tidbits from the China chapter.

• Today, China exports more in a single day than it exported in all of 1978.
• Jeffrey Sachs: "China is the most successful development story in world history."
• The average Chinese person's income has increased nearly sevenfold.
• During the last 30 years, China has moved 40 million people out of poverty, "the largest reduction that has taken place anywhere, anytime."
• The 20 fastest-growing cities in the world are all in China.
• China imports seven times more stuff from the United States than it did 15 years ago.
• "China will not replace the United States as the world's superpower. It is unlikely to surpass it on any dimension--military, political or economic--for decades, let alone have dominance in all areas. But on issue after issue, it has become the second-most-important country in the world."
• Though China is an authoritarian government, the central government doesn't have nearly as much control over the rest of China as outsiders think.
• "Decentralized development is now the defining reality of economic and increasingly political life in China....This problem of spiraling decentralization will be China's greatest challenge."
• An authoritarian government can remain impervious to public opinion. One advantage is that the government can focus on the long-term, rather than the immediate cries of constituents. "While it doesn't do everything right, it makes many decisions that are smart and far-sighted."
• "State control is often at odds with openness, honesty, and efficiency."
• "Every day, tens of thousands of people are moving from villages to cities, from farms to factories, from west to east, at a pace never before seen in history. They are not just moving geographically; they are leaving behind family, class, and history....The Chinese state is struggling to keep up with this social upheaval."
• "The Communist Party of China--the party of workers and peasants--is actually one of the most elite organizations in the world. It is composed of 3 million largely urban educated men and women, a group that is thoroughly unrepresentative of the vast peasant society that it leads."
• "The Communist Party spends an enormous amount of time and energy worrying about social stability and popular unrest."
• "With the exception of anything related to Taiwan, Beijing tends to avoid picking a fight with other governments. The focus remains on growth."
• In 2007, Chinese TV aired a 12-part series called "The Rise of the Great Nations." Zakaria says it was thoughtful, intelligent, and "mostly accurate and balanced," as it covered the rise of nine powers, including Portugal, Spain, Britain, the Soviet Union, and the US. "There are startling admissions, including considerable praise of the US and British systems of representative government for their ability to bring freedom, legitimacy, and political stability to their countries. The basic message of the series is that a nation's path to greatness lies in its economic prowess, and that militarism, empire, and aggression lead to a dead end....The path to power is through markets, not empires."
• "When asked about issues like human rights, some younger Chinese officials will admit that...they see these as luxuries that they cannot afford."
• East Asians do not believe that the world has a Creator who laid down a set of abstract moral laws that must be followed."
• "Confucianism is simply not a religion. Confucius was a teacher, not a prophet or holy man in any sense. His writings...are strikingly nonreligious. He explicitly warns against thinking about the divine, instead setting out rules for acquiring knowledge, behaving ethically, maintaining social stability, and creating a well-ordered civilization. His work has more in common with the writings of Enlightenment philosophers than with religious tracts."
• While Christian and Islamic countries want to spread their views and convert people to their faiths, China has no such ambitions. "Simply being China and becoming a world power in a sense fulfills its historical purpose. It doesn't need to spread anything to anyone to vindicate itself."
• China wants to rise peacefully, maintaining friendly relations with other countries and not interfering in other countries. But "The problem is size. China operates on so large a scale that it can't help changing the nature of the game."
• China buys 65% of Sudan's oil exports.
• China has abandoned communism, and has replaced it with nationalism, which is now the glue keeping China together.
• "George W. Bush is probably the most ideologically hostile president ever to handle US-China relations....But despite all of this, Bush has repeatedly sided with Beijing over Taiwan and warned Taiwan not to attempt secession....On the issue is cares about,Bush has been its ally."
• While China is expanding its military, it's still far behind the US. We have 12 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. China is still working on its first. We have 9000 nuclear warheads and 5000 strategic warheads; China has 20 "small and cumbersome" nuclear missiles that could reach US shores.
• Writes China expert Joshua Ramo: "Rather than building US-style power, bristling with arms and intolerant of others' world views, China's emerging power is based on...the strength of their economic system and their rigid defense of ...national sovereignty....The goal for China is not conflict, but the avoidance of conflict. True success in strategic issues involves manipulating a situation so effectively that the outcome is inevitably in favor of Chinese interests."

Posted at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's incredibly hot and humid, and our air conditioning isn't working. Got a guy coming Monday morning, but by then, it'll probably have cooled off. We've got fans going like crazy, but it's not helping. Oh, the travails of 21st century American life. Surely, with such suffering on my part, the apocalypse is near.

Posted at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The firemen are out collecting money for muscular dystrophy. I put a dollar in a boot yesterday, and will no doubt fork over more money. Pam can never resist giving to the fireman, and she transferred that to me.

It's a lot different from the police, who call annually about their benevolent fund.

• They call, rather than stand in the street under the hot sun.
• It's not real policemen--just a firm hired to do their work.They don't tell you that.
• The fundraising firm takes a huge percentage of the donations.

Posted at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Time magazine's August 18 cover story on Rick Warren was good. However, some headline-writing editor definitely had a one-track mind, wanting to portray Warren as power-hungry.

• The cover described Warren as "America's most powerful religious leader."
• The article was actually titled "The Global Ambition of Rick Warren."
• A sidebar about three Warren ministries was labeled "How to Build an Empire."

The bloggers were amazed watching Warren. Here's this guy who planted what is now a 23,000 member church, and he's sitting in seminars scribbling notes like crazy, soaking up what he's hearing. He hung around with the other attendees, and then cancelled and rescheduled a flight home so he could spend more time with some church planters who wanted to talk to him.

There's no power trip in Warren. But Time evidently wants him to be Falwell or Dobson.

Posted at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've been following a Newsweek blog called "Beijing Beat," which is focused on the Olympics. The two lead writers are Melinda Liu, an acclaimed American journalist who has specialized on China; and Mark Starr, another excellent writer.

On August 13, a writer named Mary Hennock posted an item about Christian activists called "Protestors Go Underground as Police Clamp Down." Curiously, the post has been removed from the blog. However, I still had it in my RSS reader. I decided to print it here.

I spent much of Wednesday trying to speak to Hua Huiqi, a Beijing-based Christian activist who has disappeared since being arrested on his way to church on Sunday Aug 10. It was the same church President Bush was planning to attend (to show his support for religious freedom in China), and the police seemed to think that Hua's presence was a bad idea.

They nabbed Hua and his elder brother Hua Huilin as they cycled towards the church around 6:00 A.M. and took them to a police post. Hua skipped custody sometime around midday, when he noticed his captors had dozed off, according to the letter he sent to Human Rights in China on Monday.

So as not to keep in you in suspense, let me tell you now that I didn't track down Hua, and I can well understand why he might want to stay low. The phone was cut three times during our conversation with the pastor's elder brother Hua Huilin, often an indication that the line is being monitored. Hua Huilin is also now on the run, afraid to go home because "there's a lot of police in front of my house." Although he's not a Christian, he accompanied his brother to Kuanjie Protestant church because he couldn't dissuade him and wanted to protect him. Before the two were put in separate rooms at the police post, he heard the police threaten to break Pastor Hua's legs. He doesn't know where his brother is now, only that he's safe and is being cared for by fellow-Christians, he says.

Other Christian activists are under de facto house arrest. For instance, novelist Yu Jie told us that police are waiting outside his house and chauffeur him everywhere. "From July 31...I'm not allowed to go by taxi or drive my own car," he said.

Human Rights Watch estimates about 30 people are under some kind of house arrest in Beijing--Yu Jie reckons about 10 are Christians. Most of them are also involved in other kinds of activism such as defending homeowners facing eviction by developers, say Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based Asia researcher with Human Rights Watch. Repression is being driven by "an attempt to put a choke-hold on information" rather than a political clampdown based on fear of any particular groups of dissidents, he says. 

Christian lawyer Li Baiguang says small group worship in "house churches" outside the constraints of the officially-registered Three Self Church is still possible, though people knock on the door to complain. "[They] say they're neighbors but I don't think they are," he says. Some of the bigger "house churches" have been closed down, including Pastor Hua's, but most survive. Li says he is followed when he travels outside Beijing, and his law firm, Beijing City Common Trust, which handles anti-corruption cases, has had two recent visits from local officials querying his business license.

Before the Games began, there was much speculation about dramatic protests for many causes. So far, protests have been small-scale and almost all have been carried out by foreigners. "I think the Chinese government has succeeded very well in silencing not only well-known dissidents and activists but also NGO activists and academics who are outspoken, and lawyers, and basically pretty much everyone in addition to the usual suspects," says Bequelin.

One sign of China's effectiveness in stifling any protest movement is the hoopla over a brief kerfuffle outside the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, just south of the Olympic Green, and the 20-minute detention of a British journalist. John Ray of Independent Television News (ITN) was dragged along the ground, pushed in a van, and emerged with a bruised hand. It's generated plentiful media coverage, and certainly breaches the Chinese government's pledge to allow foreign journalists to report freely. The Foreign Correspondents' Club of China has rightly objected. But the amount of attention to Ray's case is also a reflection of the fact that here at last was someone—-a foreign broadcaster—-willing and able to speak freely about being man-handled by police.

Ray was reporting on a protest by Students For a Free Tibet, who're proving to be the most active and best-organized opposition here, pulling off a stunt most days, with subsequent deportations. They staged a die-in on Tiananmen Square, and the five people involved were deported; a student displayed the Tibetan Snow Lion flag ringside at the equestrian events in Hong Kong and was carried off, and on Wednesday they scored their highest number of arrests so far—-eight-—by the simple tactic of handcuffing themselves together. Small groups of American and Dutch Christians have held protests on Tiananmen Square. The man who claims to have daubed hotel rooms with free speech slogans has announced he is in hiding in Beijing—-somewhat voluntarily, I feel—-and will give himself up on Aug 24.

The much-anticipated protest movement hasn't really materialized, and it doesn't look likely to. Frustrated foreign journalists on Wednesday were left fencing with International Olympic Committee (IOC) in its daily press conference about whether it has proved a willing dupe on China's promises to improve human rights. The questions are justified. "This is a very, very large police effort to keep people away [from Beijing] and one that is actually working very well," says Bequelin.

Posted at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For all of you who like to read Brian McLaren's books about postmodernism and the church (Curt and Paula--I'm talking about you), you may be interested in this little ad in support of Barak Obama.

Posted at 07:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been greatly enjoying the Olympics. Some thoughts.

• The Chinese are doing a spectacular job. Still an authoritarian, politically repressive country. But give 'em credit for putting on a great show for the world.
• I like NBC's coverage. They're showing lots of different sports, rather than obsessing over the popular gymnastics like they've done in the past.
• Still waiting to see table tennis.
• Usain Bolt is pretty amazing.
• Watched some of USA Basketball's trouncing of Spain on Saturday, but that's all I've seen. Thirsty for more.
• Really enjoying women's beach volleyball. Walsh and Traynor are cruising.
• The trampoline is boring.
• When's synchronized swimming?
• Team handball is a really strange sport.
• I like the version of "The Star Spangled Banner" recorded for Olympics medal ceremonies.
• Haven't seen any boxing yet. I assume it's going on.
• Saw some trap-shooting last week, and found it interesting.
• Watching while on the treadmill at the YMCA makes time fly.

Posted at 08:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

• The commentators on three networks all thought McCain did better. I just didn't see it that way.
• I don't like thinking of one person "winning" this event. They both did well, but in different ways.
• McCain was very black and white. I preferred Obama's thoughtful gray. We've had eight horrible years of black and white.
• I preferred Obama's style of focusing on Rick Warren, speaking and responding to him. I was a bit off-put by the way McCain focused on the crowd. Seemed too much like campaigning.
• McCain did a lot better than I expected.
• Obama came across--to me--as very thoughtful, nuanced, big-picturish, and authentic. That appealed to me.
• The talking-head commentators seemed to be passing judgment on the basis of totally different criteria than I was using.
• Excellent questions, Rick. And you kept control of two guys who like to talk.
• I thought McCain answered some questions better (and certainly had more compelling personal stories), but in general, I was drawn more to Obama's answers.
• I pretty much agreed with everything both guys said. Don't know what that means.

Posted at 12:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As previously noted, Mom and I played "Mansion Over the Hilltop" last Sunday on our accordions. The song title comes from the King James version of John 14:2: "In my father's house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you." The American Standard Version also talks about mansions.

But Jesus told a different story to other translators:

• NIV: "In my father's house are many rooms."
• New American Standard: "In My Father's house are many dwelling places."
• The Message: "There is plenty of room for you in my Father's home."
• New Living: "There is more than enough room in my Father’s home."
• CEV: "There are many rooms in my Father's house."

• Does it have a bathroom? Is one needed? If so, where does the waste go? And more importantly: Is there reading material?
• Is there a kitchen? Do we need to eat? (If we have a kitchen, I guess we need a bathroom.)
• Do we even need bedrooms in heaven? Do we sleep there?
• What do we put in the closets?
• What do we do in the mansion? If we don't sleep, eat, or watch TV--why hang out there, rather than in God's presence?
• Does each individual have a mansion, or are mansions distributed on a family basis?
• Will Pam and I share a mansion? What if I die and Pam remarries? Will both husbands occupy the mansion with her?
• Is there a garage? A yard? Curtains on windows? Skylights?
• Are there locks on the doors?
• Does each person who dies in infancy get a mansion? (Or each unborn child, assuming life begins at conception?)

Heaven will, of course, be totally different from anything we can imagine. Even different from what Jesus could imagine? Hmmm. Jesus knew he was divine, but I'm guessing he didn't have "memories" of heaven. He grew up as a human, subject to all those limitations. I'm sure the reality of heaven was far more fathomable to Jesus than it is to me, yet still largely unfathomable, because he--Jesus the man--hadn't been to heaven.

I realize I could be unwittingly committing all kinds of heresies and incredibly shoddy theology. So I'm a dufus.

Posted at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I love this.

At a cheerleader camp at the University of Texas, 26 cheerleaders, ages 14-17, decided to see how many girls could squeeze into an elevator. The number was 26--the number of cheerleaders, and the number of minutes they were stuck inside. The elevator descended from the fourth floor to the first, but the doors refused to open.

There was panic. One girl fainted, and two others received medical attention. A few cell phones wriggled free and they called for help.

An unsympathetic police spokeswoman, who was probably never a cheerleader, said, "They're lucky that's all that happened....There are signs everywhere: No more than 15 people or 3000 pounds."

As a high schooler who was never part of the "in" crowd, certainly never on any cheerleader's attention list--even at age 51, this story infests me with totally juvenile glee.

Posted at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dad preached at Anchor today. He pastored the church from 1995-1998, leading the people to accept the idea of a restart, which occurred in October 1998 (so we're coming up on our 10th anniversary). He and Mom have attended services at Anchor several times over the years, but this is the first time Dad has preached. Pastor Tim's on vacation, having just completed (on Friday) his last class at Trinity toward his MDiv.

Mom and I played our accordions together, a duet of "Mansion Over the Hilltop." Now, I hadn't played my accordion in a couple years. Shame on me. But "Mansion" is easy. I can get disoriented in the black buttons, but with "Mansion" you only use three of them, and they sit next to each other. Mom and I practiced Saturday night, and it went great. Easy.

Not quite so easy this morning in church.

First, I put my arms through the accordion straps and lifted it onto my shoulders. But Patty, a few rows back, was pointing at something. Turns out the strap was caught around the front of the accordion. If I had started playing, the strap would have been holding several keys down, making a horrible sound. So I needed to remove the accordion and start over. I felt silly.

I had already undone the clasps holding the bellows together, so as I hoisted it up again, it was making noise. "What are you doing?" Mom asked.

Then the strap got caught again, and I had to undo it. Mom was all ready to go, but by this time, I was totally flustered.

As soon as I had the accordion situation, Mom started off. But I still needed to find where to put my fingers. I couldn't locate the "C" black button, and, like a dork, had to bend the accordion out to physically look at it. Then my right hand wasn't sure it was on the proper keys (it wasn't). With an accordion, you can't really see what you're doing.

So while Mom was charging ahead, doing a marvelous job, I was fumbling around, hitting the wrong buttons and wrong keys in a two-handed train wreck, and forgetting to open and close the bellows. Can you spell "I feel stupid and highly conspicuous"?

Finally, Mom paused and said, "Do you want to start over?"

Indeed I did. This time I got my fingers in the right places, and it went fairly well. We had planned to play two verses. After one verse, Mom said, "Do you want to go again?" And I said yes. Finally, I actually played the song right.

The moral of the story is two-fold:

• Don't NOT do something for two years, and think you can ace it, you foolish prima dona.
• Don't put yourself in a situation where Mom can totally show you up.

Posted at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A book I can't recommend highly enough is Fareed Zakaria's The Post American World. I love big-picture books, ones which don't focus just on what's happening in the United States, but put the US in a global context.

With that title, your instinct as a nationalistic and maybe thin-skinned American is to think, "Oh, he's knocking America, saying we're a nation in decline."

Zakaria, a Newsweek writer, answers that assumption in the first sentence: "This is a book not about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else."

I hate to disappoint the doomsdayers who think the world's going down the toilet, and that's why the Second Coming will occur next Friday. But the reality is, the world is experiencing a time of unprecedented economic prosperity and of peace.

• We see the prosperity most noticeably in China and India, where hundreds of millions of people are rising out of poverty. But you also see "the rise of the rest" in Brazil and other parts of South America, in Russia, in some of the Eastern European countries, in the Muslim countries (which are beginning to invest in infrastructure for their countries, instead of just Swiss bank accounts for Muslim princeling playboys), and in various other countries here and there (like Vietnam).
• Wars, particularly wars among major countries, are becoming a thing of the past. The threat of terrorism remains on our minds, but in most of the world, peace reigns. Has the world ever been this peaceful?

Zakaria (an immigrant from India who is now a US citizen) says the United States will continue being the strongest economy and the only superpower for many years. But no longer will we call all the shots.

In the years ahead, global economics, not politics, will rule the day. Central planning, the centerpiece of communism, has been thoroughly discredited. Capitalism (with or without democracy) is now the way to organize a country's economy.

It's a wonderful, big-picture book. And he gives some great insights into why America has been so strong, and why it will remain so. I'll be writing more about this book.

Posted at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm really excited about the Olympics. Only comes around every four years, and there's always plenty of drama and the unfolding of neat stories.

• Right now, I'm watching Kerri Walsh and Misty May in beach volleyball.
• Had men's gymnastics earlier, but I didn't care for it, so mainly read and book and sat outside while Jordi was in the grass.
• Actually enjoyed women's fencing earlier in the day (not sure I'd ever seen fencing before).
• Cycling doesn't work on TV, unless it's one of those small oval tracks.
• I generally dislike soccer--scoring so rarely happens. I like a sport where things happen. But I enjoyed watching some soccer earlier today.
• Saw that Chinese girl win a gold in weight-lifting. Pretty impressive.
• Of course, I love Olympic basketball.

The opening ceremonies were pretty impressive. But I was mainly interested--as I always am--in how the flame is lit. The Chinese did it pretty cool. But nothing beats that arrow shot in Barcelona. That's still the best.

Posted at 09:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Canadian pitcher Chris Reitsma about Beijing's pollution: "You're watching batting practice in the outfield and you can't see the ball because it's the same color as the sky."

Newsweek reporter Melinda Liu describes the skies as "the color of bed sheets that have been slept in too many times."

Posted at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You've seen this in movies and TV shows. Someone is having a medical attack of some kind--heart, anxiety, whatever. With much over-the-top dramatic fumbling, the person finds and opens a pill bottle, tosses the pill open-palmed into his mouth, throws in some water, and swallows. Immediately swallows. And life is good.

I couldn't do that. Probably not even if my life depended on it. I would die with the pills and water in my mouth.

I take two pills every morning. I pop them into my mouth, take a swig of water...and then wallow them around until the pills are on the verge of dissolving. Finally, after several false starts, all of my throat muscles convene a meeting and decide, "Okay, let's do this. All together now...1, 2, 3...swallow!" And down go the pills. Or what's left of them.

Not too many years ago, I couldn't swallow a pill without looking in a mirror. I would set the pill on the back of my tongue, drink some water, and eventually force the thing down.

Turns out my brother Rick has the exact same malady (as was unearthed when we got together over Memorial Day). And I'm wondering how many untold millions of people, like me, suffer from the same Protracted Swallowing Syndrome? Is anybody working to solve this?

Posted at 07:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are three more novels I've read recently.

The Last Good Kiss, by James Crumley. This Black Lizard book sat on my shelf for a long time. Didn't know what I was missing. Another roman noir book. The book takes a leisurely, meandering pace, with several seemingly unrelated things going on. At times you think everything's resolved and the book can end now. Finally, about 80% of the way through, things collide in a way I wasn't expecting. Well done. But the protagonist is a bit too far on the lacking-in-morals side for me. Probably won't read any more.

School Days, by Robert Parker. A quick read, like most Spencer novels--a couple days, tops. I wasn't sure how this one would end. I did some guessing, and came pretty close, but still enough wiggle room for surprises. Hawk made no appearance in this book, and Susan was pretty much absent, but Pearl the Wonderdog was ever present. Now I'm all caught up with the Spencer series (except for the latest hardback).

The Flower Net, by Lisa See. This author has a series of mysteries set in China. They have gorgeous covers. Every time I was in a bookstore, I was drawn to them. Finally bought "The Flower Net," the first in the series. Set mostly in China, with the middle section in Los Angeles. Lots of background, lots of Chinese flavor. It was a little much at first, and I wanted the plot to move along faster, but once I got into the rhythm, it was good. Not great.

Posted at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had thought John McCain had the potential to be the kind of transforming figure in politics that I've yearned for. I was a huge fan. But I'm an objective person, too. And McCain's continual petty and usually baseless attacks on Obama (amplified joyfully by Rush and FoxNews) convince me that he's just more of the same. Deeply disappointing.

I believe Obama, too, has the potential to be a transforming political figure, despite his youth and inexperience, and he has done nothing to turn me away. I desperately long for someone who can, as much as possible, transcend normal politics. It may be decades before another such person comes along.

The Washington Post ran a thorough article about the flap over visiting the troops in Germany, debunking the (disappointing) lies and innuendoes thrown around by McCain & Co.

Posted at 03:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the blogs I read regularly is by Perry Noble, pastor of Newspring Church, one of the fastest-growing in the country. The last few days, he's been talking about obesity, and of his own battles with weight. Today he wrote this:

I remember having a conversation with a guy once who asked me, “What is the first step in losing weight” and I told him, “You’ve got to get pissed, REALLY pissed!”

He looked at me, sort of stunned, so I continued.

“You’ve got to get pissed at yourself. You literally have to look in the mirror and say, You did this...but I’m coming after you...and this is going to be the end.”

Is that what it takes for some churches to change? They lose people and decline, until the remnant say, "Enough! We've been sticking to our ways long enough, and it ain't working. Unless we do something different, we'll die."

Posted at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Senator Thad Cochran (Republican-Mississippi) earlier this year said of John McCain: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine...He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."

Posted at 02:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CNN's website has an excellent article on racial segregation in churches. It examined a lot of the nitty-gritty dynamics in churches with multiple ethnic groups, and how it can be like tip-toeing through a minefield as you try not to offend anyone.

The article mentions how black churches can prefer to remain mostly black, just as white churches may prefer to remain white. It mentioned how some sensitive black preachers have toned down their preaching style, knowing that whites sometimes cringe under traditional too-fiery preaching. Very interesting stuff.

My denomination, in the US, is close to lilly white. Until a few years ago (when they pulled out over petty disagreements), we had white churches in California that shared buildings with Hispanic church plants. The Hispanics were growing, the whites shrinking. But the whites pulled shenanigans to hold onto their power. It was sad, some of the stories I heard.

Posted at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Swerve blog, from Lifechurch.tv, has a piece on "The Numbness of Frequency," by staffer Sam Roberts. Robert says that when you continually xpose people to the same thing in the same way, they become numb to it.

At work, I send email updates to our constituency on an as-needed basis--that is, whenever there's somethign to tell them. I know that if I sent an email every Tuesday, week after week, they would become numb to it. "Oh, another email from Steve. Must be Tuesday." I've sent emails on consecutive days, and I've gone three or four weeks without sending one. I don't want to send emails just to send them. I want people to know that if I send something, it's because there's something worth reading.

Church services often follow the same predictable pattern. We do minor tweaks at Anchor, nothing drastic--just rearrange the same ol' elements. But I think of some liturgical churches where the service order is firmly institutionalized. "Time for our second hymn. It must be 11:15." I imagine it's very easy to become numb in churches like that.

On the worship team, we can become numb to our own songs, doing them the same way every time. With one song this week, we tried changing the ending. In practice, we experimented with a progression of solos, but clearly saw a train wreck in the making, so we simplified it to a mere drumb solo. At least it was something different. People noticed.

Posted at 08:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I need to get caught up on some novels I've read during the past couple weeks. Here are three.

Under the Skin, by James Carlos Blake. I stumbled across this book in Hyde Brothers used bookstore here in Fort Wayne. It was excellent. The book is in the roman noir genre, where the "good guys" are part of, or at least on the fringes of, the criminal element. This was a fabulous book. I'll gobble up any other books I find by Blake (got one more on my shelf right now).

Severance Package, by Duane Swierczynski. This was an unusual book, the whole thing occurring within a period of a couple hours. The employees of a shadowy firm are gathered for a special Saturday morning meeting. The boss tells them that they are being shut down immediately, the building is in lockdown with no escape, and everyone needs to die. They can take a poison, or he'll shoot them in the head--their choice. It's a bit high-concept and artsy, but entertaining and unpredictable. I'll definitely read more by this guy with the funny name.

Flinch, by Robert Ferrigno. Another good-author find at Hyde Brothers. Ferrigno's written three books for the Black Lizard imprint, and I've now read all three. Ferrigno is terrific. The protagonist in "Flinch" and "Scavenger Hunt" is an entertainment writer trying to solve a serial murder case.

Posted at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dwayne Wade played on the 2004 Olympic basketball team, which went 5-3. Since 1936, Americans had lost a total of only two basketball games, so the 2004 Olympic squad more than doubled the loss number.

Wade says the 2008 team is totally different--that it's a team, not a collection of all-stars. He's not starting. Is that a problem?

"Not at all, I'm happy with my role on the team. It's not about me. I'm a starter with the Miami Heat. I'm a franchise player there. This is the USA Olympic team. This is bigger. I'm enjoying my role on this team. I'm not trying to play 40 minutes. I'll be happy with whatever the game calls for. One game, you might play 15, 20 minutes, the next, you might play five minutes. It's just about us winning."

Posted at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)