Bring Back Zeus. Also Batman.

Shown here: The Sultan of Speed. The Scarlet Speedster. Flash. He not only has super-human speed, but a nifty spandex outfit. Somebody should build a temple!

This is an interesting article from the LA Times by Mary Lefkowitz, who is a professor emerita at Wellesley College (where my friend Kari Ziman went, where presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton went, and where the movie "Mona Lisa Smile" is based).

At any rate, in the article, which you can read in full here, Lefkowitz argues that religion isn't bad, monotheism is because it leads to exclusivity.

Prominent secular and atheist commentators have argued lately that religion "poisons" human life and causes endless violence and suffering. But the poison isn't religion; it's monotheism. The polytheistic Greeks didn't advocate killing those who worshiped different gods, and they did not pretend that their religion provided the right answers. Their religion made the ancient Greeks aware of their ignorance and weakness, letting them recognize multiple points of view.

I say right on, Mary Lefkowitz: let's bring back Apollo, Poseidon and company. Nevermind that they were, you know, fictitious. Might as well bring back the Justice League and worship them. I mean, they’re not real but at least they wear cool uniforms. Like Flash. Flash is so cool. Red with a yellow lightning bolt. That’s awesome.

Who's with me? Let’s start the First Apostolic Church of the SuperFriends.

The only question is this: According to Paul, is Wonder Woman able to be an Elder, or just a Deacon? Our founding verse: 1 Corinthians 12: The spirit does divide the gifts equally, as God sees fit, except to Aquaman, who kind of got screwed.

President Bush on Global Warming

My step mother-in-law sent this link to me. It's from a friend of hers whose 17-year old son recorded himself impersonating President Bush talking about Global Warming.

Funny, funny stuff. Hope the download works for you.

Click here

Holy Crap: Did I Just Read That Right?

Dr. James Watson, shown above, won the Nobel Prize for Science in 1962 after co-discovering the double helix structure of DNA with Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick.

Dr. James Watson, an eminent biologist in Britian, provoked a storm of controversy after his comments about race and evolution were published in London papers.

Watson told the British newspaper he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not really."

What? Did I just read that right? Yes, yes I did. A prominent, respected scientist just used science to justify not helping Africa because black people just aren't as smart. The article goes on to say:

In the newspaper interview, he said there was no reason to think that races which had grown up in separate geographical locations should have evolved identically. He went on to say that although he hoped everyone was equal, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true".

So much for the idea of "scientific progress" with this guy. Sheesh.

Transformers already out on DVD?

Optimus Prime rocks.

Not that I am complaining, mind you, but I was walking into the grocery store this morning and I saw that this summer's biggest blockbusters are already out on DVD. Doesn't this seem a bit fast on the turn-around time? I seem to remember it taking about 7-10 months for a movie to go from theater to DVD. Transformers came on in July. That's three and a half months ago.

Again, not that I'm complaining. Having kids means not going to the movies. Ever. So the shorter that turn-around time gets, the better for me. But still.

Wow.

Bay Area = Expensive

This is a Google Earth Map of where I live. The 26-year old 1,100 sq. foot house across the street just sold for $622,000.

A new study on the cost of living in the Bay Area and the rest of California says that a family of four in Santa Clara County and the other nine greater Bay Area counties now needs an annual income of $77,069 - nearly quadruple the federal poverty threshold of $20,444 for a family that size - to afford housing and other basic needs.

So the first question is: what is the study using as the definition of "basic needs." In this study, it's five things

• Housing and utilities
  
• Food
  
• Child care
  
• Health care
  
• Transportation
  
• Miscellaneous (toilet paper, cleaning supplies, etc)

According to the California Budget Project report, "Making Ends Meet: How Much Does it Cost to Raise a Family in California?" about 40 percent of the families in Santa Clara County earned $75,000 or less in 2006, while 31 percent earned $60,000 or less, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The study assumes the following parameters as well. This dollar amount does not include:

• Saving money for retirement
  
• Cable or internet access costs
  
• Savings for college

Wow.

Calvin and Hobbes

Click here to see a classic C&H, my favorite comic strip of all time.

Virtue and Vice

This is a police sketch of a man San Jose police are looking for in yesterday's kidnapping and sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl who was walking home from school

I'm not trying to be an alarmist here, but this news story (from my hometown) is just nuts. This is the story.

They were walking home when a man in a large white car motioned for the young sisters to cross the street in a quiet San Jose neighborhood just off Almaden Expressway.

The 9-year-old crossed first. Her 12-year-old sister went next. Suddenly, police said, the driver gunned the engine and drove into the older girl, catapulting her onto the hood before she tumbled into the street.

Her younger sister helped her to the curb as the car sped away. But the terrifying ordeal wasn't over. The big white car turned around and came back, the girls told police. The driver forced the older girl into his car, drove off and then later tried to sexually assault her in what police describe as the city's most brazen kidnapping in recent memory.

Tuesday, the severely injured 12-year-old victim remained in the hospital and San Jose police released more chilling details as they urgently asked for the public's help to find the attacker they say is ruthless enough to run down and abduct a child in broad daylight in front of witnesses.

So that's just unnerving. But it's not the only story.

• There's this one from CNN about a guy who kidnapped a young boy.
  
• And then there's this story about a sex-trade ring that was broken up in the Bay Area this past July.
  
• And there's a new movie out called "Trade"- a movie about trade in human beings; in this case, a 13-year-old Mexican girl who is kidnapped and brought to New Jersey, where her virginity will be auctioned on the Internet for an expected $50,000. Chillingly, the movie is based on fact, on an article by Peter Landesman in the New York Times Magazine. And it's not an isolated case.

Now, this is not a story about sex, I don't think. I think it goes deeper than that.

Here is something of which I am convinced:
Virtues strengthen with practice.

Virtue is a muscle that grows with exercise. There have been times in my life when I have not felt much like being good, or doing the right thing, but I have done it anyway (for whatever reason). And even though my heart was not in the right place, I have found at the end of "acting" good, I have felt better. And then my heart came around. This is the secret of virtue - that practice makes it easier. The more I have worked to be honest in my communications, the easier it becomes.

Here is something else of which I am convinced:
Vice operates just like virtue.

Practice vice, and you will find the easier it will become to give in to that same vice later. This is why one beer leads to two, which leads to five, which leads to hard liquor.

Which leads me to my central point. The internet has made it exceptionally easy for men (and women, I suppose) to give in to the vice of lust. It used to be that for a man to indulge his darker sexual urges, he had to go downtown to some seedy bookstore. That in itself prevented most men, if by nothing more than the fear of "What if someone sees me."

Now, pornography streams onto your computer in your home anonymously FOR FREE.

Secondly, the very nature of pornography has changed in my lifetime. When I was a boy, my classmates might sneak a picture from a magazine they found in their father's closet. There is a profound difference between a picture of a naked woman and video of two people engaged in explicit sexual acts. It's the difference between throwing a bullet and shooting it.

And here is my point: if a person engages in pornography, it will become increasingly easier and easier for them to act on all their sexual urges. And those urges will grow because it is simply not possible for people to satisfy their sexual appetites with anonymous, impersonal sex. We were not made that way, for that reason.

In the words of C.S. Lewis:

People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, 'If you keep a lot of rules I'll reward you, and if you don't I'll do the other thing.' I do not think that is the best way of looking at it. I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.

So as long as we have a society that encourages people to run, head-first into vice, we will have a society of people who increasingly learn to act on that vice. And without restraint, vice will overtake you.

Disney Dysfunction...

This rogue teen lost his parents and then became involved heavily in gangs.

I am speaking today at a high school convocation in front of 2,000 high school students, which is unnerving because high school students are probably the most difficult audience a speaker can present to, and it's in the school's gym, which means bleachers on three sides, which is like speaking to 360 degrees of people.

But for my talk I'm going to be discussing the "wounds of a parent" that many of the kids probably feel. To make the subject a bit funny, I came across this list of Disney characters whose relationships with their parents was anything less than perfect.

• Aladdin – orphaned and homeless; forced to commit petty crimes for food and shelter
  
• Ariel – dead mother, rebellious teen who runs away to be with a man
  
• Bambi – raised by single mother who is murdered, has never met his absent father
  
• Belle – dead mother, raised by single father
  
• Cinderella – dead mother, raised by abusive Stepmother and neglectful, absent father
  
• Dumbo – raised by a stigmatized, depressed single mother
  
• Lilo – orphaned, raised by older sister
  
• Nemo – dead mother, raised by single overprotective father
  
• Pinocchio – wooden toy adopted by aged creator Gepetto
  
• Pochahontas – dead mother, raised by single father
  
• Simba – father murdered by uncle, raised by 2-male heads of household (meerkat and warthog)
  
• Sleeping Beauty – parents transferred custody to 3 fairies
  
• Snow White – dead mother, raised by abusive Stepmother and neglectful father
  
• Tarzan – orphaned, resulting in a transracial and transspecies adoption by gorilla family

My Kids: Again!

These are my kids. I know. Shockingly cute.

My Montage 10/2/07

The Power of Before and After

I want to share with you an email that I just wrote to one of my former teaching colleagues at Gunderson High School. I share this because it’s a pretty remarkable story.

Hey Ron,

I am writing this email as a proxy for one of the young men I have been working with in our college and young adults group.

This young man was a former student at Gunderson. Unfortunately, after his time in high school, his life spiraled downward and he became quite addicted to drugs, including meth, which took a hold of his life. He is now sober for a number of months and is actively involved in Narcotics Anonymous, and is going through his 12-step program for the second time. He's making much progress.

Step 8 in the 12 steps, as you may know is the following:

I will make a list of all persons I have harmed, and I will become willing to make amends to them all.

At any rate, in searching through his past, this young man remembers being in your class and was upset with you, for some reason or another, and he saw that you had a bongo, or a small drum of some sort. And this young man stole the bongo. He now, some years later, wants to return the bongo, apologize to you for that act, and ask for your forgiveness.

I wanted to know if you would prefer the young man to do that in the form of a letter (from a distance) and have me return the drum to you, or if you would want him to return it to you in person.

I hope all is going well for you at Gunderson.

Thanks for your time,
DAT

I called and talked to Ron after I sent him this email, and his response was pretty shocking. Ron had a long history at Gunderson of being one of the sternest disciplinarians on campus. I half expected him to react in anger when I told him, something like, “Oh so finally! I find out who stole my drum! I’m going to call the cops!”

But his reaction wasn’t like that. He was floored. He stammered on the phone.

“I just can’t believe this,” he said. “I have never heard of something like this. I just can’t believe it.”

And it wasn’t because Ron was finally getting his drum back, after several years. It was because Ron was seeing first-hand the most important and awe-inspiring thing a human can ever witness – a changed heart.

You see, people don’t change. The older you and I get, the more we become who we are. We are like cement – the older we get, the more formed in our rigidity we are. Character defects that have been given space and permission in our lives harden. Virtues that have gone unpracticed slip away.

There’s even a few colloquial sayings about this — about how a leopard can’t change it’s spots, and how old dogs don’t learn new tricks.

But all that changes when Jesus gets a hold of a human heart. When God has the chance to really, truly get into someone’s heart, well, all bets are off. Hardened hearts change their tune, selfishness turns into selflessness and love of sin turns to repentance. In the words of a former slave owner who turned into an abolitionist – I once was lost, but now I’m found.

And this is what Jesus is all about. His life was one big lesson on how to connect with God in a way that will entirely transform us. This is a dangerous journey. In the words of the poet W.H. Auden – “We would rather be destroyed than change.”

But changing is what we must do if we are to ever grow.

Got a flat tire? It could cost you your life.

This are pretty funny commercials from Goodyear.

My Kids

These are my kids. I know. Shockingly cute.

My Montage 10/2/07