'Star Trek" fanatic goes too far?

I don't know what is more disturbing, that this guy turned his apartment into a replica of a Star Trek ship or that I am thinking this might be cool.

New JibJab video!

The above video from JibJab.com appeared on "The Tonight Show" this evening. It is dead-on accurate!

Enjoy!

[COLUMN] Four years and counting

As we enter the fifth year of President Bush’s misadventure in the Middle East, it is time for a serious and frank discussion on exactly where we are headed.

That, in all honesty, has been perhaps the administration’s greatest failing in its execution of the occupation of Iraq. Despite what some war hawks would have Americans believe, ending the occupation of Iraq is not a “defeat.” We already won the war.

The war itself was executed brilliantly. The United States military won the war in a matter of weeks, accomplishing the mission President Bush gave when the war started: “regime change.” Bush himself even declared the war over under that famous banner, “Mission Accomplished.”

However, while the U.S. military is second to none when it comes to fighting a war, the nation has historically been a poor occupier. For example, the American occupation of Mexico was a profound failure. This, by the way, is a much better analogy to Iraq than the Vietnam War comparisons that continually insult our collective intelligence. Much like today’s occupation, American forces were killed one or two at a time by insurgents while the administration sat on its bloated behind without a clear objective or exit strategy.

More annoying, perhaps, than the Vietnam comparisons is the number of hypocritical politicians opposing the war after voting for the invasion.

These politicians, mostly liberals, claim Bush lied to them.

That is ludicrous. Some of us, myself included, were opposed to the war before it began because it was obvious that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It was equally obvious that Iraq had no direct connection with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.


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New Feature!

I have added a new feature to the Light of Liberty blog.

On the side panel you will now notice that I am tracking the actions of the federal senators and representatives who represent west-central Ohio. That is, Sens. George Voinovich and Sherrod Brown, and U.S. Reps. Jim Jordan, Paul Gillmor, and John Boehner.

Anytime they place a vote, no matter how inconsequential, it will appear under their name. If you want further information on the vote, just click on the item and it will take you to a detailed explanation of the vote. I will also track all bills introduced.

It has taken me a week to get this to work and there might still be a few bugs. If you notice a problem, please let me know.

Enjoy!

Letter writer misses mark

The following letter appeared in Tuesday's The Lima (Ohio) News in response to my March 11, 2007, column on the Tomb of Jesus:

Lucente wrong about religion

PAUL OSBORNE
Alger

In his March 11 column, “Discovery no threat to faith,” Thomas J. Lucente, Jr. made the statement that if Christians refuse to weave scientific knowledge into their faith, they will find themselves marginalized. True Christianity has never been taken seriously by unbelievers. We have been mocked, scorned and persecuted from the beginning. Being considered ignorant is nothing new to us. Because we reject what we believe to be shoddy science, we are called unreasonable and foolish.

Lucente gave the example of Christians altering their opinion of the world being the center of the universe as proof of their needing to change their views and adjust to what science claims as truth. The fact that Christians throughout history have been wrong about many things speaks only to the depravity of mankind and has nothing to do with the infallibility of the Scriptures.

Historically, it has been the scientific community that has constantly contradicted itself. Through the years, the scientific community has upheld countless theories as fact, only to later disprove earlier findings.

Lucente has made it known in the past that he believes the biblical creation account to be mere superstition. It appears now he also believes the bodily resurrection of Christ to be more of the same. Does this mean anyone who is foolish enough to “cling to the superstitious ways of our ancestors” cannot be taken seriously when it comes to science, education, public policy, government or any other debate? I believe this is the implication.

There are several things wrong with Mr. Osborne's letter. Let's look at this paragraph by paragraph.



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Happy Vernal Equinox!

RSS Feeds

If you are using an RSS reader of some sort (e.g., Google Reader), I have just added an RSS feed for user comments. The URL for the feed is: http://www.lucente.org/blog/action.php?action=plugin&name=CommentsRSS&blogid=1

I've also added a link at the top of all posts (when you hit the comment button) that will let you subscribe to an RSS feed for just that particular thread. Just click on the RSS image (). If you subscribe to that RSS feed, every time a comment is made, your RSS reader will receive the entire thread so you can easily follow all the comments in threads of interest. Just click on the at the top of each post (after you click on the comment link) to get the RSS URL. For example, if you want to subscribe to the RSS feed for this item and all its comments, you would click on the comments link at the bottom of this item. You would then click on the icon. You would then paste the given URL (http://lucente.org/blog/action.php?action=plugin&name=RSSItem&itemid=175) into your RSS reader.

Also, as a reminder, the main RSS feed for the blog remains the same: http://www.lucente.org/blog/xml-rss2.php

As usual, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Enjoy!

The real Hillary, at least for now

Interesting quotation

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences."

-- C.S. Lewis
(1898-1963), British Novelist

Putting history in perspective

An excellent post on the Daily Kos blog concerning the scale of human history:

Science Friday: Sixty Men from Ur
by Devilstower
Fri Mar 09, 2007 at 12:19:48 PM PDT

A bit over 4,100 years ago, a man named Abram led his family from the city of Ur of the Chaldees to a new home in Canaan. Just two weeks ago, unfailing champion of liberalism Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. died. What's the connection? Nothing. Everything.

In science, a number of metaphors are employed to cast the huge span of deep time into a frame more easily pondered. If the history of life on earth is viewed as the Empire State Building, all of human history is a dime on top. If the life of our planet is viewed as a year, every event in the history books has raced past in the last few seconds of that year.

These images are generally used to demonstrate the impressive seniority of our universe, and the relative position of major cosmic and/or evolutionary events. For those purposes, they're fairly effective. It's certainly easier to wrap a mind used to events measured in minutes and hours around the idea that dinosaurs went extinct the day after Christmas, than it is to come to grips with the term "sixty-five million years."



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Naked Israeli ambassador recalled

The BBC reported Monday:

Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear.
Reports say he was able to identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.

A foreign ministry official described Ambassador Tzuriel Refael's behaviour as an unprecedented embarrassment.

The incident, which happened two weeks ago, has renewed calls for a radical overhaul of the way Israel appoints and promotes its diplomats.

(Full story here.)

I really have nothing to add to that story. Just thought you might like it.

Voinovich wrong to honor Homeland Security

Ohio really has a powerhouse in Sen. George V. Voinovich. With everything going on in the world, the good senator thought it was an important and good idea to introduce Senate Resolution 94, which reads:

Honoring the employees of the Department of Homeland Security on the 4th anniversary of the Department.

Whereas the United States must remain vigilant against all threats to the homeland, including acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and other emergencies;

Whereas the Department of Homeland Security marks its 4th anniversary on March 1, 2007;

Whereas the more than 208,000 employees of the Department work tirelessly to carry out the complex mission of securing the Nation from terrorism and natural hazards through protection, prevention, response, and recovery as well as serving the public effectively by facilitating lawful trade, travel, and immigration;

Whereas the Department's employees sacrifice time with their families to work long hours to fulfill the Department's vital mission; and

Whereas the Nation is indebted to the Department's employees for their labors: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the Senate honors the employees of the Department of Homeland Security for their substantial contributions to protecting the Nation on the 4th anniversary of the Department.

Let's put aside the complete silliness of those in the Congress thinking that such resolutions are a good idea. It is only proof that the Congress should only meet a few months a year because its members obviously do not have enough work to keep themselves busy.



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Further evidence daylight-saving time is a crock

Two media reports are further evidence that daylight-saving time is, well, a waste of time.

First, this ABC report:

Ryan Kellogg and Hendrik Wolff compared electric demand in the state of Victoria, which extended DST, with its next-door neighbor, South Australia, which did not.
"Our results show that the extension failed to conserve electricity," they wrote.

"If it's dark enough in the morning that pretty much everyone has to turn on the lights," said co-author Kellogg, "what that means is that that increase in morning electricity consumption is going to be so big that it offsets any benefits we get from the extra light in the evening."

In fact, the two said, shifting Australians' clocks led to a tiny increase in power use.

And then there is this article from Scientific American:

Some studies dispute the energy savings would be as great. A recent analysis by the California Energy Commission, for instance, concluded that the change would shift--rather than reduce--electricity use to off peak hour. The report said that electricity use could dip by 0.5 percent--or less. A shift to off peak electricity use still has the advantage of lowering the capacity requirements for utilities, but it's questionable whether the savings would be as much as the ACEEE estimates.

It is time we end this archaic and useless practice.

Beer-launching fridge in action

OK, you may have seen the news stories (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,257698,00.html) about John Cornwell, who invented a robotic refrigerator that launches a beer to you so you don't have to leave the couch. Now, thanks to the magic of the Internet, the above video shows you the refrigerator in action.

Where can I buy one of these babies???? Of course, I would fill it with better beer than Miller Lite.

[COLUMN] Discovery no threat to faith

Wow!

That is all I can say after watching the feature documentary “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” last week on the Discovery Channel.

In case you missed it, construction workers in the Talpiot neighborhood of southeastern Jerusalem on March 28, 1980, uncovered a first century tomb that contained 10 ossuaries, or limestone bone boxes. The remains were turned over to the religious community for reburial because of the sensitive nature of tomb excavations to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects in Israel. The boxes themselves are in storage at a warehouse owned by the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Since the 1970s, hundreds of tombs and some 1,500 ossuaries have been found. Ossuaries were in common use in Israel from the middle of the first century B.C. until about A.D. 70. After that, their use was extremely limited. Bodies were placed in a tomb for about a year and after the body decomposed, the bones were placed in an ossuary.

Six of the 10 ossuaries found in the Talpiot tomb have names inscribed on them, which is an above-average percentage for these kinds of finds.

What is fascinating about this find are the names inscribed on the boxes, most notably Yeshua bar Yosef, or Jesus son of Joseph. The name was preceded by a mysterious X or a cross, depending on how you look at it.

That by itself would not be so remarkable. Both Jesus and Joseph were extremely common names during the first century and this was not the first ossuary bearing that inscription.

What makes the find fascinating are the other five ossuaries on which are etched the names, Maria (Mary), Matia (Matthew), Yose (Joseph), Yehuda bar Yeshua (Judah son of Jesus), and Mariamene e Mara (possibly Mary Magdalene).



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Daylight-saving time is a crock

In a few hours the United States will switch to daylight-saving time.

What an idiotic concept! The government claims that randomly changing the clock twice a year saves on gas and electric usage. However, studies show any savings is negligible. So why bother? Especially in this day and age when the world is so tightly wound around time, there really is no need. Besides, the amount of daylight does not change because we move the clocks. It stays lighter later in the day, however it stays darker later in the morning. There really is no trade-off.

Daylight-saving time is just another example of overbearing government control of our daily lives. And a government that can change the time at will, is a government to be feared.

[COLUMN] Presidents poll pure poppycock

I don’t know if the results of a recent Gallop poll is an indictment of the company’s polling techniques or a demonstration of the ignorance of the American public. I am guessing the latter.

The polling company asked Americans who they thought were our greatest presidents. A silly poll topic to say the least, given the myriad ne’er-do-wells who have held the job. The results, however, were unnerving, to say the least. The top five were Abraham Lincoln, Ronald W. Reagan, John F. Kennedy, William J. Clinton and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Clearly, those participating in this poll, for the most part, chose presidents they remember and liked. However, any poll that places Clinton anywhere outside of the five worst presidents in history is inherently wrong. He was the only elected president to be impeached. How could an impeached president, one who has shown nothing but disdain for our Constitution, be anything but last?



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