Only 7 hours until the main event! :)

Days until mandibular reduction (jaw surgery): 1 day, 8 hours
Days since arriving back in Philly: 19

I've been meaning to blog on this for a while now...


The Untimely Death of Traditional Tolerance

Firstly, words change. Well, the definitions do anyway. This is English. It is dynamic. Watch it slowly evolve before your eyes. Fascinating huh?

Now in the past decade (or so) a new concept called political correctness has become popular. I hope this isn't news. In a lot of respects I welcome it. Indians are from India by the way. However of course not all change is good. The title of 'sanitation engineer', while dignified, is a little unwieldy and ambiguous. You cannot then differentiate a landfill operator from a janitor. The most articulate form of verbal communication uses the most efficient, and least ambiguous language. This is where tolerance ought to concern us.

Traditional tolerance is defined well by R. C. Sproul as a practice of giving equal treatment under law and a recognition of a legal right to exist. To tolerate was to allow to be or to be done without hindrance. It is a mutual respect for the right of those who disagree with us. Tolerance was a passive, wise, and virtuous act. In most cases, this was behavior worth aspiring to.

Now we enter the post-modern era. The 'cutting edge' philosophy is ethical relativism. There is no objective truth. No longer does anything possess an intrinsic value. The individual and subjective beliefs of each person are now much more significant and important. Why? They are valid. If all beliefs are valid, we have no grounds to disagree. To do so would be intolerant.

This is how tolerance has changed. We now must no longer merely allow to exist but also accept as valid the beliefs of another. This is not wise or virtuous. By this philosophy, justice and law cannot exist. The judge cannot tell the murderer, "What you did was wrong." The authority of the inherent moral standard of humanity has been superceded by the beliefs of the individual.

Say a blindfolded individual believes he is walking in the center of a field. From our perspective, we observe he is about to walk off the edge of a cliff. We are faced with a dilemma. It would indeed be intolerant to attempt to correct him. It would also be unethical not to correct him. Does our acceptance of the beliefs of others take precedence over their welfare? What would any human do?

While the definition of tolerance has changed, it really may not be the most pressing issue. The real problem is much more insidious. While the newer definition of tolerance is widely understood, there is still a strong association made with the virtue of the former definition. For the general public, to act in opposition to tolerance is to act in opposition to virtue itself. This is very subtle, but it carries very significant and obvious implications.

In the same way most people would correct the blindfolded individual, a Christian will value the welfare of a non-Christian greatly enough to suggest existence of an apparent danger. People may be offended by this. They will at least be uncomfortable. But, if they heed the warning, they may not fall to their deaths.

What do you think?

Days until mandibular reduction (jaw surgery): 10
Days since arriving back in Philly: 11

"Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator," he added, "and I hope he's removed as soon as possible. But nonviolently." -Michael Moore

Hmmm, lets think here...
Possible Situations
X 1. Saddam can be removed nonviolently and Mr. Moore knows how but isn't telling us.
X 2. Saddam can be removed nonviolently but Mr. Moore (along with Bush, Blair, the UN, etc.) does not know how.
X 3. Saddam cannot be removed nonviolently yet Mr. Moore believes he knows how and isn't telling us.
O 4 Saddam cannot be removed nonviolently and Mr. Moore in actuality does not know how.

Option (1) is possible but very unlikely. Option (3) is possible yet again, we lack any sort of plausible motive. Opton (2) is both possible and self-negating for without the means we cannot achieve the end. This points us to option (4) which is entirely possible, and I believe, most probable. So then when Mr. Moore demands that we remove Saddam but without violence, we can conclude that he is being both unreasonable and absurd. Nonviolent inspections alone, given yet another thirteen years, may have indeed removed the WOMD, but they could not ever have removed the brutal dictator who would be willing to use them use them or other more rudimentary implements (kalashnikov) as a means of accomplishing his own ends.

[SATIRE]
We like nonfiction, yet we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where we have fictitious (writers producing nonficiton films about fictitious events, facts and people). We live in a time where we have a man (recieving an Academy Award for a fictitious and innaccurate film). Whether it's the fiction of (weapons inspections), or the fiction of (the French). We are against this nonsense, Mr. (Moore). Shame on you, Mr. (Moore), shame on you. And any time you've got (logic and reason) against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."
[/SATIRE]

While I am on a conservative rant, I want to add: "remember to...

This isn't meant to imply anything racial, political, or intolerant*... Its just funny!

*(I reluctantly use this word in the most current of liberal contexts. Did I mention I have a real big problem with word manipulation?)

One more day of class!...

I was getting kind of worried about all of the tragic events unfolding around the world until I learned of the Cambodian Oxen. So apparently, I need not fret.

Oh, and if you want to experience the two most precise minutes of unfolding events ever recorded on television, watch this. Only the components from a Honda Accord were used. And if you think that this is all obviously impossible because wheels don't roll uphill, please consider the possibility that the wheel's center of gravity may not necessarily be at the center of the wheel. :)

Goodness! I have neglected my blog. Since the week before finals, I have been all but swamped with schoolwork. Right now I am taking Dr. Batts' C. S. Lewis course. As of now, this is by far the most intellectually stimulating course I have ever taken...and its on my favorite author! We are plowing through seven of Lewis' great literary works, and going into a pretty deep analysis of each. The crazy part is: the class is only two weeks long! I have four hours of straight lecturing and then four to seven hours of homework, every day. At least, I am about half-way through it all. Then, its back to good ol' Pennsylvania! Hopefully then I will get back in the habit of updating.

"All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be." -C. S. Lewis (The Screwtape Letters)1942

"I do not suppose you and I would have thought much of a Frenchman who waited till the Allies were marching into Germany and then announced he was on our side." -C. S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)1952
...A man ahead of his time lol

Coolest T-shirt design ever!

Wow. It's been a while since I went running last. I am definitely out of shape. What happened this semester?

If anyone has noticed, I've been having some fun with the Gimp and HTML in the past week or so. This stuff is all new to me so the progress is slow. I started with my guitar and added some textured renderings. I got my background from this really cool guitar site. I think I might lose the ugly mug next. It just doesn't seem to fit. Don't I have more important things to be doing? Oh yeah, finals are next week.

Ya know, it's rough when someone you really respect falls hardcore. I mean, it is my own fault for putting them up on that pedistal in the first place. Why do I always do that? It is unfair, really. Only one is deserving enough for that. But none the less, it hurts.

So I went on this trip with my fine arts class to the Dallas Museum of Art on Tuesday. I was slowly making my way through the "American Painting & Sculpture" section when I happened to overhear this middle aged couple intently studying this very simple portrait of a young girl. In a very much drawn-out collegiate accent the man says to the woman, "You know...you know what really stands out to me in this painting...is...the eyes." The woman then lets out a very thoughtful and concurring "hmmm." I would have ROFL, however you must remember, this is a museum of fine art. That sort of thing just is not appropriate. Seriously though, These people fit my stereotype of art critics perfectly! What a pathetic existence it must be, to spend one's life in a vain attempt to find some higher truth or purpose in a mere inanimate expression of but a few (wo)men's handiwork. A picture may have told a thousand words, but just how many of them were truthful, intended by the author, or in some way useful? There exists good art, but there is also much that is but mere trivial novelty. This is my perspective. "I will not, I can not, I shall not recant...Here I stand!" LOL!

Here is a really nifty photo of the earth at night. Note the differences between North and South Korea. Perhaps this can give some insight into why North Korea is resorting to nuclear blackmail in hopes of assisting its own world standing.

Ignorance is Blix.

(Inspiration, while listening to yet another completely unproductive debate)

Show me a bitter and controversial dichotomy, and I will show you a spectrum.

Boo-Yah!

It's 4:30am. I am inspired. I also have a thermodynamics exam in a few hours. My professor calls it a "celebration of knowledge." I see it more as frantic, pressured, and constrained thought. Am I anxious? You bet! Am I on task right now? Apparently not.

Right now, I am preoccupied with thoughts about life, where exactly I am, and where I am headed. These are surely times of much confusion, sadness, and uncertainty. I wish this were just a season, but it has persisted for so very long. I really don't feel that I can describe what has been going through my head for the past year or so with mere words. I am pretty sure that any objective attempt I can make will just come out as a bunch of incoherent and abstract nonsense. I wish I had tact. I think the English language (all too often) is just insufficient to allow me to express the very essence of what I wish to communicate. Crap. Must I resort to art? Well, here goes nothing...
[/left brain hemisphere]

[right brain hemisphere]

A wilted sapling, now am I

Many seasons ago, was planted here

In fertile soil, free from rock, weed, and briar

With consistent watering, and ever abundant Sunlight

Growth begins

The roots grow deeper, and branches, higher

Healthy and strong, the first of fruit begins to appear

Then, one day, the landscape changes

Where rolling hills and forest once were

A dry and desolate wasteland now prevails

The barren soil withholds its nourishment

The Sun still shines brightly as ever

Yet the light now falls on dry leaves

Growth is stunted

Ever so slowly and subtly,

The tree begins to list

At length, it bends over

Regressing, downward

Towards the very ground it once sprang from

Where can water be found?

Where is Eph 4:11-16?

[/right brain hemisphere]

[left brain hemisphere]
Are all the metaphors here discernable to you? If not, please don't even try to speculate. Perhaps I am just calling out at the sea. Maybe someone out there is listening, and can identify with this. Either way, it is eating me up. Complacency appears to be imminent, and quite honestly, I... I am terrified.

From CNN.com;
The Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf also said that coalition forces were throwing booby traps in the form of pens and pencils into Iraqi villages and townships.
"The authority of the civil defense ... issued a warning to the civilian population not to pick up any of those pencils because they are booby traps," he said, adding that the British and American forces were "immoral mercenaries" and "war criminals" for such behavior. "I am not talking about the American people and the British people," he said. "I am talking about those mercenaries. ... They have started throwing those pencils, but they are not pencils, they are booby traps to kill the children."

My response: Wow...I'm speachless...The Iraqi propaganda department continues to amaze me.

In other news, my blog made both Yahoo and Google's top 5 in searches for whereisraed.
I have officially arrived in life. ;)

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin,
"In endorsing this doctrine (pre-emptive military intervention), we risk introducing the principle of constant instability and uncertainty,"

My response: I believe it was Al Qaeda that first introduced that principle about 18 months ago.

Have you been trying to play those Jars of Clay songs but can never get that nifty "sound" they have on the CD? Try tuning your D string to B and your G to E. Throw a capo on the third fret. Then add some chord formations like 020000 and #0#0#0 up the fretboard. Presto! Love Song For a Savior, Flood, and most of their other songs follow this tuning. Enjoy!

Every once in a while, a photograph comes by that just burns itself into your head. This is one of those. Meet Sharbat Gula. Her parents were killed by soviet bombing in Afghanistan when she was six. She was then forced to flee to Pakistan when the Soviets invaded and started killing everyone. This photgraph was taken in 1984 at a Pakistani refugee camp by Steve McCurry from National Geographic. She was thirteen years old. What a hard life...and what haunting eyes.

At Dang's suggestion, I am going to blog on something mindless, trivial, and most importantly not related to war.

Seriously, I'm sorry Snapple but this could quite possibly be the best stuff on earth...almost as good as Spam cut into thin slices and toasted over a campfire. Oh yeah, this is with the assumption that Spam is not from earth. Join the Spam fan club today! Anyway, I think that we Americans are missing out on the number one selling spread in Europe. You can put it on almost anything. I just polished off another can yesterday.

What is up with today's youth anyway?

Maybe if this and this were done to all cats, they wouldn't be so "stuck up" all the time.

Oh, and by the way, no one is too old to play video games.

"Iraq had earlier suffered the most sustained and devastating aerial and missile bombardment in history, as the White House insisted there would be no pause for diplomacy and the pounding would go on until Saddam Hussein left Kuwait." "The White House spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, said yesterday: 'We do not think there is any need for a pause for Saddam to change his mind. If at any point he wants to change course here, all he has to do is surrender and comply with all UN resolutions.'"
Does this all sound familiar? I found these excerpts in an article from the archives of an online British magazine written on Friday January 18, 1991 ...during the first Gulf War. Folks, the demands we have been making on Iraq are not new. I simply cannot accept time constraints as an excuse for noncompliance.

Well, 1500 air sorties, 320 cruise missiles, and 19 coalition casualties later, the war is now well under way. There are many who are violently opposed to this conflict. There are also many who support it. What do I think? I think that I am entirely unqualified to make a definitive statement on how necessary or urgent the disarmament of Iraq is. I, along with the vast majority of people in this country, do not have access to much of our country's intelligence on Iraq. Furthermore, very few people spend much time looking up what information is available about Iraq's humanitarian record from the last few decades. Here is a good place to start. Will allowing Saddam to continue acquiring WOMD for yet a few more years create a significant threat to our national security? Recall that this man killed over 5,000 of his own people with chemical weapons. An untold multitude of civilians have been assassinated for political opposition, suspicious activities, or mere indistinct associations to his enemies. What inhibitions will he have, when attacking the "Zionist Americans" is within his capabilities? I hate war. I am more than furious at this man for putting us all in this position.

Watch Baghdad Live.

We are now seven hours into Operation Iraqi Freedom and so far not a lot has happened. About 40 tomahawk cruise missiles were launched into Baghdad in an attempt to take out Saddam. However, he appeared on Iraqi television soon after condemning the attacks, so perhaps we haven't gotten him...yet. The bombing campaign that is promised to be like "nothing anyone has seen before" has apparently yet to start. I did run across this weblog authored by this guy who lives in Baghdad. He chronicles the events as they unfold around him. This is definitely a unique perspective on the war, and is worth reading. WhereIsRaed?

Well, there are now fourteen hours remaining until we may take our military initiative in Iraq. Analysts say there is about a 100% chance that Saddam will attempt to use chemical or biological weapons on our troops. The State Department's top counterterrorism official is saying that multiple attacks on populous or visible areas by Al Qaeda are a near certainty. What am I feeling right now? In all honesty, I find this situation almost exciting. There is an air of uncertainty and anticipation here. There is optimism that the conflict will be relatively swift with minor resistance everywhere but Baghdad itself. I have a friend from high school that is supposedly deployed in Iraq right now. I haven't talked to the guy since graduation so I don't even know what branch he is in! As for the possible terrorist attacks here, there isn't really any practical way to be prepared. Perhaps I should barricade myself in the storage closet with duct tape! I will most likely spend the entirety of tomorow night watching major news network coverage on TV. Yikes! It is almost daybreak. Time for bed!

I've got one more day until spring break! Today I watched the end of a movie about Mozart in Fine Arts class. I went into this class very skeptical, and so far, I remain so. I can see the usefulness of art in anthropology and sociology. I leaned that art is whatever the artist, patron, critic, or whoever says it is. However, I still struggle with the basic purpose of art. Is it all for mere trivial novelty? Must it convey a concept of some sort? Yes the artist is expressing his or herself but I need some incentive to appreciate it. Is what they express useful to me? Is it significant, relevant, or of some importance? Dr. Watson says that he is striving to instill an appreciation of great art in us. My question is, if art is so inherently subjective, how are we to differentiate, recognize, and appreciate certain works of art that are great to everyone. I would have gotten to the bottom of this by now, but I tend to be pretty quiet in class. Maybe I just have not yet been enlightened. Ha!

Did Michael Smalley's talk tonight frustrate anyone else out there? He spent the whole time talking about two things: a.) His uninteresting life b.) That the only way to find a mate that you will not divorce is to make a list of virtuous characteristics and find someone who fits. So...if I happen to inadvertently marry someone who does not possess every characteristic I desire, we have no hope as a couple? What is more, he said nothing of making a list of characteristics for us to work on ourselves. I think the reason for the high divorce rate is not so much the differences between the husband and wife, but their unwillingness to compromise, sacrifice, and work through their differences. I thought marriage and love were about giving!

Well, I'm on the Yellow Project list now. I guess people are actually going to read this stuff. hmm... Maybe I should do more than rant and vent about life. Where should I start? Well, today my alarm didn't go off, so I missed my Circuits II quiz. I listened to some students speculate with Dr. Henk in Thermo class about what physical laws may be present in heaven. I still don't understand where they were going with that one. I talked to Dr. G for a while at lunch. He was excited about the nasty exam he was about to give to his dynamics students. I feel their pain. I walked back to the dorm, helped Seth jumpstart his truck, and...sat down to blog for a bit. For the rest of the day, I fully intend to write an essay or two and play my guitar. Perhaps I would have considered riding my bike out behind campus, however It is raining, cold, and generally crappy outside. ...And who says that nothing interesting ever happens at LeTourneau??

I must display my strong aversion to France. This country's longstanding commitment to pursue its own national interests at the expense of everyone else's has earned my unauthoritative stamp of disapproval. Their opposition to the use of force in critical times throughout the last century should have led to their irrelevancy long ago. Yet to this day, they hold veto power in the UN Security Council! The "Give peace a chance" solution to the Iraqi crisis that France is asserting is just what caused their disasterous defeat in WWII. Here is some supporting evidence for my platform... When German troops moved into the Rhineland in 1936 thereby violating the treaty of Versailles, France with its large military presence in the region, did nothing. In 1938, France had a mutual defense treaty with Czecholsovakia. However, at the Munich conference that year, they agreed that west Czecholsovakia should be turned over to Hitler without a shot being fired. What integrity! For a year after they declared war on Germany, the persistent inaction of France's superior military presence on the western front allowed Germany to invade Poland without hindrance. When finally attacked by Germany, French troops surrendered to the Nazis after only six weeks of fighting. France's then four year occupation by the Nazis was ended only by the D-Day invasion, where thousands of Allied troops died fighting on their behalf. Their opinions clearly have not and will not be changed. So then, Why should anyone consider France's opinions on Iraq events as relevant? I sure don't.

As I take a break from studying thermo, I once again pause to consider the futility of life without God. As time increases towards infinity, my lifetime becomes infinitely small. These sixty to eighty years will be over very soon indeed. All that I do and all that I have done will be no longer remembered. That which those around me say is worth working towards will be forgotten, and therefore cease to have existed...more or less. Is hedonism a worthwhile venture? It promises much. Yet once the moments of pleasure have passed, and the memory of them has faded, they may well have not happened at all. Why then continue on? Why bother to get out of bed tomorrow if all incentives are so ephemeral? Of course! To serve the Lord is to gain that which lasts! So then, if this pursuit is all that is worthwhile, I ought to then invest every moment of my time towards this. Why waste any time in meaningless activities when every one of my actions can have eternal consequences? Thus I arrive at the conclusion I always do. *sigh* What am I doing here at school anyway? Why am I not out on the streets proclaiming aloud the gospel of Jesus Christ? Why am I not spending every free moment talking to and praising the Lord God, who has done SO much for me? How I long to be in that relationship again!! What inhibits me? I wish I knew. Well, for now, on to smaller and lesser things.

I really don't like starting off on such a pessimistic note. However, this is quite possibly the most spiritually dry season my soul has ever had. Quite honestly, I don't have any joy joy joy joy down in my heart right now. What is more troubling, I don't know anyone who does! Since I have come to LeTourneau, I have gotten to know probably over one hundred people on a first name basis. Yet with not one have I been able to talk about my spiritual life with any depth! Only several people I know at least understand church to be an organization that you are a part of as opposed to a building you visit once a week for an hour or two. I spent my first two years trying to incite the involvement of my floormates in each other's spiritual lives. "What better an opportunity," I suggested, "for spiritual growth and accountability, than in a residence hall with twenty five other christians?" To contrast, I did not know of more than three professing christians in my high school graduating class. I received at best, a shrug and at worst, cold and apathetic complacency from my dormmates. Is my assertion absurd? Surely there must be a good number of other christians who are actively seeking God on this campus. Where can they be found? Chapel? P&P? LSM? AIM? Have I just unwittingly not plugged myself in to the vast ocean of biblical fellowship at LeTourneau? I am certainly not in fellowship here. The wind has long since abandoned the sails and the ship is beginning to sink. Am I all alone?