Category: news item

It’s been known for several years that Jeffrey Dahmer made a confession of faith right before he was murdered in prison, including a baptism. There’s been a lot of chatter and weirdness about that because some people don’t think God has enough grace to save Mr. Dahmer.

If it’s true, and this story makes it seem that way, I just don’t understand why anyone would have a problem with that. After all, it’s God… He can do whatever He wants.

thanks to C4C for the link

Yesterday, when I was coming to work, there was the remnents of a terrible accident about 100 yards from the church. I had to walk through the accident scene because the road was blocked off, I could tell that it was a terrible accident. I saw that it was a high school students car. I asked the officer there if a student had been hit and he told me that a student had hit an adult lady. My heart sank because Romeo is such a small community that somehow we must know either the student in the accident or the woman killed. So far, that hasn’t come true.

Here’s the news story:

BRUCE TOWNSHIP — A 17-year-old Romeo
High School student likely is not at fault in a car/pedestrian accident
that killed a woman walking on 32 Mile Road this morning, Macomb County
Sheriff Mark Hackel said.

The accident happened about 7:18 a.m.
at the intersection of 32 Mile Road and Campground in Bruce Township,
about a mile from Romeo High School.

The student, a girl whose
name was not released by police, was driving her 1996 Oldsmobile
Regency eastbound on 32 Mile Road, when a 57-year-old Washington
Township woman stepped off the curb and into traffic, Hackel said.

"This
doesn’t seem to be the girl’s fault," Hackel said. "We haven’t wrapped
up our investigation yet, but all indications are that the girl tried
to avoid the pedestrian."

After the car struck the pedestrian,
whose name also was withheld, the teen stopped. Another motorist who
saw the accident called 911.

The victim was taken to St. Joseph’s West Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

I ran across this story over on Marko’s blog. Things like this make me absolutely sick, but it’s true… people are developing Christian-themed subdivisions. Two excerpts are puke-worthy:

Near the entrance, before the road turns to reveal new homes starting
at $400,000, a restored chapel sits under the shade of trees. [Read the article]

It’s good to know that Christians aren’t mixing with the riff-raff that buy houses under $400,000. I mean, if you can’t swing a mortgage payment of $3000 or more, God isn’t blessing you. Excuse me while I run to the bathroom.

But their developments seem to be trying to sell a certain way of life.
They’re mixed-use developments, meaning commercial businesses will go
in with the homes, but there are restrictions as to what can go in
these areas. Banks and gas stations are going up, but don’t expect to
see anything that caters strictly to vices.

"Of course we’ll
have some restaurant locations here, but no bars. No massage parlors.
Nothing like that that would be damaging to people’s character, as part
of our restrictions," he said.

This type of mixed-development is just a bad idea. Forcing American-Christian morality and sensibilities, notice I didn’t say Biblical morality, into a society just doesn’t work. After all, Jesus wouldn’t want anyone associating with people who frequent bars or massage parlors, would he? Let’s be real… developers develop subdivisions, not the New Jerusalem. It didn’t work for the Puritans and it won’t work in Tennessee. You cannot create sin-free zones where people will make the right life choices. As if Christianity were merely a lifestyle choice? Even if it were a lifestyle choice, this clearly isn’t a God-honoring choice. We know that Jesus was not impressed with the Pharisee’s who did exactly this. Jesus clear does not want his people separating from the world, how come people continue to think this is a good idea? I’m dry heaving here for again.

Of course Joe Swanson, the developer mentioned in the story, got his start as a Jesus-junk peddler. His son now runs Swanson Christian Products where you can buy such essentials of the faith as the Plan of Salvation Band, fish tie tacks, and "I have Jesus in my heart" stress balls. So I suppose this is just a large scale Jesus-junk scheme. To steal a line from John Stassel, give me a break!

This just in, Dog Chapman… as in Dog the Bounty Hunter has been arrested.

TV reality star Duane "Dog" Chapman and two
co-stars on his show were arrested early Thursday in Hawaii on charges
of illegal detention and conspiracy in an alleged kidnapping three
years ago in Mexico, U.S. Marshals said.

Chapman,
53, his son Leland Chapman, and associate Timothy Chapman were taken
into custody in an operation involving 15 officers, said Mark Hanohano,
U.S. Marshal for the district of Hawaii. They did not resist arre
st, he
said. [Read the rest]

I don’t care what they say, that man is one of my heros.

I watched the President’s address last night. Of course, his speach brought up all sorts of memories of September 11th, 2001 when he gave a similarly timed address to let the nation know we would respond. Much of what he said reminded me of how strong he was during those days immediately following the attacks.

He re-enforced some strong reasons for continuing on with what we’re doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. I know that some people see it as a purely political issue, but I really think that this strategy, and all of the terror plots that have been thwarted in the last severa, have proven that if we had done nothing… we’d be far worse off than we are currently. I don’t catch a lot of speaches by the President, but this was the strongest I have heard in quite a while.

Across the broader Middle East, the extremists are fighting to prevent such
a future.  Yet America has confronted evil before, and we have defeated it
— sometimes at the cost of thousands of good men in a single battle.  When
Franklin Roosevelt vowed to defeat two enemies across two oceans, he could
not have foreseen D-Day and Iwo Jima — but he would not have been
surprised at the outcome.  When Harry Truman promised American support for
free peoples resisting Soviet aggression, he could not have foreseen the
rise of the Berlin Wall — but he would not have been surprised to see it
brought down.  Throughout our history, America has seen liberty challenged,
and every time, we have seen liberty triumph with sacrifice and
determination.

At the start of this young century, America looks to the day when the
people of the Middle East leave the desert of despotism for the fertile
gardens of liberty, and resume their rightful place in a world of peace and
prosperity.  We look to the day when the nations of that region recognize
their greatest resource is not the oil in the ground, but the talent and
creativity of their people.  We look to the day when moms and dads
throughout the Middle East see a future of hope and opportunity for their
children.  And when that good day comes, the clouds of war will part, the
appeal of radicalism will decline, and we will leave our children with a
better and safer world. [See the full transcript or watch the video]

I am quite sad about this. Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, has tragically died. He was filming along Batt Reef, off the coast of Australia, when he was stung by a stingray. Here’s an excerpt from the news story.

"He came on top of the stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and
into his chest and put a hole into his heart," said Stainton, who was
on board Irwin’s boat at the time.

Crew members aboard the boat, Croc One, called emergency services in
the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat
to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff
pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later, Stainton
said. [Read the article here]

I’ve greatly enjoyed Steve’s shows over the year’s. As someone who is deathly afraid of reptiles in general… he certainly made learning about them tolerable for me. Likewise, Steve’s voice has been one I’ve often imitated. I’ll have to come up with a new voice for talking to Nathan and Shawna Jordan. (Though I’ve still got "A Dingo stole my baby!") I’m going to miss his presence on Animal Planet. [Here’s his myspace profile]

Also, I feel terrible for his wife Terri and young children Bindi and Bob. All jokes aside, this is a very real tragedy to his family. He lived a dangerous life and unfortunately his career led to his untimely death.

Here’s the complete story from TV in Australia. (10 minutes of video)

This morning I watched a commerical on FoxNews that was called, "The Other Iraq: Thank You" Essentially, it is the Kurdistan Development Corporation broadcasting to the world, "We’re done with this war, we’re ready for business, but before we do that… we want people to know we are thankful."

This is cool on a few fronts:
– The Kurds are alive and well. In fact, I’d say that this is a sign that they are ready to thrive in the new Iraq.
– The Kurds are ready to become independent, at least economically. I think it’s unrealistic to think that people will be going to Iraq for tourism any time soon, but it’s not unreasonable to see American companies begin to invest there.
– The leftist press has the wrong story on TV. Clearly, there are great things happening in Iraq but the press only likes to cover the negatives. It’s a political year… obviously there are people who want to see their team win in November.