Not So Famous…

I’ve got a friend who is going through an extended estrangement from his wife.  In all honesty, without the miraculous work of the Lord in regenerating her heart, it’s going to be a divorce.  At this point, it’s pretty clear to me that it’s one of the 2 cases where divorce is permitted in the Bible.  In one case, one or both of the married people has to have committed adultery.  In the other, if the unbeliever wishes to depart, the believer is commanded to let them go.  Based on what she’s said, it’s clear that she hates the Word of God and hates the fact that God has commanded us to live in a certain manner.  Not as a means for our salvation, but as a response to what He has done for us.

Something specifically that she has been saying lately is that the Bible does not possess facts; that the Bible is not authoritative.  Normally, I would simply say, “Well, you’re not a Christian”, since all we know of Christ as a redeemer comes from the Bible.  If you remove the Bible…well…at best you’re simply a theist.  Someone who believes in a god or gods.  You can assent to the fact that Christ existed, a fact attested by numerous secular scholars.  You can assent to the fact that Christ died on the cross, which is another one of those secular facts.  But apart from the Word of God, you can know nothing about Christ dying on the cross to save His people from their sins.  (You might be able to infer the saving part, since Jesus means “God Saves”, but nothing about how that saving was accomplished.)

However, she continues to insist that she is a Christian.  She doesn’t know what the Bible teaches, apparently believing what her grandmother said when she insisted that “judge not, lest ye be judged” was one of the 10 Commandments.  She apparently doesn’t even know that the Bible contains the Old Testament, which was adopted as Christian canon from the Tanakh, or the holy scripture of Judaism.  She insists that she’s going to study religion, but won’t be told what to believe, preferring to find facts that one cannot find in the Bible. In the same paragraph, she states that Judaism is the first recorded religion and makes the most sense to her.  How can she discount the Bible, but then claim that Judaism makes the most sense? (Jews would be somewhat displeased to find that Judaism makes sense to her, who claims that Christ died for her sins.  I don’t think she knows this either.)

How can someone divorce the Scriptures from Christianity, and still claim to own Christ as their savior?  It makes less than no sense to us, to be honest.  I don’t know if she’s just saying the first thing that comes into her mind or what.  I’m not really looking for answers, though if someone has a plausible method for tossing the Bible and yet still believing that Christ died for them, I’d be interested in hearing it. I am not sure why I’m writing this except to say that she needs prayer.

She thinks that living by a “moral code” is enough to be a Christian.  She looks around and sees people living their lives like the Bible doesn’t matter, and then thinks that because so many people are doing it, it must be ok.  She gets angry when we quote Scripture to her, claiming that this is just our interpretation, yet provides no counter argument to “our interpretation”, preferring simply to ignore the Word of God.  She thinks that divorce is permissible (and might even be laudable) in cases where one or more people are unhappy in the relationship, yet she has not yet filed.  When presented with the allowable instances for divorce from Scripture, she ignores them, as usual, and insists that she can’t do something that won’t make her happy.  She ignores God entirely when we tell her that if we will obey Him, He will bless the both of them, preferring to say that our church is cult-like, and that we are insane for attempting to live holy lives.

She really needs prayer, but tells us that we need prayer.  (We agree…we need prayer….we’ve told her that, but when my friend is humble, she ignores his words again.)  Please pray that the Lord would convict her (and all of us) of our manifold sins.  That He would draw her to Him, and that she would repent of her disobedience to God.

So last night, we went to the Boardwalk in Orangevale to see Nightwish, and it was well worth the $30+ price of admission, in my opinion.

First off, Tuomas Holopainen writes some stellar music, and he does it well.  I’ll explain the why’s and wherefore’s later, but let me say that he writes far more than metal tunes.  He composes symphonically metal epics.

The band has some great stage chemistry.  I can’t speak to this because I never saw Nightwish with Tarja, their previous singer, but I’ve heard they’re a lot happier with Anette Olzon. They certainly seemed so onstage.  After one of the tunes, Anette actually hugged Marco, the other lead singer and bassist…just happy to be onstage and singing with him.  When Anette came back from a little instrumental break, she brought a cloth and mopped Tuomas’ face for him.  She seems to love the band, and you can tell by their grins when she’s singing and talking, they love her.  They’re out to rock, but you can tell that they love doing it.

Tuomas enjoyed the attention his music got, and did a great job, but for me the star of the evening was Emppu.

Emppu is the guitarist for Nightwish, and he has a sort of dialogue with the crowd that is truly a joy to behold.  He laughs with them, makes faces at them, throws his picks at them…he really enjoys being a part of Nightwish. At one point, he made his way across the stage to Tuomas to get a drink of something, which Tuomas poured into his mouth.  The crowd loved it.  The crowd loved it all.

I don’t know if the guys are happier with Anette than with Tarja, but they couldn’t be any less happy.  They had a blast.

As for Anette’s voice, as always, it sounded better on the album.  But she did a good job, hitting notes that I think are in her upper range.  I’m a much bigger fan of Anette than Tarja, but after hearing Anette sing some of Tarja’s songs, I can say a couple things for certain, and I’ll leave you with these:

1. Tarja’s voice is powerful, and has an undeniable attraction.  Her accent is part of it, but Anette on the old Tarja songs just doesn’t sound the same.  It’s good, sure.  But those older songs just aren’t as good as when Tarja sang them.  However….I love Anette’s voice!  A LOT more than Tarja’s.  So how do I explain this?

2. I think Tarja sounding better on the old songs are due to Tuomas’ writing. Tuomas is a skilled composer.  He knows who will be singing his songs, and he writes them accordingly.  I don’t think Tarja would sound half as good as Anette does on Amaranth, for example.  That is Anette’s song.  Tuomas wrote it with her in mind, I believe.  I think this is the true skill of Tuomas.  He doesn’t just write generic Nightwish songs.  He composes songs for a very specific orchestration.  I think we can continue to expect great things from this Finnish power quintet, indeed.

It was seriously a great show.

Occasionally, in IT, you have to do something that you find morally reprehensible.  Namely, you have to work…on the weekend.

This weekend has been a couple things to me.  On the one hand, I got my database that I’ve been working on for months in production.  It’s working well, and the data migration from the old database to the new one was relatively painless.  (SURPRISINGLY painless.)  On the other hand, I had to work Friday night from about 2:45 to about Midnight, Saturday from 8am to 5pm, and Sunday from 9am to about 2pm.  I hate working Sundays, and I avoid it whenever I can.  Sometimes, however, you can’t avoid it in IT.  Server work, database work, a lot of the stuff I do has to be done when no one is on the system.

Hopefully, however, I won’t need to do this again for a long time.  :)

For those who don’t know, you can find out about the bill HR 3490 at: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-3490

This bill does more transferring of land from the Bureau of Land Management to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is an organization that really only serves the interest of the Indian Tribes. I don’t support these Indian gaming compacts anyway, since it grants rights to tribes that the citizens of our nation don’t even have. Not to mention that an Indian Tribe is essentially a sovereign nation within our borders. They don’t really have to obey any laws they don’t want to. This is also due to the unbelievable power and wealth they’ve been able to amass with these casinos.

Specifically, this bill is going to help squash the heck out of small businesses like ranches, and will make life harder for those with homes and private ranches in the hills of Tuolumne County.

What may be harder to ignore is more people speaking out on this issue. Please write Nancy Pelosi at AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov, or you may get an e-mail form online at http://www.speaker.gov/contact. If you are a constituent of the 8th District of California, you may contact Mrs. Pelosi at sf.nancy@mail.house.gov. (Please include address and contact information, or your e-mail will be ignored, since that e-mail is really only for constituents of the 8th District.)

It would be even better if you could mail her a letter on some form of your company letterhead. Use this address if you’re not a constituent of the 8th Disctrict of California:

W.D.C. Office- 235 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
(202)225-4965

The basics of how this will affect small businesses are simple.  Some of the lands that will be transferred to native American control are part of what is called the “easement” rights of some property owners’ land.  Easement is simple in this case…not all properties are accessible by roads.  Some people have property where, in order to get to it, they have to travel over the lands that belong to others. There are agreements in place that allow landowners guaranteed access to their lands.  When properties that contain easement access are transferred into Native American control, they can make (and have made) life difficult for the landowner.  I have heard stories of customers seeing a sign that they are trespassing on private land before getting to a ranch.  I have heard stories of customers being harassed and followed by tribal security. Native American tribal councils have often refused to help maintain the road used by customers, or have promised to do so, but not followed through.  Ultimately, this is bad for these small businesses, and I fail to see why it’s good for America at all.

One of the small businesses affected by this bill wrote a letter to the powers that be, which was exceedingly informative as to why this is going to hurt their business. They were apparently summarily ignored. Please write Mrs. Pelosi and explain how this is not helping the economy of the US. Thank you.

Author’s Note: This is a re-posted article, which I have taken down.  My prior article mentioned businesses by name, so my site was coming up when people searched for their business, which is not so helpful.  They asked me to take the article down, which I have done.  However, I feel this issue is too darn important to take down without replacing it with anything.  Your elected government is doing this at the expense of the people of the United States of America.  Why?  Was Radanovich paid to make a deal like this?  Was this one of those back-room deals that people are always complaining about?  In any event, it’s wrong, and I’m not going to take down a source of information about this bill.

UPDATE: Sadly, the bill passed in the House of Representatives.  Don’t stop writing, though.  Let your elected officials know that this kind of thing is unacceptable.

William Harrison Bonney picked up his parcels from Old Man Hickart’s General Store, and took them outside to load them onto his wagon. His son, Billy, ran aimlessly around the wagon, oblivious to the danger that faced his young family. Katherine, William’s wife, had died the previous year of consumption, and William was of a mind to move out west. He had family in the Mormon nation of Deseret, and hoped they would take in young Billy, at least. The general store was his last stop on the outskirts of Batesburg before he made his long run into Deseret.

William had served in the National Army during the War of the Rebellion, and it seemed that he was doomed to run from the law from the day he got out. It didn’t help that he fought for a cause which he wasn’t entirely sure he really supported. Still, he was drafted from New York, and the State of New York was a Union State, sure enough. His discontent with the Blue Bellies and their aggression toward the Rebs was enough to cause William to consider other ways he might spend his time. Running guns seemed a good way to make a little cash, but it got him discharged from the army in short order. From then on, things just started getting worse.

He fell in with a railroading gang, responsible for the terrorizing of the Union Pacific railroad in the Nebraska Territory. The boys and he had knocked over many a train, and had secured them a virtual fortune. As soon as the gang had what they wanted, they set Bonney up in an ambush on a train job. It was then that William Bonney first came into contact with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.

The Pinkertons had hounded his steps all the way to the Republic of Texas, where they joined forces with the Rangers. Bonney robbed a bank in Santa Fe for pocket change to feed his family, hastening his departure from Texas, and sending him toward Deseret. Rumor was that the Mormons weren’t allowing any lawmen from the United States of America, the Confederate States of America, or the Republic of Texas onto their lands. He didn’t much care for Mormonism by and large, but had family in their number, and he knew that the Mormons had a soft spot for family if they swore the oaths.

William lashed his goods into his wagon, and called for Billy to get in the wagon. Billy quickly obeyed. Suddenly, a voice rang out.

"William Harrison Bonney! You are hereby ordered to drop all weapons and surrender to Earl Jasper of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency immediately. I’ve got near 20 men here, and we’ve been deputized to bring you in, dead or alive. Don’t make this messy, Bonney. I know you’ve got your son with you!"

William looked around and saw that the posse hadn’t caught sight of him yet. He agonized for a split second that felt like an eternity, and made the most difficult decision of his life. He kicked the pin out of the harness holding the wagon, and vaulted onto his horse.

"Billy, you’ll be better off without my weight around your neck dragging you down." Just then, a shout let him know that the Pinkertons had caught sight of him. "Goodbye, Kid! HYAH!" He spurred his horse to a gallop and sped out of town, the Pinkertons hot on his trail.

The sun was high overhead, and William knew his chances were slim without water. His chances were slimmer being near the Pinkerton’s, however, so he spurred his horse toward Deseret. His thoughts, though, remained with a provision-filled wagon and a teary-eyed boy who would never see his father again. From that day forward, William "Billy" H. Bonney followed in his father’s footsteps, though he remained always…the Kid.

I don’t even know if anyone reads this blog and is a gamer in the Modesto area, but the town’s local game store is still around, believe it or not!  I say “believe it or not” because I can think of 3 locations this store has had, not including this one.  Every time it moves, I think it’s gone for good, and every time, I’m proven wrong.

These days, The New Gauntlet can be found on 8th street somewhat near the Kansas Rd. Overpass. They don’t have tons of stuff in stock, but are more than happy to order anything for you.  According to the dude I spoke to on Saturday, they make their orders on Tuesday and get their stuff in on Wednesday.  Most of the stuff they DO have in stock is d20 stuff from Wizards like D&D, etc.  They had some Ravenloft stuff.  A bunch of magazines, including Knights of the Dinner Table. They have lots of Games Workshop stuff for Warhammer 40k, and some other mini’s.  I even saw a bunch of issues of Dragon Magazine, now dead.

He also said that their space for gaming is available to the public, and is free.  I’m considering running a couple sessions of Aces and Eights for a friend of mine who is a new daddy.  He can’t make the drive to Oakdale every Friday, but might be able to make a couple of sessions near his home in downtown Modesto.

Anyway, this is a plug.  I love online gaming stores when I can’t find the Gauntlet, but I definitely support buying local when you can.  Now that I know where the Gauntlet is, I’ll be buying all my in-print stuff from them!

His number is (209) 578-5276, and he can be found at:

The New Gauntlet
1231 8th St. #250
Modesto, CA 95354

I’ve not mentioned this in awhile, and I don’t want any of you to think that my resolve to vote for an actual conservative this election has diminished or is wavering in any way.  In fact, McCain locking this GOP nomination just hammers home the need for change in the Republican Party!  Here’s the deal.

McCain is not conservative. Don’t look at how he’s positioning himself now, people.  Don’t look at what his people have said in the last year.  It’s pretty much mandatory that he now “LOOK” conservative.  He’s locked his liberal support.  He’ll lose some in this political repositioning, sure…but he’ll pick up more conservatives who are duped by his little image change.  Look at his voting record.  Look at the fact that he continues to oppose tax-cuts.  When Bush gave his across-the-board tax cuts, he complained that tax cuts were “for the rich”, which was an incredibly uninformed thing to say.  The fact of the matter is, his support among liberals ought to be enough to tell you that he’s not a conservative.  Liberals won’t support a truly conservative candidate.

I’m voting for Ron Paul. Why?  His economic policies make sense.  He favors small government; something that the Founding Fathers favored as well, having just shaken off the yoke of tyranny. He is conservative, and he stands for what I stand for.

I have been criticized for my position on my chosen candidate.  I’ve been told that Paul has no chance of winning, and thus I should not vote for him.  I don’t disagree with the premise, but I think the conclusion leaves a lot to be desired in the logic department.  Paul has no chance to win.  That doesn’t change the fact that I’m not supposed to vote for a candidate based on their chance to win.  I’m supposed to vote for who I think would make the best President of the most powerful nation on earth, and that is NOT a pseudo-conservative.  (I know, the popular term is “neo-conservative”, but I don’t like the term and I don’t use it.  “Neo-” means “new”, and that particular usage indicates that this is the new conservative outlook.  I disagree…it’s not conservative at all.  It’s liberalism in sheep’s clothing.  Hence, “pseudo-”.) 

I am voting for Paul because I am sick of the Republican party forsaking its values, and I’m not talking about anti-abortion, or anti-homosexual.  I’m against abortion and homosexuality is immoral, but those are primarily morality issues.  (Except for the fact that abortion is murder, of course.  Murder is also a morality issue that is only TRADITIONALLY a legal one…I expect that will change as progressives realize that without some moral framework based on something outside of themselves, they’ll stop supporting anti-murder laws.  They already feel that murder isn’t worthy of death…i.e. the punishment fitting the crime.)  The values of which I am speaking are small government, promoting success, and not punishing it, etc.  Those are values that the conservatives of America care about, and those are the issues that are steering me toward Paul and away from the pseudo-conservatives like McCain.

He won’t win, no.  I want his small percentage of votes to be a strong message to the Republican party that there are a lot of us out there who don’t even LIKE being associated with the GOP.  In fact, I’m only registered Republican so I could vote for Paul in the California primary.  I’m considering changing my registration now.

Vote for Paul.  Vote TRULY conservatively.

This post was inspired by this blog: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/05/ronpaulgop.html

I’m ALL FOR a GOP revolt.  Who’s with me?