December 31, 2004

Happy New Year

As I write this, donations to the American Red Cross via Amazon.com for tsunami disaster relief are approaching $10 million, given by more than 126,000 people in contributions averaging about $75. That's an amazing and heartwarming thing to keep in mind as 2004 winds to its inevitable end right on schedule and 2005 starts whether you're ready for it or not.

It was in the high 60s today in the Nashville area, with a partly cloudy sky. Rather nice for the last day of December.

We grilled out.

I was thinking about putting together a "2004 Greatest Hits," but I'm not going to. There were simply too many high points both for me as a blogger here at HobbsOnline this year. You can scan my monthly archives and pick your favorites.

As 2004 comes to a close, I refer you to this post by Jonathan & Amanda Witt regarding God and the tsunami, which captures in brief the reality of our world and God's place in it.

Christ participates in the suffering of the world. Was God present when the tsunami struck? Yes. He was stricken by it.

The Fix Was In

The "unbiased" Tennessee Tax Structure Study Commission rammed through its proposal for a state income tax and refused to allow any other reform proposals come to a vote, according to the just-published minority report from the Commission.

Three people on a blue-ribbon panel that studied Tennessee's tax system say they didn't get a chance to vote on anything but a state income tax. "It wasn't a very democratic process," said Julius Johnson, chief administrative officer of the Tennessee Farm Bureau. Earlier this month, Johnson was part of the minority that voted against an income-tax plan recommended by the Tennessee Tax Structure Study Commission.

A strongly worded minority report released yesterday as part of the Commission's 120-page Final Report (PDF file) said the process was rushed and members did not get a chance to vote on other alternatives, such as a statewide property tax or a higher tax on all registered vehicles. The report was signed by Johnson and two members who abstained during the vote, Nashville lawyer Dan Haskell and Knoxville accountant Will Pugh.

"I hate to be critical of tremendous individuals; however, the final proposal was somewhat ruthlessly pushed upon us without allowing for amendments or alternatives or so forth," Johnson said.

At the November meeting of the Commission, we believe the general agreement reached was that the Commission would file a report that recommended as follows:

1. the State sales tax be reduced to 6% for all items;
2. the State franchise tax be cut in half and real and tangible personal property be removed from the franchise tax base,
3. local governments be held harmless for the reduction in sales tax; and
4. three separate options would be offered for replacing the money lost due to the reductions in the sales and franchise taxes above. Those options would be

(a) a graduated income tax (similar to that ultimately included in the Motion approved on the 9th);
(b) a low State real property tax; or Page 93 of 118
(c) a tax on all registered vehicles, etc., which might include an exemption for vehicles beneath a certain value.

What actually happened during the Commission’s last meeting on the 13th was that the proposal subcommittee recommended that the reduction in sales tax be enlarged by reducing the sales tax on grocery food to 4%, thereby increasing the amount of revenue that would need to be replaced. Secondly, the recommendation proposed to repeal the Hall income tax which also increased the amount of revenue which would have to be replaced. Thereafter, rather than offering three alternative methods of funding the enlarged shortfall, it was proposed that only the income tax be offered as an alternative, at least partly because it is the only one of the alternatives that could raise enough money to cover the enlarged shortfall. In addition, the alternatives involving a low State property tax and a modest per-vehicle fee, instead of being stand alone options, were combined in a single proposal which is so obviously unacceptable as to be unrealistic.

Why TennCare Costs So Much

The Tennessee ACLU and "advocates" for TennCare recipients are fighting the state's efforts to crack down on fraud. The Tennessee Left: standing in the way of TennCare reform so you can continue to pay ever-higher taxes to support a bloated, wasteful, fraud-riddled program.

December 30, 2004

Tsunami: America Stingy?

Blogger Chuck Simmins has done some real digging - the kind mainstream journalists could do but probably won't - and has identified $127 million in donations for tsunami relief from American individuals and corporations - over and above funds offered by the U.S. government. Among the donors: Pfizer - one of those evil pharmaceutical companies, they only pledged $35 million) - along with Merck & Co., Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, Cisco Systems, Exxon Mobil, CitiGroup, Catholic Relief Services, Wells-Fargo, a handful of Silicon Valley companies you probably never heard of, Kaiser Permanente, CARE, and the rock/rap group Linkin Park. (They kicked in $100,000, almost enough to make me want to buy one of their records.)

And, as of this writing, tens of thousands of individual Americans have donated more than $6.7 million to the American Red Cross via Amazon.com. (Click the link for the latest total, and to donate.)

America is stingy? I think not. The UN bureau-rat who charged otherwise was wrong on two counts. First, the U.S. government's initial monetary announcements was just "seed capital" to get relief efforts going. Second, much of what Americans do for charities and disaster relief is done by individuals and private-sector businesses and organizations, not through the government. When the rest of the world gets that, they'll understand the true source of American wealth, power and generosity.

Tsunami Blogging

America can't win with some people. Yesterday, the mainstream media's meme was, America was stingy. Today, the story the MSM is carrying for the hate-America Left is that Bush's leadership of a coalition of countries on tsunami disaster relief is "undermining the UN.".

The southeast Asia tsunami death toll is now above 120,000. Amazon's American Red Cross donations crossed the $5 million mark at 12:30 p.m. Central time, about 4.5 hours hours after topping $4 million. For more places to donate, scroll down.

Der Spiegel reports: Bloggers at Front Line of Relief Efforts

One Paper Gets Blogging

The Riverside Press Entreprise totally gets what blogs are doing to mainstream journalism. You'll need to register with their site to read it (unless you have already registered with a the website of sister paper such as the Dallas Morning News) but it is worth the hassle.

David beat Goliath repeatedly in 2004, as a ragtag crowd of commentators on political Weblogs, most of them unpaid, hastened the retirement of a media icon and derailed a $300 million presidential campaign. Political bloggers shoved Dan Rather toward the door and brought John Kerry's political biography back to Earth. Not bad for a bunch of amateurs.

Yet 2004 was no fluke. Blogs are neither a fad, nor a creation of the vast, right-wing conspiracy. They're a cyberspace version of the 18th-century pamphleteers who defied the British crown and championed American independence - an online truth squad spanning the political spectrum that revels in revealing inaccurate reporting or misleading arguments. And bloggers will continue to dislodge entrenched elites so long as mainstream journalism rebukes rather than embraces them.

Blogs react to events as they occur. They can incorporate in postings background materials that are too detailed for a newspaper story or a TV broadcast. And the rough code of ethics that guides the most prominent political bloggers - their willingness to answer criticism and confess mistakes in real time so that they can uphold their reputation - could undermine the credibility of "old media" institutions that aren't comfortable saying, "We goofed."

... It's this "truth squad" aspect to blogging - a burning desire to separate facts from spin - that should give big media the willies. Bloggers don't pretend to be "fair and balanced." Many are partisan cheerleaders, nothing more.

But bloggers have reputations. As the "Instapundit," University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds, said of Rathergate: "For journalists of (Rather's) generation, admitting an error means admitting that you've violated people's trust. For bloggers, admitting an error means you've missed something, and now you're going to set it straight."

...Blogs can keep the mainstream media honest, by exposing stories driven by partisan agendas rather than the pursuit of truth.

The Press Enterprise must have read Hugh Hewitt's new book, Blog : Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World , which I'm urging all of my readers to also purchase and read. Five of my readers already have ordered a copy. Those five will be among the few who join the blog revolution that is undermining the old media monopoly and giving individuals a voice in the marketplace of ideas.

Tsunami: Death Toll Hits 100,000

The tsunami death toll in southeast Asia has topped 100,000. Scott Ott at ScrappleFace comments, "with the death toll now placed above 100,000, please join millions of Americans in showing the love of Christ to the survivors."

Donations to the American Red Cross via Amazon.com for tsunami disaster relief just topped $4 million (at 8:04 central time), with 67,290 individual donors having donated $4,000,153.11, an average of $59.44 per donor. Simply amazing. If you wish to help and haven't done so yet, consider donating either to the Red Cross via via Amazon or to World Vision - or give to the relief efforts of reputable religious organizations. And watch out for the inevitable Nigerian tsunami relief email scams.

UPDATE: Here are some more organizations to which you can donate for tsunami relief:

The Southern Baptist Convention is accepting financial gifts for aid through the SBC's International Missions Board disaster relief fund. Send gifts designated "Asia Earthquake Disaster Relief" to the International Mission Board, P.O. Box 6767, Richmond, VA 23230 (to give online, click here.) All funds given will go to relief efforts; none will be used for administrative costs.

Samaritan's Purse is accepting tsunami relief donations online here.

If you know of other reputable Christian organizations collecting donations for tsunami disaster relief, please send me the link.

December 29, 2004

Not Totally Gray

The Middle Tennessee area around Nashville is a reasonably picturesque place most of the year, but not in winter when the dominant color is gray. More than any other place I have ever lived, the skies remain gray for much of the winter here - even staying gray long after the latest snow or chilly rain storm has passed. So today's sun was a welcome site and I drove around for a half hour this afternoon (hoping to get this guy to fall asleep) in a mostly rural area of Williamson County, a suburb of Nashville, looking for picturesque scenes and found lots of grays and browns. Until the sun started dipping low and the sky started turning pink. Here are a few roadside shots from along Goose Creek Bypass and Columbia Highway.

1/60 sec, f/16

1/160 sec, f/16

1/80 sec, f/16

All of the photos were shot with a Canon EOS 6.3MP Digital Rebel and Canon's 28-135mm zoom lens, at the exposures provided above, with the camera set at ISO 1600 to compensate for the low light. The detail on the large versions of the pictures - 3,072 x 2,048 pixels - is extremely clear.

And yes, he fell asleep, and, as I write this almost two hours later is sleeping still. Too bad I gotta go wake him up to go to his Nana's house.

The Wrong Bill Hobbs

A reader named Ernie emailed:

I had a good buddy in the navy by the name of Bill Hobbs and I was wondering if it is you. U.S.S. John F. Kennedy CVA 67 in 1968-69, V3 Division. You would remember me as 'Goat' if it is you. Saw your HobbsOnline website and was wondering.

Tsunami Fundraising Update

The blogosphere's preeminent satirist, Scott Ott, is doing the Lord's work. And that's no joke. Meanwhile, Donald Sensing says there's already Nigerian email scams aimed at scamming folks out of their tsunami disaster relief donations. Be wary ... and stick to giving to the American Red Cross, or through your church or religious denomination, or through the Christian organization World Vision.

This Sounds Like a Bad Idea

"This is Sharia law introduced as a tax loop-hole." - George Miller explains... and Michelle Malkin has much more on the same topic.

"Our God Is Practical"

Amanda Witt's latest essay on Christianity, culture and God's practicality is a must-read.

Drug Taxes

The state of Tennessee will start taxing the sale of illegal drugs next year. This actually works - and is a pretty good idea, though it sounds a bit odd at first. The law will require sellers of illegal drugs to pay excise taxes, just legal businesses. Most drug-pushers won't comply, of course, but the law can be used to assess back taxes on dealers who are caught by law enforcement, adding an additional financial penalty to their crimes while also bringing in a few extra dollars for the state budget. While I'm generally opposed to tax increases, I would heartily support the legislature raising the excise tax on the sale of illegal drugs to 100 percent. They also ought to require drug-pushers to charge sales tax, and penalize them if they don't.

Tsunami Relief

Looking for a charity to give funds to in order to help with tsunami disaster relief? Several bloggers I respect, including Hugh Hewitt, Tod Bolsinger, and the Witts are suggesting World Vision. Meanwhile, more than 21,000 individual donors have donated more than $1 million to the American Red Cross via Amazon.com - well more than France has offered - and the amount and number of donors continues to climb second by second.

December 28, 2004

Tsunami

The death toll from the Indian Ocean tsunami has topped 59,000, and could double as disease and starvation take their toll on the decimated region. There's not much to say except pray and give. I'll be providing links in the days to come. Pray and give - and hug your children, your spouse or your parents a little longer tonight.

UPDATE: Amazon.com has set up a donations page for the American Red Cross. Do what I just did - after you donate, refresh the page several times and watch the collected amount rise rather rapidly as many other people do the same.

Blogs are playing a very important role in both disseminating information (and pictures and video) from the tsunami zone and in organizing fund-raising for relief efforts. I direct you to ScrappleFace, Instapundit, and Hugh Hewitt for further info on that, with more links to come.

Speaking of Hewitt, if you haven't yet ordered your copy of his new book, Blog : Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World , you should. Four of my readers already have, and more will. The book rose as high as #62 on Amazon's best-sellers chart without so much as one word of publicity in the mainstream media, thanks to widespread promotion in the blogosphere, thus proving the book's central point (the blogosphere is outperforming the old media and undermining its monopoly in the marketplace of ideas). Click the ad in the right sidebar to order your copy today.

The PC War

, a local Islamic community leader is offering free classes on Islam to dispel the notion that Islam is a religion of murdering terrorists.

When Awadh Binhazim holds diversity training in the Nashville area, he asks his students what comes to mind when they hear the word Muslim. Many say "murderer," "terrorist" or "bad religion."

To counter these beliefs, Binhazim and other leaders of the Islamic Center of Nashville will hold free weekly classes on Islam at Tennessee State University starting next month. As outreach director of the center, it's Binhazim's job to promote understanding of the Islamic faith in the community - one of the center's primary missions.

"We want to say to people that they can't use the actions of a few to judge the faith of 1.5 billion people," Binhazim said. "Our religion does not promote violence and doesn't accept anything related to terrorism."

Perhaps Binhazim will explain in his classes the underlying message of the words that appeared on the marquee of the Islamic Center of Nashville for several weeks earlier this year:

The sign irks me. If they'd put up "Pray to Allah for Peace," or something along those lines, fine. But the message "Enough Killing, Enough Revenge, Stop the War" strikes me as a call for America to stop the war, a war the sign-writer at the Islamic Center of Nashville apparently believes is mere "revenge" rather than a justified response to an act of war against us.

And are we to stop the war now, before al Qaeda is wiped from the earth, before Islamist wacko fundamentalists bent on making "holy war" (jihad) against us and killing we infidels, are defeated? Are we to stop the war before a murderous ideology that leads to things like 9/11 and the beheading of Nick Berg is defeated?

The equal truth about Islam - the hard truth - is that global terrorism these days is primarily committed by Muslims, and it is directed at Muslims and non-Muslims alike. And too few Muslims are fighting back.

When the peace-loving non-terrorism-supporting Muslims in America and around the world rise up in large numbers to fight the terrorists that murder in the name of Allah - and to denounce, discredit and destroy the ideology that propels them - the non-Muslim community will no longer have a hard time distinguishing between the two. And classes like Binhazim's will no longer be necessary. I pray - to God, not Allah - for that day to come quickly.

December 27, 2004

Christmas Contentment

How did you spend Christmas? Opening gifts and eating a feast in the comfort of a warm home with family or friends around? Ted Leichner, father of six and formerly a successful physician in the Nashville area, spent it in Iraq, by choice, and calls his deployment to Iraq "a gift from God." Hear the incredible story in this MP3 audio file - it starts at 32:35. [Windows Media video file here, Windows Media Audio here.]

The teller of the story comments,

You will never experience true contentment in Christ until you come to a place in your life where you are first discontent with what you've been able to do with your own resources in your own life. Because when you get to the end of yourself and you say, 'you know what? I am discontent,' that's when you are desperate enough to make some bold choices to place your faith in an abiding Christ and find your contentment in Him.

2004 is almost over. Do something eternally significant in 2005.

UPDATE: 2nd Lt. Lance Frizzell, who authors the Lance In Iraq blog that I host on BillHobbs.com server space, emailed me a photo of himself with Dr. Leichner who, it turns out, is the doctor in Frizzell's medical platoon. It's a small world.

A very small world: I know Lance through his civilian job as press secretary to the Republicans in the state Senate, and "Instapundit" Glenn Reynolds knows Lance because he plays sometimes with Audra and the Antidote, a Nashville punk band. And Lance knows Dr. Leichner because the two are deployed with the same unit in Iraq. But I don't know Dr. Liechner and I've never met Glenn Reynolds. I'm not sure, but I think Lance knows Kevin Bacon...

Four!

Ed Driscoll recounts the blogosphere's top-10 media-related stories and achievements of 2004 - and much to my surprise as I was reading through it I found that my blog was mentioned in item #4. As I just told Ed in an email, I didn't actually do the work he mentions - my readers did, by emailing me links to related stories that appeared in their local papers. My job - cutting, pasting and hitting the "publish" button - was the easy part.

Blogs and the Future of Journalism

Just ordered from Amazon: Hugh Hewitt's new book, Blog : Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World . Hewitt's book looks at how the blogosphere is smashing the old media monopoly - a very good thing in my book.

You may also notice that I'm running a blogad for the book. I haven't read it yet, but I understand the premise of the book and, from having spent a lot of time reading Hugh's weblog and his books In, But Not Of and If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat, I know it'll be good. Hewitt understands the blogosphere, the media and politics in ways Big Media doesn't. The smart folks in Big Media will read this book, but I suspect most of the mainstream media will ignore it. But you can read it - and then you can help smash the mainstream media's corrosive, biased and less-than-credible monopoly.

Also ordered from Amazon: Dan Gillmor's recent and well-reviewed book of similar focus, We The Media, which examines how through a variety of technologies, grassroots journalists are dismantling Big Media's monopoly on the news, transforming it from a lecture to a conversation.

Read 'em both.

Tennessee GOP Begs Wilder: "Pick" More Republicans

The weirdness that is Tennessee politics continues... Today's Nashville City Paper reports:

Lt. Gov. John Wilder has struck a deal with Republicans that could give them a majority share of the power in the new state Senate, Sen. Ron Ramsey said last week.

Though Republicans won an elected majority in the state Senate in November for the first time since Reconstruction, Wilder, a Somerville Democrat, is expected to remain speaker by anywhere from two to three Republican votes. The Republicans have a 17-16 majority.

Some have questioned whether Wilder, as a Democratic speaker serving over a Republican majority, would relinquish powerful committee chairs to the GOP. Currently there are five Democratic committee chairmen and four Republican.

By giving the Republicans an extra committee chair Wilder would be forced to unseat a fellow Democrat.

Ramsey (R-Blountville) said Wilder has indicated he would give the GOP a majority of the nine powerful standing committee chairs as well as a majority of members on each committee. The chair of a committee has the power to bring a bill forward or stall it. And a majority party has the power as a bloc to kill legislation.

"As close of an assurance as you can get from Gov. Wilder, we're going to have a majority of committee chairmanships and committee chairs," said Ramsey, who was elected the new majority leader by the Senate Republican Caucus last month.

Ramsey said the chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which controls the funding of all Senate legislation, should also be Republican. But Wilder has refused to do so, he said.

"Wilder isn't committing to that but we feel it's important to have the chair of the Finance Committee," Ramsey said. Others maintain Sen. Douglas Henry (D-Nashville), who has chaired the committee for years, will continue to do so.

UPDATE: This post had an embedded video (of Wilder picking his nose and, uh, eating the booger, during a public Senate hearing) but the link is dead and the video no longer available on Steve Gill's website, so I removed it. But if you can picture it in your mind, ask yourself this: how embarrassing is it that Ramsey and his fellow Republicans in the state Senate are having to beg Wilder to 'pick me! pick me!'? The question is self-answering.

December 25, 2004

Christmas Scenes

Doll

Tricycle Motor

I think I love Christmas morning more now as a parent of two small children than I ever did when I was a child. I like being Santa.

As joy-filled and fun as it is to give simple gifts of toys to my children, I can barely imagine the joy God must have felt when He gave us his son. For a picture of that , I refer you to Jeff Cornwall.

Mary, Did You Know

Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Would one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy
Has come to make you new?
This child that you deliver will soon deliver you.

Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Would give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Would calm a storm with his hands?
Did you know that your baby boy
Has walked where angels trod?
And when you kissed your little baby,
You kissed the face of God.
Oh, Mary, did you know?
Mary, did you know?

The blind will see, the deaf will hear,
The dead will live again;
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak
The praises of the lamb.

Oh, Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Is Lord of all creation?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy
Was heaven's perfect lamb?
That the sleeping child you're holding
Is the great I Am?

Merry Christmas

The gifts we give and receive today pale in comparison to the incomparable and undeserved gift God gave the world 2,000 years ago, the gift of His son, whose actual birthdate is unknown except to God but which Christians the world over choose to celebrate today.

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

The Meaning of Christmas

Most people think of Luke 2 or the other passages in the gospels describing the birth of Christ as "the Christmas story." But the meaning of Christmas is found in Philippians 2:3-11. [Windows Media video file]

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

December 23, 2004

Blizzard Blogging

Apparently, there is a big snowstorm hammering a large swath of America. Here's a blizzard-blogging photo report from Nashville:

South of Nashville, just enough snow fell to make you think we might have a White Christmas, but it'll probably be mostly melted by Christmas morning. Click pic to enlarge

Ornery

What do Drudge, Wonkette, the Smoking Gun, and I have in common? We're all on the list of daily web checks by local teevee anchor/reporter Neil Orne. I get everything on his list except NTSB.gov. (Next time I update the blogroll, Orne's blog is going on it. WKRN seems to be starting to do some interesting things with the 'net. By the way, a thanks to Orne for mentioning Lance Frizzell's new blog Lance In Iraq on his blog.

An Oasis in the Desert

The Washington Times, USA Today and a host of Tennessee teevee news stations and local newspapers have all mentioned Lance Frizzell's new blog, Lance in Iraq, hosted here at billhobbs.com. Scroll through the inspring comments to this post. I'm as pleased as I could be with the response Lance's blog has gotten - and how it has become an oasis of hope for family members of people serving in the 278th.

December 21, 2004

WSMV

WSMV Channel 4 News did an excellent story last night on Lance Frizzell's blog from northern Iraq, a blog hosted here at billhobbs.com. The AP version of the Knoxville News Sentinel's story from yesterday is on WSMV's website, where you'll also find a link to the video of the story that aired on the news. You should also log on to Lance's blog and read through the comments, where you'll find many messages from people with relatives serving in the 287th armored cavalry along with Lance. The comments are awe-inspiring.

UPDATE: Click this link to see the WSMV story. I don't know how long they archive stories.

December 20, 2004

Merry Christmas To Me

Arrived today via the big brown truck: my new Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens.

Which of course makes me very happy - except that the camera body of my new Canon EOS 6.3MP Digital Rebel won't be here until tomorrow. The bank that issued the credit card that I used to pay for it didn't process the charge until I contacted them to verify that, indeed, it was I who was buying it, not someone fraudulently using my card. While I'm pleased that they are being vigilant against credit card fraud in online shopping, it means I can't start playing with my new digital camera until tomorrow. Which, actually, is okay because I forgot to order one of these.

Ah, but when it all gets here, I'll probably start blogging more about digital photography. It seems to bring Glenn a lot of traffic.

(And yes, I did blog a few months ago that I had ordered a digital camera. I did - from B&H Photo. It arrived, and then my car and my wife's car both needed extensive work, costing about what the camera cost, so I returned it. I'm glad I did, even though I had to wait a few months to get the camera. Turns out, I could get it less expensively through Amazon.com. And, on top of that, Canon started offering generous rebates. And, because this website is an affiliate of Amazon.com, I also got a referral commission of 8 percent on the sale. In all, I got the same camera and a better lens for about $100 less. If you have a website, try to become an Amazon affiliate - if only to lower the price of things you buy for yourself: Amazon will be paying me a $102 on the camera and lens. Not a bad deal. Not a bad deal at all.)

Zero to 60 in 2.4 Seconds

Lance Frizzell's blog from Iraq is off and running thanks to an Instapundit link in its first week and, now, a nice sendoff from Michael Silence, a reporter for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, in a front-page report in today's paper. Frizzell, a Tennessee National Guardsman, is blogging from Iraq on a blog I host here at BillHobbs.com. Excerpt:

Second Lt. Lance Frizzell is with the Knoxville-based 278th Regimental Combat Team and is a medical platoon leader. "My goal with the blog (besides having some fun) is to try to bring a little peace of mind to the families of 278th soldiers. There's a lot of little things happening over here that do make life safe and comfortable, even enjoyable," Frizzell said in an e-mail. Frizzell, 34, a Murfreesboro native, started posting from Northern Iraq last week.

"I think Lance is the only Tennessee soldier blogging," said veteran blogger and University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds. "I think it is nice that people get to hear from people who are in the middle of it everyday," said Reynolds, who has what is generally considered the most-read blog in the world, www.instapundit.com.

Frizzell said his blog is not being censored by the military, although there are restrictions. "Everything is OK except text/pictures that reveal exact locations or compromise security or get someone hurt," he said.

In the e-mail, Frizzell said, "Most soldiers I talk to say the worst thing about being deployed is nothing you personally experience over here, it's the worry your family goes through. "So when the 'hillbilly armor' story broke, I thought the blog could dispel some of that fear and apprehension."

Frizzell, who before being deployed was the press secretary for House Republicans the Tennessee General Assembly, is also taking pictures and posting them on his blog.

Lance's brother has a more mature perspective.

P.S., By the way - all of the Humvees of the 278th were up-armored just one day after that soldier from Chattanooga asked Rumsfeld the question hear 'round the world. The "lack of armor" story was more a media hoax than an actual crisis - there were only 20 un-armored vehicles awaiting armor in the 278th (out of 830 vehicles) the day Rumsfeld was asked the question, and up-armoring the vehicles was on schedule to be completed the next day. Donald Sensing has the details and links.

UPDATE: A guy I go to church with, Rick Poirier, is by sheer coincidence deployed to Iraq also with the 278th. He's a 1 Lt. with the 190th Engineering Company, 386th Engineering Battalion, attached to the 278th, and stationed at Forward Operating Base Caldwell.

December 19, 2004

A Place of Wonder

My cousin Jonathan Witt, who recently started a blog (along with his wife Amanda), has a column published in Thursday's Seattle Times on the recent admission by famed atheist philosopher Antony Flew that the theory of evolution has not addressed a critical question, leaving the door open for the existence of a creator. Excerpt follows, though you really ought to read the whole thing...

If we trace evolution backwards, we reach a primitive single cell from which nothing simpler could survive and reproduce. How did it come to be? This first cell must be produced by something other than natural selection — a point Darwin readily conceded.

Those eager to expunge God's fingerprints from nature weren't concerned by this shortcoming in Darwin's material explanation for life, because Darwin and his contemporaries thought a single cell was a simple blob of protoplasm. How hard could it be for nature to randomly produce something so simple?

In those days the cell was a black box, a mystery. But in the 20th century, scientists were able to open that black box and peek inside. There they found not a simple blob, but a world of complex circuits, miniaturized motors and digital code. We now know that even the simplest functional cell is almost unfathomably complex, containing at least 250 genes and their corresponding proteins.

Explains New Zealand geneticist Michael Denton, each cell "is in effect a veritable micro-miniaturized factory containing thousands of exquisitely designed pieces of intricate molecular machinery, made up altogether of one hundred thousand million atoms."

The odds of a primordial soup randomly burping up even one protein strand of moderate length are dramatically less than one chance in 10{+1}{+5}{+0}.

It's hard to grasp how long these odds are - one followed by 150 zeros. We know that a lot of strange things can happen in a place as big and old as our universe, but as mathematician and philosopher William Dembski explains in the Cambridge University Press book "The Design Inference," the universe isn't remotely big enough, old enough, or fast enough to generate that much complexity.

Nor have attempts to explain this complexity as the natural outworking of the laws of nature proven successful. The best explanation? Intelligent design.

Most contemporary biologists will have none of this. Harvard geneticist Richard Lewontin is refreshingly open about their reason. He admits their prior commitment to see only material causes forces them to "produce material explanations, no matter how counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that Materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door."

Lewontin's approach isn't science. It's dogma. Flew's method is more objective. He has decided to follow the evidence wherever it leads. "It now seems to me," he says, "that the findings of more than 50 years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design."

Such evidence has drawn Flew from atheism to a non-specific theism. He isn't ready to accept the God of a particular religion, nor does he believe in an afterlife. The change is, nevertheless, significant. He no longer inhabits a worldview where the miraculous and the irrational are synonymous.

The amazing complexity of even the simplest cell; the information-bearing properties of DNA; the exquisite fine-tuning of the laws and constants of physics that make organic life possible; the Big Bang of the cosmos out of nothing — these signs of intelligence do not compel our belief in a God who thundered from Mount Sinai, lay in a manger or hung from a cross. But the evidence does have metaphysical implications, drawing us to a still place of wonder where such notions can be reasonably entertained.

December 17, 2004

Call for Income Tax Spurs Legislative Action

The Tennessee Tax Structure Study Commission's recommendation that the legislature levy a new income tax is already spurring legislative activity - to pass an amendment to the state constitution to explicitly ban the income tax. Hah.

(For a full treatment of the constitutionality of a state income tax in Tennessee, scroll down to my Dec. 15 post titled "Liars," or click here. You should also visit my Taxpayers Bill of Rights and Tennessee Budget & Tax Policy archives.

It's A Small World

I know Lance Frizzell via my blog coverage of Tennessee politics and his civilian job as press secretary to the House Republican Caucus in the state legislature. Glenn Reynolds, a/k/a the Instapundit, knows Lance because of he plays with a Nashville rock band. Now the world knows Lance Frizzell as a member of the 278th Regimental Combat Team, blogging from Iraq. The blogosphere: Make the small world smaller all the time.

December 16, 2004

Myth or Truth 2

More discussion of the Virgin Birth here from Donald Sensing and also here from Tod Bolsinger

Lance In Iraq

Lance Frizzell has started blogging from Iraq. He's with the 278th Regimental Combat Team, Tennessee National Guard, and has some thoughts about "hillbilly armor" and what the fallout might be from the flap over armor for Humvees.

I am proud to host Lance's new blog, and invite you to read it often, and also to pray for Lance's safety (and all Americans in Iraq).

RedState Makes It Official

While blogs became political players in the last election, the group blog RedState.org is making it official by becoming a 527. A blogohistoric first? By the way, RedState needs donations fast.

December 15, 2004

From Blogs to Books

I haven't got my book deal yet, but ... memo to book publishers - I'm sitting on a great idea for a political self-help book unlike anything that's come before. Contact me via the email address you'll find over there on the left.

Myth or Truth?

Tod Bolsinger defends the historicity of the virgin birth of Jesus. Read the whole thing. And don't miss the much-longer series of posts from Mark D. Roberts on the same topic - The Birth of Jesus: Hype or History?. Roberts' Advent picture calendar is pretty cool too. If there's a better preacher's blog out there than these, I haven't seen them.

Meanwhile, Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost has written a provocative essay suggesting Christians stop battling when the forces of secularism sue to remove nativity scenes and other accoutrements of Christmas from the public square. What would Jesus have us do?

Flew the Coop?

Has famous atheist philosopher Antony Flew really said scientific evidence suggests that life and the universe are the product of intelligent design? Jonathan Witt has the details. Excerpt...

The dogmatic materialists at Rationalist International don't want to let go of former atheist Antony Flew.

The man Richard Carrier of Secular Web calls "one of the most renowned atheists of the 20th century" now says scientific evidence suggests that life and the universe are the product of intelligent design. To counter the plain facts of this development, Rationalist International has constructed a "news bulletin" prominently dated Dec. 12. The news bulletin has everything but news.

The Flew material they quote is two months old. And Flew's article they post is three years old. But they claim, "It is still now his latest official position in this regard." Flew's most recent statements to the AP and to the journal Philosophia Christi show otherwise.

"I think the argument to Intelligent Design is enormously stronger than it was when I first met it," Flew says. He accepts only the God of Aristotle or Jefferson, the unspecified designer of philosophy, but that in no way compromises his growing appreciation for the science of intelligent design. As Flew also says, "It now seems to me that the findings of more than fifty years of DNA research have provided materials for a new and enormously powerful argument to design."

Priorities

Tennessee's State Funding Board, a group of economists and lawmakers, projects Tennessee's tax revenue will grow by about $300 million in fiscal year 2005-06 (which doesn't begin until July 1, 2005). A few months ago, they had projected it would grow by about $400.

Three years ago, The Tennessean, would have reported this as a looming budget "deficit" and editorialized in favor of then-Gov. Don Sundquist's call for a tax increase and a new state income tax. But not anymore. Now, with a governor in office who has opposed raising taxes, the paper reports it simply as matter of setting spending "priorities."

And they're right. The truth is, forecasters expect revenue to meet projections this fiscal year, and to grow by between 3.65% and 4.4% in fiscal year 2005-06, which would bring in an estimated $284 million to $344 million in new money for the state during that budget cycle.

That's reasonably healthy revenue growth, and will come on top of this year's revenue growth, and provide the state plenty of money to balance the budget, provided the governor is able to reform TennCare or pull the plug on it.

I've written often about the State Funding Board, which has a lousy track record at revenue forecasting. As I wrote two years ago this week:

Why is it when revenues don't match estimates, it is always portrayed as the fault of the revenue? Isn't it really the fault of those who made the estimate?

After all, tax revenue is the natural result of the natural economic activity of 5.6 million Tennesseans. The estimate is an artificial number created by the five-member State Funding Board - the governor, secretary of state, comptroller of the treasury, state treasurer, and commissioner of the Department of Finance