Longing for home
In his Daily Devotional for February 1st (free registration required), Pastor Greg Laurie talks about a homesickness for heaven.
You were created to know God. You were created to go to heaven. God has put this homing instinct in you, and it will only be satisfied when you see Him face to face. Are you ready to do that? Are you ready to go home?
Wahhabists running amok
From the "Religion of Peace" Department, Jeff Jacoby:
In which country are Muslims being taught the following lessons?
"Everyone who does not embrace Islam is an unbeliever and must be called an unbeliever... . One who does not call the Jews and the Christians unbelievers is himself an unbeliever."
"Whoever believes that churches are houses of God...or that what Jews and Christians do constitutes the worship of God...is an infidel."
To offer greetings to a Christian at Christmas -- even to wish "Happy holidays" -- is "a practice more loathsome to God...than imbibing liquor, or murder, or fornication."
Jews "are worse than donkeys." They are the corrupting force ""behind materialism, bestiality, the destruction of the family, and the dissolution of society."
Muslims who convert to another religion "should be killed because [they] have denied the Koran."
Democracy is "responsible for all the horrible wars" of the 20th century, and for spreading "ignorance, moral decadence, and drugs." If you guessed Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, or any host of Muslim nations, well, you'd probably be right. But the point of the article is that it's happening here in the States.
94
Today would have been President Ronald Reagan's 94th birthday. Jeff Harrell:
President Reagan meant a lot to me. I never met the man, nor did I ever vote for him; I was two weeks shy of my eighth birthday when he was first elected to the White House. But growing up in the Reagan era, I couldn't help but be influenced by his policies, his philosophies and most of all his presence. He was just there, like a permanent fixture, and I grew up around him. Likewise with me. I vividly remember President Reagan's first inauguration, watching the coverage on television the afternoon and evening after I got home from school. First, at the sitter who take care of several children after school while their parents were still working, and later, with my parents, over dinner. As with Jeff, President Reagan has influenced me even more as I got older, and took more of an interest in politics. Many consider FDR the greatest president of the 20th century, but I would have to disagree. FDR offered shorter-term solutions to short-term problems that have blossomed in to a monster federal bureaucracy. FDR may have done most of the work toward winning the Second World War, but he did so while allowing the evil influence of communism to spread throughout Asia, Eastern Europe, and even within the ranks of his own administration. He left us the Cold War. Which Reagan won. The left called Reagan crazy, a cowboy (sound familiar?), one who would get us in to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Instead, Reagan won victory after victory after victory against the Soviets, without a missile ever being launched. At the same time, he oversaw the greatest eight-year period of growth our nation has ever enjoyed. For me, and many others, it's Ronald Wilson Reagan who stands on the shoulders of giants in the 20th century.
On the Gonzales confirmation vote
Hispanic-Americans, take note. The party which claims to have your interests at heart, the party which claims to be the tolerant one, the party which claims to be racially-inclusive: only 6 of 42 Democrat Senators voted for the first-ever Hispanic Attorney General of the United States. But the Republican President who nominated him is a racist.
A Democrat who supports private accounts for Social Security
John Fund, in today's Political Diary:
Republican members of Congress have a ready response for Democrats crying foul over President Bush's constant references to Franklin Roosevelt and other icons of liberalism to bolster his call for Social Security reform.
They note that in an address to Congress on January 17, 1935, President Roosevelt foresaw the need to move beyond the pay-as-you-go financing of the current Social Security system. "For perhaps 30 years to come funds will have to be provided by the States and the Federal Government to meet these pensions," the president allowed. But after that, he explained, it would be necessary to move to what he called "voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age." In other words, his call for the establishment of Social Security directly anticipated today's reform agenda: "It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans," FDR explained.
"What Roosevelt was talking about is the need to update Social Security sometime around 1965 with what today we would call personal accounts," says one top GOP member of the Ways and Means Committee. "By my reckoning we are only about 40 years late in addressing his concerns on how make Social Security solvent."
Intelligent Design "new"
In the Beginning
"How did life, in its infinite complexity, come to be?" asks Newsweek in a subheadline. "A controversial new theory called 'intelligent design' asserts a supernatural agent was at work."Apparently the Old Testament isn't on Lexis-Nexis, or Newsweek's fact-checkers would have realized this isn't actually a new theory.
Ocean, pool, pool, ocean
Based on this photo, should I ever get Down Under, I'm making a mental note to not go swimming in the Bondi Icebergs pool...
A thousand words, indeed
Jeff Harrell sums up my feelings from the State of the Union. I cried, too, Jeff.
Looking for love in all the wrong places
Apparently, the Democratic Party is ready to lose the next couple of election rounds as well. Jeff Jacoby:
Speaking to a DNC forum in New York over the weekend, Dean indulged once again in some of the undisguised loathing of the GOP that was such a hallmark of Democratic Party activism last year. "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for," he told the audience, "but I admire their discipline and their organization."
I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for. Not "I oppose the Republicans and everything they stand for." Not "I'm determined to beat the Republicans." Not "I reject the Republican message." No -- Dean wants it understood that he hates the Republicans and all their works. That is the banner under which he is marching as a candidate to lead his party.
[...]
There is a reason Dean didn't win a single Democratic presidential primary apart from Vermont's, and it isn't that he wasn't incendiary enough. The last thing his party needs now is what Democrats rejected last year: a short-fused ranter who thrills the die-hards, but sends moderates racing for the exit.
About that PowerBook G5
So my previous rumination on the G5 in a PowerBook and the Mac Mini bears a little updating. On Monday, Apple announced new PowerBook G4s, showing the G4 processor still has plenty of life left in it as they bumped up the top speed to 1.67 GHz. CNET looks at the expected PowerBook G5:
The computer maker is well aware that Mac fans want a G5 PowerBook, and technically, the company could offer one now. But given the relatively power-hungry nature of the IBM PowerPC 970FX processor--Apple has dubbed the 970FX and its predecessor, the 970, "G5" chips--a G5 PowerBook would require compromises in size, weight and other aesthetics such as noise production. Apple, and likely most of its customers, wouldn't be willing to live with that. So while the G5 works in the iMac form factor, not so much in the PowerBook's. Which means not so much in a Mac Mini, perhaps not even within the possible timetable I outlined earlier. Which is why I'm not in the rumor business.
AutoPO
Has the United States Postal Service installed one of the new automated postal machines in your local branch? They have in ours, and I wish they had about five more, so I wouldn't have to deal with people at all. Not that the Postal workers at our branch are rude or anything. They're actually quite nice. It's just that we have a busy branch, and only a single automated postal machine. Which is usually occupied by a lone individual with a dozen different packages, all a unique size and weight. I've taken to using the post office a bit more as of late for some of my minor shipping needs, and without fail, every time I go in, the automated system is being dominated by a person fitting the above description. By the time I wait in the eight-person-deep line to see one of the three desk workers, I'm getting to a live human the same time the automation-using yokel finishes. If there were more automated machines, I could have been out the door much sooner.
Boingo for Mac
In case you aren't a T-Mobile HotSpot subscriber, you can now use your Macintosh on the Boingo Wireless network. I can't get the word "Oingo" out of my head now.
Microsoft overrun by the iPod
MacMinute notes a Wired article showing how despite the best efforts of management, Microsoft employees know a clear winner when they see one. [Thanks, Lee.]
PulpFiction nabs 4.5 mice
So the March issue of Macworld arrived today, and I was reading through it over lunch. One of the articles is a round-up of news reader apps, and congratulations are in order to Erik and Company for PulpFiction being awarded four and a half mice. Erik, has, however, beat me to the punch with the news. That's okay, I'm still using NetNewsWire. ;-) Kudos, amigo!
So, yeah, I was <i>stupid</i>
Enormously, incredibly stupid. Michael was right. I was insane. I am man enough to admit such. No more blogging at Godblog or digitalpembroke. (I do not link to the former because that domain will eventually go bye-bye, but do to the latter because I will keep it; it was my first domain, my first blog, my online baby.) So while Retrophisch will maintain its focus on Macs and technology, items that were previously reserved for the above blogs, plus the already-retired Ludichris and Forty Caliber, may find their way here as well. Fear not, dear reader. Those other blogs were woefully underposted to begin with, which was what led to their retirement. You will not see a sudden influx of firearms or political-based postings. There are other bloggers doing a far better job than I on those topics. Yeah, there are bloggers doing a far better job on pretty much any topic I choose to cover. So I'm an egomaniacal narcissist at heart. All bloggers are. ;-)
Quiet bliss
The little phisch is at school. The dog is at the cleaners. The cats are off napping some where, since that's what cats do, when they're not sitting on the magazine you're reading, leaving hair in your keyboard as they walk across the desk, or cheating death by racing under the dog's chin. In other words, it's very quiet around the house right now. I am getting an amazing amount of online reading done at the moment. God, I need a job.
Is Gmail reaching saturation?
Tom notes logging in to his Gmail account this morning, and finding 50 invitations to offer to others. This prompted me to do the same, wondering if I would also have 50 invites, seeing as how the last time I looked at my Gmail account, I still had 4 from the previous 6 given to me still available. Sure enough, there's the little box, just like Tom has in his post, with 50 invites ready to go. How am I supposed to get rid of this many invites? Has Gmail already reached a saturation level, and it's not even out of its invitation-only beta program? Maybe it's just me; I have a fairly close-knit group of online friends, with a slightly larger group of acquaintances. Everyone in these two groups who wants a Gmail account already has one. Heck, the reason I have a Gmail account is because one of my friends pointed me to a post by Tom offering Gmail invites back when they were hard to come by, and this is how he and I began chatting. (FYI: my winning funny is #2 in the comments.) I've had a hard enough time unloading the last six invites Google gave me. I've joined Gmail for the Troops, but have yet to unload any invites that way. My own attempt to have fun while giving out invites met with one whole reader taking me up on the offer. So now I've got 50 invites. Want one?
Mac Mini to cannibalize older Mac sales
Yeah, I know, there's a shocker of a realization, right? But it's true. Since the Mac Mini was announced, I've had many instant message conversations with current Mac die-hards who see the Mini as a great second, third, or even fourth system in their home or office, for xyz kind of use. The kinds of use that would normally be reserved for a two- or three-generation-old Macintosh. For myself, I was thinking a Mac Mini would be the best way to transition my grandmother to OS X. She's currently running OS 9.2.2 on a Power Mac 8500 I got dirt cheap from a fellow ATPM staffer, and that was when the iMac G4 was brand new. I had been thinking that a blue-and-white G3 would be the next step up for her (she already has a monitor, so an iMac would be overkill), but now I'm thinking why bother with that? All she needs is the $499 Mini and a RAM upgrade, and she's good to go. Everyone knows that Steve could care less that the Mac Mini is going to cannibalize those older Mac sales, especially among the more savvy, long-time Mac users out there who know better than to pay most of the prices one sees on eBay. Apple needs to move units, and for those sort of Mac users, Mac Minis aren't going to cannibalize Power Mac G5, PowerBook, or even iMac sales. Certainly not enough for Apple to not have come out with the Mini. Apple doesn't care about the so-called "gray market" of its products' sales, because those products are already out of Apple's inventory. The Mac Mini is the here and now, and that's what counts.