International Burn a Koran Day = Bad Idea

Bad idea = huge understatement

Someone serving in the Middle East sent me an e-mail today asking me to comment on this whole Koran burning nonsense. She can't comment as she's currently living in a conservative Muslim country in which it would be unwise to even mention burning the Koran and Americans burning the Koran will only make her work harder.

I decided to go directly to the church's website to find out exactly what they were doing and why. The church is called Dove World Outreach Center, located in Gainesville, FL. I read through their reasoning. You can read it for yourself at their website: doveworld.org. Be sure to read "Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran" and "5 More Reasons to Burn the Koran."

Having read the website, I don't know what to say. It's so sincere. I guess that makes it even sadder.

There are probably thousands of Christians working among Muslims right now; giving a helping hand, rebuilding homes, rebuilding lives, teaching freedom - the freedom of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins - and giving a face to Christianity other than American materialism.

And then along comes this little band of Koran-burners fanning the flames of hate between the two religions. And of course, the media is all in a tizzy to cover it.

The best thing we could all do is ignore it, but it's too late for that. So perhaps instead we can focus on those thousands of other Christians who are making a positive change in the Muslim world. The best way we can fight this kind of madness is to support those doing it the right way.

I won't post how here, but I can hook you up with some ways to make positive change by supporting those involved. Just ask me.

Lastly, I would encourage those of you who are reading this who happen to be followers of Jesus to be careful how you respond to the Koran burning church. Don't be fooled into thinking that demeaning them and/or showing hatred towards them sets you apart from them. It doesn't. It sets you on the same wrong side of the debate.

They're not idiots, they're not morons and they're not some sort of lunatic fringe. They are just like many of your neighbors. This is the view that most of the world has of us. Making fun of them doesn't change this opinion. Only giving a positive alternative example can do that.

(Photo: from http://www.doveworld.org/the-sign)

Not Quite So Depressed

The current economic crisis isn't as bad as you think.

It's funny. For Angie and I, our economic situation is whole lot better than it was one or two years ago, so with the exception of my continuing unemployement, things seem to be alright.

That's not the point I want to make, though. I read an article from the WSJ online's opinion section about Obama's rhetoric on the economic downturn. I've copied a large chunk below because the statistics are pretty clear.

The latest survey pegs U.S. unemployment at 7.6%. That's more than three percentage points below the 1982 peak (10.8%) and not even a third of the peak in 1932 (25.2%). You simply can't equate 7.6% unemployment with the Great Depression.

Other economic statistics also dispel any analogy between today's economic woes and the Great Depression. Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose in 2008, despite a bad fourth quarter. The Congressional Budget Office projects a GDP decline of 2% in 2009. That's comparable to 1982, when GDP contracted by 1.9%. It is nothing like 1930, when GDP fell by 9%, or 1931, when GDP contracted by another 8%, or 1932, when it fell yet another 13%.

Auto production last year declined by roughly 25%. That looks good compared to 1932, when production shriveled by 90%. The failure of a couple of dozen banks in 2008 just doesn't compare to over 10,000 bank failures in 1933, or even the 3,000-plus bank (Savings & Loan) failures in 1987-88. Stockholders can take some solace from the fact that the recent stock market debacle doesn't come close to the 90% devaluation of the early 1930s.

You can read the complete article here.

Now, before you comment, don't get caught up in some sort of an I-hate-Obama/I-love-Obama debate. Let's talk about the numbers.

The Idiotic-Hot Scale

A blogger I don't know has posted about the Glade Lady and asks the question, Is the Glade Lady hot or idiotic?

I don't think the choice is so clear. It's not dualistic, it's multidimensional. There are innumerable points along the scales hot and idiotic. The Glade Lady could be both or even neither. I would suggest a graph such as the one below to answer the question.
We could argue where the Glade Lady actually lies on this chart, but I don't think she's as hot as most of my readers do.

Nothing against Dori Kelley.

Related Posts:

The Glade Lady's Web of Lies
That Glade Commercial Madness
Dori Kelly - The Glade lady
The Glade Lady Crosses a Line

Reasons Why I Love/Hate the Internet

My new obsession has been finding television programs on the Internet. I found a link a few weeks ago which hosts various TV programs, but as it turns out, there isn't any television out there that I want to watch that I'm not already watching. I watched a couple episodes of HBO's Rome, but I found it very, very dull, so I quit watching and I quit searching for TV on the Internet.

That is until I saw an ad for something called Secret Satellite. For just $67, I could get access to thousands of satellite TV stations from around the world. I was intrigued, but I didn't want to pay $67 and I certainly didn't want to pay it for something I knew I would never really watch. A couple of days later I just searched for "free satellite." Lo and behold, I found wwiTV.com! It lists hundreds of international satellite channels which one can watch for free! No $67 needed.

Since I found it, I've been watching RTL 102.5 from Italy nonstop. It's a music channel I used to watch when I was in Iraq. It's pretty great. There's a bunch of other stuff, too, but I pretty much just watch the one channel.

One other thing I found on the website was an ad for PeekVid. PeekVid hosts a huge number of TV shows, movies, comedy bits, cartoons, etc. available for viewing. Yesterday, I watched The Queen. It was fantastic. I thought I had struck video gold!

Then today I tried to watch Accepted for a little comic relief. Each movie is posted in a number of segments. The Queen had 3, Accepted had 5 (I think) and The Devil Wears Prada (more on that later) has about 6. Anyways, The Queen worked perfectly. Accepted? Not so much. Only the first segment worked! Now what am I supposed to do? I am mildly interested now.

Tonight, I tried to watch The Devil Wears Prada. I went through some of the movies to check which links worked and which didn't. Well, TDWP worked, but I soon found out that they only posted about half of the movie! I mean, Andrea had to get a steak from a restaurant that wasn't open and get an advance copy of the new Harry Potter book for the twins and I have no idea whether she can pull it off. I think she can, but I'll never know now.

In the previous paragraph, I mention that "they" only posted half the movie. I have to be honest, I don't know who "they" are. I think "they" may have been bootleggers who posted The Queen. I'm not sure about the other items I've watched. It's the brave new world of the Internet, I guess.

And I know I can't blame the Internet, but I also tried to watch An Inconvenient Truth starring Al Gore. I will not be debating global warming here on 13Months, but, man, that movie is boring. I also found problems with the graph he uses as the centerpiece of his whole discussion. I mean, I'm sure the science behind the theories of global warming are sound, but his graph is not and the argument he uses to support the graph are not. He successfully describes a correlation between CO2 and temperature, but not any type of cause and effect relationship. In fact, his graph showing temperature and CO2 levels over time shows them rising and falling together with no lag. This either means that the very moment CO2 levels change temps do too or points to a third factor which causes the two to act so similarly.

Again, I am not trying to discount global warming, rather I'm pointing out that I didn't like former VP Gore's graph or his movie. I was too distracted by the graph.

I would also like to take this chance to point out that, no matter how many times he tries to tell me otherwise, Al Gore lost the 2000 election according the the law of the United States. The founding fathers created the Electoral College to separate presidential elections from the popular vote, and that's been the law for over 200 years. Let it go, Mr. Gore. Let it go.