Questions for Cultural Artifacts

I have started to read "Culture Making" by Andy Crouch. In the first chapter he mentions five questions to be asked about cultural artifacts that I find to be a revealing and worthy excercise.

1. What does this cultural artifact assume about the way the world is.
2. What does this cultural artifact assume about the way the world should be?
3. What does this crultural artifact make possible?
4. What does this cultural artifact make impossible (or at least very difficult)?
5. What new forms of culture are created in response to this artifact?

New Links

I am updating my links based on the blogs I have been reading that I find helpful.

Popular Mechanics has a lot of helpful tips (especially for men) and even had an article a while back that discredited much of the 911 conspiracy theory. There is an extensive archive of the old issues here.

Works and Days is a social commentary by historian Victor Davis Hanson. He has written quite extensively on classical history and history of war. You might call him a conservative. He has more articles here.

Greg Mankiw wrote my Economics textbook (Mine is an earlier edition). Brilliant man. I am not sure were he leans politically, but he makes a lot of sense and can dumb things down for the rest of us.

Ben Stein. Need I say more? Ok, Ben Stein on economics.

Instapundit being mostly political (with some entertainment mixed in) and leaning conservative. Updated very frequently.

22 Words is Abraham Piper's blog of brevity. He tends to be thoughtful and his topic range is wide.

On the "definition" of insanity.

Being once again irritated by the false definition of insanity, I hereby declare it a clichéd metaphor. Not only is this not a definition put forth by a psychologist, it is also misattributed to other non-psychologists like Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. According to Wikiquote, it was first recorded by the author Rita Mae Brown in the novel Sudden Death. Everyone knows that it is often foolish to use methods that have proved to fail, but the concept can be used prematurely to mock things that take time, perseverance, maintenance, and hope. It can also bring about cynical attitudes toward preventative measures that help but do not solve the problem. See the last paragraph in this article by Ed Morrissey on the war on drugs. Since brushing my teeth did not stop some cavities in the past, shall I stop brushing?

Bugs on a Tree

Heather recently recorded these on a tree in our backyard. Does anyone know what they are? If not, I will take suggestions for naming them...

Economy

I find a lot of this financial crisis news confusing. I had never even heard of Fanny and Freddie before, nor the Lehman Brothers. But in the midst of the falling sky there are two things that I never hear said.

The first is that the falling of house prices is great for buyers. The falling prices are not good for the subprime mortgage lenders when borrowers bail out, nor for people who recently bought a house and sell soon after. If I sold my house now, I would lose money because my house is worth less now than when I bought it (with maintenance and interest in top of it). Since I am not selling, I don't really care. Theoretically, this would reduce my property tax. And by the time I do sell, my house will probably be worth more than I paid for it, though perhaps not in proportion to inflation.

The second is that the people who really benefitted from the housing bubble are sellers. Ok, the lenders where getting checks during this time, too, but they are the ones losing money in this whole deal. Real Estate Agencies were booming as well, but I would imagine that many agents are out of a job right now, or looking for a new one. The same for developers; it does no good to develop when it won't sell. That said, in the past ten years, sellers upgraded and are enjoying the fruits of their bigger, fancier house.

So, whats the problem? The fear is that it will be very hard for people and businesses to get loans, unless there is a government bailout. When its harder to get loans, less people buy (like houses) or start up businesses which in turn hire people which in turn buy (like houses) and make the economy go around.

Quote by MLK on changing hearts

Here

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Media Bias in Plain Sight

I thought this was a clear display of media bias in at least one magazine, tabloid or not.

Passed Away

My Dad passed away on Saturday from liver problems. Your prayers are appreciated for my family.

Readings

For the past few months, I have been working my way through some theological books on Genesis, taking note of some insights and distinctions in interpretation.

#1 Rethinking Genesis is an exploration of the literary origins of Genesis, specifically a refutation of the Documentary Hypothesis which is flawed from its roots. Garrett takes a look at the different styles and genres in Genesis, and notices distinct patterns which point to the book's sources which he concludes were redacted by Moses.

#2 The Pentateuch as Narrative, I have only just started reading. It seems intriguing as it examines the relation between whole Pentateuch. How the different parts relate will influence how we interpret the text.




#3 God's Pattern for Creation is a fresh look at the creation story in light of man being made in God's image. God created the universe by forming it and filling it. In the same way, God commanded us to rule over the creation (forming) and to reproduce (filling). After the fall, God cursed our role by cursing the ground (making our forming more difficult) and increasing the pains of childbirth (making our filling more difficult).


#4 How to read Genesis did not really stand out in my mind, but it was a good overview of Genesis and is a helpful introduction to the book for those who are not familiar with it.





#5 Creation and Blessing, I am still working through, but it appears to trace certain themes throughout the book of Genesis. Nothing overly inciteful has come up yet, but I still have 500 pages to go.





#6 Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary introduces a methodology of interpreting story from a linguistic basis. Essentially, there is a change in verb tense from when a story is being set up or background information is being established, to when the story is being told. There were many other insights involved with this too numerous for this space.

From here I will be finishing some introductions to a couple of books, namely the Pentateuch as Narrative and the Holman Bible Atlas and will proceed to read through Genesis (and later the whole Pentateuch) along with the following books as they go in chronological order, Sailhammer's Pentateuch as Narrative, Brisco's Holman Bible Atlas, Vos's Biblical Theology, Josephus's Works and Ross's Creation and Blessing. I also have a friend who just wrote a book that I will add to the list. It is not for sale, yet and I do not remember what it was called. It has to do with Jesus in the Old Testament. After Genesis, I will drop Creation and Blessing since that will be finished and I will continue with the others adding Riddle of the Exodus by James D. Long and The Structure of Biblical Authority by Meredith G. Kline. After I finish the Pentateuch, I will reevaluate where I go from there. I will be done with my Greek course and will have more time to study my own interests. I may just continue my way through the rest of the Bible as Vos, Josephus, and Brisco go the whole way.

Details...

Judah was born on January 21, 2008. It was Monday morning. Heather's water broke at 8:00AM and we rushed over to the hospital after making arragements for our dog. She didn't start to have contractions until we arrived at the hospital. At the start Heather was determined to not have meds, but when the pain started to increase, the idea of pain killer started to become more desireable, moreso because the idea of several more hours of the pain appeared unbearable. The nurse brought in the epidural and made a call to the anesthesialogist. When the nurse checked Heather's dialation, we discovered that she was 100% dialated and that the epidural would not be happening. This was not what Heather wanted to hear. Since the time to start pushing had arrived there was nothing she could do. Heather did not have stirrups, so I held one leg and the nurse held the other. I was a bit concerned because we only had one birthing class. The doctor/nurse told us that the pushing would feel like and be similar to going #2. When Judah came out, it appeared that he was spring loaded. Fortuneatley, the doctor caught him. I had the privilage of cutting the umbilical cord and calling the gender, and I did both things right.

Judah was wisked away to NICU and Heather was given a room for recovery. Heather was out in two days. Judah is progressing. First he got off the respirator. Then he no longer needed an IV. After that they stopped monitoring his blood oxygen levels. His light and incubator were the next to go. Now his is in a crib with a heart and repiriratory sensor and a feeding tube. He has been nursing minimally for the past week, and has been progressing in his capacity.

We are both looking forward for the day when he comes home. But we are both very thankful for the grace God has given us and that there have been no complications.

Judah Calvin Mahan

Welcome to the atmosphere.

Good News for Embryos

Apparently this research makes the current embryonic stem cell debate obsolete. Somehow I remember hearing the news before, but this article gives perspectives from the discoverer of embryonic stem cell research, and the cloner of the Dolly sheep giving credibility to the notion that cloning and embryo destruction are not necessary to gain the health research advances so many have been longing for.

Mac Service

I had been experiencing problems with my Mac for a long time. Some of them I just took for granted as being software or limited power abilities in the computer. When my computer stopped turning on, I knew there was a much deeper problem. I was concerned that a fix would be a couple hundred dollars. I ended up taking my computer in, and it turns out it was a common power connection burnout. They replaced the part and I am back in business. My problems that are fixed are as follows:
-Power being unavailable for my Flash and Photo drives to plug in the keyboard
-My computer being unable to wake up after going to sleep
-My computer turning off randomly

Unfortunately, my DVD ROM is not fixed, but I can live without that.

Hard Times

I recently finished Hard Times by Charles Dickens. It was a delight to read as Dickens makes fun of what I think is called Pragmatism. I found the book funny and insightful. My only complaint is that I did not see poetic justice. Yes, the bad guys lose or reform in the end, but those who are wronged are not righted. Despite this minor annoyance, the characters are rich and engaging.

Jorja

Our new Shih Tzu puppy.

Grass

Here is how the grass is progressing. Looks good to me. Might need to add some seed to fill in some holes, but it looks great.

I made a workbench. It's my first one. I may make some modifications, but it will work for my purposes. I am hoping to make some book shelves next.

Here is a spring shot of our backyard. That is our house in the distance. We are hoping to axe the tree in the near future to let more sun in and prevent it from falling on our house in the event of a windstorm.

These are some mushrooms I found in our yard. They have probably been mowed over by now, but I didn't hesitate to take a few pictures. Does anyone know if these are edible?

Happenings at Home

I have been planting grass. It works well to plant one area at a time so it does not become a time burden.


I have also sighted a few birds.






We had some visitors from the Dominican Republic last week. They were attending the Desiring God Children's Conference. Two spoke English quite well, and two hardly at all. We hope they enjoyed their stay.

New Job

Starting Monday, I will be working for DLR in Eden Prairie.

Heather is waitressing for the Macaroni Grill.

More to come...

Review of Melville

At long last I managed to finish Moby Dick, so now it is time for its review.

In short, I do not recommend this book unless if you are curious to know every facet of the anatomy of the sperm whale. It seems to me that Melville sandwiched his fascination for whales between a meager 200 pages of plot--making what could have been a quick read into a 724 page monster.

Now, don't get me wrong, the whale anatomy and details of the whaling business were interesting, to a point. But I would be lying if I did not confess that the quantity of those "informative" chapters caused me to lose interest in the book, made it hard to keep track of the plot, and made me lose my appetite and become nauseous during the graphic blubber-processing chapter. I give it 3 stars out of 10.

Turning now to the theological; the beginning of the book had an interesting portion that had very shady and heretical implications. The narrator, Ishmael, has made friends with a "pagan" harpooner named Queequeg. After Ishmael has once observed Queequeg worshipping his idols, he dialogs with himself concerning his own Christian duties in relation the the "pagan".

I was a good Christian; born and bred in the bosom of the infallible Presbyterian Church. How then could I unite with this wild idolator in worshipping his piece of wood? But what is worship? thought I. Do you suppose now, Ishmael, that the magnanimous God of heaven and earth--pagans and all included--can possibly be jealous of an insignificant bit of black wood? Impossible! But what is worship?--to do the will of God--that is worship. And what is the will of God?--to do to my fellow man what I would have my fellow man to do me--that is the will of God. Now, Queequeg is my fellow man. And what do I wish that this Queequeg would do to me? Why, unite with me in my particular Presbyterian form of worship. Consequently, I must then unite with him in his; ergo, I must turn idolator. So I kindled the shavings; helped prop up the innocent little idol; offered him burnt biscuit with Queequeq; salaamed before him twice or thrice; kissed his nose; and that done, we undressed and went to bed, at peace with our own consciences and all the world.

Yuck! The faulty reasoning makes my skin crawl.


I think I will try to finish Owen's Temptation & Sin before I go on to anything more. Having been spoiled by Victor Hugo and John Steinbeck, I think I need a break from fiction.

Orange

Ah, the joys of owning a house.

For example, this fall I raked leaves for 3 days nonstop. All of our earthly possesions are under one roof. We have a humongous south window in our living room. I am planning to plant a garden in our backyard (versus the garden-in-buckets strategy from previous years). No one lives either a floor above or below us. But, most importantly, I can paint the walls whichever color I please.

As you can see, orange was chosen for the kitchen. Why orange? Because it makes me happy. That is all. No one else to please--except John!


Now for the rest of the house . . .