I had two thoughts during my weekend in Story City, Iowa. (Well, technically I had quite a few thoughts. I think pretty much all the time when I’m conscious. That’s just the kind of guy I am. But two of these thoughts were new.)

One has to do with family, and it probably won’t mean much to you, but I’ll share it anyway, because… because… because I have this forum in which to raise my barbaric yawp, I guess.

The history of Story City (at least the part that interests me) goes like this. In the 1840s, a few Norwegians began to take the gamble of traveling to this dangerous new country (where, their pastors at home liked to tell them, epidemics were rampant, wild Indians were likely to scalp them and slavers made a habit of kidnapping Norwegians to be sold in New Orleans. The part about the epidemics was true). The earliest successful settlements were centered around Lisbon, Illinois and Muskego, Wisconsin. Most of these immigrants came from what we call Western Norway (actually southwestern, but officially Norway has no south). It helped in dealing with all the strangeness and dangers to live among people from home, people whose dialects and customs you understood. Continue reading Story City Story II: The Sequel →

Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable will be blocking access to child pornography through their Internet services. Verizon and Time-Warner are in the top five of worldwide Internet access providers. Sprint is one of the big three U.S. wireless providers. I’d like to see AT&T step up to the plate here. Comcast too.

Here’s a bit of awe given to thirty-one Huguenot women who would not reject their faith for 38 years. Karl Olsson writes:

To sit in a prison room with thirty others and to see the day change into night and summer into autumn, to feel the slow systemic changes within one’s flesh: the drying and wrinkling of the skin, the loss of muscle tone, the stiffening of the joints, the slow stupefaction of the senses—to feel all this and still to persevere seems almost idiotic to a generation which has no capacity to wait and to endure.

It was a good weekend. I’m sunburned, stiff, dehydrated and exhausted (I can tell my hemoglobin level still isn’t up to specs), but I had fun.

The drive down was an adventure. I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to be in Story City, Iowa in time to set up, and it was a three-hour drive directly into a vicious south wind. But I made it on schedule. There were only three of us there, two guys and a woman, but our friend Sam from Missouri also came up with his Viking boat, which raised the tone of the encampment considerably: Continue reading Story City Story →

I didn’t see this article when we were talking several weeks ago about Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, but I think it’s important to link to it. The scientists at Reasons to Believe (RTB) say they haven’t seen the type of blacklisting described in the movie. Of course, they aren’t employed by these universities either. “RTB believes that God has miraculously intervened throughout the history of the universe in various ways millions, possibly even billions, of times to create each and every new species of life on Earth.”

In Reasons To Believe’s interaction with professional scientists, scientific institutions, universities, and publishers of scientific journals we have encountered no significant evidence of censorship, blackballing, or disrespect. As we have persisted in publicly presenting our testable creation model in the context of the scientific method, we have witnessed an increasing openness on the part of unbelieving scientists to offer their honest and respectful critique.

How about a little comment meme? Tell me the first thing that leaps to your mind when you read each of these things?

1. Excellent source of calcium
2. New and improved
3. 75% off
4. New York Times Bestseller
5. Get ‘Em While They’re Hot
6. Y2K Compatible

With the corrected spelling on this post, you may comment at will. No, please comment. I will add this post to my list of good reasons for flushing myself. I can hear the drain coming now.