No Room for Gray

2003-02-19T23:03:00.000-08:00

Graffiti

Sorry, this is kind of dumb, but... I was flipping throught the channels, and came across stories coming up on the news. They said something to the extent of, "Graffiti; is it art, or is it wrong?". Now that's a dumb question. Maybe it is art, but do they feel that art is beyond the law? It is defacement of property, which is illegal, making it wrong. If you want to graffiti something, buy a wall in a public area.
- Black White

2003-02-18T21:03:00.000-08:00

Blogging

Lately I haven't been blogging much. I've been busy, and found little to write about.
I've thought of quiting, but I still feel this is where I should be.
However, it is close to the last of my priorities, so I will be slowing down a little.
- Black White

2003-02-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

31.25 %

My weblog owns 31.25 % of me.
Does your weblog own you?

I wonder if Bene is still at 25%?

- Black White

2003-02-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

Kasparov and Deep Junior call a draw in the final game of the FIDE First official Man vs. Machine chess match. The match ends at 3 points apiece, leaving much to look forward to next year!
- Black White

2003-02-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

free enneagram test

Wow they actually got me pretty close!
- Black White

2003-02-05T16:23:00.000-08:00

Columbia Recap

February 1st, 16 days after launch, just 16 minutes from landing, the Space Shuttle Columbia exploded while rentering Earth's atmosphere. Debris was scattered across many states. NASA had a press release, and our President addressed the nation quoted Isaiah, and spoke the words that I will always remember, "The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors." Several memorial services have been held. There is still little known about why it happened, and what their last moments were like.

President Bush demonstrates time and time again that the leadership of our country is firmly grounded in God.

One of the pictures that hit me hardest is of the mission patch.
My mind keeps going back to the movie Deep Impact, where the astronauts give their lives to save Earth.

CNN has compiled a nice timeline of events.

Hopefully NASA can learn from this, and keep it from happening in the future.

This can remind us to be thankful, and pray for those heros willing to risk, sometimes even give, their lives to improve ours. Those in the armed services, exploring space, testing new medicines, or anything else.
-Black White

2003-02-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

Peer Pressure

Another grim reminder that, peer pressure kills.
It can lead to compromising your morals (see 1 Cor. 15:33), making unhealthy decisions, and even physical, or spiritual (eternal) death.
Why do we care so much about what others think of us?

Doing the right thing is rarely popular (in fact doing the wrong thing is generally popular), but it is right.
- Black White

2003-02-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

The Families' Perspective?

NASA's flag at half-mast, as the countdown clock counts up.
Debris are falling as what's left of the shuttle continues to streak through the sky. Maybe you saw it blow up. You know the mission went wrong. Everyone knows it went wrong, but why?
Where is your spouse/parent? Gone in an instant.

Pray for the families.
- Black White

2003-02-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

Columbia

The Columbia, one of our space shuttles, blew up at about 9:00 AM EST on it's way back from a 16 day science mission. It looks like the astronauts on board didn't have a chance.
As the shuttle launched, something (most likely a piece of foam from the main fuel tank) fell off.
Right now very little is known. We will have to wait for a press release in about 30 minutes.
- Black White

2003-01-31T16:22:00.000-08:00

Too Much Time?
Here are a few interesting sites I've come across.

Wonka Dot Com- "another homepage dedicated to willie wonka and the chocolate factory". Their site has a transcribed script of the whole movie! It was a cool movie, but nothing all that spectacular.

Speed Trap Exchange- This site is, as the name suggests, an exchange for speed traps, and gives advice on how to get out of speed trap tickets.
I can just imagine,
Defendant: "Well... this speed trap wasn't legal."
Judge: "Were you breaking the speed limit?"
Defendant: "Uh..."

Some people have too much time on their hands.
- Black White

2003-01-30T17:27:00.000-08:00

Which OS are You?

Okay, took it again, and thought more about the questions.
I think this is a better discription of me.
- Black White

2003-01-29T11:43:00.000-08:00

Where does Bene Diction find all these quizes!?!

Which OS are You?

OS/2 is cool, but I don't think it's accurate for me!
- Black White

2003-01-28T21:54:00.000-08:00

State of the Union
Our President took a strong stand on some tough issues in the State of the Union address last night.
He showed the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, and that we will do what is necessary to protect our liberty.
He showed the danger of biological wepons, and what we are doing to protect ourselves.
Most of all he reminded us that we are still "one nation, under God".
Bravo.
- Black White

2003-01-27T20:09:00.000-08:00

Being memory resident only(a reboot is all that is needed to clear it), the worm is almost gone.
Thanks to all the System and Network Administrators that are on the ball patching their systems.
Kind of sad to see how easy "the Internet" can be taken down.
- Black White

2003-01-25T16:41:00.000-08:00

Internet Attack
Wow, a new worm is causing major Internet traffic, slowing down the Internet as a whole.

This is a worm, a virus of sorts, that is spreading itself all across the Internet, on UDP port 1434, taking advantage of a vulnerability in MS SQL. One computer spreads it, and then those now infected, spread it, and so on. However this will only work on MS SQL (most home users don't have it).

It seems Internet traffic has gone down, latency has gone up, and packet loss has gone up (all bad). Internet backbones (mainly UUNet) are very slow, and several root nameservers have been down.
This really shows the UDP port 1434 traffic take off.

Talk about a mess!
- Black White

2003-01-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

Bad wildfires still burning through Australia.
I pray they get it under control soon. Been there once, it's a beautiful country.
- Black White

2003-01-23T22:36:00.000-08:00

Blogs4God is kind of "retracting" (at least apologizing for) their article I linked to two posts ago.
I thought it got a good point across, and was on target.
Hmmmm...
- Black White

2003-01-23T19:42:00.000-08:00

War in Iraq?
With the realization that a war in Iraq might be imminent, there have been several protests, many bashing our president.
Who do these people think they are? George W. Bush is a solid Christian, elected by us the people. He has proven himself in several conficts, Sep 11 and the China-US plane standoff just to name two. He realizes that we can not let Iraq and other terrorist nations build up forces against us.

I am not pro-war, but there comes a point when you need to take action to protect our great country. We need to support our president.
- Black White

2003-01-22T12:51:00.000-08:00

Roe vs. Wade
A little history:
With millions killed in the 30 year aftermath of Roe vs. Wade, it is a lawsuits with some of the worst repecusions ever. For the first time, the Texas law prohibiting abortion unless the mother's life was at stake, was overturned as unconstitutional, and only got worse from there.

My thoughts:
The federal law on abortion should be just like that old Texas law, only if the mother's life is at stake.
Women should have as much right to murder as anyone does, NONE!
A woman's choice should be whether or not to get pregnant.

Check out Blogs4God's written article about Roe vs. Wade.

Also, this is a good, pro-life site on Roe vs. Wade.

May I leave you with this, "Pro-Choice? What a lie! Babies don't choose to die!" - From a bumper sticker.
- Black White

2003-01-20T22:53:00.000-08:00

WWJDrive

There is some debate over "What Would Jesus Drive?"
They believe in the "Jesus in a Prius" concept, that if Jesus would drive a car, it would be very enviromentally friendly.
I disagree. This is an absurd stretch of scripture. Which brings me to the myth that, small cars always pollute less than big cars "Federal regulations impose the same pollution restrictions on all cars, big and small. The limits are stated in "grams per mile" of acceptable pollution, not in grams per gallon of fuel burned." - Deaths by the gallon
Jesus was always travling with others (disciples and multitudes), and He always put human life above natrual resources (46,000 people have died in crashes they would have survived in bigger, heavier cars, according to USA TODAY's analysis of crash data - Deaths by the gallon) From that, I think he would drive a 15-passenger van, or a bus. Also from that, I could argue that Christians should want the government to legislate that all cars have to weigh at least 3000 pounds, so that there are less fatalities, and more people will have more chances to accept Christ (less of a stretch than WWJDrive).

True, there are a lot of SUVs out there, and not everyone needs one, but most big safe cars get the same MPG.
Also there are other ways to save gas (car pooling, public transportation, etc).

The WWJDrive people are giving Christians a bad name over an absurd argument.
- Black White

2003-01-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

Faith/Works

I have a thought on the faith/works argument.
"But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?" - James 2:18-20
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9
These verses don't contradict each other, but rather they illustrate both sides of the faith/works coin, ("faith without works is dead", and "by grace [not works] you have been saved").

You can't "work" your way to heaven, but Faith without works is just a belief. Works will not save you, but if you are truely saved, you will have works.
You can't see faith. Works are the evidence of a true life change.
This isn't legalism. Legalism is doing what is right because you have to (essentially, but I'll save this subject for another post), but this is doing what is right because you want to.
- Black White

2003-01-19T00:21:00.000-08:00

No real post today (Saturday), because I spent about 8 hours today at a Supercross race.

I did a little work for one tomorrow.
- Black White

2003-01-17T22:07:00.000-08:00

Biblical Environmentalism

I'm ending my environmentalism trilogy with a Biblical perspective on the environment.

"Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' " - Genesis 1:26 Dominion means "supreme authority : SOVEREIGNTY" - Merriam-Webster OnLine. Now although, man has "supreme authority" over all animals, and the earth, we should be good stewards of what God has given us. We can, eat meat, and wear animal skins, but we should do what we can to conserve our natrual resources (Recycling, Energy Conservation, etc).

However I feel environmentalism shouldn't be a Christians primary goal. If anyone can see you're an environmentalist, don't notice you are a Christian, you are in a pretty sorry state.
-Black White

2003-01-17T17:48:00.000-08:00

Tree-Sitting

CNN did a story on John Quigley being evicted from a tree. Not something you hear everyday. This tree-sitter was chained up in "Old Glory" for 71 days, trying to stop it being removed, by a developer trying to widen the road. He was fed and his cellphone charged by other protesters, that slept below the tree, until a fence was setup, and they were ordered to clear the area. Also at this time John was served with a trespassing lawsuit, but refused to leave until he was physically evicted.

These people took a stand on what they believed was right, and they made a difference (now it appears it will be moved). Although, he did stay after he was served with a trespassing lawsuit, which if I remember right, trespassing is illegal.

If a teacher is willing to sit in a tree for over 3 months, why don't we as Christians take a stand for what we believe is right more often?
- Black White

2003-01-16T21:43:00.000-08:00

Enviromental Arson

CNN wrote on the Earth Liberation Front (site purposely not listed) taking responsibility for setting fire to a SUV (maybe because they get less MPG than cars). Their site gives advice on arson, because "The exploitation and destruction of the environment affects all of us - some people enough to take direct action in defense of the earth" - Earth Liberation Front Website. Their goal is "To inflict economic damage on those profitting from the destruction and exploitation of the natural environment" - Earth Liberation Front Website. So they feel arson and vandalism are okay to defend the earth? How would this help any way? All the pollution from BURNING SUVs I'd think is worse than the emissions of the vehicle over it's lifetime, then insurance covers it (they did have fire insurance right?!?), and they get a new SUV. The outcome is they just released bad pollution, and an insurance company is out the price of an SUV.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) needs to remove their domain name.
- Black White

2003-01-16T18:48:00.000-08:00

This is my first blog post.
I look forward to posting much more.
- Black White