Check out the very cool website Cody has put together for his family. There is a blog where they can all communicate with each other and their friends (and the whole world if they want). Laurie and Carol are in New Zealand right now and have posted some very cool pictures from their summer there.
Awesome.
Techie note: I’m considering switching blog software to Wordpress which is what Cody used.
UPDATE: This is my favorite part of the Andersen family website…it is a journal being kept of the New Zealand trip. Good daily reading.
I may not need anti-depressants but I’m getting close to needing something for my insomnia. Check out the time stamps on these posts! Pretty sad. I guess the best prescription for my case of insomnia is time. Melia will hopefully stop waking us up in the middle of the night sometime within the next year. It would really bug me but she gives me the happiest goofy looks when I get her up to change her diaper and give her to her mom to be fed. It’s worth it…and I only have a hard time falling back asleep every once in a while. I’m sure going to be tired today though!
One of the only adult shows we watch at the Manning house is Law and Order. We TIVO a rerun episode from TNT almost every day then watch the ones we haven’t seen before at a later date when we have time. My favorite character is Lenny Briscoe. The actor who so effectively portrayed this cool TV cop passed away on Tuesday. I’m sorry to his family and friends for their loss. I know I’ll miss his work.
The image above was obtained from this site. Follow the link to see other Law and Order art.
I’ve been told that I sound too angry lately…even that I may need to get on some anti-depressants. I’ll admit that the whole Social Security thing did get me pretty worked up…but I promise that the righteous anger that whole subject invokes in me doesn’t make me yell at my kids or curse at my neighbors. Overall I’m a happy guy though I’ll admit that I do grumble when writing my regularly scheduled tax payments…it sure stinks to be paying the whole 12% employee tax up front on your wages. Owning and operating a business can give one a new perspective on how government is funded. I don’t think it is a coincidence that most small business owners are also conservatives or small “l” libertarians.
This post isn’t about all that. I found an interesting follow up on the whole Intelligent Design (ID) being taught in schools discussion at Hugh Hewitt’s website. As I said before I’m against ID being taught in science classes because it is not science. That said, the post linked above is an interesting discussion on the nature of the argument about ID verses Evolutionary Biology (EB) from the perspective of a Christian who is bugged by the portrayal of the conflict by the mainstream media (in this case the Washington Post). I’ve included the complete text of a letter Mr. Hewitt posted in the above linked blog post because I thought it was a fun read and because it helps explain my thinking to John, a frequent and intelligent commenter on this site, who has been critical of the idea that I could maintain my religious beliefs and still support many of the existing scientific theories of EB.
UPDATE: Here’s another great discussion of these ideas from the perspective of someone who doesn’t claim a belief in ID.
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The battle lines are now finally being drawn publicly by both sides on social security reform. The president has only committed to the fact that he supports some form of very limited private retirement accounts (I think I read that he is recommending that 1/6 of our employee taxes could go to private accounts). He won’t address the issue of the costs of transitioning the system to pay for those accounts and he won’t discuss how the government is going to regulate how people will be allowed to invest their accounts. I guess they are saving the details for this spring…after most of the debate on the principle of private accounts has taken place. I am not optimistic.
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In an interesting online discussion (in the comments section of this post) about the origin and evolution of life I posted a response to an argument questioning my religious belief in a divine creation with this closing paragraph:
In the end it doesn’t really matter that we disagree on this. If I die and my conciousness ceases to exist than I guess you were right and I was wrong. Congratulations. If not…well then…cool for both of us! I don’t have a pure knowledge of which its going to be but I know what I would rather believe.
When I first wrote that I thought I was being rather clever….now I realize I was just being glib. Maybe it does matter that men disagree on this topic. If people disagree on the whole point of our existence is it any wonder that they would profoundly disagree on what principles of societal organization and economy are best for mankind?
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