Gambling at Gettysburg

If you are an American, shouldn't this make you physically ill?

Gettysburg was the site of one of the largest battles fought on American soil, but today it is playing host to a different type of fight: Whether slot machines should come to town. A proposal that would bring gambling a little more than a mile away from the Pennsylvania battlefield propelled it to the top of a preservation group’s list of the 10 most endangered Civil War battlefields released Tuesday.

Proposed development was one threat cited by the Civil War Preservation Trust in the naming of the 10 sites located in Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Washington, D.C.

“Hallowed ground, where more than 600,000 Americans gave their lives, is being paved over in favor of shopping malls, housing tracts and even gambling casinos,” the trust’s president, James Lighthizer, said Tuesday during a news conference. (MSNBC)

I could blog about this more, but my mother taught me not to blog when I'm angry... or something like that.

SOMETIME LATER: Okay, I'm feeling more in control now. On to the blog....

I have been to the Gettysburg battlefield twice, once as a child and once as an adult (albeit a college-age one). I have been to several other battle sites and places of historical importance, but I didn't necessarily feel an emotional response while visiting them. While I can not say that what I felt at Gettysburg was a "spiritual" feeling, I can say that it was a feeling of being somewhere of vast importance. As I surveyed the landscape and looked at the monuments, I knew that I was at a place of historical significance. I experienced not just the knowledge that what happened there was important, but I also experienced an emotional response of awe and humility.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that Gettysburg is somehow a spiritual place because tens of thousands perished there. I'm only saying that the battlefield has an energetic feel to it. (Although there is certainly a spooky kind of feel to Devil's Den - if you've been there, you know what I mean)

Carnivals have their place, but I believe that there are places in this world that do not deserve to have a carnival atmosphere. To have a casino connected with Gettysburg is to cheapen what occurred there and to belittle the lives of the men who fought there. Lincoln would be ashamed.

Don Knotts, 1924-2006

During my childhood, my parents often told me that there were certain shows that I was not allowed to see. I expressly remember coming home from one outing and immediately turning on the telly to catch the latest enthralling episode of "Wonder Woman." I was just starting to get into the show when my mother loomed over me (I was sitting on the floor) and said in a loud and booming voice, "You are forbidden - FORBIDDEN - from watching 'Wonder Woman' ever again!" Years later when I reminded her of this incident, she claimed not to recall it happening. I can assure that it did.

However, a little thing like my parent's commands didn't always stop me. What can I say, I generally obeyed the Ten Commandments but I wasn't a perfect boy. The temptation to watch the television located in the basement was too great. My parents generally wouldn't hear the basement TV from the living room, so I was able to be sneaky from time to time.

Another forbidden show was "Three's Company." Since the program was generally filled with sexual innuendos and double entendres and a man lived with two women, it wasn't thought of too highly in our house. However, I watched it in the basement from time to time. By far, the best character on the show was Ralph Furley, the lascivious but loveable landlord to Jack, Janet, Chrissy and Cindy. He replaced the Ropers, the original landlords of the show. Furley's facial reactions to situations were classic, thanks to the rubbery face and talent of Don Knotts.

I'm sure Mr. Furley's leisure suits will come back in fashion some day. Anyway, thanks, Mr. Knotts, for giving us such memorable characters in Mr. Furley, Barney Fife, and Mr. Limpet.

psychotherapy & the past

New research has shown that therapists do not need to dive into their client's past in order to help them in the present.

For most of the 20th century, therapists in America agreed on a single truth. To cure patients, it was necessary to explore and talk through the origins of their problems. In other words, they had to come to terms with the past to move forward in the present.

Thousands of hours and countless dollars were spent in this pursuit. Therapists listened diligently as their patients recounted elaborate narratives of family dysfunction — the alcoholic father, the mother too absorbed in her own unhappiness to attend to her children's needs — certain that this process would ultimately produce relief.

But returning to the past has fallen out of fashion among mental health professionals over the last 15 years. Research has convinced many therapists that understanding the past is not required for healing. (NY Times)

Of course, the biggest factor here is what insurance companies are willing to pay for:

Insurance companies likewise often prefer consumers to select cognitive behavioral therapists, rather than psychodynamically oriented practitioners. In the companies' view, scientific studies have shown that cognitive therapy can produce results in less than half the time of traditional therapies.

Exactly. For the past 10-15 years, insurance companies have increasingly dictated the types of treatment to be offered, as well as the length of time a person can meet with a counselor. Brief therapy (the new phrase seems to be possibility therapy) has grown out of that. Insurance companies would much rather pay for fewer sessions than more, so naturally they are going to look at research on cognitive-behavioral therapies, which are much more short-term than psychodynamic therapies.

Spidey in black?!?

It's true. Look.

Mark D. Roberts on the ONE Campaign

Mark D. Roberts has completed his series of thoughts on the ONE Campaign - the series actually began as a reaction to watching the National Prayer Breakfast and noting U2 frontman Bono's involvement. The ONE Campaign is a noble effort, but since it is human-led and human-driven, it naturally has its flaws.

Good stuff. Read the series when you have the time.

Winter Olympics XX

The games in Torino are now history - on to Vancouver! For some wrap-ups, visit the BBC News site and WaPo. The United States completed the games with 25 medals: nine gold, nine silver, and seven bronze. Germany was the most decorated country with 29 medals. The host country of Italy had eleven medals, five gold and six bronze.

Many of the medal-winning U.S. Olympians have their own websites:

• Shaun White, aka the Flying Tomato - gold in halfpipe
• Joey Cheek - gold in speed skating 500M, silver in speed skating 1000M
• Ted Ligety - gold in alpine skiing combined
• Toby Dawson - bronze in mogul skiing
• Seth Wescott - gold in men's snowboard cross
• Apolo Anton Ohno - gold in short track 500M, bronze in short track 1000M, bronze in short track 5000M relay
• Shani Davis - gold in speed skating 1000M, silver in speed skating 1500M
• Tanith Belbith & Ben Agosto - silver in ice dancing
• Chad Hedrick - gold in speed skating 5000M, silver in speed skating 10000M, bronze in speed skating 1500M
• Julia Mancuso - gold in alpine skiing giant slalom

The U.S. had nine less medals than it did four years ago at the Salt Lake City (2002) games, but had twelve more medals than it did eight years ago at the Nagano (1998) games and twelve years ago at the Lillehammer (1994) games.

UPDATE: Tomato - congrats on making the cover of Rolling Stone (does anyone really read it anymore?), but you should have left your shirt on.

How to write good

Alex and Bret give tips on how to have good writing in the blogosphere. I should pay special attention to #24.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: anti-choice

From many of the Democrats (but by no means all), we hear a lot of talk about the importance of having choices. The ability to choose is heralded as the great concept of America, as something that the Founding Fathers - and Mothers - held dearly. Breaking off from a perceived oppressive regime and choosing a new form of government is what so many people died for over 200 years ago. Being able to choose is the right of every American child.

To the advocates of abortion, choice is what matters. They argue that a woman must have the ability to choose whether or not she wants to keep the child growing inside her - I mean, the fetus infesting her womb. Every child a wanted child is the mantra. If the government says that a woman is unable to choose, she is not a truly free woman.

Senator Hillary Clinton is for choice, but apparently only when it comes to abortion. If choice is in the form of school vouchers, she is firmly against it. See: she's concerned that if a parent has the ability to choose where her child goes (as opposed to sending the child to an underfunded, poorly staffed government-operated school), that parent might just choose a school run by white supremacists or maybe some Islamic fundamentalists.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton slammed private-school voucher proposals yesterday, predicting that vouchers would eventually lead to the creation of taxpayer-financed white supremacist academies - or even a government-funded "School of the Jihad." Clinton, a longtime voucher foe who earned the backing of the city teachers union in 2000, says government financing of sectarian groups would incite ethnic and religious conflict - and encourage fringe groups to demand government cash to run their schools. (Newsday)

Aren't you glad to know Hillary is looking out for your children? Because, goodness knows, you aren't equipped to.

(H/T: Malkin)

donaldmarthafeud.blogspot.com ?

I have received so many hits because of this post on the Donald Trump/Martha Stewart feud that I should probably consider changing my blog and writing about them all the time. Good Brownie appears as the #1 site for "Martha and Donald fued", "donald trump - martha stewart fued", "trump martha fued", "trump stewart fued letter", and "martha donald fued" - all on MSN search.

I have my doubts that this is a genuine feud. Trump is a master at marketing, and a fifth version of "The Apprentice" is about to start. What better way to build interest than to make headlines by writing a scathing letter to Stewart about the problems of "The Apprentice: Martha Stewart." He's got everyone talking about it, and Newsweek is continuing the story, and this can build nicely right into the new show.

UPDATED: I figured out that this is happening because I can't spell the word 'feud.' I misspelled the word back in this post. When other people misspell the word and combine it with "Trump" and "Stewart" in some fashion, they are directed here. So, I'm getting more traffic because I can't spell a simple word, I don't use the Check Spelling button that Blogger offers, and other people misspell as well. So perhaps my new blog will cater to people who spell 'fued' instead of 'feud.'

I highly doubt this quiz is accurate...

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Hey, Olympic sports fans!

Want to know how you can be petty and whiny, yet still win Olympic medals? Ask Shani and Chad.

Shani: "He didn't shake my hand when I won gold - he waited until I lost and got silver!"

Chad: "He didn't skate on the relay team and kept me from probably winning gold!"

*quotes paraphrased, naturally*


In other news: Go, Sasha & Kimmie & Emily!

Want to drink hallucinogenic tea in church?

The Supreme Court says it's okay!

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a small congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God.

Justices, in their first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, moved decisively to keep the government out of a church's religious practice. Federal drug agents should have been barred from confiscating the hoasca tea of the Brazil-based church, Roberts wrote in the decision.

The tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, which has a blend of Christian beliefs and South American traditions. Members believe they can understand God only by drinking the tea, which is consumed twice a month at four-hour ceremonies.

If your teenager gets caught with pot and says that he was only smoking it so he could "understand God better," now you'll know why.

(Not so) Misc. info: SCOTUS has five Catholics (Roberts, Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito), two Jews (Breyer, Ginsburg), one Episcopalian (Souter), and one "Protestant" (Stevens).

"More and more I believe that the CCM world is absolutely based on a lie."

Andy Whitman discusses his view on contemporary Christian music (CCM). The first paragraph:

The CCM industry, like every other industry, exists to make money. We can put a noble face on it and talk about the Christian witness provided in the music, but historically those Christian musicians whose witness hasn't led to increased album sales don't get the chance to keep on witnessing via recorded music. The bottom line is and always has been this: witness all you like, and be as artistic as you like, as long as you make money.

Welcome, Centuri0n readers

Wow - a post from Frank Turk mentioning little ol' me and I get an increase in traffic. Whoever has wandered here from Cent's site, I do appreciate you taking the time to stop by.

Cent mentions Blogdom of God - go here and you'll see that currently he is #201 and I'm #202. I'm not just creeping up on him, I'm tapping him on the shoulder. He talks about the folks at RELEVANT being head of him (us), but I thought Cent would be more upset about the iMonk being #59. Ah, well...

SOMEWHAT RELATED: I'm a Large Mammal in the ecosystem. We'll see how long it lasts... give it a week and I'll go down to Slimy Mollusc again.

Girding my loins for "Blue Like Jazz"

I have recently ordered Donald Miller's "Blue Like Jazz," a book that I have flipped through while perusing bookstores both large (Barnes & Noble) and small (LifeWay) but have not actually read. I've wanted to read the book because two of my relatives seem to hold it in high regard, but I have seen some reviews that paint it as a book filled with experiential anecdotes and poor theology (see here and here - a positive review is here). I am also intrigued because Miller will be speaking at my alma mater, Cedarville University, next month - even though I graduated nearly thirteen years ago (that is not possible!), I am still interested in what occurs there.

These are some questions that I hope will be addressed by reading it:

1. Will I get a sense of Miller's theology? How does he view God - as Lord and Master, as a nice guy who wants us all to be happy and spread cheer, or what?
2. In what regard does Miller hold the Bible - as the inerrant Word of God (profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness), or as something less?
3. How much value does Miller place on the 'experience' of the Christian life as opposed to the 'doctrines' of the faith?
4. Does Miller discuss how Christians ought to be? If so, what ought they be and how does it relate to what they ought to be doing?
5. What phrases or words will Miller employ so that he can appear 'hip' or 'cool'?
6. If Miller is going to discuss Christian spirituality, will he give a definition or just assume I know what he means?
7. Is this a book that is necessary, or just filler on the bookshelves? What I mean is, will I get an idea as to why Miller wrote it?

Miller has his own site.

Blogging in China

If the Chinese government doesn't like your blog site, it might just be erased.

When Zhao Jing moved his blog to Microsoft's popular MSN Spaces site last summer, some users worried the Chinese government would block the entire service. The censors had blacklisted the last site where the young journalist had posted his spirited political essays, and he seemed unwilling to tone down his writing at the new address.

But Zhao, better known by the pen name Anti, told fellow bloggers not to worry. If the government objected to his blog, he predicted, Microsoft would "sell me out" and delete it rather than risk being blocked from computer screens across China.

He was right. Four and a half months after he began posting essays challenging the Communist Party's taboo against discussing politics, Zhao published an item protesting the purge of a popular newspaper's top editors. Officials called Microsoft to complain, and Microsoft quickly erased his blog. (WaPo)

However, the Chinese goverment can't control everything:

With as many as 16 million people in China writing blogs, the Internet has provided a platform for citizens to express their views, shattering the Communist Party's monopoly on the media. The state still controls newspaper, magazine and book publishing, but the proliferation of sites that let users publish and even broadcast audio and video online have undermined the party's ability to restrict who can address the public and attract an audience.

Many have used the Internet to produce essays, books and even underground films that question the party's authority. But surveys show most Internet users are members of the urban elite who are benefiting from China's booming economy and have avoided writing about politics. As a result, people using the Internet to pursue change often encounter resistance, both from those hostile to their views and from others who sympathize but worry that pushing too hard could imperil the freedoms already gained on the Web. The article describes how Zhao grew his blog and gained readership.

The article goes on to describe how Zhao grew his blog, gained readership, ran afoul of the government, and stirred up a controversy with other Chinese bloggers. Zhao also accused Microsoft of being part of the problem. Read the whole article.

RELATED:
Shame on you, Bill Gates!
How Beijing censors the blogosphere

not one Olympic star, but a plethora

I enjoy reading Mike Celzic's MSNBC.com commentaries on the Olympics, especially this one on the lack of American "star" athletes in Torino.

But, Mike, do we only need one star athlete? So far we have seven gold medalists, five silver medalists and three bronze medalists. Many of them have interesting stories and backgrounds, including Shani Davis who became the first black person to win gold. Speed skater Joey Cheek, probably the Olympian I admire most right now because of his generosity, has won gold and silver. We have a medal in ice dancing for the first time in many years, thanks in part to so many pairs from other countries deciding to try and win by falling down. The guy with the coolest nickname, Flying Tomato, won gold in the men's halfpipe. Why can't we celebrate all our Olympians?

Healthy chocolate??

Yes, chocoholics, there is cause for much rejoicing - chocolate marketed as a health food.

Mars Inc., maker of Milky Way, Snickers and M&M’s candies, next month plans to launch nationwide a new line of products made with a dark chocolate the company claims has health benefits.

Called CocoaVia, the products are made with a kind of dark chocolate high in flavanols, an antioxidant found in cocoa beans that is thought to have a blood-thinning effect similar to aspirin and may even lower blood pressure. The snacks also are enriched with vitamins and injected with cholesterol-lowering plant sterols from soy.

Not so fast:

“To suggest that chocolate is a health food is risky,” said Bonnie Liebman, nutrition director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Recent research has not established a link between flavanols and a reduced risk of cancer or heart disease, she said. And with obesity already a serious health problem, “the last thing we need is for Americans to think they can eat more chocolate.”

"I wish she would be able to take responsibility for her failure."

That's Donald Trump referring to Martha Stewart's version of "The Apprentice." The Donald believes Stewart's version "didn't have the right tone or the right demeanor." He's right, of course - it seemed that Martha was trying to be nice and not too hard on the contestants that she 'fired,' whereas Trump had no qualms telling people how poorly they performed. However, has Donald admitted publicly that his recent casino fiascos were failures? I don't remember that videotape.

I was an avid watcher of the first season, the one with Bill Rancic as the winner and Omarosa as the ultimate reality TV villainess. I watched a few episodes of the second season, and none of the third or fourth. And now I see ads for a fifth? Come on, Donald - time to take a break. Go spend time with that new wife - she's about to have your baby, isn't she?

Update:
Renovating Martha - from Newsweek

The Donald writes a classy letter to Martha:

Trump's response: "It's about time you started taking responsibility for your failed version of "The Apprentice"," he wrote in a Feb. 21 missive to Stewart that he shared with NEWSWEEK. "Your performance was terrible in that the show lacked mood, temperament and just about everything else a show needs for success. I knew it would fail as soon as I first saw it—and your low ratings bore me out."

Trump went on to attack Stewart's sidekick on the show, her daughter Alexis, as well as Stewart's practice of writing thank-you notes to contestants she'd just fired. "Between your daughter, with her-one word statements, your letter writing and, most importantly, your totally unconvincing demeanor, it never had a chance—much as your daytime show is not exactly setting records."

'Ambulance brings faster stroke care'

You may not be doing a stroke victim a favor by driving the patient to the hospital. People who arrive by ambulance are far more likely to get fast care once they get to the emergency room, new research shows.

Dr. Yousef Mohammad at Ohio State University studied records on more than 630,000 stroke patients and found that those who came by ambulance saw a doctor sooner and were more likely to be admitted than those who arrived by car, by foot or by public transportation. A second study of nearly 500 stroke patients by researchers in Portland, Ore., found that ambulance patients were more likely to promptly receive crucial tests.

When lights and sirens are blaring, "the floodgates open up and everyone pays attention," as opposed to a woman quietly pushing her husband in a wheelchair, said Dr. Joseph Broderick, a stroke expert from the University of Cincinnati, who had no role in the research. (Indy Star)

Take it from me, I work in a hospital. If you come via ambulance, you are placed directly into a room and the nurses can begin attending to you. If you drive yourself or have someone bring you, you're more likely to sit a bit in the waiting area before you're taken to a room.