To inaugurate our new fiction and creative works section, Associate Editor Ed Hurst provides a thoughtful dramatization from the Old Testament. The text comes from Genesis 12:1-3. Join Ed in following a bit of the life of the man who would become Abraham, the story of whom begins in media res (already in progress).
The mad rush to shop for last minute gifts that your recipient will actually enjoy need not be a desperate mad rush, at least. I picked out five of my favorite highly giftable items – all one hundred dollars or less, in descending price order, no less – perhaps one just right for your soon to be happy giftee. So, if you need to spend a little time playing a ripe jolly old elf, read on and see what I have in my sack.
Dennis Prager wrote an article on Townhall.com titled “America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on.” In brief, the article argues that every congressman should be made to take their oath of office on the Bible, not on any other book. Jason Franklin, a pastor, considers the the validity of this assertion.
At first glance, one might think there are a lot of marks against Adobe’s Creative Suite. It is pricey, complex and essentially without much in the way of competition to spur development. That is exactly what I thought for a long time, but actually using the suite dispels the notions one might accumulate just from outside analysis. As Creative Suite 3 looms on the horizon, it is worth considering exactly what makes this suite so delightful.
With Thanksgiving now past us, we find ourselves just days away from Advent, and already fully immersed into the Christmas season. Along with the tidings of “peace on earth” and “goodwill to men,” undoubtedly a number of familiar old arguments will also return; arguments over whether “Christmas is over-commercialized” and whether “our civic institutions are supporting state religion” are particularly cherished traditions of the season. It is the same old, same old, and lack of thinking on the subject will allow the debates to rage on despite that.
When I was younger, it was the Dungeons and Dragons crowd which ran some small risk of becoming entangled in the fantasy worlds they created, to the point they could lose their grip on reality. At the peak of its popularity, I was in the military in Europe. My wife was a serious hobby seamstress at the time, and a neighbor in the military housing area begged her to make him a complicated full wizard costume to add some reality to his gaming. She declined because he came across entirely too brain-fried. Testimony from others who knew this fellow indicated he had some difficulty keeping his obsession under control, to the point it affected the performance of his military duties. He was over 30, so it was no mere youthful diversion, and his wife complained often of his neglect of family, too.
With the launch of the PlayStation 3, the fate of one of the world’s best-known brands, Sony, hangs in the balance. Although the technology, and the price tag, of the new system will likely lead to it moving at least partially into the realm of home theater enthusiasts rather than just gaming enthusiasts wanting the latest game system, presently Sony is staking much of its future on that market. For true security, it needs a complete digital ecosystem, and for that, it needs to change its PC strategy.
Last Spring, those in my home state of Missouri were immersed in advertisements promoting the need for “choice” in premium television services. Those ads presented a bill for state-wide franchising of pay TV as just short of a logical continuation of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – who isn’t for more choice? The push to overturn the local franchising system that has regulated cable for the last several decades has spread across the country, but contrary to what its proponents assert, the choice promoted introduces a skewed system that could actually reduce choice in time.
Is Novell's deal with Microsoft ultimately something that boils down to a corporate agreement to restrict the free flow of information and understanding about Linux? Or, perhaps, could it be that this agreement will actually serve the purpose of getting Linux out to more users? Those are the questions Josiah Ritchie seeks to consider and come up with answers to.
It was October 31, 1517. Despite popular characterizations, it was merely a standard procedure for the young monk to post his debate proposal on the church door. By no means did he intend to start wars and create a permanent rift in the Body of Christ. It was simply the matter he took seriously the words he was being taught in his seminary classes about what really mattered in this world. Business as usual grated on his conscience. Nor was he alone in his complaints, so he hardly expected to become the lightening rod for institutional efforts to crush every dissenting voice.