Stan Taylor

Yesterday, Texans approved Propsition 2. Unfortunately, that’s no surprise to me. What troubles me, though, is the direct participation of Christian congregations and pastors in the political process: many congregations and pastors publicly endorsed prop 2, and the election-night gathering for supporters in the Austin area was held at Great Hills Baptist Church.
This direct endorsement of political candidates and initiatives contradicts my beliefs. I used to be a member of a United Methodist congregation that is widely recognized as one of the most liberal in Texas, with one of the most politically outspoken pastors. The pastor frequently spoke about issues that were hotly debated politically, but even in that environment it was taboo for the pastor to come out for or against candidates or specific political solutions. Instead, his task was to help his congregants decide what is right and just, but he left it up to them to decide how to act on those decisions in the realm of politics.
I prefer to think globally, but act locally. I’m always inspired by my Christian friend in Germany who was staunchly against abortion. I don’t necessarily agree with her, but I’m inspired by her actions. She believed that the best way to avoid abortion is to avoid unwanted pregnancy, and that she could have a direct impact on this issue. Instead of getting involved in political debate about abortion (granted, the political situation is different in Germany than in the US), she would spend her Saturday afternoons handing out information on birth control in the main square. I remember with a chuckle her explanations of her and her husband trying out each new birth control method so that she would be able to offer experienced advice.

In Wired Magazine, Simson Garfinkel lists History’s Worst Software Bugs. I’d already heard about many of these, but not all. This one is particularly intriguing:

1982 — Soviet gas pipeline. Operatives working for the Central Intelligence Agency allegedly plant a bug in a Canadian computer system purchased to control the trans-Siberian gas pipeline. The Soviets had obtained the system as part of a wide-ranging effort to covertly purchase or steal sensitive U.S. technology. The CIA reportedly found out about the program and decided to make it backfire with equipment that would pass Soviet inspection and then fail once in operation. The resulting event is reportedly the largest non-nuclear explosion in the planet’s history.

We decided to pop some popcorn for Halloween, so I broke out our harvest gold hot air popcorn popper from the 1980s. The kids had never seen such a device and were fascinated by the popcorn popping and coming out the shoot. Next time they complain about being bored, I’m breaking out the Popcorn Pumper again.

I’m a self-identifying English language usage curmudgeon. But I tell you, misuse of apostrophes has become so rampant, it hardly even gets a rise out of me any longer. In just a few minutes of news scanning this morning, I ran across two incidents:

Google envisions a world in which all content is free; and of course, it controls the portal through which Internet user’s access that content.

Web store fails to monitor it’s own reviews board.

I just can’t get outraged any longer. It just makes me sad and tired.

A little juvenile humor for the middle of the week (click on image for larger version):

Our office manager usually keeps individually wrapped wintergreen Life Savers in the candy dish on the reception desk. But last week, she put out a Halloween bucket filled with chocolate. As I was eating more of the chocolate than I should have, I realized that they chocolates all had ‘Fun Size’ on the package. This got me thinking about the marketing team at Mars sitting around discussing this new product.
Marketing drone #1: OK, we’ve got this new product: bags of small mixed chocolates. How do we market them? We can’t market them on using our usual parameters: an increase in something–size, flavor, etc.
Marketing drone #2: I know! How about ‘Fun size!’ It’s devoid of any actual meaning, but it conveys excitement for a product that really has nothing going for it except that you can bag them up.

Kyle Lake, pastor at Universtiy Baptist Church in Waco, was electrocuted while performing a baptism yesterday. According to the AP story:

The Rev. Kyle Lake, 33, was stepping into the baptistery as he reached out for the microphone, which produced an electric shock . . . Water in a baptistery usually reaches above the waist, said Byron Weathersbee, interim university chaplain at Baylor University.

Just wanted to point out that author Sarah Bird (or at least someone who claimed to be her) left a comment on my review of The Yokota Officers Club. Ms. Bird was in town this past weekend for the Texas Book Festival. I wish I had met her.

From my Monday morning commute:

NOTE: Jesus seemed to be a courteous driver. As you can see, he uses his turn signals.

I did not know this: the standard unit of inductance is the henry.