Cute Budweiser Spoof

Visit to Shawnee Park Book Group
xpost with my Heaven Blog

On Sunday I met with a book group from Shawnee Christian Reformed Church that had studied my book, at the home of two of the members (coincidentally, just about a quarter mile from the home where I met the Neland book group). The group was made up of older readers, and I was struck by one comment one reader made about my generation. She asked if my generation thought more about heaven and the kind of questions I raise in the book. I said that honestly, I thought my generation was very technology-oriented, and thus less prone to think about the transcendent. She commented that her generation didn't ask these kinds of questions at all; they were more inclined to just accept the doctrine that was handed down to them and not worry about any remaining questions they had. My generation, by comparison, she said, felt free to ask big questions. Readers around the room generally agreed, and some said that this was the first they had thought this long and hard about the afterlife. I had assumed that thinking about the afterlife came a little more naturally as you get older, with some of your biggest life decisions behind you, more more funerals of your friends to attend. I was struck by the potental for discussing heaven in an older generation.

At least they don't cheesily say 'We don't have much time' about once every 7 minutes...
I have been feeling pretty smug in my scoffing at those who fawn over 'Grey's Anatomy,' at least one of whom resides in my own house. But then I realized how hypocritical it is given how much time I spent Monday reading the fan forums at TWP about the breathtaking-but-plausibility-defying season finale of '24' ...

Xenophobia in the U.S. Senate

Sigh.

Declaring English to be the national language of the U.S. is about as necessary and meaningful as declaring Going To The Beach to be the National Summertime Activity.

The myth that immigrants to the U.S. lack the incentive and the will to learn English is pervasive but silly. The problem that there aren't enough English classes for immigrants is very real, and widely ignored.

Update: On a lighter note, this has set up easy punch lines for late night comedians:

"The president says making English our national language is not 'discriminatious.'" --Conan O'Brien

Amazon Light 4.0

An alternative interface for Amazon, without all the screen clutter.

Wikipedia cited as source in NY Times op-ed

Geoff Nunberg notes at LL:

Paul Krugman wrote in his column today:

'A conspiracy theory, says Wikipedia, ''attempts to explain the cause of an event as a secret, and often deceptive, plot by a covert alliance.'''

Not a bad definition, but that "says Wikipedia" had me doing a double-take. ...

A Steven Wright quote-of-the-day RSS-ed to my Gmail reminded me that he's authored some of the best one-liners of any comedian (although I also remember a few of his disastrously unfunny cameos on 'Mad About You'; his brief Simpsons appearance ['the zebra did it'] was much more memorable.)