So, Senator Obama made a much-ballyhooed appearance at Waterfront Park in Portland over the weekend. Chances are the most likely news story you will hear will be about the large number of people and the very pretty pictures of large crowds along the riverbank in the sunshine.

What caught my eye, however, was a quote Drudge mentioned on his front page today. He refers to this news story that quotes the senator thusly:

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,” Obama said.

“That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen,” he added.

Wow. Read that again if it didn’t strike you as an amazingly clueless statement.

Let’s take this apart piece by piece. First, Senator Obama refers to driving, eating, and temperature control in a way that clearly implies that we are guilty of doing too much of something. I presume he’s critical of our consumption of gas, food, and power. It strikes me as incredibly arrogant for someone to wag his finger at me and tell me that I’m driving too much, eating too much, and using too much air conditioning. I’m sorry, but if I can afford all of those things, what exactly am I guilty of? Not living how you like? Isn’t this a free country? Or is he proposing a different style of government where the rules are a little more restrictive. Please take note that if they can’t guilt you into compliance, they will find other ways.

Then, he continues on to say that other countries may disapprove of our legal consumption. Once again, if we’ve paid for it, what exactly are we doing wrong? If we’re indirectly funding terrorism, we should find another way. But, if the criticism is that the rest of the world is unhappy with our consumption, my response is blunt: “So what?” Why should any other country have one sliver of influence over how I live my life or how my country governs itself? This is the déjà vu the title of this post refers to. Anyone remember John Kerry and his “global test”? After reading many a book about the Founding Fathers, I’m always amazed when an American politician suggests that we should let foreign opinion of any kind influence our internal decisions. This is really outrageous.

But, then he throws in the kicker. He declares that letting Americans do what they want within legal limits and letting us decide our own fate is not leadership. His kind of leadership, evidently, means not letting Americans do what they can afford or letting us, as a country, chart our own course. His kind of leadership means giving strong suggestions or even compelling us to drive less, eat less, and use less power. His kind of leadership means consulting non-citizens when deciding on domestic policy.

I don’t want that kind of change, thank you very much. That’s a change that scares me.

Only geeks would think of a Mother’s Day this way. Since Stefanie lives with a couple of geeks, this is what she gets. Her gift was a digital photo frame loaded with a variety of photos from our life.

Her card was a mini comic book, which you can read here by clicking this cover page: 

Give it up for a geeky Mother’s Day!

Hello all,

I finally decided that I should start contributing to the family blog site. What better time to start than Mother’s Day?

As many of you know, this is my first Mother’s Day without my mom. To say that I have mixed feelings is an understatement. To know that Mom is with our Lord and Savior, that is a time of rejoicing. The hard part is being more selfish and wanting her here with me.

My brothers and I were blessed to have two very wonderful parents. To have a mother that was home with us when we were young, just being there when we needed her, was awesome. Did we always agree on things? That is certainly a “no”. Did we know that we loved each other? That is truly a “yes”.

As the only daughter in a family of four children, I know that my relationship with Mom was different than that of my brothers. Those of you who are daughters certainly know what I am talking about. I learned many things from my mother and for that I am truly thankful.

On this Mother’s Day, remember that your mom is special no matter how difficult she may be, that the Lord gifted you with this mother for a reason, and to treasure the short time that you are blessed with her.

I miss you Mom and look forward to seeing you again soon.

William Miller was a Baptist minister who went off the rails a bit and became known as the founder of the “Millerites”. He predicted that Christ would return sometime between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He later adjusted his prediction to April 18, 1844. Finally, he adjusted one more time to October 22, of 1844. Miller died in 1849.

Ellen White, a founder of the Seventh Day Adventists, predicted in June of 1850 that only a few months remained until the end of the world. During an 1856 conference of the Adventists, she predicted that some of those at the conference would witness Christ’s return. The church now has the dilemma of reconciling her predictions to the reality that none of those attendees are still living.

The Watchtower society predicted that Christ would return in 1914. When He did not, they changed their prediction to say that He had in fact returned, but invisibly. They went on to predict Armageddon would occur in 1925, 1941, 1975, and 1994.

The one that made me chuckle, though, was a meteorologist named Albert Porta who predicted that the conjunction of six planets would generate a magnetic current that would cause the sun to explode and engulf the earth on December 17, 1919. I would venture to say that this was not the last time a prophet of meteorology was wrong.

Do you notice a pattern in the other cases I’ve presented? Each time a prophecy was incorrect, the prophet simply recalculated and came up with a new date. When that one failed, more calculations were done and explanations were made to show that the original ones weren’t exactly wrong, but just incomplete or misunderstood. The fact is that doubt about these prophets is well-deserved.

So, imagine my skepticism when I read the opening paragraphs of this article at the BBC News Website:

The Earth’s temperature may stay roughly the same for a decade, as natural climate cycles enter a cooling phase, scientists have predicted.

A new computer model developed by German researchers, reported in the journal Nature, suggests the cooling will counter greenhouse warming.

However, temperatures will again be rising quickly by about 2020, they say.

Let me get this straight. Back in the 70s, you told me we’d be living in an ice age by now. Al Gore has been telling me we have “ten years left” for a while. And, now, when it becomes clear that the temperature graph isn’t going your way, you want me to believe that it’s just a lull? I’m sorry, but I think the time has passed.

I’ll add global warming to the long list of failed prophecies.