CNN.com - Al Qaeda threat over pope speech - Sep 18, 2006

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- An al Qaeda-linked extremist group warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that he and the West were "doomed," as protesters raged across the Muslim world to demand more of an apology from the pontiff for his remarks about Islam and violence.

Ummm... is this a call for muslims to kill the pope for suggesting that Islam spreads their religion by the use of violence?

Celebrate is one of Newport Mesa's core values. So here is a joke about it:

A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand.

  He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

  The head monk, says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."  

  He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn 't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.  

  So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing, "We missed the 'R'!, we missed the 'R'!"

  His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.

  The young monk asks the old abbot, "What' s wrong, father?"

  With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, "The word was... CELEBRATE!!!"

An ad for the BBC in which contestants battle it out in a fictitious reality T.V. show to become the next Sound of Music star. Click on the left.

"An evolutionary arms race between early snakes and mammals triggered the development of improved vision and large brains in primates, a radical new theory suggests."

File this under "Heretical", but I can't help but think that there is something deep going on when you juxtapose the role that Satan as a snake had in the account of creation and the theory that is suggested by Dr. Isbell at UC Davis (see FOXNews.com - Fear of Snakes May Have Driven Pre-Human Evolution - Evolution and Paleontology) that snakes caused mammals brains to change.

In the account of creation in the Bible, Satan as a snake was instrumental in the fall of man. An event which fundamentally changed the nature of humanity forever, both physically (because people immediately started thinking differently) and spiritually (because people were suddenly under the curse of the law)

No doubt I don't understand Genesis accurately and no doubt the anthropologist doesn't understand evolution accurately, but I love it when the two start to have similar refrains. It reinforces my faith in the Bible and gives me hope that science isn't steering us entirely wrong.

A clever ad showing how the Mexican Red Cross saves lives by incidentally killing the grim reaper. Click on the image on the left.

From Derek Webb's, "My Enemies Are Men Like Me":

"I have come to give you life,
and to show you how to live it.
I have come to make things right,
to heal their ears and show you how to forgive them.
Cause I would rather die, I would rather die, I would rather die,
Than to take your life.
Cause how can I kill for what I'm supposed to love?
My enemies are men like me."

"Peace by way of war is like purity by way of fornication,
It's like telling someone murder is wrong,
and then showing them by way of execution."

"....When justice is bought and sold just like weapons of war,
and the ones who always pay are the poorest of the poor.
My enemies are men like me."

From Ambiguous:

"I think someone should try to blow up a plane with a piece of ID, just to watch the TSA's mind implode.

From: We Want You to Be a Christian Hedonist by John Piper

"As Christian Hedonists we know that everyone longs for happiness. And we will never tell them to deny or repress that desire. It is never a problem to want to be satisfied. The problem is being satisfied too easily. We believe that everyone who longs for satisfaction should no longer seek it from money or power or lust, but should come glut their soul-hunger on the grace of God."

From Ecclesiastes 6:1-8 aka the Bible:

I have seen another evil under the sun, and it weighs heavily on men: God gives a man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.

A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. It comes without meaning, it departs in darkness, and in darkness its name is shrouded. Though it never saw the sun or knew anything, it has more rest than does that man- even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

All man's efforts are for his mouth,
yet his appetite is never satisfied.

What advantage has a wise man
over a fool?
What does a poor man gain
by knowing how to conduct himself before others?

And finally from my musician/song-writer/etc. friend Mike Wilkerson, the following song perfored by The Parsons: Meaningless