We have 4 children who brush their own teeth right now, and oftentimes they are all trying to use the same toothpaste and sink at the same time. That is the context for the following exchange I overhead a few nights ago between our 8yo and 5yo sons (presumably during a dispute about who got to apply the toothpaste first):
8yo (in a frustrated tone): “Put others before yourself!”
5yo: “Be gracious to those who are younger than you.”
So nice to know the Christ-following principles we are trying to teach them are being applied appropriately. Not.
March 3rd, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
I have finished reading 2 of the 5 books I picked to read this year: Mark Kurlansky’s The Last Fish Tale and Michael Axworthy’s Empire of the Mind: A History of Iran. I of course enjoyed Kurlansky yet again and I will do what I can to eat fish sustainably.
Axworthy’s Iranian history, on the other hand, was not a very compelling read. He pretty much lost me early on when he asserted that the doctrine of original sin was grafted into Christianity from Manichaism via Augustine, and specifically when he concluded that Pelagius was right and Augustine was wrong (see pages. 49ff). Axworthy’s off-topic moralizing was detrimental to the entire book, but I did glean some worthwhile knowledge from among his chaff.
In addition to the books noted in my original post, I have also picked up several others including (finally) Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat. Friedman, the popular apologist for globalization, has always captured my attention but for whatever reason I put off reading this book until now. The first few chapters are basically describing the world I grew up in.
We got our first computer, a Commodore 64, for Christmas in 1986. My dad bought a used Tandy 1000 in the late 80’s and I learned how to use our local Bulletin Board Service (BBS) on that machine. We got our first real PC in 1995, an HP running Windows 3.1. It came pre-loaded with Netscape Navigator. By the time I enrolled at Rose-Hulman in the fall of 1996, the campus was fully wired and we all had laptops running Windows 95. I have had continuous internet access since that time.
I remember the dot-com boom and bust; I remember ICQ and first hearing about Napster, and eBay. I remember buying a book on Amazon.com for the first time and thinking what a great way it was to shop. I remember my first weblog (started in 2002, after I learned about it from a kid I was mentoring at the local college). And now here I am, in year 7 of blogging from this site. Friedman certainly knows how to inspire, so you can thank him for this post. That, and my being home sick today. . .
March 3rd, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
This year we spent lunch and the afternoon with some friends who appreciate good German food as much as we do. We ate sausages, ham loaf, maultaschen, and spaetzle, along with sweet bread rolls, cranberry salad, and homemade donuts and pfeffernuesse (peppernut cookies) to finish.
I made the maultaschen and spaetzle myself, something I never did while living in Stuttgart. In Germany I always bought the dried spaetzle noodles and/or the frozen maultaschen from the store when I prepared them in the Studentenwohnheim. I topped my spaetzle with butterkaese and butter and it was gut geschmecken. The maultaschen turned out pretty tasty as well.
The peppernuts our hostess baked were very different from my mother’s recipe. My mom makes hard, dark brown peppernuts that melt in your mouth. These peppernuts were chewy, light brownish-gray, had walnuts in them and were quite tasty in their own right. The freshly-made donuts were excellent as well. All in all, an excellent meal to ring in the New Year. Prost!
January 3rd, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
My work schedule being what it is, I haven’t made much time for reading over the past year. But in the hopes that 2010 will include a bit more leisure time, I used some of my Christmas money to buy the following books:
The Church in History by B.K. Kuiper. A historical survey of the Christian Church — my first foray into a general church historical work.
The Last Fish Tale by Mark Kurlansky. A book about the fishing community of Gloucester, MA, and (I expect) a bit of a polemic against overfishing. I really enjoy Mark Kurlansky’s books.
The Food of a Younger Land. . . by Mark Kurlansky. I’m not really sure what to expect from this book other than to be well-entertained and maybe to find a few good recipes.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. I really enjoyed reading Guns, Germs, and Steel for what it was worth. I fully expect to find flaws in whatever arguments Diamond puts forth in this book and I am certain I will disagree with him on many points. But what’s the point of only reading authors whose ideas you already agree with?
A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind by Michael Axworthy. Ever since I finished reading Hourani’s A History of the Arab Peoples, which hammered home the message that Persians (and thus Iranians) are *not* Arabs, I have been looking for a good book on Persian history. I was further enlightened by Kinzer’s All the Shah’s Men and reading that book further strengthened my resolve to learn more about Iranian history. So here we go!
That’s my reading list for 2010, for starters. I’m also hoping to squeeze in a second reading of J. I. Packer’s Knowing God and Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. What’s on your list?
January 2nd, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (1)
If you think this is going to be a serious post, you are sadly mistaken. Overheard at our dinner table tonight:
Jacob (reading 5yo his fortune from a fortune cookie): “Being aware of your fears will improve your life.” Well, that’s sort of true. What are you afraid of?
5yo: I’m afraid of bears. . .
Jacob: Oh, bears, that’s a good thing to be afraid of. . .
5yo: . . .and talking underwear!
Jacob: (stunned silence, followed by gales of laughter)
Yup, just another quality family dinner conversation in the Stoltzfus household.
October 21st, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
I’m not sure if I can handle this much sports success. The Phillies won their division for the third year in a row. If their pitching firms up they could make another deep run in the playoffs. I really don’t think I would enjoy a championship this year as much as last year, but maybe that’s just the eternal Philadelphia sports fan pessimist in me trying to prepare me for the worst.
One thing I know for certain: If the Phillies play the Cardinals in the postseason, I’m going to try and score some tickets!
October 1st, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
I was reading in Proverbs this morning and appreciated the footnote in my ESV Reformation Study Bible regarding 1:7: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
The footnote reads, in part: “While in His common grace God enables unbelievers to know much about the world, only the fear of the Lord enables one to know what anything means ultimately. Relying on this light, wisdom pursues the task of reflecting on human experience.”
I have sometimes reflected along these lines when thinking about evolutionary theory. Materialist/naturalist thinking has constructed an elaborate narrative which appeals to our rationality to explain the origins of human existence but can still never explain where the first matter came from. For me, from a philosophical standpoint, it comes down to this: either I believe that matter and energy always were, and they spontaneously began expanding billions of years ago while random natural events built on random natural events in an unending chain resulting in cheeseburgers, airplanes, and Lego bricks (along with other stuff); or a supernatural power (Whom Scripture and rational exploration coupled with observation and experience has convinced me is Yahweh) has always existed, and Who purposefully and majestically created all that we see and know. Whenever my mind wanders down the atheistic/rationalistic garden path, I come to nihilism. But pondering God leads me to worship and praise. The world apart from God is meaningless; the world apart from Christ is hopeless.
Sola Deo Gloria!
September 30th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment
I am constantly entertained by the comments I get on my post about the Burma-shave style pro-gun rights slogans you find along highways in Illinois. You can read my post here along with the comments. Enjoy!
I will say, nothing in the 2nd Amendment language supports the idea that it was written so that U.S. citizens could protect themselves against the government of the United States. While that may be a necessary right — and I do heartily agree that we need such protection — it does not derive from the language of the 2nd Amendment. Deriving a right to protect oneself from government by use of firearms from the 2nd Amendment is somewhat akin (in my mind) to deriving a right to kill unborn fetuses from the 9th Amendment.
September 30th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (1)
I am home sick today with a nasty head cold that has migrated into my chest, so it is a particularly apropos time to reflect further on the health care “reform” bill. As I indicated in my previous post, I am not opposed to health care reform in general (obviously the system as it stands isn’t working — our costs are much higher than the rest of the industrialized world and by numerous measures our outcomes are much poorer — a double negative which does NOT make a positive) and I believe there are much worse solutions than a public option. To sum up my opinion of the current Senate bill: this is much worse.
The Good:
Increasing competition among insurers by allowing consumers to choose plans across state lines can only be good (note that this would be de-regulation, not added regulation!).
Limiting the ability of insurance companies to drop coverage of or deny coverage to consumers with pre-existing conditions is a positive.
The Bad:
Keeping the current system but increasing regulation doesn’t really address the root issues. We need to reform the whole system, not patch it up and keep doing what we’re doing now. Preventative care has to be moved to a more prominent role.
All lifestyles are NOT created equal nor are they equally healthy, and people who choose to engage in risky behavior should be charged for their risky choices accordingly. We can use cold hard facts (as in, promiscuous sexual behavior increases health risks) without moralizing to put in place economic penalties for risky behaviors. A slippery slope? Maybe. But I’m gettng off topic here.
The Ugly:
Without a public option to spur competition and drive innovation (yes, I did say that out loud) there will be no cost reductions. There is no incentive for insurance companies and the health care industry to reform if they aren’t forced to do so. There is no way the current Senate bill will pay for itself.
What are your thoughts? Please share.
September 28th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (1)
I’m generally an evenhanded skeptic about our government. For instance, as far as the “public option” for health care goes I am both skeptical of the government’s ability to manage a health care system fairly and efficiently, while at the same time I”m skeptical that having a government-managed insurance option is the end of the free world as we know it.
Some talking points:
1) Medicare — while I disagree with the idea in principle — seems to me to be no more nor less wasteful and fraudulent, and certainly not less efficient than, private medical insurance plans.
2) The system we have now isn’t all that great. A large percentage of the premiums we pay now go to pay for a bureaucracy whose main objective is to minimize medical expenses, which is mainly accomplished by denying claims.
3) Private insurance options already restrict our choices of doctors and other medical services we can use, at least if your insurance (like mine) uses a preferred provider network and you can’t afford to go out of network.
4) Private options aren’t all that great. I don’t buy the argument that it’s because they are too highly regulated. I prefer things like health insurance, banks, and mortgage brokers to be held to outside standards, since people are basically evil and selfish at heart. Greed is not good, except for those (materially) fortunate few who are both greedy and have the power to indulge their greediness unrestrained.
5) All of which doesn’t help me wrap my head around what I see as the basic problem: our government is supposed to be a neutral party, taking the side only of blind justice. But a government which administers health care will inevitably pick winners and losers, and if you believe that the winners will be chosen on merit and not on their ability to line the pockets of the bureaucrats and politicians who make the choices — well, let’s just say you must not pay much attention to the news.
Thoughts?
August 4th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | Comments (1)
