At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of the morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours [sic] that we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour [sic] that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.

LVMI attacks the green agenda of The New York Times. This issue is not as simple as it looks, from either side.

Picasa, besides being the best desktop picture software I have used, also has the cleanest and most intuitive web interface around, with 250 MB of storage. I'm lovin' it.

I'm liking my new Sandisk Sansa m250. Holds all my music with room to spare, and uses an AAA battery, which means I can change it on the job. The coolest part is the nice and SHORT usb cable that it shipped with - it's about time.

UPDATE: Garrett thinks the equivalent player from Creative Zen is a contender. It sports a bigger screen and photo/video capability, but at nearly twice the price, I think I'll pass. Besides, I can't stand proprietary batteries. And who wants to watch movies on a 1.5 inch screen, anyway? Give me a break.

Getting to know Keith Plummer, the blogger behind The Christian Mind.

The Economist examines the 2008 Presidential Race and comments on the lineup of hopefuls. I'm characteristically sympathetic to underdogs like Giuliani or Romney, but it might be fun to have Clinton win just to make Falwell mad.

Wacky warning labels: funny at first, but the situation, in actuality, is deeply depressing. (Instapundit)

The ultimate price for peace: neutral Muslim cleric shot and killed in Gaza Strip. (PM)

Search engine conglomerate promises to fetch the stick.

(Hat Tip: Just A Leaf)

MercatorNet is roundly criticizing Wikipedia. Some of the points are valid - some are not. Seems one shouldn't complain too loudly about free food.

The idea that enough mediocrity can eventually produce excellence is novel and interesting, but unconvincing. A better and perhaps more accurate mantra might be "garbage in, garbage out."

Hmmmmm.

Nancy Pelosi, a California Representative since 1987, is the first woman - and first Californian - to be elected Speaker of the House.

Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison to take his oath of office on a Koran - Thomas Jefferson's Koran. (PM)

I'll refrain from inflammatory commentary. But I will say that...[ooomph!]

UPDATE: AU comments.

I thought so: education is good for you. (PM)

Just not too much of it.

Garrett's been sort of leafing around; now he's back. Thanks for the plug!

The New York Times: examining free will. You HAVE to read it.

Pat Robertson seems to upset more people than he impresses. I don't even know who listens to the guy anymore. Both Americans United and Stand to Reason are critical and disgusted.

The word of God is not bound! VOM, Iran:

Christian Couple Flee Persecution in North Iran
A Christian couple who led more than 200 church members in a Northern city in Iran have had to flee to a bigger city in order to continue their ministry. After becoming Christians they led their friends and family to the Lord and started a Bible study. Within a year it had grown to a church of 50 people and in two years they had 200 believers. The church spread to more than 10 cities and they started training 24 others to evangelize and continue building up the Body of Christ. "It was during this time that my wife and I noticed the government had found out about us and was pursuing us. We were in constant danger and threat of being arrested," the pastor said. Pray God protects and opens doors for this Christian couple to continue preaching and reaching Iran for Christ.

Looks like Google's Blogger Beta switch hasn't been entirely painless. (LVMI)

Accelerated primary learning in China: not a new concept, but certainly another twist on implementation. It's time to pay attention when American High School is outdone by Aisan kindergarten - if you don't get on the ball, someone else will.

On a more basic level, it looks like a shrewd American firm attempting to capitalize on a hungry education market. I'd like to see a similar, indigenous Chinese program.

(Hat tip: Pajamas Media)

Richard Dawkins: pathetic optimism.

This year I'm taking a break from Oswald Chambers and reading C.S. Lewis's The Business Of Heaven.

When He said, "Be perfect," he meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder - in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

Some folks are getting suspicious of Google. (Instapundit) In my uninformed biased opinion, they have the best stuff and can afford to boast a little.

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Closing out the year with Oswald Chambers:

Security from Yesterday. "God requireth that which is past."
At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for
the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the
yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God's grace is apt to be checked
by the memory of yesterday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of
our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the
past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds
us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.

Security for To-morrow. "For the Lord will go before
you." This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we
have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like
failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our rereward. God's
hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for
conscience.

Security for To-day. "For ye shall not go out with
haste." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste
of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive
thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of
Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to
us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return,
but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive
thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on
the bosom of Christ.

Leave the Irreparable Past in His hands, and step out into the Irresistible Future with Him.

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VOM, India:

Hindu extremists launched two known attacks against Christians last week, assaulting a pastor in the state of Chhattisgarh on December 17 and beating a couple in Haryana on December 20. In Raipur, a group of about 50 extremists from the Dharam Raksha Sena beat an independent pastor and accused him of forced conversions. They attacked Philip Jagdalla as he returned to his home after teaching Sunday school at his church. About 50 Bajrang Dal extremists attacked the Christian couple, Rakesh Sen and Suman Sen, at their home. The attackers were upset at the couple for regularly allowing their New Life Fellowship church to meet in their home and warned them against doing so in the future.

All of these "forced conversions" charges appear to me to be rather ironic.