Another Caedmon's update. Andy Osenga also reporting here.

Iraq roundup:

• Michael Yon with another combat dispatch.
• Gen. David Petraeus officially assumes control of Multinational Force Iraq (MNF-I).
  
• Yon comments on Petraeus's appointment.

Cramped or terrified, we must, in any conceivable world, be one or the other. I prefer terror. I should be suffocated in a universe that I could see to the end of. Have you never, when walking in a wood, turned back deliberately for fear you should come out the other side and thus make it ever after in your imagination a mere beggarly strip of trees?

An ex-terrorist is facing possible deportation from Canada for speaking up about Islam. The article contains some interesting notes about Shariah law.

MercatorNet likes smashing televisions, too.

New meaning in the term "fired." (PjM)

Jailbreak in North Korea; Google earth on-scene. (Hat tip: PjM)

Dr. Francis Collins is a Scientist/Christian I have mentioned here before. Here's a fascinating account (courtesy WorldMagBlog) of his keynote address at the 55th annual National Prayer Breakfast which is attended by the President.

"But you're a scientist," Dr. Collins said people say to him so often. "Doesn't [all this talk of Jesus] make your head explode? Doesn't this create a huge conflict for you between faith and reason?" His answer, simply, is "no." True, only 40% of scientists believe there is a God, but he said he sees science as a means both of discovery as well as worship. The more he learns of how God has created and wired us, the more he feels he has "caught a glimpse of God's mind."

"There's an unwritten taboo among scientists about talking of one's spiritual leanings," Dr. Collins conceded, but he urged this not to be the case. It was a moving and personal talk from a hero of modern science, and one I hope is reported widely in the coming days in the media. Dr. Collins concluded by asking us to sing a song with him, as he played the guitar. That's not something you see every day at Washington political gatherings. The song was "Praise The Source of Faith and Learning," by Rev. Thomas Troeger. Here's the first stanza:

Praise the source of faith and learning

that has sparked and stoked the mind

With a passion for discerning

how the world has been designed.

Let the sense of wonder flowing

from the wonders we survey

Keep our faith forever growing

and renew our need to pray.

VOM, China:

• On January 22, 2007, three "Minority for Christ" workers were arrested in Guizhou province. Guizhou has one of the largest Hmong populations and is also one of the strongest Communist provinces in China.
• VOM sources also report that security police arrested 11 Korean Christians after visiting a local village in China. After extensive interrogation they were released. The group is helping a local village build a new church building.
• On January 26, 2007, Hua Huidi and his 76-year-old mother were attacked and wounded by seven police officers while walking near a 2008 Olympic hotel site in Beijing, China. According to China Aid Association (CAA), Hua, an active house-church member in Beijing, and his mother were kicked on the ground and later taken to the Olympic Police Station for questioning. "When Hua asked the police to release his sick mother and explain the legal ground for the detention, he was beaten repeatedly. While the temperature in Beijing was in the 20s, cold water was poured on him. He was later taken to a detention center," CAA said. Hua's family learned that he was sentenced to one month of criminal detention.
  

Pray God continues to protect Christians in China. Persecution is expected to intensify ahead of the 2008 Olympics. Ask God to give believers wisdom and courage as they face these difficult times.

Some morning workout wisdom, courtesy Frosted Mini-Wheats:

Did You Know:

Exercise that really gets your heart beating can help make your video game skills better. It's a super gamer's "hint"... a secret weapon that'll help you:

• Have more energy
• Be more alert
• Raise your self-confidence

Oh brother.

Screwtape goes to the movies?

I guess we'll keep squeezing them in: former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is in the running. (PjM) Giuliani is a pro-choice Republican with a somewhat shaky family background. He seems to be polling well within his party.

It seems this country hardly knows what it wants anymore.

More from Redlin (or rather, Mark Steyn) on global whining. It seems a bit ruffled, but there is some redeeming historical evidence sprinkled throughout.

Joel Belz of World Magazine on ethanol:

All the evidence says that—at least so far—ethanol really doesn't work. At least, not without a big boost from Uncle Sam. As I understand it, the argument for ethanol has three major flaws...

Is it not frightfully unfair that this new life should be confined to people who have heard of Christ and been able to believe in Him? But the truth is God has not told us what His arrangements for the other people are. We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him.

But in the meantime, if you are worried about the people outside, the most unreasonable thing you can do is to remain outside yourself. Christians are Christ's body, the organism through which He works. Every addition to that body enables Him to do more. If you want to help those outside you must add your own little cell to the body of Christ who alone can help them. Cutting off a man's fingers would be an odd way of getting him to do more work.

The third sentence is clever, but does it hold up to Matthew 7:23?

Yesterday Garrett introduced me to a truly amazing guitarist he had recently stumbled upon. Andy McKee (wikipedia) is an incredibly talented pioneer finger-stylist with a gift and appreciation for emotion and energy in music. Top notch.

It's just as much fun to watch as it is to listen to.



Be sure to also catch Drifting, Into the Ocean, and Africa.

When you do something, you should burn yourself completely,
like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
-Shunryu Suzuki

(from Andy's bio page)

The savings rate: getting the real story. (Instapundit)

LVMI has more.

The latest dispatch from Michael Yon, while somewhat graphic, skillfully documents some dramatic events. The human perspective Yon provides on the war is invaluable.

Keep praying.

Redlin seems to me a singularly sane voice in the climate change debate. Read it.

Error always contains the seeds of its own demise: the feminist movement is tripping over itself. (PjM)

LVMI on the economics of immigration.

MercatorNet reviews two historical works: one a young girl's private perspective on communist Russia, the other a chronicle of a Jew's search for his great-uncle's family, who were murdered during the Holocaust. The second seems a particularly poignant look into some of the deeper themes of existence:

Mendelsohn’s quest to recreate the lives of his six lost relatives, now no more than “minor characters in someone else’s tale”, takes him to the Ukraine, Australia, Prague, Vienna, Israel, Denmark and Sweden. One person leads to another, thousands of miles distant; one clue leads to another, which then illuminates an anecdotal fragment which has got blurred in the telling. So urgent is the author’s need to know, “to have facts and dates and details” and to impose order on this chaos of facts, by “assembling them into a story that has a beginning, a middle and an end”, that the reader, too, becomes absorbed in the search. Five years in the making and 500 pages long, Mendelsohn’s passionate tale makes his own family tragedy our tragedy too; indeed, the tragedy of mankind.

There is no half-way house and there is no parallel in other religions. If you had gone to Buddha and asked him 'Are you the son of Bramah?' he would have said, 'My son, you are still in the vale of illusion.' If you had gone to Socrates and asked, 'Are you Zeus?' he would have laughed at you. If you had gone to Mohammed and asked 'Are you Allah?' he would first have rent his clothes and then cut your head off. If you had asked Confucius, 'Are you Heaven?' I think he would have probably replied, 'Remarks which are not in accordance with nature are in bad taste.'

The idea of a great moral teacher saying what Christ said is out of the question. In my opinion, the only person who can say that sort of thing is either God or a complete lunatic suffering from that form of delusion which undermines the whole mind of man. If you think you are a poached egg, when you are looking for a piece of toast to suit you, you may be sane, but if you think you are God, there is no chance for you.

We may note in passing that He was never regarded as a mere moral teacher. He did not produce that effect on any of the people who actually met Him. He produced mainly three effects - Hatred - Terror - Adoration. There was no trace of people expressing mild approval.

Go Zoho!