LOL: Worst Books

From the Intercollegiate Review's - an article titled Fifty Worst Books of the 20th Century.

John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage (1956) Should have been called, Profiles in Ghost-Writing.

That is funny.

Ben Stein

"All is One" !?! - LOL - I Do Not Think So!

"The biblical faith holds steadfastly and unmistakably to the Creator-creature distinction. "Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves" (Ps. 100:3). If there is such a thing as truth and falsehood, there could be no wider disparity between Biblical theology and [Ralph Waldo] Emerson. Those who hold that "all is one" are not Christians. They have the wrong worldview and the wrong god. They have deceived themselves with a worldview incapable of maintaining the preconditions for all human thinking, coherent logic, and social interaction. From a Christian point of view, this is gross idolatry in its blatant denial of the true and living God and its incorporation of man into the godhead" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate, 101).

Education in the 21st Century: New Wine, New Wineskins

"We are on the cusp of the decentralization of information and media sources, and the gradual collapse of the brick-and-mortar university monopoly over Western thought and economics is already in process. The time has come to reform and rebuild the ideas and educational systems that make up the Western world" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate: The Men Who Destroyed the Christian West, 3).

Reform. Rebuild.

•  http://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/
• https://www.khanacademy.org/
• On "College Finances"
• On "Not Paying Retail for College"
• Enjoy the parody video below for "EveRy University."

LOL: The Other Calvin Talks About the TeeVee!

LOL: Restraint

"Once you have a cache of consumables, you'll have to show some restraint to avoid increasing your rate of consumption. My first adventure into stockpiling came when I bought what I thought would be a two- to three-year supply of wine. The convenience of having it on hand each time we had a nice meal turned it into a one-year supply. It's easy to use something that is handy, especially when you have a great quantity of it. Like the child who eats the whole shopping bag full of Halloween candy, you may get sick when you realize your cost of living has risen due to the convenience of your stockpile" (John A. Pugsley, The Alpha Strategy, 62).

Behooved by David Bentley Hart with Qualifiers to Protect My Unborn Child

You really must go read this article by David Bentley Hart. If Colbert in the earlier post didn't make you laugh, then this will.

On the one hand, DBH interacts with a critique of his recent book, in which he exposes the "depressingly vapid" cognition of the "indolent secularism of late modern society," while on the other hand, DBH, to put it lightly, will make you laugh. In fact, I told my wife, who is currently pregnant, to read the article, forewarning her that she would fall on the ground with laughter. To which I quickly added, "Just don't hurt the baby!"

Stephen Colbert on Common Core

Laugh your heart out, America!

LOL: Fashion Tip

I've read mounds by Peter Leithart; he is a genuine polymath writer. Theology, check. Literature, check. Sociology, check. Cultural critic, check. History, check . . . but this is the first time that I am aware of where he dabbles in fashion.

Entry # 1 for "Tongue-in-Cheek Theology"

From the conclusion to this theological article at Monergism.com.

Perhaps a story from the life of Martin Luther would be instructive here: when some inquisitive theologian asked him what God was doing before he created the world, Luther quipped, “He was busy creating hell for foolish theologians who pry into such questions”. The response is a little tongue-in-cheek, of course, but perhaps there is some wisdom in it, particularly when we are addressing the lapsarian question.

Guilt of Pinterest

"My wife says Pinterest exists to help guilt-ridden mothers feel guiltier by offering a million ways to be a more perfect mother than you could ever possibly hope to be. And then she still uses it. At Christmas" (Jake Mentzel in The Warhorn, Vol. 1, Issue 4).

Book Review: The Gospel Blimp (And Other Parables) by Joe Bayly

A parable is more than a story. It is a story on target, set to shatter any listener who gets in its way. Yet a parable's trajectory is unpredictable, except to one who knows a man's secrets (152).

BOOM SHAKALAKA. Satire fans can direct their twinkling-eyes on this newly repackaged (and edited) read, and my guess is that fresh recruits will join the woe-singing-chorale in decrying the foibles of 60's and 70's Christian E.V.A.N.G.E.L.I.C.A.L.I.S.M. [Doh-Re-Mi-Fa-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-So-La-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha]

Having not read satire in a while, it was a bit difficult to get back into the genre at first . . . I read a page, and cringed, read another page, and cringed some more. I had just about loosened-up to Bayly's roughhousing, however, when . . . when . . . how do I put it? Ah, yes -- it was when, for the first time in my life, I simultaneously laughed-out-loud (LOL!) and thought I had thrown-up in my mouth. Bayly's sketches of Christian hypocrisy, neo-Judaizers, and squirrelly-Saints are brutal, indeed. But they are brutal because they are parables; they are more than a story.

Yes, these stories are on target. So, like the narcissistic teenagers who cringe when they read Catcher in the Rye--because they can relate with Holden Caulfield, The Gospel Blimp (And Other Parables) will make evangelical Christians cringe--because, if we're honest with ourselves, we can relate to some of the less-than-honourable-characters. As the copy on the rear jacket says, "And, really, if you're not looking in the mirror you're missing the point."

Read this book. And don't miss the point.

Disclaimer: Clearnote Press provided me with a review copy of this book. 

LOL: Kudos to Foot Locker

LOL: On Being a Passive-Aggressive Smoker

An anecdote.

"The electrical wizard" Charles Steinmetz was an inveterate smoker. Once a notice that forbade smoking was posted in the General Electric plant where he worked. Steinmetz ignored it till an executive asked if he wasn't aware of the rule. The answer was a cold indifferent stare. Next day Steinmetz didn't show up, and for two days none heard from him. Important work remained untouched. The company began a serious search. It ended in the lobby of a Buffalo hotel. There he was found sitting at ease in a huge chair, puffing a cigar. When told that the whole company was looking for him, and asked why he had left like that, he calmly said, "I came up here to have a smoke." After that the smoking rule was never applied to him. 

 

Happy Reformation Day!

For additional Reformation Day humor, check this out.

LOL: Snakebite Whiskey

An anecdote I came across today. I laughed-out-loud, naturally.

In one of our Southwestern proverbially dry states a couple of strangers in town asked a man on the street where they could get a drink. "Well," said the man, "in this town they only use whiskey for snake bite. There's only one snake in town, and it's getting kind of late. You'd better hurry down and git in line before it gits exhausted."

LOL: Machen on French Underwear

J. Gresham Machen served during World War I in France with the YMCA war efforts to support the troops. In one of his letters back home, he recounted how he recently escaped a German insurgence that had overtaken his previous post. He and companions had to retreat hastily, with no time to pack up any personal effects at all - everything was left behind. He had made his way back to Paris, and while there he wrote:

I have been directed to wait here in Paris till tomorrow when instructions may be given me. Naturally clothes are almost my first concern. The prices are something terrific - for instance I paid 185 francs plus a war tax for a pair of high boots. But I should not mind if I could only get the things that I desire. French underwear is cut in the queerest way imaginable, and the American variety cannot be found. But this morning I am at least fairly clean. I even had a bath! (Ned B. Stonehouse, J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir, 270).

When I first read the above, I laughed out loud.

Tech Humor - LOL

New Android = Kit Kat

LOL and Wisdom: My Son (Moses) on Growing-Up

Verbatim conversation at dinner table the other day. I kid you not. (Moses is three-and-a-half years old.)

###

CCS: Moses, what are you going to do when you grow up?

MLS: Die.

CCS: Right, someday you will die, but before that...what kind of work do you want to do?

MLS: Use hammers, a lot.

###

LOL: Calvin, Yoda, and the Institutes

Ever wonder what John Calvin would sound like if he was Yoda? I ran the first paragraph from the Institutes through an English-to-Yoda translator. No need to wonder now.

First paragraph per John Calvin . . .

The First Book treats of the knowledge of God the Creator. But as it is in the creation of man that the divine perfections are best displayed, so man also is made the subject of discourse. Thus the whole book divides itself into two principal heads—the former relating to the knowledge of God, and the latter to the knowledge of man. In the first chapter, these are considered jointly; and in each of the following chapters, separately: occasionally, however, intermingled with other matters which refer to one or other of the heads; e.g., the discussions concerning Scripture and images, falling under the former head, and the other three concerning the creation of the world, the holy angels and devils, falling under the latter. The last point discussed—viz. the method of the divine government, relates to both.

First paragraph per Yoda . . .

Of the knowledge of god the creator the first book treats. But in the creation of man that the divine perfections are best displayed, it as is, so made the subject of discourse, man also is.  To the knowledge of god thus the whole book divides itself into two principal heads—the former relating, and to the knowledge of man the latter.  In the first chapter, considered jointly, these are; and of the following chapters in each, separately:  Occasionally, however, with other matters intermingled which refer to one or other of the heads; e.g., the discussions concerning scripture and images, falling under the former head, and of the world the other three concerning the creation, the holy angels and devils, falling under the latter.  The last point discussed—viz.  Of the divine government the method, to both relates.