The Mail and with it Delivery of Good News

I have not anticipated getting the mail so much since I was a kid. But the last two days I have been very anxious about the delivery of my mail. The mailman never seems to come at the same time each day, so it's always a guessing game throughout the day. "Is he here?" "Has he come yet?" "Has "it" come yet?" Well, today, it was with a desire to retch that I went out to retrieve the mail.

And today, "it" was here. The Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners letter. (More (w)retched feelings; I have very interesting memories from the two times I did not pass the CA exam, and most deal with an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach. This time I was hoping to replicate the joy I had when i finally passed the CA Bar.) With trembling hands and great anticipation I opened the letter, and it was with a huge sigh of relief and a most humbling feeling that I learned I passed the WI Bar.

Thanks for all your prayers and support! I know that God is in control, and I'm grateful that He allowed me to be successful in this endeavor.

quotes of the moment

"In the past, when I've talked to audiences like this, I've often started off with a lawyer joke, a complete caricature of a lawyer who's been nasty, greedy and unethical. But I've stopped that practice. I gradually realized that the lawyers in the audience didn't think the jokes were funny and the non-lawyers didn't know they were jokes." ---Chief Justice William Rehnquist addressing a University of Virginia Law School ceremony years ago

"Is there any problem in the world that is not Mr. Bush's fault, or have we reverted to a belief in a sort of witchcraft where we credit a mortal man with the ability to create terrifying storms and every other kind of ill wind?" ---Ben Stein

Classic match

Last night's US Open quarterfinal tennis match between Agassi and Blake was a classic that I had the privilege of watching (well, at least a portion of it; it was the middle of the night, you know). I couldn't decide for whom to cheer, and it was completely enthralling and thrilling. Just what you hope for when you watch a sporting event: great players, playing well.

And now Agassi will meet Ginepri in the semifinals, and since they're both from the US, there will be an American in this year's men's final of the US Open. How fitting.

On a sadder note, Lindsay Davenport lost. And then there were none. American women in left in the Open, that is.

Quote of the moment

"Danger is next neighbor to security."

~Thomas Fuller
(Gnomologia, No. 1233)

lemon meringue pie

I realized the last few days that the entire summer had gone by and I had not made a lemon meringue pie yet. And I always make lemon meringue pie. lots of it. I love to eat really good pie. So last evening I remedied the situation and made homemade sweet gooey goodness in the form of a pie. Mmmmm. Very tasty...

As for this morning (and the last few days, for that matter), there is so much thunder around here, and it lasts so long, I am beginning to imagine there are 747s landing in the next street. very odd.

happy anniversary

to my big brother and his wife of three years.

careers in sports

Today has been an exciting day for many of us sports enthusiasts. So much has gone on, much to do with the rising or falling of careers; some are beginning (or at least they're now on the radar), some are ending.

The most exciting sports extravaganza for me this weekend came when I caught a few sets of both of James Blake's tennis matches on Saturday and today. He's just fun and exciting to watch (unlike watching Venus and Serena play each other, which is neither fun nor exciting - and normally I like them; I'm also a fan of Lindsay Davenport, but who isn't?). And Blake's story is very compelling as well:

"In a span of five weeks in 2004, he broke his neck when he ran into a net post in Rome, suffered the loss of his father Thomas to cancer and contracted a virus that paralyzed part of his face, left his vision blurred and caused debilitating dizziness. His ranking plummeted to No. 210 back in April, but he has rallied famously. In the third round, he stunned No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal -- the first time he has ever beaten a top 10 player in a Grand Slam -- in the biggest match of his life."

And now he's in the quaterfinals. I don't know who I'll be rooting for on Wednesday night - Agassi or Blake.

We shan't even speak of the Twins tonight...but instead shall skip over to Big Ten football and the fact that all teams won their opening games this weekend (not like they're all playing really great teams, necessarily, but hey! a win's a win, and a record's a record).

And finally, Jerry Rice retired today. I agree wholeheartedly with Gene Wozjklasd'hojk;gfhajkl..."I'd rather remember that [he retired out of respect to the game and, better yet, to himself] than remember his days as good ol' No. 19." Far too often, too many players, like blog posts, hang on a bit past their prime.

Voting, once upon a time (only while) in Mexico

OK, after a bit more research, I realize that I am terribly out of it - or at least was terribly out of it, managed to get within a few days of "it," and then succumbed back to not knowing anything about "it" or what's current.

This story on Mexicans living abroad and their new voting rights originally showed up at the end of June. (I have an excuse: I was winding down a job and, um, studying for another Bar exam.) The voting laws of Mexico were changed by legislation according to this story from the AP. However, there was no reference to percentages living in the U.S. - merely a comment of "most [live] in the United States."

Now, however, there is an update: I found this AP story (and this one, too, which I must confess kind of shocked me with the use of the contraction "that'll" - in an AP story? Not often one sees use of such a contraction in "formal" reported English...which is an entirely different topic about which I will have to rant at some point - proper English, that is, not "that'll"), which was published within the last week or so. It confirms what the BBC News story said:

"Government officials estimate that 11 million Mexicans live abroad, 98 percent of them in the United States. Of those in the United States, about 4 million are believed to be registered voters." And of those 4 million registered, only 10% are expected to vote in next year's presidential election.

After combing through the State Department and Census Bureau websites for statistics on Americans living abroad, I have decided to abandon my search. For several days. It gave me a headache. And since it's really lack of labor that epitomizes Labor Day, I didn't put forth too much effort over the weekend on, well, anything too strenuous. However, it was interesting to learn that at some point in the not-too-distant future, Americans living abroad permanently might be included in greater detail in the census of 2010 (and not just in sample surveys or whatever they did in 2004). Again, if you know of a simple site where I can satiate my curiosity on the subject, feel free to let me know. Otherwise, if you're waiting with bated breath for my researched findings to appear here, it might be a while.

Labor Day Poll Results

Well, my friends. We are making progress. 3 (three - that's right, read 'em and weep) people voted in this week's poll. This was a 50% increase over the last poll. And with that great news, I shall try one more ridiculous poll before chucking the whole idea into what will probably be a snowbank by next Monday (snow season officially starts sometime in mid-September, or so I'm told by our nice radio weather personalities).

Results - Favorite Labor Day Activities:
33% like to vegetate
33% like to play
and 33% like to eat

I realize now that I shouldn't have even bothered to put "travel" down, because those who are travelling (like those zany Legal Pad guys, in France at last check), really are not voting right now because they're, well, travelling.

New Poll:
In light of the delightful adventure known as the State Fair last week, what is your ideal fair food? Vote for the food. Vote to save the poll. (Or don't vote, whatever your particular preference might be.)

Hope you enjoyed a nice Labor Day (as I did)!

My neighbors, the recyclers; our neighbor, Mexico

Good morning! On to a lighter topic for once! hah! I should rather say "back to a steady stream of lighter topics..."

This topic for no apparent reason:
Choose any evening between the hours of 8pm and 1am, and one might find that my new neighbors have an extremely active recycling center at their house. Once during those hours, someone next door dumps an astronomical amount of recycling into the bins right outside their back door. Now I know there are several people living there with a random rotation of children filing in and out, but can they really use that many recyclables each and every day? It's never just a can or two. No, indeed. Instead it sounds like a barrage of tin and glass being slung from the rooftop. How on earth can people consume so much out of cans and bottles? Do they eat or drink anything that does not come out of something recyclable? And what kind of food or drink is it that requires such containers? Maybe they eat caviar at every meal, or maybe it's tuna. Maybe they drink champagne every day, or maybe it's apple juice. It just has me wondering, that's all. And no, I'm not curious enough to actually go look - as yet my curiosity has not caused me to sink so low. Well, at least they're recycling and doing their nice environmental duty.

This topic to ask a slightly more serious question:
I occasionally watch BBC World News. Just to see what those Brits think of the world. Well, on Wednesday night, besides major news coverage of Katrina and the Iraqi stampede, I could swear that I heard a news story about Mexico and their new voting rights. Apparently, Mexicans will now be able to vote while not personally present in their polling precinct. Yes, indeed, folks: absentee voting by mail has come to Mexico. The only caveat is that each Mexican citizen voting must already be registered to vote; otherwise, no mailing in your ballot for you! I must confess to only half listening, though (so don't quote me if I'm wrong!), until I heard the following statistic, which I have been unable to find online in any news story yet (although I've only half-attempted to do that, too). According to Alistair Yates and his chummy news team, of all the Mexicans living abroad, 98% of them live in the U.S. I'd never heard such a statistic - never even thought about the possibilities on this one. Obviously I realized there were a lot of Mexicans living in the US - some legally, some not - but nearly 100% of those not living in Mexico? Does anyone know where to find such info (so I don't have to go look hard and can get accurate findings)? If it's true, can you imagine how disparate American statistics must be? I can't imagine that of all Americans living abroad, 98% of them would pick just one country. I also wonder how true that is of other countries: of all, say, European citizens living abroad, I wonder what the percentage is of them living in the U.S.

Well, I like it here in the U.S., recycling neighbors and all.

Human Exceptionalism

This post is not for the young or the faint of heart. If you do not care to read about bestiality and its consequences, read no further. (It's also rather long.)

I recently read this article by Wesley J. Smith from The Daily Standard and was sickened for many reasons. First, it is extremely difficult for me to grasp that there are people out there who seem to care more about the health and welfare of animals than about the fact that a man died from the act of bestiality. Some will say he died doing something to which he consented. So if he consents, we don't care? How is this different from, say, assisted suicide? It's that infamous slippery slope. How can anyone not care that a human being died? Granted, the article does not specifically say that animal rights activists or liberal media persons don't care that someone died, but the very attitude taken by them would indicate that concept to me. Mr. Smith stated in his article, "[T]he animal liberation movement claims that it is the ability to feel pain, rather than humanhood, which bestows equal moral value." Wha?!? How can an "ability to feel" bestow anything, let alone moral value? Let alone equal moral value? Let alone good moral value? I'm thinking that it is supposed to be "Whoever or Whatever has the ability to feel pain bestows moral value, whether equal and good or unequal and bad (or any variation thereof)," but neither the author of the article nor the activists just come out and say that. This notion of no moral right and wrong other than what makes YOU feel the best makes ME feel ill. Apparently because the man who commits bestiality and dies from it feels good about it or pain from it causes it to have moral value. It is sickening - not just the man's act and his death, but the lack of respect for God and his creation; it is God who bestows moral value.

"Speciesism," or discrimination against animals, has been in place since practically the beginning of time, as a command by God for man to "have dominion" over animals in Genesis 1:26. By this, I emphatically do not mean sexual dominion (that is addressed in the Bible as an act of abomination), but rather dominion over animals as sources of food, labor and the like.

It is rather curious to me that such advocates of "speciesism," some of whom must also advocate evolution, seem so intent on taking us in kind of a backwards evolutionary cycle - or maybe that is what evolution really has been all along, and I just never saw it that way before now. Rather than "evolve" from beast to man, the "evolution" cycle is just that - a cycle which will take man back to level of beast. I must think so if, as animal rights advocates say, ability to feel pain = moral value. Either that or evolution really cannot be true because we never "evolved" past what an animal is since they feel pain as well. Sure we can talk and walk on two legs and have opposable thumbs, but who cares since we're all morally equivalent? Curious, is it not? I guess what I'm saying is I never realized that what animal rights activists call "evolution" is really not what I was thinking it to be all these years (not that I thought all that much of it to begin with, mind you). I am assuming a lot by thinking these ideas, but does it not seem logical if one is to use such a premise as to feel pain = moral value?

As Mr. Smith continues, "[S]uch degrading conduct unacceptably subverts standards of basic human dignity and is an affront to humankind's inestimable importance and intrinsic moral worth...It is our exalted moral status that both bestows special rights upon us and imposes unique and solemn moral responsibilities--including the human duty not to abuse animals." In other words, it is God who created us, and not we ourselves. Man has been created in His image (Genesis 1:27); animals were not created in God's own image. By creating people and animals the way He did, God decided how the moral value system would work and to this standard, people and animals must adhere.

John Piper, in a sermon entitled God's Design for History: The Glory of His Mercy from March of 2004, preached on God's shocking design of history "to maximize the display of his mercy and to shut the mouth of all human boasting" from Romans 11:28-32. He put it like this:

And let me pause here to say that this sort of truth - this shocking vision of ultimate reality - is really relevant to your daily life, if you will see it and feel it for what it really is. Take sex for example...The assumption is this: One of the main reasons that the world and the church are awash in lust and pornography (by men and women - 30% of internet pornography is now viewed by women), fornication, adultery, masturbation, exhibitionism, homosexuality,
bestiality, rape, and endless sexual innuendo in all media - one of the reasons we are awash in all this is that our lives are intellectually and emotionally disconnected from infinite, soul-staggering grandeur. Inside and outside the church we are drowning in a sea of triviality, pettiness, banality, and silliness. Television is trivial. Radio is trivial. Conversation is trivial.
Education is trivial. Christian books are trivial. Worship styles are trivial. It is inevitable that the human heart, which was made to be staggered with terrifyingly joyous dread and peace by an infinitely untouchable, embracing God - it is inevitable that such a heart, drowning in the all-pervasive, blurry boredom of banal entertainment, will reach for the best buzz that life can give: sex. [Emphasis added.]

I would venture to add that mankind is now openly trivializing sex, and thereby trivializing mankind itself. What should be viewed as a natural activity God designed to be performed within the confines of marriage is now trivialized by bestiality. By reaching out for what is unnatural - in this case, bestiality - mankind is actually trivializing mankind. This concept is not new, but it is devastating to our morality to see it so prevalent in society.

In another sermon from a Fall 2004 conference on the subject, Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, Part 1, Piper further states God's design and man's misuse of sexuality:

[A]ll misuses of our sexuality (adultery, fornication, illicit fantasies, masturbation, pornography, homosexual behavior, rape, sexual child abuse, bestiality, exhibitionism, and so on) distort the true knowledge of God. God means for human sexual life to be a pointer and foretaste of our relationship with him. [Emphasis added.]

Piper had two points to make in this message: "The first is that sexuality is designed by God as a way to know God in Christ more fully. And the second is that knowing God in Christ more fully is designed as a way of guarding and guiding our sexuality." Or, put negatively, "[I]n the first place all misuses of our sexuality distort the true knowledge of Christ. And, in the second place, all misuses of our sexuality derive from not having the true knowledge of Christ."

If we do not have true knowledge of Christ, not only do we misuse sex, we have no sense of moral value or compass as individual human beings and we trivialize the things surrounding us, including sex, including ourselves. It is then that we become "animals" in a vicious cycle of evolution. How dare we have such pride? If we have true knowledge of Christ we cannot think that we are above God and proudly misuse whatever we will in whichever way we wish. We must put off "the bestiality of pride": "When man tries to become like God he becomes like an animal. Pride puts man in a class with the beasts of the field. That's the point of Nebuchandnezzar's insanity." It is our pride that unhinges the moral compass God created for us and instead inserts something like "to feel pain = moral value". Shouldn't it instead be something like "God's pain = our moral compass," because those things from which God feels pain (bestiality, abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide and a host of other immoralities) is from what we should also feel pain?

There is hope, however. In "God's Design for History," Piper stated,

Romans 11:30-32 is the summary of the main point of this chapter, namely, that God has designed and guided history - both its disobedience and its obedience - so that in the end it will most fully display the reliability of his promises and the magnificence of his mercy—to prevent human pride and produce white-hot worship. Verse 29: 'The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.' In other words, the gifts and callings by which he completes his plans in history are infallible. God designs and guides history irrevocably.

God guides history; it is He who is in control, who created us in His image and bestowed moral value according to His perfect plan. Bestiality is not currently illegal in the state of Washington. In light of the moral ramifications and the risks of serious injury and death, I do hope that lawmakers in Washington state are able to pass legislation against bestiality, and that those who are enabling others to participate in such a despicable, dehumanizing act are held liable for the deaths - both physical and moral - caused by their actions.

Congratulations (or condolences, maybe?) for making it through this post. It's pretty long and rambling (hey - that is the name of my blog, you know), and I'm still not even sure it's what I want to say, even with a couple revisions. Feel free to add your two cents by commenting.

On Surfing

I love to watch surfing. Don't get me wrong: I like to actively participate in most sports, but as you might have guessed, there really is no good location for surfing in Minnesota. Otherwise, I'd take it up and follow surfing. Alas: I am limited to watching it for now. (In light of most recent events down south, namely catastrophic Katrina, I won't even joke about earthquakes or hurricanes making Minnesota an ocean-side state; I am rooting for neither. Instead, I think I'll just wait until I vacation somewhere with waves in their water.)

So it is with great anticipation that the ASP World Tour continues this week with the WCT men competing in Asia at Hebara Beach, Chiba, for the 3rd annual Quiksilver Pro Japan. I love Kelly Slater, even with all his foibles, so I hope he stays on top of the rankings. There are a lot of great surfers to watch, including those fun Hobgood brothers and a host of hottie Australians. As for the WCT women, I hope that Chelsea Georgeson moves up from #2 to #1, but the women don't compete again until October. (The WCT is different from the WQS - the women are competing on the WQS this weekend in Huntington Beach, CA, on which one might also consider keeping tabs.)