Only English

I was pondering how wonderful the English language was earlier today, and I was amazed at how many ways there are to express laziness. There's a sense of contradiction in this fact. Since laziness implies a lack of effort or activity, why is it that so much effort has been exerted to describe it? In case you doubt, here is a quick list of words that connote or denote laziness in one form or another: (Feel free to suggest any others you might think of)
1. lazy (obviously)
2. indolent
3. lethargic
4. inert
5. sluggish
6. inactive

Admittedly, some of those may be a stretch, but my own indolence hinders me from considering it more now.

Psalm 73

Some days, the Psalm expresses exactly how I feel. Thinking about this Psalm always helps me get my thoughts back in the right direction.

A Few Scattered Thoughts

After listening to the State of the Union address last night and reading a book on the history of the Brooklyn Bridge tonight, I am reminded more than ever of these wise words: "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9, NIV).
In each case, one could but change a few details and have a thousand other circumstances. As a result, history should be our greatest teacher, and yet what we see in society is nothing other than an entire generation (at least) ignorant of history. Even the supposed academics have no understanding of what went before them, as they propose the same foolish ideas that their predecessors did, albeit in other guise. We need to return to an understanding of what has been done before, for the incidents of the past will become the incidents of the future.
History can teach us much, and its grandest lesson is that a society that ignores God and refuses to acknowledge Him and His precepts will not long endure. How long do we think that we can, as a nation, thumb our nose at God and expect Him not to bring our society to judgment? Where is our hope? In saying, "God bless America?" No, it is rather the reverse, "America Bless God."

Disturbing Bill

This is about politics, so if politics aren't your thing, jump down to the previous post and enjoy the cloud picture again. :-)
A disturbing bill is working its way through the U.S. House and Senate. If you want to read about it, you can go to the American Center for Law and Justice's page about it here and read either the executive summary or the full analysis. Look especially at Section IV on page 25 of the full analysis. If it's too much legalese for you, try a brief overview article from Worldnet Daily as quoted by the ACLJ site.
If I understand the ACLJ's analysis correctly, the bill would appear to define churches as "grassroots lobbying organizations" (and thus subject to numerous burdensome reporting and registration restrictions) if the pastor or other staff were to encourage the congregation (which would include non-members) to contact their legislator about a certain issue, e.g. the Federal Marriage Amendment. In other words, organizations that urge people (unless the audience is entirely members) to become involved in the political process would be classified as lobbying organizations, even though they are not directly lobbying Congress.
Meanwhile, because of how the bill defines "grassroots lobbying organization," labor unions would be allowed to continue their activities basically without restriction. Hmmmm, I wonder who wrote this bill. Could it be the Democrats?
Anyway, this bill appears to be an unnecessary restriction of the public's right to petition the government for redress of grievances. Now, you may be asking, what's the big deal? I don't see anything horrendous or outrageous here. The big deal is that organizations that do nothing more than encourage participation in the political process are being targeted with unnecessary restriction. The result could easily be a less-informed electorate (a scary thought considering how uniformed many voters already are).
Above all, it concerns me that this is a gradual eroding of our freedoms. Without falling guilty to a slippery slope fallacy, I am concerned about where this might lead in the future. Could we see a day that it is very difficult to exert legitimate public pressure upon on our elected leaders? Could we wind up living in an oligarchy instead of a democratic republic? Only time will tell.

Snow, pt. II

It was a beautiful morning as I left for church. Three inches of newly-fallen snow blanketed the ground and muffled into silence the incessant, dull roar of the city. Overhead, scattered clouds dotted the sky, reflecting the morning colors of the sun as it peaked from behind its veil in the east. Praise God for such beauty!

Snow!

Yeah, snow!

Sunset on Fire

I found this picture while I was browsing through my photo archives for a presentation to the Kindergarteners on clouds. It's one of the most vivid "fire" sunrises that I have ever seen. Enjoy!

Dressed Like a Penguin on an Icy Night

(Insert your favorite penguin joke here.) :-)
A big thank you to Livingston's Formal Fashions for the tuxedo. It was one of the most comfortable and best looking tuxedos I have ever worn.

Clouds: A Postscript

Even though the series on clouds is over, I wanted to take a moment to show off a few of the more beautiful pictures of clouds that I have. The reason? Simply to glorify God for His creativity. The different amazing displays that He can produce with such simple elements as water, air, and sun never cease to amaze me. I hope you enjoy this sequence of pictures!

Upper-Level Clouds

The series on clouds concludes with a discussion about upper-level clouds. These clouds are high enough up in the atmosphere that they are almost exclusively composed of ice crystals. Their composition allows them to take different shapes than their lower-in-the-atmosphere cousins. The most common type of cloud at this level is the cirrus cloud. In the first picture above, the wispy clouds that seem to be streaking away from the main body of the cloud are cirrus clouds. They have an almost fibrous look to them. The second picture contains both cirrus clouds and cirrocumulus clouds. Notice that even the cumulus clumps seem to lack the sense of substance that the cumulus and altocumulus clouds had. Finally, the last type of upper-level cloud is a type of cloud unique to our modern area. The third picture shows several straight clouds that look like paths in the sky. These clouds are contrails (from the combination of condensation trail) and form as the result of air cooling as it passes over the wings of an airplane. These contrails may last for just a few minutes or persist for several hours, depending on the conditions in the region where they form. While it may seem surprising, it appears that these contrails have an effect on the weather. A study done of temperatures reported on the day of the September 11 attacks (when all planes were grounded and no contrails formed), found that the average temperature was warmer than it was on September 10 or September 12 and that this increase was not the result of other phenomena.
This is probably the end of the series on clouds. It's been a pleasure to share a few of my cloud pictures with you, and I hope you've enjoyed this little primer on clouds.

Mid-Level Clouds

We now move our discussion of clouds from the low-level clouds to mid-level clouds. Like low-level clouds, mid-level clouds can be broken down into cumulus and stratus varieties. Altostratus clouds, however, are so boring to photograph that I have not included any pictures here. Altocumulus clouds are distinguished from their counterparts by their apparent size. An individual element with an altocumulus field will appear to be about the size of one's thumb. Altocumulus clouds form some of the most beautiful patterns in the world.
The two pictures above are good examples. The first picture is of what I call a "streak." This pattern of altocumulus clouds formed during a beautiful summer day here in the Central Plains. The unusual aspect of this formation is that it was alone in the sky. The second picture is among my favorite cloud patterns. Since the clouds form a pattern like the scales of a fish, it is often called a mackerel sky. Sometimes this pattern will stretch from horizon to horizon, as it did on the autumn day when I took the picture. This fascinating patterns attests to the order of the Creator of the world.