Minor Thoughts from me to you

When is a monopoly not a monopoly?

"If Barnes & Noble does buy Borders, we're facing a real monopoly," she said, though such a deal would also be likely to receive regulatory scrutiny. "We would see an initial deep discounting, trying to keep or attract the Borders customers to Barnes & Noble."

Meade argues that Barnes & Noble would gain a "monopoly" position, if it bought Borders. I don't think that word means what she thinks it means. Her quote comes from an article on The Changing Bookstore Battle.

Barbara Meade could not resist a little schadenfreude. After the Borders bookstore chain announced recently that it was exploring "strategic alternatives" -- corporate lingo for "there's trouble" -- the co-owner of the independent store Politics and Prose, which has held on against the chain's cost-cutting competition, took note in her online newsletter.

"We have never been tempted by the allure of corporate imperialism -- invading new book markets, slashing prices, demolishing the competition, and then back to business as usual, poor inventory and poor customer service," Meade wrote, reporting that "Borders announced a shift in direction from selling books to selling the whole business."

While it is tempting to marvel at, or even gloat about, the potential demise of a tough competitor, analysts and publishing industry executives say Borders's troubles are emblematic of an ironic shift in book selling. Large corporate booksellers, once an enemy of the little guy, now have enemies of their own: Amazon.com and big-box retailers like Costco and Target are taking on Borders with even deeper discounts than the chains used against the independents.

Barbara Meade, Amazon, Costco, Target -- it seems like Barnes & Noble would still have plenty of competition, even after buying Borders. What monopoly is Barbara Meade referring to?

This'll leave a mark.

From the it-made-me-laugh files, this e-mail arrived in my spam folder:

Get a complimentary 2007 personal forecast from Bethea Jenner

I think this has to be a candidate for best April Fool's Day prank ever:

But Partridge's ordeal was only beginning. It's reported that he woke up the morning of his death to the sound of the church bell announcing his passing. Before long, he was visited by an undertaker looking to prepare his home, and later by the church sexton seeking orders for the funeral sermon. Throughout the day a string of mourners, funeral workers, and church officials were shooed from the cobbler's door.

Partridge would frequently be stopped on the street for inquiries into how his widow was coping, or to be chided for lacking the decency to be properly buried. The old astrologer had no shortage of enthusiastic enemies willing to perpetuate the myth of his death, and the more literarily inclined among them -- some the past victims of Partridge's own predictions -- set about printing additional denials and confirmations of his passing, adding to the confusion. Some of these forgeries were released under Partridge's own name, making it difficult to separate his genuine protests from the comically-enhanced accounts of his imposters.

There are many non-Christians who don't understand either Christianity or Christians. To many skeptics, Christianity seems ludicrous and fanciful. Christians are mocked for being credulous fools, willing to believe anything.

Is it true? Not really. But it can be hard to explain exactly why faith makes sense. Enter Tim Keller's new book The Reason for God.

As the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, Timothy Keller has compiled a list of the most frequently voiced "doubts" skeptics bring to his church as well as the most important reasons for faith. And in The Reason for God, he addresses each doubt and explains each reason.

Keller uses literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and reasoning to explain how faith in a Christian God is a soundly rational belief, held by thoughtful people of intellectual integrity with a deep compassion for those who truly want to know the truth.

The book's official website even features a video introduction by Tim Keller.

Dr. Keller has been talking about the book in venues across the United States. Recently, he made a stop at Google and talked about his book at the Google Author's Forum. The event -- about an hour long -- is a nice overview of the book and a great example of how to respond to people who are hostile to Christianity. I highly recommend watching it.

This is why nobody likes environmentalists:

A new twist on April Fools Day -- dubbed by some Fossil Fools Day -- fell flat for more than 100 Madison residents who discovered Tuesday that someone had let the air out of their tires. Driving the message home, notes such as "happy fossil fools day -- drive less" were left on the windshields of many of the apparently randomly targeted cars parked along or near Monroe, Williamson and Langdon streets, police said.

Monica Vaughan, spokeswoman for Rising Tide North America -- a network of groups and individuals "who take direct action to confront the root causes of climate change," according to its Web site -- said it was likely associated with Tuesday's international day of action against the fossil fuel industry.

An auto-repair company took the opportunity to make some new friends.

Chor Vang, a dispatcher for Schmidt's Auto, estimated that by 6 p.m., service crews had reinflated tires on 100 to 120 vehicles, and calls were still coming in.

"There was a lot of upset people," said dispatcher Sarah Conroy. Because of the high number of people affected, Schmidt's dropped its cost for the service call from $40 to $20 "to make their day a little easier," Conroy said.

Of course, it's never a good idea to target your own side -- which is why these nuts will eventually lose.

Vaughan said she received an angry e-mail from one Madison resident -- who donates 300 hours a year to fighting for the environment and was on the receiving end of the tire prank -- who wrote, "You targeted the wrong person."

I think the Madison police are taking this a little too lightly.

While some people were calling it "eco-terrorism," Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said, "I don't think it's to that degree. I would say it's more someone's play on the April Fools Day and trying to incite dialogue."

If no permanent damage was done to the vehicles, those responsible, if caught, would likely be ticketed for disorderly conduct, DeSpain said.

How about making them pay restitution? It sounds like they cost Madison residents about $2000 in tire reinflation charges -- not to mention lost time. Why not bill Rising Tide North America for those damages and reimburse the residents who were "pranked"?

Sometimes the federal government is unusually annoying. This is one of those times.

Efforts to create new tax breaks to encourage home purchases are gaining attention on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers gird for a major debate this spring on how best to shore up the nation's troubled mortgage markets.

Some Democrats, among them Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, have signaled support for expanded tax benefits. And the idea is proving especially popular among Senate Republicans, who are hoping to carve a distinct role as Congress takes up housing issues and often find tax cuts an appealing option. The discussions reflect a growing sense that the housing, mortgage and credit mess may require more expansive federal government action.

"The momentum on this thing has been good," said Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican. Sen. Isakson, a former realtor, is pushing a proposal that would provide a temporary tax credit to any individual purchasing a newly constructed house or a foreclosed home.

First, it's little surprise that a "former realtor" would want to help his friends in the biz by giving people more incentive to buy and sell houses. After all, realtors get a 6% cut nearly every time a house moves. Way to look out for #1 there, Senator. (This blog supported his primary opponent, Herman Cain, for the Senate. It's gratifying to see how right we were.)

Second, when have the feds ever seen a crisis that didn't "require more expansive federal government action"?

Thirdly, this proposal is flat out discriminatory. It prefers new homes to existing homes. It benefits banks stunk with foreclosed homes over homeowners who simply want to sell their house. It's a giveaway to home builders and banks. It's a slap in the face to responsible home owners. It stinks to the high heavens.

It seems that some people get annoyed when used book sellers visit library book sales.

Book dealers armed with handheld ISBN scanners are threatening to take over the used book sales run by volunteer fundraising groups for the Madison Public Library system, Morris said.

The scanners tell them how many copies of a title are in circulation and what it generally sells for -- powerful information to have if your aim is to find cheaply priced books that can be sold online for much more than you paid.

"You see them just literally hunched over ... shelves of books," Morris said, blocking book lovers like him from perusing the titles and maybe picking up a bargain they actually intend to read.

Thomas Boykoff, president of the board of directors for the Central Library Friends group, and Margaret Rentmeesters, who manages the book store at the library, acknowledge that the book dealers have become more common at book sales over the last two or three years.

But profit sometimes motivates unpleasant behavior.

"They sort of claim an area," Boykoff said, "Some of them just don't give a damn."

How horrible! How, how ... profit-driven! How evil! Or is it?

I love reading, but I just don't have time to get out to library book sales. While I wish I could, the timing just never quite works out.

Thankfully, there are people out there willing to trade their time for my money. They'll pore over the stacks, weeding through the books that no one wants, to find the books that someone wants. Then they'll list these books on Amazon.com, Half.com, Alibris, Deal Oz, AbeBooks, Powell's Books or other similiar sites. I can browse the online sites, find what I want, and have it delivered directly to my door.

These book sellers are no nuisance. They're a blessing and I'm grateful for them.

I was planning on visiting Chicago and doing some exploring with my wife and daughter this summer. Then I read about the cost of visiting Chicago.

Starting July 1, a shopping trip to Chicago's Magnificent Mile will cost more. That's when the sales tax in the city hits an astronomical 10.25%, which may be the highest in the U.S.

We may still visit. But with taxes that high, I don't think we'll be doing much shopping or eating while we're there. Mainly looking. And we'll fill make sure our gas tax is full before we leave home.

When writing, it pays to be as clear and concise as possible. This sentence (from Alliant Energy's "Monthly Natural Gas Update") is neither:

A decatherm (equal to 10 therms) is enough natural gas to heat an average home for 4.5 days.

It's not clear because I still don't know what a "decatherm" is. The parenthetical definition is useless unless you know what a "therm" is. If you did now what a "therm" is, wouldn't you likely know what the "deca-" prefix meant?

It's not concise because it includes the useless definition. So be both clear and concise: don't use useless definitions.

This is the best news I've read all week.

DOT Creates New Lane For Reckless Drivers

WASHINGTON—Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters unveiled a new $270 billion federal project Monday to build special lanes for dangerous and careless drivers on most major U.S. highways.

"These new lanes are for the millions of drivers who can't be bothered with speed limits, turn signal use, or not careening madly out into oncoming traffic," Peters said during the opening ceremony for the first reckless-driving route, a steeply banked, guardrail-lined on-ramp to I-395 outside Arlington, VA. "Whether hell-bent on putting themselves and everyone around them in danger or just drunk off their gourds and out for a simple joyride, America's reckless will no longer be forced to putter along with careful, conscientious, considerate citizens."

I've thought about Scott's comments all week long. He presented a contrast between preaching (reaching out to the unsaved) and teaching (reaching out to the saved).

As I thought about the discussion this week, I noticed something ironic: Blackhawk is Blackhawk Evangelical Free Church. The "E-Free" denomination is supposed to be about the good news of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, we can go many weeks without hearing the name of Jesus mentioned during a sermon. (For instance, Jesus wasn't mentioned in tonight's sermon and he wasn't mentioned in last week's sermon. Will he be mentioned in next week's sermon?)

Because of this, I agree with Scott. I think Blackhawk tends to reach out only to those who already know Jesus. It's right there in our mission statement: "Building a community...". The ultimate goal is for the Blackhawk community to reach out to the broader community (Madison) and present Jesus to Madison. The church community does present Jesus through our actions: the church is involved in multiple charities and service organizations around the city. But the teaching team does not often present Jesus from the pulpit. I think this is a problem.

I think it's a problem for two reasons: the teaching doesn't inform seekers who come in from the community about Jesus, and I think it misses the main thrust of the Bible. I won't spend much time talking about the first point -- it was the main focus of last week's discussion. But I do want to reiterate it: a non-Christian visiting Blackhawk would leave most Sundays without a clear idea of the gospel. As Tim Mackie discussed in the Jephthah sermon, "God" is a word with many different definitions. Ask a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, and a Wiccan who God is, and you'll probably get six different answers. The true, distinctive mark of the Christian faith is Jesus. As I said last week, we are what we are because of Jesus and only because of Jesus. That is the single biggest idea that differentiates Christianity from every other religion on earth. I believe that it must be preached on a regular basis.

I believe that Jesus must be taught on a regular basis. I believe it for three reasons:, it's important, we're forgetful and we need a model. It's important because Scripture says it's important:

[esvbible reference="1 Corinthians 2:1-5" header="on" format="block"]1 Corinthians 2:1-5[/esvbible]

I've always noticed that Paul said the gospel is of first importance. It's not the only important thing in the Bible. But he does think it's the most important thing in the Bible. Instead of telling someone the gospel right before they commit to Jesus, I think we should tell them the gospel on a regular basis, as the foundation of Christianity.

[esvbible reference="1 Corinthians 15:1-3" header="on" format="block"]1 Corinthians 15:1-3[/esvbible]

Notice that Paul says he is reminding the Corinthians about Jesus. We Christians are forgetful people. It's easy to forget how desperately wicked and evil we are apart from Jesus. It's easy to forget that Jesus is the only hope we have for ever seeing heaven. It's easy to forget that we can do nothing good apart from Jesus. I think the old hymn had a lot of wisdom:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it

Prone to leave the God I love

I think any good teaching has to lead us back to Jesus on a regular basis. We have to be (or I have to be, at least) regularly reminded of who we love, why we love him, and what he's done for us. Only then can we live the life of good works that he's called us to live.

We also need a model. It's easy to say that we (the Blackhawk community) should be the primary people to communicate Jesus to our friends and neighbors. It's even true: my friends, neighbors, and co-workers are going to trust me a lot more than they're going to trust a pastor from a random church. But how do I share Jesus? How do I relate him to the modern, secular world I live in? How do I tie Jesus to the moral principles that the world loves and yet still talk about the sin that Jesus hated? How do I tie Jesus to every page of Scripture? Pastors can model these discussions through their sermons. If Jesus is relevant to modern life, it should be possible to both effectively teach the Scripture and effectively present Jesus. Through a constant diet of Jesus-filled sermons, I can see how to present Jesus to people I interact with.

I want to see this happen at Blackhawk. I admit to being spoiled. For the past year, I've been listening to the sermons of Pastor Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church, Seattle. In every sermon -- every single one -- that he preaches, Pastor Mark presents Jesus as the sole solution to the problems we face. Every week, he presents sin as the root problem and Jesus as the only solution. He preaches practically, but grounds every message in the story of Jesus. It's powerful stuff. And, as I've listened, I've gained more of an understanding of both how to live and how to share Jesus.

Mark Driscoll does have one advantage over the Blackhawk teaching team: the average Mars Hill sermon is 65 minutes long. It's a lot easier to cover ground when you have that much time. I'm not arguing that Blackhawk should look and act exactly like Mars Hill. We live in a different community and in a different culture. But maybe we could learn something about how to present Jesus, even if it is every other sermon instead of every sermon.

Thoughts?

Initially, I was cheered by this story: Yard signs welcoming immigrants to Madison are starting to appear on the snow-piled landscape..

The signs say "Immigrants Welcome" printed in English, Hmong and Spanish. The word "Welcome" also is handwritten in six languages: English, Hmong, Spanish, Norwegian, German and Arabic, by members of immigrant families in Wisconsin.

"We've heard a lot of angry anti-immigrant sentiment. We're glad to be giving people an opportunity to express welcome and love to immigrants," said Janet Parker, co-chairwoman of Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice.

Well, they sound like hippies, but at least I can agree with the message. I like immigrants and I'm glad that they see the United States as a good place to live and work. We must be doing something right.

Then I read down a bit further:

Parker said her group supports the work of immigrant rights groups like the Workers' Rights Center and Immigrant Workers' Union in Madison and Voces de la Frontera in Milwaukee.

"We see the war in Iraq as intrinsically tied to the war against immigrants," Parker said. "At the core, they are both about racism."

Ah, no. No, no, no. The war in Iraq has nothing to do with racism. Anyone who sincerely holds that opinion has tapioca between their ears. Also, Voces de la Frontera is a bit of an unsavory group.

As reported earlier members of Voces de la Frontera violated the home of State Senator Cathy Stepp last night shouting and attempting to intimidate her into signing driver license legislation for illegal immigrants.

I took the following from their website:

Description of Agency/Activities: Voces de la Frontera is a low-wage and immigrant worker's center that opened in Nov. 2001. The center was created to respond to the immediate problems low-wage immigrant workers face. The center provides a legal clinic where workers can obtain free legal advice about labor and civil rights, as well as ongoing English language and citizenship classes. The agency provides classes to train workers and other immigrants about discrimination, OSHA regulations, labor laws, worker's compensation, legalization and work visas, and more day-to-day topics such as how to obtain a driver's license, how to buy a house, and how to fill out taxes and open bank accounts. Ongoing campaigns include legalization and access to higher education for immigrant students.

Notice any trend there? All kinds of training on how to get government cash and sue people, nothing on job training or English language courses or fitting into society.

Don't expect to find one of those yard signs in my lawn. Not if buying the sign means supporting groups like Voces de la Frontera.

It surprises me that more parents don't vote for more school choice. Under the current system, your kids go to school wherever the school board says they go to school -- parents have very little say in the matter. Parents in Madison were reminded of that last night.

The pleas of an emotional audience were not enough to dissuade the Madison School Board from approving a new boundary plan for elementary and middle schools in the Memorial High School attendance area.

The board voted unanimously at its meeting Monday night to give a green light to Plan F, which moves more than 400 students at five elementaries. Boundary changes are necessary in anticipation of a new school now under construction on the far west side. The school will open next fall.

The majority of parents testifying at a public hearing session that lasted for more than two hours objected to the part of the plan that moves 64 students from the neighborhoods around WISC-TV/Channel 3 from Chavez Elementary to Falk Elementary.

Parents argued that the plan was hastily drawn and poorly communicated and that their neighborhood and children have been involved in more moves over the last 10 years than others have.

In addition, many parents expressed concerns about the move to Falk, which currently has an enrollment of 66 percent low-income students.

Other changes that drew fire from unhappy parents who live in the Hawk's Landing area near the new elementary school included the board's unanimous decision to send students from the new school to Toki Middle School instead of Jefferson Middle School as originally planned.

School Board member Lawrie Kobza explained that it's important for the board to try to keep capacity levels up in schools closer to the core of the city to allow for growth at the edges of the community.

The school board does what it wants, according to its all-knowing master plan. The parents are free to either pound sand in frustration or move to a new neighborhood. A voucher or tax credit system would allow parents to choose which school their children attend, without having to fight the School Board or buy a house.

It's not on the Packers home page yet, but it looks like it's official: Brett Favre is retiring.

ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported that according to Favre's agent, Buss Cook, Favre informed Packers coach Mike McCarthy of his decision Monday night.

A sure-fire first-ballot Hall of Famer, Favre, acquired in a trade with the Atlanta Falcons, led the Packers back to the NFL's elite. He retires with 5,377 carrer completions in 8,758 attempts for 61,655 yards, 442 touchdowns and 288 interceptions.

Update: The official Packers press release:

Brett Favre has informed us of his intention to retire from the Green Bay Packers and the NFL. He has had one of the greatest careers in the history of the National Football League, and he is able to walk away from the game on his own terms - not many players are able to do that.

The Packers owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude. He has given Packers fans 16 years of wonderful memories, a Super Bowl championship among them, that will live on forever. Brett's many accomplishments on the field are legendary. He leaves the game holding virtually every career passing record, plus his consecutive starts streak, which may never be duplicated.

The uniqueness of Brett Favre - hispersonality, charisma and love of the game - undoubtedly will leave him as one of the enduring figures in NFL history.

More from USA Today:

The news was a surprise to at least one of Favre's teammates. Most players expected Favre to return after a successful 2007 season.

"I just saw it come across the TV," Packers wide receiver Koren Robinson said, when reached on his cellphone by the Associated Press.

... But it was widely assumed he would be back.

"I think he's going to come back," Packers receiver Donald Driver said in early January. "I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back. He's having a great year, so it'd be great to see him come back if he decides to."

Retiring Packers chairman Bob Harlan figured Favre would be back, too.

"Yeah, I think he'll be back," Harlan said, on his final official day as the Packers' top executive. "And I felt that way the last couple years, when we've had these long debates about it. I just think he's such a competitor that as long as he feels he can compete, he's going to keep coming back."

Still, in the week leading up to the playoff game against Seattle, Favre said his injuries were starting to linger.

"I'm not getting any younger," said Favre, 38. "I wake up some days and think I can't even touch my toes. I think about that. I think, well, next year is not going to be like some refreshing, awakening season where all of a sudden you're going to feel great. That's not going to happen.

"I carry some of these things with me that maybe you wouldn't see. I tend to dwell on them, at least internally, more than I used to. I don't write them off as quickly as I used to."

Last month, coach McCarthy said that Favre's decision would be a complex one.

With Favre's 16th season in Green Bay in 2007 one of his best, and the team coming within an overtime score of advancing to the Super Bowl, some have considered it a no-brainer that Favre will return. He's playing well, and the team is having success, so what's there to think about?

"But that really has nothing to do with it," McCarthy said during his press conference from the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. "It's not the fact that he knows he still can play. He had a great time this year.

"It's just the fact that he's played a lot of football, and he's had to fully commit himself and his family year in and year out. When you do get older, you have more responsibility, and he just wants to make sure he'll be able to commit himself 100 percent."

That commitment is to the regimen of offseason workouts, training camp, preseason games and in-season meetings and practices. That's a grind for any player, but particularly one who's been in the league as long as Favre.

"His career is very unique. Who else could he talk to about this?" McCarthy said. "Guys that are 37, 38, 39 years old, that can still play two or three years? And that's his thing. He said, 'I've played a lot of football and I just want to make sure I'm doing the right thing and I want to make sure I can commit 100 percent.'"

Lately, I've felt like the cold weather will never end. It seems like every single week of the winter has brought more snow, more cold, more icy, and more dreariness. But -- at last! -- I have hope that we're seeing the end of winter.

Average temperature for the first five days of March: 28 degrees.

Average temperature for the last five days of March: 39 degrees.

At this point, that would feel like heaven.

After writing last night's post, I sent an e-mail to a friend -- Scott Sager.

A couple of things were running through my mind as I listened to today's sermon.

Do you think I'm off base? I actually talked (very briefly) with Matt after the sermon tonight. He basically said that he wanted to go in a different direction. I'm not very good at actually confronting people, so I don't think I expressed myself as well as I could have. I wasn't mean or anything -- just timid. I'm not exactly sure how a lay person goes about bringing a theological concern to the teaching team.

Anyway -- do you think I have a point?

I've invited him to respond here. I'd like this to be the start of a (hopefully) edifying conversation.

Today's sermon at Blackhawk (in the "The B Team: Book of Judges" series) was on Samson. Matt Metzger preached a wonderful sermon illustrating that Samson was no action hero.

Samson was a narcissistic, selfish man. Everything he did was designed to feed his own ego and legend. He consistently ignored his religious vows and violated the agreement God had made with Israel. From wanting to marry a Philistine women to regularly visiting a Philistine prostitute, he had no respect for God's laws. More than that, he had no desire to use his God-given strength to help his own people. He only used his strength for his own amusement and vengeance.

At this point, Matt turned the message to us. We are no different from Samson. In our natural state, we seek to glorify ourselves not God. In our natural state, we want revenge for whatever wrong's we've suffered. In our natural state, we want to live only for ourselves.

But I don't like where Matt took the sermon next. He didn't point us to Jesus. He didn't tell the good news of the gospel. Instead, he invited us to stop looking out our own tiny story and look at God's big overarching story. He invited us to stop working for our own good and start working for the good of everyone around us. He invited us to join God, in the work of God's kingdom.

That's not bad -- we should work for the good of others. We should join the work of God on earth. We should focus more on the big story of God and less on the tiny stories of ourselves. But it's not the full story. The truth is, we don't have any choice. We all act like Samson. No matter how hard we try, we can never act any differently from Samson. We can try to look at God's big story. Inevitably, we'll find ourselves living out our own tiny stories again and again.

There's only one solution. We need a power stronger than ourselves. We need Jesus. We can only have salvation and change through Jesus's death and resurrection. That is the gospel -- the good news.

[esvbible reference="1 Corinthians 15:3-11" header="on" format="block"]1 Corinthians 15:3-11[/esvbible]

The good news is that Jesus died for our sins and that God brought him back to life. The good news is that Jesus gives us the strength to be different -- the grace of God. Or, put differently,

[esvbible reference="Ezekiel 11:19" header="on" format="block"]Ezekiel 11:19[/esvbible]

God changes us. God makes us different from what we were. God actually makes us into new people.

[esvbible reference="2 Corinthians 5:17" header="on" format="block"]2 Corinthians 5:17[/esvbible]

This is the power of the gospel. This is the power of Christ's death on the cross. We don't have to lift ourselves out of our own story. We don't have to move ourselves into God's story. Jesus will do that for us. Jesus will change us and make us new. Jesus will give us a heart that wants to glorify him, not ourselves.

Samson is not a Biblical hero. Samson is a cautionary tale. Samson lived the empty, meaningless, pointless, violent, lustful life that we all live. In spite of his "religious vows", Samson never actually had faith in God. Samson never once depended on God's strength. Without Jesus, we are all just like Samson.

Because of Jesus -- only because of Jesus -- we don't have to be like Samson. Because of Jesus, we can be reborn and be new men. Because of Jesus, we can look at the world with new eyes and serve the world with a new attitude. But it's only because of Jesus. If we forget that, we forget what makes us strong -- just like Samson.

No More Mike's Hard Lemonades For Me:

OK, perhaps it is a guilty pleasure, but I enjoy downing a couple of Mike Hard Lemonade's on a hot afternoon. Now, it seems, the Food Nazi's at the Center for Science in the Public Interest want to stop me.

Public Citizen's blog announced that CSPI plans to sue the beverage sellers, asking for disgorgement of profits from flavored malt beverages, unless they agree to take them off the market. Their theory? By making flavored alcoholic beverages that taste good, they are effectively marketing to children.(Because, after all, adults don't like beverages that taste good.)

(Via Coyote Blog.)

Mike's Hard Lemonade is one of the few alcoholic drinks that I actually like. (The other, Smirnoff Ice, is almost certainly on their hit list too.) I'm going to be quite ticked if any judge actually rules in favor of these know-nothing busybodies.

I must be missing something, because I don't understand how this makes any kind of sense:

Eventually, Olson said he put up $2 million and got financing from Anchor Bank and First Business Bank, spending an average $250,000 per property and about $130,000 in each to convert them. The project, he said, was a good use of his compensation money while making a profit.

The condo units got new carpets, doors, Italian tile floors, stainless steel appliances, bathroom fixtures, new or refurbished cabinets and more. The building mechanicals and plumbing got updated. Those on Carling Drive also received new windows, siding, gutters and decks.

"We didn 't just paint the walls and clean them up and call them condos," Malin said.

"It's something anybody would be proud to live in," Olson said.

Condos sell at $59,900 for a one bedroom, $69,900 to 74,900 for two bedrooms, and $89,000 to $99,900 for three bedrooms.

Olson spent an average of $380,000 per condo, to put them on the market. The most expensive one sells for $99,900. Where's the other $281,100? Is Olson taking a loss on these or is the city of Madison?