Minor Thoughts from me to you

The four Biblical gospels tell the story of Jesus' life in different ways, presenting events in varying orders, and sometimes even disagreeing about what events to include and exclude. Justin Taylor, with help from the ESV Study Bible, prepared a harmony/chronology of what happened during the week before Jesus' crucifixion.

I haven't read through this yet, but I intend to.

• Holy Week: What Happened on Monday?
• Holy Week: What Happened on Tuesday?
• Holy Week: What Happened on Wednesday?
• Holy Week: What Happened on Thursday?
• Holy Week: What Happened on Friday?
• Holy Week: What Happened on Sunday?

There was a kerkuffle in the blogosphere a few weeks ago, over John Piper's decision to invite Rick Warren to speak at the Desiring God National Conference, later this year.

There are quite a few people who think that Pastor Piper made an unwise decision, by associating himself with Pastor Warren. And, I'm sure there are quite a few people who think that there's absolutely no reason not to associate with Rick Warren. So, here are some resources to shed some light on the situation.

• John Piper briefly spoke, in February, on the decision.
• John Piper spoke, at length, about his decision on March 31.
• Doug Wilson speaks on Piper's decision. Bonus points for calling the "watchdog" or "discernment blogs" the "floor of the monkey cage blogs".
• Rick Warren's 2004 interview with Modern Reformation. Warren is often criticized for being too pragmatic and not theological enough. In this interview, he tries to make a case for himself as someone who translates theological ideas into terms that people can understand.
• Tim Challies on why John Piper should not have invited Rick Warren. Tim makes the case that Warren doesn't treat the Bible with respect and that he spends too much time tailoring his message to suit his audience.
• Phil Johnson writes about the controversy. While he acknowledges the critics concerns, he blasts their attitude of utter condemnation.
• Trevin Wax encourages people to think more about what their anger might be communicating.

I report, you decide. But my own position is close to what Doug Wilson says.

Common Sense Atheism has compiled a list of links to over 500 debates about the existence of God. Gorge yourself.

Another large hint that many of the Bible's stories are fictional can be found in the names of their characters.

The example I run across most often are Mahlon and Chilion, the doomed husbands of Ruth and her sister-in-law in the widely-misunderstood Book of Ruth; the reader is tipped off in advance to their coming fates by the fact that their names respectively mean "sick" and "wasting away".

But other suspiciously clever monikers abound, in the New Testament as well as the old:

Zacchaeus, the tax collector who offers so much money to the poor, has a name which at its root means "to give alms".

Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, is appropriately-named "ruler of the people" (talk about a case of your parents having your life planned out for you, huh?).

One would only have to be introduced to Martha to know that she is the "lady of the house".

And Judas Iscariot has three equally-possible (to some) translations. One is that he was an Edomite, the same red-haired, good-for-nothing race as Herod. The second and third translations are "assassin" (a particular sort, too, but I won't get into it here) and "traitor".

The most fascinating and tantalizing sobriquet, however, which I've stumbled on in my recent studies (comprised mainly of Dr. Price's The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man and Jack Miles's God and Christ), is that of Thomas.

Like Moses, Thomas is a name that has clearly undergone some surgery. It was the Greek name for the sign of Gemini, which is to say that it means "twin", but that of course isn't a real name. "He would have been called So-And-So the Twin" (Price). But withal the So-And-So? And isn't it strange that a man would simply be referred to as "the Twin"? One imagines he must have had a pretty famous brother or sister.

You see this coming, don't you?

Multiple traditions (and possibly some manuscripts of the canon, though I don't have a source for that to reference at the moment, so just disbelieve me there) have it that Thomas's full name was Judas Thomas - and Judas is one of the brothers of Jesus listed in the canonical gospels. While by no means proven, it certainly isn't a stretch to imagine the Catholic Church deciding to start snipping away at the connection once its emerging orthodoxy began to demand a sole, virgin birth by an eternally virginal Mary - and a time-honored way to lie without, y'know, actually saying anything factually untrue is just to withhold certain information. The issue could be buried well enough simply by ceasing to identify Thomas's twin.

To me, a mind-blowing thought, even if unsubstantiated.

And I hope you're grateful for it, 'cause I don't have internet access in my apartment right now and this post has cost me nearly 3000 won to type at the local internet cafe.

Why We Need Generic Copies of Biologic Drugs - NYTimes.com

we continue to spend more on drugs -- in part because of the increasing use of so-called biologic medicines, which cost, on average, 22 times as much as ordinary drugs. In 2008, 28 percent of sales from the pharmaceutical industry's top 100 products came from biologics; by 2014, that share is expected to rise to 50 percent.

Biologic drugs can be more expensive to manufacture; they are grown inside living cells rather than put together chemically, as conventional drugs are. But this does not fully account for their high prices. Another important factor is that they very rarely face competition from generic copies.

Congress has an opportunity to change this by including in health care reform incentives for generic drug makers to compete in the biologics marketplace. But unfortunately, both the House and the Senate versions of health care reform contain provisions that would discourage the development and significantly delay the approval of generic biologics.

In general, I'm in favor of swinging the pendulum back towards less intellectual property protection. This sounds like a bad idea to me.

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour signed a bill last month requiring all patients to get a prescription before buying any medicine containing pseudoephedrine.

This is insane. This is seriously insane. This law -- and Federal laws requiring Sudafed to be kept behind the pharmacist's counter -- have done nothing to curtail access to meth. These laws have accomplished one thing and one thing only: meth production has been shifted from small labs to super high tech Mexican labs. Meth is still plentiful in the United States. But it's now fueling the growth of Mexican drug gangs and Mexican smugglers. If anything, the status quo ante was better in that it wasn't creating sophisticated cross-border smuggling operations.

Now, every Mississippi resident suffering from allergies, sinuses, or colds will have to go to a doctor before they're able to get any effective relief. Doctors' offices and emergency rooms will become more crowded and the entire state population will be vastly inconvenienced. All for a law that will have no practical effect whatsoever.

For the record, Governor Barbour will not be getting my vote, should he decide to run in the Republican presidential primaries.

"Let me be clear: if you like your doctor, you can keep him". Who hasn't heard the President make that promise by now? The problem is, it makes a huge assumption. That promise assumes that your doctor isn't going to retire as a result of healthcare reform.

The New England Journal of Medicine reports that more than 30% of physicians want to leave medical practice if the current healthcare reform plans are implemented.

In other news, nurses report that they spent 25% of their time doing "indirect patient care".

Nurses reported having to document patient care information in multiple locations, in addition to having to complete logs, checklists and other redundant paperwork that prevented them from having more time with their patients. Beyond these paperwork redundancies, nurses reported significant time being wasted trying to secure needed equipment and supplies.

When asked for solutions to these challenges, nurses recommended a combination of ancillary staff support, hospital-wide communications technology and reductions in redundant regulatory requirements.

Adding more bureaucracy, rules, and paperwork to the medical process is unlikely to make things better. Doctors may quit and nurses may quit. But, by all means, bring on the healthcare reform. If you like your doctor, the President has promised you can keep him. And the President is an honorable man.

Well, I haven't posted anything about the Toyota brouhaha yet. So this is it.

Car and Driver takes down the Prius drivers whining about their brakes. Their high-tech regenerative breaks that all of them were so proud of a few years ago.

Popular Mechanics explains in painstaking detail exactly why Professor Dave Gilbert, of Southern Illinois University, is dead, dead wrong when he claims that electromagnetic interference causes unintended acceleration in Toyota's cars. Henry Payne points out that Professor Gilbert is being paid by trial lawyers suing Toyota and that ABC has been airing fraudulent footage in support of these fraudulent claims.

Finally, Steve Chapman reminds us that Toyota's are still amazingly safe.

During the last decade, the sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles has been blamed for 34 fatalities. In that same period, more than 21,000 other people died in accidents while riding in Toyotas. Your own lapses, and those of other drivers, are far riskier than the flaws found in your automobile.

Chuck Hurley, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, agrees on the pressing need for Toyota to repair its troubled cars. But he estimates that more than 80 percent of traffic deaths are the result of excessive speed, drunken driving, or unused seat belts. Last year alone, more than 11,000 Americans died in accidents involving drunk drivers. By contrast, only about 2 percent of wrecks stem from vehicle defects.

In summary, take a chill pill folks. Lay off of Toyota and remember that Congress outright owns two of Toyota's competitors. Do you think that might be influencing Congress's shameful behavior? I do.

Greg Mankiw explains the spending problems with the healthcare bill through a short, imagined dialog between two friends. Here's the kicker:

Even if you believe that the spending cuts and tax increases in the bill make it deficit-neutral, the legislation will still make solving the problem of the fiscal imbalance harder, because it will use up some of the easier ways to close the shortfall. The remaining options will be less attractive, making the eventual fiscal adjustment more painful.

With the President's current budgeting trends (spend as much as you can, as fast as you can), we're facing an $11.3 trillion deficit by 2020. By that time, the federal debt will be a staggering $20.3 trillion. (The debt was $5.8 trillion at the end of 2008.)

It's not enough to be happy that we're maintaining the current levels of spending or -- even worse -- that we're managing to spend more in a "deficit neutral" way. It's serious business and it's time we stopped "kicking the can down the road to future generations", as the President likes to say.

The Myth of the Recovery

The gains on Wall Street have been goosed largely by government spending and guarantees, not the usual private sector–funded growth. And federal spending cannot continue indefinitely without deficits and debt service spiraling out of control. John Silvia, chief economist for Wells Fargo, says, “We have seen a recovery, but it’s driven primarily by federal spending and special federal projects. The character of this recovery is very different than we’re used to.”

Consider that 37 percent of the third-quarter GDP growth was due to motor vehicle purchases, which were stimulated almost entirely by the Cash for Clunkers program. “The third quarter was really just a lot of Cash for Clunkers spending that won’t be sustained in the foreseeable future,” Silvia says. (Final statistics for fourth quarter spending were not available at press time.)

The car scheme, an attempt to jump-start the bankrupt auto industry, offered consumers a government-funded credit of up to $4,500 if they traded in their gas guzzlers for more eco-friendly vehicles. But since most participants probably were already planning to buy a new car, the program essentially shifted future demand for automobiles to the third quarter of 2009. Instead of continuing to grow, car sales dropped 34 percent immediately after the program ended. Figure 1 shows U.S. auto sales in 2009 largely following the 10-year average month-to-month change until the Cash for Clunkers credit jolted demand, followed by a subnormal drop.

This is not real growth. It’s the national equivalent of a credit-card buying spree, with the bills—in the form of debt service and unfunded liabilities—to be paid off later. It is a faux recovery.

I'll be updating my 2010 Reading List (primarily composed of books I uploaded to my Kindle in February) as I read through it, in no particular order.

And since I've gone ahead and created a post to make that announcement, I'll go ahead and list what I've finished thus far, as well as brief reviews:

The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett – I paid a visit to the former chair of the Shorter College Humanities Department recently and we naturally flung books to read at each other before parting. This was his contribution to my stack - a generations-spanning chronicle of the Englishmen and women involved in the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge. The writer was previously known for his work in the thriller genre, but this radical departure quickly became his bestselling work and has even spawned three board games and a television series, as well as a sequel novel. For good reason, too: I recommend the book to any fan of historical fiction. If Follett does say so himself: "It recreates, quite vividly, the entire life of the village and the people who live there. You feel you know the place and the people as intimately as if you yourself were living there in the Middle Ages."

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan – The movie looked like a great deal of fun, but in general I’m a firm believer of reading the book first. This was the first real disappointing read of my batch, though in all fairness that's largely because I turned out not to be the target audience; the reading level on this one's far below, say, the Harry Potter series, on which by the way it is far too shamelessly based (the gods' children all attend an annual summer camp where they train, for cryin' out loud). What I did enjoy enough to finish the story was how well Rick Riordan handles the central theme of parental abandonment. Naturally, it's that very redeeming feature at the core which the movie mishandles as badly as possible. Instead of keeping Percy Jackson in the dark about his completely mysterious god of a father, alternately longing to meet Poseidon and hating him for leaving, the film adaptation (1) shows Poseidon in the first minute of the film, so that we don't have any of that pesky curiousity bugging us as we take in the special effects, (2) has everyone Percy knows assuring him that Daddy loves him and is kept from his side by forces outside of his control, and (3) even has Poseidon's voice repeatedly guiding Percy through danger. Oy.

The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway - This actually wasn't on my reading list. A copy was included gratis by the curriculum publisher from which my school purchases all its materials and I stole it for a night. Coincidentally, two of Ernest Hemingway's other famous novels actually are on my list.

The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton - I uploaded all 30+ of her novels onto my Kindle for .99. That never ceases to tickle me. That aside, I can't really recommend this one. It's not unenjoyable, but the book is written in a Victorian tradition that most modern readers will find silly and unsatisfying: the morality tale about the girl who foolishly engages in one or more Ill-Advised Activities, like putting off marriage too long or flirting with men so they buy you things. The consequences of these crimes is almost unfailingly homelessness and death in her twenties. The contrived nature of these dire ends can be hysterical, but they're never engaging. Fortunately, Edith Wharton moved on from such stuff to write The Age of Innocence, which is a mature and engrossing study of both an unconsummated extramarital affair and New York's high society at the beginning of the 20th century, fabulously written. Go check it out.

Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick – The true accounts of six North Korean refugees, who describe life beyond the DMZ and how they escaped it. Any account of the horrific and inexcusable conditions in which people in North Korea are trying to live out their lives is bound to be moving, but living as I currently do in the Koreans' southern republic - surrounded by this proud race and witnessing the society they're capable of achieving when not trod into the mud by a dictator - each story in this book feels barbed with greater poignancy. To see an ajumma happily teasing her toddler as she shops for dinner at an overstocked supermarket, then to read about a practically interchangeable woman watching her own baby die of starvation and incapable of even acknowledging the fact, truly impresses on one just how monstrous the crimes of Kim Jung-il and his cronies are.

The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, by Dr. Robert “The Bible Geek” Price – A biblical scholar’s assessment of the four gospels’ authenticity by one of the infamous (in Christian circles, anyway) Jesus Seminar's founders. Dr. Price is the very opposite of a fundamentalist Christian; ometimes there seems to be no passage in the Bible which he considers believable. I don't agree with all of his opinions (I find it likely that a historical Jesus has at least walked this Earth at some time), but he always provides a very dense, informative, and witty read. Plus, he's a fellow comic book geek. What other Biblical scholar can you find who quotes recent issues of the Justice League of America?

Insurer's Gone Wild

"We allow the insurance industry to run wild in this country," President Obama declared on Monday. "We can't have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people."

Yet Obama's plan to tame health insurers would boost their business, protect them from competition, and guarantee their profits, all at the expense of consumers and taxpayers. It is therefore not surprising that the insurance companies, while they object to the president's rhetoric and quibble over some of the details, are happy to be domesticated. Here are five ways in which Obama would help insurers while pretending to fight them.

There's nothing progressive about a plan that forces people to buy products from specific companies, under penalty of law. And there's nothing conservative about that plan either. It guarantees profits, eliminates risks, and rips off the American public. Is it any wonder that the American public opposes this plan 2-1?

"Then some of the scribes and pharisees said to him, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." He said to them in reply, "An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the Sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." (Matthew 12: 38-40)

It's been a good, long while since I published any anti-Christian screed on this site. I feel inspired to do so today because this morning - and I want you to know I am not making this up - Atheist Me led the daily devotional for my school's students. Their pastor couldn't get out of his driveway and needed a fill-in.

In case you're wondering, no: even for a man who refuses to step foot in a worship service these days and would on principle never tell a child that Jesus is alive, much less loves him or her, it was pretty easygoing. I simply asked one of the older kids to lead the rest in prayer and then chose as our subject a parable from the Gospel of Luke which I do find valuable - in this particular case, the tale of the good Samaritan.

And to digress from this post's point, I find that this story - and indeed many stories from the Tanakh set after the reign of Solomon - have special resonance for Koreans (my students are all Korean), since these tales are set at a time when Israel is divided in twain and the northern segment of the population is considered to have gone seriously astray. In fact I like to bring home the point by reintroducing them to the tale by retelling it with new principal actors. That is, I tell them about a Korean man who gets mugged and passed over by a pastor and a missionary before being saved by a North Korean communist. In the future I plan to do the same wherever I go, should I have the opportunity: have Tutsis saved by Hutus, Jews by Muslim Palestinians, etc. I think it's the only way to restore the desired effect of a passage that has long since lost any relevancy.

OK, then: screed time.

Matthew 12:38-40 is a pretty major smoking gun that a lot of the Gospel accounts of Jesus need to be taken with more than a grain or two of salt. Far more people - even almost everybody - should notice it, but since reading the Bible is for most an act of worship rather than an exercise in critical thinking, and one written in an alien style that easily disorients the modern reader, neither the demands of Jesus' enemies or Jesus' own reply seem as bizarre as they should. Their conversation really should go something like this:

PHARISEES: Teacher, give us a sign!

JESUS: Oh, for the last - Huh?

SCRIBES: Show us a miracle so that we'll believe you!

JESUS: Forget it! Thirteen verses ago I was healing people left and right and your type accused me of witchcraft!

PHARISEES: Well... Do one now and we'll believe you.

JESUS: No. In fact, the only miracle I'm going to show this wicked generation is the Sign of Jonah.

LAME PERSON: That's it?

JESUS: Yes. That's the only one. Sorry.

LAME PERSON: But you healed Matthathias down the street of his leprosy. And Rachel of her epilepsy. And... A ton of other people.

JESUS: OK, OK, I'll heal you too. Just pipe down.

Clearly we've got some editorial funny business going on here; the passage simply doesn't make sense in its context. But then whence came it? Since the Gospel of Mark doesn't include it and both the other Synoptic Gospels do (and choose for its inclusion different places in the narrative) a decent educated guess is that it's a quotation out of "Q", the mysterious, missing wellspring from which the first three Gospels all seem to draw.

A'right, then: it's a quotation of Jesus, probably pulled from a list of them, that both Matthew and Luke noted and felt should be included. Yet, what about the content of the quotation itself? First we should note that the quote itself varies according to the gospel in which it is read, meaning either Matthew, Luke, both, or subsequent editors chose to add their own touch what Jesus was saying in this passage. Luke's adds more quotes from Jesus after it (the original, stand-alone quote at most included "An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the Sign of Jonah the prophet") clearly peg the sign of Jonah to be simply Jonah's preaching. Someone who had his hand in Matthew, however, appears to have decided that Jesus was foreshadowing here (which in the context of Gospel of Matthew is not unreasonable, less so otherwise). Rather than let the Lord's sly allusion slip by any less savvy readers, he's written in J.C. simply spelling it out.

Second, we note that for all the clarification Matthew's (first? second?) author has added, we're still left with the quandary of why the Pharisees and scribes are asking Jesus for miracles - perhaps the gospel writers simply should have placed this passage earlier in Jesus' ministry, before He started healing? - and why Jesus says He won't. What's the most logical explanation?

The author or editor of Matthew tries to solve the problem himself; unlike the less gilded lilly of Luke's gospel, in which Jesus clearly identifies the present generation as the wicked one of which He speaks, Matthew makes Jesus' targets more generic. In Matthew, Jesus is talking about any generation that wants proof of His authority. Very handily, this not only erases the contradiction but gives churches a verse with which to counterattack when people demand they prove they represent God with some good old-fashioned miracle-working. The preferable take for Christians, then - but also the less trustworthy, since Matthew is clearly messing with his inherited text elsewhere in even the same section.

I'll offer a different idea, using the principle of analogy and a particular comparison borrowed from the excellent book I'm reading by scholar Dr. Robert M. Price (The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man). Another would-be messiah named Sabbatai Zevi, who would unfortunately go on to really disappoint his followers by choosing to convert to Islam rather than be martyred, was said by the Jews to be working all sorts of wonders during his candidacy - despite he himself saying he wasn't up to do any. The nature of personality cults and mystic beliefs took its course regardless, with various people claiming they'd been the recipient of his healing touch or what have you. Just as today (the overwhelming desire of the Catholic population to see Mother Theresa canonized has resulted in multiple, often embarrassing claims, such as that the visible glare of light in a photo of her is actually a heavenly radiance), people found magic where they wanted to find it.

Maybe Jesus' followers were likewise far more responsible for His miracles, even in the face of His own knowledge and declarations that He would not perform them (He fails at one point in Mark to do any miracles, ostensibly because the people in that location have no faith). Their imagination and experiences accomplished what Jesus Himself refused to do. Their reports are what is chronicled in the Gospels.

I think the taste from this morning is out of my mouth now.

I love the internet. Love, love, love it. I find so much there.

For example, I read a book many years ago. I was visiting my grandparents as a young teenager and checked out a bunch of books from the Cuyahoga County Library. I really enjoyed one of them and it's stuck in my mind for years as something that I'd like to re-read. Except that neither the title nor the author stuck in my mind. Just the plot. Something about Science Fiction, teenagers, summer vacation, a game, an island, and something to do with space -- or a pig. Or both.

As you can imagine, it's rather hard to find a book based on such sketchy information. I'd tried once or twice over the years but my attempts mainly revolved around browsing the stacks, hoping to find something familiar looking. I didn't have much success and I'd pretty much given up on the attempt.

And then, out of the blue today, I found it. Art Carden wrote a post for Division of Labour entitled "The Kids Are Alright". He included a brief comment that triggered a memory. Well, a partial memory. Okay, more like the half remembered smell of a forgotten scent. It just felt familiar in a way that I couldn't quite define.

We then talked about books I enjoyed when I was younger (William Sleator). One of my favorite Sleator books was Interstellar Pig; I was pleasantly surprised to learn that one of these burgeoning movie-makers has it.

And, sure enough. Interstellar Pig is the book that I read all of those years ago. Amazing. Thank-you internets, with your plentiful, bounteous tubes. And thank-you, Art, for mentioning not only your favorite author but also the book title.

Question for the President | Cato @ Liberty

The rationale for your proposed tax on high-cost health insurance plans is that it would encourage people to purchase less-comprehensive coverage and thereby reduce health care spending.

If that’s a good idea, then why is it bad when insurers raise premiums?

Obviously, it's because consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. You small minded libertarian twerp. Duh: it's good when the government raises prices and it's bad when the market does. Any more questions?

Sending a Message with the Census - Mark Krikorian - The Corner on National Review Online

Fully one-quarter of the space on this year's form is taken up with questions of race and ethnicity, which are clearly illegitimate and none of the government's business (despite the New York Times' assurances to the contrary on today's editorial page). So until we succeed in building the needed wall of separation between race and state, I have a proposal. Question 9 on the census form asks "What is Person 1's race?" (and so on, for other members of the household). My initial impulse was simply to misidentify my race so as to throw a monkey wrench into the statistics; I had fun doing this on the personal-information form my college required every semester, where I was a Puerto Rican Muslim one semester, and a Samoan Buddhist the next. But lying in this constitutionally mandated process is wrong. Really — don't do it.

Instead, we should answer Question 9 by checking the last option — "Some other race" — and writing in "American." It's a truthful answer but at the same time is a way for ordinary citizens to express their rejection of unconstitutional racial classification schemes. In fact, "American" was the plurality ancestry selection for respondents to the 2000 census in four states and several hundred counties.

So remember: Question 9 — "Some other race" — "American". Pass it on.

There's also a completely unaffiliated Facebook group, to show your support for "Some other race" -- "American".

I know what I'll be doing when we get our Census forms next week.

Off-duty O.C. sheriff's deputy is arrested on DUI charge after crashing twice within 30 minutes | L.A. NOW | Los Angeles Times.

An off-duty Orange County sheriff’s deputy, who allegedly was intoxicated when he crashed his Mercedes-Benz into another vehicle and injured a passenger, had crashed 30 minutes earlier and was allowed to drive from that accident scene by fellow deputies, authorities said Friday.

Sheriff’s deputies were called Monday afternoon to a crash involving Deputy Allan James Waters, 36, and another vehicle outside City Hall in Dana Point. Deputies took a report and permitted Waters keep driving, said Assistant Sheriff Mike James.

About 30 minutes later, at 5:20 p.m., Waters crashed his Mercedes-Benz into a Toyota in Laguna Niguel, causing it to cross the center median and slam into a tree, according to the California Highway Patrol. Dolores Molina, a 78-year-old passenger in the Toyota, suffered minor injuries.

And that, right there, is pretty much why I don't respect law enforcement these days.

Power Line - Geert Wilders speaks

Geert Wilders, possibly the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands, finally gets his chance to speak to the British House of Lords about the threat posed to Western Civilization by radical Islam. (Great Britain refused to allow him into the country last year, claiming that he was too bigoted to be allowed to speak.) Here's the money quote, about the problem facing us.

We see Islam taking off in the West at an incredible pace. Europe is Islamizing rapidly. A lot of European cities have enormous Islamic concentrations. Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Berlin are just a few examples. In some parts of these cities, Islamic regulations are already being enforced. Women's rights are being destroyed. Burqa's, headscarves, polygamy, female genital mutilation, honour-killings. Women have to go to separate swimming-classes, don't get a handshake. In many European cities there is already apartheid. Jews, in an increasing number, are leaving Europe.

I really should start posting my predictions publicly. Not only would it vindicate me when I'm right, it would keep me honest when I'm wrong.

Last week, I predicted that Justices Scalia and Roberts would be very negative towards the idea of resurrecting the "Privileges or Immunities" clause of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment. From reading his past opinions, I know that Justice Scalia isn't a big fan of overturning precedent, especially when said precedents have been around for 140 years. (The Privileges or Immunities Clause was strangeled by the Supreme Court just moments after birth, in the Slaughter-House Cases.) Everything I've read about Chief Justice Roberts says that he's a cautious incrementalist who prefers to make changes to the law in the smallest way that's likely to be effective. I was pretty sure that both Justices would be in favor of expanding gun rights but would be hostile to doing so through the Privileges or Immunities clause.

It turns out, I was right. Here's what happened during oral arguments this morning, in McDonald, et al., v. Chicago, et al..

The first argument to collapse as the hearing unfolded was the plea by the lawyer for gun rights advocates, Alan Gura of Alexandria, Virginia, that the Court should “incorporate” the Second Amendment into the 14th Amendment through the “privileges or immunities” clause. In the first comment from the bench after Gura had barely opened, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., noted that the Court had essentially scuttled that argument with its ruling in the SlaughterHouse Cases in 1873. And within a few minutes, Justice Antonin Scalia — the author of the Heller opinion and the Court’s most fervent gun enthusiast — was sarcastically dismissing the “privileges or immunities” argument.

“Why,” Scalia asked Gura, “are you asking us to overrule 140 years of prior law….unless you are bucking for a place on some law school faculty.” The Justice said the “privileges or immunities” argument was “the darling of the professorate” but wondered why Gura would “undertake that burden.” And Scalia noted that the “due process” clause — an open-ended provision that he has strongly attacked on other occasions– was available as the vehicle for incorporation, and added: “Even I have acquiesced in that.”

"I cannot live without books." - Thomas Jefferson

FICTION

The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett - This is the book I'm reading right now, actually, and in physical form yet. I paid a visit to the former chair of the Shorter College Humanities Department recently and we naturally flung books to read at each other before parting. UPDATE: FINISHED.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan - The movie looks like a great deal of fun, but in general I'm a firm believer of reading the book first. So I will. UPDATE: FINISHED.

Up in the Air, by Walter Kim - Another book purchased simply because the previews for the movie greatly intrigue me.

Native Son, by Richard Wright - Because I like my reading lists to have some diversity and realized I didn't have any great African-American novels on it. I love Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and Ellison was connected with Wright, so I selected this to fill the gap.

War & Peace, by Leo Tolstoy - I'm probably being absurdly optimistic in purchasing this book and putting it on my reading list for this year; as anyone can tell you, it's huge, and God knows the block of time it'll require has plenty of other claims on it, the rest of this list included. Still, I've really wanted to read it ever since finishing The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and having it readily available is the first step, so just maybe...

Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky - And buying Tolstoy made me think of Dostoevsky, whose The Brothers Karamazov I finally finished when I last visited Korea.

The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, by John Steinbeck - I've already read Grapes, but I did it back in high school, which really is more or less equivalent to having not read something at all (children are all Philistines; their souls have not yet developed). One of Steinbeck's other novels ranks as an absolute favorite of mine, The Winter of Our Discontent, and one of the particularly proud moments of my time in college was when I had the honor of introducing my Creative Writing professor to it, who afterward declared it one of her all-time favorites as well.

The Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruis Zafon - Zafon's other novel, The Shadow of the Wind, is one of the most enjoyable books I read in '09. My wife's already read this one and told me it's darker, which disappointed her and somewhat disappoints me - Shadow was one of those books where you bounced in your bed at the ending, which is a rarity for me - but so it goes; no doubt it will still be, as Stephen King called Shadow, one gorgeous read.

The Baroque Trilogy (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World) and Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson - Apparently a force with which to be reckoned in science fiction, which accounts for why I haven't heard of him. I've received a lot of recommendations from friends who are into the genre, though, and Snow Crash made TIME's "100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century", so I feel pretty confident these'll be enjoyable.

The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman - I've always been curious about the His Dark Materials trilogy, a fantasy series that's often referred to as the anti-Chronicles of Narnia. I'm not willing to blindly plump for all three, but I'm pretty sure the first installment is a self-contained story, like The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe.

The Magicians, by Lev Grossman - What if a bunch of today's adults found out Hogwarts and Narnia were real? Sounds fun.

Supreme Courtship, by Christopher Buckley - On the strength of his Thank You For Smoking.

A Farewell to Arms and The Son Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway - I'd never actually read Hemingway until I picked up_ For Whom The Bell Tolls_ at the airport on my way to my honeymoon destination. I am now of course very much looking forward to reading the rest of his body of work. UPDATE: Accidentally found and FINISHED The Old Man and the Sea.

This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Obviously I'm taking the opportunity to fill in a few shameful gaps in my reading experience.

Riding Lessons, by Sara Gruen - Because her Water For Elephants is utterly charming.

The Twilight Saga, by Stephenie Meyer - I consider it sort of a duty to read anything that gets as popular as these books. Plus my wife's read them all and wants to be able to discuss them with me. Hey, who knows? I didn't want to read the Harry Potter books, either.

Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger - On the strength of her first book, The Time Traveler's Wife, which reminded its readers of how great science fiction can be when it's not just left for geeks to write.

The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton - Since all of her novels are in the public domain now, Amazon asks only ninety-nine cents in return for all thirty-one of them. I actually FINISHED this particular book back in January (we're over a month into '10, after all). Verdict: enjoyable, but The Age of Innocence is far more rewarding to the modern reader.

Between, Georgia, by Joshilyn Jakson - My mother's recommendation. I honestly have no idea.

Being Written, by William Conescu - One of several impulse buys. A minor character in a book realizes his nature and struggles with the author to achieve greater prominence.

Persona Non Grata, by Ruth Downie - My trial installment for a light-hearted series in which an ancient Roman doctor and his slave girl solve mysteries.

Tipperary, by Frank Delaney - In preparation for my Kindle spree I walked about a Barnes & Noble, just letting covers leap out at me. My wife tells me this one did. I naturally no longer remember.

The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth - A tale set in an alternative history in which the Fascists gained political power in America prior to World War II. Why not?

NONFICTION

The Art of Biblical Narrative, by Robert Alter - Assigned by my Old Testament professor at college, this is one of the books that spearheaded the (re-?)introduction of literary analysis of the Bible to universities in the last century. Obviously I've read it (got a "B" - Dr. Wallace wasn't easy), but I'd like to read it again at a more leisurely pace. And maybe take notes this time.

Foreskin's Lament, by Shalom Auslander - A memoir from an author who has written only one other book to my knowledge, an anthology of short stories collectively entitled Beware of God, which was so side-splittingly hilarious and poignant I'll probably be buying anything with his name on it for the foreseeable future.

The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel..., by Israel Finkelstein - A survey of what modern archaeology has to say about the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah and their Biblical records.

Nothing to Envy, by Barbara Demick - Six North Korean refugees describe life beyond the DMZ, and how they escaped it. Being in such close proximity to what may be the most evil regime on this planet almost demands an interest in it, so I've always known that when I returned to Seoul I'd be bringing along more reading material about the DPRK. UPDATE: FINISHED.

The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man, by Dr. Robert "The Bible Geek" Price - A biblical scholar's assessment of the four gospels' authenticity. UPDATE: FINISHED.

On Writing, by Stephen King - The best book on writing fiction I've ever read, written by the writer's writer. I owned a physical copy but gave it away.

Brotherhood of Warriors, by Douglas Century - A look into Israel's special forces. Already read this one too, but I need it on hand for research.

BOOKS I WOULD HAVE BOUGHT IF THEY WERE AVAILABLE ON THE KINDLE

Books by William Faulkner - Really? Nothing of his is available in an online edition? What's up with that?

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card - Sorry, Joe. I tried.