Today’s phischbits

Finishing Well: What does activist Christianity look like?

Finishing Well: What does activist Christianity look like?
My friend Mike has an excellent post on what Christianity should look like. I routinely fail at this.
Tags: , , , ,

Macworld | Eight ways Twitter will change your life

Macworld | Eight ways Twitter will change your life
“It seems that everyone is atwitter about Twitter. Even PC World. So here’s PC World’s list of ways Twitter works — and doesn’t.”
And no comments from the peanut gallery on “not getting Twitter”. If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. No one’s holding a gun to your head to participate.
Tags:

Scout’s Honor | Texas Magazine

Scout's Honor | Texas Magazine
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has written a book about how the Boy Scouts provided such a positive influence on him growing up. “I wrote the book for two main reasons: to espouse the virtues of a movement that has positively shaped the lives of millions of young men and to expose the virus of secularism that endangers institutions that teach traditional values.”
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Christopher Nolan on ‘Dark Knight’ and its box-office billion: ‘It’s mystifying to me’ | Hero Complex | Los Angeles Times

Christopher Nolan on 'Dark Knight' and its box-office billion: 'It's mystifying to me' | Hero Complex | Los Angeles Times
First of a three-part interview with Christopher Nolan, writer, director and producer of arguably my favorite movie in the past five years. (The other two parts are already online and are linked at the end of this part.)
Tags: , , ,

Online Spreadsheets – EditGrid

Online Spreadsheets - EditGrid
“EditGrid is a free web-based online spreadsheet which allows you to create and share spreadsheets documents. You can collaborate with your team, publish your spreadsheets and even power them with external data.”
Looks interesting.
Tags: ,
View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Today’s phischbits

Little Green Footballs – Obama Ridicules ‘Socialist’ Charge, But He Admitted Seeking Out Marxist Professors and Socialist Conferences

Little Green Footballs - Obama Ridicules 'Socialist' Charge, But He Admitted Seeking Out Marxist Professors and Socialist Conferences
Complete with audio of Obama himself talking about his socialist influences.
Tags: , , ,
View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

“I chose my friends carefully.”

Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father:

To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists.

[…]

In search of some inspiration, I went to hear Kwame Toure, formerly Stokely Carmichael of Black Panther fame, speak at Columbia.
These are not the words of a politically conservative op-ed columnist. These are not words from a press release from the McCain camp. These are Barack Obama’s own indicting words, revealing his choice in how he was influenced during his college years.
“Everyone experiments in college, Phisch,” I can hear someone say. “Sex, religions, philosophies, politics. It’s all about figuring out who you are, what you believe.”
And what Barack Obama figured out is that he is a hard-line leftist. A socialist. Perhaps even a total Marxist. National Journal has ranked Senator Obama as the most liberal member of the Senate, and it is hardly a right-wing publication. Linda Douglass used to write for National Journal; now she’s Obama’s traveling press secretary.
He chose his friends carefully. William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Jeremiah Wright. Hardly people in touch with mainstream America. With mainstream American politics. These people are not moderates. They are not even slightly left of center. These are people who are either hardcore Marxists, or, in the case of Wright, subscribe to a theology heavily influenced by Marxism.
These are the people Obama chose to be his friends. To be mentored by. To be influenced by. To be helped by.
If you are still undecided in this election, if you still think that Senator Obama is just another moderate Democrat with a message of hope and change, think again. His own words show him to be what he really is. What do you think “spreading the wealth around” really means?
Government doesn’t have “wealth” to spread around. Government only has what funds it gains from its citizens by means of taxation. The bottom 50 percent of taxpayers in this country only pay 3% of the taxes. Three percent.
So when Obama and others talk about “spreading the wealth around”, they are talking about taking money from the 50 percent of us paying the 97% of taxes, and giving it, somehow, to the other 50 percent. That is not democracy. That is not free-market capitalism. That is outright Marxism, and Marxism has not worked anywhere it’s been tried. Why do we believe we can make it work here? Because the right people haven’t been in power to implement it yet?
That’s insanity.

Replacing water fountains with soda fountains

Chris Carter:

Obama’s acceptance speech at the DNC was touching. It was a brilliant speech.

[…]

Don’t get me wrong, it all sounded wonderful, but I came away from it reminded of the kid who ran for class president when I was in 6th grade based on campaign promises of replacing all of the school’s water fountains with soda fountains. Plenty of kids voted for him because they loved the promise and incorrectly assumed that if he was promising it, he must have a way to make it happen. Those of us who took a minute to think about it realized that it was something that was beyond the power of one person and that it would take one heck of a lot of convincing and a whole lot of spending of money the school didn’t have in order to actually make it happen. Sounded great. Wasn’t realistic.
So, are we voting for what sounds great, or what sounds realistic?

Today’s phischbits

iPhone Search

iPhone Search
My friend Michael Tsai has created a simple search page for iPhone users. You can search Amazon, IMDB, Netflix, and Wikipedia all from a single page. Pull this up in Mobile Safari on your iPhone, then add it to your home screen, and you’re good to go the next time you need to find a book or settle a historical argument.
Tags: , , , , ,
View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Businesses don’t pay taxes

Ronald Reagan:

“The most dangerous myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us. Business doesn’t pay taxes, and who better than business to make this message known?
Only people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against a business. Begin with the food and fiber raised in the farm, to the ore drilled in a mine, to the oil and gas from out of the ground, whatever it may be–through the processing, through the manufacturing, on out to the retailer’s license. If the tax cannot be included in the price of the product, no one along that line can stay in business.”
[Emphasis added. —R]

Today’s phischbits

Cruz – A Social Browser for Mac OS X Leopard

Cruz - A Social Browser for Mac OS X Leopard
Todd Ditchendorf, the developer of Fluid, has entered the web browsing space with Cruz. Featuring an open plug-in architecture, global keyboard shortcuts, sidebar windows, session restore, TinyURL link creation, and automatic software updates, Cruz looks like an interesting addition to the browser arena.
I’ve been playing with Cruz for a couple of days, and it seems fairly stable for the little web browsing I’ve thrown at it. I did create a right-side sidebar for Hahlo, the excellent Twitter web app optimized for the iPhone. It’s been an interesting and fun experiment so far, and I encourage Mac users to check Cruz out.
Tags: ,

How To: 13 Step Method For Buying A Car While Controlling The Sale And The Price

How To: 13 Step Method For Buying A Car While Controlling The Sale And The Price
Title is pretty self-explanatory. The advice at the end regarding used cars is dead on. My next door neighbor growing up was a mechanic, with his own shop, and my dad had him look at my first car, and a couple of others he’d picked out. (My dad has a knack for finding great used cars.) It’s never a bad idea to have a mechanic not affiliated with a dealership/brand, and most importantly, one you can trust, in your contact list.
Tags: , , , ,
View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

I’m hanging my hat on this one

“Who is in the White House is not as important as Who is on the White Throne.” –Stewart Briscoe
[Via Mike.]

Today’s phischbits

Macworld | Mac 911 | Etiquette and the BCC field

Macworld | Mac 911 | Etiquette and the BCC field
“An email message’s To field is not a plaything. Be respectful of others’ addresses by putting the BCC field to good use.”
I know several people who need to read this article. Unfortunately, I’m fairly certain none of them read my blog, or read Macworld, so they won’t see this…
Tags: ,

Macworld | Mac 911 | More on etiquette and email

Macworld | Mac 911 | More on etiquette and email
“Huh, it seems that the subject of etiquette and email has struck a chord with our readers. Here’s more helpful advice to pass along to the email unwise.”
There’s a mention in this piece about chain e-mails. Note that I never respond to or forward chain e-mails, so you can just leave me out of those, k?
Tags: ,

Mini Motel

Mini Motel
“Never again find yourself stranded in a transportation terminal with no place to sleep! The Mini Motel provides you with comfortable sleeping accommodations no matter where your travels take you.”
Tags: , ,
View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Today’s phischbits

Pro-abortion – The Curt Jester
Pro-abortion - The Curt Jester
“Either dismembering a child in the womb is an acceptable moral act or it isn’t. If you think it is then you are pro-abortion and should admit it.”
Jeff Miller has a nice little piece on the nuances of language in the abortion debate.
Tags: , , , , ,
Rands In Repose: FriendDA
Rands In Repose: FriendDA
“The following morning, if I’m still chewing on the bright idea, I start to worry because the logical next step is to pitch a friend. The rule here is: all ideas improve as a function of the number of eyeballs that see them. The troubling converse rule is: as soon as your idea gets out in the wild, it’s no longer yours.”
Rands’ idea is that of a Non-Disclosure Agreement for friends, only not legally binding like a real NDA.
Tags: ,
FriendDA — Slightly more than a hearty handshake
FriendDA -- Slightly more than a hearty handshake
The official document.
Tags: ,
21 Most Used Fonts By Professional Designers | instantShift
21 Most Used Fonts By Professional Designers | instantShift
Not surprisingly, Helvetica tops the list. I was pleased to see Futura in the top ten. I’m a big fan of Futura Bold.
Tags: , , ,
blackr
blackr
“blackr is a bookmarklet you can put in your browser’s bookmarks bar. Later, when you are on a photo page or one of the “All sizes” pages on flickr, you can click the bookmarklet and it will hide everything on the page behind a soothing black canvas except for the photo. All that remains is the picture.”
Tags: , ,
10 ways to Simplify Your Life and Save Money ~ Frugal, Freebies and Deals
10 ways to Simplify Your Life and Save Money ~ Frugal, Freebies and Deals
Title pretty much says it.
Tags: ,
View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia