general | matching tracksuits

German Economics Experts

Tuesday 23 September 2008 | 0 Comments

The German perspective on the bailout:

It’s not a call for assistance; it’s a scream for help. US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is asking other countries to help buy up bad US debt. The US government is putting up $700 billion in taxpayer money in the hopes that the measure might restore stability in the financial system. Some countries are planning to help. But the German government has answered this call quickly and clearly: no.

Economics experts think that’s the right response. As they see it, in the long run, those responsible for the crisis — who have been cashed out with high salaries and bonuses for years — will not be penalized for billions “but will be let off the hook like everyone else,” says Carsten Meier of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy IfW. According to Meier, by injecting capital into the market, the US government is putting everyone who speculated and lost back on their feet and thereby standing in the way of a market cleanup.(Spiegel Online)

I’m not sure I’ve heard anyone in the States formulate it quite that bluntly.

Back to the Zoo

Monday 22 September 2008 | 0 Comments

It had been some months since we went to the zoo, so this Sunday, we packed up the Girl, some snacks, and something to drink and went to visit the animals.

Such a difference between this visit and our first visit. The Girl has developed a sense of independence, learned to walk, and begun communicating verbally.

She decided when she'd had enough, calmly telling us "dosc" ("enough") when she was tired of the elephants,

the giraffes, the reptiles,

and the leopard.

She has an opinion and preferences and she can express them.

It's the beginning of the end...

Carnival

Sunday 21 September 2008 | 2 Comments

We took The Girl to her first carnival today -- a small gig that was part of a local festival.

She seemed to enjoy it.

The only problem came when the carnie told us, "Time's up." On one occasion we literally had to drag the girl screaming from the attraction.

Still, it was a pleasant day: we did all the carnival-esque things, including sharing ice cream.

After a few rides and some general frolicking on the playground, we went to watch the hot air balloon and the guy-tethered-to-an-enormous-pile-of-helium-balloons take off.

One has to wonder about the wisdom of such flight, but it draws a crowd, and I guess he gets something out of it.

The Rescuers

Thursday 18 September 2008 | 0 Comments

The cavalry is coming!

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said after meeting members of Congress that legislation would be required to help rid US banks of their bad assets.

He said this was at the heart of the rescue plan, which will be worked out over the weekend.

BBC NEWS | Special Reports | US pledges financial rescue plan

It’s taken years of mismanagement and lack of oversight and regulation to create this problem and our noble leaders are planning on solving it over the weekend?!

Anyone who wasn’t worried before this announcement should be now.

Palin scares the living daylights out of me, and I think, sadly, with her anywhere near the chief leadership position in America, we won't have four more years of the Bush administration; we'll have four years of the Bush administration minus whatever slight, vague, microscopic, nano-second-lasting bit of sense it has. I mean, the woman is talking about starting a shooting war with Russia.

But what's just as scary as she is are some of those supporting her.

Here, for example, is the Forerunner's three-point election plan:

1. Vote Constitution Party. (I vote my conscience and cannot support McCain even with Palin.)
2. Hope and pray for McCain/Palin to win. (I am an idealist, but also a realist!)
3. Pray for John McCain's salvation and pray specific imprecatory prayers if he fails to pro-actively defend the sanctity of human life. (Source)

Pray for the Republican candidate's death? I'd be terrified to know what sadistic things he requests God to do to Obama.

At least he's not advocating a more active role like this fellow:

Jesus told us to love our neighbor, but hate the evil inside them. Sometimes, if the evil inside them is so great, our neighbor will have to be stoned. We do each stoning with sadness for the individual, but with brighter hopes for the community. (Source)

I swear, put this guy on an island with one extremist from each religion and turn it into a reality show -- "The Weakest Extremist" or "Lost, for Good" -- and save the planet as an added bonus.

Playground Politics

Friday 12 September 2008 | 1 Comment

With the recent "pig" nonsense, the endless ad hominem attacks, and the little "gimmicks" like Coulter's continual reference to the Democratic candidate as "B. Hussein Obama," I find myself often wondering whether we're in an election cycle or in a second-grade playground, and I have to ask myself, "How stupid do Republicans think the American people are if they think this kind of name-calling, na-nanny-boo-boo nonsense is anything more than immature?"

Cat Soup and Duff Nuts

Tuesday 09 September 2008 | 3 Comments

The funny thing about English -- funny in an infuriating way, for non-native speakers -- is its spelling irregularities.

A friend in Poland once offered me "duff nuts." Logical enough: -ough is often pronounced "uff," as in "enough."

K asked me the other day if I knew what cat soup was. I suddenly became very protective of our own cat, wondering what kind of Third-World recipe she had in mind. Turned out, we have cat soup in our fridge; it's just spelled a little differently.

BoM 11: First Book of Nephi, Chapter 10

Monday 08 September 2008 | 0 Comments

1 Nephi 10 opens with talk of his ministry:

And now I, Nephi, proceed to give an account upon these plates of my proceedings, and my reign and ministry; wherefore, to proceed with mine account, I must speak somewhat of the things of my father, and also of my brethren.

"Ministry" is an odd word. It has certain contemporary connotations that I'm not sure existed in earlier periods. It has to do with the Protestant notion of the "priesthood of all believers." It's is something Evangelicals do when they witness (another term with significant contemporary connotations); it's something Mormon missionaries do when they visit you. Yet I wondered what it historically meant, so I did some checking.

The English word "ministry" dates, according to the handy online etymological dictionary, from

1382, "function of a priest," from L. ministerium "office, service," from minister (see minister). Began to be used 1916 as name of certain departments in British government. (Source)

So it's certainly in keeping with a more general usage of the term. While many Protestant pastors would be livid at the suggestion that they function as a priest when they minister, that would be largely mitigated by the Protestant formulation of the "priesthood of all believers."

The first use of "ministry" in the King James (the predominant Bible of Joseph Smith's time) is Numbers 4.11-13

And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put to the staves thereof:

And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put them on a bar:

And they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth thereon:

"Minster" and "ministry" certainly does have the enotation of religious duty here. Probably a textbook example of ministerium.

Later, Hosea speaks of the ministry of the prophets:

And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.

I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.

Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields. (Hosea 12.9-11)

A prophet was not a priest, so this would tend to indicate a slightly different usage. Generally speaking, a prophet's ministry would be to tell the people what they were doing wrong, that God was angry with them and was going to take some kind of vengeance. That's certainly more along the line of "ministry" in some denominations, and I guess it's the role of an Old Testament priest as well. Different connotations, but minimal.

The obvious question is whether or not the same Hebrew word has been translated "minister" in Hosea and Numbers. I could check easily enough, but what's the point? I can't compare it to the original word used in the Book of Mormon because God unfortunately took the best proof of his Mormon gospel back to heaven.

All the same, the connotation of the usage of "ministry" in 1 Nephi 10.1 seems, at best, slightly anachronistic.

Chapter ten also includes a prediction: "Yea, even six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem, a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jews-even a Messiah, or, in other words, a Savior of the world." The bulk of chapter ten deal with prophecies about John the Baptist and Jesus, specifically the former's baptizing ministry (there's that word again) and the latter's initial encounter with him.

If only we God had left behind the original plates, here's all the proof we'd need of both Jesus' Messiahship and the Book of Mormon's legitmacy. Right?

Photo by Internet Archive Book Images