Nate & Kristen’s Weblog

I’m not sure how but I recently go turned on to this great podcast, EconTalk.  Kristen and my mom have really been enjoying all the new things I’m learning and new methods I’m picking up for analysing their opinions. It’s been an enourmous help with my attempts to convince them of their dangerous trend towards  fascism. I would warn you to but I’m probably not comfortable enough to do a good job. Anyway, it’s very gentle with regards to the economics even though all the episodes I’ve listened to have been the host and another academic having an extended conversation. Economics so far as I’ve seen is strikingly elegant and instantly usable but maybe that’s because I’m dull and dumb. The latest one on public transportation in Santiago made me make this recommendation but I also found the one with Thomas Sowell very interesting as he has a great presentation style and challenging ideas.

<

Sunday night at around two I was reading an article by Rudy Giuliani and I threw up. Seriously, I threw up. It wasn’t the article since I had only read the first two paragraphs and it sounded fine but I had finally come down with the stomach flu with Kristen and kids. I haven’t finished the article.

Levi finished swimming lessons today. Thanks to the glory of the 9/80 work schedule I was able to attend his last lesson and watched him get thrown in with all his clothes on, swim across the width of the pool, jump off the diving board, and with some help swim to bottom of the shallow end and grab some rings. I am very proud, very proud indeed. Too bad when I take him to the pool he just wants to relax.

As you can tell blogging is still going badly, or rather, not going at all. I thought I’d be able to muster up some energy for it and get it going over the long weekend but I can’t seem to get in the swing. And that’s sad because I’ve read some great things lately that I’ve personally found very compelling. One was a new book titled Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion which I appropriately read over the holiday. A very nice book. I’d encourage you not to be turned off from the title as it has nothing to do with christian reconstructionism or dominionism, but it does make a convincing and direct connection between our liberal ideals–liberty, equality, democracy–and the convictions of the US’s earliest Puritan settlers. For me, I think reading this book will mark the beginning of the end of ridding my mind of the utterly destructive cynicism that has plagued me for so long. I’d really like to hammer out a full review but that probably won’t happen, however it would be very cool if some friends read it so we could chat about it. Huh, huh, I know you want to. Anyway, a few of our great states fine representatives could definitely be challenged by the author’s eloquent presentation of what he calls American chivalry.

Oh yeah, computers should draw congressional districts and every smug modern liberal should get a tongue lashing from a beautiful refugee of the Muslim world. Good day.

May John Mayer’s cowardly plan for the world die a lonely death among the naive aspirations of musicians years past. And may this blog rise in content and quality where it once was not destined.

Here’s to ignoring good advice. Cheers.

Its been a while since I’ve talked about the boys so here we go. Levi is almost three, he always has some funny thing to say and his perception of the world around him is great to take in. The other day Levi was standing on the railing of our patio saying hi to people as they walked by. When our neighbor with the dog who bit me came by he told him that his dog is a bad doggy several times. I don’t think the neighbor appreciated it but I was chuckling behind the wall. Levi loves Nate and everything that Nate is interested in. He ask Nate if he wanted to go to Everest with him when he gets bigger and asked Nate if that would make him happy. Levi also spends some of his day on the computer “working”. He is very social and wants to go to school. He often will put on his Oregon Ducks back pack, his helmet and hops on his tricycle telling me he is going to school. He was having some trouble with jealousy, if Nate hugged me he would get in the middle of us and tell Nate I was his Mommy. Nate would do it just to bug him, I’m glad that didn’t last to long. This picture was taken around Christmas when we went to Vasquez Rock state park. Levi was a little timid about climbing around at first but soon he was all over the rocks having a blast. Its hard to believe my baby is so big already.
Now for Conrad. He is still the cutest baby I’ve ever seen and yet some how he didn’t win the Regis and Kelly’s most beautiful baby contest. He finally took his first steps on Saturday when Nate was off in the forest with the camera. He refuses to do it again. We ask Conrad if he can walk and he nodes his head yes and then walks on his hands and feet or he just says no. He wants to be involved in everything and is like Levi’s little puppy dog following Levi everywhere. He has mastered the stairs and can get off the couch or bed with no problem. He loves to read books and pushes his car around. In the morning he stands in his crib and yells mommy until I come and get him and he is much more stubborn than Levi ever was. I love them both so much and look forward to every stage of their lives.

Another surgery for Peter.

Our friend in El Salvador was shot.

As some of you know I have been talking to some Jehovah Witnesses on a regular basis. Our discussion seems to always come back to the deity of Christ so indstead of addressing the issue at those times they have given me a watch tower magazine on the trinity to read. They have encouraged me to write down questions and comments as I read through it. So with that, I have come across a section in the book that the reasoning and theology seems wrong but besides the fact that they don’t recognize Jesus as God, I can’t pin point it so I’m hoping some of you know your Bible doctrin better than I. Below is the paragraph.

How Much was the Ransom?

One of the main reasons why Jesus came to earth also has a direct bearing on the Trinity. Th Bible states: “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.” 1 Timothy 2:5,6.

Jesus, no more and no less than a perfect human, became a ransom that compensated exactly for what Adam lost- the right to perfect human life on earth. So Jesus could rightly be called “the last Adam” by the apostle Paul, who said in the same context: “Just as in Adam all are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45) The perfect human life of Jesus was the “corresponding ransom” required by divine justice-no more, no less. a basic principle even of human justice is that the price paid should fit the wrong committed.

If Jesus, however, were part of a Godhead, the ransom price would have been infinitely higher than what God’s own Law required. (Exodus 21:23-25; Leviticus 24:19-21) It was only a perfect human, Adam, who sinned in Eden, not God. So the ransom, to be truly in line with God’s justice, had to be strictly an equivalent-a perfect human, “the last Adam.” Thus, when God sent Jesus to earth as the ransom, he made Jesus to be what would satisfy justice, not an incarnation, not a god-man, but a perfect man, “lower than angels.” (Hebrews 2:9; compare Psalm 8:5,6.) How could any part of an almight y Godhead-Father, Son, or holy spirit-ever be lower that angels?