This was in the New York Times yesterday:

"Many younger voters are turning to the "The Daily Show" for their news analysis, and are better served there than on much of what purports to be real news on cable."

I know that the first part is true, but this is the first time I've heard anyone (expecially anyone in the mainstream media) say what I think may be true; which is that The Daily Show provides better analysis than many real news shows. Stewart denies this at every opportunity he gets. What do you think?

I finally snapped some photos of our new family members. Here is our fishtank, here is the best shot I could get of the fry, and here are the proud parents.

Brendoman is pretty good about catching on to upandcoming internet trends. He says that podcasting is the next big thing, and so I'm going along for the ride. He even has a new blog, RadioBrendoman.com, for his podcast. I've been doing segments for it. I record them on my PDA or computer, email them to Bren in China, then he mixes them together and uploads them. Then I'll come along, download the cast and make it into a torrent file for distribution. By the time the audio gets to you it's already been around the world once. The next podcast should go up sometime tomorrow.

One of our fish had babies this week. Some fish give birth to live young and we've been hoping to see some for a while. I put the chubby little guppy in a breeding net, which keeps the other fish from bugging her or eating the fry. She finally popped out about 20 of the little buggers. By the time I found them one of our tetras has leapt out of the water and into the breeding net. Who knows how many babies it had snacked on by the time I moved it out. The fry are really cute and I'll try to get pictures up sometime. If you know anyone who wants some fancy guppies, let me know.

My job is still going great. I'm getting more responsibility all of the time. I've been reading up on the new Check 21 regulations that go into effect on October 28.

I came across this picture in a book I checked out from the library. This was a short message that was beamed toward another galaxy. I found it very interesting, not because I believe that there are aliens who will ever receive the message, but because the message represents someone's attempt to describe who we are in less than a kilobyte of information. What's more, the description can't include any language. You can read a detailed explanation of the message here.

Dave has already pointed some of these things out, but it's worth repeating. Bush and Kerry are saying some things in these debates that flatly contradict each other. CNN has a short fact-check story that seems to be pretty fair. I was really hoping to get to the bottom of the whole timber-company comment, and it turns out Kerry was right. Bush did report income from a timber company (see this story). Even Charlie Gibson says Kerry was right on that one. Sadly most people who watched the debate will have a good chuckle and never bother to see who was lying. Kerry's point was that any millionaire can report a little money from a small business where they're part owner and then call themselves a small businessman. So when Bush says he has to protect small businesses from this tax hike, he could be talking about people like himself, who are actually filthy rich. This is kind of making me mad. I was searching for some info on the little timber comment and several articles repeat Bush's zinger, but very few bother to do the research and report that Kerry was right.

After spending parts of the last two weeks and most of this weekend on the project, our built-in bookcase is finished. Check out the pictures in the bookcase gallery, including my blueprint (feel free to copy the design). Tomorrow Sara will do some touch-up painting and then we'll fill the shelves up with stuff. We've got books stacked in the living room from our old shelves, books in the garage from my office and a box or two in the closet from a library book sale. Once we get things arranged how we want them I may post another picture.

I finished my first week at the bank today. We do work from 8-12 on Saturdays. I trained as a teller from Tuesday to Friday and got fairly comfortable with it. It's more complicated than I realized, and I'll be covering for a teller over their lunch break for a while. This morning I finally got down to some computer business. I set up a headless Win98 rig to catch my syslogs for making security reports. I'll use TightVNC to log in, control the computer and make reports. I set KiwiSyslog up to email me with daily stats and any emergency and warning messages. (For my two or three readers who know what the heck I'm talking about: does that sound like a good system?) I'm pretty excited to have an actual computer job. The bank is a great place to work.

This afternoon my parents and grandparents came over to help us work on our giant bookcase. I hope we'll finish tomorrow and then I'll post some pictures.

Change occurs so often in our lives, and we are seldom responsible for its arrival. Every four years, however, we Americans are afforded the chance to change our futures—either by continuing on the current path or by selecting an entirely different one—at our discretion, and by way of Constitutional right. I speak, of course, of the national presidential election. The importance of this decision is obvious; yet the number of Americans who actually exercise this right continues to decline. Politically-minded people find this statistic appalling, while the disinterested public accepts it as reality. Neither mindset invokes change; both merely reinforce stereotypes and fatalistic thinking.
Accolades should be awarded to evangelical Christians for breaking the mold on voter indifference: evangelicals compose just seven percent of the United States' population, yet they are one segment of the population found most likely to register to vote (84%) and to actually exercise the privilege of voting (88%).
Mostly Republican (62%) and conservative (75%) in their politics, evangelicals vote accordingly. Eighty-three percent of evangelicals voted for our current Republican president in the 2000 election (Tight Presidential Race Influenced by People's Faith, www.barna.org). Given the lack of political understanding found in all segments of America's population, one could ask, "Are evangelicals voting this way based on personal contemplation of facts, or are they operating under the assumption that this is the way they must vote?"
Informed voters or no, we could all use a crash course in politics, particularly in a year when our vote, and thus, our opinion, is so crucial. To make the right decision, we must understand each candidate's stance on key issues; issues such as health care, the war on terror, abortion, stem cell research and religious freedom are important considerations when deciding on a candidate. But perhaps the choice is much more fundamental.
Kevin Beckner, Government teacher at Pattonville High School in St. Louis, Missouri, advocates a rudimentary understanding of government as an essential step in making voting decisions. "[We could believe that] government is simply an administrative body that carries out functions in order to help society run smoothly, [wherein] the people running the government are of little concern. Instead, it appears that government sets the boundaries for what our country will tolerate on an ethical and moral level," Beckner said.
To Beckner, a candidate's worldview, the "lens through which people view the world around them and how their lives fit in the grand scheme of things", is more important than his stance on a particular issue. To paraphrase Beckner: a government runs based on a worldview; that worldview is collectively decided upon by the worldviews of those in that government; and the voting public chooses the people whose worldview ultimately makes a difference.
So what does this mean to voters; specifically, to Christian voters? "I operate under the assumption that people should act upon their worldview," Beckner explains, citing that this action is based on a person's understanding of truth. And, since Christians believe in the Truth (objective moral law handed to us by a God who cares for us), Beckner believes that "We need to put people in office whose worldview makes it easier for the people of God to act on their beliefs, creating an environment that is least restrictive to the presentation and acceptance of the Gospel."
Beckner's most compelling argument for voting on the basis of worldview is that of Supreme Court appointment. Supreme Court justices are appointed by the president and serve a life term, meaning that "the worldview of the person selected to be on the Court will likely influence the course of our country for the next 15-45 years," Beckner said. "[Appointing a Supreme Court justice] is arguably the greatest legacy any president can leave."
Voting based on worldview has far-reaching implications: namely, that personal, time-consuming research must be done to figure out the worldview of a particular candidate. Additionally, one must give up the notion that a candidate and his voting public are required to hold exactly the same position on issues—moral or otherwise. If worldviews are, as Beckner suggests, tenets to be acted upon, then individuals decide how to project their beliefs onto the world around them. Even those holding the same worldview interpret and react to certain issues in different ways. In these situations, Beckner's idea of voting based on the amount of ease with which the Gospel can be spread and lived out is paramount.
That said, there are some concerns that seem to fuel this year's election. According to an article in September's Christianity Today, evangelical Christians are most concerned in six areas: promoting religious freedom (at home and abroad); promoting peace; expanding access to health insurance; fighting AIDS wisely (including the use of abstinence education); abortion; and standing up for traditional marriage ("Values-Driven Voter", p. 32).
Whether you choose to vote based on worldview, specific issues or a combination of the two, the fact remains that you must be informed in order to make a difference. Beckner recommends reading websites (see inset) and, of course, prayer.
"We must be the kind [of voters] who press forward, knowing that God really exists, and that we must elect candidates whose worldview is least restrictive to the proliferation of the Gospel. This will not happen by watching the evening news, and it will not happen by voting based on looks. It will happen by prayerful consideration and intelligent discernment of the issues, candidates, and worldview inherent in both. May He give us wisdom."