Quick hits week ending 11/12/11

Note: yes, there are very serious things in this world. No, this blog post itself will not address those things. Read real news.

1. Colons are an important part of linguistic health. Make sure yours is in the right place. For example, the tweet that said "Lessons from Hezekiah: 7 things you need to know" was a valid sentence. The one that said "Lessons from Hezekiah 7: Things you need to know" does not reflect anything Bible-related.

2. The SEC is expanding to 14 teams. At this point, our knowledge of geography is failing us because the apparent plan is to put Missouri in the "East" division. This being despite the fact that Missouri lies to the west of every SEC school except Arkansas, LSU, and Hog-fodder. Here's my suggestion: move Alabama and Auburn to the East Division. Put Vanderbilt in the West Division along with the new schools. True, West will be Arkansas or LSU for a long, long time---but that will give the East some real football.

3. Friend Anthony posted a tweet this week that stated: Whenever someone starts a sentence with "It's a fine line between…" 9 times out of 10 it's really not.

With all due deference to one who studies at the feet of the esteemed faculty of Southern Seminary, here's my responses:

A. It's a fine line between sushi and bait.

B. It's a fine line between clearing a yellow light and getting mailed a ticket by a traffic camera.

C. It's a fine line between a BIC G2 .38 and a Bic G2 .5 (ink pens.)

D. It's fine line on the thermostat between comfortable and "The preacher's out to freeze us!"

And, since it's a fine line between full humor and beating a dead horse, moving on….

4. It's nearly Christmas. Order stuff from Despair.com early to avoid optimism later.

5. I wonder about odd things at times. Like Friday when we talked about the Baptism of Jesus with the kids at lunch. My mind immediately jumped to Jesus walking on water later on. I was picturing John looking up and saying "Look, if we're going to do this, You've got to come down in the water!" That may not be a good joke, but there it is.

6. On that same discussion, my 8-year-old is apparently as clear on the Trinity as some great theologians and famous preachers: 3 persons, 1 God, no, you can't fully explain it but that doesn't make it not true. Plus, they all exist at the same time. 10-year-old thought modalism, the belief that God changed into Jesus who changed into the Spirit was funny. Kids make good theologians sometimes. We should let them.

7. It's now November and the GOP candidate race now features yet another different face at the top. Here's the facts: we start this nonsense too early and nobody knows yet who they would vote for so it's silly. Back up the primaries to April-May-June, conventions in July-August, then campaign. If a candidate has a record to run on, then there really is adequate time to look at that record. If they don't have one, then that's obvious too (plus, that's proven no bar to election). Spare us.

7a. Or, at the least, let's only do it this early if both parties are having primary challenges. Even if it's a nut, can we get a Democrat to challenge President Obama? Maybe 1 or 2 viable Democrats and an army of loonies on the side? That's 3 real candidates and then a bunch of people vying for Cabinet posts. Except the 1 nut who is going to be Ambassador to Hashima Island.

8. Book mention of the week: I read a lot, and you patiently skim the reviews I write. There's other good books or worthwhile books, so each week I'll mention 1 or 2 here. First book mention: Christian America? edited by Daryl Cornett. It provides four fundamental views on the impact of Christianity on the founding of the United States, from the full-out Christian view to the eclectic/secular view. Each view is written by one of its own proponents, and the other three contributors provide rebuttals to the method and opinion of the others. It is well worth your time and rises, on the whole, above the fighting rhetoric of many works on both sides of this issue.

But, please, read the whole book. Some will get incensed by one view and put it down and miss the value here: a generally well-rounded discussion.

That's all folks. Enjoy your Saturday, and may the Bulldogs rise to meet the Tide and the impossible happen for the Hilltoppers! Woo! PIG SOOIE!!

More importantly: Battle of the Ravine Saturday, 1 pm. Ouachita has a perfect conference record in the Great American Conference and can get on the path to a D-II National Championship with a win. They'll have to win this thing called playoffs to win it, which none of you BCS/SEC people understand for football, but that's ok. GO REAL TIGERS!