Faith

This morning I finished Prince Caspian, the second book in The Chronicles of Narnia. While it had less symbolism than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, did, it was still good. It was a nice adventure story while still teaching a lesson about faith.

Next is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Symbols

Today I finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and moved on to Prince Caspian. It's been entertaining so far. It's obviously a story for children, and told in the tone of a story teller, as if C.S. Lewis himself were speaking to you.

It's also quite obviously a morality tale of some sort. If I didn't already know that C.S. Lewis wrote about Christian ideas, even in his fiction, it would be easy to determine from these books. The parallels are striking, and he draws from European legends as well, particularly Norse and Greek. We have such Norse elements as the bitterly cruel winter, the White Witch, sledges, reindeer, dwarves, and so forth. We also have such decidedly Christian elements as a lion (the Lion of Judah, and St. Mark the Evangelist), eagles (St. John the Evangelist), a bull with a man's head (St. Luke the Evangelist), and humans (St. Matthew the Evangelist), the last being explicitly referred to as the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve. There's enough symbolism to make your head spin.

And then we come to Aslan himself. Supposedly Steinbeck's The Old Man and the Sea included a Christ figure in the form of Santiago, the old fisherman. Please! Aslan is a Christ figure if there ever was one. His actions parallel the Passion and the Rapture. All the fisherman did was cut his hands on his fishing net.

Despite the fact that the Chronicles of Narnia was written for younger readers, I have the idea I'm going to enjoy it immensely.

It's magic

I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on Friday night. Since a good portion of my small readership have not read the book yet, I'll be sure not to include any spoilers. Some things were surprising, some were not. Some were unexpected, some were not. I enjoyed reading it, despite a number of downers, and can't wait for the next one.

Next on the list is Narnia. That's right, I'm starting The Chronicles of Narnia. Pauline loaned me a paperback set of the seven books, and I'll be starting The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe today.

Ignorant

As much as I slag Illinois for all the stupid things there, it's now Colorado's turn: in an act of ignorant, bigoted prejudice that words are insufficient to describe, the city of Denver has banned pit bulls and is now rounding them up to be destroyed.

Then read the comments on Fark, and try to guess who's a pet owner and who's not.

"...The best of times...."

Last night I finished Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, and all I can say is, "Wow." None of the other books I've read by him have been so powerful. It was quite a departure from his previous works: fewer characters, less humor, perhaps darker in a way, and a change of setting. It indeed features one of the most memorable openings, and one of the most memorable closings, as any work in all of literature. Having no preconceptions or expectations before starting the book, now that I've finished it, I can truly say that I'm glad to have read it.

Next on the list is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. If J.K. Rowling's writing continues to progress as it has so far, I'd say I'm in for quite a treat.

Hot, hot, hot

It's been an unbearably hot weekend, not fit for doing much of anything, at least if it's outside. Yesterday Maryanne and I went with her parents to Holy Hill. It's an interesting place, and a pretty church. The mass was very long, since they were ordaining a new priest.

Otherwise it's been a lazy weekend, since neither of us have been particularly ambitious. In fact, I'm finding it hard to find the motivation to do much of anything right now.

Busted

Regardless of your opinion of the source, this article, which debunks some of the anti-war myths about Iraq, is interesting reading.

Rainy day....

Yesterday evening we got some much-needed rain. Not nearly as much as we could use, but it came down hard for a little while, at least.

Now I won't have to water the plants for a couple days, but I'll have to make sure I get the lawn cut Friday.

Wet paint....

I've been working on a home improvement project for a while now in the finished portion of our basement. The basement had been in bad shape: it was done in wainscoting, poorly, using cheap paneling on the bottom, drywall on the top, and a chair rail covering the seam. However, rather than do it correctly, which would be to drywall the entire room, and then put the paneling on top of the drywall for the wainscoting, the upper half of the walls were done in drywall, and the lower in paneling.

The paneling was very dark, and even if the paint on the drywall started as white, it had yellowed cosiderably, and was a flat finish. I decided the room needed some brightening, and decided the best place to go was white, with a gloss finish. I decided further to go with a Mondrian theme for the room. Much of this weekend was spent priming and painting the corner where the computer sits. I probably didn't give it all enough time to dry, though, and will have some considerable touch-up work to do tonight before putting the computer back where it belongs.

It's been quite a learning experience so far. The best solution, of course, would have been to rip out everything and put up completely new sheet rock, but we have neither the time nor the money for that kind of project. Also, this weekend's work was a bit rushed. I think I will take my time working on the remainder of the room, and try to allow for the full drying time recommended for the paints.

Good company....

For those of you not in the know, the Discovery Channel ran a "Greatest American" series of programs back in June. I think I may have been part of the survey that generated the original nominees. Through viewer polling they finally reached a final five: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Ronald Reagan. Not bad company to be in, eh? --Especially if you're Ronald Reagan.

I was surprised to see him make the top five, honestly. Let's compare the field.... George Washington: charismatic, "Father of Our Country," leader of the Continental Army, and landslide-winner as our first President; as much responsible for shaping the trappings of the Presidency as the Constitution is. Benjamin Franklin: charismatic, "The First American," instrumental in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, statesman, author, scientist. Abraham Lincoln: a quiet, strong leader who led the country through the Civil War, preserving the Union and thereby the idea that "all men are created equal." Martin Luther King, Jr.: charismatic, eloquent speaker, the embodiment of the Civil Rights movement. Ronald Reagan: charismatic, actor, statesman, politician.

Now, we can all debate until we're blue in the face how responsible Reagan was for the downfall of communism, or his place in the top five. But the masses have spoken, and they ranked him the greatest American.

Honestly, I'm as baffled as you are.

Happy Birthday!

It's July 4th, Independence Day, the 229th birthday of a great experiment known as the United States of America.

That's enough....

Some recent posts by Leanne, Luke and Amy got me to thinking: why is there so much negativity toward people with conservative political views?

The negativity ranges from apathy to pity to disdain to outright hatred. Those of a more liberal political position seem to have little, if anything, positive to say about those at the other end of the political spectrum. The individual opinion of a liberal seems to have some corollation to their own opinion of themselves. Those with more of an elitist attitude tend toward disdain and hatred of conservatives, while those closer to the middle seem to pity conservatives.

I'd like to consider myself fairly moderate. I support civil liberties and the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights (all of them, including the Second Amendment, which a lot of liberals seem to ignore, if not loathe). I'm socially progressive, while some have claimed I'm politically conservative. Call me a neocon if you want to, or maybe a "South Park" conservative; I consider myself independent.

I try not to hate all liberals, at least not the way that it seems liberals hate all conservatives. It's hard, though, when we're talking about the same people that are responsible for the bane of political correctness, PETA, and picking and choosing which parts of the Bill of Rights are acceptable and which are not. I'm not saying conservatives are all sweetness and light. After all, it's the far right who's responsible for such things as pushing to teach creationism in schools, Rush Limbaugh, and attempting to legislate religious morality.

Personally, I think the sudden resurgence of conservatives, or neocons, if you will, is a backlash caused by the left. Sure, the left didn't do it on purpose, but enough political correctness, animal rights insanity, and attacks on civil rights will eventually cause anyone with any common sense to say "That's enough!"

Now, like anyone in the same situation, now that the Republicans are in control of Congress and the White House, they're trying to further their agenda. The Democrats would do the same thing if they were in the same position, and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded. It's no surprise to me that they're once again challenging a woman's right to choose (a choice I support, by the way), or trying to ban the burning of the flag (which I disagree with, by the way), or any of the other ultra-conservative stuff they're trying to do. Anybody who didn't see this coming needs help. Now, if the Supreme Court does what it's supposed to, and interpret and support the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and not legislate from the bench, then we have little to worry about. But if the left really wants to protect these rights, they should support all civil rights, not just the ones they like. They should stop ignoring the "fly-over" area of middle America, the same group accused of "demonizing" those who call themselves "progressive" and work with them instead. If they don't, it'll be more of the same.

So, while people like Amy, Leanne, and Luke continue to harbor such feelings towards the far right, I'll hope that they won't hold it against me when I suggest it's their political comrades that have caused people like me to say "That's enough."

The letter of the law....

As if I needed any more, here's another good reason not to live in Illinois.

Fun....

Well, it's July now, still early in the summer, but before too much longer we'll be facing the oppressive, over-bearing heat and humidity of middle and late summer, and then it won't be so much fun any more.

Maryanne and I were on vacation for most of this last week. We had originally planned to go to Mexico, but it was going to be at least $1,000 for both of us to go, so we decided not to. We had looked in to going up to the Apostle Islands on the Lake Superior shore, but hit some snags there, as well. Finally, we ended up going to Door County because my aunt and uncle were going to be visiting there. Maryanne didn't think it was much of a vacation for me, since I helped with some projects that needed to be done. She sometimes doesn't understand that some of those projects are actually fun for me.

We were able to do a bit of the tourist thing while we were up there, though. Monday afternoon we did some shopping up north. Not too bad of a day for it, though it was one of the hottest days of the summer. We stopped at Not Licked Yet in Fish Creek for some frozen custard, and it was probably the smartest thing we did all weekend. You had to eat fast, though, as the custard was melting pretty fast. Things weren't nearly as busy as I thought they would be. I don't know if it was because it was a Monday, or because gas prices are so high, or any other reason or combination of reasons.

I signed up to work today, thinking it would be a slow day; so far it hasn't been any different from any other Saturday. I brought in the next book for my reading pleasure, though I've yet to open it: it's going to be A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. My particular copy is the Reader's Digest hardcover edition, with illustrations by Phiz.