I really like the new search engine by MSN. I think it’s definitely better than Google. For instance, you can find out all sorts of stuff about yourself. Just look at this search with my name

Evelyn has used the toilet three times since Sunday. I am so surprised and bemused. It’s nothing we’ve really urged her toward.

Her favourite words of the moment are ‘Dada,’ ‘dad,’ ‘a-boom,’ and ‘bob.’ Nathanael really would like to know who Bob is. I have no idea.

Her favourite foods are plain gross rice cereal, celery sticks, banana oatmeal, and breadsticks with marinara sauce. Doesn’t like juice or pureed fruits much. Strange tastes.

Likes her new toddler tub. Her splashes confound her.

Gets up at 5 AM everyday and wants to party. It’s rough.

Mary Frances, I was actually just looking at that article by Wesley Pruden (entitled “The Straight Talk No One Hears”). The following paragraph contains an interesting point, but it’s not quite what I am getting at, as I’ll explain later.

All presidents, Republican or Democrat, have to say things sometimes they don’t really mean, sometimes delivered with a wink and a nudge, sometimes not. When George W. talks about “the religion of peace” as if the Islamists are just a little confused, like a congregation of wayward Episcopalians, we have to think he doesn’t really mean it. Presidents, like governors and even mayors, have to keep in mind that in a country as big as ours there’s always the criminal element to consider. We don’t want our crazies to get any ideas, like Shi’ite imams in pursuit of Sunni holy men.

I think that’s it’s fairly reasonable for the President to talk like that. It might even be necessary, and I don’t object much, if at all, to it. My strenuous objections are to statements like the following:

Eid is a time of joy, after a season of fasting and prayer and reflection. Each year, the end of Ramadan means celebration and thanksgiving for millions of Americans. And your joy during this season enriches the life of our great country. This year, Eid is celebrated at the same time as Hanukkah and Advent. So it’s a good time for people of these great faiths, Islam, Judaism and Christianity, to remember how much we have in common: devotion to family, a commitment to care for those in need, a belief in God and His justice, and the hope for peace on earth. [Emphasis mine]

In any century but this, the entire church would be up in arms over this statement, and I certainly don’t believe that the “progress” the church has made in this century is something to be lauded. That’s not to say that I want to drive Muslims out of the country or any such nonsense. But I do believe that a Christian man in the position of power that Mr. Bush has must not spread falsehoods like that, even if he doesn’t mean them. If no man can come to the Father but through Christ, then you cannot separate the Triune God into a common “God” for Jews, Muslims, and Xians, and then the other two. My wife called it what it is.

So, I caught the tail end of Day-to-Day on my way back to work this afternoon. A memo has surfaced in London that shows President Bush itchin’ for a way to fight Saddam and even discussing ways to bait the dictator. I suppose I ought to be irate, but I haven’t the energy to jump down politics’ throat. Besides, Sarah and I have maintained for a while that Bush needs to deal with his blasphemies before we even begin to listen to anything else he says. Anyway, on the radio program, a limey solicitor by the name of Phillipe Sands was interviewed about his book Lawless Worlds. I tried to google his name for a transcript and ran across an interesting story on Yahoo!UK about another Limey - Philip Sands - who was kidnapped in Iraq around New Years and rescued two weeks later without ever making it into the media. No one ever knew he was even kidnapped! Where’s Anderson Cooper when you need him?

I toiled late into yesternight to do some housekeeping here. There are now two additional categories: The Desolation Angels, and blog rogov. I changed the html in the posts all the way back to October 2003 so that they (mostly) worked with the current template and CSS. I know that much of the great Desolation Angels stuff was in the comments, and I am working on getting those added back in from the Sensus Plenior system. I can’t give a timeline on that, but I hope it happens before summer begins.

Also, at the bottom of the page is a new page navigation system. I’d never realized before last night that I’d inadvertantly set the maximum number of posts per page to nineteen and had never provided a way to look at more posts from a category or month than that.

Carry on.