Blog it!

Blog it!
During one of my visits to an online forum, I ran into the above expression used with little to no elaboration in a pithy manner in response to others' posts. At first, I didn't think much of it other than speculating that they knew each other as bloggers, and it was a way to encourage blogging about whatever the issue was at hand.

Then it became obvious that the expression always surfaced in heated and hostile exchanges, which prompted yours truly to garner enough courage to ask for the meaning of the expression.

Well, the answer to my inquiry was a bit unsettling. According to one poster, it was another way of saying 'Here's a quarter. Call someone who cares.' Now that payphones are becoming a thing of the past, I suppose metaphoric retorts are simply keeping up with the advancement of technology.

Has anyone else seen this or heard it used in real life? The word "blog" has barely settled into our collective lexicon, but before you know it, it has already made it into an expression created specifically to belittle and insult.

Speaking of hostile Internet forum participants, be sure to visit the roster of Flame Warriors. Which one are you?

This is me - Picador


Picador does not engage other Warriors in direct combat. Instead, he uses well placed barbs to goad his adversary into charging while skillfully avoiding the appearance of being the provocateur. He thus guides his enraged target towards certain injury or defeat at the hands of a stronger Warrior. Once the fight has been set in motion Picador will retire to a discrete distance, always ready prod his lance into sensitive areas should the action begin to flag. HINT: Alert Warriors can readily spot Picador because, though he seldom takes a stand on controversial issues, he always seems to be near the fray.

Memo to My People

It's just not a good idea to operate a restaurant frequented by our people next to a pet hospital in America. You just have to trust me on that.

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Well, I have to confess, since we are all friends here, that I dined there just last night.

At the restaurant, that is. Thank you for asking.

The dish was "Kung Pao Chicken."

And I am reasonably sure it was chicken, and even though according to popular belief, everything tastes like chicken, I think my taste buds can differentiate real chicken from everything else that tastes like chicken. I really think so.

The culinary activity, mastication and eventual consumption took place exclusively between the Gallus gallus species and the mankind, and as far as I know, no other species besides a few members of the Plant Kingdom participated in last night's inter-species food chain enterprise.

After perusing through the menu, I communicated my wishes in explicit spoken words to the waiter without exchanging winks, secret gestures or any other kind of nonverbal communication.

I said, "Kung Pao Chicken, please."
He said, "What would you like to drink?"
I said, "Coke. And no fries with that."

It was as normal a business transition as it could be, which involved delivering the service(Kung Pao Chicken) and money changing hands in the form of financial compensation between myself and the waiter.

I also did not loiter around the pet hospital to size up the animals being carted in and out of there. There were one German Shepard, one Boston Terrier and two dogs of indeterminate breeds in the receptionist area, but who's counting? They were so cute, I could eat them up (get it?).

Noah is from the shelter. I always tell people that I was the first Korean ever to get a dog from the pound, not by the pound.

These stupid jokes never get old.

Touchdown! Yeah!

Oh wait...

(Click to enlarge)

In case you are unfamiliar with college football, check out the USC cheerleader with her hands up. Texas just scored a touchdown, not her team. The looks of dismay on the faces of the other cheerleaders are priceless.

Apocalyptic Quest

Pat Robertson's most recent incendiary rhetoric has hit the nation's headlines again. He told the viewers of "The 700 Club" that Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's massive stroke could be God's divine retribution raining down on him for giving up Israeli territory. Mr. Robertson was referring to the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the forced relocation of thousands of settlers from the territory engineered by Sharon in his quest for peace with Palestinians.

Even though very well deserved excoriation for yet another gem from Mr. Robertson has come from all different directions, alarmingly absent is the understanding of why he said what he said.

There is a big picture here that has eluded the public's radar screen. Mr. Robertson's verbal gaffe is only a tiny tip of the massive iceberg called "Christian Zionism."

Even if you are not familiar with Middle East politics, you probably can surmise from his statement that this conservative Evangelical leader is ardently pro-Israel in the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the troubled region.

You may be a bit puzzled to find that the most fiercely loyal of the pro-Israel supporters in America are not found in the Jewish community, but among Evangelical Christians especially given the backdrop of their history of anti-Semitism.

Also mystifying may be that the pro-Israeli stance does not follow the usual pattern of the social political agenda promoted by conservative Evangelicals. The notion of "restoring Christian principles" back to America is the driving philosophical force as evident in the politics of "family values", which I certainly sympathize with to a degree with some major caveats, but how and why has the conflict two continents away made its way to the forefront?

The answer lies in Biblical prophecy. To be more specific, it comes from the conservative Evangelical interpretation of Biblical prophecy.

They believe that the critical harbinger to the Second Coming of Jesus is the return of the Jews once scattered around the world. They view the birth of Israel after World War II as the resurrection of ancient Israel, and the fulfillment of end times prophecy.

But according to their reasoning, the prophecy has been only partially fulfilled, since the nation's borders do not match those of ancient Israel because of the presence of the Palestinian population whom they view as "trespassers" who should be subject to expulsion, not peaceful co-existence with the Jews.

As extreme and sacrilegious as it may sound, it is a mainstream position held in the conservative Evangelical community as evident in the Christian Coalition's strong support of Israel and self-identified "Christian Zionists" whose influence has intensified especially since 9/11 in the Bush Administration and Republican Congress.

The Evangelical church that I used to attend organizes regular trips to Israel, not just for pilgrimage, but to rally behind the Israeli side. It finances a "ministry" to provide winter clothes and other goods to Israeli solders positioned in and around the occupied territories, but its silence on the plight of the Palestinians is deafening. They refer to the Israeli Jews as the "chosen people of God" and  the Palestinians "Satan's pawns" and "God's enemies." The church does not belong to a fringe group, but is widely recognized as a mainstream Evangelical congregation.

What it comes down to is the apocalyptic quest to hasten the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

To Mr. Robertson and conservative Evangelicals, Ariel Sharon's move to withdraw from the Gaza Strip amounts to blasphemy which has resulted in the delay of Jesus' coming.

Well, there are many things wrong with this picture, and I don't know where to begin. Let me see if I can spell out a few points before I lose you.

* This particular interpretation of Biblical prophecy is based on a systematic theology known as "dispensationalism." Before John Nelson Darby (1800-1892) came up with this particular movement, nobody before him promoted this brand of Biblical prophecy. Apparently from the first century and to when Darby came up with this idea in the 1800's, nobody was smart enough to figure this thing out.

* The most often used verse to back the pro-Israel political stance is what God said to Abraham roughly five thousand years ago - "I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you."  What God said to Abraham 5,000 years ago somehow applies to the modern state of Israel. That is quite a leap for Christians who pride themselves in the tradition of literal interpretation of Scripture.

* Evangelical Christian political activists lobby heavily the Congress and President Bush to stand with Israel and thus thwart Satan's plan to prevent the second Coming of Christ. How for thousands of years God has managed to conduct his business and fulfill his own prophecies without the generous and kind assistance from the United States Congress and the Bush Administration is beyond me.

Here is a question that I have been seeking an answer for in light of the apocalyptic quest to hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ. Foretold in end times prophecy is a rapid world-wide moral deterioration, but yet conservative Christian political activists fight hard to "restore Christian principles and values" in America. If they were successful, wouldn't a morally righteous America delay the second coming of Jesus?

I gotta go and brace myself for divine retribution now.

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Christian Zionist sites. See for yourself.
* Christians For Israel
* Israel My Beloved
* Stand For Israel
* I Stand with Israel

Articles critical of Christian Zionism
* Mixing prophecy and politics
* Challenging Christian Zionism
* Christian Zionism, Evangelicals and Israel

Technorati tags: Israel, Pat Robertson, Christian Zionism, Biblical Prophecy, Dispensationalism

Subscribing to blogs

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Tired of clicking through the blogroll to see if your friends have newly published entries since your last visits? Are you dreaming of a quick and sneaky way of compiling new blog entries in one and centralized place, so as to not to get caught by your boss spending all day surfing the blogdom?

Despair not. The Best Dog In The World to the rescue offering an invaluable public service using the latest technology called RSS.

Just follow the easy steps below to "subscribe" to your favorite blogs. You can thank me later. Please hold your hugs and kisses especially if you are a guy.

Before we cover the specifics of how to make this dream come true, download and install Firefox. Trust me. It is a far better browser than MS Internet Explorer. Bite me, Bill, you (vitriolic expletives and tirades left to your imagination.)

If you are just too lazy to do that, please, I urge you to join me in the worldwide resistance against the greatest threat to free enterprise since John Rockefeller's diabolical domination of the oil industry.

Now that you have liberated yourself from the tyranny of Internet Explorer, follow the easy steps below.

1. Go visit the blog you wish to "subscribe." Let's use this very blog as an example.

2. Toward the right end of the address bar, you will see an orange icon as shown below. Click on it.



3. A dialogue box will appear as shown below, asking you if you wish to add this as a bookmark. Click Okay.



4. Now when you take the cursor to the bookmark, you will see a submenu automatically populated as bookmarks with the titles of my most recent blog entries. This is how you can see the list of my latest entries on my page without having to visit it.



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