DWPGAH: Driving While Playing Guitar and Harmonica

This guy was on Route 7 yesterday, driving and playing the guitar and the harmonica. But I didn't actually hear any music. There were three Mexicans riding with him, and he had a ladder on top of his car with a suitcase on top of that.

Approaching...

...closer...

...Ok, here he is.

Then, a blurry one for lagniappe.

Salty dogma: Bono gives an explicit confession of being saved by Grace, not Karma

Salty dogma
Bono gives an explicit confession of being saved by Grace, not Karma | by Gene Edward Veith

Is Bono, the lead singer and songwriter for the rock group U2, a Christian? He says he is and writes about Christianity in his lyrics. Yet many people question whether Bono is "really" a Christian, due to his notoriously bad language, liberal politics, and rock star antics (though he has been faithfully married for 23 years). But in a new book of interviews, Bono in Conversation by Michka Assayas, Bono, though using some salty language, makes an explicit confession of faith.

The interviewer, Mr. Assayas, begins by asking Bono, Doesn't he think "appalling things" happen when people become religious? Bono counters, "It's a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the Universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma."

The interviewer asks, What's that? "At the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one," explains Bono. "And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that. . . . Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff."

The interviewer asks, Like what? "That's between me and God. But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge," says Bono. "It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity."

Then the interviewer marvels, "The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that."

"The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death," replies Bono. "It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven."

The interviewer marvels some more: "That's a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it's close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has His rank among the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that farfetched?"

Bono comes back, "Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says, No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: 'I'm the Messiah.' I'm saying: 'I am God incarnate.' . . . So what you're left with is either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. . . . The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me that's farfetched."

What is most interesting in this exchange is the reaction of the interviewer, to whom Bono is, in effect, witnessing. This hip rock journalist starts by scorning what he thinks is Christianity. But it is as if he had never heard of grace, the atonement, the deity of Christ, the gospel. And he probably hadn't. But when he hears what Christianity is actually all about, he is amazed.

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Copyright © 2005 WORLD Magazine
August 6, 2005, Vol. 20, No. 30

Backstreet Boys are bad

From the Chicago Tribune: Headline: "Backstreet Boys are bad imitators." This, apparently, is news.

Clever Blog

I know, blogging about blogs is stupid, but: I Had A Thought

Bizarre Blog

News, from India, in limerick form: news in limerick

Mainstream Nudity

That's two days in a row now that the Washington, D.C. newspapers have had a picture of a naked child on the front page.

Quandry

Why is making love fun, but making fun is not love?

Good Start for the Bears Pre-Season

The Bears pulled one out in the fourth quarter to start the season with a win. Ok, so it was the pre-season. It still feels good. Need something to root for since watching the Cubs has been like dining on crap, having lost six in a row. I guess I could be a White Sox fan for the rest of the season. My back-up team, the Nationals, are little better than the Cubs; they're more like dining on vomit.

A Critic Takes On the Logic of Female Orgasm - New York Times: Here's an interesting article about a book analyzing the thoeritical evolutionary explanations of the female orgasm. The author of the book seems to debunk most of the explanations. Evolution seems to create more problems than it solves.

Now we know evolutionists think about after they've had sex. You could almost picture one, taking a drag on a cigarette, contemplating how and why an evolutionary process could be so much fun.

"Oh, my gosh, they're talking about my burrito."

School Mistakes Huge Burrito for a Weapon

Eight months until Christmas!

Song of the Week:
Kings of Leon, Milk:

Quick Quote:

She saw my comb over, her hourglass body
she has problems with drinking milk
and being school tardy
She'll loan you her toothbrush
she'll bartend your party

Funny article on Micro$oft Word and its grammar check "feature": A Word to the unwise -- program's grammar check isn't so smart

9 months until Christmas!

If I tried to make a diamond, it would probably end up being a carbon copy.

Would you still be willing to be their means if you really knew what their end was?

Hurricane Isabel: That was rather disappointing. Here I am back at work with the power on. I even made it in record time because I was able to do between 80 and 85 on the beltway (I was probably pushing 90 a couple of times). There were windy times and rainy times last night, but nothing frightening. Now it's gone.

No more legal stuff here folks. Legal stuff will now be over on Strict Constructionist.

Here they go again. The Padilla case is something to watch.

Here is Beaumont. In spite of the snowstorm, we finished our amicus brief in Lawrence v. Texas, 02-102. That brief is here.