22 Dec
It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi. I have been a subscriber to his newsletter since it it first started up, and have always relied on his perspective on things theological. I haven’t always agreed with him, of course, but I used his views as a kind of barometer of Conservative Adventist sentiment.
Dr. Bacchiocchi had been battling liver cancer, and on December 11th was taken to the emergency room because of internal bleeding. His family was kind enough to send updates to the newsletter mailing list throughout the ordeal. On the 18th the family was happy to report Dr. Bacchiocchi was sent home from the hospital, weak but out of the woods, so they thought.
Dr. Bacchiocchi was not quite as recovered as everyone had hopped, unfortunately. In the latest message from his family, they report his death as follows:
Shortly after midnight on Saturday, December 20, Samuele Bacchiocchi breathed his last breath. During his last breaths, he was surrounded by his three children and wife of 47 years (today would have been his 47th wedding anniversary), and we read together 2 Timothy 4:6-8: “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” This quote sums up the life of a man who sacrificed practically all of his time and energy to help others understand the Bible more fully, even up to end as he gave his last seminar in England the Sabbath before being taken to the emergency room.
– From the newsletter dated Sunday, December 21, 2008
My prayers are with the Bacchiocchi family as they deal with this loss. The Adventist community has been truly blessed to have such an internationally respected theologian and historian. I am honored I have been able to correspond with Dr. Bacchiocchi personally on issues of Homosexuality in the Adventist church… despite our differing opinions of the biblical research available on the matter.
May Christ watch over his slumber, and may he rest in peace until that day the trumpet sounds call him forth from the grave to join his Lord in the sky.
Other links:
http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/12/21/passing_dr_bacchiocchi%E2%80%8F
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuele_Bacchiocchi
11 Dec
I updated to the latest version of WordPress (2.7). The new admin dashboard took me by surprise 
It took a moment to reorient myself, but I do like this layout better than the previous versions.
I also took the opportunity to change my site’s theme. I had that last one for about 5 years!! A change was necessary. I hope you all like the new theme.
I am now taking advantage of WP Widgets; something they had introduced a long time ago. That old theme I was using was made back before WP widgets were around, so this is the first time I’ve used them. They do make it easy to quickly change the sidebar layout, so that’s a plus.
I had some issues with the Now Reading plugin though: the permalinks got corrupted somehow so I had to reset those, and when looking at book details the sidebar snapped to the bottom of the book information, rather than staying to the side. That was a bit of a head-scratcher, but I managed to get it all sorted: in the plugin’s template directory (/wp-content/plugins/now-reading/templates) I had to edit all the files to delete the get_sidebar() call at the bottom. The sidebar is still generated by the theme, so this secondary call for it was overriding the default location. FUN! 
On the dashboard of this new version of WP there is a nice “quick post” box. There are two things that will keep me from ever using it:
- It has a field for ‘Tags’ but not one for ‘Categories’. When I first started using WP there was no tags field. I ended up using Categories the way tags are supposed to be used. Consequently, I have a great number of Categories, and no tags whatsoever. Since there is no place on that quick entry form to add Categories, I can’t (read “wont”) use it.
- No area for Excerpts. Granted, the only real reason I use the Excerpt field is because I use a Notification plugin that passes the excerpt to people in an email. If i don’t use an excerpt it will try to email out the whole post. That’s a bit obnoxious I think, which is why I utilize the Excerpt field. Since there is no Excerpt field on that quick entry form, I can’t (again.. read “wont”) use it.
So…. there ya go. I’ve updated, redecorated, and tweaked settings here and there. As always, please let me know if something dosn’t work the way is should/used to.
19 Nov
For no particular reason AT ALL, I have taken a moment to update the look and feel of my Wishlist listing here on my website. Amazon has an awesome widget thingy that shows the recent additions to your wishlist. I have a few (6 at the moment) different wishlists on Amazon so I thought this was a great way to … visualize things
Anywho.. if you are so inclined, the link is in the top menu bar of the site here. Or, you can just CLICK THIS 
29 Sep
Anyone who has known me for any length of time has probably heard me rant about how unfair the Electoral College is, and how any system that allows for a President to be elected when they lose the popular vote is a system not worth using. Well… today is your day to gloat …. or to pass out from shock.
I still believe it is wrong for someone to “win” an election when they have lost the popular vote. I believe that is a flaw in the system, but one that could be fixed if congress would just take the time to do it. I suppose since it has only happened 4 times (as of today.. I’ll be watching this year’s election *quite* closely) they must not think it a problem worthy of their attention. In my opinion, it should never have happened at all. But I digress…
Yes, there are problems with the system, but I have come to make peace with it, as flawed as it is. It is NOT because I have switched to a Jeffersonian mindset; i do not think people are too stupid or uninformed to be able to vote for the president directly. However, I do now see that the Electoral College system ensures an even distribution of power between the states. In the same way the House of Representatives strives to ensure equal voice for the citizenry of the country, so too does the Electoral College strive to ensure equal weight for the votes of that citizenry.
It is quite possible that this equalization has been a strong factor in how our country has survived for so long without imploding. A representative democracy is not an easy thing to maintain, yet we;ve managed to keep it running. I’m beginning to think that some of these things, which I have been so verbally against for so many years, have actually been part of the glue that has held this country together.
May Columbia and Uncle Sam forgive my impudence.
That said… I still have one issue: The Electors themselves. Quite honestly, they seem superfluous to me. Many (but not all) states have created laws that say the Electors are required to cast their votes in line with the popular votes of the state. Those state lacking such laws have Electors who are mealy “pledged” to vote a certain way; they are legally free to vote however they wish. With more and more states passing laws to remove the “pledged” part of the Electoral College, and even some states moving from an all-or-nothing division of Electoral Votes to a congressional district division of Electoral Votes, it seems odd to me that we still have physical Electors… people who simply go to a meeting and hand in the states votes. It seems to me that we should be able to cut out the middle man. Thy have already been stripped of independant thought in many states, so why not get rid of them completely?
The states collect popular votes and divide up the Electoral Votes however they wish, and then simply report to the Federal Government on how their Electoral Votes have been cast. Simple. Done, and Done. Why do we even bother with the physical Elector anymore?
Anyway… there you go: I’m okay with the Electoral College now. I see the underlying benefit it has on our government and in how it helps ensure political stability across so many different states. All we have to do is get rid of the superfluous physical Elector, and fix the holes that allow someone to lose the popular vote yet still win the election, and you’ll never hear me complain about it again 
10 Sep
Of course, you do realize… now that I’m actually finished with school, the very next day WOULD be the day they turn on the Hadron Collider and destroy the world. It was inevitable. If you notice (not sure when it will change, so it may not be the case by the time you read this) the International Earth-Destruction Advisory Board changed their alert from “Green” (Earth is A-Okay) to “Red” (/demoman, ka-boOOOOooom), with the following alert:
It is our duty to inform you that as of 7:35:05am UTC on September 10, 2008, the Earth has been destroyed.
Yeah… I guess you can blame me. I think I did actually say at one point, it would be the end of the world before I finished school.. heh.. sorry.
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