The Burr in the Burgh

Announcing a new residence for my blog. The Burr in the Burgh will now have this address:

www.burrintheburgh.com

Please update your listings.

Time to compare web browsers. Do any of you web savvy browser mavens have insights into the new browser "Google Chrome?" Is it worth investigating?

I prefer Firefox over everything I've tried because it's just super customizable and functional for me. Some webpages only work properly when viewed on IE, so I do keep that one around basically put I have to. I tried Safari but didn't like it. Opera is great because it is super fast. I've even used Flock which is very cool for social networking. Now what about Chrome?

My wife's latest children's book is Gobble-Gobble Crash: A Barnyard Counting Bash published by Dutton. Unlike most of Julie's books which can be purchased from CPH, this one is not religious.

Her latest book is also one of her earliest books. I remember the day she wrote it in our backyard in Pittsburgh about eight or nine years ago. For those of you who aspire to publish, patience is your friend.

Recently, I read that the Roman Catholic Church will soon be revising the wording of bits of their liturgy. The discussion then ensued about whether liturgical language should be lofty or more colloquial.

I noticed from the examples I read online that a number of the "updates" actually bring the new Roman mass closer to our Lutheran worship texts. So I asked our seminary Dean of Chapel, the Rev. Dr. Paul Grime, to comment. Prior to coming to teach at the seminary a year ago, he was the chief architect of our synod's newest hymnal.

His comments are found on our seminary blog here.

John McCain has never been my favorite Republican. I haven't always agreed with him on every issue. I'm not a hard right-winger or anything. I really don't like Rush Limbaugh (oooooooh). I am definitely no Libertine, uh, I mean Libertarian.

I believe in fiscal responsibility, but I am not voting primarily on the economy. As I understand it, human governments are instituted by God primarily to protect us. One of the few real reasons we need a federal government is to raise and command armed forces.

That's how God protects us on a national scale. The armed forces. In a more personal sense, God protects us through legislature, courts and law enforcement.

And here is where the rubber hits the road for me. If you and I cannot agree on the definition of "human being," we've got problems. How can a man deny that a human zygote or a fetus deserves to be protected? Even a mangy dog will protect his pregnant bitch. Even a goose will become aggressive if you approach her eggs. In other words, denying the humanity of an unborn child is contrary to natural law. And everyone knows it.

A leader who will not agree that it is his/her divine calling to defend every person in his realm, the aged, the ill, and in utero is both self-deluded and dangerous.

What is a human being? If you don't know or are not sure, then you are not qualified to govern.

I believe that John McCain and Sarah Palin know what a human being is. And they know it would be their responsibility to protect all Americans.