Jeff's Lunchbreak

For Christmas, here's a poem my great uncle wrote and sent to a few of us last year. In case you're wondering on the choice of aircraft in the poem, he was writing it for all the guys based out of the same airfield as he is. If you want the full effect, you can read a scan of the original. (BTW, if you like the picture for this entry, click on it and support the AOPA's Air Safety Foundation by buying a Christmas card with that as the front, or pick one of their many other aviation themed cards.)

A Plane Christmas Greeting
by Bud Eichel

T'was the night before Xmas,
At Finleyville "Airdrome".
Not a creature was stirring,
Human, elf, or gnome.

All Aircraft secured,
In their Hangar "stalls".
The Xmas shoppers,
Home from the Malls.

From atop the Hangar,
The wind-sock hung low.
And bathed in moon-light,
The runway was aglow.

The rest of the field,
Was snowy and white.
This flyer's home-base,
Was a beautiful sight.

Then quick as a wink,
Dark shadows appeared.
Following moon-beams,
As they all neared.

Big ones and small,
These shadows all grew.
Twisting and turning
As by me they flew.

They made a "formation",
The shape of a "V".
Now as they pass,
They are plain to see.

Stearmans and Wacos,
A Stinson went by.
T-Crafts and Luscombes,
All on the fly!

Home-builts, a Mooney,
A new Carter-copter.
A Cessna amphibian,
An L-2 Grasshopper.

PT's and BT's,
From World War Two.
And old-style craft,
Like the Wright Bros. flew.

A "Cub" and a Grumman,
A sleek Monocoupe.
Can you believe this?
A pretty, '47 Ercoupe!

Aeroncas and Cessnas,
A Beech Musketeer.
Of all these Planes,
Not one, could I hear!

Are they "ghosts" of the past?
Am I tired and weary?
Wait, just a minute,
I have a theory!

That Angels exist,
I have no doubt.
And on Christmas Eve,
I'm sure they're about.

Did they take the form,
Of things that I love?
Is this my "gift",
From Heaven above?

If this was a gift,
I'd sure like to share.
Merry Christmas, to All,
I wish you were there!

Happy Holiday's, and Happy Landing's, to all my Pilot friends, & families.

No matter how you celebrate this time of year (or even if you don't celebrate at all), I still hope you have a good time.

Posted by Jeff on A, Dec 22 | Permalink | Comments (44) | TrackBacks (0)

We're well into the War on Christmas, with less than a week left to try to destroy the holiday this year. I've already written my post this year complaining about the Salvation Army, and I've written in years past about the whole War on Christmas, so there's not much for me to add this year. So, I think I'm just going to post a bunch of links.

But first, I think I'm going to make a tradition of something I did last year, and embed a YouTube video of Tim Minchin's 'White Whine in the Sun'.

My previous War on Christmas posts:

• War on Christmas (probably the most informative of all these links)
• Another Attack in the War on Christmas
• Yes, Virginia, There Are Liars
• The Salvation Army - To Give, or Not to Give?
• War on Christmas, 2010 (not much to this one)

The Digital Cuttlefish has quite a few Christmas poems. At the bottom of the first link below, he's provided a list of everything he posted this year. So, I'll just link to that one, plus a poem he wrote last year that I really like.

• (The War On) The War On The War On The War On Christmas
• The Night Before (The War On) Christmas

And that's it for my War on Christmas this year.

Added 2011-12-19 - Okay, one more thing. Here's a spoof on the Charlie Brown Christmas special that I couldn't resist posting (from Calamities of Nature). Just click on the image to see it full size.

Posted by Jeff on A, Dec 19 | Permalink | Comments (41) | TrackBacks (0)

108 years ago today, the Wright brothers became the first humans to fulfill the dream of flight. I've written about this before, and rather than repeat myself, I'll just link to those previous entries.

• Wright Brother's Day, 2007
• Flying

So happy Wright Brothers Day. And find a little wonder in the fact that you can go out and do something that our ancestors could only dream about for thousands and thousands of years.

Posted by Jeff on A, Dec 17 | Permalink | Comments (41) | TrackBacks (0)

I just so happened to watch the Denver Chicago game over the weekend (I'm not a huge sports fan, so that's pretty rare), and I caught the after the game sideline interview with the Broncos quarterback, Tim Tebow. He started off by acknowledging his "Lord and Savior Jesus Christ", and apparently, he's well know for his strong faith.

Athletes thanking Jesus is nothing new. I always thought it was a bit odd to think that God would favor one team's prayers over another's, or that God would be a Broncos fan, but I'd gotten used to it. But, a blog website I read on a regular basis, Why Evolution Is True, also just so happened to discuss Tebow's religiosity, and one of the comments on that site presented something novel.

If you really believe there is a powerful supernatural agent that can actually affect the outcome of a football game in your favor, how the heck is this not cheating? If a powerful psychic was steering the ball around from the sidelines, this is obviously an unfair advantage. Once again, God gets a special exemption.

I'd never looked at it that way before. Anyway, I don't have any deep commentary. I just thought it was funny and I wanted to share.

Posted by Jeff on A, Dec 13 | Permalink | Comments (41) | TrackBacks (0)

It's that time of year when you can't go shopping without hearing the familiar ringing of bells being rung by the person standing next to the hanging red kettle, wishing you a Merry Christmas, grateful for any change you might have. I'd always given to the Salvation Army, usually more than just a bit of spare change, but now that I've begun paying attention to some of the criticisms of the organization, I wonder whether I want to support them.

First things first, the Salvation Army does a lot of good. Their thrift stores are well known, as well as their help to the needy. Perhaps slightly less well known are their disaster relief, rehabilitation centers, and homeless shelters, as well as a few programs I'm sure I've forgotten. And let me also dispel a prominent rumor. The bell ringers don't take a cut from the red kettle (see Snopes).

But, they're not without controversy. Keep in mind, the Salvation isn't just a charity. They're a church. They take positions on issues that would otherwise have nothing to do with their charity work. Take a look at this page on their site:

Salvation Army USA - Position Statements

They have positions on:

• Abortion
• Alcohol and Drugs
• Economic Justice
• Euthanasia
• Gambling
• Homosexuality
• Human Equality
• Human Trafficking
• Marriage
• Pornography
• Religious Persecution
• Suicide

Their positions are exactly what you'd expect from the religious right. For example, here's part of what they have to say about gambling.

The Salvation Army believes that gambling engages its participants and promoters in an exercise of greed contrary to biblical moral teaching. Gambling at best wastes personal resources, and at worst afflicts millions through a lifestyle of compulsive behaviors and destructive influences.

And just to show what they consider so bad:

Some examples of gambling include casino games, state lotteries, and betting on sports.

Moving on to something that's more of an active political discussion right now, here's part of their statement on homosexuality.

Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex. The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage.

And here's the beginning of their statement on marriage.

The Salvation Army affirms the New Testament standard of marriage, which is the loving union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others. Marriage is the first institution ordained by God (Genesis 2:24), and His Word establishes its significance (Matthew 19:4-6).

Now, if they just had position statements, as bad as they are, that would be one thing. But the Salvation Army actively works to support their positions. The most famous example from this country was when New York City passed the Equal Benefits Bill, requiring all organizations receiving public funds to provide the same benefits to "domestic partners" as they do to spouses. The Salvation Army threatened to quit receiving public funding rather than abide by the law, which would have in effect shut down the majority of their operations in the city.

Then, there are numerous local incidents - none which are officially supported by Salvation Army headquarters, but which are still rather widespread. Someone else has already covered this pretty well, so here's a link to their article on the issue:

ARISE - Do not donate to the Salvation Army

Here's just a sampling of some of those local incidents:

• Refusing to help a gay homeless couple
• Disposing of Harry Potter and Twilight toys because they were against Christian principles
• Destroying books they disagree with
• Turning away a transgender woman who subsequently died from the cold
• Turning away children of illegal immigrants

Aside from how their positions affect their own charitable donations, here's an example of them trying to 'steal' money from another charity. When H. Guy Di Stefano died, he wanted his estate to be split evenly between 8 charities. One of them, Greenpeace International, was absorbed by the Greenpeace Fund between the writing of the will and Di Stefano's death. The money that was to go to Greenpeace International was going to go to the Greenpeace Fund, and none of the other charities had a problem with that, except for the Salvation Army. They argued that because it wasn't the same charity named in the will, that the money should be split evenly between the 7 remaining charities. An agreement was reached, and The Army's lawsuit was dropped.

More Info:
Seattle Times - Salvation Army settles its dispute over Issaquah man's $33 million bequest

And then, there's their cult like treatment of officers in their church. They can only marry other officers in the church. And it's not an empty threat. A few years ago, they did terminate an officer when he became engaged to someone from outside the organization.

More Info:
Christian Post - Salvation Army Leader to Lose Job for Violating Marriage Policy

So, what's a person to do? I think it's up to the person and how they're realistically going to respond. It's not as if the Salvation Army is the only game in town. There are plenty of worthwhile charities that don't have such horrible positions. My wife and I already donate to several charities, but I've decided to donate just a little more to make up for what I used to put into the red kettles.

But, I do think the Salvation Army does much more good than harm. So, if the only way you would donate would be to drop your change into one of their kettles, then don't hold back! Most of your money will go to helping people, and it's better than doing nothing at all. So in that case, go ahead and give the Salvation Army your spare change.

Posted by Jeff on A, Dec 7 | Permalink | Comments (41) | TrackBacks (0)

I try to do this Top 10 update every month, but I just completely forgot to do it a month ago. So, the Top 10 list for this entry is actually two Top 10 lists, one for October, and one for November.

As far as overall traffic, the site just keeps on plugging along about the same. Based on average per day (since some months have more days than others), October had a slight dip in traffic, but November had a slight increase to above what it had been in September.

The top 3 seems pretty solidifed for now. I was a bit dissapointed to see the Ray Comfort entry dip off the Top 10 in November, but I was happy to see the chicken enchilada page make it back in.

Anyway, here are the 10 most popular pages from this site for October 2011.

1. Autogyro History & Theory
2. Blog - A Skeptical Look at MBT Shoes
3. Blog - Origin of Arabic Numerals - Was It Really for Counting Angles?
4. Blog - Running AutoCAD R14 in XP Pro 64
5. Factoids Debunked & Verified
6. Blog - Ray Comfort - Still Ignorant on Evolution
7. Blog - Letter to Pharmacy about MBT Shoes
8. Blog - My Favorite Airplanes
9. Factoids Debunked & Verified, Part II
10. Programming

And here are the pages from November 2011.

1. Autogyro History & Theory
2. Blog - A Skeptical Look at MBT Shoes
3. Blog - Origin of Arabic Numerals - Was It Really for Counting Angles?
4. Blog - Running AutoCAD R14 in XP Pro 64
5. Factoids Debunked & Verified
6. Blog - Letter to Pharmacy about MBT Shoes
7. Factoids Debunked & Verified, Part II
8. Blog - Creation Museum/2nd Law of Thermodynamics
9. Recipe for 3 Cheese Chicken Enchiladas with Cream Cheese Sauce
10. Programming

Posted by Jeff on A, Dec 2 | Permalink | Comments (41) | TrackBacks (0)