Jonathan's blog

Week 7 has been another pitiful showing for me. I would have been competitive with a decent quarterback and defense...but with Leftwich and the Steelers defense, I couldn't compete with the great Peyton Manning. I would have been much better off if I had kept Kitna instead of cutting him. My other quarterback (Leinart) was even worse than Leftwich. I picked up Roethlisberger and will consider going with him assuming he wasn't knocked completely silly by the Falcons today. I'm also wishing I had kept the Denver defense instead of cutting them to open up another roster spot at the beginning of the season.

From an article of the same title on BBCNews.com:

A Japanese woman in her 50s gave birth to her own grandchild last year, using an egg from her daughter and sperm from her son-in-law, a doctor has revealed. It was the first time a woman has acted as a surrogate mother for her daughter in Japan, local media reported. The case is set to stir debate in Japan where surrogate births are opposed by the government and a key medical group. Japan's justice ministry also views the woman who gives birth as a child's mother - not the biological mother… She had agreed to in vitro fertilisation and to act as a surrogate mother because her daughter had had her uterus removed due to cancer and was therefore unable to bear children. Both the mother and child were reported to be in good health… Surrogate births involve removing an egg to be fertilised and then implanting it in another woman who carries the baby to birth.

Interesting things are happening on the faith/politics front, and the news isn't good for the Republicans. David Kuo is making the rounds (I've seen him on The Colbert Report and Real Time with Bill Maher) promoting his book and its thesis that Christians are disrepected and used by some in the White House. Apparently, some Christians also think that the Republican tent is too big if it is big enough to include gay conservatives ("Some Seek 'Pink Purge' in the GOP", LA Times). Global warming is also coming into the mix. From an article of the same title by Stephanie Simon in the LA Times:

Democratic strategists are joining forces with conservative evangelicals to promote a faith-based campaign on global warming, in an improbable alliance that could boost Democratic hopes of taking control of Congress. At a news conference today, the president of the Christian Coalition and a board member of the National Assn. of Evangelicals - both groups closely tied to the religious right - will announce Call to Action, an effort to make global warming a front-and-center issue over the next three weeks for Christians in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado and several other states with pitched election campaigns. Through ads on Christian radio, sermons from the pulpit, Bible studies, house parties and a documentary film, "The Great Warming," Christians will be urged to view protecting the environment as a religious and moral issue every bit as urgent as opposing abortion and same-sex marriage. "We're not abandoning our previous positions: We're still pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-morality. But one or two issues can't adequately express the Gospel," said the Rev. Joel Hunter, new president of the Christian Coalition of America. Hunter is one of scores of evangelical leaders who have become convinced - often reluctantly, after months of study - that the planet is facing a crisis and that God expects Christians to act, in part by electing committed environmentalists to office. "I'm trying to make Christians ... look at candidates in a broader way, and look at individuals, not just parties," he said... "The Great Warming" is heavy on science, but it also lays out the biblical case for acting on global warming, starting with God's command to Adam to be a good steward of the Earth. Faith leaders increasingly make a moral argument as well, saying that floods, hurricanes and other effects of global warming will disproportionately affect the poor - whom Christ commanded his followers to help. In the long run, evangelicals leading the Call to Action say they hope, and expect, more Republicans to take up global warming as a priority cause. "Evangelicals are in the best position to change the GOP's mind on this - a better position than any group in America, other than big business," said Cizik, the vice president of governmental affairs for the National Assn. of Evangelicals, which represents 30 million Christians. But evangelicals are not united on the issue. Dissent is so pointed that Cizik did not sign his name to the Call to Action on global warming for fear of embroiling his group in controversy. A small minority of Christians believes that environmental degradation and natural disaster may be a sign of the Second Coming. Many others hold that science has not proved global warming is a crisis - or that God simply puts a higher priority on abortion and same-sex marriage.

Some links:

• The Great Warming - Call To Action
• its predecessor the Evangelical Climate Initiative
• article about Scott Freeman, signatory of the ECI from the coC

This afternoon the boys watched The Wild (2006, G, Screen It! Review) for movie night. It was OK I guess but had way too much violence and conflict and killer wildebeests. I never would have guessed that's how you spell wildebeest. I give it 2 out of 5.

While I was in the barber shop this afternoon, I listened to the greatest comeback in NCAA history. From an AP article titled "Spartans Complete Greatest Comeback Ever" by Rick Gano on abcnews.com:

Trailing 38-3 in the third quarter, Michigan State rallied Saturday for a 41-38 victory over Northwestern as the Spartans ended a four-game losing streak in dramatic fashion and momentarily took the heat off coach John L. Smith... Michigan State (4-4, 1-3) got back in game when Ashton Henderson returned a blocked punt for a TD early in the fourth, and the Spartans won it when Brett Swenson kicked a 28-yard field goal with 13 seconds left following a key interception by Travis Key. Smith, who's been under heavy criticism, took no questions in a postgame news conference. He pointed to his staff and especially his players. "The ones who really deserve the credit are those guys," Smith said. "They played the game, they believed in each other. They continued to fight, they pulled together and deserved everything they got today." Until this riveting game, the biggest comeback in Division I-A was 31 points when Maryland beat Miami 42-40 on Nov. 10, 1984, and when Ohio State defeated Minnesota 41-37 on Oct. 28, 1989.

We watched Tennessee make a much smaller comeback to beat Alabama ("Trailing for 56-plus minutes, Vols upend Bama on late Foster TD") and let the boys stay up a little late to watch some of the Tigers game.