Jonathan's blog

Via the August 4-11 issue of The Week, from an AP article of the same title by by Beth Rucker:

A gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidate felt so strongly about giving voters a "None of the Above" choice that he made it his middle name. Now, David "None of the Above" Gatchell is challenging the State Election Commission in court to get his middle name on the Nov. 7 ballot. Gatchell, a software developer from Franklin, ran as an independent in the 2002 governor's race on the platform that Tennessee election ballots should include a "None of the Above" choice for voters who don't care for any of the candidates. The issue was so important to him that he decided to change his middle name in August from Leroy to None of the Above... Tennessee election officials approved his petition to be on the ballot as an independent in both races, but in April the State Election Commission voted 5-0 to exclude his middle name from the ballot. A state law passed after Byron (Low Tax) Looper ran for state Senate in 1998 says if four or more members of the election commission vote that a candidate's name or part of the name is confusing or misleading, they may either omit the confusing or misleading portion of the name or require further information about the candidate be included on the ballot. Looper, who had his legal name changed to include (Low Tax), is now in prison for murdering his opponent, Sen. Tommy Burks on Oct. 19, 1998. Gatchell is suing the election commission to have None of the Above included on the ballot.

Another AP story by Erik Schelzig reported:

A man running for governor and the U.S. Senate does not have the right to use his middle name, "None of the Above," on the November ballot, a court ruled Friday... Gatchell, who changed his middle name from Leroy, said he planned to appeal. He argues that a number of state gubernatorial candidates - such as Walt "Combat" Ward and Carl "Twofeathers" Whitaker - have been allowed to include their nicknames on ballots, and that his middle name has been widely reported by news media and is known across the Internet.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will give $500 million over five years to the United Nations' Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (for example, see an article in the Toronto Star). In contrast, prominent evangelical James Dobson (among others) is erecting roadblocks in the path of the Global Fund because it relies on condoms rather than abstinence and faithfulness as the most pragmatic means to limit the spread of AIDS. Way to let your light shine, James! From a recent article in The Onion titled "U.S. Dedicates $64 Billion To Undermining Gates Foundation Efforts":

The Bush Administration unveiled a new $64 billion spending package Monday for a joint CIA-Pentagon program aimed at neutralizing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's global humanitarian network. "The fight against Gates will not be easy, will not be quick, and will not be without enormous cost," said Director Of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte of the new program, which calls for the creation of a new $20 billion counter-philanthropy unit aimed at punishing those countries that accept or use, directly or indirectly, any financial support from the Gates Foundation... "Our enemies want to eliminate disease in the Third World, which is exactly why we're creating a $900 million pro-AIDS campaign that makes the deadly disease available to millions of uneducated poor people," said CIA Africa specialist Alberto O'Hara, who briefed the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee Monday. "We're also considering an $800 million food-interception initiative."

A quote on sectarianism by Robert Henry Boll (from Clarke's blog):

It has long seemed to the writer that many if not most doctrinal differences are caused by a partial apprehension of the truth, rather than from a wilful desire to depart from God's word. A man perceives some special point of the truth, and loyally contends for that. If then he closes his mind to further teaching, or even tries to nullify the Scriptures that seem to conflict with his limited view, he becomes a sectarian. But if he accepts all that God says, and seeks to take hold of all in growing apprehension, he realizes to that extent the privilege and doctrinal position of a simple Christian. This is a distinctive mark. -R.H. Boll, The Kingdom of God.

Via Digg, from a press release of the same title:

Recently, the world's most visited Christian website, ChristiaNet.com, conducted a survey asking site visitors eleven questions about their personal sexual conduct... ...there were one thousand responses to the poll conducted by ChristiaNet.com. ChristiaNet.com partnered with Second Glance Ministries in evaluating the poll responses... "The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography," said Clay Jones, founder and President of Second Glance Ministries whose ministry objectives include providing people with information which will enable them to fully understand the impact of today's societal issues. 60% of the women who answered the survey admitted to having significant struggles with lust; 40% admitted to being involved in sexual sin in the past year; and 20% of the church-going female participants struggle with looking at pornography on an ongoing basis.

Today we joined some friends at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. It's definitely an interesting crowd that you meet at a renaissance festival. It had been raining most of the day, so we also met quite a bit of mud. Why the the Ren. Fest.? Well the boys are all about knights and battles, they both recently filled up their good behavior charts so this made a good reward, and we were celebrating the rite of passage of Elliot starting kindergarten next Wednesday. The jousting was the most anticipated attraction. The kids ended up being most interested in the various games and the cheap plastic golden coins that you got as a reward for the games you paid to play.

Here is a bit of jousting footage: