Several Short Posts in One

Maybe I should have posted Saturday, but life was a little too full. So I’ve been saving up, and today’s post is a list of several short items.

• Weddings: Friday, I’m sure you’re aware, was the royal wedding. I wish them well. I hope they will be exemplary. On Saturday we attended another wedding, our next door neighbor and close friend of our daughter Social Sphere (who was maid of honor). The girls have known each other since Social Sphere was six. We were very happy for the couple and wish them great joy together. The pastor who conducted the ceremony said something I liked in his advice to them. He may have been quoting someone else, but it was new to me. He said, “Life is the classroom/ Love is the manual/ and The Lord is the tutor.” This is especially appropriate for a couple about to become math teachers, so they understand classrooms pretty well. I also think a wedding is not just a coming together of the couple; it’s an opportunity for all the various circles of friendship and relations of the two of them to come together and celebrate the combination as a new nuclear family is formed. Good times.

• I read this article on Friday, "Socialism Irreconcilable with Christ's Teachings," and thought it would be worth sharing the link. It shows the dichotomy between tyranny and freedom and combines that with the concept of morality when measuring the worth of the theory of socialism. Sounds like it fits with the Spherical Model. Hope you enjoy reading it.

• Mr. Spherical Model and I finally went to see the movie Atlas Shrugged Part I. He hadn’t realized ahead that it was only Part I, so that was a little less than satisfying. I was speculating on where Part I would end. Overall I was pleased. The non-star cast was adequate and, I thought, well cast for the most part. I think the main point, that it’s wrong for the looters to take the wealth of the producers, was clear. And while it is an explication of a philosophy, it was interesting enough to be a story as well. So, how many parts will it have? Will a second movie complete the story, or will it take three to get through the 1200-page book? We haven’t even seen John Galt yet, except in shadow, so there’s a lot more story to tell. I guess I need to look up when Part II will be coming out.

• Osama Bin Laden is dead. Learned the news late last night. Details were sketchy and mostly erroneous that first hour, but I’m relieved to know it’s true. We don’t dance in the streets over someone’s death, but I think it is appropriate to feel that some justice has been done, that this evil murderer no longer has the ability to plan terrorist assaults against millions of innocent people. That’s worth celebrating. Speculation that he was already dead had floated around for years. Some years ago a friend and I toured the local Pakistani embassy (a converted old house) with a neighbor, a Pakistani immigrant, who worked part-time there. We were introduced to an embassy official there, and among learning what the embassy does, and the usual business that takes place there, I was able to ask whether they thought Osama Bin Laden was in Pakistan, or maybe whether he was already dead. Both the official and my neighbor, without hesitation, said, “Oh, he’s alive.” I wasn’t able to learn why they believed this, or what special knowledge they may have had. But apparently what they knew was true.