Ben Stein interviewed on Faith and Family

Ben Stein interviews on Richard Land's show.
Click here for the mp3.

Expelled

I went to see Ben Stein's Expelled No Intelligence Allowed Friday night. Contrary to the Kansas City Star review (not surprisingly negative and only given one star), the movie does a great job of exposing the dividing wall between those who embrace researching the validity of Intelligent Design (ID) and those who are protecting the failed theory of evolution. There is no doubt that teachers, journalists or those in government positions will loose their jobs if they even mention the idea that ID might have some credence. If you doubt it, try it. This type of censorship attitude is reminiscent of communist East Berlin which imagery is used throughout the documentary.

Ben Stein is not a comedian here. I found him rather solemn, sarcastic of course. He uses funny cleverly placed spots from old movies or cartoons to ridicule or emphasize his numerous interviews. On the ID side: William Dembski, Guillermo Gonzales are just a few among the many scholars. There are those who got fired or shunned for daring to mention "ID" in a positive or even neutral manner. Another blogger mentions a few of those names "Cambridge physicist John Polkinghorne; Oxford mathematician and philosopher John Lennox; journalist Pamela Winnick, who has received hate mail for covering the issue; and biologist Caroline Crocker, who was fired from George Mason University for discussing intelligent design in the classroom." On the pro-Darwin side we find Richard Dawkins and the skeptic Michael Shermer among many others. Their statements are rather telling. Dawkins actually says, design couldn't be from God, but because of its obvious complexity it could be coming from an intelligence from outer space. Hello Houston, come again?!

I truly enjoyed watching the computer generated cell moving about our bodies which the attached clip shows only a small portion of. Some wonder why God hides himself. After watching the complexity of the cell, does he really hide? I always tell Camille and Gabe that God is too big to fit into something as physically small as a body like ours. However we do see God's presence when we look into the complexity of the human cell and that's only the physical. The complexity of the human soul, which I believe leads the process like an orchestra is directed by a maestro, would even be more amazing.

For more information about the movie, you can download the Leaders Guide from the Expelled website.

2008 April Tournament

From April 2008 To...

Regional Taekwondo A Tournament in Kansas City. Camille won third place in eXtreme Martial Arts (XMA) and Fourth place in Forms. We had some audio problems that we'll have resolved next time though I don't believe that affected her place. There were some tough competitors in XMA. It was a lot of fun to watch. I'll include some videos of the other girls competing with Camille.



Gabe won second place in forms and third place in sparring.
Taekwondo provides a way for the kids to set goals and achieve them, moving from one belt to the next.



Tournaments are a way for Camille and Gabe to play the game, just as basketball players practice and play against other teams to see how good they are and improve their own game. After the tournament, Camille and Gabe set the goal to be more flexible and do the split both ways comfortably, so that their kicks would be higher and more controlled.

After the tournament we tried a Red Robin restaurant which has incredible burgers, cooked to your taste (I like mine rare and they were able to do that). Then we went to see Nims' Island at the movies. It was a good show about courage and living your own life, not the life of some person on TV or in People magazine.

From April 2008 To...

Cats

From Cats

We took Camille to see Cats this afternoon. It was quite a production. The cats jumped off the stage and ventured in the first few rows so Camille got to see them real close. She thought Rum Tum Tugger sounded like Elvis and was really cool. There was a bit of a sexual overtone to his demeanor though, but after all he's supposed to be an animal (not that humans don't behave that way). Camille loved the way the cats were doing back-hand springs and flips.

French Breakfast in OP

Andi and I love to have breakfast (when we can, which is not very often) at this French Bakery in Overland Park called Artisan Français. The Patissier is French. It's the best French Bakery in Kansas City. I probably eat way too many pastries when I'm there. We (I) had a croissant, an almond croissant (my favorite), a tordu (the twisted bread with chocolate chips) and a pain au chocolat (a square croissant with a bar of chocolate in the middle). Overall it's a delicious breakfast!

Artisan Français
6759 W. 119th St
Overland Park, KS 66209
913-345-1699
www.artisanfrancais.com