Webmonkey Wanted - Upgrading MT?

I'm hoping to get back into blogging (yeah, again. . . heh.) For Christmas this year, the Duchess and I are going to upgrade our Moveable Type and get some decent spam protection going. Neither of us is much with the programming, though. We're hoping to hire someone to fix things up for us.

Any tech savvy types out there interested in a quick job? Email me at wodehousian @ gmail.com if so. . . Thanks!

Where I've been. . .

I really have no idea if I'm 'back', but I had a weird urge to blog tonight. . . It's been awhile.

To summarize the past year, I'll just say that life is very, very good. If I could design a life for myself from scratch, it would look like this.

This summer I'll finish up the course work for my MA in American History, and complete my thesis in the fall. So far, all the planets are aligning for me to get into a top-notch doctoral program. This is even more of a necessity in history than in other fields -- history is an incredibly Darwinian field, with a scary doctorate:job ratio.

My subcategory is transnational immigration history, with a focus on Ukrainian and Russian immigrants during WWII. I'll write more on it later, but it's a tremendous, complicated story that hasn't really been told before.

When not studying, I'm homeschooling my boys these days. On the plate this year are early American history, math, earth science, language arts (Veritas Press), French, storytime, Bible and catechism, and typing. Homeschooling is one of those rare things in life that has turned out as great as I'd hoped. . . And I love the freedom of it. A woodcut from the Reformation during Bible time led to a three-hour, non-stop talk that ranged from the causes of the Wars of Religion through the space program. Kids are fun.

Anyway, no idea if I'm back. But I'm here for now. The real question, after all these months, is if anyone else is.

Checking in. . .

Hi all. . .

Just finishing up an incredible semester of Grad School. I -love- my classes. Another few days and I'll have time to lay out some of the research I've been doing.

Miss y'all. :)

Back in One Week!

Don't send out a search party, I'm still here. The past couple of weeks have just held more than their normal share of zaniness. Adding extra zane were the holidays, a visitor from Ukraine, the founding of a small business, and lots of mad prepping for the start of grad school. From my reading assignments, my Uni seems to have about the same proportion of 'former' Communists as the bus drivers in Kiev. I need to be prepared. . . Class starts in 12 hours. :-)

Anyway, thanks for bearing with me, as you apparently are if you're reading this. Another week, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well. And I'll stop typing rambling, schizophrenic sentences like these.

Love always,
Disco

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

"Made Bishop of Agagni by Pope Formosus, you became Pope yourself in 896 by putting your immediate predecessor, Boniface VI, to death. Your reign lasted all of fourteen months. However, you firmly assured your place in history by putting the rotting corpse of the aforementioned Formosus on trial in the splendidly named Synod Horrenda. Naturally, Formosus was clad in full papal vestments. Having dug up the stinking remains once already, you proceeded to have them found guilty, reburied, re-exhumed, relieved of the three fingers of the right hand used in consecrations and finally thrown into the Tiber. All ordinations performed by the luckless Formosus were annulled. After this delightful display of gratitude, you were promptly strangled, paving the way for an increasingly short-lived series of successors and the reinstatement, dereinstatement and rereinstatement of Formosus' Papal deeds."

Should this worry me?

Blogging Slowdown

Things are a bit more hectic in my "life" these days, so I'm cutting back to posting every other day rather than daily-daily. So if you see a few less posts up, this isn't another prelude to hiatus. I'm not sure Le Sabot would survive another near-death experience. :)

Nothing inspiring. . .

I don't have anything worthwhile to say today. Rather than waste your time with filler, I'll just say check back manana for lots of bloggy goodness. In the meantime, here are two really solid sites I recommend:

The Politics of CP and Gates of Vienna. Both are doing real, meaningful blogging and are worthy of a look.

Open Source Intel

Muslim Teachers College

Government Investigation of Jamaat ul-Fuqra

Jamaat ul-Fuqra in Virginia Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Jihad and the Dope Trade

Our Man in Islamabad

Pleasant Valley Sunday

After life in Kiev, the past few months of suburban life have been a bit weird. It's been hard not to approach things with a bit of self-conscious irony.

Today we set out to have the Ultimate Suburban Sunday. So. We went to church and worshiped. Then we came home and went to the park. I taught the boys the rudiments of baseball and then the Duchess and I played tennis. The in-laws came by for a visit. Then I washed and waxed the minivan. To top it all off, I ate a leftover turkey sandwich and took an afternoon nap.

The whole thing was so normal it felt surreal.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I'm thankful to God for:

- the Duchess

- my yellow-haired monkeys

- to be back in the Land of the Free (if only for a couple of years),

- for those fighting to protect our country and bring freedom to the people of Iraq. Let's remember them in prayer.

Le Sabot News Bits

1. Keep Disco in Grad School -- Click an ad.

I'm not one for tip jars; it doesn't seem right to hit readers up for donations. But we do have ads here. If you like the place, please click an ad each day when you stop by. It adds up. :-)

2. I'm looking for contributing writers for Religion of Peace?

I'm finding the job of keeping two blogs going to be too much. I'm looking for about 4-5 supporters of the war interested in contributing. They would be free to write original posts, cross-post stuff from their own blog, or simply paste up news items relevant to the War on Terror. Hard-edged is fine, but it's important to keep the tone of the place steady -- so no shrill or angry writers need apply.

It could be a good opportunity for you to express your opinions and garner some attention for your own blog, as well. Please only email if you're truly interested. Email: discoshaman -at- gmail.com If you can, send along a few links to warblogging you've done before.

3. Not feeling the link-love?

My blogroll is awfully out of date. If you've been nice enough to link us and we haven't reciprocated, email us. It might be that we think you're a bad person or writer. But it's more likely just an oversight. . . You'll never know 'til you ask!

Bob's Your Uncle

I was reading an English history book the other day, and found out where the expression 'Bob's your uncle' comes from. It's all about nepotism.

Lord Salisbury appointed his own nephew, 'Pretty Fanny' Balfour, to be Chief Sec'y for Ireland. My understanding is that Balfour was something of a Harriet Miers. So if you have Bob for an uncle, 'it's as easy as that' to get something done.

Excuse the Mess.

I'm trying for something tricksy with the main template -- adding buttons for collapsible menus for my blogroll categories. So far, it's a bit of a dog's breakfast. As Gloria Steinem might say, I use code like a feminist uses a bicycle.

I should have the buttons properly sized and everything in a year or two. Well, a leap-year, anyway. Thanks for your patience. :-)

New to Le Sabot?

We've had a ton of new readers visit Le Sabot in the past few days. If you're one of them, be sure to also check out our new War on Terror blog -- Religion of Peace?

Some posts you might take a peek at:

Open Questions for Anti-War Readers

Another question for the anti-war crowd...

Answers about white phosphorus

Get some freaking perspective

Please note: Iraq is not Vietnam

Dilbert on Intelligent Design

I still think science is a crashing bore, but our friend Samantha assures us that some of you like it. So. Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, has actually written an even-handed set of posts on ID.

"To me, the most fascinating aspect of the debate over Darwinism versus Intelligent Design is that neither side understands the other side’s argument. Better yet, no one seems to understand their own side’s argument. But that doesn’t stop anyone from having a passionate opinion."

Intelligent Design, Part I

Intelligent Design, Part II

Intelligent Design, Who Is Credible?

And we learned about it all from Samantha's Husband. She's probably just pretending to like this science stuff out of loyalty to him.

New Handbook for Bloggers in Authoritarian Countries

A number of my readers are in authoritarian countries, so I wanted to bring this new resource to your attention. Reporters sans frontières has put out a free handbook to Create your own blog, remain anonymous and get round censorship !

You can download the 'Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents' here.

I had a hand in starting up an Iranian dissident blog a couple of years past. This is a resource my friend could definitely have used.

Thanks to Ingrid Jones and her cool cat Ophelia for the link.

Comments are Back!

Jared from TruePravda just set things aright. He's a beautiful genius, and everyone should read his site daily.

About 30 seconds later, my first soma spam arrived. Oh, happy day!

Also, please note that my email has changed -- it's now discoshaman at gmail.com

Remembering our Vets

Before joining the regular Army, I served as an infantryman with the 53rd Infantry Brigade, ARNG. To my buddies from the 53rd currently in Afghanistan and to their families -- our prayers and gratitude go out to you. You're giving up a lot in pursuit of a noble cause. Thank you.

Solidarity with our British friends

To the British readers of Le Sabot, I just wanted to join with a lot of other American bloggers in expressing sympathy for your losses on 7/7. And also my admiration for the way Londoners responded to the attacks. Our family is praying for those injured, and that the terrorists responsible will be quickly brought to justice.

The Jackson verdict. . .

Has about the same effect on me that the latest Mike Tyson fight did. I'm just glad they're over. . .

This trial, and Tyson's defeat take two of the biggest circus freaks in the American spectacle and puts them outside the tent. They're done. So while Jackson gets to walk free, like OJ, his career should be similarly finished. Even if all of us aren't convinced by the State's work in this case, it's become pretty clear that Michael Jackson isn't eccentric, he's a sicko.

Thank God it's over. Our country is locked in a life-or-death struggle against militant Islam, dirty bombs and nuclear proliferation. The end of the trial allows us to focus on less frivolous things -- like Paris Hilton, for instance.

And we're back!

I've had to turn off my MT Blacklist for now, it was blocking -everything-. But now you all can comment, which is a good thing. I'm looking forward to seeing familiar faces around here again.

Comments Hiccough -- Help?

This bites. I finally get off hiatus, and my comments section decides to spontaneously ban comments. Does anyone have a clue why my MT would start doing this? Email me at Discoshaman -at- gmail.com

Thanks!

Begrudgingly on Hiatus

This particular term of service in Ukraine is drawing to an end. As such, we're crazy busy transitioning ministry work over to Ukrainian friends, saying a temporary good-bye to our beloved city, and preparing for re-entry to the States. I'll be doing some graduate work in the States, and then we'll be heading back across the Pond again. Like I said, this is a mad time, so I've decided to step back from blogging for about five weeks.

My plan is to drop you all an email when Le Sabot is back in business. If you're interested, please send me an email with the title "Blog Notification" to discoshaman@saintly.com

I look forward to coming here every day. I'm definitely going to miss you all during this brief sabbatical.

Your pal,
Disco

Friday Cat Blogging

As The Cranberries might say -- everybody else is doing it, so why can't we?

Randomness

If truth-in-labeling laws had any teeth to them, Tae-Bo would be marketed as Pseu-Do.

Discoshaman joins the ranks of victimhood

I have a disease! Since summer I've been wrestling with horrible depression. Excepting the adrenaline shot of the Revolution, it's been a fight to get out of bed most mornings. But it looks like a big part of the problem is hypothyroidism. Apparently, my thyroid just isn't making things happen.

So the doc has put me on some pills. Positive effects are said to be increased energy and weight loss. This could be great. I'd gotten in the habit of sleeping almost nightly. As for weight loss, I can finally lose this last 162 pounds and fulfill my latent Gnostic dreams of transcending the physical.

magic beans

Sublime things need no justification. The Victoria Falls, Mucha's stained glass, and the 1968 Chevelle Super Sport need serve no purpose -- it is enough that they exist. Coffee belongs to this category.

Nevertheless, it was nice to read today's news that it's a prophylactic against liver cancer. This on top of protecting against Parkinsons. Thanks to coffee, not only am I peppier than thou, but my liver is more durable too.

Check back tomorrow. . .

Today was really a full one, no time/energy/residual cleverness left for blogging tonight. Check back tomorrow for a double helping of bloggy goodness.

For those waiting for a response on the art or politics threads, thanks for your patience. I'll get with you soon!

Your pal,
Disco

New to Blogging?

One of the most frustrating things about the first days of blogging is the whole laboring-in-obscurity thing. We here at Le Sabot do our humble best to welcome new bloggers into the Darwinian world of blogging. While not exactly an Instalanche, our "Welcome to the Blogosphere" section does at least ensure that my wife will read your scribblings.

So if you're just getting started, drop me an email at discoshaman@saintly.com. I tend to favor blogs with a conservative or Christian slant, but I'll choose a clever liberal over an obtuse Republican any day.

You can also look into the New Christian Blog Showcase.

Back tomorrow. . .

A big apology to anyone stopping by for a Ukraine update. "Real Life" was crazy today. Check back this evening for a full run-down of the last few days in Ukrainian politics. . . :-)

Sport Trivia

I was just leafing through an old British kid's book -- The Story of Sport. A little known fact: Mary Queen of Scots is the earliest known female golfer.

From what I remember, she was fond of the sport, but said it was "nothing to lose your head over." That last part might be apocryphal.

A Useless Word

Milquetoast: sissy: a timid man or boy considered childish or unassertive

Completely useless. The only sort of person who would actually USE a word like milquetoast to question another guy's manliness would be. . . a milquetoast. You wonder how words like this ever catch on.

Update on Tennyson

Wow, I must have sounded completely callous. By "Kid patrol" I meant "homeschooling the other three kids", not "taking care of Tennyson." He definitely rates over State of the Union coverage. :-)

I did just have the realization that I won't be blogging tonight, because I'll be trading places with the Duchess. The hospital doesn't have toilet paper, IVs or food, so it probably also lacks DSL internet service.

Tennyson really wants to come home, he hates all the injections. The Duchess made a deal with him that he earns 2 hours of video game time for every shot, redeemable when he gets home.

Anyway, you guys are great. Thanks for praying! Priority today is to hopefully transfer him to Borys Clinic where they have food, IVs and toilet paper. See you in 24 hours.

Check back tomorrow. . .

I'm sorry for not getting out a Ukraine Update tonight. I saved it for last and now I really need to get to bed -- I'm on kid patrol tomorrow.

Check back tomorrow for a Ukraine update, thoughts on the State of the Union, a parenting post, a follow-up post on inter-racial dialogue in America, and a Christian perspective on Human Rights. Plus whatever other madness occurs to me in the interim.

Thanks for remembering Tennyson in your prayers!

Your pal,
Disco

Sublimity.

Just tried vanilla ice cream sprinkled with fresh espresso grounds. Am now feverishly calculating the hours 'til the grocery store opens again.

Faith and Works: Hospice Volunteering

Death, like everything in America, has been radically individualized by urbanization, technology, and our penchant for migration. Parents live far from children, or simply outlive them. Modernity has robbed many of us of the comforts of family and home when it comes time to die.

That's why the move toward hospices is one of the most hopeful things I've seen in a long time. I was able to volunteer in an AIDS hospice in the States, and it was a wonderful example of community in action -- totally privately funded, and manned by members of the local community.

The program served anyone whose prognosis gave them less than six months to live. The hospice enabled them to live as fully as they could and to die with a hand to hold.

Christians are called to minister to the sick and to bind up the broken hearted. Hospices are a great place to put this call into action.

To find opportunities to serve, check out this extensive list of Hospice Links.

Ed Rooney moves next door

Ed Rooney, the principal from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, is now my mom and dad's next door neighbor. Given that much of my worldview was formed by way too many viewings of Ferris one summer, this would normally be a very cool thing. The fact that he's now a criminal takes the fun out of it (and the value of any potential autographs. . .)

On a happier note, check out this list of Ferris sound files!

10 Christian Blogs -- the new "It" group blog?

I hope so, since I'm on the masthead. . .
Adrian Warnock has gathered some great Christian bloggers onto one site. The goal is to serve the entire Christian blogosphere by linking out to them from a combined single high impact page.

The list includes such worthies as Evangelical Outpost, In the Agora and La Shawn Barber.

Pop over to Ten Christian Blogs: A Decablog and check it out. . .

Partisanship, the Orange Revolution, and me

During the Revolution, I took a hiatus from writing on anything partisan. I didn't want to damage the Left-Right unity on the issue. More importantly, my personal political beliefs had no place in something that belonged not to me, but to the Ukrainian people.

With Yushchenko's victory, I've transitioned back to covering foreign affairs and American politics from a conservative perspective. I try to do it with charity, humor and originality. I hate shrillness or cant from any political persuasion. My hope is that our liberal friends will stick around and keep providing alternative perspectives here.

Most importantly, I want to make it clear that I'm going to keep my Ukraine news free of any partisanship. If you see ANY sort of conservative bias creep into my commentary, please call me on it.

two of my favorite things. . .

Cappuccino at the Coffee Haus. Generic name/Good coffee. And they get points for presentation.

This is a great Stalinist wedding cake of a building down on Kreshatik Street. Formerly it housed Party bigwigs. It even still has a Communist star on top.

Everytime I see it I get that happy, Yeah, we kicked your Commie butt glow inside.

Vote TulipGirl in 2005!

TulipGirl is in the running over at Best of Blogs for "Best Homeschooling/Education Blog." If you get a sec, you might pop over and show your support.

She's currently in third place, but we suspect massive falsifikatsiya. I'm looking into a Soros Foundation or National Democratic Institute grant to finance a "Tulip Revolution" if we lose the election. . .

America: What have I missed?

The last time I was Stateside was about a month after 9/11. There were flags everywhere, and Afroman's Because I Got High was cool. I think I remember Survivor being ubiquitous.

What are the big changes these past years? The answer can be anything -- politics, chain stores, music, slang, whatever. I catch glimpses of things, for example someone said Hummers are actually a suburban mom car now. Other than William Hung, what have I missed?

bloggy stuff -- polls and blogrolls

Tulipgirl is in the running for "Best Educational/Homeschooling Blog." Voting just opened today. Rules allow one vote a day. Pop over and show your support if you get a sec.

Also, I'm updating my blogroll over the next couple of days -- my VT circle of friends has grown a bit during the Revolution. If you've permalinked me and haven't yet felt reciprocal love, drop a comment on this thread and let me know. Thanks! :-)

Gilmore Girls -- a guilty pleasure

I grew up without a TV most of my life, and have rarely owned one since I moved out. Not a religious thing, I just like the snob appeal of saying I hate television. My wife's parents were hippies, so they often didn't have a set either.

A friend insisted we borrow Gilmore Girls, Season 1 on DVD a few months ago. I mocked, then borrowed. It's the first series I've liked since Twin Peaks went off the air. Yes, I'm aware that this is probably wrong on multiple levels -- that's why it's called a guilty pleasure.

They manage to stuff like six times more dialogue than normal into an episode, along with Marcel Proust references. There's melodrama, without falling into bathos; irony, without cut-rate cynicism. I love that the characters are all a bit crazy, without waving their "Hi I'm a quirky character" tags in your face, and that the writer draws them with a sympathetic eye.

Maybe the show jumps the shark in later years, I don't know. But the first season was too good for television.

a couple of my favorite things

This week we're going with an Asian theme. Our first bit of narcissistic self-disclosure is my hookah pipes. I'd wanted one ever since the Zab Zum Zum in San Francisco.

The blue one is from an Iranian friend, and is called something that sounds like "hubba-bubba." The gold pipe is a shisha we picked up in Cairo. I'm eventually going to do up a corner table with cushions, the pipes and a chess set.

These guys are the Buddhist statues at the Hao Long, the local Vietnamese restaurant. I dig them. Our church currently meets there for worship, and I can't help thinking it's beneficial for these two to hear the Gospel. Sadly, so far they've remained pretty unresponsive. . .

Sarasota -- my kind of town

Someone asked in comments about where I came from in the States. I grew up in what I still think is the coolest town in Florida -- Sarasota.

Here are some things I love about it: it has half the active circuses in North America HQed there, and even a circus performer retirement center.

Along with this it has beach bums, New York Jewish retirees, a guy called the "Pelican Man" who helps wounded birds, a Major League baseball team which spring trains there, any type of New Age cultist you can imagine, Pee Wee Herman, Castro-hating Cubans, the Mote Marine science center, the Burns Court art film movie house, the world's 2nd largest French film festival, black churches on 27th Street where the preaching is something of a chant a sermon and a blues song, a gigantic annual Medieval Faire at the Ringling mansion, great opera and ballet, the Asolo Theatre, Vampyre LARPists, and little Italian-American men with hairy backs playing bocce at the beach.

Go inland a few miles and you have gator farms, people with airboats, tiny 50's hotels with diving girls on the signs, and people who boar hunt on the weekend.

America is fun. I miss it sometimes. :-)

Check back manana. . .

One of those days. Pray.

New Feature

Since narcissistic self-expression is half the fun of blogging, we're going to start a new weekly feature: Two of My Favorite Things

From left to right:

My Berkof Systematic Theology -- still the standard for any rock-ribbed Calvinist.

My manbag -- obligatory for the young and slavishly stylish Kievite.

Not feelin' the link-love?

If you've added Le Sabot to your blogroll, but haven't seen any reciprocity, it means one of two things:

1. You're a heretic
Or
2. Technorati is being flaky or I overlooked the link.

Feel free to email me at discoshaman-at-saintly-dot-com and find out which one applies to you. On the subject of blogrolls, I've made some overdue additions. Check 'em:

Dead Men's Voices -- a sharp, smart addition to the Calvinist blogosphere.

Clarity and Resolve -- one-stop shopping for Middle East politics and Iraqi War updates.

In the Agora -- Josh Claybourne and Co's new group-blogging project.

What Attitude Problem? -- politics with attitude. Mostly a wry one.

Does anyone else find the Greek protests that Alexander the Great was straight about as convincing as Tom Cruise's?

Peace, Love and Mammal

The Duchess and I were just fretting that I've been so snarky in recent posts. So to make amends with you all, I'm doing a sarcasm-free, good-vibeful post. . .

That's right, baby, here's a fur seal for ya. Feel the love.

Life's a Funny Thing. . .

* In 2000, George Bush was elected by elderly Jewish Buchanan supporters. In 2004, Bush's margin of victory in Ohio came thanks to the extra 4% he garnered of the black vote.

* I've been listening to the Ramones all night. During 'I Wanna Be Sedated' I had a horrible realization -- it sounds like Oldies music! Kill me now. Oh yeah, oh-oh-oh yeah.

* Partisan catharsis! Head over to Slap the Candidate and let John Kerry know what you REALLY feel. Hat tip to Whilin' Away the Hours.

Update- Thankfully, the Pistols' songs are aging well (better than Sid did, certainly.) 'Pretty Vacant' is on, and it still kicks. I feel better.

Man of the Hour, Man with the Power. . .

I don't know how to start thanking Sciolist from The Rough Woodsman for all the work he's been doing behind the scenes here at Le Sabot. Not only has he despammed the place and upgraded us to MT 3.121, but he's de-uglied the layout, too.

The Woodsmen have been the most resolute online friends imaginable. Thanks, guys. And again, HUGE thanks to Sciolist.

Ukrainian Witch Doctors

One surprising thing about Ukraine is the prevalence of the New Age movement – kiosks sell metaphysical books at metro stations, and huckster doctors with ‘special powers’ abound. Even weirder, this popularity predates the end of Communism. Suppressing organized religion only created a gaping hole for credulity to fill.

Between the New Age stuff, and a decaying medical system, a cult of health has sprung up. Just as Americans can’t resist buying something with “Diet” on the label, Ukrainians go crazy for anything with the prefix “Bio-.” They consume enough strange herbs and concoctions to rival a Berkeley, CA midwife. Here’s the omnipresent Doctor Seleznev. He has over 40 teas, for everything from libido to psoriasis. Dig the glasses.

God is good. . .

This summer was the best of our lives, with project after project to keep us busy. But by autumn Alexandra and I were both starting to get frazzled. So it was a real blessing that our vacation and our visa renewals came up one after another. I've now achieved a sort of overcooked Zen noodle level of relaxation.

Here's me, Alexandra and the yellow-haired monkeys at the pyramids:

It was amazing -- snorkeling in the Red Sea, visting the City of the Dead and Cairo. . . The boys were able to see the treasures of King Tut and ride a camel. Pretty much an ideal homeschooling vacation.

And this is the Charles Bridge and St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. St. Vitus features the world's most beautiful stained glass -- an Art Nouveau window done by Alphonse Mucha himself. The Duchess and I spent 5 days in the Czech Republic for visa renewal -- the first time we've been away from the kids in 8 years. (Unless you count a night in Hashbury in San Fran.)

Prague is the only city I've seen that gives Paris a run for its money. I wanted to like Budapest better, but I have to give the prize to Prague. A great, and inexpensive alternative to Western Europe (and no Euro exchange rates!)

Off to Egypt. . .

First, thanks so much to everyone for welcoming me back. It's been great to get back into the swing of blogging, and I'll be popping over to see everyone soon. But first. . .

The family is off to the Red Sea for a couple of weeks of vacation. That's right -- the ultimate homeschooling adventure -- coral reefs, the City of the Dead, Cairo, and pyramids and sphinxes.

Truthfully, though, it sounds a lot more far-out than it is. Egypt is actually the vacation spot of choice for Ukrainians. To put it in perspective -- plane tickets and a two week vacation at a nice place in Egypt, along with excursions, costs less than plane tickets to England. . . So don't just default to Cancun next year. Hop over to Sharm el-Sheikh and hang with the New Russians!

Going Garver.

I really, really hate having to do this, but I'm going on hiatus until September 1st. We're in the middle of an amazing, and amazingly packed, summer here with our mission. Consequently, my blog has shifted from a fun hobby to a nagging responsibility I try to cram in before bed each night. Strangely, that takes some of the verve out of the site content.

So we'll be back in September with a twinkle in our eye and acid in our pen.

If anyone's interested in keeping up with events this summer, we're putting the finishing touches on our latest prayer letter. Drop me an email at discoshaman@saintly.com and we'll be happy to fire one out to you.

I'm really going to miss all of you. Let me go ahead and sign off before I get all bathetic on you. Peace, love, keep fighting the good fight, and all of that.

Yours,
John

Help with MT Blacklist?

Is anyone out there soft-hearted and coding-minded enough to install MT Blacklist for me? I've read through the instructions ten times, and it's all Geek to me. As this would involve accessing my Cpanel, this distress signal is addressed mainly to those of you I've "known" for awhile here at Le Sabot. Drop me an email at discoshaman -at- saintly.com Thanks!

Update- Matt Hall, of the eponymously named blog, has graciously offered his help with this, earning the thanks of a grateful nation.

Life is Good.

I have the coolest job, with the greatest wife, in the most interesting city in Eastern Europe. . . Just in case anyone was curious. God is so good.

Today was the first properly summery day we've had so far. The breeze was warm, the sun was glinting from the cupolas of the monastery, and tour boats were plying the Dnieper. It was the last day of school, and the shkolniki were running all over the city wearing red sashes. Girls still wear those enormous white ruffle ribbons we all saw in pictures of Soviet ceremonies.

Not only was the weather sublime, but work was great. We planned out a Vacation Bible School and a youth retreat, and brainstormed service project ideas. Then I showed the English Film Club a movie and taught them useful idioms like 'to pay through the nose.'

Our friend Olya surprised us with a visit, and brought my nephew with her -- her pet terrier, Benny.

Tonight, the Duchess and I had the perfect date. We had a little dinner, then walked along Kreshatik Street. The chestnut trees are blooming and everyone is exuberant now that the climate has realized it's spring. We went to the Speeding Lisa concert -- a mad expat band. Our friends Dan and Lesya came along, and there was just a bright, happy sort of energy to the whole thing. What a day.

If you've ever felt a tug toward overseas service, really consider it. Every day is different -- one day might be Bible studies, the next evangelistic English classes, and the next an all-day youth function. It's amazing. It can sometimes be tiring and frustrating. It is always humbling. But it's never boring.

Around the blogosphere. . .

I've cut back on my blogreading, in order to spend more time enjoying what non-bloggers quaintly refer to as 'life'. But I have managed to check in with my favorites from time-to-time. Here's a few picks of the bunch:

The Thinklings have one of their massive thread convos going, this one on Young vs. Old Earth theories.

Evangelical Outpost points up another of Zell Miller's soon to be sorely missed bits of wisdom: "Why is it that there's more indignation over a photo of a prisoner with underwear on his head than over the video of a young American with no head at all?"

Lastly, be sure to check out Texas Barbies, which I was lucky enough to find through Fire Ant Gazette. Here are just a couple:

Plano Barbie

This princess Barbie is only sold at Willowbend Mall. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign lapdog named Honey, and a cookie-cutter dream house with a saguaro cactus in front. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic ex-husband Ken comes with a Porsche.

Denton Barbie

This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, archless feet, hairy armpits, no makeup, and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her "Willow." She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Austin Barbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag sticker free.

Checking in. . .

Such is my devotion to all of you, that I popped into a cybercafe to say privyet. Yalta is exactly what I hoped to find -- a small city set on a hill overlooking the sea. It's been a sort of Slavic Florida since the time of the Tsars, and some great old houses still remain. The city features in a ton of Soviet comedies, so I've been looking forward to watching the screwball antics of wacky and fun-loving Soviet vacationers. I'm about 12 years too late, and also missed season by about a month. So I have the place largely to myself.

I'm here to relax my brain after a crazy winter of work, so I've completely neglected my duties as a student of history -- I haven't seen the inside of one palace, museum or historic site. Unless one counts the full-scale replica of the Argos where I had dinner. Yalta is so quiet this time of year that I had the deck in solitude, with the exception of one Argonaut/waiter.

I've taken a room at the historic Hotel "Krim", which has a lovely Art Nouveauish facade, though with a sadly Brezhnev Nouveau interior.

Anyway, I'll be back Wednesday morning with more bloggy goodness for all of you.

See You Soon!

No posting for a couple of days, gentle readers. I'm taking a long-anticipated weekend of sun down in Yalta. See you when I get back!

Sweating Thirty

My thirtieth birthday is staring me in the face. I realized today that my black Doc Marten 6-eyes have been with me for over half my life, and they're aging better than I am. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Installing MT-Blacklist. . .

Just a quick request. Can someone refer me to a concise source for installing this Blacklist thing now that I've downloaded it? Preferably instructions written for a not-so-bright eleven year old. I might be able to handle those.

Quelle Nightmare. . .

And we're back. Finally. Thanks for anyone still reading Le Sabot after our series of service interruptions. I won't bore you with the details. Just your typical virus-eats-computer-computer-getting-old-anyway-boy-buys-new-comp-new-comp-has-defective-motherboard-and-repairs-take-a-week story. That old chestnut.

Anyway. We're back, and with an apparently healthy computer. So posting at Le Sabot should be back to normal. Thanks for your patience, as always. . .

Caption Contest Winners!

Sorry to all contestants for the REALLY long wait. . . Anyway, the greatly anticipated results of our John Kerry caption contest:

First Runner Up -- Davie D with:

"Dude, man, I'll bet, when you're, like, President, you can get baked ALL THE TIME!"

And the winner! Jordana, channeling secretary Grace from Ferris Bueller, wins a spot in our mildly coveted Clog of the Week section with:

"Oh, he's very popular. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, *heads -- they all adore him. They think he's a righteous dude."

My 1st Blogiversary!

Yes, gentle readers, one year ago today we began our long, tripped spin together. In observance of the day, I wanted to re-post the piece I most enjoyed writing during the past year -- the infamous DAISY thread.

Tired of being without a floral motif vis-a-vis the Calvinists, Arminians have just completed a summit in Possum Waller, Arkansas to select an appropriate symbol. Chairman Dave Hunt ruled that the Daisy faction had won over the Jack-in-a-Pulpit partisans late this afternoon in the second round of voting. The proposed acrostic looks as follows:

D- Diminished Depravity
A- Abrogated Election
I- Impersonal Atonement
S- Sedentary Grace
Y- Yieldable Justification

Pastor Eli Coots of the Backwoods Bible Institute made the announcement:

"Gone are the days of acronmyical imbalance. Now we too have an easy to remember acrostic that all may freely use to oversimplify and misunderstand our system of belief! Let holy-rollers, faith healers, Fundamentalists, Left Behind groupies and KJV Onlies of all stripes unite in celebrating this blessed event!"

He later added that the acronym came with a bonus--the poetic symmetry between the uncertainty of one's own salvation that Arminians enjoy each day, and the petal-plucking ritual of the daisy--"he loves me, he loves me not..."

New Friends. . .

Four long-overdue additions to the blogroll:

It's common for me to find blogs where I admire the writer's thoughts. It's rarer to find one where I'd love to drink a pint with the author. Both the Duchess and I are taken with Amy who happens to Love Books, and I've been reading a lot of The Unrest-Cure. John is a fellow Presby with a shared appreciation for The Violent Femmes and Guinness.

Viewpoint Journal is a reliable source for articulate Conservative commentary, and Coffee Swirls is the most interesting spiritually-themed blog I've seen in some time (certainly the best coffee-stained one as well.)

Two housekeeping announcements! Both Parablemania and At Home in Sweden have new locations. Be sure to check them out. . .

More Yeti Sports!

For those who loved Penguin Batting, there are now even more ways to waste the fast-fleeting hours of your life. Check out Yeti Sports for flightless-bird abuse at its finest!

We've also solved the puzzle of both our stagnant economy and our failing schools -- 'US Commercial' and 'US Educational' are 2 of the top 3 referrers to the site.

Memories of Pee-Wee

I just noticed that Pee-Wee Herman was busted on obscenity charges in LA. He's an alumnus of my high school, though he graduated well before I did. My bus drove past the movie theatre every day where he was arrested the last time.

He was something of an urban legend in Sarasota. Students were often having Pee-Wee sightings downtown, and he was like a boogie man for our class. Everyone new the guy who was dating the girl whose second cousin's boyfriend had gotten hit on by Pee-Wee at a concert at the Gator Club.

He's 51 now. The man from Pee-Wee's Playhouse is over-50. Am I allowed to feel old?

One Last Administrative Whine

This is just a general notice that real life is wonderfully and fruitfully busy, and so I'm officially absolving myself of the responsibility to answer all comments here at Le Sabot. Enjoy the freedom of being able to spout off opinions with only a 50-50 fear of being contradicted. :-)

Crunchy Conservatism

Far above rubies is the wife who makes piña colada granola for her man. I can't find a verse to back this up, but it's true all the same.

7 Things You Prolly Don't Know About Me

1. I spent two years in a circus during middle school, working in clowns, Spanish web and unicycle.

2. Paprika isn't just for devilled eggs -- it's great in coffee too.

3. My handgun of choice is a Firestar .40.

4. My father was a mushroom farmer when I was little.

5. I graduated at 16, and my parents signed for me to join the military almost as soon as I turned 17. My drill sergeant used to torture me with the name"Warbaby".

6. I'm terrible at math.

No Reponses Tonight. . .

Once again I've poorly time-managed and it's late. For anyone who's made a point or asked a question and hasn't gotten a response, I really do apologize. Tomorrow night after home group I'll set aside some time to answer. See you soon, and don't take any wooden kopecks. . .

The Soviet Accent

Does everyone remember the thick, R-rolling, Boris-and-Natasha accent Russian spies all had in movies during the Cold War? It turns out, such a thing actually exists. Young Ukrainians call it a Sovietskiy aksent. Apparently some of the fossilized professors of English left over from that era still retain the accent. It makes sense, when you think about it. If you learned a language entirely from non-native speakers, and had little or no access to movies or other materials from that country, your accent would be only as good as the pronunciation key in your textbook. Our friend Olya does a great impressionof it, scowling and talking about building the Revolution.

Curses! I was so close. . .

. . .to coining a new word. Out of 4 billion-odd sites on Google, ONE person beat me to the word schadenfreudelicious. But I still get credit for granolification:

Granolification n. The process by which an organization or geographical entity comes under the influence of fruits, nuts and flakes. See: California; American Universities; Episcopal Church

Catching Up With Old Friends

You miss a lot when you take a blog hiatus. For instance:

BIG congratulations to Paul and Lenise Baxter! They're expecting a little addition in early October. And further congrats are in order, as Lenise now has her own blog -- Paxifist.

Kingdom Come has a new location and a great new look. If you haven't read them, be sure to check them out. Must-reading for Anglophiles and Christians alike.

I also wanted to point up Evangelical Outpost's recent post, Déjà Vu All Over Again: Kerry and the Commies. As you've prolly heard, North Korea's "Dear Leader" is enamored with John Kerry. Joe's wonderfully snarky take on it is this:

"Kerry's protesting a war and having his speeches replayed in a communist country? Didn’t we already go through this in 1971?"

Logophilic Fun!

One of the things that makes us history types so much cooler than the other social sciences is that we have our own Muse, Clio. That started me thinking today about the word museum. I wondered if there were any connection between the two. Probably everyone else in the Western world already knew this, but they do -- Muse + -eion, suffix of place.

The Trouble With Spammers

Does anyone have any good remedies for comment-section spam? It was creepy today. I'm sitting here emptying my comments of unwanted ads, and they're multiplying in real-time. I'd dump one to have three more take its place, like something out of the Trouble With Tribbles episode. I had so many ads for licensed pharmaceuticals I felt like growling, "D--- it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a pharmacist." Any advice of the techie persuasion is welcomed.

And We're Back!

Thanks to everyone who wrote me during my absence. I'm now officially ungarvering, and excited about blogging. As they say, abstinence makes the heart grow fonder. To anyone curious about my hiatus, it stemmed from dual causes -- a broken computer and a recognition that I was spending too much time online.

All in the past now. Perspective is restored, and Le Sabot is back in the business of bloggy goodness.

Just Too Annoying. . .

I'm again grinning and bearing it at the local internet cafe, but my muse is a bit of a snob and refused to brave the smoke, semi-functional keyboards and profane, screaming children. Hence, I have nothing worthwhile to say. I've been promised that the remont on our computer will be one NLT tomorrow, so check back then for my latest post -- "What's on my mind." We'll be looking at everything from Ha Jin and anime to Le Pacte du Silence, and there'll be some political red meat for you Republican carnivores out there.

Thanks for your patience during the posting lull. I've been trying for two weeks to get basic repairs done on our comp. Quel drag.

An Opportunity to Serve. . .

I'm still braving the Internet club for at least a couple more days. I appreciate the patience of those of you waiting for responses.

I have a request for you all. Tonight an acquaintance named Igor brought me a piece of paper. On the paper is an official write-up of the medical condition of his 6-year-old son, Mykolai. He's being "treated" in a local hospital. The boy has a form of blood cancer, and needs a donor.

Unfortunately, there isn't a donor bank here in Ukraine. The doctors have advised Igor to try and find an NGO that could help him in his search (he's a worker from a small West Ukrainian city, so this isn't easy for him.) I'm contacting the American Clinic here tomorrow to see if they know any NGOs. If any of my multitudinous readers know of a likely organization to contact, either here or Stateside, please please email me at discoshaman@saintly.com. Thanks!

Short Night

I'm once again braving the vagaries of the local cybercafe to bring you bloggy goodness. They've promised our computer should be done by Monday. I hope so. In the meantime, I have about 18 minutes left 'til the all-night crowd takes over my spot to play Ultima Online. So please don't feel ignored if I don't answer your thoughtful and valuable comments this evening. . .

Springtime for Kiev

The only time Ukraine seems to make the US press is when they shoot down an airliner or sell weapons to Saddam. Many people still think of Ukraine as a bleak, semi-Communist country controlled by the Russian mafiya. There are good reasons for this.

But it really is a lovely place, and the people are wonderful. And economic progress is happening. I use passive voice because this progress proceeds almost in spite of the best efforts of the government and powers that be, and certainly not from any direct effort on their parts. Car sales are way up, we just got a 24-hour Western-style grocery store that plays The Cure and Rock Me, Amadeus, and a French bakery has set up downtown. Last night, however, I saw the best news for progress yet -- Channel 1+1 is about to syndicate. . . The A-Team! I pity the fool who doesn't tune in.

@Whine < /consciousness>

My head is splitting in half with a migraine. I apologize for the lack of bloggy goodness tonight. Since you're listening, and the Duchess is asleep, I'll complain to you about it. The sensation is something like having dozens of tiny people beating rhythmically against the underside of my cranium with ball pein hammers, complemented with another pair jabbing the back of my eyeballs with meat thermometers.

My trusty friend Mr. Nytol has volunteered to fast-forward the "Life" button, and all should be well when I regain consciousness. See you all mañana.

Faves of the Week (Belated Edition)

Note the addition of TruePravda to the blogroll. Jared Bridges is a fellow Calvinist and fan of Southern literature. While he has many thoughtful posts, my trivial mind fixed upon the Dukes of Hazzard Quiz.

Be sure to check out dogman's trés drôle script idea for the next Disney "classic."

"A gay priest teams up with an orphaned vegetarian mountain lion. Having been shunned by their respective cliques, they team up to stop the expansion of a pharmaceutical company that threatens 7 acres of worthless sagebrush in Nevada -- the sagebrush is home to a renegade hammer dulcimer playing skink named Zeek. (Zeek likes to smoke something that looks like a home-rolled cigarette...but not "really" like a home-rolled cigarette...)"

Uncle Sam's Cabin has encouraging news about Christian conversions in Turkey, via Dhimmiwatch.

Hugh Hewitt leads with a comparison of Kennedy and Kerry's voting records. I like this guy, because he loves politics like I do.

For more on the perfidious (and gelatinous) Michael Moore, read Moore Lies from Imago Veritatis.

We have a winner!

Dogman is the winner of this week's caption contest with this peach:

"Jim Lehrer: As moderator of this debate, I'd like to remind the viewing audience of the rules in our last event: 'homophobe-chicken.' The first candidate that breaks eye contact, looks away, or sweats, will be labeled 'intolerant.'"

Some notable mentions:

Inkling:

"Madonna and Britney led the news cycle for a week when they did it. I say we go for it."

Lana:

(sung to the tune of the country classic)

"Just you and I (Just you and I)
sharin our love together
And I know in time (I know in time)
We'll win the White House together."

Gator:

"You can be my Vice President...
No... YOU can be MY Vice President..."

Penguin Batting!

Ever wonder what Antarctic researchers do in their downtime? Jonah Goldberg, over at The Corner, has the answer -- Penguin Batting! I managed to swat one 324.4 meters, which is no small accomplishment. The North Pole version is expected soon, and features fur-seal pups.

Dancing Hillary and More Trogdor!

For those who loved 2002's Dancing Bush, Dancing Hillary has arrived! Her moves aren't as fresh and funkay as George's, but she does have an eye-catching Pepto-Bismol-pink pantsuit, which somewhat compensates.

Also, as The Duchess pointed out, there's now a Trogdor video game, a brilliant fusion of the strategic complexity of PacMan with the technical sophistication of Pong.

A Taste of Soviet History

Little time for blogging tonight, tomorrow is a mad-busy day. Tonight, I went down to Independence Square for the first time this season. It was great. Underneath the square, leading to the metro, is what seems like an entire city block of open space. Amateur musicians gather there, playing everything from 80's Soviet-era rock to blues to The Offspring. The music mixes in a jarring cacophany. Half the young people in town are there, mingling in dense clouds of smoke, wandering from group to group and singing off-key with the bands.

In some ways, Ukrainian pop culture ossified at Independence. Michael Jackson is still cool here, for instance, as is Alf. And in the crowd tonight were countless guys in biker jackets and long, lanky hair wearing heavy metal t-shirts, a breed nearly extinct in other parts of the world. The gathering felt like what I've heard of the dissident sessias during Soviet times.

I had a good talk with my friend. He's Orthodox, and still can't comprehend the idea of a personal relationship with Christ. But he enjoys talking about Christianity and the things of faith. I also met two New Russian types who want to hang out sometime. I invited them to visit us for Bible study some night. If you've read anything about the New Russians, it brings up thoughts of camels and needle eyes, but with Christ anything is possible.

Little White Om Sticks

Many of my favorite posts here at Le Sabot have come to me out on my balcony, taking a relaxing puff on a Gauloise or Gitanes. I go through about a pack a week, and look forward to one at the end of a working day. For those times when I want to truly relax, however, nothing compares with a hand-rolled cigarette. There's something meditative about the slow process of rolling and smoking a ciggy while sitting out on the balcony, watching the atomic yolk of the sun set over the city skyline. It's better than yoga.

For anyone interested in getting started, Roll Your Own magazine has a great site, full of tips and reviews of various blends, injectors and papers.

Tim Berglund Has Found a Home!

After months of promises, Tim Berglund makes good with his own chic new domain -- Timberglund.com! Tim is one of my oldest buddies in the blogosphere, and he always has something novel to say. He's also the guy who intro'ed me to Homestar Runner, which makes him doubly froodish. Go check him out!

Also want to point out a few new additions to the blogroll:

The Boar's Head -- A fun and free-wheeling group blog.

Hugh Hewitt -- Everybody loves Hugh.

Undisclosed Location -- An eclectic mix of medical, political, techie and polling posts.

Anti-Climacus -- Great for daily commentary on politics and current events.

Mission Accomplished!

Just wanted to thank a few people for their help with that thing with the guy in the place. I sent out a message awhile back with a request, and I just wanted to express my gratitude to Polemics, Sophoristically Speaking, Spiced Sass, Such Small Hands, Lady Dusk, Pete Nelson, and Upward Way Press for helping out. Thanks again, all.

If I've forgotten anyone, drop me a line!

The Duchess Joins the Blogosphere!

The lovely and talented Duchess now has her own blog -- TulipGirl! It's one stop shopping for parenting, politics, theology for girls, lactivism and Ezzo-fisking! She's still working through her CSS issues, but plans to import and expand her old website into the new format. In time it'll be a virtual smorgasbord of estrogen-laced goodness.

Fun With Jargon

If this is the cyberworld and real life is the meat world, wouldn't it be better if we called blogger gatherings "meat-ups?"

I swear, this is the last pun on my blog for at least a week. Please don't siteban me. :-)

A Hollywood Actor Occidentally Praises the West

Here's a gratuitous link about Gimli's comments. I just wanted an excuse to make the pun.

Now THIS Is Blogging. . .

I don't often rhapsodize over a blog, but Paul Baxter just linked to one of the funniest things I've seen on a blog. Period. Ace-O-Spades has done up Dungeons and Dragons characters for each of the Democratic candidates. If you had a girlfriend or a car in high school you might not get the jokes, but check it out anyway. . .

Some highlights:

Dennis Kucinich

Character Name: Baradach Brightsword
Race: Half-Elf/Half-Satyr

If there's one Democratic candidate who knows how many hit dice a Gelatinous Cube has, it's Dennis Kucinich. You've gotta know that somewhere in the back of his one of his closets is a first-print copy of the Fiend Folio, pages stuck together with decade-old bong resin. Obviously, he's a Druid. You know, the whole Commune with Nature thing; he's like a Vegan, sickly-pale Beastmaster. He doesn't actually fight monsters; instead, he casts one of his many Summon Squirrels spells, shouting out, "O, my Friends of the Silver Forest! Come to me, O Woodland Creatures! Protect me from this fell beast!"

Al Sharpton

Character name: "The Reverend"
Race: Hustler
Class/Level: 2nd level Cleric/8th level Demagogue
Alignment: Chaotic Evil

He's armed with a Staff of Racial Arson, allowing him to cast incendiary fireballs into any racially charged situation. The Staff is +3 against White Interlopers, and does double damage against Jewish shopkeepers. He has been known to wear a Jogging-Suit of the Judgment-Proof, making him completely immune to creditors and defamation lawsuits.

Howard Dean

Character Name: Deangol/Gollum
Race: Evil, Mutated Hobbit
Class/Level: Tenth-level Bush Basher/Seventh-Level Character Assassin
Alignment: Full-on Chaotic Evil

On the environment: The environments is preciousss, yess, preciousss it isss. We loves the cariboussss.

On pre-emptive military action: We wouldn'ts hurts a fly, gollum, gollum.

Genius.

If I Were A Cuppa Joe. . .

This one's for the java-hounds over at Rough Woodsman.

A shot of espresso please? You are a bundle of
energy, but sometimes downright mean. People
may misunderstand and underappreciate you, but
you know how amazing you really are. Go ahead
with your bad self!

What kind of coffee are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Found via: WhatInTarnation!?!?

The Fat-Finger King of Post-Modernism!

For whatever reason, if someone types the word postmodernism with a space -- post modernism, I come up #1 on Google. I make the first page for post modern. Everyone has to be good at something, I suppose.

Faves of the Week!

Matthew Stinson examines Clark's recent statements on abortion. For anyone who hasn't heard, infants are fair game until they draw their first breath, in the good general's world. Stinson shows that his claim not to have a pro-abortion litmus test for judges is about as genuine as his recent discovery that he's a liberal Democrat.

40 Bicycles covers some of the same themes we've looked at here on homosexuality, love and tolerance, and takes them in some good directions. He seems very clear-thinking, with the exception of considering cricket to be a genuine sport.

Hugh Hewitt and Oxblog both point up Clark's recent promise that no 9/11-like attacks will take place if he's president. His comments have ranged farther and farther afield lately. Lucky for him, Dean shields him. He's in a position a bit like a guy with a verbal tic standing next to a severe Tourettes-sufferer. People would notice how odd he sounded were it not for the other guy screaming incoherent obscenities.

Love Really Is Blind. . .

Does anyone else find the story of the Marine with the Sapphic wife just a little odd?

"A Marine's wife and another woman were arrested with the deadly poison ricin (search), and authorities said the pair planned to kill the husband to get insurance money."

Okay, a little unusual, but no stranger than a typical femme fatale plot. However. . .

"Earlier Sunday, they said, Tepatti, with Wood's help, fired a handgun equipped with a potato silencer at him but he was not hurt.

In late 2003, according to the FBI, Tepatti conspired with Wood to kill him by luring him to the beach and stabbing him in the neck."

Some guys just can't take a hint.

Thoughts on Linkage and 2 New Blogrollees!

I've added a few people lately to the roll after they gave me polite nudges. It turned out that they'd blogrolled me ages ago and I hadn't noticed on the various link lists. If you've linked to Le Sabot but haven't had your warm tidings reciprocated, it doesn't mean I hate your blog. Well, not necessarily. Likely not, in fact. So don't be afraid to drop me an email.

I've read other sites which have complex algorithmic approaches to their blogrolls that require something approaching a Cray supercomputer to calculate. On the Systematic -- Whimsical spectrum of blog-linkage, Le Sabot would strongly incline toward whimsy. If a blog's ideas or writing are engaging, I'm generally happy to add them.

Speaking of which, two new additions!

Nuts and Dolts, which skillfully combines punchiness with piety. A pretty smart guy too, don't let the name fool you.

AND,

Uncle Sam's Cabin, a good place to read up on partisan politics and black conservatism.

Merry Ukrainian Christmas!

We had a great Christmas this evening! We took the Metro downtown and walked around Independence Square with babushka Katya, ate cold kotleti and then wandered down Kreshatik, main street, with about half the rest of the city. There were Santa Clauses everywhere, along with Snegorichki (the Russian Santa is much luckier than ours, having a young girl for his assistant rather than elves. Her job is to make sure he doesn't get too drunk to deliver presents. . .)

The chestnut trees were all strung with lights, people were singing, and a light snow fell throughout the evening. The city couldn't have been more beautiful. So, as the Russians say, C Rozhestvom!!

The Gorge is Strong in This One

Some interesting responses to my "weird stuff I've eaten" post. And a couple deeply disturbing ones. Reading through Theognome's list, I was humbled and awed. Here are just the fur-bearing creatures on his list of culinary daring:

Tiger
Monkey (both meat and living brains)
Elephant
Dog
Cat
Horse
Camel
Deer
Bear
Buffalo
Marmot
Rabbit
Rat

Compared to this wild list, my own taste for horsemeat seems so. . . domesticated.

A Blog on the Ragged Edge!

Enough whimsy and frivolity! I didn't start this blog to discuss fluff like theology and political theory. This is a blog that lives on the ragged edge. A blog that looks controversy in the face without blinking. So I think it's time for us to discuss. . .

. . .weird things I've eaten.

Mammalian:

Scrapple
Horse
Boar
A tongue taco
A brain taco
Anything cooked by my aunt
Salo (smoked pig fat)
Kangaroo

Reptilian, Amphibian and others:

Rattlesnake
Alligator
Frog legs
A spider
Gizzards

Aquatic:

Octopus
Goldfish
Eel

Anyone else with a left-of-center palate?

Dystopian Dread

After watching both Matrix:Revolutions and Equilibrium in recent weeks, I'm feeling a bit angsty about the future. Not so much for the bleak, soulless existence it seems to hold, as for the fact that Nehru collars will apparently be considered the height of style.

That's not a world I choose to live in.

Ignore the Man Behind the Green Stripes. . .

We at Le Sabot are undergoing one of our periodic attempts at making the place more Metro, or at least somewhat less ugly. This entails me experimenting with various bits of CSS and HTML code. This is matched in ill-wisdom only by giving an orangutan a handgun. And I understand the technological principles behind it all quite nearly well as the primate does. So if things seem a bit off-kilter, they'll hopefully be back to normal soon.

And if the disorder bothers you badly enough, drop me an email at discoshaman @ saintly.com You can help me get this recalcitrant GIF banner-thing centered and in place.

Faves of the Week!

Evangelical Outpost has a good post on reversine and its implications for the pro-life struggle.

Petrified Truth plays off Lieberman's characterization of Dean as Dr. No, with this little photoshopped jobby. Hat tip to: Eye on the Left.

The Commissar talks about Saddam's REAL legacy -- the addition of "Mother of All" into our vernacular. If you haven't read him, he has the coolest schtick in the blogosphere. The Commissar, not Saddam. (Though Saddam's schtick is the funniest thing since vaudeville: "How can I go to the bathroom while my people are in bondage?")

Jen has a good write-up of France, Libya and WMD disarmament. I agree -- thank God we kept France in the dark. If they had been involved, not only would he have kept the WMDs, but we'd be sending him an aid package to offset the cost.

Lastly, check out Mysterium Tremendum, who has deep thoughts on "secks" and the banality of naughtiness.

The Duchess Joins the Blogosphere!

Very soon, the lovely and talented Duchess will be joining the ranks of the blogged. I'll announce the URL once everything is in order. Be sure to visit her for the best in parenting thoughts, Ezzo truth-squading, theology for girls and militant breastfeeding activism. . . Not only will she be blogging, but her standard site will be expanded and improved. More Calvinist goodness in every byte!

Prayers and Sympathy for the People of Iran

For my Iranian friends, I just wanted to express my sadness about the earthquake in Bam. It's awful. Both the terrible loss of life, and the architectural history which was destroyed in the quake. The mullahs have already destroyed so much of your pre-Islamic heritage, and it's sad to see such an ancient city in ruins.

I hope all of your family members are safe. And I pray that freedom will come to your country very soon.

Caption Contest Winners!

We had some GREAT entries for our recent caption contest.

Our winner is Sophorist, with this entry:

Dean: "Hey, has anyone seen my neck?"

Kerry: "Really, it's this small."

Edwards: "Talk to the hand, cause the face ain't hearing it."

Kucinich: "Kibbles and bits, kibbles and bits."

He's been awardd a moderately-coveted spot in our Clog of the Week section. Be sure to check out his blog, incidentally. It rocks me Amadeus.

We had a tie for second place, with Thinklings placing with:

"The Hairdo says, "No -- YOU da man, Hillary!"

Sciolist of the Rough Woodsman coming in with this gem:

"Kerry: "You in the back row, God knows about your recent contribution to my annointed campaign and will soon fill your bank account with a triple blessing!"

Edwards: "I feel the Holy Ghost in this place tonight -- everybody just raise their hands and give the Lord a praise offering! Hallelujah!

Dean: Dean is falling backward after being slain in the Spirit.

Kucinich: Apparently, Kucinich is a Presbyterian."

Thanks to everyone who entered! Watch for future contests!

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Here's a pic of my favorite present for this year, Sushi Pops from Japan:

Passive-Aggressive Man!

I came across a great site today, Underground Online. They have the HeroMachine there, which lets you design your own alter-ego.

Unfortunately, I could only import a B&W scan, but at least it gives you a peek at the individual responsible for all my snarky posts here at Le Sabot -- Passive-Aggressive Man! His special abilities include needling his enemies into self-destructive rage and the hand-rolling of cigarettes. As he is pushing 30, he will soon gain a new power -- the secrets of escrow.

A Momentary Pause for Self-Congratulation

Update: Okay, I was a Large Mammal there for a bit. Ah, fame is a fickle friend. . .

Some Must-Reads. . .

Iconoclast is the most darkly funny political site I've ever seen. Check out the cover for Limousine Liberal magazine, and the O.J.-esque image of Michael Jacko X fleeing the cops on a tricycle.

Monergism.com is far and away my favorite theological site on the Web. Moving overseas I wasn't able to bring many commentaries and reference works. Monergism has been a lifesaver. Also, for anyone curious to explore Reformed Christianity, it has some of the best that has been thought and written by Calvin, Owen, Spurgeon, Edwards, Whitfield, Sproul, Piper and many others. It has a voluminous content, but remains easy to navigate.

For anyone sick of Nigerian spam-mail, we've found an avenger in Mr. Green, who's perfected the passive-aggressive art of spam-baiting.

Here's a sample:

"Most excellent! I am highly agitated to have such an auspicious, pants-fulfilling opportunity to move beyond my frustrations of recent. You see, I have been unfairly reverse-hired from my most recent employment for reasons of which it would be indelicate for me to speak of at lengthiness."

Hat tip to Blackfive, the Paratrooper of Love

In the past few days I've managed to grumble about Muslims, the Truly Reformed and Catholics. So I thought I'd better put up a nice, docile, inoffensive post. Here you go. A picture of a kitten.

Wolverines!

I have to give the Duchess credit. She actually spotted the movie reference in Operation Red Dawn, the op which captured Saddam, way before I did. Did anyone else notice that the two farmhouses were code-named Wolverine 1 and 2?

For anyone not up on 80's films, Red Dawn was the world's first PG-13 movie, and a love poem to Ronald Reagan. Soviet and Cuban troops invade the United States, linking in the middle. The offensive stalls, and "Free America" is divided by an occupied belt. The action centers on a group of high school students in the Rockies who go guerrilla. They name their band the "Wolverines" after the local football team.

Perhaps a bit unrealistic, but totally fun. And just the thing for a ten-year-old boy to watch as his politics are forming. My brother and I actually had the neighborhood kids organized in case the Cubans invaded Florida (in the military rather than the Mariel sense.)

Later, the Duchess and I watched it together as our first 'date' movie -- it was the graduation film at the Christian worldview camp where we met as teenagers. No, we aren't right-wingers or anything. ;-)

Someone in Canada Loves Us

Just wanted to give a quick shout of thanks to Carol from Parenting Decisions for the Christmas package -- all the way from Canada to Kiev! May all your Yuletides be bright, eh.

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?

Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

Thanks to Anti-Climacus for the link.

We Didn't Start the Fire. . .

Apparently, it was always burning since the world's been turning.

As if she wasn't charming enough already. . .

While this is the first time I've publicly admitted it, The Duchess and I were great devotees of Survivor: Outback. It's the only series since Twin Peaks was cancelled that I've really enjoyed. Kentucky Joe's simple faith and Michael Skupin's Christian conversion were both so refreshing compared to normal network fare. But the Duchess and I both thought Elizabeth Hasselbeck's spriteliness made the show.

It was a happy discovery to learn that she's also a conservative. In fact, she's the GOP Babe-of-the-Week. How about that -- good looks AND brains!

Thanks to Evangelical Outpost for pointing out the site.

Life in Kiev

A few people have asked about our home here in Ukraine. I can't imagine summarizing the country in a few pics, but these do capture something of our life here in Kiev. . .

This is a view from our first flat, which looked out on the "Palace of Ukraine", that ugly squarish building on the left. It's actually where the biggest cultural events (except football) generally take place.

This is the statue of Taras Shevchenko, taken during Independence Day celebrations. It's impossible to express his ubiquity here in Ukraine. He's not only poet laureate in perpetuity, but he's also the most visible national symbol outside of the Cossacks. This statue stands in Shevchenko park, across from Shev. University on one side and Shev. Museum on the other and bordered by Shev. Street. There's something nice about a culture that loves poets.

This is the wall mural at our old Metro station. You don't see all that many overtly Communist things these days. But the last statue of Lenin in Kiev stares right into the window of our downtown office. A little creepy. Especially on May Day when he's surrounded by milling, angry crowds of geriatric Communists. . .

Here's one of my favorites. Katya, our beloved babushka, took the boys ice walking and they met a fisherman out on the Dneiper River. It's an exercise in trust letting Ukrainians care for your children. They're incredibly overprotective in some ways (house slippers are mandatory for kids), yet they take them out on ice walks or to playgrounds that seem almost designed to cause permanent injury. We pray a lot. :-)

This is a shot of Andrew's Cathedral. It's my least favorite. Saints Michael and Sofia's cathedrals are both less florid in the architecture, but I couldn't find good photos for them. The street here is the oldest surviving section of Kiev and Bulgakov lived on it. It's incredibly steep, with ancient, rough cobblestones.

Anyway, there you have it, our Kiev. Life can be frustrating here sometimes, but in the end we wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It's a great place to be Called.

Plan Nine From Narcotic Nomenclature

I have a theory -- once they stopped making sci-fi Turkeys back in the late-50's, the out of work scriptwriters all went over to the pharmaceutical companies. Why else would nearly every medication sound like something from Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity? It has to be the same people:

"Commander Paxil and the intrepid crew of the Effexor are on another gallant mission to the Prozac Sector to challenge the arch-nemesis of the Celexa Federation -- the dreaded Zoloft and his army of Trazodone Nardil-bots!"

And these are just the brain alchemical ones. Think of the fun we could have with antibiotics. . .

Mass Caffeination For All!

My bellybutton is puckering and unpuckering at an alarming rate as I write this. The Duchess just brought home an early Christmas present for us -- A French-press coffee maker. Our trusty little Espresso pot is great, but quel cauchemar when a group arrives. Now I can wire everyone at once, rather than in shifts!

On the downside, we've changed from 6% to skim milk for our cafe au laits. I imagine switching from a Porsche to a Daewoo is an analogous experience.

Words You Just Might Use Someday

Trephination -- Drilling a hole in the skull to relieve pressure on the brain.

Our 1,000th Commenter!

Congrats to David Silfry, who just posted the 1,000 comment here at Le Sabot. An honorable mention to Paxil, who actually submitted the 1,000 comment, but was disqualified due to Rule 12, paragraph 2b, which clearly states that Spambots are ineligible. . .

Help Spread the Gospel. . .

. . .from the comfort of your own cubicle!

I can't go into details here, but I've been handed an opportunity to help someone spread the Gospel into a very creative-access country via blogging. What I need is some technical help from one of you high-speed, low-drag computery types out there.

This isn't asked lightly. I would very much like to see this get off the ground. Please prayerfully consider pitching in on this project.

If anyone is interested in more info, please email me at discoshaman@saintly.com

Has anyone else noticed. . .

. . .that Technorati is completely schizoid these days? At least when I check my site, it'll mark that I haven't updated in a week, or it double lists blogs by both name and URL, etc. Was I just born under a bad sign, or is this happening with everyone?

World Blog!

The Duchess made a happy discovery recently -- World Magazine has a blog now. It's updated regularly, and focuses mainly on current events. Check it out!

Logophiles of the World... Accrete!

I've discovered a fellow logophile. . . Dan, a young financial journalist who's worshipping with our church, came by for dinner the other night. Afterwards we were discussing our favorite words in English, Russian and Ukrainian (Yes, we Presbyterians live life on the ragged edge.) My favorite Russian word is dostaprimichatelnosti, which means "site." For Ukrainian it's tyutyun -- tobacco. Then, for English I said callipygian.

Dan nodded sagely and quoted the definition almost verbatim. It turns out that he read and memorized the entire dictionary of his word processing program. At last, someone almost as weird as I am.

Check back manana!

No full-scale blog posts tonight.

Bible study ran until almost 11:30. . . We had a great time discussing John 16. It was an interesting mix of peeps, including a Word-Faither and a dear brother from Berkley, CA. 2 hapless Mormon missionaries invited themselves to dinner (and got more than they bargained for.) During Bible study we talked about the ways in which God uses suffering in this life, and about what it means to pray "in Jesus' name." This is something foundational for anyone coming out of the Word-Faith movement, since the phrase is turned into a magical formula in that sect.

I was able to talk separately with the Mormons for a good half-hour. We talked about everything from the King Follet Discourse and the nature of God to the objective nature of Biblical truth vs. the subjectivity of Mormonism. Tapir-back riders even came into the picture. Everyone was gracious and friendly, but they still looked a wee bit shaky as they walked out the door.

I love my work.

Long Overdue Additions...

I've added some great blogs to the roll today. There's something here to enlighten and offend just about anyone!

For the Slavophile:

The Russian Dilettante should be the first stop for anyone interested in contemporary Russia.

The Politburo Diktat has the funniest schtick I've seen on a blog in a long-time. Pop over and watch him expose "Imperialist Lackeys, Capitalist Reactionaries, and Zionist Running Dogs..."

For the political junky:

A fellow Right-Wing conspirator, or conspiratrix, in this case... Spiced Sass.

Anti-com covers politics and the Middle East, with an edge.

Fellow Believers:

From my old stomping grounds in North Texas Presbytery comes OK Calvin.

King's Kid gives a good mix of spiritual musings and fun miscellanea.

Also check out Honest to Blog for your daily dose of neo-Calvinism.

Just to annoy the Ezzites, particularly Roger Samsel:

While not an Attachment Parent myself, I think they have some good things to say. Plus, Marsupial Mom is just a cool frood.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Thanks to everyone for their patience this past week. Real life has been wonderful, and rich and blessed and many other positive adjectives. It's also been busy. So for those awaiting responses on past threads, thank you for being long-suffering. It's one of the fruits of the Spirit, after all, and so my hiatus is aiding your sanctification process. Or something. Anyway, I should be getting back with everyone manana.

UPDATE- Hurg. I have not gone Garver. Just for the record. New blogpost up tonight, and I should be able to get back to the comments section SOON, possibly even manana. In the meantime, thanks for your patience &cetera.

Mysterium Tremendum!

My good friend Jared has his own blog! Most of us have probably caught him over at Thinklings. Now you can pop over to Mysterium Tremendum for his latest solo musings.

Contrary to my initial impression, the blogname isn't a Harry Potter spell, but rather has a much cooler and more spiritual derivation. You can check it out here!

Colorful Idioms, Lightbulbs, and Somewhat-Special Revelation. . .

I'm in the portion of my weekly schedule that brings to mind colorful idioms about physically-challenged men at posterior-kicking contests. Consequently, instead of our standard fare of insight and somewhat-special revelation, today I'm serving you up a helping of warmed-over denominational humor. Bon appetite!

How many . . . . . . . does it take to change a lightbulb?

Presbyterians -- We don't know, they're still in committee.

Methodists-- Only one, as long as it doesn't offend anyone.

Episcopalians -- None, that's what servants are for!

Amish -- What the heck is a lightbulb?

Church of Christ -- Only one, as long as he's been baptized Church of Christ.

Unitarian Universalists -- We strenuously object to the term "light bulb." We believe there are many ways of darkness dispersion and so would not want to participate in an activity validating the light bulb as the exclusive light and heat source. But, if anyone would like to join us this Sunday at 10 am, they are welcome to perform an interpretive dance or poetry reading on the subject.

And lastly,

Charismatics -- Three. One to change the lightbulb, and two to cast out the spirit of darkness.

Never Forget.

An Opening in the Hermetic Seal

Due to the controversy that often comes with tossing postmodern clogs, the Duchess and I tend to keep our professional and virtual lives compartmentalized. Heaven forfend that all people of our calling should be judged by two such as us. But if you're ever curious what we're up to when not engaged here at Le Sabot, we'd be happy to add you to our email update and prayer letter list. Just drop me an e- at JBush at mtwukraine.org

New Blog!

I've just added The Fire Ant Gazette to the roll. It turns out the proprieter is a Midlander, a town where the Duchess and I spent two happy years. While it IS the land God elected not to decorate, He compensated by populating it with some of the nicest people you'll ever meet. And a multi-faceted dog named Abbye, whom you'll meet over at the Gazette.

At Least it's Not the Smurfs...

Dukes of Hazzard Lunchbox!


Which 80's Lunchbox would you be...
brought to you by Quizilla

An apology.

This is always an uncomfortable thing to do, but I've been convicted of sin, and I need to respond to this conviction.

I wish to extend apologies to both Badonicus and Harry Seabrook. While I still view their beliefs as wrong, this in no way exempted me from the norms of Christian conduct. I veered from these when I indulged in name-calling and personal attacks. I've cleaned out these statements from my blog. The nature of this sin was public, so I wanted my apology to be so as well. My hope is that they will forgive me for treating them in an unchristian manner.

In Christ,

John

Various and Sundry Good Things!

Le Sabot might be a little slow this week. My sainted mother, my aunt and my little brother all just flew in last night from the States. We spent the afternoon downtown with the rest of the city, celebrating Ukrainian Independence Day... I'll post something new this evening, but overall the pace here will be a little less breakneck than usual.

Almost as exciting as the arrival of my blood relatives was the package they brought with them -- 15 CDs of anime, including the entire collection of Ranma 1/2 videos and OAVs. With the exception of J-Pop MP3s and a few badly dubbed 80's-era videos, I've been on an enforced anime fast. Such joy is now mine!

A final note to congratulate a friend on entering the ranks of Blogdom. Everyone be sure to check out his musings over at Theognome's Thoughts. To crib a line from an old peanut butter advert, 'With a name like Theognome, it's gotta be good.'

Orders of Merit

Le Sabot has been going through a transitional period. Many people have helped us, and I'd like to recognize a few of them. We moved to this location just last night, and my former site picked this very day to run out of bandwidth. Consequently, I have no way of telling people how to reach the new site. If you have a blog and would be willing to put in a blurb about the new URL, you'll find yourself on this list as well. If I've overlooked you, just post a withering comment on this thread.

Awarded the Order of the Green-Striped Clog:

1. Tim Berglund, of the self-named blog, for a prodigious amount of work and troubleshooting during the move.

2. Andrea, from Atypical Life, for all of her help with CSS, MT, PCUSA and other incomprehensible abbreviations.

3. John Rabe, from John Rabe for conspicuous gallantry in the face of Duelling Banjoists.

Honorary Saboteur status -- awarded to all those who are assisting in the new Blog URL Awareness Project:

1. Darren from The Living Room
2. Kelly from Badgermum
3. Paul from Every Blog Needs A Title
4. Simon from Big Simon
5. Barb from Whilin' Away the Hours
6. Jared from Thinklings
7. Tim from As I Said
8. Michael from Law on Blog
9. Carol from Carol's Storybook
10. The nice peeps at Kingdom Come
11. Inkling over at InkLING (He is a singular fellow, indeed...)
12. Modest Mouse at Blog Rogov

Test Entry Fun...

Tim Berglund of the eponymously titled blog, has lent his inestimable programming skills to our site move. The site is really coming together. As was once said of Log (tm), it's better than bad, it's good!

So this is to give a big shout out to Tim, a good buddy and fellow traveller. And to see if the post shows up on the new site.

Update- Hurg. Still not coming up. The new site is http://www.postmodernclog.com , incidentally. 125mb of bloggy fun. No more bandwidth and dbase problems for old Disco... I'll keep you posted on the move.

Joe McCarthy Christmas Cookies

The Weekly Standard has a great gag feature this week -- Living magazine if it were run by Ann Coulter. Who better to take over from the formidable Martha Stewart than Coulter, a woman so dominating that she signs her name not Ms, but Mistress?

I'm especially looking forward to the home improvement section: Bob Barr does his gun room, and reading the excerpts from her sequel to Treason -- Tardiness.

I also wanted to give a shout-out to Goldberry She is indeed an insightful social commentator, with a refined taste in books and movies. Her most notable characteristic is a circle of friends with too much free time on their hands (the little scamps...) *eyes rolled heavenward*

Site Rebuild Update

Just a quick note to say that we're working on making the comments section readable again. I'll definitely respond to everyone just as soon as the remarks become visible again.

I also want to take a moment and acknowledge Andrea from Atypical Life for the incredible help she's been to us here. She's done a prodigious amount of work, such that a simple weblink doesn't come close to adequately thanking her. So I'll add a second one.

Update-

Until the comments section is returned to normal, comments are being automatically emailed to me so that at least I can view them. Thanks for your patience as we figure this thing out.

This is not a Fig Newton of your Imagination

Ferdinand and I are working some overtime here in the depths of Le Sabot. The ugly default template was temporary only, and your regularly scheduled ponderings should be back within 3 or 4 hours.

Plus or minus a caffiene break.

(edited about 2 hrs later to add - I have no idea why the sidebars aren't showing up. But we're getting closer. )

And sorry if you looked while I was working on it. Some of it was downright scary.

See You Monday...

The Duchess, our offspring and I will be in a Crimean village for a few days. This entails an unfortunate but necessary break in my posting here at Le Sabot. But dry your eyes! I shall return Monday evening to serve you up another steaming helping of bloggy goodness.

Growing Pains

As we at Le Sabot evolve to a more aestheticallly-satisfying look, (featuring a crazy-cool 70's faded wallpaper retro-kitsch background as Liberal Media insightfully noted) we're experiencing certain coding problems. Thank you for the helpful commentary you've provided during this transitional time (particularly the part about the inadvertently pink text being a sign of latent Metrosexuality.)

If you have any suggestions or coding help for Imelda and the others, please feel free to email them in. I'm a coding null, and they received their programming training at trade school in Manila...

On a happier note, Le Sabot received a mention in MSNBC's Weblog Central. Yeeha.

Praise God!

About three weeks ago God led a young Iranian student (whom I'll call R for safety reasons) to our church here in Kiev. He's been coming to a Bible study at our home on Thursday nights, and said his first Christian prayer here last week. He's just an amazing young man, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to befriend him.

R just left our home to go back to his flat, and I'm sitting here astounded at the power of the Spirit. I'm a Calvinist, if anyone has a high view of the Spirit's power to change hearts, it's us. But how much more can God do than our feeble imaginations ever conceive. Our Bible study is focusing on the Gospel of John, and we've talked about the work of the Spirit in the lives of men. It's a double blessing to be able to watch it happening in the life of a friend.

R approached me after Bible study, and said he wants to put together a 'blog so that he can tell the people back in Iran about Jesus... He wants the people of Iran to have a chance to hear the Good News. It's amazing to me that even though our countries are bitter enemies, through Christ R and I are spiritually united.

God is so good. He is so great.

Excuse our dust...

If you see anything strange here for a little while, likesay a Michelle Branch photo, this is only Imelda and Fernando sweating away at Le Sabot's new and slightly less primitive look. Any problems you experience with the site should be resolved in a day or so...

WANTED: Overwithered, Unflirtatious, Sanctified Sproul Minions

I was just looking through my Awestats for Le Sabot, and learned that my site was found through the following Google searches:

sabot or shelfpiece or overwithered or unflirtatious or liration

AND

sproul or oblong or minion or sanctified or concentrating

If this was you, please drop me an email. Anyone who would deliberately type in a search like that is my kinda freak. Let me know, we'll do some damage to a 4-pack of Guinness the next time I'm in your part of the world.

Caption Contest

Ship of Fools has posted a delightfully weird photo of a nun genuflecting through steel bars to a priest. I'm sure the explanation is all quite simple from an RC perspective, but likely not nearly so entertaining as the captions here. Pop over and see what you can come up with...

Your Deux Centimes...

Many thanks to Carol and her friend Andrea for their help in adding comments to the main page of Le Sabot. Ferdinand, Imelda and little Tomas down in the programming sweatshop asked me to say maraming salamat for them too...

So everyone feel free to weigh in!

One note: Profanity is the language of the ignorant. Any posts with language harsher than Southern slang will be nuked.

Got a burning in your bosom?

If anything here at Le Sabot gives you a 'burning in the bosom,' as the Mormons say, just click on the relevant archive link and add your comments there.

I've ordered the underaged Filipino sweatshop programmers we employ here at Le Sabot to add comment links to the main page. Unfortunately, they haven't been able to figure it out yet. If you have any advice for them, please drop us an email -- preferably in Tagalog.

Aaron has a new blog!

Aaron has a new blog! This is like the 15th one he's organized. College kids always think they're so busy, just wait til he has a wife and a few kids and he'll look back on this time as an extended vacation... Anyway, check out Soli Deo Gloria for his latest theological musings. Aaron is a cool frood.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Anyone jonesing for Comical Ali needs to check out the North Korean news service. While sadly lacking in decapitation threats, it does serve up entertaining whoppers like: "Thus it is indisputable that the mass killings of one million civilians were committed by the U.S. imperialist aggressor troops." It?s also a great addition to the canon of Engrish literature. Here are a few highlights...

"Pyongyang is seething in a festive mood all day long." and "Such moves of the Japanese reactionaries are directly linked with the brigandish design of the U.S. to dominate the world... As it has become obvious that Japan is working with blood-shot eyes to stifle the DPRK in league with the U.S., the DPRK has no option but to strongly react against their moves. Japan had better to behave itself if it does not want to meet its self-destruction."

And we're back...

I won't bore you today with all the details of our trip (that's reserved for tomorrow.) I /will/ say, however, that the French could not have been kinder or more charming. After a year of parrying hostile questions from Ukrainians, a nation only tangenitally involved in the Iraq conflict, I expected a fair amount of it from the French.

Not a whisper. While I retain my healthy disdain for their political culture, I must give them their due on a personal level. They did an admirable job of separating the personal from the political.

Speaking of politics... We were faced constantly by museum closings because the labor unions were striking. Communists clogged several of the metro stations, yelling slogans, singing the Internationale and waving red banners. Hammer-and-sickle banners for the Turkish Communist Party were everywhere. And, my favorite, an abandoned McDonalds had been occupied by anti-globalists and pasted with placards. They literally sat at a booth in the doorway and handed out anti-American literature. I was thankful for the online research I'd done on rude French hand gestures. Dead useful information to have with you.

All said though, a wonderful visit. Even the waiters were friendly. In fact, one of them is a friend now, and might be popping over to see me the next time he visits Poland. If you've been avoiding France for fear of anti-war backlash, don't let it deter you.

En Vacances...

Alas, gentle readers, Le Sabot will be dormant until the 31st of May. The Duchess and I have industriously saved our kopecks, and the entire House of Discoshaman will be in France until the end of the month. Most of our time will be spent in Paris, with quick jaunts up to Normandy to visit the military cemetary and to Tours to see the Loire Valley chateaus. In Paris we'll be staying right down the street from Baudelaire's gravesite. Ah, the paroxyms of jealousy my Goth friends back home are going through...

I can only imagine the separation anxiety you must be feeling right now. Fret not! Soon I will return unkilt by the Frogs and prepared to bring you more bloggy goodness.

Your Horoscope -- 7 May 03

Nancy Reagan has always been a big influence on me. Back in the day, she told me to Just Say No, and I was dutiful. Reading a biography of Reagan, I was reminded of how big a part astrology played in all her plans. With our upcoming tip to Paris, I thought it might be a good idea to consult the stars to see if our dates are auspicious.

With Miss Cleo in disgrace, I turned instead to The Onion's Lloyd Schumer-- Retired Machinist and A.A.P.B.-Certified Astrologer. He had nothing to say about my trip, but there was this bit of insight:

"Though it should be easy to prove that giant robots are not constantly sneaking up on you, you remain remarkably resistant to dissuasion."

Here's updates for those born in other months:

Scorpio: (Oct. 24-Nov. 21)
Sometimes, all one can do is step back and laugh at the absurdity of it all. However, the jury will note that a fire extinguisher was within easy reach.

Sagittarius: (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Your abuses of the American legal system will soon surpass your abuses of the Fayetteville, AR, plumbing system.

Capricorn: (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
After a long, expensive investigation, the World Health Organization will be forced to admit that it has no idea how you slipped through.

Aquarius: (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
You'll make controversial front-page headlines when you're the subject of the nation's first multimillion-dollar asexual-harassment case.

***Note -- Other content on-site isn't NEARLY so edifying.***

New Feature -- When I Become King

When I become king, period nostalgia won't be allowed to last any longer than the era which inspired it. The 60's retro people understood this principle. For a few years while I was in high school some people inflicted herbal deodorant on the rest of us, stopped shaving their legs, and put together a commercialized tribute to Woodstock. After a respectable amount of time they then found day jobs.

The 70's was a decade of excess. The Me decade. In synch with this ethos, the 70's Revival types seem intent on making disco-themed music videos until it's Menudo's turn to be hip (which could take decades, considering.) I can't turn on my television without seeing jive-turkeys boogying to colored lights, all decked out in the fabric of the future.

Get your leg warmers and jelly bracelets ready. When I become king, it's 80's time. We'll all be kickin' it Old School.

Stepmonster

The casual arrogance of many liberals when it comes to matters intellectual is probably their most insufferable trait. When referring to their positions as "Enlightened" opinion, it's easy to get the feeling they don't REALLY believe the quotation marks are necessary.

Many of you know the mental trick of visualizing people in their underwear if they intimidate you. Tonight I vetted Susan Sarandon's film Stepmother for the American Film Club. For the rest of my life, when Sarandon and her hubby Tim Robbins mock conservatives, I'll just remember her maudlin, tear-streaked face in this bathos-fest. Listening to her strident denunciations of the President Bush and the war, you can tell she takes herself very, very seriously. I just find myself unable to do so now.

She's fortunate the Christian Right hasn't founded this mythical theocracy that she and Robbins fear. If so, she'd be taken out to the edge of the village and stoned for making such emotional pornography.

Words You Just Might Use Someday

Today's Word: Pixilated

1. Slightly eccentric or mentally disordered. 2. Amusingly whimsical; prankish or silly. [Amer. 1840-50] Pix(ie) + (Tit)illated.

The Russian Soul as Channeled by Woody Allen

Just finished watching Love and Death, Woody Allen's parody of 19th Century Russia. For anyone who hasn't seen it, he manages to work in everything from War and Peace to Evgeni Onegin. My favorite is a running dialogue composed of nothing but Dostoyevsky titles. The plot centers on a cowardly Russian pacifist during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. Existential fun for the whole family (providing they're all over 30 years of age.)

It's a thoughtful film, filled with Russian folk wisdom such as, "Death should not be seen as the end, but as a very effective way to cut down expenses." It's also highly cerebral, with numerous en passant references to people we might have read about during our philosophy survey course in Uni. This syllogism seemed especially meaningful: "All men are mortal. Socrates was mortal. Therefore, all men are Socrates. Which means that all men are homosexuals."

Love and Death is right up there with Annie Hall for me. The only Allen film which tops it is What's Up Tiger Lilly?, where he bought the rights to a low-budget Asian mafia film, hired the Lovin' Spoonful for the score, and completely dubbed in a desperate underworld battle to possess the ultimate recipe for egg salad. John Woo eat your heart out.

Somebody Set Up Us The Bomb!

More "All Your Base" madness! Another lost soul out there has put together a remix, this one a funky-cool techno beat that isn't to be missed. To paraphrase Margaret Mead, never doubt that a small group of misguided geeks can change the virtual world...

World Ends Tomorrow-- Newspaper Headlines

Astronomers discover that a massive asteroid is about to strike the earth the following day. Given the size and velocity of the thing, it's a given that all life on earth will be extinguished in either the massive impact, or the devestated ecology that will quickly result.

Here's how the some of the major papers handled the story:

Chicago Tribune: WORLD ENDS TOMORROW, SEASON LOOKS BLEAK FOR CUBS.

Wall Street Journal: BLUE CHIPS FALL AMID END-OF-WORLD JITTERS

New York Times: WORLD ENDS TOMORROW; WOMEN, MINORITIES HIT HARDEST

Kickin' it Old School

George Bush puts the party back in Grand Old Party. Watch him get his groove on over at DancingBush.com.

New Feature: Words You Just Might Use Someday

Today's Word: Callipygian

adj. -- Having nicely shaped buttocks. From the Greek.

Engrish Lessons

For anyone not familiar with the inspired weirdness that is the "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" video, you need to check it out. Not only is it a a Web phenomenon, it's a basic primer in Japanese Engrish.

Zealous Demon has added some great photos of Coalition troops and a large dash of jingo to the mix, and come up with "All Your Iraq Are Belong to U.S." Anyone who aspires to be a pop culture maven needs to see this video.

Back in the big, scary city...

Sorry to anyone who pined for Le Sabot during our brief but unavoidable hiatus. I spent a restful 4 days at a conference in sunny Kherson. The 30-hour round-trip train ride was a cross-cultural experience of the first magnitude. While there, the Duchess, our yellow-haired monkeys and I were able to spend an enjoyable few hours on the Dneiper River.

I did, however, undergo a serious attack of news DTs, as our only source of information was the BBC. To watch it, one would think the Iraqi people have suffered more from 2 days of looting than from a multi-decade dictatorship. It amazes me that Maggie Thatcher was able to stay in office so long as she did with such a relentless drumbeat from the Left. Rovian political ops don't have so disciplined message control as these "journalists."

Anyway, good to be back in Kiev. I look forward to posting more newsie goodness in the coming days.

Everlovingly yours,
the Discoshaman

Props!

Just wanted to send a shout out to My Brain Hurts and The New Homemaker, two sites that are definitely worth a second look. And a third, and so on...

The Lighter Side of Cultural Suicide...

If you get a moment, check out this lampoon of modern Political Correctness. After living in the People's Republic of Massachusetts, I appreciate the sentiment.