The triumphant return of BlogSpotting

• A Taiwanese guy who goes by the screen name "Satan" (though he spells it with Chinese characters) says he likes the graphic look of PyroManiac. For those who don't read Chinese: He's using a screen shot from my blog as an example of what he hopes to do with the graphic look of his blog. We'll watch and keep you apprised of how his blog develops. It's nice to get good reviews from Taiwan, but a little disconcerting when the commendation comes from someone who calls himself "Satan."
  
• Carla Rolfe, homeschool mom, pulls out the grammar book—and class commences.
  
• Eric Schumacher has an interesting article on Charles Finney's denial of penal substitution.
  
• Rob Wilkerson has a superb idea for the Fad-Driven® Blog. How'd he ever get that photo of the top of my head?
  
• The tipplers at the Boar's Head are dismayed to find themselves in accidental agreement with something the PyroManiac posted.
  
• David (Andy) Jones at "The Last Homely House" liked the post about Jeff Williams.
  
• Jonathan Felt wants me to answer his every argument in favor of turning the evangelical movement into a political lobby. (No, I'm kidding. I know he's not consciously arguing in favor of that. But he seems blissfully unaware and unconcerned that that's what in fact is happening.) Unfortunately, I simply cannot answer post after mutiple-page post on the subject as exhaustively as he wants, partly because he keeps thinking of more arguments, and every offhanded comment from me triggers another eight-page post from him.
       Jonathan seems determined to put a tar baby in my path. Having been burnt out on politics in my pagan years, I'm not all that keen to devote major investments of time and blogspace debating this issue in 6,000-word installments. But I will nonetheless have more to say about it from time to time. And anyone, including Jonathan, who wants to dispute with me about my position is welcome to do so—as long as you can reasonably stick with the main points, and preferably just one or two main points at a time. (Hint: if you write a ten-page, 45-point "rebuttal" and the first point you make is pure bosh, don't be too surprised, and don't feign outrage, if I respond to that point and pretty much ignore the rest.)
  
• Meanwhile, Jonathan Felt is by no means alone in his views. Scott Klusendorf recommends Felt's position rather than mine.
  
• Jacob Hantla borrows my excuse for meager blogvolume.
  
• Sean Higgins, on the other hand, crows about the fact that his new Titanium PowerBook G4 took him only three hours out of the box to set up. Yeah, well, my GameBoy wasn't too hard to configure, either. Have fun with it.
  
• Frank Martens has a sharp new blogdesign.
  
• Paul at "Cup of Coffee Talk" may be the only person in almost a century to tell the story of Fred Merkle without once using the word "bonehead." That was one of the few times in Cubs history when a weird incident played out in the Cubs' favor. It precipitated the Cubs World Series victory that year. Paul mercifully has omitted another unpleasant detail: that was the Cubs' last World-Series win in nearly a hundred years. They aren't going to break that streak this year, either.
  
• Matthew Self can't think of any metaphors for the PyroManiac. It's not hard, really. Here's one: I tend to think of myself as a melted piece of fundamentalist-flavored gum on the shoe of the evangelical movement.
  
• Brian Colmery is spending six days on a houseboat with a youth group and a plumbing implement lovingly nicknamed "Mikey"—and he's worried the next evangelical fad might come and go while he's away from his Internet connection. I think all of us know what that fear is like, Brian.
  
• My nephew Chris Freeland is blogging. He hates broccoli. Feed it to the beagle, Chris. If he's like Wrigley, he'll eat anything. And I mean anything.
  
• Speaking of non-finicky eaters, Nutria Boy pays homage to my willingness to try strange foods by blogging about larvae-filled fajitas. I'd give "escamoles" a try, but I gotta say, N.B., that picture you posted doesn't make them look very appetizing. Some chef needs to work on his presentation.
  
• Tim Challies reminds us that the worldly Christianity of recent generations hasn't made the church better; it's just made rock 'n' roll worse.

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