BlogSpotting (because I couldn't think of anything else to say)

• Al Mohler finds Spurgeon's words of warning about the emerging doctrinal compromise of the 1870s "as prophetic today as when they were first written."
  
• Brad at "The Watcher Chronicles" agrees that there's a limit to what we can legitimately do in the name of 1 Corinthians 9:20-21. Brad's previous post provided a fitting example of what going too far looks like: a church that staged a boxing match as an elaborate "sermon illustration."
  
• Pecadillo thinks his dog is better than your dog. You know what? I agree with him.
  
• Doug Wilson expands on the concept of "authenticity." He has a typically pithy observation: "These lockstep rebels have no idea that they are wearing uniforms." He also has a droll suggestion about how to respond to people who think piercing their faces makes them "counterculture."
  
• Scott Hill, one of the dawgs at "Fide-o," tries his hand at comic-book design. Well, he won't win any awards for the graphic treatment of the text, but the copy itself is pretty funny. I'd definitely hire Scott as a writer if he were jobless and willing to work really cheap.
  
• Ashley Langford thought everyone's comments on yesterday's post were good.
  
• Donnie Hiltz has figured out the secret of Pecadillo's chiseled good looks.
  
• Jeff Jones recalls how the Biblezine parodies we posted here in July reduced him to tears. Of course, that series touched on the same issue we've been talking about this week: making Christianity cool enough for the kids.
  
  
• Parke wonders if PyroManiac signals a fundamentalist renaissance. We'll take that as a compliment. But if you seriously want to watch the rising tide of fundamentalism's next wave, check out the blogroll over at Sharperiron.org. And be sure you read Kevin Bauder's blog, Nos Sobrii.
  
• Andrew Jones of "TallSkinnyKiwi" fame gives us some of the best publicity we've ever had, with some encouraging comments about the graphic look and the general impact of PyroManiac.
  
• . . . and speaking of good publicity, Tim Challies has a new daily feature linking to some daily highlights from all over the blogosphere.
  
• Timmy at "Provocations and Pantings" draws an interesting connection between my recent remarks on the cardinal points of Christian doctrine and a great article by Al Mohler on "Theological Triage." He also mentions that I mentioned that he mentioned me. (Is there a limit on reciprocal BlogSpots?)
  
• Matt Brown of "SwineBass" commits a Freudian slip.
  
• Ant Adams revisits the Harry Potter debate.
  
• Jonathan Moorhead borrows a picture that premiered here. (I have this uneasy feeling that one's going to make the rounds in the blogosphere. Let's keep it away from Abanes, though, huh?)
  
• Scott McLare, "The Crusty Curmudgeon," who over the years has probably made me laugh more and harder than anyone else in cyberspace, gives me points for buttering him up.
  
• Cindy Swanson likes the way I've categorized her in the blogroll. (Oh. So that's what "convivial" means? I think I had it confused with another word.) No. I'm kidding. Cindy used to participate in an online forum I often read. It was a rather rowdy menagerie of fighting fundamentalists. She was the only genuinely friendly person in a mix of thugs, rogues, miscreants, and potential serial killers. When you can exude grace in a place like that, it really counts for something. (I ought to try to hire her to referee my comments threads.)
  
• Steve Hemmeke reminds us that the gospel ought to change the world, not vice versa.
  
• Tony Hayling liked the eyeball graphic I posted yesterday.
  
• Brad Williams ponders the mysteries of Internet jargon.
  
• Mark Jurries at "Gimmie Back My Bullets" is disturbed by the utter lack of any assurance emerging-type church leaders express when it comes to matters of vital truth.
  
• Kevin Jones at "The Reluctant Puritan" was so distraught when I missed him in my last BlogSpotting post that he wrote a poem about it.
  
• Adrian Warnock noticed the poem and purloined it.
  
• Arjay Stevens credits me with introducing him to Spurgeon.
  
• Ryan DeBarr found "The Emerging Conversation" comic book "hilarious on a few different levels." I think that's a good thing, though I suppose it's possible one or more levels of that hilarity came at my expense.
  
• Eddie Gonzalez at "Reformatus Sum" liked my reply to "Savage Countenance".
  
• Matt Gumm thinks he's on the verge of greatness. You know what they say about the fine line between genius and insanity.
  
• Finally, Frank Turk checks his stats carefully. Be sure you visit him today. Tell him I sent you.

Blogtool Update:

1. The Truth Laid Bare suddenly rediscovered a bunch of links to PyroManiac that had gone missing. It's still not working correctly, though. I've seen several bloggers' references to the vacillating way it accounts for links. Almost everyone's numbers seem to go up and down wildly every day. And some pretty odd blogs keep popping in and out of the top rankings. I've concluded it's giving me stats and other data that are practically worthless. I understand it's only a part-time hobby for NZ Bear. No wonder he's had a hard time keeping up with the explosion of blogs. It's frankly amazing that the TTLB concept works at all without lots of staff and corporate resources to maintain it 24/7.
   
2. IceRocket is still very reliable. It always returns results rather than error messages, and that's good. But it doesn't seem to search as many blogs or index as frequently as the other two search engines I use regularly.
   
3. Technorati finally seems to be fixed. It's been more than a week since I got the "server busy" message. Let's hope they keep it running. It still seems slow to index new posts, but it's at least 400 percent better than 2 weeks ago. If it works for another week or so, I'll put the Technorati link back on my blog template.
   
4. Google's Blog Search, as you'd expect, is already very good and getting better every day. It seems to update and index new posts more frequently than the others. I predict its performance is going to be very hard to beat. But hey, am I the only one who thinks all the tools related to Blogger.com (Google) have ugly interfaces? Between the three major search engines I've linked to here, the Blogger's Blog Search is far and away the ugliest. (My favorite is the slightly retro look of IceRocket.)

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