First books and music, then toys and clothes. Now, Amazon is collecting money for presidential candidates. Their spokesman says this is a “natural extension of what we do every day.” (Except that I’ve enjoyed the books and music I’ve purchased at Amazon. But perhaps there are people who enjoy giving money to politicians. I personally think politicians take too much of my money by force already, and I am not willingly going to give them any more.)

SEATTLE — Shoppers at online retailer Amazon can now spend money on something new — U.S. presidential candidates.

A new feature that debuted Friday collects campaign contributions of up to $200 for U.S. presidential candidates….

Contributors can donate from $5 to $200 instantly using a credit or debit card, giving to any number of candidates. Amazon said the new feature is a test and “may decide to discontinue it at any time.”

So far John Kerry has taken in about seventeen hundred bucks, and Howard Dean has just over a grand.

Bush and Lieberman, perhaps not being as technically savvy as the other candidates, were not yet accepting contributions at Amazon. I’m sure that will change soon as they see an opportunity to get more cash.

In a very graciously worded statement, the Bethlehem Baptist Church, pastored by John Piper, explains why they are switching from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) to the English Standard Version (ESV). They have been using the NASB for over 20 years as the preaching and teaching Bible of the church because they felt it was the most literal modern translation. However, the drawback of the NASB is that the wording is awkward.

The church decided not to use the New International Version (NIV), even though the NIV’s wording flows so much better, and it is the dominate translation in the Evangelical Christian world today. However, the translators chose to try to translate concepts rather than translate the literal words. Therefore, the NIV in essence paraphrases rather than translates some passages.

In contrast, they find the ESV is more literal and reads more smoothly, thus solving the major problems of both the NASB and the NIV. It is both accurate and more readable. Because it is not as stilted in its wording, it is more easily memorized than the NASB.

Why should we care about how literal a translation is? The article gives four reasons.

1. A more literal translation respects the original author’s way of writing. It is a way of honoring the inspired writers.

2. Translators are fallible and they may mislead the English reader if they use unnecessary paraphrases to bring out one possible meaning and conceal others.
3. A more literal translation gives preachers more confidence that they can preach what the English text says with authority that it reflects what the original Greek or Hebrew text says.
4. A more literal translation which preserves ambiguities that are really there in the original keeps open the possibility of new insight by future Bible readers.

The article also gives some specific examples of differences between the NIV and ESV.

• Romans 3:20
  
  ESV By works of the law (ex ergon nomou) no human being will be justified in his sight.

  NIV No one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law.

• Romans 11:11
  
  ESV Did they stumble in order that they might fall (hina pesosin)? By no means!

  NIV Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all!

• Romans 13:8
  
  ESV Owe no one anything (Medeni meden opheilete), except to love each other.

  NIV Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another.

• Hebrews 6:1
  
  ESV . . . not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works (nekron ergon)

  NIV . . . not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death.

John Piper says that he “would like to see the English Standard Version become the most common Bible of the English-speaking church, for preaching, teaching, memorizing, and study.”

I have used the New King James Version (NKJV) for more than ten years for the very reasons Bethlehem is moving to the ESV. They don’t mention the NKJV, so I don’t know why they did not move to use it. But I do think I will take a look at the ESV. It is a translation that is available online at the Bible Gateway. I’m curious if anyone else has used it yet and what they think of the ESV.

Q.74. What does the eighth commandment require?

A. The eighth commandment requires that we lawfully acquire and increase our own and others’ money and possessions.

On 21 January, a man was sentenced to three and a half years for an attempted robbery in England. On 29 September 2003, Michael Watt came into the Heath Stores and saw that Lorraine Avery was working alone. He pulled a kitchen knife and demanded that she give all the money in the cash register. As she stalled for time, he became angry.

"I looked for something to hit him with but there was nothing to hand. I was frightened to take my eyes off the knife and the nearest thing was a big bottle of salad cream so I grabbed it and squeezed it all over his clothes.

"I thought if he hurts me, people will know it’s him by what is on him.

"He kept coming at me with the knife and I kept squirting him with the salad cream. It was all over his jacket and trousers."

She eventually forced Watt to flee the store without getting the money. Police responding to the call simply followed the trail of salad dressing and found him several blocks away trying to clean his clothes.

Now we know: the salad cream is mightier than the kitchen knife.

Source: Dave Barry’s Blog

AP Photo:

Caption: “A Chinese woman, performing at a temple fair in Beijing, puts a snake down her throat and removes it on the third day of Chinese New Year Saturday, Jan. 24, 2004. Thousands have flocked to fairs across the city to celebrate a weeklong holiday which marks the beginning of the Year of the Monkey. (AP Photo) “

As appealing as this is, I’ll just have the spaghetti.

PennDot is raising the Turnpike fares 42%, reportedly for repairs to the road that is constantly under repair. But according the the Philadelphia Inquirer, it seems that PennDot also has to bear other costs than just repairing the roads.

A state audit details lax oversight and fraud…. When the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation set out to reward 159 state workers for job performance in December 2001, it invited them and 25 others to Philadelphia for two days of revelry that cost the state nearly $63,000.

At a news conference yesterday at the state Capitol, Auditor General Robert P. Casey Jr. also reported that a review of PennDot’s use of state-issued purchasing cards showed lax oversight and turned up examples of fraud.

Casey released preliminary findings of the audits, conducted in 2001-02, in February. Since then, Transportation Secretary Allen D. Biehler said, spending on “employee recognition” events, which amounted to nearly $700,000 in fiscal 2001-02, has been reduced to just $5,000 in the current year….

The report also said PennDot had spent thousands of dollars to put its logo on everything from tape measures and umbrellas to thermometers and golf balls.

I do not expect that the PA Turnpike will be in any better repair after the fare increase. But when I am paying 42% more on the PA Turnpike, I can be comforted by thinking of all the golf balls with PennDot logos I am buying for PennDot employees.

It appears that Microsoft was stung by the bad press of their heavy handed tactics to pressure a 17 year old boy to abandon his web site name. Mike Rowe has a web site: www.mikerowesoft.com. Most people would think it was clever name, but Microsoft threatened to sue Mike for copyright infringement.

But now Microsoft has changed tactics and has now offered to pay for moving him to a new site, give him an Xbox, and pay for Microsoft certification training.

The Microsoft spokesman “conceded Microsoft’s original approach was ‘admittedly maybe impersonal.’”

I think Mike should hold out for a Sony PS2.

Headline AP: U.S. Helicopters That Have Crashed or Be

I remember just a day or so before we visited the National Zoo in Washington D.C. a few years ago, there was a report in the news about a gang related shooting at the zoo. I remember thinking 1) I was glad we were not there on the day of the shooting and 2) How could there be a shooting in Washington D.C.? They have banned handguns.

I remembered that shooting when I saw this headline.

Headline AP: Panel Looks Into Deaths at National Zoo

But it turns out that this report is about the death of animals, not people and now the National Zoo is being investigated for a couple dozen animal deaths. Some of the more notable:

• In 2000, a zebra starved to death when the zoo cut back its diet. Who wants to see fat zebras?
• In 2002, a lion died from complications of anesthesia. Good night, lion.
• In 2003, two red pandas died from eating rat poison exterminators buried in their inclosure in an attempt to get rid of the rodents. Well, the red pandas kind of look like big rats. Who knew?

If this were the video game, Zoo Tycoon, I’d say they lost this round.

Headline AP: Workers Taped Together Explosive Pieces

WASHINGTON – Workers at the only U.S. factory for dismantling nuclear weapons risked an explosion this month by taping together broken pieces of high explosive being removed from the plutonium trigger of an old warhead, federal investigators said.