MacBook Pro 15″
Part Number: Z0EZ
Apple Remote 065-7478250GB
Serial ATA @ 5400 rpm 065-7451
Country Kit 065-7241
MacBook Pro 15-inch Glossy Widescreen Display 065-7449
SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW) 065-7453
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2×1GB 065-7443
2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 065-7441
Keyboard & Mac OS 065-7459
Oh yay, oh yay, oh yay!!! 4GB Ram kit also on way from Crucial! Oh yay, oh yay, oh yay!!!!!
This is rapidly moving from silly to scary.
This was originally going to be a reply to a previous blog comment, but it outgrew itself. I simply cannot believe some of the ideas and arguments being expressed by certain individuals. Things were bad before, but they suddenly got worse.
For those who have just dropped by, I’d better explain briefly. Over a year ago I expressed the opinion that I liked Barack Obama’s political and religious attitude. Some wingnut mentioned that they thought he was the Antichrist and to my horror, I noticed my blog stats climbing from people searching for “Barack Obama Antichrist”. I posted some tongue-in-cheek stuff mocking this a bit, but soon realised that a lot of people actually believed it. I got two comments today though that simply terrified me. I shall post the highlights here…
Pattie says, “He is and always will be a MUSLIM. … He goes to an all black church to cover up his being a muslim… No one but blacks will ever benefit from his presidency. He will make sure whites never have power again, trust me.”
This is so unbelieveably appalling that I’m not even going to try and argue with it. I’m just greatly saddened at the fact that such views could still be held in a so-called civilised country.
Then Robin says, “barack h obama is related to osama bin ladin ya know. obama is the anti-christ. how can americans vote for a muslim after the 911 inncodent? this is a christian nation and obama wants to take that away from america, obama said this is no more a christian nation . then what nation is it? everything that is happening tells all in the king james version holy bible in revelations.obama is the anti-christ, he was born to do just what he was trained to do all his life, take over the most powerfull nation and make it vulnerable and weak for the biggest war of all time. i will note vote for a muslim due to disrespect to america and the families that lost loved ones in the 911 twin towers and flight 193 and pentagon. its a terrible shame that america is going to be in prison to the anti-christ obama. i hope there is going to be a christian assassinater. obama is the son of hell , the devil.”
Where do I start? Robin, if you check your “King James version Holy Bible” you may discover that the book is called ‘Revelation’, not in fact ‘Revelations’. If your reading of the book of Revelation is as accurate as your reading of its title, then I think we can safely discount pretty much everything else you just said.
I have no idea if Obama said America was no longer a Christian nation, but anyone who does say it is right. It ISN’T. And nor is the UK. Both countries may have a moral and legal system that was originally founded on christian principles, but in no meaningful way could either nation be viewed as Christian. In any case, what is a ‘Christian nation’ anyway? Short of everyone in the USA being converted, it never has been and never will be a Christian nation. Nations aren’t christian; individual people are.
As for THIS - “i hope there is going to be a christian assassinater.” Good grief, people! What on EARTH are you saying?? You want the man DEAD??? This is beyond a joke. What could possibly stir up such hatred in a person?
I am shocked. I am deeply concerned. And above all I am saddened that anyone, regardless of colour or creed, could possibly express such worrying thoughts, bigotry and prejudice. You want proof that America isn’t a christian nation? There it is, right there.
It occurred to me last night that if it turned out that my faith was misguided and I actually turned up in hell when I died, the first thing they would do would be take me to a little room and force me to watch Steve Martin movies on a constant loop.
People, people…. I am getting seriously worried about some of you. Since my tongue-in-cheek “Is Barack Obama the Antichrist” post and my brazenly facetious numerology post, traffic to Mackle has been getting busier, up until a crazy explosion with the beginning of the primaries when my visits increased thirty-fold. As a Scot, I entered this whole field with the curious interest of an outside observer. What I’ve actually observed has been nothing short of terrifying.
The whole end-times/prophetic/eschatological guesswork obsession which is rife on Christian TV has obviously infiltrated the popular consciousness in a big way.
I include here a selection of my favourite soundbites from the comments on my assorted Obama blogs, complete with typos…
“I strive to be ever so careful when discussing such issues and placing names. Still, when I see this guy, something sits “wierd” with me. (It could be the eccentric name) “
“I have just spent the last 30 minutes reading posts about Barack being the antichrist… I thought the idea must be crazy, but my curiousity got the best of me and I did a quick Google search.”
“I never saw his face but only GEARD his words, and his voice and his tone and REALIZED that WTF this man is the antichrist. I never even knew Obama or who he was prior to that “
“barack obama is a wierdo!! he resembles the anti christ! is there any way we can determine if he is or not?”
“It just so happens that Obama is the anti-christ. I believe so and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with any logic I have employed or any racist attitudes that I may have. Fact is, this man is the antichrist. It was weird how it was revealed to me …”
“…and here it is a year before elections and people already are set on him for president. Has that ever happen to a president before? NO…
“isn’t it said that the antichrist will die and then come back? well, isn’t his middle name hussein???”
“I don’t trust him one bit. I don’t for a second buy that he’s now “Christian.””
“Tonight the answer was right there in front of me. When he took the stage to give his Iowa Caucus Victory Speech he seemed cold and distant. “
“I had never heard of him before these elections, he has never really accomplished anything that I have been informed of, and to be perfectly honest, he has empty eyes, very empty eyes. I refuse to believe this man is a christian, I am a christian, that man is not.”
Oh, it goes on and on…
Look, folks. You may not like him. You may have racist attitudes you struggle with. You may have listened to too many end-times date-callers and watched too much TBN. You may think he’s creepy. You may think his policies are bad. You may think his haircut is bad. He may just give you the heebie-jeebies (as my wife feels!) but you can’t go around saying he’s not a christian and even more bizarrely claiming that he’s the Antichrist based on a combination of your Heebie-Jeebie feeling, your TBN habit and his Surname.
As a Christian, can I plead with the Christians on here to get on with loving God, living as salt and light, spreading the gospel and loving each other instead of getting hung up in eschatological craziness. Nobody knows who the Antichrist is - it hasn’t been revealed yet. In fact, who said it was a single person at all?? It could be a whole system, just as Babylon is a personified system. The point is that we have the victory in Christ, these things MUST happen (whoever they will involve and whenever they will occur) and calling dates, times, names and such just makes you look like idiots if you’re wrong, just as everyone who claimed to know who it was over the last 2000 years look like idiots now that it is apparent that they were talking nonsense.
Enough with the wild claims, people, and concentrate on living the life God called you to.
To quote Skank Bangerton (!!!!), the most profane commenter on my blog so far, and who added his nugget while I was composing this post…
“Barack Obama may be the Antichrist. I doubt it.”
Spurred by the recent Led Zeppelin reunion gig at the O2 Arena last week, I searched for my favourite Zep song on YouTube. I turned up some pretty amazing stuff. In addition to some dreadful footage of the O2 gig from somebody’s camera phone, I found this rendition of “Rock and Roll” from 1979. Pity Plant can’t quite hit the high notes…
Then I played another video and to my delight, Plant was singing it as good as he ever did on record. Simply superb. But wait a minute… something’s not right here…
Yup, it’s a cover band. A bunch of immensely talented guys from the States called Yellow Brick Road. They do a show in Las Vegas called RockShow where they do covers of great rock songs over the years. Vocalist Brody Dolyniuk carries them all off beautifully, but none better than his Robert Plant. He actually outdoes Plant on his own songs.
And that, my friends, is quite an achievement.
This is weird. I sat the theological worldview quiz again, half expecting to get a quite different result to when I did it before. I still came out as an Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan (!!!)
Frankly I’ve never thought of myself in that way, but if I move down the list a bit, I wholeheartedly embrace being called a Neo-Orthodox Reformed Evangelical Fundamentalist Emergent. Woot!!
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan - 82%
Neo orthodox - 75%
Emergent/Postmodern - 68%
Fundamentalist - 64%
Reformed Evangelical - 64%
Classical Liberal - 43%
Roman Catholic - 32%
Charismatic/Pentecostal - 29%
Modern Liberal - 7%
Oh boy…The MWSF ‘08 Rumor Mill is hitting full-grind now. So what’s it to be this year? Let’s face it, after last year’s iPhone mania, it’s bound to be something big simply to avoid losing momentum. A brand new gadget? A tablet mac? Steve wearing bootcut jeans?I would hazard a guess that due to iPhone saturation last year, this year is almost certain to be more mac-based. Bring on the hardware! So, if there’s gonna be new hardware, what are the possibilities?The obvious thing for me would be the portable line. With recent reports of 13.3″ LED backlit screen being delivered, it isn’t too much of a stretch to suppose that the long-fabled ultraportable MBP is in prep as we speak. I would say that’s almost a certainty. I’m also hoping like mad that Jonny Ive & his minions have been tinkering with the rest of the MBP line as well. There hasn’t been a significant form-factor change for the MBP for years now and I think the time is ripe. At least a macbook style keyboard would be nice…As for the other ranges, well, the iMac is a definite no-no. The mini, I suspect is beyond refreshing (would be nice to see it replaced by something else - how about resurrecting the cube!), the macPro should get a little speedbump (as if it needs one!) and the macbook will presumably stay as-is. The iPhone shouldn’t be refreshed yet as it’s only just been launched in 1.0 state in most places outside the US. The SDK will probably be shown off, I would imagine and the sales stats bragged about, but that should be all.Which only leaves us with the poor AppleTV. It’s do or die there I reckon. Either something spectacular happens to it or it’ll go the way of the iPod Hi Fi thing that was paraded a couple of years back! SURELY something will be done to it soon….What do you reckon? Go on and post your ideas. Let’s face it- we always guess and we’re always wrong, but it’s a huge amount of fun!EDIT - Well, according to Jim Goldman at CNBC, it looks like the ultraportable is definitely on the cards: 50% thinner than the current MBPs, with no optical drive and flash memory, retailing for around $1500.Will be interesting to see how that translates to pounds… A straight currency exchange would make that £740. Yeah right. The current mid range MBP sells in the US for $2499. That’s £1232. In the UK they cost £1599. What’s with the £367 increase? Entry level MBP - $1999 (£985). UK cost? £1299. £314 difference. The 17″? $2799 (£1380). UK price? £1799. £419 difference!! WHA???
Well, guys, I don’t know how many folks are going to be in the tiniest bit interested in this, but I thought I’d let you know anyway that airing today is a new radio series I’ve done called “Ceol is Creideamh” (Music & Faith) for BBC Radio nan Gaidheal.
It charts the changes in christian music over the last 50 years, covering artists like Larry Norman, Delirious, Johnny Cash, David Crowder, 2ndChapter of Acts, Tree 63 and many more. Today’s program covers the 50s and 60s and the birth of christian rock.
It’s all in Gaelic, but the music is pretty cool even if you don’t understand a word I’m saying! It airs on BBC Radio nan Gaidheal today (Wednesday) at 11.30am and again at 10.00pm GMT. You can listen live or, after the program airs use the Listen Again (Eist a-Rithist) feature and select “Ceol is Creideamh”. Let me know what you think!
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