The Dark Knight comes to Wiesbaden

I'm back after a long, drawn out move; and still unpacking boxes. But, I will take a break and go see The Dark Knight. I hear it had a stellar opening in the US; we usually get the movies a week later. Of course, I could go and see it in Deutsch. I'm sure a comic book geek like myself will enjoy it.

Jail Time for Homeschooling Parents

We made it back from a week long family vacation in Switzerland (a post on that later); and are getting ready to move from Mannheim to Wiesbaden which is the state capital of Hesse.

Speaking of Hesse...I read an article posted on Worldnetdaily.com about some German homeschooling parents living in Hesse, that are getting prison time for homeschooling their children. Read it here. The German government is anti-homeschooling to say the least and according to this article federal prosecutors are taking it to these parents.

A mother and father who have been homeschooling their children each have been ordered by a German judge to serve three-month prison terms after a prosecutor said he was unhappy with fines the family paid and he wanted the parents jailed. It was just a year ago when WND reported the prosecutor, Herwig Muller, appealed a lower court's imposition of fines against the Dudeks.

I'm a little concerned (more about the perception of 'homschoolers') but thankful my family and I do not fall under German jurisdiction for homeschooling. BTW, there is a large American homeschooling community serving here. However, this should not be a big surprise. Afterall, Germany is a socialistic state.

Of note: One of the first acts by Hitler when he moved into power was to create the governmental Ministry of Education and give it control of all schools and school-related issues. In 1937, the dictator said, "The youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."

What gives big government? I like what Joerg Grosseleumern, a spokesman for the the Netzwork-Bildungsfreiheit, a German homeschool advocacy group, said: in Hesse a family's failure to follow the mandatory public school attendance laws violates not only administration regulations but the criminal code.

"It is embarrassing the German officials put parents into jail whose children are well educated and where the family is in good order," he wrote in an earlier alert about the situation. "We personally know the Dudeks as such a family."

What does the government have to fear about well educated, good citizens? Nothing.

But according to Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, has commented on the issue on a blog, noting the government "has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion."

The government certainly doesn't want your children to be socialized in religion (read Christianity; perhaps Islam and others are on the hit list too); but it's ok to socialize your children into secular humanism, materialism, etc-- the religion of atheism is straight all right for your children.

I'm raising and teaching my children to be followers of Jesus Christ, students of God's word, and to be good citizens of whatever state they serve. This is not a parallel society; at least not according to our founding Fathers (read what some of them had to say about Christianity and citizenship). In the end, my family lives in two cities: The City of God and the City of Man. We will do our civic duties for the rulers of the City of Man but ultimately we serve the Christ, the ruler of the City of God .

Rockabilly Legend Bo Diddley: 1928-2008

Another legend passes...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

He was called 'The Originator' — Bo Diddley, who with his signature rectangular guitar 'The Twang Machine' built the bridge from blues to rock and roll.

My dad taught me how to play the guitar, and some of the first songs I learned were Bo Diddley songs. I still enjoy breaking out my Fender Stratocaster and strumming away on 'Bo Diddley.'

My favorite Bo Diddley album...

Forget the silly cowboy costume on the front cover -- because this is a heck of a great album! Bo might have gotten saddled (no pun intended!) with a silly gimmick for the title and image of the set -- but the album's one of his best from the early Chess years, and features a rip-roaring batch of tracks that really cut it up in his classic scratchy guitar mode of the time! Lyrics are great -- nearly all originals by Bo himself, with that hip swinging, and hard-wailing approach that was always a lot of fun -- and cuts include "Gunslinger", "Diddling", "Cheyenne", "Cadillac", and "Doing The Craw-Daddy".

Today in History - Star Wars: A New Hope Released

Space fantasy Star Wars opens on this day in 1977. The film became one of the most popular movies of all time, breaking box office records. Filmmaker George Lucas was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenwriter Oscars, and the film won seven Oscars for technical achievements and its musical score, written by John Williams.

I was six years old when I saw this movie. The entire Hopper Clan went stood in line for what seemed like hours at the Cooper 6, downtown Denver, CO. I remember sitting in the smoke (you could smoke in the movie theater at the time) filled balcony section of the theater. Stadium seating, surround sound, a "gi-normous" movie screen accompanied by pretty state-of-the-art special effects, cool plot, blasters, aliens, interstellar space travel via light speed, made this space opera come to life; a remarkable accomplishment

Thirty-one years later and I'm still a big fan (not withstanding the short comings) of the series.

CELEBRATING OVER THREE DECADES OF BRINGING ORDER TO THE GALAXY!

Farwell to a Great American

Charlton Heston, 1923-2008

I meant to post this earlier...

LOS ANGELES - Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing "Ben-Hur" and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the '50s and '60s, has died. He was 84.

The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.

"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played,"

He is one of my favorite actors and conservative 'activists' (see National Rifle Association). He also participated in the big Civil Rights march in 1963. My top Heston movies:

1) Ben-Hur (1959). 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor. 'Nuff Said!

2) Planet of the Apes (1968). Loosely based on the novel La planète des singes by Pierre Boulle.
An excellent SCI-FI movie with one of the most memorable lines of all time: George Taylor (Heston)- 'Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!' Check out the Forbidden Zone for more Apes stuff. By-the-by, Charles Heston makes a cameo in the 2001 Tim Burton re-make.

3) Khartoum (1966). Heston as General Charles 'Chinese' Gordon taking on the Mahdi (Lawrence Olivier) and his army during the Battle or Siege of Khartoum (March 1884 - January 1885) in the Sudan.

Other notables: The Ten Commandments, The Omega Man, El Cid.

Heston's family said in a statement. "No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country."

And now...The Doors

I was a big Beatles fan in junior high and high school. My dad gave me some of his original Beatles LPs (Rubber Soul was one of my favorites) and I started listening to them, on vinyl; and they sounded great. And now...Somewhere between college and the present, I've become a fan of The Doors, probably one of my favorite bands of all time. I had heard them before, as I grew up listening to classic rock-n-roll, but somehow during my college days, I became drawn to their unique sound. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame notes:

"The Doors emerged amid the turbulence of the late Sixties with music that was as intense and complex as the times that spawned them...The group’s dark, brooding personality came largely from singer Jim Morrison. Musically, the other members of the Doors - keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer Jon Densmore - combined classical rigor with freewheeling, jazzy improvisations, providing Morrison a platform from which to declaim his poetical lyrics in a portentous baritone."

My favorite song is none other than 'Love Me Two Times' from the album Strange Days. It's also one of my favorite songs to perform at the local karaoke joints. Good times, great oldies.

Saviors from Space

I'm a big SCI-FI geek and rarely miss an opportunity to catch the latest movie at the theater. Science fiction movies usually do pretty well at the box office. Probably the most noteworthy, oldie-but-goodie, is The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), adapted from the 1940 short story "Farewell to the Master" written by Harry Bates. Like so many movies of the era, their storylines were often set against the backdrop of the Cold War. The Day the Earth Stood Still is no exception. But there is another element that is often missed by moviegoers. There's a great deal of religion mixed in. Probably the most overt example can be found in the Star Wars movies and its use of the Force. George Lucas admitted that he "put the Force into the movie in order to try to awaken a certain kind of spirituality in young people. . . . I think there is a God. What that God is and what we know about God, I'm not sure."

There's a more subtle expression of religion in The Day the Earth Stood Still in addition to Klaatu's stated belief in "the Almighty Spirit":

Scriptwriter Edmund H. North transformed the alien emissary Klaatu into a Christ-figure, implying that extra-terrestrials would be the true saviors of mankind. He did this in a subtle manner, having Klaatu adopt the earth name Carpenter and through the alien’s death and resurrection. North considered it his "private little joke" hoping "the Christ comparison would be subliminal."

In your spare time, sit down to watch Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, and Billy Gray, who played "Bud" in Father Knows Best, and see how many New Testament, Christ-like allusions you can find in The Day the Earth Stood Still.

E.R. on Liberal Theology

Harvard Ain't What She Used to Be

HAPPY NEW YEAR! The past few days I've been getting a healthy dose of NFL and NCAA football. Although my Broncs had a dismal season, they ended on a win against the Vikings (or as they say in Deutschland...Wikings). Now I eagerly await my Sooners taking on the WV Mountaineers in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan 2. Anyway, I regress; as I was watching these college football games, I began thinking of some of the Ivy league schools and their histories. In particularly Harvard (now I weren't smart enuff to get into an Ivy league skool- BA at Colorado State U and an MA from U of Oklahoma).

So here's what I found out about the origins of Harvard:

Harvard University was founded in 1636 with one instructor and nine students with the goal of establishing a school to train Christian ministers. The school was named after John Harvard, a 31-year-old clergyman from Charlestown, Massachusetts, who died and left his library and half his estate to the fledgling institution. In accordance with its original vision, Harvard adopted a set of “Rules and Precepts” in 1646 that stated the following (spelling has been modernized):

—Let every student be plainly instructed, and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only gives wisdom, Let every one seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of him (Prov. 2:3).

—Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of language and Logic, and in practical and spiritual truths, as his Tutor shall require, according to his ability; seeing the entrance of the word gives light, it gives understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130).

In 1692, Harvard adopted the motto Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae—“Truth for Christ and the Church.” The phrase was embedded on a shield and can be found on many buildings around the Harvard campus and various dorms in Harvard Yard.

The books on the shield represent revelation and reason. The top two books that are shown face up represent the Word of God revealed to us in the Old and New Testaments. The book on the bottom of the shield, which faces down, symbolizes the limits of reason and the need for God’s revelation.

A second and earlier (1650) Harvard motto carried the Latin phrase, In Christi Gloriam, “For the Glory of Christ.” Samuel Eliot Morison, in his history of Harvard, writes, “Like the Medieval schoolmen, [the founders] believed that all knowledge without Christ was vain. Veritas to them, as to Dante, meant the divine truth. . . .”

What once was Harvard is no more. Harvard, like so many of our nation’s earliest colleges, has left its “first love” (Rev. 2:4).