Friday in the wild: January 14, 2011 - The triumphant return

Years ago, when I both blogged more and read more blogs, I used to do a Friday roundup of the most interesting posts I had found in the previous week. My hope is to revive the habit, starting this week, and covering my little corner of the blogosphere from the beginning of the new year onward.

One of my favourite Christian bloggers of past years, David Wayne, has decided to call it quits, more or less. Having recently suffered from cancer, his blog became a means of updating readers on his health status.

Still, though I sometimes wonder about the value of things I have blogged and deeply regret much of the time I have wasted online I am particularly grateful to so many of you who have read this and have encouraged me over the last few years. It probably goes without saying but I was devastated when I found out I had cancer two years ago. My family and church family was the greatest help in those days, but all of you who expressed encouragement and concern online were a great help, especially knowing that so many of you were praying for me. In fact, all of the comments here and on FB, along with many e-mails, were a huge boost for my family, you encouraged them as they tried to encourage me.

[Read Happy New Year, Time to Shut 'er Down]

Meanwhile, David's set up a new blog on Wordpress in case the thought strikes him to post something again.

I love war stories, and Fred Butler passed on a good one about how the Americans acquired its first Zero fighter and used it to devise tactics against Japanese airmen:

Koga’s Zero, rebuilt, was the first flyable Zero fighter acquired and tested in the United States. A scant two months after Bauman took the photo, the plane had been shipped 2,800 miles to North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego and repaired, and it was revealing profound military secrets in the air.

[Read Koga's Zero]

Frank Turk wrote an open letter to Donald Miller following an appearance on CNN. I give it a B+ for sarcasm. Having now torqued off both Miller and Derek Webb, Frank has resolved to write one letter for every week of the year.

As I said to Derek Webb last week, if more actual Christians spoke to CNN, they'd be improved for it. Thanks for your faithful witness, and for your renewed view of the Gospel. I was worried that, after your last 3-4 books, you had given up on the faith and were looking for something unreal and unfulfilling. I'm pleased to say I was wrong, and I ask your forgiveness for doubting you.

Unless I have misunderstood . . .

[Read Open Letter to Donald Miller]

Tim Challies spotted Marvin Olasky's review of the new 2010 NIV for World magazine. I think I like it better than him.

Fred Butler critiqued a Chick tract, "No Liars in Heaven," for employing a fallacious argument against modern Bible versions:

The deletion of the word “yet” [in John 7:8] makes Jesus to be a liar, because after he tells his brothers he is not going up to the feast, he goes up anyways. Oddly, no where in the entire tract is the KJV named as the one Bible that contains ALL of God’s Words. It is quite a subtle ploy on the part of Chick to avoid mentioning the KJV, or any other modern Bible translation.

[Read No Liars in Heaven]

Screw Loose Change posted that Gabrielle Giffords' would-be assassin was a 9/11 truther, thus lending further support to my theory that you can't just be one kind of crazy at a time. Overall, in fact, they also point out that the truthers have racked up a higher body count on U.S. soil over the last 9 years than al-Qaeda.

What exactly does the Globe and Mail mean by "un-held Liberal riding," anyway? No bias to see here, folks, move along.

Share and Enjoy. See you next week.