And, once the sun sets ...

Clicking on the map above will display points representing each homicide in Baltimore City. Click on a point to get details about that homicide.

14 homicides so far this year.

- The Baltimore Sun


2008 above, 231 homicides


2007 above, 282 homicides


Iraq- January 2009 US Combat deaths to date: 3 (source)
Afghanistan- January 2009 US Combat deaths to date: 5 (source)

LOST recap starts in 15 minutes

Here's a quote from Sawyer:

"Kids are like dogs.  If you kick them around enough, they'll think they did something to deserve it."

-ABC TV at 8 PM

Plain, Pure and $imple

"The fact is that until a Christ follower learns to put God first in their finances their walk with God will always contain a limp!"

- perrynoble.com

"Help" note leads to police shooting

City police shoot man outside Northeast Baltimore 7-Eleven

By Gus G. Sentementes | gus.sentementes@baltsun.com

6:37 AM EST, January 13, 2009

City police shot a man this morning in Northeast Baltimore after his female companion passed officers inside a 7-Eleven a note that said "Help," a city police spokesman said.

The incident happened about 4 a.m. outside the convenience store at Belair Road and Nicholas Avenue, said spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

(Baltimore Sun photo by Gus Sentementes / January 13, 2009)

The officers followed the woman to a car, where the man inside refused to comply with their commands to get out of the vehicle, Guglielmi said. The man would not show his hands to the officers, and he began to fumble around the interior of the car, leading officers to shoot him, Guglielmi said.

The man was in surgery [at Johns Hopkins Hospital] this morning.

- The Baltimore Sun

Pure evil

Md. father accused of killing children heads to court

Tuesday, January 13, 2009 - The Associated Press

The trial of a father accused of drowning his three young children in a Baltimore hotel bathtub is set to begin.

Mark Castillo is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Anthony, 6; Austin, 4; and Athena, 2, whom he confessed to drowning one by one at the Marriott Inner Harbor hotel in late March. Police said Castillo then tried to kill himself.


Castillo is scheduled to appear in a reception court on Tuesday, where his case will be assigned to a Baltimore City Circuit judge if he does not plead guilty. Castillo's trial could begin as early as Tuesday if a courtroom is available.

- The Baltimore Sun

14

-January 13, 2009

A teenage boy has died after being found stabbed.  17-year-old Shawn Green was stabbed in the chest in the 1600 block of 32nd Street in Northeast Baltimore.  He died at the hospital. Police have no suspects. Green's death marks the 14th city murder this year.

-from WBFF Fox News 45

Macs n' Mormons

-computer humor

Regular readers might suspect I'm no Mac fan, but that's a gross under-misrepresentation: Put simply, my position is that the world would be a better place if the globe was 100% Apple-free.

Why?  Largely because of the transformation that occurs once folks become a Mac-owners. 

Mac-ness is all about attaining True Believer Status in the one true Apple cult.  Owning a Mac actually means being owned by Mac, and devoting one's entire life to participating in and achieving the complete Mac image.

Now that I think about it, being owned by a Mac is like belonging to a cult ... a lot like, well, like what we see here:

Being Mac. Being Mormon. It's Quite Similar.

Topic	Apple	LDS/Mormon
U.S. Marketshare:	6.1% (IDC)	2-3% (Mormon.org/US Census)
Large Installed Base:	22 million (est.)	13 million members
Growing Membership	37% growth y/y	Cited as 2nd-fastest growing religion in the U.S.
Worldwide Translation	18 Mac OS X Languages	Church materials in 178 languages
Focus on Conversion	Get A Mac Campaign	50,000 active missionaries
Monotheistic Culture	Steve Jobs	Jesus Christ
Corporate Face	Steve Jobs	Gordon B. Hinckley
Extended Leadership	Board of Directors	The 12 Apostles
Retail Locations	More than 200 Apple stores	More than 120 LDS temples
Annual Meetings	2 (MWSF & WWDC)	2 (Semi-Annual General Conference)
Second Coming	Steve Jobs (1997)	Jesus Christ (still waiting)
Some Think It's a Cult	Wired: Cult of Mac	Mormoncult.org
Vocal Detractors	Microsoft, Linux	Southern Baptists, Evangelicals, Fundamentalist Christians
Standard Uniform	Black Turtleneck, Blue Jeans	White Shirt and Tie
The Color White	Mac Books, iPods, etc.	White Shirts, Temples, etc.
Music Sources	iTunes	Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Youthful Actors	Justin Long	Jon Heder
Presidential Candidates	Steve Jobs (unofficial)	Mitt Romney (not church-endorsed)
Large Cash Reserves	$15.4 billion	$30+ billion (estimated)
Controversial History	The Newton, Apple III, Licensing	Polygamy, Priesthood, Martyrdom
Stance on Cloning	Against	No position on stem-cell research
Stance on Tithing	One new OS X Release a Year ($129)	Members pledge 10% of income
Ongoing Revelation	Next Macworld!	General Conference, Doctrine & Covenants
Common Misconceptions	No Microsoft Office, Lacks Software, Not Good for Business	Plural Marriage, Not Christian, Book of Mormon Used Instead of the Bible
Actual Reality	15 Reasons You'll Love a Mac	The Articles of Faith

- from louisgray.com

Hey, I can see my house from here!

-satellite images from Google Maps

City Lights

Found a forum this morning that had a pretty lively debate underway: "Which city has the best skyline ... Pittsburgh or Baltimore?"

So I googled around a bit for skyline photos of a few other U.S. coastal cities, for comparison.

Presented alphabetically below are my favorites (and yes, I think we have a clear winner).


Baltimore, Maryland

Charleston, South Carolina

Miami, Florida


New York, New York

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Seattle, Washington

Tampa, Florida

Local 24-hour News

2009 Spike in Murders has Police Reacting
Last Update: 1/08 5:17 pm
"The homicide recently, we're experiencing a spike.  11 murders over the past seven full days of the year," said Baltimore Police Commissioner Fred Bealefeld.

They are alarming numbers but the department says they've already made one arrest from a 2009 killing and have very promising leads or warrants on several others including the shooting death of 20 year old Lougene Williams.

"We need people, religious leaders, community leaders talking to people in the city saying you got to knock it off, you just have to knock this off.  It can't just be the mayor and police commissioner." - source

Baltimore mayor indicted on theft, perjury charges
Jan. 9, 2009

BALTIMORE – Mayor Sheila Dixon was indicted Friday on charges that she accepted illegal gifts during her time as mayor and City Council president, including travel, fur coats and gift cards intended for the poor that she allegedly used instead for a holiday shopping spree.

A grand jury indicted Dixon on 12 counts, including four counts of perjury and two counts of theft over $500. She was also charged with theft under $500, fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary and misconduct in office.

The State Prosecutor's Office, which has been investigating corruption at City Hall for nearly three years, said Dixon received holiday gift cards for four years from several people. Prosecutors said the gift cards were to be distributed to needy families, but were instead used by Dixon to buy electronics — including an Xbox, a PlayStation 2 and a camcorder — clothes and other merchandise and also handed out to members of her staff. - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090109/ap_on_re_us/baltimore_mayor_probe

Unintended Victim

In just the first 9 days of 2009, now we're up to 11 homicides:

(AP) -- Baltimore County police have released the name of a woman who was fatally wounded by gunfire while speaking with family members outside her home in Middle River.

Police say officers responding to a report of a shooting Wednesday evening found 58-year-old Shirley Worcester on the ground outside the home on Whitethorn Way in the Hawthorne neighborhood. She died a short time later at Franklin Square Hospital Center. Police believe Worcester may have been struck by gunfire intended for someone else.

-source

For someone special ... and worth saving

God had to send His Son to die for our sins*, but I still keep wondering what Jesus thought, knowing the choice was up to him.

How could Christ willingly sacrifice himself for the sins of all those people ... billions of people ... he didn't know?

I couldn't do it ... and neither could you.*

So what made Jesus know the sacrifice was worth it?

--   ---   --

Christ was willing to die in our place because he did know us.  Jesus knew that we were imperfect, sinful and unworthy ... and suffered crucifixion knowing we could never do anything to save ourselves or earn our own salvation ... much less anyone else's.  

Christ knew us ... just as he knows our sinfulness ... yet his love was so perfect that he still willingly took the cross in our place.  

Please don't miss this: knowing us so completely, better than we know ourselves ... Christ loved us.  Regardless.

Christ saw something in us that we can't ... not one single exception ... that made every one of us special and worth saving.  Not because of anything we've done or achieved, but so that we could live ...  and have the abundant life, according to God's purpose, that he intended.

By turning away from our smug, conceited opinions of our ourselves ... to trust, know and love him.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, 
       before you were born I set you apart; 
       I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

-Jeremiah 1:5

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

- Romans 5:8

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.

- Ephesians 2:8-9

It was only a matter of time ...

Wonder what's gonna happen next, after the latest request for a financial bailout.

Please pray for our country ... and for its leaders.

Sometimes I think we forget how much God loved us ...

... and turn "loving God" into pleasing, loving and honoring ourselves.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

- 1 John 4:10

where'd my wi-fi go?

Suddenly, first time I've been able to get on-line all day.  Must be the weather.

Just numbers? Really?

- photo from Wikipedia

Since 1998 more than one thousand Baltimore murders remain unsolved.

By December 3, 2008 Baltimore reported 216 murders for the year, significantly down from 1993, when Baltimore recorded a record-high 376 murders.

That was the second-highest homicide rate in the nation for cities over 250,000 in population ... a rate six times higher than New York City, three times the rate of Los Angeles and seven times higher than the national average.  

For comparison, that'd be like the city of Anderson, South Carolina having about a murder per week ... instead of just two for the entire year.

Today, just four days into 2009, Baltimore has already counted 3 murders (with 3 additional potential victims hospitalized in critical condition).

As a result of so much bloodshed, some folks have taken to renaming Charm City Body-more, Murderland ... but that seems so unfair: I mean, we're just talking numbers, right?

--   ---   --

When a church is making a difference, overturning "church business as usual" and surging forward to impact people for Christ, critics can't wait to pounce and find fault ... with spurious challenges like "All that church thinks about is numbers" and "But do such huge numbers really mean quality salvations?

Hmmm.

Almost makes ya wonder if polishing pews with backsides and hiding behind two hundred year old traditions ... losing souls to the enemy the whole time ... don't make some steeple-people grin with self-righteous satisfaction.

Because so long as their number-one priority is "Doing Church the Right Way ... Our Way," they think souls lost for eternity are "just numbers," too.

But many who heard the message believed, and the number of men grew to about five thousand.

- Acts 4:4

So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.

- Acts 16:5

He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

- Mark 16:15-16

The High Price of Doing Things Right

Ug, I live on a 24-year old boat with just slightly more space than a mini-van.

The first thing I learned about boats is that everything designed to be used on a boat, from "marine fabric" down to the tiniest bolt, costs about 5 headaches more than what you'd expect to pay for apparently the same thing at the local hardware store.  

But apparently don't make things so: mechanical parts perfectly safe to use in your house or car would likely rust, corrode or burn out in a matter of months (or weeks) in a salt-water marine environment: a broken bolt or a hose causing a leak under your household sink is an inconvenience, but a leak caused by a broken bolt on a hose clamp can cause a boat to sink.

--  ---  --

For comfort, convenience and safety I added a few upgrades to my boat ... things like an electric oven, fume detectors, extra outlets ... and for economy, I chose to do the work myself.  

Guess what?  I made mistakes all the time, most every time.  

So with all the mistakes I've made, are you wondering how can I trust myself to keep doing my own work?  

It's because each time I made a mistake I had to learn how to go back, fix my mistakes and make things right.

See, I live aboard.  Which means I/me/mself ultimately pays the price for mistakes like drilling holes below the waterline, or for leaving electric cables draped between a hot engine manifold and a 90-gallon gasoline tank ... or for forgetting to close the seacock (saltwater valve) that keeps the bay separate from my berth (bedroom). 

But I've also learned to recognize and accept when my designs and plans exceed (or overwhelm) my experience: that's when it's time to get humble, and call in outside help and assistance.

It's just part of the price of doing things right.  

--  ---  --

Yes, thinking "I can do everything myself!" describes the way some folks treat Salvation.

Once upon a time, I might've tried creating Joe's Perfect Salvation Plan, and felt capable of designing a scheme I really liked (let's say, one that encouraged me to sin as often as I liked), but I realized I still had to face the eternal consequences of what I'd designed.

And experience told me there was absolutely no way I could trust myself to get everything right. Or even, to get anything right at all.

-- ---  --

When we ignore Scripture and attempt to create our own individual, stylized salvation plan ... whether from convenience, selfishness or any other personal prejudice, our vanity amounts to thumbing our noses at God.

It's the same thing as pushing Christ aside, and trying to save ourselves.

That ain't gonna work; it won't never happen: the price Jesus paid was too high for Salvation to ever become dependent on our silly whims and personal designs.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

- John 14:6

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

- Colossians 2:8

What's a little ice gonna hurt?

That's what it looked like this morning when I woke up.  Yep, that's ice.

“The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.”

- Dale Carnegie

Salvation Hopes Fade After Pastor Tears Groin Muscle

Ok that's not really a story from today's news; the actual headline, as we're well into the NFL Playoffs, refers to a current football drama that's making big, nervous news around the league.

Souls Lost for Eternity After Pastor Pulls Groin Muscle isn't likely to grab many national headlines; just lots of local gossip from the envious ... and some nosey, querulous questions ... from flock-folks who're feeling left-out and influence-challenged.

Never mind mentioning the lost: just tell me about today's latest crisis so I can offer my opinion, criticize someone else and feel important.

--   ---  --

Funny, the things we find meaningful and worth our attention.   Funny, all the insignificant things that seem so critical, urgent and important ...

At least, until tomorrow.

Any point in worrying about this?

Dec. 30, 2008 -- Yellowstone National Park was jostled by a host of small earthquakes for a third straight day Monday, and scientists watched closely to see whether the more than 250 tremors were a sign of something bigger to come.

Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone, but it's very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days, said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah.

"They're certainly not normal," Smith said. "We haven't had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years."

- Discovery Channel News

It is little known that lying underneath one of America's areas of outstanding natural beauty - Yellowstone Park - is one of the largest supervolcanoes in the world. Scientists have revealed that it has been on a regular eruption cycle of 600,000 years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago... so the next is overdue.

And the sleeping giant is breathing: volcanologists have been tracking the movement of magma under the park and have calculated that in parts of Yellowstone the ground has risen over seventy centimetres this century. Is this just the harmless movement of lava, flowing from one part of the reservoir to another? Or does it presage something much more sinister, a pressurised build-up of molten lava?

Scientists have very few answers, but they do know that the impact of a Yellowstone eruption is terrifying to comprehend. Huge areas of the USA would be destroyed, the US economy would probably collapse, and thousands might die.

And it would devastate the planet. 

The last supervolcano to erupt was Toba 74,000 years ago in Sumatra. Ten thousand times bigger than Mt St Helens, it created a global catastrophe dramatically affecting life on Earth. Scientists know that another one is due - they just don't know when... or where. Climatologists now know that Toba blasted so much ash and sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere that it blocked out the sun, causing the Earth's temperature to plummet. Some geneticists now believe that this had a catastrophic effect on human life, possibly reducing the population on Earth to just a few thousand people. 

Mankind was pushed to the edge of extinction... and it could happen again.

- BBC Science and Nature