First, check out this P.E. teacher. He is stupid good!
Hand-Eye Coordination!
I don't know what you normally watch on Friday nights but tomorrow night you must watch Dateline on NBC! Call your friends and tell them to watch it, too.
No, I haven't seen it but I know what it's about and I've seen some teasers, enough to convince me it really is must-see TV. I wish we had a way to record it.
Do you remember the news story from two years ago re. the two Taylor Univ. co-eds who were in a bad crash? One was killed and the other very seriously injured. Only after weeks had passed did they realize they had mis-identified to two girls and switched their identities, burying one under the other's name.
Both girls were natives of Michigan, where we lived at the time. So we got pretty complete coverage of the events, as well as some insight into the two families. Tomorrow night's Dateline is a two-hour special that will chronicle what happened and profile the two families.
I don't want to tell you much about it; I'd rather you learn as you watch the show. But trust me, you will not be sorry you spent two hours on this! It's definitely not tabloid journalism.
You've probably seen the stories about the report on motorcycle safety that was released yesterday. Gannett did the study (they own a string of newspapers, including USA Today, TV stations and newspapers). The report talked about the rapidly rising rates of motorcycle accidents and fatalities over the last 10 years and the concurrent loosening (or removal) of mandatory helmet laws in almost all states.
The report warrants a couple of comments. First, these kinds of stories always show up this time of year. We're coming up on nice weather (well, everywhere but Grand Rapids where it's snowing right now) and that means more bikes on the road. Don't kid yourself; they had this study done weeks, maybe months ago. But it grabs more attention this time of year when people are seeing more bikes on the roads.
The report gave statistics on the rise of injuries and fatalities involving motorcycle riders but no statistics about changes in the number of riders or hours ridden over the same period. One without the other makes any conclusions questionable.
It also didn't distinguish who was at fault in the crash. That struck me as especially odd because the report said there was no statistical tie between accident rates and states with mandatory helmet laws and those without. If they were making a point about the weakening of helmet laws - as they seemed to do - their statistics disproved their point. And their secondary point - a majority of riders have had no training on a motorcycle - loses much of its force if the cager was the at-fault driver. Not all, but much of its weight.
In last night's post I wrote about the importance of ALWAYS wearing a helmet when riding a bicycle, regardless of your age. The axiom for motorcycle riding is ATGATT - All The Gear, All The Time. I never go riding without my boots, my armor-reinforced jacket, and my full-face helmet. If it's too hot to wear the gear it's too hot to ride. And I'm one of the riders who thinks helmet laws should be mandatory. But yesterday's report was lame. On close reading it seemed to be designed to get read, not to provide a complete and thorough analysis of relevant data.
The right case made badly is a bad case.
I spent the morning working on stuff for Sunday. I'm struggling with this sermon. Cf. last night's post about Gen. 22.
Propositional preaching, especially when it's didactic, is my forte. This passage is all about the pathos of the event. So instead of a proposition and supporting points it requires story telling skills. Given the subject matter (it's about a lot more than Abraham & Isaac!) it's a story that needs to be told very, very precisely. Makes me wish I could call in Swindol for the morning.
I'll be doing lots more work on this one before we get there. And doing what they call prayin' through once we are there.
Jehovah Jireh.
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