Now what tables have columns with that name?

This is a great script by Don Hite that will list the tables in your DB that have a particular name. (Not that I have a need to do that.)

Morally Unserious In the Extreme

An insightful article.

Thoughts on Rush Limbaugh

[This post was part of a conversation a friend of mine and I had regarding Rush Limbaugh. My friend, a Republican, was rather upset about Rush and asked if I thought Rush was as bad for the party as my friend thought he was.]

I can't generate a lot of emotion about Rush either way. I've listened to him in the past and found him generally quite amusing. Among his good qualities:

• He is quite talented and entertaining.
• He articulates conservative principles well.
• He really bothers the Left in all of its manifestations.
  

Among his bad qualities:

• He will use selective quotation and overstatement to make his opponents look unfairly bad.
• He can lack charity (love) in his discussions.
• He is more of a political and economic conservative than he is a social conservative.
• He may turn off thoughtful people who would otherwise be open to conservative arguments.
  

But here is what I think is really going on with the whole kerfluffle around Rush: President Obama simply needs a new scapegoat now that President Bush is no longer in power.

President Obama built his entire campaign around two points:

1. George Bush is the source and cause of all that is wrong with anything.
2. Barack Obama is not George Bush

That's it. Everything else (Change! Hope! Change!) builds on these points.

We all know that the first point is simply dishonest. Even the President's most ardent supporters must know, deep in their hearts, that our nation faces difficulties and problems that are not the direct (or even indirect) result of Bush being in power. But it was useful to continually hammer the point during the election, so candidate Obama did so.

But now that he is in power, our President has a problem. It turns out that even with George Bush securely out of the way and the Democrats thoroughly in power in Congress, there are still problems with society. These problems are getting worse. More and more people are beginning to see what President Obama's detractors saw early-on: He has no more capacity to solve these difficult, serious, and complex issues than President Bush did.

So, the administration came up with a new scapegoat. He wants to give his supporters someone to hate, so he turned to one of his most popular detractors: Rush Limbaugh. I really think it is as simple as that. If people are talking about how evil or how great Rush is, they are not talking about how horrible the stimulus package is, or how the President is promoting abortion, or identifying the root causes of the current economic crisis.

As conservatives and Republicans, we do not need to spend a lot of energy defending Rush. Rush does a great job of that himself. What we need to do is challenge President Obama's supporters to move past the hate. We need to challenge them to actually be for something good, not just against whatever bogeyman the Democrats dream up next.

If Gene Wilder had Met Sir Alec Guinness

(My daughter Amanda came up with the punch line and general idea, I supplied the body of the joke.)

Q: Who was the greatest Jedi candy-maker in the history of the Republic?

A: Obi Wonka-Nobi!

Testing Import Into Facebook

I have just set up the importing of my blog into Facebook. In theory, when I post here should then end up as a Facebook note. Does it work?

Let's try adding a picture, while we're at it.

Written While Seeking A Job

When job prospects are wearing thin,
Use buzzwords and the acronym:
Python, .NET, SQL,
MSMQ, PowerShell.
Although they may seem odd to say,
Be glad they fill your résumé.

-Mark Meuer

Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart by Jacques Philippe

Searching for and Maintaining Peace: A Small Treatise on Peace of Heart by Jacques Philippe

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
It is really interesting to see how God works. I have been a Catholic actively trying to live my faith for more than two decades. This book has helped me more profoundly than any book I've read in the last ten years.



What is a mystery to me is why the message of this book has not sunk into me sooner than it did. It is not as though it is presenting something that is new or alien to the Gospel. But it must have taken all this time for me to get to a point where I could hear and receive it.



The title accurately describes the contents. Fr. Philippe has written a treatise on both the importance of peace of heart and how to maintain it.



I have a strong tendency towards navel-gazing and scrupulosity. I have spent a lot of time over the years feeling bad about my sins and failings, or worrying about what future sins and failings I may stumble into. I trust Jesus very much, but I don't trust myself. I know that way too often that I fail to carry through with my good intentions and firm resolutions. And that awareness has meant that I can never really relax with God. For if I am not vigilant, then I might fall into sin and ultimately fall away from Jesus.



What this book has helped me to see is that the anxiety I would feel about my own weakness is not what God wants. What I had viewed as devotion and careful attention to righteousness has been largely a prideful dependence upon my own goodness.



We need to trust God completely, even when we sin. We need to just ask for forgiveness, and then move on. God knows and loves us. Really. REALLY. We need to abandon ourselves into His loving care.



It is funny in a sense: People who accuse Catholics of practicing "works righteousness" should read this book. Fr. Philippe makes it incredibly clear how we can do NOTHING without God, and only as a result of His grace. We have to be so abandoned to God that we don't even worry about how good or bad we are. We simply keep turning to God, trusting Him, loving him, and looking to Him "both to will and to work" in us. The grace of faith, the ability to ask for God's forgiveness is a pure gift. Nothing we do makes God give it to us---He just does.



I am doing a horrible job is summarizing this book. But I want to stress the change this book has already made in my life. Although far from having perfect peace all of the time, I am much happier, much more peaceful than I used to be. I wish I had come across this work 20 years ago.




View all my reviews.