Gerry Charlotte Phelps

Between Us and the Fire

Quiet, everyday heroes.  How many are there?  What does it cost them?

                                 CLICK here FOR VIDEO

Where do we go to thank them?

(Hat Tip to Joan Archibald.  Image from annasslant.com )

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison Targets Biofuels

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"Undoing America's Ethanol Mistake," Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison , April 25, 2008

"The Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once said, 'One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.'"

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In the International Business Daily on Friday, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison came out opposing ethanol production, offering other energy alternatives.  She said:

When Congress passed legislation to greatly expand America's commitment to biofuels, it intended to create energy independence and protect the environment.

But the results have been quite different. America remains equally dependent on foreign sources of energy, and new evidence suggests that ethanol is causing great harm to the environment.

She points to the connection between biofuels and soaring food prices.

"...the correlation between government biofuel mandates and rapidly rising food prices has become undeniable... . Nearly all our domestic corn and grain supply is needed to meet this (government) mandate, robbing the world of one of its most important sources of food...

Last year, 25% of America's corn crop was diverted to produce ethanol. In 2008, that number will grow to 30%-35%, and it will soar even higher in the years to come...

Furthermore, the trend of farmers supplanting other grains with corn is decreasing the supply of numerous agricultural products. When the supply of those products goes down, the price inevitably goes up.

Subsequently, the cost of feeding farm and ranch animals increases and the cost is passed to consumers of beef, poultry and pork products.

Since February 2006, the price of corn, wheat and soybeans has increased by more than 240%. Rising food prices are hitting the pockets of lower-income Americans and people who live on fixed incomes.

There are other contributing factors, but

— the expansion of biofuels has been a major source of the problem.

The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that biofuel production accounts for between one-quarter and one-third of the recent spike in global commodity prices.

For the first time in 30 years, food riots are breaking out in many parts of the globe, including major countries such as Mexico, Pakistan and Indonesia.

The fact that America's energy policies are creating global instability should concern the leaders of both political parties.

As a recent Time cover story pointed out, biofuel mandates increase greenhouse gasses and create incentives for global deforestation.

In the Amazon basin, huge swaths of forest are being cleared to meet the growing hunger for biofuels.

In addition, relief organizations are facing gaping shortfalls as the cost of food outpaces their ability to provide aid for the 800 million people who lack food security.

What should we do then?

The best way to lower energy prices, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, is to accelerate production of all forms of domestic energy.

Expanding biofuels while refusing to take other measures, such as lifting the ban on oil and natural gas production in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf, is counterproductive. We should be tapping into a broad portfolio of energy options, including clean coal, nuclear power and wave energy.

The key is increasing energy supply. By taking these measures, we can enable biofuels to be part of the energy solution, instead of contributing to the energy problem.

She is introducigt legislation to freeze the "biofuel mandate" at current levels, instead of steadily increasing it through 2022..

This is a common-sense measure that will reduce pressure on global food prices and restore balance to America's energy policy.

At one point, expanding biofuels made sense for America's energy security. But the recent surge in food prices has forced us to adapt. The global demand for energy and food is expected to rise about 50% in the next 20 years...That will require a careful, finely tuned approach to America's farm products.

By freezing the biofuel mandate at current levels, we will go a long way to achieving that goal.

(Hutchison is a member of the Senate Republican leadership and the senior senator from Texas.  Tead the whole article at http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=294015465776712 )

The Importance of the UMC Judicial Council

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The UMC Judicial Council is the UM equivalent of the Supreme Court, where final decisions are made on the legal decisions made lower down in the UMC judicial system.  Its role is not to make church law - on the contrary.  Only the General Conference can do that.   Rather, it is to ensure that the UM judicial system upholds church law.  The Judicial Council's task is not to nullify that law or to change it by judicial fiat, but to enforce it

On Monday the General Conference will receive nominations for the Judicial Council.  Church Agencies, the Bishops and the Reform Conference will all present lists of nominees.

The concern should be to nominate people who agree to fulfill the lawful role of the Judicial Council, and not to nullify it in order to reach conclusions counter to church law.  Thwarting the will of the representatives of a majority in the church who are elected every four years to make church law in the General Conference is undemocratic.  The UMC claims to be democratically-run.  The only way to do that is to respect the General Conference's role as the only law maker of the church.

When people are unhappy with church law, they have the option of trying to persuade the General Conference to agree with them.  They have no business trying to nullify that law through other, anti-democratic processes.

Watch carefully who is elected to the Judicial Council.  It will be one of the most important things that can happen at General Conference this time.

This is a time to pray for the General Conference Delegates, that God will guide them in selecting the right Judicial Council members.

Sandhill Cranes and Their Nestling

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Sandhill Cranes with their chick at http://groverphoto.phanfare.com/slideshow.aspx?username=groverphoto&album_id=304621.  This slide show with music is lovely, lovely!  Too good to miss! 

(It is not long, but is a loop, so you may see it more than once without meaning to.  Just stop when you choose.)

This is the story:

A Sandhill Crane pair recently added to their family, in the Suntree area of Florida, Viera, south of Cocoa and Titusville.  When they built their nest at the water's edge, it immediately drew the attention of passers-by.  Soon there were two eggs on top of the nest, and the mother on top of them.

The really curious passed by every morning and stopped their cars to get out and see if there were any new cranes yet.  Many brought cameras and stood near the water for long periods of time, hoping to catch a photo of the hatching.  You will see them lined up in some of the photos.

Robert Grover, a dentist, didn't actually catch the birth, but he got some fabulous shots of the Momma, Papa and baby.  (The second egg never did hatch.)  Then he put together this fabulous slide show with music.

(Hat Tip to Robert Martin.  Thanks, Bob!)

Running the Methodists Out of Russia

To see video, click on this link:  A Crackdown on Russian Protestants

"At Expense of All Others, Putin Picks A Church" according to the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/world/europe/24church.html?th&emc=th   

After the USSR imploded in 1991, and suddenly was open to the world after being tightly sealed for so long, Western Protestant missionaries flooded into Russia.  They made remarkable gains until 1997, when opposition to them began to stiffen.  Now the Protestants, at about 2 million of Russia's 142 million people, are finding their proselytizing severely limited.  Even their ability to worship together is under attack.

Putin recently associated himself with the Russian Orthodox Church, and sometimes wears a cross now.  See the video above for a description of how badly this has worked out for Protestants in Russia.  The general feeling seems to be that the Protestants are a foreign influence, financed by the West and perhaps being used for spying on Russia.  The hostility is not just from the government, but from ordinary Russians as well.

(Hat Tip to Allan Bevere at http://arbevere.blogspot.com/ and Dave Camphouse at http://revcamp.blogspot.com/2008/04/methodists-run-out.html)

Looming U.S. Farm Crisis, Due To Biofuels

                             (Image from Charlie Heibergall, AP)

The AP writes "...concerns are mounting that American farmers could be edging toward a financial crisis not seen since the 1980s farm-economy collapse." 

What has happened?  With ethanol subsidies, things should be looking up for many farmers.  Yet those same ethanol subsidies and the rise in crop prices they brought, have also caused the price of farmland to soar.

Rising land prices have raised the equity that farmers have in their land, which means they can borrow more.  That helps them borrow money to buy more land, fertilizer and seed, and upgrade their equipment.

If the rising demand continues, good times will continue too.  But if demand falls, they will be in an over-extended position with high debt.  The farm economy could crumble.

Because of soaring world hunger, governments will come under great pressure to cut back on subsidies for biofuels - ethanol from corn, and biodiesel from soybeans..  Both crops are essential to feed people and livestock all over the world.

Flinchbaugh and others said the agricultural economy bears a striking resemblance to that seen in the mid-1970s, when a seemingly insatiable demand from U.S. crops drove up land valuess and farmers took advantage of their soaring equity to increase debt.  When federal policy changed and demand suddenly dropped, land values and farm income plunged, forcing thousands of farmers to bail out and leading to the failure of nearly 300 agricultural banks.

Economists worry that farmers could be tempted to add debt due to the belief that high commodity prices would continue...Those prices have been driven up by a strong demand for corn and soybeans from countries such as China and India, coupled with the needs of more than 50 corn-reliant ethanol plants built in the last few years.

Environmentalists were the ones who drove the U.S. and European governments to promote biofuels.  The resulting U.S. biofuel subsidies are what is behind a situation that is endangering many American farmers.

We need to correct the hunger/biofuel problem in a way that does not abuse American farmers.  Congress, not farmers, voted for these subsidies.  It is up to Congress to work out a way to do what is best, without injuring the farmers they put at risk with their ill-advised, hasty action.

Our Lost Young Savages - Today's Newly-Criminal Children

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A 16 year old girl is lured to another house and beaten by six other teen girls, with two teen boys standing guard outside the house. They start by smashing her head into a wall, knocking her out.  When she comes to, they beat her for another half hour.  It is all videoed, at » Watch Full Video «  The victim suffers a concussion, damage to an ear and eye, and still has some vision loss.

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In a school cafeteria, with a student filming the incident, a 13 year old girl picks up a folding chair, walks up behind a 12 year old girl, and slams her over the head with the chair.  The 12 year old drops to the floor, unconscious.

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On a playground, some 10 and 11 year old girls pull another girl, 10, to the ground, kick and stomp her head and body mercilessly.  The girl is in the hospital with several fractures in one hip, waiting for a hip replacement.

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In a middle school, a classroom teacher calls the class to order.   A teen girl advances on her, knocks her to the floor and kicks her in the head.  What did the authorities do?  The principal said the teacher triggered the attack.  The student was returned to the same class.  So far, no disciplinary action against the girl.

With a friend filming a video, a group of boys advance on a couple of young teen boys, beat them senseless, and exit, leaving them lying motionless on the pavement.  (I've seen this video, but can't find it now.  Help, anyone?)

In each case, the perpetrators proudly posted the videos on MySpace or some other venue for their friends to see.

Someone once said that each generation has to deal with a new wave of barbarians - their children.  But it was understood then that would happen only if we did not raise our children well.

What have we wrought?  What do we do now?  And how long do we have before it is too late for another generation?

Indianapolis Robber Shoots Pregnant Teller in Stomach

Have you seen this jerk?

He leaped over the bank counter, shot one person, grabbed the money and ran.  The teller  he shot was 5 months pregnant, with twins.  That would make her tummy very big, very noticeably big.  There was no way he would not see that she was very pregnant.  Where did he shoot her?  In the abdomen. 

The bullet missed both the twins.  But they and their mom are still in critical condition in the hospital.

The Indianapolis police want this guy real bad.  Can you help?

Story at http://dotherightthing-cyberpastor.blogspot.com/2008/04/outrage-in-indy-do-you-know-this-person.html .

Islam Permits Sexual Abuse of Baby Girls

See this incredible video, by an unbelievably brave Muslim woman, who says on public television in an Arab country that Islam permits the sexual abuse of baby girls.

You will not believe this interview!  But don't skip it.  It needs to be seen in the West.

Then read the heart-breaking story, below, of a brave little 8 year old girl in Yemen who had the courage to actually go to court to get out of the marriage her father forced her into with a 28 year old man.  When the marriage contract was signed, the man said he would not consumate the marriage sexually until the girl was 18.  But within a week her parents forced her to go live with him anyhow, and he compelled her to have sex with him. 

The lucky little second grader won her case, and was given a divorce.  Then the court allowed her to go to live with an uncle, so that she would not have to return to her abusive parenta.  This writer commented that she would be very lucky if the uncle did not abuse her too.

Her whole story at http://dotherightthing-cyberpastor.blogspot.com/2008/04/child-abuse-in-islam.html. 

These Arab commentators say that even though the laws of the land may require rights for women, that in practice the laws do not matter.  Women are considered as sort of half-persons, not a real person like a man.  Look at some of the related videos at the link below.  We hear about women being like slaves in Muslim countries, but it doesn't seem to really register.  It seems unreal to us.  These videos help us understand how real it is.

More and more former Muslims are writing, trying to help us understand what it is like to live in a Muslim country.  Their English may not be perfect, but who cares?  Their courage is what we should focus on.

See these other related videos on Youtube.  If you run across one that has no English at all, just go on to the next one.  Start here.

Time for a Laugh Break!

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Just take a minute.  This will make you laugh until you cry and shout.  No kidding!  Click here.

Here is the story behind this:

CAR ACCIDENT IN TEXAS...PRICELESS!!

Turn up your sound, and click on the link.

This accident happened in the Dallas - Ft. Worth area and you must listen to it.  It is a phone call from a man who witnesses a car accident involving four elderly women.

It was so popular when they played it on CHUM FM that they had to put it on their website.

The guy's laugh is contagious.  If you close your eyes and picture what he is watching, it is even better than a video clip!

(Hat Tip to Fritz Parker)

A Time of Decision

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The UMC General Conference begins in two days in Ft. Worth.  Held every four years, this is the body that determines church law.  It is usually a contentious conference, in a mainline church much concerned about a 40-year decline and a graying membership with an average age of 60.

At such a time, a new book - "Taking Back the United Methodist Church" by Mark Tooley - could help clarify key issues, from the point of view of the UMC majority in the pews.

The book has some very positive reviews:  The Rev. Richard Neuhaus, Editor in Chief of First Things, says:

You don't have to be a Methodist to be intensely interested in the integrity of faith and life in a Christian community whose influence touches us all.  We are indebted to Mark Tooley for this lively account of the heirs of John Wesley who are fighting the good fight.

Also from Dr. Ira Galloway, Asst. Exec. Dir. of the Confessing Movement:

Mark Tooley has been one of the significant players in the renewal movement in the UMC.  In this book he gives a clear overview of his work and the work of UMAction to restore United Methodism to its historic role as an Apostolic Church.

    Mark Tooley

(Image:christianpost.com)

Mark Tooley agreed to be interviewed online by this blog.  The interview follows below.

1.   How did you come to your view of the UMC?

From growing up in my local church in Arlington, Virginia, which was a typical UM congregation, with mostly traditional beliefs about Christianity.

2.  How did the UMC agencies get started?  Who holds them accountable?  Should they continue to exist?

They evolved over time within the Methodist system, formally being established by the governing General Conference, which meets every 4 years.  They are governed by boards of directors elected by the quadrenial jurisdictional conferences.  Yes, we need church agencies to continue the ministry of the church, but the bureaucracy needs to be pruned and reorganized, making it more accountable.

3.  What do you see as the major struggle in the UMC at this time?

Helping the evangelical majority within our denomination work to reclaim the church bureaucracy so that once again it is fully oriented towards traditional Methodist beliefs and accountable to the church's membership.

4.  What should the General Conference do, and not do, in 2008?

It should reaffirm our church's traditional beliefs on theology and sexuality, integrate the overseas United Methodists more fully into our governing structures, and mandate that the church agencies be reoriented toward the church's priorities.

5.  How should UMC members help change the UMC?

By becoming involved in church governance, serving on local church administrative boards, going to the annual conference, serving on conference committees,  and ultimately getting elected to General Conference.  And they should help inform their local congregation about what is happening in the denomination.

6.  What should the UMC do to grow?  How can it best serve Christ?

The UMC should return to its historic Wesleyan emphases on salvation, transformation and holiness.

(Mark Tooley is Director of UMAction, of the Institute for Religion and Democracy.)

"A Tact Attack"

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From Rubel Shelly's "FAX of Life" today:

My wife tells me I'm seriously deficient in the tact department.  I tend to be direct, clear and forthright.  (Those are my terms.)  She thinks I am inclined to err on the side of being a bit abrupt and blunt.  (At least, she fears that my candid manner can be perceived in those negative ways.)

Even so, I don't think I'm quite as bad as one fellow I heard about.  When Fred went to Europe, he left his beloved dog with his brother Ed.  Three days into his trip, Fred called back to check on things.  "So how is my dog?" he asked.

"He's dead!" replied Ed.  No nonsense.  Straight to the point.

"What?" screamed Fred.  "You can't just hit somebody with news like that!  You have to ease your way into it.  Lay a groundwork for it.  Use some tact."

"Explain what you mean," said his brother.

"Maybe you could have said something about Old Fido being up on the roof.  You reassure me you have it under control and that everything is going to be fine.  When I call the next day, maybe you could say he jumped off and broke his leg, but the vet said he would make a complete recovery.  He's just going to have to spend a few days in the clinic," he explained.  "Are you following me?"

"Sure," said Ed.  "I'm not stupid, you know!"

"Okay," Fred continued..  "When I call back the next day, you could say there were complications and that my dog had died.  That way it wouldn't be such a blow.  That way you could have gotten me ready for bad news.  Understand?"

"Yes, I've got it," Ed told him.  "I'll try to do better from now on."

"Good," said Fred.  I'm glad that's settled.  So how's Aunt Helen?"

"Well," Ed began hesitantly, "she's out on the roof right now."

Some news is hard to receive or to communicate.  Some facts are simply unpleasant.  And all of us need a couple of friends who care enough about us to be really and truly honest with us - and to hold us accountable.  Like Fred, though, all of us would appreciate a modicum of tact and gentleness thrown in.

If you're struggling today with unpleasant or painful truth that needs to be shared, you are not doing anyone a favor by avoiding the task.  But think before you speak.  Don't use a cover such as "brutal honesty" to mask what everyone else will see as "honest brutality."  No swatting the fly on a friend's forehead with a meat cleaver!  Think and pray before you speak.  Then speak with gentleness.

Solomon had it right.  "Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses."  (Proverbs 27:6)  Nobody benefits from false flattery.  Being a "yes man" (or woman) to a person who needs accountability and loving criticism is a sophistry that will come back to haunt you.

Be kind and have the right motive.  But care enough to speak the truth.

(See Rubel Shelly's weekly "The FAX of Life" at www.RubelShelly.com.)

So THAT'S Why Muslims Hate the Jews So!

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Recently Spengler wrote something that opened up for me a new possibility that could explain the rabid, inexplicable hatred of Muslims for Israel and the Jews.  Here is the quote:

Islamic governments cannot accept the return of the Jews to Zion according to Biblical prophecy, for this would question the Koran's claim to be a final revelation to supplant the Judeo-Christian scriptures.

That is, if ancient Jewish prophecy were being fulfilled now, the Koran - which came after those old prophecies and contradicted them - could not possibly be what it claims to be: the last word on prophecy.

That could also explain why Muslims deny that there was ever any Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock Mosque stands now - to the point that they go to great lengths to thwart any tunneling beneath the Mount by archeologists looking for artifacts from the three previous Jewish temples ( Solomon's Temple, the smaller temple built by the returning Jewish exiles 70 years after Solomon's Temple was destroyed, and Herod's temple of the time of Jesus, later destroyed by the Romans.)

There are other reasons they hate the Jews, even if they are not as basic as undermining the very foundation of Islam.

One is that the nation of Israel is so successful, while Muslim nations are mostly unsuccessful.  It is also that they are so unsuccessful in comparison with so many other countries and cultures.  In fact,  Spengler has written that

The Arabs are a failing people, I have argued in earlier studies (see Crisis of faith in the Muslim world Asia Times Online, October 31 and November 5, 2005).

It is not only the triumph of globalized Western culture over traditional society that threatens them, but the ascendancy of Asia. Last week's food riots in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East bring the point home. Arabs are hungry because Chinese are rich enough to eat meat, and buy vast quantities of grain to feed to pigs and chickens.

If the rise in Asian protein consumption portends a permanently higher plateau of food prices, the consequences are dire for populations living on state subsidies, from Morocco to Algeria to Cairo to Gaza. A people that have no hope also have nothing to lose.

Spengler quotes Anwar Sadat, former President of Egypt, 

...who famously said that Egypt was the only state in the Middle East, calling the others "tribes with flags". They are more like hotels that rent rooms to a varied clientele, including some who abet terrorism.

But while there are so many other causes of feelings of humiliation and resentment from apparent backwardness in comparison to other nations, that would not compare to the potential of the return of the Jews to Israel to undermins the very foundations of belief in Islam.  That would call out the most determined resistance and fury of all.

Iraq and the Security of Israel

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Does the war in Iraq relate to Israel?  How?  Here is what Chuck Colson says after a conversation with Ehud Olmert, Prime MInister of Israel.  (Excerpted from Colson's "Breakpoint" today:)

Whether we should have invaded Iraq or not in the first place is something historians will debate for years to come.  But withdrawing without establishing order and some measure of stability is another matter - one with devastating consequences: a bloody civil war in Iraq would ony be the beginning.

...Israel would be placed in great danger.  Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has already promised to "wipe Israel off the map" as soon as he gets the chance...Anybody who thinks that an American withdrawal from Iraq would not embolden Iran and its apocalyptically-minded leader is fooling himself.

Four years ago, I was invited to a luncheon for Christian leaders to meet Ehud Olmert, now Israel's prime minister.  I asked Mr. Olmert...what effect the invasion of Iraq by coalition forces had had on Israel.  He looked startled.  "You would have to ask me?" he said.  He then told me the invasion had secured Israel's east flank - and that military might was the only thing the Islamic world would understand.

Sound the alarm over the consequences, if we pull out of Iraq.  How many friends do you suppose we would have left in the Middle East if Israel is destroyed?

What Took the Environmentalists So Long?

                          Ethanol and the Corn It Comes From

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Environmentalists are objecting to biofuels?  Just what is going on?  Well, exactly what was predicted.

The hand-wringing is getting frantic.  Yesterday Simon Jenkins wrote in "The Cost of Green Tinkering is in Famine and Starvation" in The Guardian, that "Biofuels threaten food supplies, rain forest and climate - yet our leaders push them in the name of the environment" 

Jenkins begins:

Farewell the age of reason, welcome the idiocracy. Only George Orwell could have invented - and named - the government's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) that came into operation yesterday. It is the latest in a long line of measures intended to ease the conscience of the rich while keeping the poor miserable, in this case spectacularly so.

Jenkins is not a lone voice.  The day before in The Guardian, environmentalist George Monbiot wrote about biofuels causing world hunger, with humane anguish and alarm.  Already, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and the World Bank have all joined the hue and cry against the wicked biofuels that are causing world hunger.

What a change!  Only two or three short years ago, they supported the very enviromentalists who were demostrating, lobbying, pressuring and hounding governments to use alternative fuels to avoid global warming.  Finally, most governments caved in and started such programs.  Naturally, it took awhile for these new programs - mostly for biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel - to come online.

But also at the very same time, a few years back, hundreds of scientists who opposed the concept of global warming warned about the many problems of biofuels..  They pointed to the self-evident fact that using crops for fuel, not food, would lead to increased world hunger.  They were dismissed, including by all the above-named media.

Now after just two years, those predictions have come true.  Already 37 countries are in a "hunger crisis," which is expected to get worse.  Oddly, that also happens to be just two short years after U.S. ethanol subsidies started.  About that time, the Brits also planned their program to force biofuels to be added to all fuels.  That program finally came online 3 days ago.

Now the leftist Guardian, environmentalist to its toes, has been running articles that practically scream out against the same buifuels they once thought were so necessary, because, just as predicted, they are causuig world hunger.

Excuse me, but what took the environmentalists and their media supporters so long?. Shouldn't they be publicly repenting their previous arrogance and eating a little crow? 

It might help people's heads to stop spinning.

The Real Global Crisis is Hunger, Not Credit

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So writes award-winning environmentalist and professor, George Monbiot, in Britain's The Guardian yesterday here . His headline says:

A food recession is underway.  Biofuels are a crime against humanity.  But - take it from a flesh-eater - eating meat is worse.

He writes:

Never mind the economic crisis. Focus for a moment on a more urgent threat: the great food recession that is sweeping the world faster than the credit crunch... the price of rice has risen by three-quarters over the past year, that of wheat by 130%. There are food crises in 37 countries. One hundred million people, according to the World Bank, could be pushed into deeper poverty by the high prices.

But the most telling statistic?  World grain production also broke all records, 5% bigger than all previous years.  So it is not lack of increasing production! But...

Of the 2.13bn tonnes likely to be consumed this year, only 1.01bn...will feed people.

Remarking on the new UK law which yesterday required all transport fuel to be mixed with biofuels, he notes that:

The World Bank points out that "the grain required to fill the tank of a sports utility vehicle with ethanol ... could feed one person for a year".

This year global stockpiles of cereals will decline by around 53m tonnes...The production of biofuels will consume almost 100m tonnes.

This indicates that biofuels "are directly responsible for the current crisis."

In the midst of a global humanitarian crisis, we have just become legally obliged to use food as fuel. It is a crime against humanity, in which every driver in this country has been forced to participate.

He sees, however, an even bigger cause of world hunger than biofuels. 

While 100m tonnes of food will be diverted this year to feed cars, 760m tonnes will be snatched from the mouths of humans to feed animals - which could cover the global food deficit 14 times. If you care about hunger, eat less meat.

The U.S. eats about 2 kg. (4.4 lbs) of meat a week per person, the UK about 1kg, which is about 40% above the global average.  Cows eat 8 kg of grain per pound of beef produced, but chickens only 2 kg of grain per pound ofmeat.

He cites figures to show that a vegan UK could feed itself using only half of its farmland..

But I cannot advocate a diet that I am incapable of following. I tried it for about 18 months, lost two stone, went as white as bone and felt that I was losing my mind. I know a few healthy-looking vegans, and I admire them immensely. But after almost every talk that I give, I am pestered by swarms of vegans demanding that I adopt their lifestyle. I cannot help noticing that in most cases their skin has turned a fascinating pearl grey.

But "...some livestock is raised on pasture, so it doesn't contribute to the grain deficit. Simon Fairlie estimates that if animals were kept only on land that is unsuitable for arable farming, and given scraps and waste from food processing, the world could produce between a third and two-thirds of its current milk and meat supply...The only reasonable answer to the question of how much meat we should eat is as little as possible. Let's reserve it - as most societies have done until recently - for special occasions."

Re-reading this article, I see that there is something surreal about it. While half the world wonders whether it will eat at all...our shops are better stocked than ever before. We perceive the global food crisis dimly, if at all.

(George Montiot's website is www.monbiot.com.)

Treating Only Symptoms

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This from The FAX of Life by Rubel Shelly:

Physicians are trained to trace symptoms to their root causes.  Then it is the root cause - not just a presenting symptom - that gets treated.  We can all be grateful for that.  What would happen, for example, if headaches simply got aspirin and belly aches got antacids without further tests?

The obvious answer is that many people would die from the serious underlying diseases behind their relatively minor aymptoms.  Symptoms are like the red lights that appear on the instrument panel of your car.  Don't smash the annoying light.  Change the oil or find out why the engine is overheating.  To focus on the symptoms rather than what is behind them just isn't very bright.

Without wanting to be unkind, let me try to be clear.  We human beings aren't terribly responsible when it comes to the basics of living.  Forget belly aches for a minute.  Let's talk about financial responsibility, intact families, or spiritual life.  Are we treating symptoms or addressing root issues?

A single mom with two children explained why she needed a vacation with her girlfriends.  "I'm so stressed out about money!" she said.  "My credit care is maxed out, and I am a month behind on my rent.  I've just got to have a break."  My suggestion was that she forget the vacation, put the money she had saved for it to catch up on her rent, and start paying down her credit card by taking a sandwich to work rather than eating lunch at restaurants.

Her problem wasn't stress.  It was debt - needless, inexcusable debt that she could take steps to eliminate.  She took the advice.  She tells me I was a real friend to her by insisting she treat the disease rather than the symptom.

It's not so different with trouble in a marriage or one's spiritual life.  "We're not happy and don't laugh like we used to.  Maybe we should take a trip together - a second honeymoon, so to speak, and reconnect."  No.  Find a competent counselor both of you trust, get honest about the things that have broken down, and do your part to try to rebuild the relationship.  Get to the root of things.

It's a bit like the fellow who kept telling me he couldn't pray, didn't like to read the Bible, and hated going to church.  I knew enough of what was going on to ask the right questions.  So he finally started coming clean about the affair and the drugs.  It was the beginning of the healing of his spiritual life.  He quit talking about trouble praying and not liking church and faced up to an out-of-control life.

Symptome are helpful things.  They let us know something isn't working right and invite us to seek the cause.  Then, with the real issues taken care of, it's amazing how quickly the symptoms resolve.

(The RAX of Life is available weekly from www.rubelshelly.com.)

Pope Benedict XVI Will Make History

                                     (Image from olgstrstford.com)

So writes George Weigel in the April 21, 2008 Newsweek, at http://www.newsweek.com/id/131774?GT1=43002.

This Pope is not a superstar like John Paul II, but a master teacher.  People came to see John Paul.  They come to hear Benedict XVI.

John Paul helped bring the USSR down by his purely religious, non-political visit to Poland in 1979.  The USSR took him so seriously that they attempted to assassinate him, but he survived the bullets and lived to see the demise of the USSR.

Since then, Benedict XVI has opened the issue with the Muslim world.  Cries of fear and alarm followed his remarks at Regensburg in 2006, where he merely quoted an historical criticism of Islam during a lecture.  But after the turmoil, important parts of the Muslim world began to respond. A year later Muslim religious leaders wrote him.

Now Muslim and Catholic scholars have opened a dialogue on basic issues of conscience, human rights and separation of religion and state authority.  They will meet twice yearly, in Amman, Jordan and in Rome.

Recently King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited him in October 2007.  Now he has helped him open the first catholic church in Doha, Qatar, and they are discussing building another one in the Saudi Kingdom.

Now in his visit to the U.S., he is expected to open a new era of relations between the Catholic church and its congregations.  Even though there are many difficult issues to be addressed, underestimating him would probably be a to miss an understanding of a moment in history.

Gore Admits Financial Stake in Global Warming

                Al Gore, Nobel Laureate and Former Vice President

                                        (Image from sfgate.com)

Al Gore's estimated fortune is over $100 million.  His speaking fees are around $175,000.  He also owns a big bundle of Google stock acquired at a very low price.   His estimated wealth was only $2 million, partly inherited, when he left office in January 2001.  That means his earnings have averaged around $14 million a year for each of the last 7 years.

Now he stands to profit still more from environmental stocks that he owns - stocks that are profitable because of his advocacy against global warming.  He is about to get richer still, directly from the global warming mania he helped to foster.

On March 1, while speaking at the TED Conference in Monterey, California, Gore said:

There are a lot of great investments you can make. If you are investing in tar sands, or shale oil, then you have a portfolio that is crammed with sub-prime carbon assets.  And it is based on an old model.  Junkies find veins in their toes when the ones in their arms and their legs collapse.  Developing tar sands and coal shale is the equivalent.  Here are just a few of the investments I personally think make sense.  I have a stake in these so I'll have a disclaimer there.  But geo-thermal, concentrating solar, advanced photovoltaics, efficiency and conservation.

While Gore was speaking,

...pictures of electric cars, windmills and solar panels appeared in multiple slides on the screen with company names at the bottom such as Amyris (biofuels), Altra (biofuels), Bloom Energy (solid oxide fuel cells), Mascoma (cellulosic biofuels), GreatPoint Energy (catalytic gasification), Miasole (solar cells), Ausra (utility scale solar panels), GEM (battery operated cars), Smart (electric cars), and AltaRock Energy (geothermal power).

That is, he was actively recommending people put money in companies in which he already has a financial stake.

...as he tours the world demanding nations stop burning fossil fuels, he will financially benefit if they follow his advice and move to technologies that he has already invested in.

Will the media be all over this?  Or will we hear little about it?  What do you think?

(video available here, relevant section begins at minute 15:00, h/t NBer Sick-and-Tired):

You Can't Eat Ethanol

                  (Image from starchildscience.org)

This is excerpted from the Boston Globe, at http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/04/13/cant_eat_ethanol/

CORN should be used for food, not motor fuel, and yet the United States is committed to a policy that encourages farmers to turn an increasing amount of their crop into ethanol. This may save the nation a bit of the cost of imported oil, but it increases global-warming gases and contributes to higher food prices. (Emphasis added.)

Ethanol is a sad story:

                          (Image from celcius.com)

It uses up almost a quarter of US corn production.

Increased ethanol production isn't the only reason for the spike in food costs, but it's more controllable than drought in Australia, higher fertilizer prices, or increased meat consumption by the Chinese. Unlike those other cost-drivers, ethanol production is encouraged by federal subsidies.

Ethanol does not improve the environment.

When emissions inherent in the production process are included, ethanol consumption generates more carbon dioxide per gallon than gasoline, according to a recent report in Science magazine. Conversion of other cultivated biomass, such as sugarcane or soy, presents the same problem. The only biofuel that produces a net benefit is agricultural waste, an uncertain source. The best way for American motorists to use less gasoline is to drive fewer miles in lighter vehicles, rather than rely on the false promise of biofuels.

More ethanol means more greenhouse gases and higher prices for food and livestock feed.

There's a limited role for biofuels, excluding corn, in reducing oil imports from volatile regions, but they are not the answer to the world's need for energy on the go.

Ecotheology - the Newest Christian Fad

            (Image from sojo.net)

When I arrived at seminary in 1978, just 2 years out of prison and a Christian for only 6 years, the big thing was Liberation Theology.*

OK.  I could go for that. Although Biblically conservative, I was more radically left politically, then, than anyone I met there.  (Well, except for the guy who used to blow up power-line towers.)   Liberation, I could deal with.  But what they did to undermine the Bible, in the process of "discovering" support from it for Liberation Theology, seemed weird.  And totally unnecessary, I thought.  The Bible was for freedom and liberation, taken literally and in its plain surface meaning.  Why not go that way?  (A monumentally innocent theological position, of course.)

It took me awhile to get what they were about.  They didn't really want to fight in wars of liberation, gun in hand, alongside the heavily-armed Nicaraguan Sandinistas they idolized.  No.  That would have been against their anti-war pacifism.  And dangerous besides.

No, what they wanted instead was to go to Nicaragua and love the Sandinists, be their friends, form organizations in the U.S. to raise money for them, get good publicity for them, and to dedicate their lives to it all. That was how they would support wars of liberation, without actually getting involved in what wars are about - shooting people or getting shot. They craved some way to participate, some way to feel that they were living out their ideals.  And they also needed it as a focus for their liberal Christianity, the way they were faithful to it. 

Somehow they made me remember being in the kitchen of a Black Panther I knew, shortly before I went to prison.  His wife was saying, "You keep going around teaching little kids to march with rifles, you going to get yourself killed, you hear me?  What you need to do is forget all this gun stuff.  Do what Charlie did.  Go 'Cultural'."

But never mind about all that.  Because soon there was a new theological imperative, even more urgent: Feminism.

OK.  Equality before the law, equal pay for equal work.  I could go for that.  But no; it meant we had to "re-imagine" God.  God couldn't be male only; that was a put-down to women.  So incliusive language was what was needed.  But soon, we had to "re-imagine" Christ and the Holy Spirit too.  And then there had to be "Sophia" in the Christian Godhead, a female part of the Deity.  And then...but you get the picture.

But never mind about all that.  Because soon there was a new, really urgent theological imperative: Including gays and lesbians and etc. as being OK with God, just as they are.  (And if any part of the Bible said otherwise, there were good reasons for dismissing those parts.)

But never mind about all that.  Because now there is an even-newer theological imperative.  (Is the turn-around time getting shorter here?)  It is - get ready - Eco-Theology.  And this time, it is so urgent that the fate of the whole planet depends on it.  (Just try ignoring us now!)

Why didn't I notice sooner?  Before Google yielded 33,900 results for "Ecotheology?"   

No excuse, really.  The usual signs were all there.  Ecology was visibly becoming Issue Number One for anti-capitalist, anti-American, and witting or unwitting Marxists -  today's leftist habitual political activists - in their major show-places, the demonstrations outside G8 meetings and other such international conclaves.  The eco-photos, signs, slogans - how could I have missed it?

Once again, liberal Christians are trampling bystanders to get into the fore-front.  Once again, their scholars and wannabees are re-making their theology into the new image.  Once again, non-liberal Christians are on the defensive, trying to explain that they too are truly concerned about the environment, but...

No use wondering yet what will be the next biggie.  Right now, we have to deal with this one.  How?  Again, we just have to try not to join the herd of lemmings.  Again, not to get swept into the doomsday rush, the irrational compulsions, the spine-tingling chill of fearsome new "discoveries."  And once again, to keep a tight focus on the actual facts of the case.  (Are we the only ones left who still care about those?)

Most of all  - not to let Christian theology be made over again, now or ever, by these or any other faddists. 

The Christian faith is still, always, that which was "once and for all delivered to the saints."  The price of abandoning that is to be always searching for some new fad to replace it.  And the price of trying to "fix" Christian theology to fit the newest fad of the day is far too high.  Hold fast!

(Hat Tip - Joan Archibald, who pointed to the impact of Ecotheology on the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) leadership, here.)

(This article was first posted here on June 23 , 2006, under the Category "Environment.".  It seemed time to post it again.)

_________________

*For more on my imprisonment, click on "about" button at the top of the left column. 

World Bank Says Biofuels Starving World's Poor

            (Image from documents.wfp.org)

The following report, based on the World Bank report below, is from outsidethebeltway.com yesterday at http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2008/04/biofuels_starving_worlds_poor/

            (Image from npr.org)

The drastic rise in prices for corn, rice, and other staples that is wreaking havoc in parts of the developing world is due in large part to Western investment in biofuels, according to a recent report of the World Bank.

The rising trend in international food prices continued, and even accelerated, in 2008.

U.S. wheat export prices rose from $375/ton in January to $440/ton in March, and Thai rice export prices increased from $365/ton to $562/ton. This came on top of a 181 percent increase in global wheat prices over the 36 months leading up to February 2008, and a 83 percent increase in overall global food prices over the same period.

Increased bio-fuel production has contributed to the rise in food prices.

Concerns over oil prices, energy security and climate change have prompted governments to take a more
proactive stance towards encouraging production and use of bio-fuels. This has led to increased demand for bio-fuel raw materials, such as wheat, soy, maize (corn) and palm oil, and increased competition for cropland.

Almost all of the increase in global maize (corn) production from 2004 to 2007 (the period
when grain prices rose sharply) went for bio-fuels production in the U.S..

The observed increase in food prices is not a temporary phenomenon, but likely to persist in the medium term. .., they are likely to remain well above the 2004 levels through 2015 for most food crops.

Forecasts of other major organizations (FAO, OECD, and USDA) that regularly monitor and project commodity prices are broadly consistent with these projections. Predictions of high food price...are further strengthened when we factor in the impact of policies aimed at achieving energy security and reduced carbon dioxide emissions, which may present strong trade-offs with food security objectives.

More details are available in the backgrounder, “Rising food prices: policy options and World Bank response” [PDF].

World Bank President Bob Zoellick was on NPR this morning talking about this.

Demand for ethanol and other biofuels is a “significant contributor” to soaring food prices around the world.. helped create “a perfect storm” that has boosted those prices, he says.

The soaring costs of food and fuel led to riots in Haiti and Egypt and a general strike in Burkina Faso this week. Skyrocketing food prices are topping the agenda this weekend of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual spring meetings in Washington.

Zoellick held up a bag of rice during a news conference Thursday to illustrate the severity of the food crisis. “In Bangladesh a two-kilogram bag of rice … now consumes about half of the daily income of a poor family,” he said. “The price of a loaf of bread … has more than doubled. Poor people in Yemen are now spending more than a quarter of their incomes just on bread.”

And Zoellick says prices for basic staples will remain high for an extended period of time...As the Indian commerce minister said to me, going from one meal a day to two meals a day for 300 million people increases demand a lot.

"It has long struck me as wrongheaded, if not immoral, to take cheap, efficient sources of nutrition to turn them into expensive, inefficient fuels. "

A gallon of ethanol produces roughly two-thirds the energy of a gallon of gasoline and is far more expensive. And, while farmers and, especially, processors make more money by the increased demand for biofuels, it means that food is now out of reach for millions.

Where to draw the line on these things is unclear. It’s inefficient to feed grain to livestock in order to produce meat — another trend highlighted by Zoellick and the report. But at least that’s turning food into a more desirable (if not necessarily more healthy) food.

NYTimes Agrees - Biofuels Cause Soaring Food Prices

      (Image from trendhunter.com)

This editorial from the NY Times today, "The World Food Crisis" 4-10-08, at ://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/opinion/10thu1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin .

Most Americans take food for granted. Even the poorest fifth of households in the United States spend only 16 percent of their budget on food. In many other countries, it is less of a given. Nigerian families spend 73 percent of their budgets to eat, Vietnamese 65 percent, Indonesians half. They are in trouble.

Last year, the food import bill of developing countries rose by 25 percent as food prices rose to levels not seen in a generation. Corn doubled in price over the last two years. Wheat reached its highest price in 28 years. The increases are already sparking unrest from Haiti to Egypt. Many countries have imposed price controls on food or taxes on agricultural exports.

What is causing these increases in food prices?

The rise in food prices is partly because of uncontrollable forces — including rising energy costs and the growth of the middle class in China and India. This has increased demand for animal protein, which requires large amounts of grain.

But the rich world is exacerbating these effects by supporting the production of biofuels. The International Monetary Fund estimates that corn ethanol production in the United States accounted for at least half the rise in world corn demand in each of the past three years. This elevated corn prices. Feed prices rose. So did prices of other crops — mainly soybeans — as farmers switched their fields to corn, according to the Agriculture Department. (Emphasis added)

Is ethanol the solution to our energy problems?  The Times says:

At best, corn ethanol delivers only a small reduction in greenhouse gases compared with gasoline. And it could make things far worse if it leads to more farming in forests and grasslands. Rising food prices provide an urgent argument to nix ethanol’s supports.

The rich world needs to act quickly, because it caused the problem:

Last month, the World Food Program said rising grain costs blew a hole of more than $500 million in its budget for helping millions of victims of hunger around the world...Rich countries’ energy policies helped create the problem. Now those countries should help solve it.

A Better Way To Handle Thieves?

         (Image from monarch-security.co.uk)

This is "A Step In The Right Direction" from Guest Blogger Rubel Shelly, at www.RubelShelly.com.

Some of the things we do in the name of justice don't make a lot of sense.  I was marginally involved several years ago in a case that serves to illustrate my point.  A man who had fraudulantly used a credit card for several hundred dollars was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days in jail.

The reason behind his use of the credit card made it impossible for him to make amends or make a deal.  (He was flat broke.)  His wife and two children became the responsibility of others.  (She was pregnant with their third child.)  And the year in jail made the marriage harder to hold together and did nothing to repay the fellow whose card he had misused.  (I don't know if the poor guy ever got his money back or his credit score cleaned. up.)

Why don't we do more things like the Hebrew justice system required?  A man who stole a neighbor's sheep, for example, didn't go to jail for a year.  He had to restore four sheep for every one he took.  If he took an ox, it was a five-for-one restitution that was required.  Get the picture?  The community didn't house and feed him in jail for a year.  The thief worked, sacrificed and lived with the community's awareness of his sin.  Still punishment and victim compensation.

This concept of making restitution is what makes me appreciate the thing Adnan and Tiffany McKinnon did a few months back.  They had been gone from their home near Montgomery, Alabama, for a week.  When they got back, the surprise awaiting them was that a burglar had looted the place.

They entered their home, Mrs. McKinnon saw a practically empty house, and she burst into tears.  Not only were her possessions gone but her new house had been ransacked.  "Tears just rolled down my face," she said, "as I walked in and saw everything gone and piles of trash all over my house."

Mr. McKinnon dashed through the house to investigate - and caught the thief red-handed.  He had apparently freelanced the operation and done it solo.  He was making one more trip to the house to pick up a few remaining items of value and walked into the homeowner - wearing Mr. McKinnon's hat no less!

Adnan McKinnon took charge.  He held the thief at gunpoint, while Tiffany called the police.  Then he decided there was no need for him and his wife to have to undo all the chaos the 33-year-old bungling burglar had wreaked.  So he forced him to pick up trash, put broken and discarded items back in place, and clean up the house he had wrecked in their absence.

When the police arrived, the thief had the gall to complain about being forced to clean up the mess he had made.  The policeman laughed and told him that somebody else might have shot him dead.  The whining stopped.

Maybe the McKinnons could make a lecture tour to law schools across the country to explain the basics of restitution.  I think they're onto something.

Forget the Poor?

                 (Image from muslimaid.org)

We talk about the poor a lot.  We arrange our politics around the poor.  Our religion points us toward the poor.  There have been revolutions about helping the poor.  But when it comes down to it, many of us are ready to throw the poor overboard.

Food prices are soaring all over the world.  Three billion people subsist mostly on rice.  Yet the price of rice has soared again, rising by 10% this time.  Corn is the basic food of much of Latin America, and also the basic feed for meat-producing animals.  Yet the price of corn keeps soaring, up to $6 a bushel this week.  Two years ago it was at about $2 a bushel.  The poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America are suffering because their groceries cost so much more now.  Their suffering will only get worse as food prices continue to rise.

Why are food prices rising?  Two main reasons.  One is biofuels.  The other is rising oil prices. 

As for the effect of biofuels, corn and soybeans are being substituted for other food crops for use as biofuels, not food. This is happening all over the world.   So not only are biofuels driving up the cost of corn and soybeans, but of other basic foods too.  Because of environmentalism, essentially we have decided to use more and more of our topsoil to produce fuel, not food.  Obviously, that will mean less food produced, and bring higher food prices to us all.  We middle-class people will struggle, but survive.  But the burden on the world's poor will be crushing.

Then higher oil prices are causing food prices to rise as well.  Farmers need petroleum-based fertilizers and fuel for their farm machinery.  Truckers and ships need fuel.  Refrigerated trucks, warehouses and grocery-store displays of cold and frozen foods take fuel too.  Rising oil prices make all these cost more, so that all food costs more, not just the basic grains.

Why are oil prices higher?  Actually, it has nothing to do with American oil giants.  The market really, truly, determines the price.  But there are two principal causes of rising oil prices.  One is rising demand, as some of the poor countries become more prosperous.  The other is the success of environmentalists in the U.S. 

Environmentalists have succeeded in suppressing oil production in the U.S., a country that was once the major producer of oil in the world.  Because of environmentalists, there have been no new refineries in the U.S. for 30 years.  Because of them, we do not drill in ANWAR, where we could access one of the largest oil deposits in the world with almost no pollution.  We do not drill offshore, when the Gulf of Mexico is filling up with foreign oil rigs, including those of China and Cuba.  So not drilling offshore does not mean there is no drilling there - only that our own offshore oil will go to other countries, not us.

The increased prices of oil, and of food, are likely to be permanent, probably going even higher.  Why?  Because environmentalism has won politically over concern about the poor.  Soaring food prices and the growing suffering of the poor, which has already begun worldwide, are happening principally because of one thing: environmentalism.

We have a choice to make.  Will we choose to help the poor? Or environmentalism?  It appears we cannot do both.

(For documentation, see: http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=213343.  World Food Stocks Dwindling Rapicly, UN, http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/17/europe/food.php.  Wheat rises to all-time high, Bloomberg, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aP6EBENKxOLk.  Rush LImbaugh Comment, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_032508/content/01125104.guest.html.  On Increased Food Prices around world, Food costs worldwide spiked 23 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to the FAO. Grains went up 42 percent, oils 50 percent and dairy 80 percent. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/25/business/LA-FEA-FIN-Mexico-Fighting-for-Food.php. rudge: price of rice up 10%, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4813b3c4-0250-11dd-9388-000077b07658.html?.nclick_check=1  Corn up to $6 a bushel, http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080403/corn_at_6.html?.v=6)

Skidboot, the Amazing Dog

This is the famous Skidboot, perhaps the smartest dog in the world.  You will see for yourself.  Amazing!  8 minutes.  Skidboot was hard to train at first, as his breed - Australian cattle dog - often is.  But he learned so quickly that he became known as the smartest dog in the world, appearing on Oprah, Leno, Letterman and more.

Skidboot died on March 26, 2007.  He waa old and going blind.  The video below is a tribute to him. 3 minutes.

(Hat Tip to Bob Bailley)

Mathemagician!

                                  Arthur Benjamin, Mathemagician

                                       (Image from media.ted.com)

           To see video, click here.  Fascinating!  You will be spell-bound.

Arthur Benjamin makes numbers dance. In his day job, he's a professor of math at Harvey Mudd College; in his other day job, he's a "Mathemagician," taking the stage in his tuxedo to perform high-speed mental calculations, memorizations and other astounding math stunts. It's part of his drive to teach math and mental agility in interesting ways, following in the footsteps of such heroes as Martin Gardner.

http://www.ted.com/speakers/view/id/177

Benjamin is the co-author, with Michael Shermer, of Secrets of Mental Math (which shares his secrets for rapid mental calculation), as well as the co-author of the MAA award-winning Proofs That Really Count: The Art of Combinatorial Proof