You’ve Been Warned

Attention, eBay Sellers!

I saw this at Clark Howard’s site yesterday:

New e-commerce site Glyde promises eBay for dummies

Get ready for eBay for dummies, courtesy of a new e-commerce site called Glyde.

Launched by a former eBay insider, Glyde promises to take all the hassle out of buying and selling online. Sellers can list an item — a CD, DVD or video game, for example — by typing in its title and making a notation about the condition. Glyde then suggests a market value, which can be changed anyway you see fit.

If there’s an interested buyer, Glyde will mail you a pre-addressed, pre-stamped bubble-wrapped mailer and you simply drop your item in the mail within 24 hours. You can then receive a check in the mail from Glyde once the buyer is happy.

The service takes 10 percent for facilitating a transaction. The seller is also responsible for an additional $1.25 for the price of the mailer.

Think of Glyde as NetFlix meets eBay. It takes the complexity out of the whole process. “We want the middle-aged Midwestern soccer mom to easily be able to buy and sell her stuff,” Glyde creator Simon Rothman tells The New York Times. “It’s a pretty straightforward ambition.”

Glyde sounds slow and cumbersome to me.

The comments at Clark’s site are sure brimming with negativity about eBay. 😯

Attention, Mennonites!

Thanks to Google Alerts, I came across a blog post this morning that confirms the obvious to me: People notice our faces. (And they read our faces.)

I’ve thought many times while out among The General Public, What are people reading in my face?

I wonder that as a regular human.

And as a child of God.

And as a Mennonite.

When people see my face, do they see anger, distress, impatience, covetousness, lust, peace, joy, tranquility, happiness, contempt, fretfulness, coldness, suspicion, scorn, Jesus?

What do they see?

What do I want them to see?

What does God want them to see?

Hmmm. This sounds like Attention, Christians!

Well, to help you chew on that, chew on this:

The Mennonites I encountered growing up always aroused my curiosity. My observations made me sure they must be a humorless, fearful people. Being a bit shy myself which probably means I thought too much of myself, I didn’t try to initiate conversations with them. In the Bi-Mart on River Road they would catch me watching them. I would smile, they would smile back. Their facial expressions seemed so serious, even fearful, and I presumed anxious to get back to their safe little communities. At least, that’s how I perceived them.

I liked it that the girls were always in dresses, but I thought it odd that they wore sneakers with skirts. I suppose I would have ignored that if they had acted like they were more comfortable standing next to us in the check-out line. I knew their clothing was related to their faith, and I admired them for that. But I wondered, if they know God, why do they seem so depressed?

[…]

Had I been judging an entire community by a small handful of people who may be just having a bad day, or something?

Ouch! 😥

Read Kathy’s full post here: Hearing Heart Blog: Has the Mennonite Faith Changed, Or Have I? (Thank you, Mrs. Davis!)

So I ask again, Can the world see Jesus when they look at your life? And my face?

Safe Credit Cards Project

Is there an oxymoron in somewhere that tile? 😯

If you’e one of the millions of Americans holding a credit card, this isn’t necessarily news: Credit-card issuers are hiking interest rates, penalties and fees in full force ahead of stringent new laws that take effect in February.

In fact, 400 credit cards from the nation’s 12 largest bank issuers — accounting for 90 percent of the $889 billion in outstanding consumer revolving credit — are still using most of the same tactics that the Federal Reserve has called “unfair or deceptive” and that will be outlawed in fewer than four months, according to a new report from the Pew Health Group’s Safe Credit Cards Project.

[…]

Credit-card companies recognize the pain they are inflicting on many consumers. “We understand that customers don’t like price increases, especially in difficult economic times,” Citi said in a statement. “However, these actions are necessary given the doubling of credit card losses across the industry from customers not paying back their loans and regulatory changes that eliminate repricing for that risk.”

[…]

The Pew study also doesn’t include key changes that became law Aug. 20. Card issuers must now alert customers 45 days ahead of any increases and allow them to opt out, moves that eliminated the hair-trigger repricing and gave consumers the choice to say no.

In recent weeks, many cardholders have received those notices, some with pages of explanations. They’ve also been informed of new fees coming as card issuers look at ways to offset the loss of the hefty revenues streams they have long enjoyed from upping interest rates “at any time, for any reason,” as the disclosures generally stated, as well as late and transfer fees.

There’s a lot more at the full article here: Credit-card countdown: Banks gouge consumers ahead of new law

Swine Flu and Church

Is your congregation taking any extraordinary measures to avoid or limit the spread of swine flu (aka, H1N1 flu in deference to The Vast Pork Rib Conspiracy)?

Several Portland-area congregations are adjusting their rituals to prevent the spread of H1N1 flu. So far, the faithful keep coming to services.

The priest at St. Juan Diego Catholic Parish in Northwest Portland still consecrates wine and bread for Communion, but parishioners have given up sharing the wine and receiving wafers on their tongues. They no longer hold hands during the Lord’s Prayer, and the handshakes and hugs that used to accompany the “sign of peace” during Mass are now simple bows.

[…]

Many Protestant churches, synagogues and mosques are also advising congregations to take what are becoming the usual precautions — installing hand sanitizers, encouraging hand-washing and reminding people to stay home if they’re sick — but many individual communities are taking additional steps.

Lake Oswego United Methodist Church has adopted “holy fist bumps” during the sign of peace, says the Rev. Steve Sprecher.

[…]

Gresham United Methodist Church encourages members to wash during the service. “We are offering people a squirt of the disinfectant Purell while they are in line for Communion,” the Rev. Jim Parr Philipson says.

Portland synagogues take similar precautions. Since celebrating the Jewish High Holy Days in September, members of Congregation Shaarie Torah in Northwest Portland have substituted fist bumps for handshakes and hugs, says Rabbi Arthur Zuckerman, who was nursing a cold last month. A few in the congregation have come down with H1N1 flu, but they’re staying home, he says. “People are pretty astute about this. It’s not brain surgery.”

Source: Swine flu is altering how people worship

Charged With Insulting Muslim Guest

No, not in Pakistan or Turkey or Egypt.

In Britain.

I know, I know — the story below is dated September 19. Old news.

But it’s current news because these folks’ trial is yet to come.

Christian hoteliers charged with insulting Muslim guest

Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang are charged with breaching Section 5 of the Public Order Act – causing harassment, alarm or distress. If convicted, they face fines of £2,500 each and a criminal record.

The Muslim woman was staying at the Bounty House Hotel in Liverpool, which is run by the Vogelenzangs, when a conversation arose between the hoteliers and their guest about her faith.

It is understood that among the topics debated was whether Jesus was a minor prophet, as Islam teaches, or whether he was the Son of God, as Christianity teaches.

Among the things Mr Vogelenzang, 53, is alleged to have said is that Mohammad was a warlord. His wife, 54, is said to have stated that Muslim dress is a form of bondage for women.

The conversation, on March 20, was reported by the woman to Merseyside Police. Officers told the couple that they wanted to interview them over the incident.

After being questioned on April 20, they were interrogated again three months later before being charged on July 29 with a religiously-aggravated public order offence. They appeared in court on August 14 and are now awaiting trial.

Amazing. In a sobering sort of way.

Here’s another article: Critics slam case against pair who ‘upset’ Muslim

Handy Pornography!

Way back in 1994, I wrote for our school and church a piece I called Handy Pornography! Here’s an excerpt from early in the article:

Why this increasing freedom of exposure? Well, facts are facts, you know. The news must be reported; stuff must be advertised and sold; anthropological discoveries must be made known; technological advances must be demonstrated. Do any or all or these explain or justify the increasing indecency? Hardly!

Is there news value in having a woman in ice skating attire flinging her leg way up toward the reader? No, the issue is not news. Did Scientific American need to use a picture of Marilyn Monroe with her dress flying up overlaid on a picture of President Abraham Lincoln? No, the issue is not advanced computer technology. Do bikinied women actually make a car or radio controlled airplane more attractive, or a soap more effective? No, the issue is not advertising and commerce. Do pictures of third-world, partially-nude women help us understand their cultures better than simply telling the reader they don’t cover themselves from the waist on up? No, the issue is not anthropology.

Folks, we have been snookered and taken in by a “conspiracy” of the enemy of our souls! Can you see how he is successfully wearing down our resistance to immorality? We still stand against Playboy, but will our children? If we allow in our homes what our grandparents called pornography, will our grandchildren allow in their homes what we call pornography? If we don’t bat an eye about these things which would have jolted our grandparents, will the things that still jolt us have any effect on our children’s children? Remember, what parents excuse in moderation, children justify in excess.

I urge you to read the entire article. Despite the title (Handy Pornography!) and the URL (www.anabaptists.org/writings/softporn.html), it is not pornography. Not even so-called soft porn.

Above all, love God!