True Conservatism

From Paul Johnson in Forbes Magazine

A true conservative today should stress construction, encouragement, moderation and understanding instead of destruction, prohibition, extremism and slogans. A conservative thinks in terms of countless minor corrections and improvements based on experience and experiment rather than in terms of a universal, uniform solution based on theory and enforced by inflexible law.

A conservative, in the best sense, sees the world and its inhabitants as an interdependent organism, comprising innumerable local communities and territories, each adapting to particular conditions. A conservative is someone who goes with the grain of humanity and the nature of the physical world, rather than trying to regiment and fashion a utopia through force of law. And, needless to say, an acceptable conservative is not one who thinks all the answers are obvious but is a modest person who admits that problems are not easily solved, that perfection is unattainable in this world and that it is often necessary to admit mistakes, change one's mind and start again.

No argument from me.

Angel Foods under investigation

FBI doesn’t say why it searched Angel Food Ministries

Founder, family make $2.1 million a year from nonprofit group

By CHRISTOPHER QUINN

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The FBI searched a Georgia nonprofit that sells an estimated $100 million of food yearly to the needy, and is run by a minister whose life took a dramatic turn after he served a year in prison in the early 1990s.

Steve Lazarus, an FBI spokesman, confirmed the agency served two search warrants at Angel Food Ministries near Monroe Wednesday. Lazarus declined to say what agents were looking for or found.

The nonprofit is run by Joe Wingo, his wife and two sons. More than 200 metro Atlanta churches participate in the program.

A call to Angel Food Ministries was not returned.

An e-mail from Ronn Torossian, a spokesman for Angel Food Ministries, said the nonprofit was cooperating with the FBI and that it would make no further statements.

After the FBI visit, an e-mail was sent from Angel Food to the churches that help sell the food, saying deliveries would continue.

This is most dissapointing. Angel Foods is still a ministry I can really believe in based on the personal experience of helping our church serve literally hundreds of needy people. I really hope and pray whatever is under investigation doesn't wind up destroying a wonderful service.

Hey y'all...

I'm going to resurrect this blog. This will be the first post in a long time. This isn't very interesting, but I hope it will get better soon. So do you!

God Bless!

JB

Another view of the Galveston Blackberry...

TX Blackberry update. Nice job on one of the original 11'ers!

The Kevin's Boat Project

A more complete drawing of Kevin's boat.

Angel Food Ministries

Angel Food Ministries

This is a ministry that I really believe in. My home church, Heritage Presbyterian, in Acworth, GA is a host site for Angel Foods.

The Kevin's Boat project

I drew this boat for Kevin, a local young man based on a sketch of a boat he was trying to design and build on his own. He's obtained the materials and is going to start building really soon. The boat is a sharpie skiff, 13' long by 4.5' wide. The sail is a standing rig of 75 square feet. The boat uses five sheets of plywood and is constructed using ordinary "instant" techniques pioneered by Bolger/Payson.

The first cuts will hopefully come this weekend. Photos to follow.


This Kevin's boat as I redrew it for him.

This is Kevin's concept from which the boat we are about to build was drawn. 

Hello World!

I've had a boating and boatbuilding website for a long time now. It gets updated from time to time, but it's not always current. I've been drawing lots of boats over the last few years and my hope is to share some of my ideas with the world from this particular soapbox. Hopefully it will be updated more frequently than my website. This also allows for more interaction from you, as well. So if you see something you like (or don't like) or have questions, post them in the comments here and we'll see what we can get going.