Here's a brief but edifying interview with Prof. John Frame. (And I never would have guessed Prof. Frame's favorite movie is Casablanca! A classic movie I've never seen.)
By the way, for those who don't already know, the Laymen's Lounge has a lot of good interviews and other resources.
That's my parents' favorite movie and the first classical movie I was allowed to stay up late to watch. Very good, as are most of Bogart's films - The Caine Mutiny is my favorite of his.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I've never seen The Caine Mutiny either, but it sounds like something I'd really enjoy! Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen most of Bogart's major films. Not only Casablanca and The Caine Mutiny, but also The African Queen, The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, or The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. I might need to fix that! :) Interestingly, one of the things Steve and I talked about from time to time were classic films and classic film stars.
DeleteActually I guess we talked a lot about films in general as well as literature and doing apologetics through various media like film, fiction, etc.
DeleteOk, that was brief. I don't know why, but so far, I've read of him, but haven't read his books yet.
ReplyDeleteFYI, as far as that coming to Texas idea, whether you're buying or renting, consider bringing a FLIR infrared camera along for the ride. To try and see if the place leaks air like a sieve or not.
Thanks, TFC! Oh, does that mean places in Texas are prone to leaking air? I'll definitely look into the FLIR infrared camera if for no other reason than because it sounds like it'd be fun to play around with! :)
DeleteSpeaking of Texas, I forget if you're still there or not, but if you are, I hope you're staying warm! As the entire nation knows, it's sad tons of Texans are out of power, but hopefully things will get fixed soon. By the way, leftists are now ridiculing Texans like Dan Crenshaw for having faulted California for our power outages. But one problem with that comparison is what hit Texas is a once in 100+ year event which arguably would have taxed many if not most other power grids, whereas we Californians have power problems, outages, and the like almost regularly!
For it's worth, if anything, I think most of John Frame's books are wonderful reading. His simple and almost casual or conversational style of writing belies the tremendous intellectual depth of thought and learning in his works. I think he's easily one of the best contemporary Reformed systematic theologians. Arguably the best among a crowded field (e.g. Grudem, Reymond, Letham, Vanhoozer, Bray, Beeke, Horton, Jenson if we include Lutherans, Erickson if we include broadly conservative evangelicals).
Perhaps his only genuine flaw is he places less emphasis on historical theology than exegetical and philosophical theology, but in my opinion that's not a big deal, even though I realize a lot of other Reformed thinkers think otherwise.
Plus his History of Western Philosophy and Theology is, well, historical theology.
DeleteYeah, looked through his books and History of Western Philosophy and Theology looked like the first one I'd like to read.
DeleteAll homes leak air; before 2006 there were no or even more lax air leakage requirements, and I don't think the standard is very tight. Only high-end passive homes are very tight, to the point they have to have a system to draw in fresh air and remove stale air. I don't think people care that much because up front it's expensive, and you can just put in bigger HVAC units. But watching the temperature in my place start to drop the moment the heaters turned off was frustrating. And with my infrared camera I could see clouds of ~30 F air coming in through outlets switches, etc, which means that air was replacing heat that was leaving.
DeleteYeah, this week has been a Rorschach test. People saw what they wanted to. I've seen idiots on the right blame wind, even though natural gas, then coal was to blame for most of the power loss. Then the Left blames deregulation and Texas not being tied into the rest of the western or eastern grid, but we were borrowing under a gigawatt from the eastern grid at one point before they kicked us off because they needed it, and Texas isn't the only place in the US with grid issues. Nothing optimizes all parameters. Our cars aren't designed to survive, say, 80 mph head on collisions. They wouldn't fit on our current roads, nor would they get very good MPG. No one is calling car manufacturers murderers. The fact that 40% of energy providers did winterize while still being able to compete with those who didn't does make me think it would not have been something beyond the pale. But at the same time, the only time I saw temperatures this cold in Utah was when I was on a mountain, and only at night.
Great points, TFC! I didn't know all that about homes. Thanks for the helpful information!
DeleteIt always seems simplistic to me to try to blame one factor (e.g. wind, deregulation) on natural disasters of this magnitude, for these things are much more likely to be multifactorial. But I guess it makes it easier for people to digest and for it to be used in political attacks (by both sides), etc.