A few quick links:

• The local story about an Islamic student and her head scarf that I posted about on Friday isn't over. A county school board member has protested the ruling, proving her ignorance of the Bill of Rights and giving us a reason to wish she hadn't been reelected to the school board. Bill Colrus has the scoop.


• The Boston Globe has a lengthy feature on Gen X Dads. I'm a year to young to technically fit the category, but the article resonated with me. I spent the first four months of Bailey's life working nights, and then spending the days at home with her. Although I'm back in a more traditional work schedule, I cherish every bit of time I get to spend with her, and I wouldn't trade it away for a few more bucks.


• Also, check out these dad blogs: Daddy Types and Rebel Dad


• I'm a couple days late in posting it, but one of my favorite writers, John Piper, had a nice piece on Martin Luther King.


• As if losing a near-perfect quarterback, two star running backs, and several key defensive players wasn't enough, my beloved Auburn Tigers just lost their defensive coordinator to Texas. I'm trying to stay optimistic about next season, but the Tigers have a hard road ahead.


• Cathleen Falsani has a post entitled What They Said About God in '04 -- most of it is pretty good, and some of it, well, let's just file it under "common grace insight."


• Wesley Blog has a post which quotes probably the best Christian response to the Tsunami disaster that I've read yet.

One of the most talked about issues in the mayor's election this year will probably be education. No surprise there, but what's interesting is that it appears the mayor really has very little to do with education in the city of Chattanooga. Take a look at these quotes from some of the candidates' websites.

Dan Johnson puts it bluntly:

OK. Let's all understand the obvious: the city of Chattanooga has no direct responsibility for the operation of the schools within the city limits.

Ron Littlefield takes a softer approach, but says basically the same thing:

It might be said that the City of Chattanooga is no longer in the business of operating a school system

Ann Coulter doesn't inform us of the distinction, but makes it plain how she feels about it:

...she in no way advocates a return to separate city and county schools

All three of the above candidates mention at least one specific education-related goal or promise in their issue statements. Coulter, who volunteers regularly at Battle Academy, "will work tirelessly with the County to achieve the Education Summit goal of having all Hamilton County students reading at grade level by the end of third grade." Littlefield believes that "our local library system can be modeled into a more modern, more readily accessible learning resource." Dan Johnson, though, was the quickest to get my attention with this tidbit:

"As mayor of Chattanooga I will encourage the council to join me in doing the things we can to support our schools. And please don't be misled. ‘Support’ doesn't have to mean 'money'.

As reported by the Chattanoogan online newspaper, a local high school student will be allowed to wear her Islamic head scarf to school, depsite previous objections related to the dress code. While there doesn't seem to have been any controversy stirred up by the decision, it is worth stating that this was absolutely the right decision to make. By allowing the student to wear the head scarf, the school district was not establishing in any way the religious beliefs adhered to by the student -- they were simply not restricting her free exercise of those beliefs. That's all the constitution calls for, after all. As a Christian, especially in a time when there is a growing anti-Christian sentiment within the culture, it makes me happy to see a government agency getting it right, even if the beneficiary is of another faith.

Pulse editor extraordinaire Bill Colrus is starting up a mix cd exchange, and it got me thinking about my adventures in mixing. The mix cd that I'm most proud of is one that my wife and I put together and mailed out to our friends a couple years ago for Valentine's Day. I thought I'd share the tracklisting here. It's a mix of classics and guilty pleasures, mostly from the 80s, which I call:

The KJT Retro Valentine Mix
01. "I Think We're Alone Now" - Tiffany
02. "Heaven is a Place on Earth" - Belinda Carlisle
03. "Lost in Your Eyes" - Debbie Gibson
04. "Nothing Compares 2 U" - Sinead O'Connor
05. "Wicked Game" - Chris Isaak
06. "With or Without You" - U2
07. "I Wish I Was Your Lover" - Sophie B. Hawkins
08. "I Melt With You" - Modern English
09. "I Touch Myself" - Divinyls
10. "Every Breath You Take" - The Police
11. "Must Have Been Love" - Roxette
12. "Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper
13. "The One I Love" - REM
14. "Friday I'm in Love" - The Cure
15. "Could Have Been" - Tiffany
16. "Cherish" - Madonna
17. "Total Eclipse of the Heart" - Bonnie Tyler
18. "I've Had the Time of My Life" - Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

I've always loved the thought of living downtown in a big city. A real city, more like New York City, less like Atlanta -- which I've always thought of as a loose collection of suburbs. One of the things I like about Chattanooga is that the leadership here has a vision for a vibrant downtown. Recently the city released the Chattanooga 2025 plan, an ambitious plan for the continued development of the downtown sector, which has been responded to eloquently by local businessman Tim Kelly. Kelly argued that the 2025 plan has a "disdain for automobiles" that, if left unchecked, could end up hurting downtown businesses more than it would help them. His arguments are well-informed, well-reasoned, and a perfect mixture of common sense, realism and idealism.

Unlike some opinion writers, Kelly doesn't underestimate the importance of downtown. Every time there's a big proposal for downtown Chattanooga, there are some naysayers who sound like they'd be happier if the entire region was nothing but strip malls, fast food restaurants, and cookie-cutter subdivisions. What I'd really like to know, as the Mayoral election approaches, is which of the candidates has a balanced vision for downtown as well as the rest of the city. Whether you live downtown, in North Chattanooga, in St. Elmo (as do a lot of Chattabloggers), or in East Brainerd, as I do, we all face issues related to continuing development. How the mayoral candidates approach these issues will have an impact on who earns my vote this year.

Before my post earlier today, this blog had been dormant for almost a full month. The more I think about it, the more inexcusable I find it to be. The last week or so has found me more and more inspired (thanks Joe!) to get this blog going again, and to do it right. My dreams and ideas got bigger and bigger, but I was missing the most important thing. What I really needed to do was just to start posting again, and to keep my posting consistent. So, starting today, that's the plan. A visual redesign is in the works, but the most important changes will be in the frequency (and hopefully the quality) of the content. Here are a few ideas of what's to come:

• More posts on points of local interest, including the 2005 Chattanooga mayoral race
• Reviews of Killing Bono and Get Up Off Your Knees
• And my personal favorite, an essay tentatively titled "Speaking in Tongues: The Foreign Language of Bono's Christianity"

Finally, in a shameless attempt to attract attention, sometime soon I'm going to repost what is probably the most popular thing I've ever (co-)written. Guess who it's about?

A few quick links:

• Michelle, a fellow Chattablogger, posted the top ten myths of disaster relief.


• Beth Maynard examines the theme of the broken heart in U2's "Love and Peace or Else."


• Who is the most influential person in America (not in government)? Hew Hewitt says it's James Dobson, Joshua Claybourn (of In the Agora) smacks him around with stats on Oprah, and Joe (of Evanglical Outpost) gives the honor to Rick Warren.