An excerpt of my required reading/comprehension since January:

"During translation, the sequence of codons along an mRNA moecule is decoded, or translated, into a sequence of amino acids making up a polypeptide chain. The codons are read by the translation machinery in the 5'--3' direction along the mRNA. Each codon (triplet code) specifies which one of the 20 amino acids will be incorporated at the corresponding position alon a polypeptide. Because codons are base triplets, the number of nucleotides making up a genetic message must be three times the number of amino acids making up the protein product. For example, it takes 300 nuceotides along and mRNA strand to code for a polypeoptide that is 100 amino acids long."

I sit and stare at my blog page --and the synapses do not fire. They are all used up.

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Questioning a Tragedy: Where is God?

Questioning a Tragedy: Where is God?

By Lauren Green

"Virtue in distress and vice in triumph make atheists of mankind." — Anonymous

This is a quote I always think of when horrendous events, like the Virginia Tech tragedy, occur. Great tragedies either draw us closer to or away from God.
The worst single shooting incident in U.S. history is slowly sinking into the psyche of this nation. Like the tragedies of past times — such as Columbine and Waco — this one will also be remembered forever. From now on, the name “Virginia Tech” will be synonymous with the murder of 32 people that were shot dead one spring day by a lone gunman, who unleashed holy hell on innocence.
The grief is personal, raw and intense. There will be no escape from the searing pain this loss brings to parents, siblings, friends and the community. We know the greater the love, the greater the pain is when it's lost ... especially when it's sudden and violent.
The process of grief is a long winding course, that includes anger. Many will turn the questioning to God: “Why, God, did this happen? How could a loving God allow this?”

The answers to the questions are complicated, but what many theologians stress is that God is sovereign — although each person has free will to choose between good and evil — and that comfort and hope are found in him. The "whys" to any tragedy may not have satisfying answers soon, or even in this lifetime.
At the convocation on Tuesday afternoon, Virginia’s Governor Tim Kaine made references to calvary, where Jesus died on the cross, and told the thousands gathered that despair is a natural emotion — but not to let it cause you to lose your faith. He talked about Job, the Old Testament's most afflicted servant of God: Even though Job was angry at God he never lost his faith.
President Bush said, "In times like this, we can find grace and strength from a loving God." And, he quoted from the Bible saying, that we should not be "... overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good."
These are the lessons of the Bible.
Those who aren't particularly religious may look for more scientific answers. The focus will then turn to the shooter himself. Why would a student with no criminal past or typical dysfunctional family history commit such horrors? Was he on medication? Was he a psychopath?
We do know that the gunman wrote a story for a creative writing class that was so disturbing he was recommended for counseling. He also may have stalked some female students that he liked, but whose affection were never returned.
If there's any phrase that should raise the shackles of any parent, teacher or friend it's that "he was a loner." That description has been stated at least twice by officials trying to answer the question of why 23-year-old English major Cho Seung-Hui unleased hell on Virginia Tech. They could not find anyone who knew him well, which means there was no one he confided in. He had no close friends, which means there was no one he could cry with, or express his deepest longings to. He was living in a virtual prison of his own making, but blamed others for locking him in it.
In the book, "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil," author Dr. Philip Zimbardo sheds light on the shooter's inner demons. "The Lucifer Effect," based on the Stanford Prison Experiment of 33 years ago, shows how a prison environment creates evil behavior, like what occurred at Abu Ghraib. It explains group or system-wide evil, like that under Hitler, communistic regime or the genocide in Rwanda. He says the evil is not about a few bad apples, but a bad barrel. That's the group dynamic.
But there are other kinds of "prisons" not confined to a place or a building. These are the emotional prisons that "normal" individuals live in daily. Whatever that prison is — whether it’s shyness, loneliness, anger, hate — it can grow to unmanageable proportions, and manipulate an individual into believing that their only course of action is to break out, using any means possible ... even violence.
According to reports, a note left by Cho Seung-Hui talked about the "rich kids," "deceitful charlatans" and "debauchery." And there is also talk that he may have been rejected by a woman, or women, that he had feelings for. Perhaps in Cho's mind, these people were his "jailers" — the wardens of his prison responsible for his emotional incarceration. He vilified them, found them guilty of great offenses and then logically executed his warped sense of justice ... and murdered 32 people.
Both theologians and some secular psychologists agree that all of us are capable of great "evil." We only need the right combinations of events that progress unchecked.
The bottom line is that there are no simple or concrete answers that offer comfort. However Dr. Richard Lints from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, said it's important for Christians and people of all faiths to "be present with people as a sign of hope, not as a sign of explanation, but that we don't give up because of what happened."
So where is God? He is in the prayer vigils. He is in the rivers of tears flowing from everyone affected. He is in the community coming together to offer support to the families. He is at work in the love and strength people are offering each other. God is with us.

Lauren Green serves as a religion correspondent for the FOX News Channel. Prior to this, Green served as a news anchor for “Fox and Friends,” where she provided daily news updates and covered arts for the network.

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Some reading that is way too good not to share:

Radical Torah

Velveteen Rabbi

and Urban Abbess

Enjoy!

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Countdown to Graduation

Remember Sr pictures? I was playing around with my camera while Em was having hers done--she just cannot take a bad picture!

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God At Work

"One person may read the Bible, but a hundred people will read the Christian."

Read the rest of the story right here.

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The Secret

There were all of these beautiful people sitting around on the Oprah show talking about a "Secret." Their lives were changed because they believed that good things could/would come to them. "That's faith," I thought, too busy to really go any further with it. Now they want other people to pay them so they can learn the secret, too.

Fast forward a few weeks. A friend calls me raving about the SECRET. She is ready for good things, wonderful things to come to her--so excited, so full of expectation--she is full of faith.

I look at my life, my expectations. There is something very wrong with this picture...

"I'm ready, God, for good things to come to me." And I expected the walls to come crashing down on me. What kind of god is this who withholds good things from his children?

Lord, You see how I cling to my little gods
I have tried so hard to please them.
But they are harsh and abusive and I cannot please them.
They are awful little gods, but they are all I know.
I have grown accustomed to them and
Adjusted my expectations to their smallness.

I am weary to death of the gods who come from shame, LORD.
I long to worship You, God of Grace.
I long to worship You.
You are the God of Glory.
Give me eyes to see You today
Give me a heart that hopes in You.
Amen.

From Rooted in God's Love, Dale and Juanita Ryan 1991

"I am ready, God, for good things to come to me because I believe--I believe that You are Jehovah, Breath of Life, and You love me."

Now, this may not rock your world like it did mine-but the universe shifted as soon as my heart received the goodness of God. It's been forty years of tug-of war--trying to do the right thing when I need to believe the right thing: Jesus loves me.

Oh, and here's a newsflash: Jesus has been around since well, forever. What's so secret about that?

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What do you think?

Domestic violence and assault seems to come from out of nowhere. You are having an argument with your spouse and suddenly, it just gets out of hand. The police are called, and you find yourself in jail, charged with domestic assault. Often these cases arise during the course of a divorce when tensions are already high and tempers can flare without warning.
These charges are not to be taken lightly, however. Generally, you will be charged with a misdemeanor assault unless you use a deadly weapon or cause serious injuries such as broken bones. However, even in situations where you were charged and convicted of a misdemeanor, a second domestic assault charge can now be charged as a felony under Texas law. This is true even if the second charge is based on nothing more than a hard slap or pushing your spouse down. Therefore, you need to take any domestic assault charge seriously even if it is your first.
At Gioffredi & Associates Dallas, TX

STAFFORD, Va. — A woman convicted of a felony for throwing a cup of ice into a car that cut her off in traffic was sentenced to probation instead of prison, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Jessica Hall faced between two and five years in prison after she was convicted last month of maliciously throwing a missile — the cup of ice — into an occupied vehicle. No one was injured in the incident last summer.

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