Yancey - What Good is God?

I have always liked reading books by Philip Yancey because he tackles the tough issues that most folks would rather ignore. In this one he talks about ten places he traveled to for speaking engagements. He shares background circumstances about the places and people he visited. Following each chapter is a talk he gave at each place. He really shows how God's grace and love can work in today's world.

What's next???

It has not been a quiet week in the world. I'm going to try to make some links and/or photos to help remember this for later. http://www.spiegel.de/flash/flash-25462.html if it works has some satellite before and after photos of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. There is a slider bar to compare the two photos.

Here is another list since 2001 borrowed from Big Picture and also Doug Kass http://www.thestreet.com/story/11043072/1/kass-a-contagion-of-black-swans.html

Black Swan events over the past decade

• Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon;
• 78% decline in the Nasdaq;
• 2003 European heat wave (40,000 deaths);
• 2004 Tsunami in Sumatra, Indonesia (230,000 deaths);
• 2005 Kashmir, Pakistan, earthquake (80,000 deaths)
• 2008 Myanmar cyclone (140,000 deaths);
• 2008 Sichuan, China, earthquake ( 68,000 deaths);
• Derivatives roil the world’s banking system and financial markets;
• Failure of Lehman Brothers and the sale/liquidation of Bear Stearns;
• 30% drop in U.S. home prices;
• 2010 Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, earthquake (315,000 deaths);
• 2010 Russian heat wave (56,000 deaths);
• 2010 BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill;
• 2010 market flash crash (a 1,000-point drop in the DJIA);
• Surge of unrest in the Middle East; and
• Thursday’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Quite a scary list above and if that was not enough the middle east is still very unstable in Libya and Saudi Arabia...

Of course stock markets hate uncertainty.

Three woes, all in one week: natural and man made disasters, political unrest, and economic downtrend!