If you followed the news last spring you probably heard that Mark Hacking of Salt Lake City lied to his wife and family, and then (allegedly) shot and killed his wife and dumped her body.

I have no sympathy for men who harm women — especially the women who love and trust them. And I believe that a just God will judge them more harshly than I ever could.

I also believe in a merciful God, however. I believe in repentance. I believe that Christ can change your heart. And I believe that the first step in the process of obtaining mercy from a God who is both just and merciful, the first paving stone on the high road of repentance if you will, is confession.

Well, Mark Hacking confessed. He plead guilty in court, and told the court just what he did.

I’m not going to suggest for a moment that EARTHLY judges need to show any special mercy upon him. There are other stones on that high road, and they have burdensome words on them like “restitution” and “repayment.” When you take a human life there is NOTHING you can do to fully restore what you have taken. He hasn’t been sentenced yet, and I’ll be disappointed if his crime gets him less than 15 years behind bars.

But I’m pleased that he confessed.

I’m pleased because Mark Hacking is still a person, still has an eternal soul, and is still worth saving. I believe his confession means that he may find forgiveness in the next life. He decided not to lie anymore, nor to pay others to lie on his behalf, in an effort to further cover the horrible sins he committed. He still has a lifetime of pain, shame, and guilt ahead of him, but perhaps in the eternal world he can find the mercy I believe he is seeking.

–Howard

Several times today I’ve typed posts up in forum discussions, and about halfway through decided “this isn’t really worth saying.”

Sure, I love hearing myself speak, and seeing myself post. What attention-whoring, publicity-craving, ego-driven webcartoonist DOESN’T? But I seem to be maturing a bit. I’ve grown up enough to know that not every conversation I read with engaged interest needs my input — even (and sometimes ESPECIALLY) the ones about me.

Don’t expect my post count to fall through the floor, though. There are still bazillions of discussions out there that DO need my input. They just don’t need it right now.

–Howard

Y’all might be interested in reading this:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2005-04-15#braying

It pretty much speaks for itself. And before you ask, the answer is “yes, I gave Tycho permission to reprint my email.”

Now I just need it to get picked up by CNN. 🙂

–Howard

So they’ve put up the conclave chimney, a signalling device to let the world know whether or not the assembled cardinals have elected a new pope.

This is quite possibly the coolest smoke-signal in the world, if only because so many people will be paying attention to it. And it reminds me of the last time it was used, when I was in gradeschool. It was all over the news, and we all talked about it, even though very few of us were Catholic (and I’m not, in case my previous LJ entries haven’t made that clear.)

Anyway, during or shortly after that time, this lady’s car caught fire at the edge of the schoolyard. She got out okay, but the car went up like a torch, with thick, oily, black smoke billowing from it. Then the Sarasota Fire and Rescue team extinguished it in one go with a a couple of hoses.

As the plume of black was immediately replaced with a mushroom-cloud of white steam, one of the kids in the crowd shouted “A new Pope! Yipee!”

That was a great day in my memory. Cars need to catch fire next to schoolyards more often.

–Howard