Too obvious?

Rep. Steve King brandishes an acorn cookie served at the White House annual Christmas party, Monday, Dec. 7, 2009, (Rep. Steve King)

"I didn't expect to see such stark symbolism," King said in an e-mail.

President Obama worked with the community organizing group ACORN in the mid-90s. But now ACORN faces a host of allegations related to voter fraud in the 2008 election and has been weakened by an undercover expose that shows employees offering tax advice to a couple posing as a pimp and prostitute.

The irony of the White House dishing out acorn-shaped chocolate cookies seemed a little, well, "nutty" to King. The Iowa Republican is one of the loudest voices calling for Congress to investigate ACORN.

Eye of the Needle

"The eye of a needle" is part of a phrase attributed to Jesus by the synoptic gospels:

...I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.

The parallel versions appear in Matthew 19:23-24, Mark 10:24-25 and Luke 18:24-25.

The saying was a response to a young rich man who had asked Jesus what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied that he should keep the commandments. To which the man stated he had done. Jesus responded, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." The young man became sad and was unwilling to do this. Jesus then spoke this response, leaving his disciples astonished.

Another common explanation of the figure, is that Jesus was referring to a certain gate in Jerusalem called Needle's Eye. This entry-point was built like the eye of a needle and so low that a camel could pass only if it entered kneeling and unencumbered with baggage. The lesson would then be that an eternal inheritance awaits those who unburden themselves of sin, and in particular, the things of this world.

Also, kneeling represents submission and humility, which are required to enter into heaven. Although there is no historical evidence that such a gate ever existed, through frequent repetition the idea has attained the status of virtual dogma in some circles.

The Jaffa Gate in the wall of Jerusalem, showing the 'Needle's Eye.' Small doors such as this were common features of the gates of ancient cities; humans could pass through fairly easily, but large animals, such as camels, had to be unloaded and then had to kneel to get through, even then with difficulty."

That, or capitalists are totally hosed. Either way, it was an interesting point that I learned today.

Bing?

I've been trying, for the life of me, to figure out why on God's Green Earth the braintrust that is Microsoft picked "Bing" for their search engine name. I'll I can come up with is maybe they're big Friends fans?

The company worked with, and spent major coin, with Interbrand to come up with Bing, which is meant to evoke the "aha" moment of finding what you're looking for. Hey, why not "Aha" guys? Other candidates were said to include Sift and Kumo. Both sound like Native American words for Dookie.

"We looked a name that was short, easily recognizable, we could own it. Something that was easy to type into the search box," says Danielle Tiedt, general manager for online audience business group marketing at Microsoft. Wait, hang on. You have to type Bing into the Google search box? Danielle - really, I don't think you understand how this is supposed to work, do you?

Is 'Bing' catchier than Microsoft's previous search-engine name Windows Live? Maybe. I always imagined an oversized plush windows characters like a sand dial or a cursor lip-synch performing to toddlers... but that's me. (see photo illustration)

At Google's I/O event, meanwhile, co-founder Sergey Brin declined to comment directly on Bing, but noted that "we're pretty happy" with the name Google.

At least Wolfram Alpha has 'wolf' in its name. Oh, and you can ask Wolfram|Alpha if it is SkyNet...