Hither and thither 4/17/09

And now once again, the single most eclectic feature on a very eclectic blog, this week's Hither and Thither. And my, is it bursting! (There may be updates, particularly of images, so check back later.)

• So, you know that there are no scientists who are Christians, right? What, you don't? It goes like this: (A) if a science student, no matter how excellent, doesn't affirm materialistic evolution, (B) he is denied his doctorate. If he doesn't have a doctorate, (C) he's not a scientist. Therefore, (D) there are no scientists who are Christians! Is the same thing underway in counseling, so that one day it will be said there are no counselors who are Christians?
• Now we also know that Secretary Janet Napolitano, of the Department of Homeland Security, issued dire warnings against right-wingers and veterans despite internal objections from her the department's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. But she plowed ahead. Wrong and stubborn is a bad way to go through life, Secretary N (and President O).
• You know how pictures of fast food in menus and ads never look like what you end up getting? Well, here's photographic evidence. I will say this, though: my pizzas are exactly like the pictures!
• This, with thanks to Shinar Squirrel (via email), will only appeal to you if you're a hardcore Lego fan — which my son Josiah is. This is for you, 'Siah!

• There are some absolutely brilliant photographs here. A few favorites:

• I don't "do" Halloween. But even I must admit this is a pretty cool costume:

• This edition's Headline of the Week is more bizarre than most: Student hit by corpse thrown from speeding car. The details... well, does anyone really need more details? Nah.
• Goodness, there's a thematically-related runner-up. Now remember, in Headlines of the Week, the whole point is the title, not the story. Ready? Here it is: Obama Meets Privately With the Dead. Wow. Dude really will talk with anyone.

• There actually is a a second headline runner-up, as well: Tori Spelling: I'm Not Anorexic. Yeah, well, me neither. In case, you know, anyone's asking. "Which, I note, they're not." (Name that movie.)
  
• The Saudi judge who refused to annul an eight-year-old's forced marriage to pay a debt has stuck by his ruling. Ahh, the culture of the Religion of Peace makes yet another mark.
• Poor kids. The Obama administration extends false legitimacy to public embracers of perversion who've acquired children. (Thanks for the tip, Laura K)
• Well, I'll be. Apparently John McCain regrets that he didn't lose by triple digits. Hm. You know all those harsh things I said about him before the election? Wellsir... he's not making me sorry. (In case you're wondering, yes, I still think he'd be a better president than Obama, and I'm still sorry he lost. But then, I think anything you could buy in a pet show would be a better president than Obama... with a surer birth certificate!)
• The satirical (and, be warned, not reliably family-friendly) site The Onion has a deadly satire of how the MSM might respond if Obama murdered a couple of citizens in cold blood. It's just about one degree off of completely believable, and that's pretty sad. Note: it's a parody. I don't want any poor soul papering his mother's basement wall with rants about my accusing the president of a felony.
• I have mixed feelings about this. President Obama spoke at Georgetown University, his administration asked that they cover up the name of Jesus (represented by IHS) — and they did it. Why mixed? It's a Roman Catholic University, and it was absolutely craven of them to comply. But then again, Roman Catholicism isn't really about Jesus, anyway; so that's sort of a wash. And I'm really OK with Obama not associating himself with any form of Christianity in any way — except that he had the (trademark) gall and audacity to force a Sermon on the Mount allusion into his speech, rationalizing his march towards economic totalitarianism as building the economy on a rock. The ironies are innumerable. So I end up disgusted with the both of them. (Charles Krauthammer pulverizes The One's "new foundation.")
  
• Where We're Headed Alert: our dear Libbie pointed me to the report that 242 patients under the tender care of the government in Britain were starved to death.
  
• Next time a Roman Catholic tells you that, if you're not chained to Rome, everyone becomes his own Pope, ask him whether Tony Blair is still allowed to partake of the Mass.
  
• As a rule, I'm a bit leery of "Everything That Everyone Has Said about ___ Is Wrong" reporting, but newly-available information about the Columbine killings reportedly challenges most of what we know. The article includes this comforting fact about a government study of school murderers: "School shooters, they said, followed no set profile, but most were depressed and felt persecuted." Gee, how many teenagers does that describe? Psychologists want to help their self-esteem or deal with feelings of alienation. All human problems do stem from alienation, but it is alienation from God that is at the root, and psychology doesn't hold the solution to that.
• I did quite a bit of writing about the Terry Schiavo atrocity. Since then a number of "hopeless brain dead" patients have awoken. Now a new report says that 40% of patients said to be in a vegetative state may be misdiagnosed.
  
• Here are some pretty hysterical warning labels. Hysterical... until you realize that somebody must have needed these labels. And that somebody probably votes. And drives a white car.
• The good news: you don't have cancer. The bad news: you have a fir tree growing in your lung. Evidently he'd breathed in the seed. (More gruesome picture here.)
  

• Hm; I offered you my at-great-length Biblical-theological take on what happened last November 4. Now I think I've I've found a more pointed, graphic summary:
  

• And then, there are these:
  

...and, finally: