Friday, June 25, 2010

Hither and thither 6/25/10

This weeks' cornucopia opens with the usual mix of politics, food, theology, and frivolity. Remember to check back after noon PT for any updates.
  • More reasons to love NJ's firebrand governor Chris Christie. Says he's pro-life; 2012? 2016?
  • Some very unusual noms (thanks to reader Joel Griffith).
  • Justin Taylor compiled a good, concise, helpful primer on limited atonement. As usual on Justin's blog, the quality of the post is inversely proportionate to many of the comments, so... I wouldn't bother.
  • Every have one of those days when it's just really, really, really, really hard to drop the hammer? Yeah, me too.

  • "Mr. Grasshopper" Kerry Garrett noticed a little boy persecuted by his school for honoring the military with a hat bedecked with little plastic soldiers carrying — onoes! — little plastic guns. Unexpected ally in the resultant scuffle with the school? The ACLU.
  • Some tepidly nice news for the Boy Scouts of America. A federal jury ruled that Philadelphia cannot kick the Scouts out of a city-owned building because they do not allow homosexuals to join. The ruling is not as strong as it should be, but is a step in the right direction.
  • I've been known to have my little joke. Is this one? They are planning to make a movie out of the game Rock 'Em. Sock 'Em Robots.Joke? Serious? Find out.
  • The Democrat-ruled House of Representatives passed an anti-First-Amendment measure euphemistically called DISCLOSE, in the hopes of shutting up the influence of the Tea Party movement. At least one Democrat is honest about the aim: to stop Republicans from winning elections.
  • An editorial by Rep. Tad Poe puts quite succinctly the fact that our eminently unqualified president has named an eminently unqualified candidate to begin learning how to be a judge... on the Supreme Court.
  • Ohhh dear. Reader Gabby points me to a Wisconsin county Supervisor named Peggy West who says she might have some sympathy for the Arizona law about illegal immigrants...if not for the fact that Arizona is far removed from the Mexico border. Unlike Texas, you know. Some of the comments at Hot Air are funny (also some offensive). For instance: "Another product of our government run school system"; and "I live in Texas, and I’ve always wondered how mexicans get here all the way from China. I guess this explains it. :?"; and "Ladies and gentleman, your democrat voter" (which, btw, is true); and "There’s something beautiful in the juxtaposition of passionate sincerity and chronic stupidity."
  • UPDATE: Senator John Kyl of Arizona tries to help Peggy out. (Thanks, Gabby.)
  • Uncomfortable truth from Sacred Sandwich:













18 comments:

Fred Butler said...

Coffee.

Is there anything IT can't do?

Gabby said...

Gov. Chris Christie - Public Enemy Number 1. No wonder that man is so hated amongst the moonbats! What a breath of fresh air in a sea of corruption.

Great article on him, Dan. What a joy to see real men step up to the plate.

Gabby said...

Regarding that article I sent you about the county SUPERVISOR Peggy West who doesn't know that Arizona borders Mexico...that quote from Billy Madison comes to mind:

What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

The Squirrel said...

I'm glad to see Sponge Bob doing his part to clean up the BP oil spill in the Gulf (which is also a long way from Mexico, y'know.)

Squirrel

Fred Butler said...

By the way, speaking of Twilight fans, THIS can be uploaded at the noon re-post.

CGrim said...

As a refugee from New Jersey (left 10 years ago), I'm greatly encouraged by Chris Christie, but I urge everyone to be cautious - Republicans from New Jersey are often pretty wishy-washy on social issues. As I recall, Christie's position in his gubernatorial campaign was that he is personally pro-life and supports parental notification and the ban on partial-birth abortion, but wouldn't go beyond that. True, this is considered "pro-life" in our culture, but...

CGrim said...

Oh, and that ruling in favor of the Boy Scouts is a good precedent for faithful Christian colleges that receive federal money (for financial aid, etc).

trogdor said...

If I had a lightsaber, those red light cameras would be among the first things to go. In my wonderful locale, they installed cameras, then shortened the yellow light times by a second so they can catch people going through. Of course, accident rates skyrocketed in those intersections, but hey, they were able to grab about $100 a pop from the people they're supposed to protect, so it's totally worth it.

Don't be too hard on the idiot who didn't know Arizona's a border state. With 57 states to keep track of, how can you possibly be expected to remember which is where?

OK, am I the only one here who doesn't view "never been a judge before" as necessarily disqualifying someone from the Supreme Court? Wasn't Rehnquist pretty good despite the same issue? There's plenty that should disqualify Kagan, I just don't know if that's enough to do it by itself.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Lets see... now where did I last see Arizona?

Maybe she was thinking of Alaska. Go fig.

About your unusual noms, got Kerry the bacon flavored lip balm for Father's Day. Maybe if you apply it right before eating a cheeseburger...

That poor Wal-Mart baby. It just boggles my mind that God allows some people to reproduce.

Sonja said...

A shout-out for my hometown bacon guys for making H&T! That bacon salt is great (I'm partial to the peppered one). Now the Baconaisse doesn't measure up, but that's probably because of the weird color. New bacon product alert -- envelopes!

Gov. Christie -- Neil Cavutto interviewed him this week and well worth watching. Best place to find the whole thing is on the Fox Business site.

CGrim said...

Trogdor - it's actually illegal to shorten the yellow duration to anything shorter than 3.5 seconds. A number of cities around the country have gotten busted over the past couple years for shortening their yellow lights below that threshhold: http://blog.motorists.org/6-cities-that-were-caught-shortening-yellow-light-times-for-profit/

Not only are they protecting their citizens, they're actually putting them at greater risk. In my opinion, this sort of corruption should get prosecuted under the RICO Act.

David Regier said...

The red light camera near our house has a fine of . . .

FIVE hundred bucks.

So, while the temptation to gun it on a yellow has gone way down, the consequences for slamming on the brakes is getting rear ended. So the city gets revenue either way.

Of course, there's that little voice in the back of my head that says, "Well, if you obey the speed limit, it's really not a problem. . ." (Don't worry, Dan, I know it's not the Lord ;-)

Aaron said...

I know that there has been a lot of controversy around Houston for the red light cameras. They've gotten the wrong cars and they've driven up the accident rate. The idea that we could end up like Europe with speeding ticket satelites is horrid.

Brad Williams said...

Yeah, I enjoyed that JT brought of the subject of Limited Atonement there. That's the area of "Calvinism" that I work through most frequently. (We have, believe it or not, a good many Primitive Baptists here of the "eternal justification" type.) I was, however, dissappointed with the discussion. I was afraid that it would spiral into silliness before any decent discussion could occur.

DJP said...

Almost invariably the case over there, isn't it, Brad? One often wants to ask, "So tell me again: why do you frequent this blog?"

Sir Brass said...

A moose once bit my sister :)

Brad Williams said...

It's a shame. I'm afraid JT's in a bit of a catch-22 there. I'd love to be able to be conversant with him on some things he posts because I have a great deal of respect for him. But it's like trying to holler over the masses. Unfortunately, TeamPyro can face that same issue.

I wanted to say some things about Sailhamer's view of creation and how it doesn/doesn't relate to the Gap Theory. (I have read Pentatuech as Narrative, Genesis Unbound, and others.) But I was like, "No way that's going to help this discussion move forward."

With regard to Owen's trilemma and the issue of Limited Atonement, the, and I shudder to use this word because of it's terrible mis-use, hyper-Calvinists around here that I have to work to distance myself from...well, they love it. They use it to say that even unbelief is paid for, and because of that, the elect are eternally justified and therefore do not even have to believe. I can easily provide a Biblical response, but it seems that they hoist the Owen dilemma on its own petard. I have a sneaky suspicion that this very solid argument is why John Gill ended up where he did.

Alas, this is H&T, I hope I did not bring a downer to this fun post!

Brad Williams said...

BTW, this Chris Christie guy. Well, that was simply wonderful. Beyond the soundbite of the "you don't have to do it" that he said to the teacher, the whole thing was a thing of impromptu beauty. As in, I think he means it for real.