Yet I still think of you and your HT needs, Dear Reader. Feel loved? Sweet.
You must remember this, then launch!
- Before the frivolity: remember to pray for "Jollyblogger," pastor David Wayne, whose cancer is on the move again. Also, read his unsparing sharing of the hard lessons cancer has taught him. One way or another, it is the Biblical pattern, isn't it? We die, die, die; and only then, do we live.
- All right, now to the usual assortment of very various variouses.
- 'Way cool: Jim Hamilton notes that The Sword is free on Kindle just now.
- We open with this weeks entry from the List of Things I Will Never, Ever, Ever Do:
- After I found that, reader Chris Carney sent me a vid with a little more info on this... if you want it.
- How to pet a kitty.
- Brilliant. Omaha mayor proposes a ten cents per roll tax on toilet paper. Birth of a thousand puns. (Thanks to Loretta Wissel.)
- Barber does something "I don't see nobody else out there doin'." No doubt. (Thanks, Chris Carney.)
- Next Chronicles of Narnia movie? The Magician's Nephew.
- A pastor was fired for his support for Rob Bell's new book. The pastor was really surprised by the action. I'm 'way more surprised than he: it was a UMC body. (Thanks, Joel Griffith, for the heads-up.)
- Are you comforted knowing that we're at "kinetic military action" in Libya? Whew! At least we're not at war!
- Meanwhile, former Bush administration personnel and others are thunderstruck at the feckless, high-handed way the President unilaterally and apparently carelessly bumped us into wa... er, kinetic, uh, you know. Senator Obama would have issued a high-handed lecture skewering President Bush for such actions. Me, I don't think the reason's hard to figure out. Do you?
- Top Ten Rejected Obama mission names:
10.Operation Nine Months In The Senate Didn't Prepare Me For This
9. Operation Organizing for Libya
8. Operation Double Standard
7. Operation FINE! I'll Do Something
6. Operation Enduring Narcissism
5. Operation So That's What the Red Button Does
4. Operation France Backed Me Into A Corner
3. Operation Start Without Me
2. Operation Unlike Bush Wars This One Is Justified Because Hey Look A Squirrel
1. Operation Aimless Fury
- Too early to be hungry? Turns out... no.
- Relatedly: reader Mike Dickie found us how to make Peepshi — which is Peeps Sushi.
- Some will care, we do: Fringe has turned into an interesting, well-done show. Fox moved it to Friday night, usually known as the "death slot." Yet they've renewed it for another full season. Yay! [Warning for UK viewers, who are behind the US broadcast schedule: there are possibly spoilers in this post's meta.]
- Narrow-minded religious bigotry and censorship are alive and well in Illinois.
- I just... it's... sigh. You know, if anyone needs me to explain how wrong this is... well, welcome to the blog. Hang around. (Thanks to reader Mark Patton for the link.)
- Robert Sakovich found something giving various religious viewpoints about Japan. Lost people talking like lost people isn't surprising. Franklin Graham and his helpless, well-meaning spectator God is, though.
- A far better pastoral answer is given by my friend, pastor and author John Kitchen.
- Robert also found an exchange between David Horowitz and a Muslim student that is distressingly revealing.
- Dude really, really wants the ice cream and really, really won't give it back:
- I allowed heavy negative reviews (and thrift) persuade me not to see Battle: Los Angeles, in spite of nifty-looking trailers. Now Andrew Klavan has me wondering: was I manipulated by liberal anti-militarism?
- Are manifestos still "in"? Well, in case they are, thanks to reader Peter Pankonin here is How to Write a Manifesto.
- Are we missing something, or is this a Medical/Judicial Tyranny Alert? A woman in labor declines to sign a Caesarian-section consent... and they take her baby away for five years and counting? For child abuse? Even though it ended up being unnecessary?
- Of course the lone obvious irony here is that, had she contracted to have the child murdered, the medical/legal establishment would have had no interest whatever. Had she contracted for murdering the child as it was 2/3 of the way out of the birth canal, once again, no issue. Isn't that interesting, in a macabre way? The premise of abortion, such as it is, is that a woman has rights over "her own body." Abortion has nothing to do with her body, it has to do with another's body. However, Caesarian sections most certainly do relate directly to a woman's body. I've often said: the current state of abortion in America is a kind of moral insanity, and I mean that absolutely literally.
- Hopefully, my boys will appreciate the grammar-lesson-by-fail here, re. cookingperson Rachael Ray:
- Julie Garrett found a map animating the over 600 quakes Japan has endured since March 11, 2011.
- Thanks to reader Gary Benfold, we can look down the pathway of healthcare tyranny to its more advanced case in Great Britain, where a child was born at 22 weeks, struggled to live, and was left to die in his mother's arms by medics who followed "national guidance not to resuscitate babies born at under 23 weeks" and refused to treat him.
- It's all about cost and governmental rules, and nothing about right and wrong, in this article. I see a double-irony. The mother refers to her "partner," not her husband. Unless she means that, for some odd reason, her business partner was present and her husband was away, she means she hasn't a care about Christ's Lordship in her sexual life — but she's wounded that the medical establishment hasn't a care about Christ's Lordship, either.
- Relatedly — Princeton logic: targeting black babies for abortion? SOP. Warning blacks about targeting black babies for abortion? "Social bullying!" "Racism!"
- So I read that terrific actor Ed Harris is set to play John McCain in an upcoming movie. I'm no McCain fan, but my first thought is, "Oh, are they going to do a movie about his heroic service in Viet Nam?" Silly, naive me. It's about behind-scenes (i.e. probably largely made-up) doings in the last presidential election.
- For Phil Johnson... [rats; turns out that the animated gif I had here was a nasty meme known evidently to everyone except me. Oh well, it was — for us unaware of the association — a cute variation on this video. Sigh. Stupid intraweb memes. Thanks to Kurt K for pointing out the bad.]
- Name that political party: a state senator wants to censor Christians who offer prayers in the Senate meetings, to prevent them from praying in Jesus' name. Name that party!
- Wonder if she'd favor requiring rabbis who pray to pray in Jesus' name. You know, to be fair.
- Reader David Miller noted a story that makes us wonder whether there will be a species-inclusive version of the NIV.
- After I included that in HT, I find that Phil already has his calendar marked.
- Just sad: two homeschooling conferences kick out Answers in Genesis, leaving free rein to such as BioLogos and Peter Enns. Each group accuses the other. (Thanks to Scott Snyder for the link.)
- Leaving only...
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35 comments:
Regarding the story of the 22 week (gestational) baby born in Brittain:
My wife is a NICU nurse (taking care of premies for over a decade), and she has told me that babies born before 23 weeks never survive. Term babies are 39-40 weeks. There have been serious break-throughs in this field over the last 20 years, but the developmental gaps are too severe and too widespread at 22 weeks.
The scenario that is often played out is a teenage mother demanding that the child be given life support and he lives (and suffers) through various procedures and meds before eventually having a major systemic failure and passing away. The young mom is usually on state aid and tax-payers pay the $200-300k bill because she wasn't mature enough to make the very difficult decision to let the baby go without causing him unnecessary suffering.
I am NOT saying that I want the government making "right to life" decisions, but I do think that if tax-payers are picking up the tab that someone should be able to prevent needless suffering and expense when those are the unavoidable outcomes.
Hate to say it, but, as a teacher, the Science teacher signed on to teach a certain view of thinking at a non-religious institution, right? The only way I could see this being okay would be if this was an institution where teacher's were allowed massive amounts of freedom within the classroom so far as WHAT they taught as well as HOW they teach it.
This, I think, is a much smaller version of Obama deciding what laws he will and will not enforce. Both men signed up under a certain system and vowed, in some form, to do what they were called to do.
If the man does not want to teach evolution that is fine. As a believer I do not think he should teach it. However, I think it would be a much bigger statement to his students, faculty, parents, etc. if he resigned and let everyone know why he was resigning.
BioLogos strikes again! So BioLogos can say that we are all wrong, but the second that somebody questions any of their team of "scientists" it is some major offense?
I wish I could find the clip I watched on my DVR of Wretched from a couple of weeks ago where they showed a black congresswoman or senator talking about how hard it is to raise poor black babies and that defunding Planned Parenthood will make things worse. After showing several clips from her speech, Todd Friel asked one of his cameramen (who is black) what he thought of it. Without pause, he said "She's a racist! She'd rather kill black babies than to help raise them." Amazing to me how the people elected to make the laws in this country can't seem to grasp such simple concepts.
If you mean that as a counter to me, Christopher - which you're welcome to do - you misunderstand me. I am saying that the policy is born of and a prime example of narrow-minded religious bigotry and censorship, and that the father's crusade is another example of the very same.
That Klaven review was awesome. Now I want to go see the movie (4 children and thrift prevent us). One of the better commenters under his review writes,
Battle over LA is a very good movie: it has excellent action, good science fiction, with a good story line, logical progression of thought, the acting is exceptional. However the critics won't like it, because it doesn't have division between actors, that is inner conflict that can't be resolved, it doesn't have an inner turmoil over leadership. It doesn't have porno or much offensive language. I doesn't have objectionably mixed race drama. It is actually a very good film with conflict resolution. Like I said, angry, dysfunctional critics will hate it.
Read the Big Hollywood review, too. It warmed my heart as well. The author calls Battle:LA the subversive, anti-Avatar. He talks about only one unrealistic scene in the movie: The Marines passing a store in Santa Monica that has an American flag and sign reading "Support our Troops." Such things don't exist in Santa Monica.
It had like a 20 rating, or something, at RottenTomatoes when it came out. I had been reading bad reviews from preview audiences. I've enjoyed a number of movies the critics hated (most recently "I Am Number Four"), but usually negative reviews that are that universal mean something's wrong.
@DJP: Ah, my fault, good call on that one. Yes, the actual policy itself is completely faulty and bigoted. My bad.
Oh, mercy Christopher, no prob at all. I wasn't clear, and understand how you took it.
(c:
Already ordered the book on Kindle. I need to finish my casual rereading of Premill Dispy propaganda (finishing the Left Behind series during my casual reading time...yes, it's fluffy but it's fun :) ) and then I'll read it.
Actually that whole diving into the pool thing looks kind of fun. Possibly not being a good steward of my body, though :)
David Horowitz was one of two writers who spawned my political exoduz from the Left in the early 90's.
Great video.
- Don't have a Kindle, but I'll be getting the regular paper & ink version of that book. Looks like something right up my alley. :)
- I'm not surprised that UMC pastor got fired. UMC congregations are almost always more theologically conservative than their pastors, although there some fairly conservative wesleyan seminaries (Asbury for example).
- Not sure how I feel about Magician's Nephew. I like the book, but I like Silver Chair more. (Although part of that may be that the bleak moorland setting appeals to my scots genes...) I worry that Magicians Nephew will be a financial letdown, and they won't have the momentum to finish out the "main" storyline.
- That Franklin Graham quote is disappointing, especially given some of his strong stands in the past.
- Battle: Los Angeles is the "anti-Avatar"? I'm sold.
- That c-section case is astonishing. I generally side with doctors against the hippies who think that "doctors are evil capitalists out to take all your money by performing unnecessary procedures", but this sort of practice is absolutely unacceptable. It's not a c-section consent form, apparently, it's a "consent to not have your child taken by the state" form.
- That Vader/Elvis photoshop is fantastic.
My "misleading journalism alert" is hitting red on that C-section CPS story. I'm thinking there's a lot more to that story that the NJ government is simply not allowed to reveal to the public.
Good news about Fringe! Although the recent episodes about Olivia and William Bell are a bit too freaky for even me.
Gotta admit, though: she actually does a pretty good Leonard Nimoy.
Though (to ruin it) she shouldn't do a cracky voice. His voice cracks because he's 900 years old, and she isn't. So really to do it right, she'd have to imitate a young Leonard Nimoy. But then nobody'd get it.
That actress has surprised us. We were baffled as to how she got the part. Not a striking beauty, not an interesting actress... so what was it?
Then when she did Bolivia, we realized: it's Olivia who's bland and boring. Not Anna Torv.
Bro. Dan, I'm praying you won't get too sick and that if you do, you'll recover quickly.
I love Friday mornings :D
Every Thursday I ask myself, "Is it Friday yet?" It has everything to do with this blog. :-)
I loved the detailed instructions about how to pet a kitty, especially the tummy rub. In the case of Cyrus (our orange alpha male), there is always murder in his eyes. Especially if his food dish is empty.
Here's praying for a speedy recovery to good health and productive work!
The Horowitz piece was chilling.
I love The Magician's Nephew, but I'm trying to figure out how they're going to fit several billion years of evolution into a ninety minute movie.....
Trinian, I wouldn't doubt it if that is all to the story. The medical establishment has long been moving in a liberal direction, partnering with the state (case in point: dna records sent to state of TX when you have a baby in the hospital.)
Also, consider this case in Florida, where a mother was ordered by the court to lay in the hospital for months on bedrest:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/florida-court-orders-pregnant-woman-bed-rest-medical/story?id=9561460
Well, it's now afternoon and no one else has commented on it, so I'll just say that the Billie Jean infograph had me in stitches.
Good news on Fringe!
I disagree with you on Anna Torv. I think she is very pretty.
"I Am Number Four" was "okay." I guess I expected more with Michael Bay until I realized he only produced it, not directed.
Dan, we need some of this Biologos/Enns/Ham debacle on Pyromaniacs. It's pretty big right now in the homeschooling world, those like Jay Wile claiming Enns is orthodox. This almost parallels the Bell/universalist story.
Seems to me someone who writes for this blog wrote a similar peice like John Kitchen's. Wonder who that could have been?
Tom - the Billie Jean thing had me in stitches too. I actually just heard that song the other day - wonder how Dan came across/made that infograph.
The death of Liz Taylor has been a topic where I work. I work in about a 70/30 foreign/American area, and all these foreigners didn't know anything about American taking action against Libya, but they all knew about Elizabeth Taylor. Unfortunately, another sign of the times.
I second the request for more background and um, dare I say it, dialog, around the AIG brouhaha. Their account, and some of the supporting material, reads like a really interesting case study in calling out ungodly teaching vs. namecalling, (especially in the Internet era) and how to teach kids to discern and speak out when a seemingly orthodox person has "lost the plot", as Brother Chantry might say.
For the record, I support AiG's mission and its importance, but some of their rhetoric has been a little too "watchbloggerish" in style for me. There's a difference between calling out someone's teaching as contrary to the Gospel and orthodox faith, and putting "compromiser" at the lede and in the title of blog posts and Facebook posts all over the place, so that that's the first thing you see. It's sort of the equivalent of bringing along hand grenades on a mission to defuse landmines. But maybe that's just my background in being a spinmistress marketing professional....
Dan,
Are you in touch with your alternate Dan and do you know if Fringe has been renewed in the alternate universe?
What's your alternate Dan like anyway?
I think that the Omaha Mayor may find it difficult to get his motion passed.
It could lead to a bitter, that is to say en-suite debate, and he could easily fall between two stools.
Or I could be wrong and he could come out of this flushed with success.
Just my two scents...
For those who don't own a Kindle you can get a free Kindle download for their PC here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&ref_=amb_link_352814142_6&docId=1000426311
Along with 'The Sword' for free, Amazon offers lots of free G.A. Henty Kindle downloads, here:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=G.+A.+Henty&x=0&y=0
...for those who love historical fiction!
Thanks, Dan!
~Yvonne
Oooo, first I've heard of the AIG "incident". I'm very curious about Jay Wile's comments, as that seems inconsistent. His science curriculum (which we're LOVING) teaches 6-day creation.
DJP, I can understand that dive being on your list of things you'll never do, but is it because of what the man is wearing? I mean, what if, on your descent, you could rip open your shirt and display the Team Pyro t-shirt?
No, the Darth Vader/Elvis picture cannot be photoshopped. I'd venture that such a meeting happens quite frequently! ;-)
@Trinian:
I'm kinda with you on that C-section story. There has to be more to the story. And my wife had two C-sections. What fool doesn't sign a C-section consent form ahead of time? All of that stuff is worked out way before you get to the hospital. (In our case, months before the due date).
@Rachael: I'd be interested to hear if ICR was at those conferences. IF you get their free magazine, you'll see that they have an article that mentions Biologos' heresy in almost every issue. AIG split off from ICR at one point and I've always been curious about it since they have objectively, the same goals and beliefs.
@Andrew:
I may have to follow this story closely. I may have to invest in companies that make Bidets!
I think this blog has started dating itself: I have no frame of reference for the Billie Jean graphic.
Just to add a little context to the AIG/"Great Homeschool Convention" dust-up... A few years ago this for-profit group decided to host a convention in Cincy, about 2 hours south of the convention held by CHEO, the non-profit statewide support group in Ohio. It wasn't at the same time of year, but many families can't afford to attend two conventions a year, so it naturally drained attendees from CHEO's convention.
I don't know the financial details, but I suspect the for-profit group is able to offer better speaking fees and so has been able to garner some mighty big names, including Ken Ham,, Tim Hawkins, and the Duggers. A non-profit group just can't compete with that.
This for-profit group, which has since spread to several other states, pulls up the stakes after the convention and leaves town. CHEO, OTOH, has been around for many years, supporting homeschoolers, fighting for better laws, educating parents, lawmakers and schools and a myriad of other long-haul support activities.
Let me say that I think these people have a right to make a buck as much as the next guy. But we're seeing now, I think, with this controversy, that their more open policy toward speakers and vendors is going to offend a lot of their convention attenders and ultimately, lead them down the path of being the "inclusive" convention. They can't have it both ways.
Many families who attend this convention also plan a trip to the Creation Museum, just a short drive away. They are NOT going to be happy that Ham has been booted!
Ham, for his part, has been going after BioLogos about their overall snub of biblical authority - not necessarily even the whole earth age issue (though that is part of it).
On his Facebook page today, Ham posted excerpts of the children's Bible curriculum that BioLogos will be hawking in their workshop. Parents will be told that kids should only be taught about warm-fuzzy Jesus until they're in 5th grade. The concept of sin could traumatize them because they're too young to understand it. The Old Testament should not be introduced until 5th grade either!!! Is it any wonder Ken is squawking with this going on in his own backyard? Props to Ken Ham for not keeping silent on this.
I'm puzzled by Jay Wile's cow-towing to BioLogos. He has probably made a small fortune from homeschoolers purchasing his Apologia science books. I'm hard pressed to think of any homeschoolers who haven't used it in high school. Is this just another case of a Christian scientist wanting to impress "The Academy"?
I think it will be interesting to see if any of the other speakers call out BioLogos or their hosts for booting Ken Ham. Doug Phillips? He's a little bit....opinionated, to say the least.
Great news about Fringe!
BUT we UK viewers are stuck in the mid-season hiatus until April. Can't wait for it to begin again.
As for the use of the word "partner" in the UK. It's used to mean "significant other." It's on all the government forms now for new babies. My daughter was born 6 weeks ago and much of my time since then has been crossing out the word partner and writing "husband".
The current census also equates homosexual civil partnerships with marriage by placing those options in the same box and columns. The radical 1968 generation's attack on the family in the UK is on the verge of winning out. Pray for us.
Thank you for your perspective on the forced c-section issue. It seems crazy to me, and as a Christian woman, I cannot understand the disconnect. So much in maternity care is contradictory. When I had a 16 week pregnancy end because my child died, the physical part...the body of my baby was listed as a "product of conception." Just before I found out the baby had died, we were listening for a baby's heart beat, the medical people acknowledged a baby there.
By the way, the c-section story is not unique from what I have read out there. Women are often confronted with court orders for c-sections or are investigated by social services for refusal of a recommended treatment during labor. If you were to look it up, you'd see stories where women were forced into the surgery under guard. Women have been brought back to the hospital to have a c-section after they have left AMA. Imagine if a police man was sent to find a woman seeking an abortion and forced her to jail until she gave birth, yeah, that'd go over well.
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