Session Notes

Anne Rice Quits Christianity, Says Followers Not True to Christ.

Novelist Anne Rice, famous for her darkly seductive works such as Interview with the Vampire and The Witching Hour, announced this week via her Facebook page that she has decided to “quit” Christianity because of how the religion is increasingly being used to push anti-gay, anti-feminist and anti-science views.

Her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, has confirmed that this posting and subsequent comments were indeed written by Rice and not an impostor.

Novelist Rejects Christianity, Remains “Committed to Christ”
On Wednesday, Rice wrote the following on her Facebook page:

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

She followed this with:

“As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

Explaining herself further, Rice’s latest offering on her Facebook page emphasizes that her faith remains as strong as ever, but that it is the affiliation with some of the religion’s followers that has prompted her to redefine herself:

“My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn’t understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.”

All I can say is, Man, have I ever thought that myself!!!!!!!

Finally, a little reason…

For years, the aggressive presentation of the American Psyc. Asso. has been that homosexuality is innate, that any attempt at reparative therapy amounted to abuse and that therapists who offer such should be banned. They further promoted the idea (and aggressively attempted the enforcement of such) that schools must affirm and even market homosexuality/bisexuality/lesbianism/transsexualism as a great idea for youth or risk being seen as and create children who are bigoted.

It would be nice if they had founded all of this politicking on anything more then rumor and thin air — but, they didn’t — the science just isn’t on their side.

Finally, the push back is coming — and coming VERY hard — from none other then the American College of Pediatricians in the form of a letter stating the obvious:

(1) individuals with unwanted same sex attraction often can be successfully treated;

(2) there is no undue risk to patients from embarking on such therapy and

(3), as a group, homosexuals experience significantly higher levels of mental and physical health problems compared to heterosexuals. Among adolescents who claim a “gay” identity, the health risks include higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, alcoholism, substance abuse, anxiety, depression and suicide. Encouragingly, the longer students delay self-labeling as “gay,” the less likely they are to experience these health risks. In fact, for each year an adolescent delays, the risk of suicide alone decreases by 20%.

In light of these facts, it is clear that when well-intentioned but misinformed school personnel encourage students to “come out as gay” and be “affirmed,” there is a serious risk of erroneously labeling students (who may merely be experiencing transient sexual confusion and/or engaging in sexual experimentation). Premature labeling may then lead some adolescents into harmful homosexual behaviors that they otherwise would not pursue.

Optimal health and respect for all students will only be achieved by first respecting the rights of students and parents to accurate information and to self-determination. It is the school’s legitimate role to provide a safe environment for respectful self-expression for all students. It is not the school’s role to diagnose and attempt to treat any student’s medical condition, and certainly not a school’s role to “affirm” a student’s perceived personal sexual orientation.

Here’s a couple more sources of real information from NARTH and Liberty Counsel.

Don’t expect the politburo at the APA to agree though…

Vatican

The sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in the US and abroad was a matter of homosexuals preying on adolescent boys, not one of pedophilia, said the Vatican’s representative at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland. It is “more correct” said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, to speak of ephebophilia, a homosexual attraction to adolescent males, than pedophilia, in relation to the scandals.

“Of all priests involved in the abuses, 80 to 90 per cent belong to this sexual orientation minority which is sexually engaged with adolescent boys between the ages of 11 and 17,” said Tomasi. His statement is backed up by a report commissioned by the US bishops that found that in the overwhelming majority of cases the clergy involved were homosexuals, with 81 percent of victims being adolescent males.

Ok, I’ve been waiting weeks for someone to finally go public with this reality: it’s not often I find myself supporting much that comes out of the Vatican — but this is brilliant — and, perhaps, hope for change…

(Yes, I fully recognize this guy is gonna get roasted alive for sheer political stupidity — but it’s not like I can’t relate to being such a driven truth-teller that I end up looking like a bull in a china shop myself. Yes, I realize that the latter part of the article is a whiny and pathetic attempt at deflection — but HE’S STILL TELLING THE TRUTH in the first part.)

Here’s what he is saying:

Accusing the Roman Catholic clergy of Pedophilia is actually letting them off the hook. The majority of the offenders are really gay and, in addition, they seem to lack the ability to relate even to other adult gay males.

Let me translate that for you:

The RC Church has, through celibacy, created a situation where men who struggle with sexual orientation seem to be inordinately selected for the clergy. It selects them simply by creating a place where they easily find that their lack of desire for members of the opposite sex will not come under scrutiny and will even be applauded.

But, it’s beyond even that…

The RC Church, through a system of alienation from normal society, has also created a situation which attracts those who are unable to properly relate to adult sexuality.

Ephebophilia is an attraction to adolescents or people in puberty. By itself, it has NOTHING to do with gays, or even men. Thus, what is really happening is that the RC Church has created a system which not only selects for Homosexuality, it also further down-selects for those who, largely, could only see themselves as exercising such towards 11-16yr old boys (and, thus, do not simply ignore the rules of the RC Church and have sex with other men.) In other words, a very rare breed indeed.

Ok, first, let’s get a few things on the table:

(1). His popeliness is in this — and in it up to his eyeballs:

The future Pope Benedict XVI took over the abuse case of an Arizona priest, then let it languish at the Vatican for years despite repeated pleas from the bishop for the man to be removed from the priesthood, according to church correspondence.

Documents reviewed by The Associated Press show that in the 1990s, a church tribunal found that the Rev. Michael Teta of Tucson, Ariz., had molested children as far back as the late 1970s. The panel deemed his behavior — including allegations that he abused boys in a confessional — almost “satanic.” The tribunal referred his case to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who would become pope in 2005.

But it took 12 years from the time Ratzinger assumed control of the case in a signed letter until Teta was formally removed from ministry, a step only the Vatican can take.

As abuse cases with the pontiff’s fingerprints mushroom, Teta’s case and that of another Arizona priest cast further doubt on the church’s insistence that the future pope played no role in shielding pedophiles.

An abuse hotline set up by the Catholic Church in Germany melted down on its first day of operation as more than 4,000 alleged victims of paedophile and violent priests called in to seek counselling and advice.

The numbers were far more than the handful of therapists assigned to deal with them could cope with.

In the end only 162 out of 4,459 callers were given advice before the system was shut down.

Andreas Zimmer, head of the project in the Bishopric of Trier, admitted that he wasn’t prepared for “that kind of an onslaught’.

(3). In the first article, the following statistics were published:

The vast plurality of Protestant churches in the US, numbering more than 224,000, including thousands of independent non-denominational groups, make the kind of organized tracking and recording of individual abuse cases as was done in the Catholic Church all but impossible. Nevertheless, some of the sex abuse cases in other religious communities have been documented piecemeal.

In June 2007, the Associated Press revealed that three companies that insure the majority of Protestant churches in the US said they receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members. Church Mutual Insurance Co., GuideOne Insurance Co. and Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co., which insure 165,495 churches for liability against child sex abuse, emphasized that their figures did not always specify which cases were against minors and added that not all allegations were followed by convictions or even investigations.

National surveys by Christian Ministry Resources (CMR), a tax and legal-advice publisher serving more than 75,000 congregations and 1,000 denominational agencies, has also issued a report that found that child-abuse allegations against American Protestant churches averaged 70 per week since 1993, with a slight downward trend starting in 1997. The same report also found that among Protestant churches, volunteers are more likely than clergy or paid staff to be abusers.

Basically, the 70 per week number is meaningless headline mongering as no insurance company in the world would touch that sort of risk and 3 of them obviously have. But, we can trust the 260/yr figure — the insurance companies in question have a vested interest in maintaining the accuracy of those statements.

Of the approximately 350,000 churches in the US, only 5 per cent are Catholic. If we use the same reporting period (52yrs) the Catholics are using, scale by capita (in other words X .5) and then use 40% of that number to separate the actual numbers of Protestant clergy/staff abusing minors from volunteers/parishioners, we end up with a per capita comparison of 2740 : 10,667 of Protestant to Catholic abuse victims or 389% higher rate of abuse by Catholic Clergy. Protestant circles apparently have, per capita, even less VICTIMS then the RC Church has ABUSERS!!! (And few abusers only abuse once…)

The RC Church can rant all they like about this not being a problem of celibacy — but, apparently married people seem to not score as homosexuals with ephebophilia anywhere near as often as the celibate…

In other words, It’s already a huge problem, it’s been suppressed from the top and the lid (judging from their call center crash) is about to blow off of thousands more victims. There are only about 400,000 Catholic clergy worldwide. “1.5-5 percent” is not much of a defense – it’s actually a completely damning figure. Their own numbers really mean 6,000-20,000 abusing priests world wide — the majority of which their own stats say they have done nothing about. The occurrence of homosexuals who struggle with ephebophilia in the general population is a tiny fraction of that. Honestly, if the Vatican decides to sell stock, I wouldn’t be buying any for the next few decades as the payouts are going to be mind blowing…

But, here’s the interesting part of all this — the hope inducing part:

For years, the general public has been screaming for the RC Church to do something about the problem of Pedophile priests. And, the RC Church has been responding with statements about how it is unfortunate that positions of power attract Pedophiles and with statements about plans for addressing that problem (And real action). That’s blatant denial. It’s the equivalent of saying: “We have a weasel problem in our hen house and all of our chickens are getting eaten. We need to erect an electrified bear fence to keep out large predators.”

What this rather whiny but still highly placed Vatican leader is really saying here is that the Church finally gets it, is admitting it and, hopefully is going to do something about it. Now, what is going to be interesting to see is if they attempt to put in place some band-aid screening test for homosexuals who struggle with ephebophilia or if someone at the top is finally going to grow a set of them and admit that the only sure way to select for non-homosexuals who are attracted to and can maintain healthy sexual and romantic relationships with adult members of the opposite sex is to make sure the priests are married — you know, kinda-sorta like Paul’s idea…

It’s not like we DON’T know that around 20% of them are already married and doing just fine… (Which, by the way, makes that 6,000-20,000 number all the more extreme…)

The actual transcript of what he had to say:

“It was a shocking thing to say and I knew it was a shocking thing to say. But no one has the right to live without being shocked. No one has the right to spend their life without being offended. Nobody has to read this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. And if you open it and read it, you don’t have to like it. And if you read it and you dislike it, you don’t have to remain silent about it. You can write to me, you can complain about it, you can write to the publisher, you can write to the papers, you can write your own book. You can do all those things, but there your rights stop. No one has the right to stop me writing this book. No one has the right to stop it being published, or bought, or sold or read. That’s all I have to say on that subject.”

There’s two aspects of this that grab me:

(1). Once again, a clever marketer uses the insulted outrage of Evangelical mouthpieces to make himself millions — and they still are too dense to figure out they are being used.

(2). He’s so dead right.

You know, here’s a mind blowing, revolutionary and never-before-thought-of idea for the entirety of Christendom: How about we take this guy’s advice? Let’s stop doing our required whining to make these people money, stand up and tell the truth about what it means to be free to really live the life Christ died to give us and then get in the faces of the religious right that would continue to preach a gospel of rules or raw stupidity (Or just kowtow to this silliness) and cease living lives of reactionary humiliation.

You know, sorta like that Jesus guy did???

Terrorists Could Use Explosives in Breast Implants to Crash Planes, Experts Warn.

Female homicide bombers are being fitted with exploding breast implants which are almost impossible to detect, British spies have reportedly discovered.

The shocking new Al Qaeda tactic involves radical doctors inserting the explosives in women’s breasts during plastic surgery — making them "virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines."

It is believed the doctors have been trained at some of Britain’s leading teaching hospitals before returning to their own countries to perform the surgical procedures.

MI5 has also discovered that extremists are inserting the explosives into the buttocks of some male bombers.

"Women suicide bombers recruited by Al Qaeda are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery," Terrorist expert Joseph Farah claims.

After the failed genius of the underwear bomber who mostly lit his nuts on fire, I commented to a friend that the stupidity of strip searches, make-you-naked-body-scanners and other useless projects of the airline safety industry would only die when some wack-job finally blows something out of the air with an explosive boob-job and the public gets around to realizing that taking away your nail-clippers was nothing more then a sham of security.

Well, it looks like it’s about to happen — and, perhaps, with a butt job too…

Sooner or later, we just gotta admit that no matter how many strip searches we perform, how many people get fondled by security teams and how many naked body scans we perform, we are never gonna be able to get ahead of a terrorist who is unafraid to die and happy to have the mechanism for such sewn inside his/her body…

So, can we all grow up, admit that who people associate with matters, admit that we are gonna have to go back to good-ole-detective-work, start paying attention to who is hanging out with other radical nut cases and figure out who it is who has some insane ideology that would make them want to blow other people up in first place?

Oh, ya, never mind — that would be racist and religiously bigoted. On second though, hand over your nail-clippers sir – we’re certain you are gonna nibble the flight crew to death with them…

ABC News

Women who took the birth control pill beginning in the late 1960s lived longer than those never on the pill, a new study says.

British researchers observed more than 46,000 women for nearly four decades from 1968. They compared the number of deaths in women on the pill to those who never took it.

In the study, women on the pill generally took it for almost four years. Experts concluded the pill cut women’s risk of dying from bowel cancer by 38 percent and from any other diseases by about 12 percent.

The research was published Friday in the British medical journal, BMJ.

After all those years of health food nuts freaking out over the birth control pill, it seems they may have signed their own death warrants by NOT taking it…

Of course, correlation does not prove causation. This could just as easily prove that non-health-food-inclined women who have lots of sex also chose to go on the pill — and it is having lots of sex that makes them live longer…

American Family Association

The American Family Association, a religious right group, is urging that Tillikum Tilly, the killer whale that killed a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando, be put down, preferably by stoning. Citing Tilly’s history of violent altercations, the group is slamming SeaWorld for not listening to Scripture in how to deal with the animal:

Says the ancient civil code of Israel, “When an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner shall not be liable.” Exodus 21:28

However, the group is going further and laying the blame for the trainer’s death directly at the feet of Chuck Thompson, the curator in charge of animal behavior, because, according to Scripture, But, the Scripture soberly warns, if one of your animals kills a second time because you didn’t kill it after it claimed its first human victim, this time you die right along with your animal. To use the example from Exodus, if your ox kills a second time,

“the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.” Exodus 21:29

SeaWorld has no plans to execute Tilly.

And, we all hoped they would learn from Pat Robertson/Haiti…

But, I for one vote for it… but, they have to stand in the tank while throwing the stones…

wsj.com

I don’t think most scientists appreciate what has hit them. This isn’t only about the credibility of global warming. For years, global warming and its advocates have been the public face of hard science. Most people could not name three other subjects they would associate with the work of serious scientists. This was it. The public was told repeatedly that something called “the scientific community” had affirmed the science beneath this inquiry. A Nobel Prize was bestowed (on a politician).

Global warming enlisted the collective reputation of science. Because “science” said so, all the world was about to undertake a vast reordering of human behavior at almost unimaginable financial cost. Not every day does the work of scientists lead to galactic events simply called Kyoto or Copenhagen. At least not since the Manhattan Project.

What is happening at East Anglia is an epochal event. As the hard sciences—physics, biology, chemistry, electrical engineering—came to dominate intellectual life in the last century, some academics in the humanities devised the theory of postmodernism, which liberated them from their colleagues in the sciences. Postmodernism, a self-consciously “unprovable” theory, replaced formal structures with subjectivity. With the revelations of East Anglia, this slippery and variable intellectual world has crossed into the hard sciences.

This has harsh implications for the credibility of science generally. Hard science, alongside medicine, was one of the few things left accorded automatic stature and respect by most untrained lay persons. But the average person reading accounts of the East Anglia emails will conclude that hard science has become just another faction, as politicized and “messy” as, say, gender studies. The New England Journal of Medicine has turned into a weird weekly amalgam of straight medical-research and propaganda for the Obama redesign of U.S. medicine.

If the new ethos is that “close-enough” science is now sufficient to achieve political goals, serious scientists should be under no illusion that politicians will press-gang them into service for future agendas. Everyone working in science, no matter their politics, has an stake in cleaning up the mess revealed by the East Anglia emails. Science is on the credibility bubble. If it pops, centuries of what we understand to be the role of science go with it.

Or perhaps, general society is waking up to that fact that the self proclaimed High Priests of our society are not wearing any clothing…

Let’s face it. By scientific principles, science can not even prove anything exists. The best that can be proved by those principles is that thinking happens. Everything from that point forward has some aspect of faith to it.

So much mockery has been issued towards religion by said High Priests — after all, science has spoken and, therefore, faith must be wrong. Any attempt to prove faith must be discredited – because science has spoken.

Now, the truth comes out — it’s all a batch of stories and we all have to sort out what is true and what is simply the inventions of those who seek power, long for control and otherwise have some sort of axe to grind. That’s true from your average pulpit — and its true from your average lectern as well.

The High Priests all over our society are freaking out — because fundamentalism is dying under the weight of information access the net has given us and, with it, their power and their ability to control the hearts and minds of people.

Flatly: COOL!!!

theglobeandmail.com

On Wednesday, an Ottawa official named Athanasios Hadjis quietly announced that section 13(1) of the Canadian Human Rights Act, popularly known as the hate-speech law, will no longer be enforced.

The law prohibits the transmission on telephone or Internet of “any matter that is likely to expose a person or persons to hatred or contempt” on the basis of “race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, marital status, family status, disability and conviction for which a pardon has been granted.”

Mr. Hadjis is an adjudicator with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which rules on discrimination cases. While he is not a judge, and therefore can’t strike down a law, he is the main gatekeeper for the hate-speech law, and his decision was bold.

“I have concluded,” he said, that the law is unconstitutional under 2(b) of the Charter of Rights, which guarantees freedom of thought, opinion and expression. As a result, he declared that “I will simply refuse to apply these provisions” to the hate-speech case he was judging, and by extension to any future cases.

Suddenly, the place known as the public sphere looks very different. For the past three decades, Canada has tried to keep it clean and neutral by preventing the appearance of the sorts of words and images that are linked to discriminatory actions. Kathleen Mahoney, a University of Calgary law professor who advocates such laws, boasts that Canada has more laws limiting harmful speech than any other country.

But there is a strong sense, even if Mr. Hadjis’s decision is overturned by the Supreme Court, that the era of hate-speech laws is coming to an end.

First, in practical terms, hate-speech laws have failed. Attacks on people based on religion or skin colour remain rare but occasional crimes in Canada, but their prevalence hasn’t been affected one way or another by outlawing hateful speech.

So very seldom does anyone connected to anything of government manage to get anything right, even the slightest touch of reason deserves to be applauded. But this, this is so far beyond just a touch of reason!!!

The psychology under it is actually very similar to claims of school uniforms eliminating gang violence in schools. If you actually look at the violence stats before and after the requirement of uniforms is in place at an institution, you find the exact same levels of violence — but no one can identify if a perpetrator of violence was a gang member or not. Thus the violent act is simply listed as violence and not attributed to a gang.

Laws intended to stop the speech of those who are inherently criminal will do almost nothing to arrest their behaviors (and it is almost always the behaviors that pose the threat.) All silencing them does is hide them from view. The problem is that, then, those same laws are used to also silence those with no criminal intent.

If there is ever a set of otherwise useless laws that have been used to suppress truth and cancel debate, it’s hate laws. They have been used to fine religious leaders speaking out against abortion. They have been used to destroy therapists who would treat politically correct disorders some do not want healed. They have been used to force religious institutions to hire those who do not support their views and they nearly canceled the degrees of hundreds of teachers who believed homosexuality should not be promoted. That’s not the elimination of hate — that’s reverse discrimination — politically correct hate against those who would stand in the public square and speak..

Personally, I WANT every wack job, hate monger, lunatic and predator to have the right to stand on the public street corner of the internet and shout their vile proclamations at the top of their digital lungs. It’s when your enemy goes silent that you know you are in trouble anyway and I WANT to know exactly where the problems are…

I want to watch them stand there toe-to-toe with every other idea and have to defend themselves from all the other people now free to speak and/or call them idiots…

I also WANT the ranks of the politically correct to have to stand up and defend the oh-so-sacred ideas they hold dear (Because I’m gonna to enjoy watching a lot of them start looking pretty silly..)

By some miracle, even the human rights commission agrees that we’re finally big enough boys and girls to be able to talk to each other — or at least have the right to go make some popcorn and watch the fireworks go down.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. ~Voltaire

Voltaire APPLAUDS

nationalpost.com

Christian parents who objected to their children being taught about other religions in a mandatory new Quebec school course have suffered a serious setback with a ruling this week that the teachings do not infringe their religious freedoms.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Jean-Guy Dubois dismissed a bid by parents in Drummondville, Que., who said the course on ethics and religious culture introduced across the province last year was undermining their efforts to instill Christian faith in their children.

“In light of all the evidence presented, the court does not see how the … course limits the plaintiff’s freedom of conscience and of religion for the children when it provides an overall presentation of various religions without obliging the children to adhere to them,” Judge Dubois wrote.

Step #1: Schools and the governments that back them all over North America throw their lot in with secularization and toss religion out of schools. The backing belief is that our society needs freedom of religion — and such freedom demands a secular state that supports all religions equally and promotes none of them.

Church response: “Help, we’re being oppressed!!! You have taken God out of the classroom and our children are becoming secular humanists.”

Step #2: Those same school systems and governments realize that religion is a critical part of society and the ability to understand those religions usually means less killing of the members of such. As such, they introduce a fair and balanced program that promotes none of those religions but simply teaches the facts about them.

Church response: “Help, we’re being oppressed!!! You are indoctrinating our children with other religions…” (Then they sue the school board…)

Step #2: Judge comes back with a well reasoned response saying that learning about world religions is not the same thing as promoting them — and tells them to go away and shut up.

Church response: “Help, we’re being oppressed!!! You are infringing on our rights to form our children’s faith development and we’re gonna sue you some more…”

Humm, so, let me get this straight: The only way a free society which values general human rights can avoid treading on your specific rights is to teach every student in every school only about your religion… Thus, your snowflake’s little minds can remain properly ignorant I mean pure, undefiled and Godly.

Sounds to me like the veil just got ripped back on a plan for a totalitarian theocracy — not the freedom Jesus died to bring.

It may actually be rather pivotal though… We finally get the chance to see Fundamentalist Evangelicalism and Catholicism admitting their hatred of that freedom and acknowledging what they really wanted all along:

Control.

Pivotal, because at least truth provides a foundation for change…

TheSpec.com.

A Freelton man who describes himself as a software developer and aspiring screenplay writer is accused in a California court of running a $14-million US Ponzi scheme.

Gordon Driver and his company, Axcess Automation, are alleged to have defrauded more than 100 Canadian and American investors since 2006 by promising them weekly returns on their investment as high as 5 per cent, based on special software he says he developed to trade futures.

Among those who invested in the alleged Ponzi scheme, court documents say, are Ron and Reynold Mainse, sons of David Mainse, founder of Burlington’s Crossroads Television and 100 Huntley Street.

Reynold Mainse became interested, Driver testified, and eventually invested some money. Ron Mainse also became an investor.

In Driver’s April 23 testimony, he alleged the two Mainse brothers also acted as finders, bringing other investors to Driver.

Ron Mainse is out of the country and could not be reached for comment.

Reynold Mainse did not respond to an interview request.

(For explanation on the title, go here.)

The mothership, meanwhile, had this to say:

Well the board of Crossroads have asked me to inform you that Ron and Reynold Mainse will not be appearing on any Crossroads programming or otherwise represent Crossroads for the time being as they focus their energies on certain matters in their personal lives. They’ve stepped down from their duties until such time as the board of directors have complete understanding of all the issues related to a matter that they were involved in outside of the ministry here at Crossroads.

(Of course, immediately the right set about painting them as victims instead of the finders they were.)

Nothing ever changes:

Rather interesting how they go down in flames right after attempting to mock/silence Drew for calling them and the Church to account for a gospel of control, shame and guilt and towards a Gospel of freedom, grace and intimacy with the Father. It’s almost Luke 13 in real life:

One of my favorite heretics paraphrased Luke 13 this way:

“I tell you it is not true that these people suffered such things because they were worse sinners than any other, but I also tell you that as long as you persist in seeing it this way, your deaths will be viewed in the same [Judgment of God] way.”

If only they could have looked forward with these eyes — it wouldn’t have been Drew’s last appearance…

Let me be blunt: Any Canadian who does not desire to live in a police surveillance state should probably check this out.

The legislation itself:
Bill C-46:
Bill C-47:

Here’s three dudes who need a note from you:

The Prime Minister of Canada (Steven Harper): harper.s@parl.gc.ca
The guy who sold his soul (Peter Van Loan): vanloan.p@parl.gc.ca
Whoever your MP is: Search

It should probably look something like this: (My MP is Harper)

Dear Mr. Steven Harper and Mr. Peter Van Loan,

I believe that the introduction of legislation which will allow Canadian police to access personal information about the sender or receiver of any electronic message without a warrant is an extremely dangerous and foolish direction for our country to be moving in. I further believe that forcing business (Internet Service Providers) to become the 24/7/365 watchdogs and surveillance system of a society violates the reasonable expectation of privacy that any free society is based upon and creates a culture of fear and paranoia only matched by that of the former Soviet Union.

The very foundation of any democratically based free-society is the expectation of a system of restraints placed upon law enforcement (and those who wield power in general) based upon an understanding that no one is incorruptible. History has always proven that the absence of said restraints always creates a police state for everyone can be tempted to justify their own means if the end is sufficiently believed in. Placing the balance of effort upon law enforcement to prove that surveillance is necessary and then the burden of effort required to effect such upon their own limited resources ensures that said surveillance is only used where truly necessary.

Laws of this nature (C-64 & C-47) are always advanced under one fundamental line of logic: We must maintain the security of our free society from those who would destroy it.

While there may be some security benefit to this legislation, the effect of said legislation is, in and of itself, always a tearing apart of the fundamental freedoms that any free society is based upon to gain such — given that those powers are always handled by corruptible persons. Persons who can be bought or who, for ideological reasons, come to see this power through the lens of, “We can use this to stamp out what we don’t like or what costs us money.” (The villain of the day could be violent video games, offensive statements, religious ideas or simply the control of behavior for profit.) The end result of that security is a loss of freedom which ultimately destroys that which it claims to protect.

Franklin stated: “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

C-64 & C-47 are the granting of inordinate power to persons who must always be considered suspect if a free and just society is to be maintained. I believe they have NO place in our country.

If there is truly any need for our private details to be accessed, a judge will see that and grant a warrant so that the police may collect those details — all by themselves.

–
Yours Truly,
Cal H. Henze, M.A.

Along with polyphenols, this is probably one of the most significant discoveries the research community has come up with for years:

There is a free trial available here for those south of the 49th but I’m not sure about what is available to us Canucks yet…

Living longer is under the, “Ok, whatever,” category for me but the ability to be clear, active and raising hell right to the end, now THAT is interesting…

The Associated Press.

As dismal as murdering 60,000 late term babies (that were perfectly capable of immediately being delivered and shortly given up for adoption) is, I think I’ve discovered something even more twisted…

There’s something really bent about the psyche of an extreme right that can advocate for the death penalty, for the war in Iraqi and against an abortion that is required to save a woman’s life — and then open fire on an abortion doctor as he and his family served in their Lutheran Church.

(Someone should probably inform the Right that if all of the above is true, they are NOT even remotely Pro-Life — they are simply Pro-Birth and not particularly credible…)

There really is only one answer to this level of deluded — and Steve Taylor sang it years ago:

(Note: Before someone flips out and over reacts, SEE BELOW!!!)

I Blew Up The Clinic Real Good — Steve Taylor

I have the road in my blood
I drive a custom van
I play the tunes
I’m the neighborhood ice cream man
So don’t you mess this boy around

The other day when the clinic had it’s local debut
Some chicks were trying to picket
The doctor threatened to sue

I don’t care if it’s a baby or a tissue blob
but if we run out of youngsters
I’ll be out of a job
And so I
I did my duty
cleaning up the neighborhood
I blew up the clinic real good

Try and catch me coppers
Your stinkin’ badges better think again
Before you mess this boy around

I’ve hung in Saigon just to see the special effects
I’ve hung from gravity boots for my napoleon complex
It’s time to close
Ohhh…. There she blows.
History In the making
You picked a fight.
I pick dynamite
I blew up the clinic real good.

Preacher on a corner
Calling it a crime
The ends don’t justify the means anytime
I stood up on my van
I yelled “Excuse me, sir
Ain’t nothin’ wrong with this country
a few plastic explosives won’t cure”

FYI: Steve Taylor was a satirist who spent his life delivering cynical parodies of the Church in hopes of making at least a few of Her members think. He was confronting people who would take the law into their own hands.

PLoS ONE

A pooled weighted average of 1.97% N = 7, 95%CI: 0.86–4.45 of scientists admitted to have fabricated, falsified or modified data or results at least once –a serious form of misconduct by any standard– and up to 33.7% admitted other questionable research practices. In surveys asking about the behaviour of colleagues, admission rates were 14.12% N = 12, 95% CI: 9.91–19.72 for falsification, and up to 72% for other questionable research practices. Meta-regression showed that self reports surveys, surveys using the words “falsification” or “fabrication”, and mailed surveys yielded lower percentages of misconduct. When these factors were controlled for, misconduct was reported more frequently by medical/pharmacological researchers than others.

Considering that these surveys ask sensitive questions and have other limitations, it appears likely that this is a conservative estimate of the true prevalence of scientific misconduct.

Much of the world has a set of illusionary pictures:

(1). The religious nut job: This guy has little ability to think for himself, he follows what he is told by some establishment, he is unwilling to look at contradictory data and he lives only to win the approval of his superiors — who are controlling him. For many, if you believe in God at all, you fit here…

(2). The scientist: This man is deeply driven by a pursuit of truth. He is open minded, unswayed by superiors, profoundly rational (And non-religious) and can never be corrupted by the finances that fund his pure research. He is widely believed to possess a halo as well — but God (who of course, doesn’t exist) had nothing to do with it…

It seems definition #1 VERY often applies to both images…

What is really happening is a fundamentalist extremeification of much of the world. (Yes, that’s probably an invented word…) More and more we are seeing vast numbers of people who hold positions that are untenable and easily confronted. Yet, those people now so commonly refuse to address contrary data and, when forcibly presented with such, refuse to modify their positions. This is the definition of fundamentalism.

Often, those people, when presented with contrary data, will resort to attacking the persons presenting that data rather then even assaulting the data — to say nothing of being willing to actually address the possibility of modifying the positions they hold. Mostly, when they address the data at all, it’s addressed for purposes of vilification — not for understanding.

The myth of a pure scientist is just that — a myth. No scientist can exist without money. Piss off the grant giver = no money. Contradict the widely held scientific consensus = no money. Issue results that upset the ideologues at the university for which you work = no tenure and no money. Say something that just isn’t politically correct and infuriates some special interest group the powers that be support = political pressure from the school donors to give you no money. A successful scientist is one that usually says what he is told — sometimes he slips in truth too — when he can get away with it…

This isn’t some push to cancel science — it has so much to teach us. It’s a push to recognize science as just another religion. A belief system within which people seek truth, perform study, draw conclusions and try to impose such on others.

Like every religion, it demands a rather careful sifting — not bowing down before it…

Simple rule of thumb: If people created it, then STOP worshiping it.

nationalpost.com.

When a teenage girl knowingly sends provocative pictures of herself to friends or a boyfriend, is she guilty of child pornography or simply practicing self-expression?

New research that looks at the criminalization of self-made images exchanged among consenting minors argues that the laws and public service campaigns designed to protect girls from becoming victims may actually be blaming the girls themselves and curbing their natural desire for sexual self-expression.

Teenagers sending provocative and even pornographic images via cellphones — a practice known as sexting — is really just a modern variation on "playing doctor or spin the bottle," Peter Cumming, an associate professor at York University in Toronto, argued in a paper on children's sexuality defending the practice.

"Technology does change things, and there can be very serious consequences," Prof. Cumming said. "But that obscures the fact that children and young people are sexual beings who have explored their sexuality in all times, and all cultures and all places. A distinction has to be made between nudity and child porn," he added.

In the last couple of months, the media suddenly seemed to discover that teens had phones (With cameras) as well as computers (With WebCams) and, as usual, the sky was falling. News outlets ran stories, prosecutors suddenly started charging girls who were even photographed in their underwear and, “Dr.” Phil commenced his usual clueless moralizing and grandstanding to shame girls into ceasing the practice of sending erotic pictures of themselves to others (Which, of course, he and others immediately commenced calling pornography.)

Ignoring the reality that this doesn’t fit any scientific definition of rage based erotica (Which Porn is). Ignoring that even under the blunt instrument of the law, nudity does not even remotely equal erotica/pornography and ignoring the raw senselessness of punishing a victim as her own perpetrator, this insanity has provided an interesting window into the collective self hatred present in the sexual psyche of North America. It’s like the veil has been violently pulled back and people are suddenly exposing the attitudes about sex that make them so uncomfortable:

Sex as a means of manipulating others.
Sex as a means of violating others.
Sex as a reason for marital failure (If marriage itself doesn’t kill sex in advance.)
Sex as pure sleaze.
Sex as a means of keeping one gender or another under your thumb.

No more are those attitudes hidden in the back room — but the weird thing is that the proponents of such are hardly hanging their heads in shame over the obvious shattered reality now visible in their belief systems. The above attitudes are actually the foundations of their sudden outrage and activism with rants about how boys will use girls, how gullible girls are for being sexual, how no one will want a girl who does this and how badly girls who do this are gonna get hurt.

As far as I can tell, this is the first researcher who has squarely faced the key question: Why are we shaming/punishing/condemning young girls for being sexual beings (Yes, very stupid ones…) instead of addressing those who would distribute the evidence of said stupidity?

The stunning irony in this entire debate is that neither Oprah, “Dr.” Phil, Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus, High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens, WiredSafety nor any of the major news outlets launched their campaign with a set of messages to young boys about respecting the sexualities of young girls, how a woman’s sexuality (especially offered to you) is a precious gift, how much of a moron you look like when you treat a girlfriend (Or her picture) like a piece of meat to hand around to your friends, how women are attracted to men of honor and how those that violate the above should be charged and educated to grow up.

Naw… Because that would expose our own attitudes about sex and, particularly, women’s sexuality. Like, perhaps the fact that we think sex is evil, dirty, sick and nasty — and you should only do it with the one you love…

Gospelrevolution.com

Most of our lives do not play out the way Imus', Jimmy Swaggert's, Ted Haggard's, Bill Clinton's, Michael Richard's, Mel Gibson's, or any other high profile person's does under the glare of the public's spotlight. But play out they do. Still, to whom much is given much is required. When you have a bigger platform, and take that platform for criticizing other human beings for being less than you are as opposed to criticizing what they think or teach, then your "fall" will be greater.

We cannot recommend living a life of condemning others as less than ourselves. We tried. It is not a positive existence. We are not holier than anyone. Neither is anyone holier than we. Because all of our potential and perceived evil was paid for by the Blood of Christ. Plus, all of our holiness has been imputed to us by Him.

I went to see this guy this weekend. He’s a very interesting speaker — and a guy who has been through the fire for actually having the courage to read his Bible for himself instead of just regurgitating what he had been fed. His site is no less interesting.

So much has been written about Jesus in two different channels — it’s easy to see Him as a little MPD (Now the politically correct term is DID).

On the one hand, Jesus is presented as a guy who loved everyone, who went around healing people and drawing the hearts of the broken towards Him. (The subtext under this particular presentation is usually, “Shut up and be tolerant.”)

On the other, He is presented as a guy who ripped the religious leaders a new one and who braided up a whip (Properly translated, probably actually a flog) of cords, stalked into an area the size of a city block, physically attacked people, whipped animals and functionally leveled the place. (The subtext under this presentation is clearly, “Look out sinner, unless you straighten up, you’re next.”)

The result of this has been a Church split into two camps: The nearly fascist rantings of Fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity and the passive moralizing or lukewarm social activism of Mainstream Christianity and Roman Catholicism. Neither, to say the least, is having much impact on our society — except as fuel for the fires of comedy…

But, if you actually stop and look beyond the stereotyping, you see a different Jesus: He’s a Jesus who loved everyone (Even his murderers), who was willing to lower Himself to serve/heal anyone and who really did die to redeem the whole world to Himself — and He’s a Jesus who was ruthlessly and aggressively intolerant of the ideas and hypocrisy of people who would act like they were holy, judge/condemn from that platform, violate the hearts of others and/or suffocate them with religion. But, even those people, He still loved.

I wonder what our world would look like if every believer on the planet was willing to walk his/her naked, unzipped and unarmed heart into the homes, bars, back alleys, crack houses, sexual chaos and relational brokennesses of people and simply love and minister the healing power of Christ to those they find there (instead of moralizing at them) while, en mass, also standing up to the hypocrisy of the religious/political leadership and demanding truth out of them?

YouTube

Something I wish every proponent of this technique would try…

What is striking is that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times while being interrogated by the CIA. One would think that sometime about say time #20 or so, someone would have clued into the reality that it’s not working (torture really doesn’t work) and tried something like real interrogators use…

The Daily Beast

Maine this week became the fifth state, and the fourth in New England, to legalize gay marriage, provoking yet another national debate about same-sex unions. The Lessins’ advocacy group, the Maui-based World Polyamory Association, is pushing for the next frontier of less-traditional codified relationships. This community has even come up with a name for what the rest of the world generally would call a committed threesome: the “triad.”

Unlike open marriages and the swinger days of the 1960s and 1970s, these unions are not about sex with multiple outside partners. Nor are they relationships where one person is involved with two others, who are not involved with each other, a la actress Tilda Swinton. That’s closer to bigamy. Instead, triads—”triangular triads,” to use precise polyamorous jargon—demand that all three parties have full relationships, including sexual, with each other. In the Lessins case, that can be varying pairs but, as Sasha, a psychologist, puts it, “Janet loves it when she gets a double decker.” In a triad, there would be no doubt in Elizabeth Edwards’ mind whether her husband fathered a baby out of wedlock; she likely would have participated in it.

But, But, But — they PROMISED!!! They were so sure it wouldn’t be a slippery slope…

CNN.com.

In a message posted on the Miami archdiocese Web page, the archbishop apologized to parishioners and radio listeners for what he called a “scandal.”

“Father Cutie made a promise of celibacy and all priests are expected to fulfill that promise with the help of God,” Favalora said. “Father Cutie’s actions cannot be condoned despite the good works he has done as a priest.”

Cutie apologized in an online statement Tuesday, saying he “wants to ask for forgiveness if my actions have caused pain and sadness. … I assure you that my service and dedication to God remain intact.”

Isn’t it interesting how an archdiocese well known as a safe haven for sexually abusive priests suddenly manages to get so pissy assertive when the other person involved is old enough to vote. And has ovaries.

It says something about the priorities and underlying patterns of brokenness here that this is what would finally be called a, “Scandal…” In any other church, everyone would be cheering that the one leader in the area who is actually doing something productive to really change people’s love lives has now, himself, found love.

You always see this pattern in systems of religious power: Those actions which undermine the power system are always deemed to be so much more evil then those which are neutral or actually maintain said system. The rating process really has nothing to do with any sort of evaluation of the actual damage sustained by human hearts…

CNN.com

The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new survey.

More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according to the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than six in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only four in 10 of them did.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words — and the only answer that can be given to this order of monumental stupidity and callous disregard for human life:

(JesusFacePalm)

Christianity has not been based on the teachings of Jesus for a very, very long time…

CNN.com

There had been no confirmed deaths in the United States related to swine flu as of Tuesday afternoon. But another virus had killed thousands of people since January and is expected to keep killing hundreds of people every week for the rest of the year. That one? The regular flu…

Since January, more than 13,000 people have died of complications from seasonal flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on the causes of death in the nation.

No fewer than 800 flu-related deaths were reported in any week between January 1 and April 18, the most recent week for which figures were available.

The report looks at deaths in the 122 largest cities in the United States.

Worldwide, the annual death toll from the flu is estimated to be between 250,000 and 500,000.

Ok, I admit it, the stupidity factor here is starting to get to me. Seriously, EVERY flu is of either pig or bird origin — that’s where they come from. Somehow, some media outlet tagged the correct source onto this one and the whole world has freaked out — even though the death toll from this bug is actually LOWER then usual.

Today they found the kid that first got the bug — and the entire village too. Yep, still alive and ticking — and now immune to the bug they managed to start. Fears that this virus causes a critical immune overreaction have proven to be just that — fears. Basically, like all other flu bugs, this one is sadistic enough to only make you WISH you were dead, but, it’s probably not going to be kind enough to kill you.

The media hype over this is even more absurd in that Tamiflu and Relenza can kill this bug with two miserable pills and the majority of people just feel normally flu-ish — not even knowing they have this particular bug. The bug is so mild that the medical community doesn’t even want to use Tamiflu and Relenza — they would like to save it for a real problem…

But hey, never mind that — we’re in the middle of a national emergency, Obama needs 1.5 BILLION dollars in funding to fight back (or something) and we’re all gonna die… (Or maybe he just wants another cool billion to spend somewhere…)

timescolonist.com

And just as we were beginning to acknowledge this and trying to overcome the stigma attached to the disease our attention has been diverted by court cases in which people infected with HIV, mostly men, have been convicted for conduct that risks, or is simply perceived to risk, transferring the disease.

Johnson Aziga of Hamilton is the first person in Canada — possibly in the world — to be convicted of first-degree murder for having unprotected sexual intercourse with two women without telling them that he was HIV positive. He’s received a “life” sentence.

This has to be one of the most striking and disturbing articles of the day. Here’s the logic:

Forget the fact that this man knew what he was doing would kill. Forget the reality that he got the ability to bring that kiss of death through his own actions. Forget the fact that he lied to get that ability to bring this kiss of death to another. Let’s blame the victim of this deadly gift for the crime of trusting him and curse the injustice of the legal system for arresting him for this deliberate homicidal act.

Why? Well, here’s the logic: We live in a world of AIDS where everyone should live in fear of this pervasive plague or at least some other STD.

Really? Lets talk about a pervasive plague that impacts around 2/3rds of one percent (0.7%) of the population, is mostly transmitted by male on male sex (40—49% of new cases) and, in the United States, a known population (African Americans) make up about 48% of the total HIV-positive population and more than half of new HIV cases — despite making up only 12% of the population.

Is it any wonder that, so called, condom fatigue has set in? Is it any wonder that the general public still seems to think of STD’s in terms of chlamydia or the like? Is it any wonder that a few (Yes, even at the chlamydia level) very foolish individuals have begun playing a condom free game of Russian Roulette and could also be at risk to this order of calculated homicide?

Naw — let’s decry the failure to, “Overcome the stigma attached to the disease.” In English, that means, “Convince the population that this is everyone’s problem instead of still mostly being the byproduct of limited (Mostly homosexual) extremely high risk behaviors centered in a known population.” It means, “Ignore that there are some who actually pursue infection with the HIV virus.” It means, “Let’s all act like it makes sense to pretend obvious and rampant irresponsibility on the part of one known population group should be destigmatized while demanding hyper-responsibility in another.”

Once again, forget standing up, telling the truth about where the problem is centered and demanding that the core of the problem deal with it. Let’s deflect it by talking about other STD’s and make the whole world responsible.

Is it any wonder this completely preventable disease called HIV/AIDS is not going away?

I’ve used these for years — they work.

Alternate link

worldnetdaily.com

A respected pastor, best-selling author and founder of a major ministry to teens predicts an imminent “earth-shattering calamity” centered in New York City that will spread to major urban areas across the country and around the world – part of what he sees as a judgment from God.

“An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen,” he writes. “It is going to be so frightening, we are all going to tremble – even the godliest among us.”

Wilkerson’s vision is of fires raging through New York City.

“It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires – such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago,” he explains. “There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting – including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath. In Psalm 11 it is written, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

I can just see how this latest embarrassment to the cause of Christ on earth got started:

David Wilkerson awakens in a cold sweat: (Gasp)(Pant)

“Oh NO, I just dreamed God nuked the world — this has to mean more then last night when I dreamed I was falling into a pool of chocolate pudding and the night before when I dreamed my wife wanted to stab me and I woke up with a massive bruise in my ribs where she delivered the right elbow of fellowship to stop me from snoring. Yes, it HAS to mean more…” (Burp)

“But why… Oh ya, now I remember — God didn’t pour quite all His wrath out on Christ. God’s focus has now shifted to to nuking the sinners in the center of the entire known universe — New York City. (You know, like, where I live…)”

“Of COURSE, I’ve been appointed as His mouthpiece — I now speak for the (Que reverential tone) L-O-R-D!!!!!!! Now where is my antacid — this heartburn feels like my chest is on fire…”

“But wait, what’s that verse some Still Small Voice is mentioning?”

2Tim. 1:7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

“Ah — never mind that — It’s not just the heathen, WE’RE ALL GONNA BURN!!!!!”

Either that, or this guy has got some serious inside contacts inside Al Qaeda…

CATO.ORG

In 1988, I wrote to Vice President George Bush, then head of the South Florida Drug Task Force; to Education Secretary William Bennett; to Assistant Secretary of State for Drug Policy Ann Wrobleski; to White House drug policy adviser Dr. Donald I. McDonald; and to the public information directors of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, General Accounting Office, National Institute of Justice, and National Institute on Drug Abuse. None of these officials was able to cite any study that demonstrated the beneficial effects of drug prohibition when weighed against its costs.[5] The leaders of the war on drugs are apparently unable to defend on rational cost-benefit grounds their 70-year-old policy, which costs nearly $10 billion per year out of pocket, imprisons 75,000 Americans, and fills our cities with violent crime. It would seem that Vernia Brown and many others like her have died for nothing.

Canada has essentially legalized drug use with the gram minimums for criminal prosecution. Isn’t it interesting how all Canadians suddenly went out and became junkies — oh, wait…

Just maybe, now is the right time when our Governments are going to figure out what Scripture always taught — being forced to be good usually makes people want to be bad — while freedom always drives them to seek the longings of their new and good hearts. Addiction is a problem with a broken heart in need of numbing — not a violation of anything but that heart which, yes, clearly was created for so much more.

Perhaps then we could turn the police services loose on the task of dealing with white collar criminals who bilk us out of untold billions every year — you know, the R. Allen Stanfords, the Bernie Madoffs and the CEOs of big residential lending firms that created the financial mess the world is in. Oh, ya, right — I GET IT now.

Ya, let’s push to lock up all the junkies…

Times Online

Scientists have found that the pleasure women get from making love is directly linked to the size of their partner’s bank balance.

They found that the wealthier a man is, the more frequently his partner has orgasms.

“Women’s orgasm frequency increases with the income of their partner,” said Dr Thomas Pollet, the Newcastle University psychologist behind the research.

Ok, this is so striking it just screams out for a comment. One of the foundational rules in statistics is the law that, “Correlation does not equal causation.” In other words, just because you can prove that the rising or falling levels of one thing (Say the number of rum runners in Boston during prohibition) are exactly linked to the same in another (Say the number of Baptist Ministers in Boston during prohibition), you have NOT proved that they actually have ANYTHING to do with each other (No, all Baptist Ministers are not rum runners — they are all a function of population growth).

Oh yes, every researcher on the planet is taught this fact.

So, then we have this genius — Dr Thomas Pollet claims that because he can link the success of a man giving a woman an orgasm with his success in making money, women must be biologically programmed through some strange evolutionary adaptation to like sex (And therefor have better orgasms) with men who have money.

Of course, there’s a problem with this — Ros has had the same number of orgasms from our lovemaking today that she had when I was a starving grad student living on student loans. Shouldn’t her sex life have improved dramatically since I started earning a living?

Or, perhaps men who can make a decent living tend also to be educated men — men who are willing to get off their butts and read a book about sex — men who are willing to learn from someone smarter then Hugh Hefner…

Naw, couldn’t be that — gotta have something to do with a woman’s vestigial primate tendencies to be a gold digger…

Just remember this the next time someone says, “But Science says…”

London News

A man has been told he cannot adopt a child because he is overweight.

Damien Hall was told by Leeds city council that his weight – 24-and-a-half stone – made his morbidly obese.

The council told him his body mass index, BMI, was more than 42 and informed the 37-year-old it would have to drop to below 40 before he could be considered a potential parent due to risks he could become ill or die.

Just for a little entertainment, let’s swap, “Fat,” out and replace it with, “Functionally rotating five way polyamorous union currently consisting of two women, one post-operative transsexual male who self identifies as a lesbian and two bisexual men.”

Wow, look at all the politically correct masses lining up to decry the obvious absence of stability in this one — oh wait, ya… Never mind.

Isn’t political blindness correctness entertaining? It can actually maintain a straight face as it determines that this dude who, (Fat or not) has a pretty good chance of living for the next two decades, offers a less stable home for these children then the above…

Yep, clearly it’s all about the children…

Libertarian thought has been right here all along: Governance should always be handled by the lowest order of organization capable of managing it — because as soon as it rises above that level, it’s taken over by ideologues and nitwits who really should be told to just crawl back down their holes and shut up…

globeandmail.com.

“There are millions of people around this world praying to their god – whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah – that his [McCain's] opponent wins. … And Lord, I pray that you will guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their God is bigger than you, if that happens.” – Arnold Conrad, pastor of Grace Evangelical Free Church, delivering the invocation at a John McCain rally in Davenport, Iowa, last Saturday.

You know, some articles nearly say it all — the once strong and vibrant God of Evangelicalism clearly is now barely surviving, on life support and down to His last best strategy — saving the world (or at least his own branding rights) through a trigger happy fighter pilot and an even more trigger happy moose hunter. (And, apparently, He might not even be capable of pulling that one off given that the public has finally figured out the moose hunter is also more then just a bit of a dimwit…)

Back in their day, the Roman Catholic response to Protestant heretics was to burn them at the stake. Surly some of the technology involved was documented or there is at least some expert in the Catholic Church who could be freed up to lend us a hand for a few days… This has now become an emergency — somehow we’ve gotta cleanse the Evangelical gene pool before this order of ignorance reproduces…

Michael Moore.

“I’m giving you my blanket permission to not only download it, but also to email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone (in the U.S. and Canada only). I want you to use ‘Slacker Uprising’ in any way you see fit to help with the election or to do the work that you do in your community. You can show my film in your local theater, your high school classroom, your college auditorium, your church, union hall or community center. You can have your friends and neighbors over to the house for a viewing. You can broadcast it on TV, on cable access, on regular channels or on the web. It’s completely free — I don’t want to see a dime from this. And if you want, you can charge admission or ask for a donation if it’s to raise money for a candidate, a voter drive, or for any non-profit or educational purpose. In other words — it’s yours!”
- Michael Moore

Ok, love or hate this guy, you definitely have to watch it.

Hujonwi’s Place

Heavenly Father, we come before you to ask your forgiveness. We seek your direction and your guidance. We know your word says, “Woe to those who call evil good.” But that’s what we’ve done.

We’ve lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We’ve exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We’ve neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name of right to life, we have killed abortionists.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it taxes. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, oh, God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any wickedness within us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of Kansas, and that they have been ordained by you to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule. May their decisions direct us to the center of your will. And, as we continue our prayer and as we come in out of the fog, give us clear minds to accomplish our goals as we begin this Legislature. For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Ok, I just had this once again forwarded to me. It’s time for a response:

You could put it this way:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says that if we, in your name, rebuild what Christ destroyed, then we make Christ into, “A minister of sin,” but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values such that the things that matter the least now seem to matter the most.

We have stood in our systems of ethics and called it holiness.

We have stood in our systems of judgment and called it wisdom.

We have stood in our systems of control, and called them propriety.

We have ignored our call to teach others to hear Your voice so we could instead exploit them, and then called it respect for Divinely appointed authority.

We have created a Body of Christ that lives in dread of You, and called it the fear of the Lord.

We have created a system of public humiliation and rejection unto conformity instead of the love based transformation God really intended, and called it purity in the Church.

Then we have taken the illusion of real results from that broken system and used it to moralize against and sideline the leaders You put in power for not being like us, rather then loving them as You command.

Forget searching our hearts God — we already know we are Pharisaical and WE LIKE IT THAT WAY!

Yep, let’s hail this guy and send his prayer all over the internet. All he did is spew out the same little talking points the Evangelical right has been pounding for the last 50yrs — and forever alienate him from those who he should have been befriending and loving in such deep ways that their hearts changed. All this when he CLEARLY already had an open door there. Bravo!!!

Note: The effectiveness his, “Prayer,” was immediately apparent — a significant number of Legislators walked out in protest during it.

Associated Press

Yearly estimates allow better recognition of trends in the U.S. epidemic. For example, the new report found that infections are falling among heterosexuals and injection drug users.

Some experts celebrated that finding, saying it’s a tribute to prevention efforts, including nearly 200 syringe exchange programs now operating in 36 states despite a federal ban on funding for such projects.

But they also lamented the CDC’s finding that infections continue to increase in gay and bisexual men, who accounted for more than half of HIV infections in 2006. Also, more than a third of those with HIV are younger than 30.

Every time you hear the claim that this is a disease that is everyone’s problem, remember the above stats: A social subgroup that represents less then 3% of a population account for more then 50% of the infections of HIV. While the experts insist that it’s not a problem of the gay community, they also see their primary means of reducing the infection rate in the heterosexual community being needle exchange programs.

They are not admitting the numbers of those on the heterosexual side that are infected through needles — neither are they separating out spouses who are infected by a partner they wrongly assume is heterosexual and monogamous. I suspect that if we factor the above in, we actually cut the heterosexual infection rate at least in half.

So many times we hear stats saying things like, “The greatest increase in infections has been seen in the heterosexual community among women.” Trouble is, we don’t stop to think about them. If you have already saturated one group, then you will always be able to claim percentage of growth in the other is high — even if it is actually microscopic in terms of the whole. (There are lies, damned lies — and then there are statistics…) The reality here is that it’s unsafe anal sex (Now just termed virus chasing) and IV drug use that is still in the driver’s seat of HIV.

“Obviously,” it’s then time to launch an ad campaign aimed at heterosexuals and based on race to scare them about AIDS…

Whether more funding comes or not, the revised estimate clearly is a “wake-up call to scale things up,” said Dr. Kevin Fenton, who oversees CDC’s prevention efforts for HIV/AIDS.

Some said more attention needs to focus on prevention among blacks, who account for nearly half of annual HIV infections, according to the new CDC report.

Yep, apparently political correctness is still alive and well in the CDC…

KUTV.COM

SAN ANGELO, Tex. – A Texas appeals court said Thursday that the state had no right to take more than 400 children from a polygamist sects ranch, a ruling that could unravel one of the biggest child-custody cases in U.S. history.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the state offered “legally and factually insufficient” grounds for the “extreme” measure of removing all children from the ranch, from babies to teenagers.

The state never provided evidence that the children were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court approval, the appeals court said.

It also failed to show evidence that more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and never alleged any sexual or physical abuse against the other children, the court said.

It was not immediately clear whether the children scattered across foster facilities statewide might soon be reunited with parents. The ruling gave Texas District Judge Barbara Walther 10 days to vacate her custody order, and the state could appeal.

FLDS spokesman Rod Parker said sect members feel validated, having argued from the beginning that they were being persecuted for their beliefs.

The legal geniuses have spoken. Contrary to this foundation of American marital law:

[W]e think it may safely be said there never has been a time in any State of the Union when polygamy has not been an offence against society, cognizable by the civil courts and punishable with more or less severity. In the face of all this evidence, it is impossible to believe that the constitutional guaranty of religious freedom was intended to prohibit legislation in respect to this most important feature of social life. Marriage, while from its very nature a sacred obligation, is nevertheless, in most civilized nations, a civil contract, and usually regulated by law. Upon it society may be said to be built, and out of its fruits spring social relations and social obligations and duties with which government is necessarily required to deal. In fact, according as monogamous or polygamous marriages are allowed, do we find the principles on which the government of the people, to a greater or less extent, rests…

[P]olygamy leads to the patriarchal principle, and which, when applied to large communities, fetters the people in stationary despotism, while that principle cannot long exist in connection with monogamy…. An exceptional colony of polygamists under an exceptional leadership may sometimes exist for a time without appearing to disturb the social condition of the people who surround it; but there cannot be a doubt that, unless restricted by some form of constitution, it is within the legitimate scope of the power of every civil government to determine whether polygamy or monogamy shall be the law of social life under its dominion.

…[T]he only question which remains is whether those who make polygamy a part of their religion are excepted from the operation of the statute. If they are, then those who do not make polygamy a part of their religious belief may be found guilty and punished, while those who do, must be acquitted and go free. This would be introducing a new element into criminal law. Laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices. Suppose one believed that human sacrifices were a necessary part of religious worship; would it be seriously contended that the civil government under which he lived could not interfere to prevent a sacrifice? Or if a wife religiously believed it was her duty to burn herself upon the funeral pile of her dead husband; would it be beyond the power of the civil government to prevent her carrying her belief into practice?

So here, as a law of the organization of society under the exclusive dominion of the United States, it is provided that plural marriages shall not be allowed. Can a man excuse his practices to the contrary because of his religious belief? To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and, in effect, to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself. Government could exist only in name under such circumstances.

- Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 165-67 (1878).

…The court of Texas now feels that their belief system does not, in fact, influence those around them or damage children and that it has no interest in offering protection to the rest of society…

It ignored the reality that they COULD prove that 5 girls were being sexually abused, that this abuse was not some random uncle sneaking in under the cover of night but, rather, a socially accepted act carried out under the premeditated sham of an illegal marriage unto which the young girl had to have been forced — seeing as she had no legal ability to consent to such. This is something that the entire community participated in through participation in the ceremonies.

It also ignored the reality that, while these marriages were not declared as such, they did, in fact exist. (It’s really only through an adherence to a legal sham of state sanctioned marriage that they could be ignored in first place…) Thus they were permitted to ignore the actual illegality of the actions in question.

The most striking irony, though, is how they are talking now — having been schooled by an army of lawyers: “We’re being persecuted for our beliefs.” Really? The Texas authorities knew the compound was there for decades — and did nothing. The seizure of children was done because the violation of children reported and discovered was a socially accepted set of actions which then left the other children there defenseless.

They admit that their beliefs advocate something contrary to American law (Though they can lie like troopers on Larry King about having no husbands…) and there is solid proof that some children were illegally married to and sexually used by those older men, yet, the connection between belief and support of action seems to have no legal credibility.

It’s a strange bending of really: “You may believe you are married but we refuse to accept that those marriages could exist. If they can not exist, then no laws have been broken and no one could be harmed by what we just decided does not exist. All that is present here is a group of people believing in a fiction and beliefs can’t harm anyone either (COUGH 911 COUGH) so they should get their children back to continue teaching them to engage in what we have decided doesn’t exist.”

Only a lawyer could make that one make sense…

CNN.com

In the Texas raid, 416 children were removed from the ranch and placed in state custody. They are in temporary shelters and face a series of court hearings beginning April 17.

Investigators said Thursday they have left the YFZ ranch. The investigation, which also involves the FBI, is continuing.

In Hildale and Colorado City, people are reluctant to speak with outsiders, much less go on the record. Their responses ranged from indignation to resigned vows to leave matters up to the Lord.

“It’s very unjustified. It’s — it’s religious persecution,” said a woman who would not give her name.

A man who identified himself only as Nephi said he will remain prayerful and dedicated to his church.

“I think I am going to be at peace about it. It’s in the Lord’s hands. And we will leave it at that,” he said.

Marlene Hammon, a plural wife, was a small child when the Short Creek raid took place. She remembers being very frightened by the threat of being separated from her five mothers and 38 siblings.

Fawneta Carroll was 7 when she was separated from her family in the 1953 raid. She returned to polygamy and believes one of her 24 sisters was in the Texas compound with her children.

“If there is abuse, that should be investigated and taken care of,” she said. “But I do not see how you can use that to justify taking 416 children out of their homes and away from their families.”

Priscilla Hammon was born just after the raid and also lives in a polygamous marriage. She says she has many children and grandchildren, and that the threat of being separated by outsiders is always there. advertisement

The children are scared, she says.

“How can I possibly promise my children nothing will happen to them, when I see something like this taking place?”

Another day, another hour of CNN blasting out yet more sordid details of child molestation in the name of God. Endless fascination with the religion (and the strange and obviously abusive practices of it) and the quest to get closer and finally onto the compound to see the faithful.

Isn’t it interesting how politically correct the whole thing is? Where exactly are real ministers who know enough philosophy to stand up and call this whole thing what it is? Not once have I ever heard anyone grow the balls large enough to actually question the religion itself.

It’s really simple actually:

“Did God create man in the image of Himself? If so, then doesn’t it make sense that any person who, in the name of God, espouses treating people in a way that harms that image has to be preaching a false gospel as no sane creator harms what He has made?”

If the above is true, how about we look at the wreaked lives of these people, toss this out as a nonviable religion and just start just calling it an act of criminal mind control??? (It’s deserving of about as much special recognition/protection under law as one drunk beating up another by hitting him with a Bible.)

Oh yes, perhaps then we can also apply this to Fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity… Ah, I get it — ok, never mind… It’s our God ordained right to treat people like that…

On second thought, WE MUST STAND FIRM FOR FLDS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. Our fundamental RIGHTS and FREEDOMS are at stake… [SIGH]

CTV.ca | A few minutes is best, sex therapists say

Maybe men had it right all along: It doesn’t take long to satisfy a woman in bed. A survey of sex therapists concluded the optimal amount of time for sexual intercourse was 3 to 13 minutes.

The findings, to be published in the May issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, strike at the notion that endurance is the key to a great sex life.

You know the sexually intimate couples of a country are in trouble when even the healers are so totally out of it they collectively espouse the insanity of whatever this is as wisdom…

5000 years of research and tried and true practice to the contrary now swept from public view — by a survey…

NPR

If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.

“You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help,” Diaz says.

Isn’t it interesting how people are surprised by the response of this kid to a little kindness. It’s like the idea is original to him or something…

macleans.ca

But don’t just take her word for it! I’ve been following the directions in the Secret for two whole weeks now. And look at me: I’m deeper in debt and fatter than ever! Hmm, and I don’t remember asking the Universe for these bedsores. Excuse me for a moment, won’t you? I’ve got to go think really hard about an author being struck by a falling piano.

Amazing — finally I don’t need to post a rant — someone has done a job so brilliant I actually have nothing left to say.

Singapore News

“I was dumfounded. I thought I was dreaming,” the husband told the newspaper Wednesday.

The couple, married for 14 years, are now divorcing, the newspaper reported.

Ok, so I have to post this — if only to ask the odd question…

It’s been known for 50 years that where there is one broken person in a marriage, there is always another — just in a very different (And usually enabling/codependent/co-addict) sort of way. Even in light of that psychology, this still is a strange sort of hyper-congruent validation of the idea if there ever was one…

I’ve just gotta ask though: Is she divorcing him because he visits hookers — or is he divorcing her because she is one??? At least on the surface, it would seem that in the middle of this mess of a marriage, the couple has finally found SOMETHING they can agree upon. Their sex life had to of really sucked in terms of intimacy anyway — so it’s not like they each had high expectations there… She apparently was successful at her profession — and he was obviously intent on purchasing it so the variety of acts likely was not at issue…. Why are they divorcing such ‘perfection’ in first place?

Or, just maybe we have proof positive of what I’ve been saying for the last decade — it’s really NOT ABOUT THE SEX!!! Never has this constant of marriages the world over been more clearly demonstrated: neither can point at the other and say, “I’m ok and you are broken so I need to leave.” In this case, there are two perfectly matched human hearts — hearts totally distrustful of love — now divorcing because their previous distrust driven distance has now been multiplied through absolutely identical offenses.

Divorcing — because they are still too afraid to bring their hearts to the table and be loved — because they are still equally afraid of rejection — from an absolute equal — who is just as desperate for love.

psu.edu

“NHB-Funded Study Finds Honey an Effective Cough Treatment for Children Honey has been used as a home remedy for centuries to help alleviate some of the symptoms associated with a common cold. Now researchers have found through a recent study that honey proves a better option for childhood cough than over the counter medicines.

Researchers from Penn State College of Medicine recently published a study, funded by NHB, comparing honey to over-the-counter medicines for relief of upper respiratory infection symptoms, such as cough. Providing a safe alternative for children more than 12 months old, honey out-performed the cough medicine in offering a better night’s sleep and reducing cough severity.

In the study, the researchers enrolled 105 children between the ages of 2 and 18 at a single university-affiliated physician practice site. On the first night of the study, children received no treatment. Parents answered five questions about their child’s cough and sleep quality as well as about their own sleep quality. On the second night, children received either honey, artificial honey-flavored dextromethorphan (DM) or no treatment about a half hour prior to going to bed. Parents answered the same five questions the following morning.

Across the board, parents rated honey as significantly better than DM or no treatment for symptomatic relief of their child’s nighttime cough and sleep difficulty. In a few cases, parents did report mild side effects with the honey treatment, such as hyperactivity.

Ian Paul, M.D., M.Sc., a pediatrician, researcher and associate professor of pediatrics at Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Children’s Hospital said “Additional studies should certainly be considered, but we hope that medical professionals will consider the positive potential of honey as a treatment given the lack of proven efficacy, expense, and potential for adverse effects associated with the use of DM.”

The study results will be presented at the January 8th Honey & Health Symposium in Sacramento, Calif. For more information, visit www.honey.com.

Review: Windows XP – Coding Sanity

I have finally decided to take the plunge. Last night I upgraded my Vista desktop machine to Windows XP, and this afternoon I will be doing the same to my laptop.

Someone had to say it — FINALLY!!!

fakerepublic.typepad.com

1,500 pastors leave the ministry permanently each month in america.
4,000 new churches start each year in america.
7,000 churches close each year in america.
50% of pastors’ marriages end in divorce.
70% of pastors continually battle depression.
80% of pastors and 85% of their spouses feel discouraged in their roles.
95% of pastors do not regularly pray with their spouses.
70% of pastors do not have a close friend, confidant, or mentor.
50% of pastors are so discouraged they would leave the ministry if they could, but have no other way to make a living. 80% of pastors spend under 15 minutes a day in prayer.
70% of pastors only study god’s word when preparing a message.
40% of pastors have had an extra-marital sexual affair since entering ministry.
80% of seminary graduates who enter ministry will leave the ministry within the first five years.
80% of pastors’ wives feel their husbands are overworked.
80% of the adult children of pastors sought professional help for depression.
90% of pastors said their training was inadequate for ministry.
85% of pastors report that their biggest problem is dealing with abstinent elders, deacons, worship leaders, worship teams, board members, and associate pastors.
90% of pastors said the hardest thing about ministry is uncooperative people.
70% of pastors are grossly underpaid.
80% of pastors’ wives feel unappreciated by the congregation.
90% of pastors said ministry was completely different from what they thought it would be.
70% of pastors felt called of god into ministry when they began.
50% of pastors felt called of god into ministry three years later.
80% of pastors’ wives feel pressured to be someone they are not and do things they are not called to do in the church.
50% of pastors’ wives feel that their husbands entering ministry was the most destructive thing to ever happen to their families.

Stats like these are probably only the tip of the iceberg and likely to grow incredibly. Why is no mystery either. The institutional church is not losing the bench warmers or the Sr. Citizens — she is losing the people who are actually seeking the face of God and longing for intimacy with Him. Those are the ones with passion — the ones who back pastors who are trying to make a difference and who defend pastors (who are actually trying to preach grace and freedom) from their inevitable employment terminations.

Christianity is filled with groups of people futilely praying for revival. Is it any wonder that the institutional church can not be the forum for it? There’s already nothing left…

Besides, the prayer is already answered and the revival is already happening — and that +50% of the institutional church that has already left the building has left to join it in house churches…

globeandmail.com

U.S. researchers, in a study believed to be the first to link marriage breakdown with its environmental impact, have concluded divorce definitely isn’t green.

They say it leads to “resource-inefficient lifestyles” that dramatically increase the consumption of water and electricity, and demands for housing.

Although it isn’t surprising that the study found separated couples and their children consume more than they would had their families remained intact, the amount of damage they cause to the environment hasn’t been quantified in such detail before.

For once, absurdest environmentalism and common sense line up — even the Greens want you to stay married now. Apparently if the good of the children, the high likelihood that round two will just repeat round one anyway, increased rates of depression and suicide and a host of stress related illnesses arn’t good enough, you can always just do it for the planet…

snopes.com

Bill Donohue, president of The Catholic League, has condemned The Golden Compass as a “pernicious” effort to indoctrinate children into anti-Christian beliefs and has produced a 23-page pamphlet titled The Golden Compass: Unmasked in which he maintains that Pullman “sells atheism for kids.” Donohoe told interviewer John Gibson on 9 October 2007 why he believes Christians should stay away from the film:

Isn’t fundamentalism of every stripe fun? They’re a guaranteed marketing plan for nearly everything:

Want to make a movie about the death of Christ? Just position it to make the zealot Jews mad and get free marketing.

Want to market a fantasy movie to secular society? Get the Christian fundamentalists mad and turn a show likely to do nothing at the box office into an instant hit via all of their free marketing.

Want to release the most dismal and unartistic film about sex and violence possible (One with no redeeming quality that would get it a decent review anywhere)? Just position it so it riles up the family coalition and get free marketing.

Want to release the dumbest cowboy story ever that has such a lame plot it would never get a second glance? Just make sure the cowboys are gay, bent on doing each other and the anti-gay marriage lobby will go crazy while even sane reviewers will give you a positive review. They’ll generate enough fire and smoke that the academy awards will be your oyster…

Want to be a huge star as a radio talk show host and a shock jock? Just tick-off Mr. Al Sharpton and, after a brief vacation, get re-signed to a huge salary and possibly even take in damages via the court system to boot. (Yes, I consider Rev. a term of far to high of respect to apply to him…)

Welcome to the world — it’s hardly just Islamofascism that’s sweeping the planet… Problem is, it’s not just fun — it’s a threat. Fundamentalism of every stripe is being fanned to a furious flame all over the world — and legitimizing the control of themselves and everyone else through their insane actions. Apparently, the members of such are all too stupid to figure out they are probably pawns in a much larger game.

DemocracyNow.org

The foundation of any system of freedom is the rule of law rather then the rule of the elite. The rule of law must be maintained through the voice of the people who are free to learn and think. When they are daily submerged in a swamp of inflammatory rhetoric, they neither think nor learn. In such, freedom dies and tyranny rules.

While the fundamentalist Christian elite think they are bringing a new dawn of the rule and reign of Christ on earth, they are actually destroying the freedom of religion so many fought and died for.

Simply, if they can control others to think their way, so can anyone else:

The person who uses political power to force others to conform to his ideas seems inevitably to become corrupted by the power he holds. In due course, he comes to believe that power and wisdom are one and the same, and since he has power, he must also have wisdom. At this point he begins to lose his ability to distinguish between what is morally right and what is politically expedient. [Unknown]

No one is exempt from this principle — not even the Christian Right.

Pew Research Center

The public is losing confidence in itself. A dwindling majority (57%) say they have a good deal of confidence in the wisdom of the American people when it comes to making political decisions. Similarly, the proportion who agrees that Americans “can always find a way to solve our problems” has dropped 16 points in the past five years.

Americans feel increasingly estranged from their government. Barely a third (34%) agree with the statement, “most elected officials care what people like me think,” nearly matching the 20-year low of 33% recorded in 1994 and a 10-point drop since 2002.

Young people continue to hold a more favorable view of government than do other Americans. At the same time, young adults express the least interest in voting and other forms of political participation.

We’ve known for years that the opinions of the American people have been slipping when it comes to the state of their government — that’s not news. What’s striking about this study is more what it doesn’t say then what it does.

The commentary of the study is focused on the loss of support for the leadership and the cynicism about those officials ability to solve the problems before them. Yet, the statistics of the study paint a totally different picture: A loss of confidence in democracy as a functional system.

The public has finally woken up and realized that the country no longer holds elections — it holds popularity contests. They are media driven games wherein the person who manages to most throughly sell his or her soul to and thus raise the most money from corporate and other interests launches the most elaborate media blitz and wins the game. The moment that person takes office, it’s time to pay the piper with a series of decisions that, to the average person, are nearly always destructive.

The official no longer represents the people — the official represents the corporation. Thus even young idealistic men and women, who still trust government, won’t stir themselves to vote.

If the media was actually the watch dog they are supposed to be, they’d be crying out in rage for the cancellation of any person’s ability to raise funds or use personal funds to run a campaign — mandating a simple government payout for advertising purposes. Finally, that would really make it to be about the issues. But no, they are at the trough themselves…

It’s easier to simply distract the public with, oh, I don’t know — perhaps racism? Ya, cool. There’s a plan. Even though, apparently, the same study found that the public is mostly no longer racist…

Interpersonal racial attitudes continue to moderate. More than eight-in-ten (83%) agree that “it’s all right for blacks and whites to date,” up six percentage points since 2003 and 13 points from a Pew survey conducted 10 years ago.

But, never mind that. Let’s devote most of the news coverage this week to some ex-con bounty hunter (Dog) who swore and used racial epithets in a private conversation with his son. That’ll throw them off the issues that really matter…

I just got this one today. It’s a classic example of the new marketing systems now being employed via the web…

We may as well just admit it. The preceding has been a paid advertisement for Britax Regent and is a chief marketing system for the following site…

And, it includes just a few inconsistencies…

The CDC reports that the average age for an 80lb child is between 10 and 12 yrs of age. Apparently, they plan to keep some children in a car seat until they are teens? How to transform your child into a permanent social outcast in his or her Jr. High in one easy lesson…

The stats on seat belt failure date from cars manufactured on cars before the 70’s and even lawyers will admit it. (Getting truth out of them should be cause for national celebration…)

The accident type is a roll over — yet the video demonstrates an accident type mostly caused by seat belt misuse (and unrelated to the video subject) as proof of the danger.

The other booster seat worked — the death was caused by a rare seat belt failure — so buy a new car seat???

Video claims it is recommended — by who? Definitely not the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or the US government…

Finally, there have been aggressive attempts for years to mandate 5pt harness systems in all vehicles. The Federal governments of both the US and Canada have refused them. Reason? They are a pain in the butt, no one will wear them. Seat belts that are worn are worth a lot more then the small increase in safety offered by the 5pt systems no one will bother with wearing.

In years gone by, you had to have accurate ads or someone would sue. In an age of user generated content, who is there to sue?

Classic FUD — Fear, Uncertainty and Despair. It’s the marketing currency of our brave new world — and there is no watch-dog…

waterboarding.org

The confirmation vote for Michael Mukasey, nominee for United States Attorney General, is scheduled for Tuesday, November 6. In his confirmation hearing Judge Mukasey was asked for his opinion on waterboarding as a constitutionally valid technique for interrogation. Mukasey replied, “I don’t know what’s involved in the technique. … I think it would be irresponsible of me to discuss particular techniques with which I am not familiar.”

Waterboarding.org would like to offer to help the nominee become more familiar with water-based coercive interrogation techniques. Using unclassified sources, news reports, and historical records we are attempting to put together as clear a picture as possible of this technique, its history, its legality, and the scope of its use. We are also attempting to organize a group of doctors, paramedics, lawyers, and volunteers to allow anyone who remains confused or unclear on the details of waterboarding to safely subject themselves to as much of the technique as they are willing to endure.

We look forward to advising, educating, and assisting Michael Mukasey, future candidates, public figures, and anyone else who professes ignorance of our nation’s most controversial coercive interrogation technique.

I suspect the proper subtext under this is a line from Lord Acton:

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Or to put it in other terms:

The person who uses political power to force others to conform to his ideas seems inevitably to become corrupted by the power he holds. In due course, he comes to believe that power and wisdom are one and the same, and since he has power, he must also have wisdom. At this point he begins to lose his ability to distinguish between what is morally right and what is politically expedient.

Christian Right, meet the, “God fearing,” man who promised he would not let you down: Your president. (He’s a man so holy he likely has never even read that ungodly work of pagan thought called the Geneva Convention.)

demonbaby.com

If you’re not familiar with Oink, here’s a quick summary: Oink was was a free members-only site – to join it you had to be invited by a member. Members had access to an unprecedented community-driven database of music. Every album you could ever imagine was just one click away. Oink’s extremely strict quality standards ensured that everything on the site was at pristine quality – 192kbps MP3 was their bare minimum, and they championed much higher quality MP3s as well as FLAC lossless downloads. They encouraged logs to verify that the music had been ripped from the CD without any errors. Transcodes – files encoded from other encoded files, resulting in lower quality – were strictly forbidden. You were always guaranteed higher quality music than iTunes or any other legal MP3 store. Oink’s strict download/share ratio ensured that every album in their vast database was always well-seeded, resulting in downloads faster than anywhere else on the internet. A 100mb album would download in mere seconds on even an average broadband connection. Oink was known for getting pre-release albums before anyone else on the internet, often months before they hit retail – but they also had an extensive catalogue of music dating back decades, fueled by music lovers who took pride in uploading rare gems from their collection that other users were seeking out. If there was an album you couldn’t find on Oink, you only had to post a request for it, and wait for someone who had it to fill your request. Even if the request was extremely rare, Oink’s vast network of hundreds of thousands of music-lovers eager to contribute to the site usually ensured you wouldn’t have to wait long.

In this sense, Oink was not only an absolute paradise for music fans, but it was unquestionably the most complete and most efficient music distribution model the world has ever known. I say that safely without exaggeration. It was like the world’s largest music store, whose vastly superior selection and distribution was entirely stocked, supplied, organized, and expanded upon by its own consumers. If the music industry had found a way to capitalize on the power, devotion, and innovation of its own fans the way Oink did, it would be thriving right now instead of withering. If intellectual property laws didn’t make Oink illegal, the site’s creator would be the new Steve Jobs right now. He would have revolutionized music distribution. Instead, he’s a criminal, simply for finding the best way to fill rising consumer demand. I would have gladly paid a large monthly fee for a legal service as good as Oink – but none existed, because the music industry could never set aside their own greed and corporate bullshit to make it happen.

Probably one of the most complete and well thought out assessment of the current state of the record industry — with some strong suggestions about how to take them completely out. Very well worth the read.

TIME

The Bible and Its Influence has a fascinating constellation of supporters and critics. Some of its more liberal champions, such as the American Jewish Congress’s counsel Marc Stern, feel that the republic can not only survive but will actually benefit from public school courses on a document as culturally central as the Bible — as long as the classes avoid being devotional. Evangelical heavyweight Chuck Colson hopes that God will speak to students even through a class that is secular in intent. Those opposed to the book include secularists who argue that it already violates the First Amendment and fundamentalists who see its approach as secular and therefore diluting the value of what they see as God’s inspired word.

What’s striking about this article is not that you can get a group of Christians, Jews, Secular intellectuals and even a fundamentalist like Colson to agree on a textbook. That’s really not too hard. All you have to do is create a work that is objective, accurate and clearly demonstrates the incredible effect Christianity has on culture and even many atheists will support it.

It’s not even striking that there are fundamentalists out there like this. It takes only the briefest research to discover that it’s not just Islam that has grown more fundamentalist. Evangelical Christianity and other faiths all over the world are all moving towards greater and greater extremism at alarming rates.

What is striking is the degraded nature of thinking process among these Evangelical-Fascist subgroupings. It goes something like this:

Spirituality is a magic thing we get from following rules and jumping through hoops — it is, by definition, good.

Spirituality is as different from the rest of life as outer space is from an atmosphere.

That which is not spiritual is of little value — should be suspect and combated.

Therefore, because it is not about rules and hoops, life and learning can not be spiritual.

Because life and learning is not spiritual, we must fight it.

Seems to me we’ve seen this thinking before — we saw it in and near the end of the dark ages when the religious leadership was trying to burn astronomers at the stake. The Roman Catholic church — in part due to reformers like Luther — was forced to finally cancel this absurdist distinction and embrace all of life as an encounter with the Divine.

For years, Evangelicalism has worn the label of Protestant. We protested an institution and a structure, yes, but really we protested the idea of a human mediator between us and God, the idea of the separation between the clergy and the laity and a split between the secular and the spiritual. We protested magic crystal ball spirituality and demanded that the truth of intimate relationship with God again be taught.

We were right — the release of a document called Vatican II finally even had the Roman Catholic Church agreeing. (Thank God)

The irony is, once we finally get the Roman Catholic Church to agree with us, we then adopt what they just rejected. Now that’s ecumenicism at it’s finest…

FOXNews.com

I was intrigued and excited to meet and interview Alexander Roy, who, with a co-driver, claims to have broken the unofficial transcontinental driving record, racing from New York City to the Santa Monica Pier in 31 hours and four minutes in a 2000 BMW M5.

Ok, I can’t resist.

After all my 7 years of driving ambulances and fully understanding that a couple of lines of Cocaine have absolutely nothing on the high that results from doing 100kmh through rush hour traffic, I’m still trying really hard to condemn these guys — I’m trying, I’m still trying… Really trying… SOOOOOO hard… Really…

And then to get to do it with a chase aircraft overhead to watch for radar traps… No! {SLAP} Bad Cal!

OK, so I give up. Seems like God has some significant regeneration He’s not quite yet accomplished with my right foot…

USATODAY.com

“I don’t know how long this leave of absence will last, but I fully trust the members of the Board of Regents,” Roberts said in a statement released by the university. “I pray and believe that in God’s timing, and when the Board feels that it is appropriate, I will be back at my post as president.”

Well, the son of the man God wanted to nuke for being short on cash has spoken. First, God thundered from the clouds and told him to stand and fight to the end. Oh, now wait a sec, God just thundered again — now our good friend the Oral Roberts prez has to step aside. (Or maybe his indigestion went gurgle in the night…)

But, only temporarily — and on a deadline — as a negotiating tactic — because he needs one — because he’s innocent — and his wife is sure she isn’t into little boys — (and since God, of course, doesn’t speak to impure people, you can definitely trust him on this one) because, “GOD hath SPOKEN…”

There’s a little psychological trick known as, “Divorcing your own voice and receiving it back as thunder.” It works like this:

(1). You figure out what you want.
(2). Tell the world it’s not your decision; you are just waiting on God.
(3). Claim that God told you to do what it is you wanted to do in the first place.
(4). Profit from the gullible.

It works really well — until you suddenly figure out that you are not the Almighty, that your desires, unlike God’s, have changed and you are now stuck. Then the world and even your own throughly brainwashed followers can suddenly see that either your are your own god, your god is psychotic, and/or you are schizophrenic.

And then there are the thousands of those followers who have now seen the truth that they no longer need priests to stand between them and God and are fleeing to a real relationship with the God who is really there (and isn’t short on cash?) Umm, oh, never mind…

But… But… But, oh, let’s follow him anyway.

Dutch News, Expatica

If you find this bookkeeping mentality hard to accept in the face of the threats she faces, you’re in good company. Salman Rushdie has warned the Dutch prime Minister that this could turn into an international scandal for The Netherlands. TIME Magazine has nominated Ayaan as one of the world’s most influential people. She has become an international icon in the fight to liberate women, whether you like her or not.

Yes, she is very outspoken and critical of her former religion. I am sure that some Muslims found her film ‘Submission’ extremely upsetting. But many Christians found ‘Life of Brian’ or the ‘Last Temptation of Christ’ deeply insulting. They did not however murder the producer or try to assassinate the writer. Violence, or the threat of it, undermines everything we hold dear. When we allow terrorists to dictate what a person can say, they win.

One of the most striking things about this article is not what is said but what is not said. Here you have a government (ostensibly a democratic one that claims to stand for freedom of speech and the rights of women) which is home to a woman who has vocally supported such against incredible odds and at the potential cost of her life. It’s also a government that is busy debating the limits of it’s responsibilities to defend those who actually exercise that responsibility from those who would assassinate her for doing so.

What exactly does a government exist for to begin with? Yes, it may do wonderful social services but a government fundamentally exists to define and defend a free society based on the rule of law wherein there is the potential for virtue to be grown by the unifying forces of that society — usually religion or education/philosophy. This government is busy debating if the cost of defending a free person from an islamofascist tyrant takes away from other programs it would rather spend the money on.

What is striking about this story is that the one question which is never asked is if a government that would seriously debate whether there are time limits on the protection of freedom against tyranny isn’t, in and of itself, proof positive that post-modern stupidity has already ensured that the fundamentalist psychos will win in that country?

Blog-o-Fascists

Here’s something American media are virtually guaranteed to not report: a British court has determined that Al Gore’s schlockumentary “An Inconvenient Truth” contains at least eleven material falsehoods.

After all the years of any detractor to his Majesty Al Gore being burned at the stake of, “How dare you refuse to believe real scientists,” it seems that it has finally taken a court of law in England to force said scientific experts to hand over the real evidence. Considering DDT, the ozone hole (Based on a software glitch), global cooling, spotted owls, lizard protection (simply because of the 49th parallel makes them rare on one side) and other raw idiocy that defines environmental activism’s track record, it’s not surprising that Gore’s indisputable science also, inconveniently, turns out to be mostly fiction. The court has now forced English schools that wish to show this work of speculative fiction to their students to define it as such before and after showing it.

Of course, that hasn’t stopped him from being given a Nobel peace prize. It’s beginning to look a lot like none of these scientists really care at all about science — though they wrap themselves in it by the hour. They now have a champion and, not even proving him a liar can cancel his personality cult.

(Just remember this the next time someone tells you that, “Science says…”)

But, on to bigger things. We’re facing a crisis — if we do nothing, Al may continue torturing us with junk science movies for years to come — something must be done — the sanity of the free world rests on it. Any ideas?

Wait, I’ve got it — let’s make him president!

AOL News

Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors’ expense, including numerous home remodeling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter’s senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.

She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as “underage males.”

First we have Daddy telling them that God told him that he needs $8 million for Roberts’ university, or else he would be, “Called home.” Now we have his son and his son’s wife spending it — and they apparently are catching up… The apple truly has landed in a nice shady spot — right under the tree.

What is most striking to me is that this insane show should have been shut down twenty years ago when the first 8 million dollar lie was told. All the believers of North America would have had to do is stop giving. Roberts would have lived — and his little corner of a false gospel would have died.

Instead believers continued to flood this charlatan with money. Now they point in horror at the fruit of their refusal to think for themselves — aghast at the possibility that a man who so obviously serves a false god could violate their hearts and pocketbooks.

News flash Church: If the god you serve is leading you through fear, shame, judgment, condemnation, guilt, rejection or the iron fisted control of the law the real God died to free you from, then you are serving a false god and living under what Paul called, “Another gospel.” Not even the prophecies of the Old Testament (Jer 31:31 –> for example) would have endorsed this.

Bonno put it well when he stated, “The God I believe in is not short on cash…”

P.S.: Dr. Roberts, it’s time for you to meet again (For the very first time) the fruit of your loins and the fruit of an evil that would dare to defraud God — they’re now a package deal…

The Calgary Sun

Every Canadian-made green paintball that stings you like the end of a wet towel, does so with the grace of tiny Christian fish symbols printed on their shell.

“I’ve looked in the Bible, and can’t find anything wrong with paintball,” reasons Andy Leong, a 48-year-old Chicago marketing executive who’s come to celebrate the birthday of his 13-year-old son, Luke. “In fact, the Bible is filled with combat as a topic.”

A number of months ago, a columnist noted that Evangelical Christianity has succeeded in creating a parallel culture of such magnitude it has totally lost touch with the culture that actually is and seriously believes that this parallel culture is the real thing. If this isn’t the most clear example of such ever created, I have no idea what could top it.

We ultimately have become neither, “In the world,” nor, “Of it,” and, thus, mostly irrelevant to it.

In the process, we’ve become a joke to it.

Articles Detail:

“Michael Novak, the highly-esteemed Catholic economist and social thinker, has argued that the next great national awakening will come from the affluent. I would have doubted that conclusion until I began to study wealth, economics and social theory more closely. I now agree with him. We are living in a different age, an age of incredible productivity. We must understand that we are the most affluent people, at least the vast majority of us, who have ever walked this planet. Feeling guilty about this will not work repentance. If we are to see a true spiritual awakening it will necessarily come from people who have the means to make a huge contribution to great good in the world. We ought to encourage even greater wealth production, protect personal freedoms and foster the spirit of the entrepreneur in every possible way. If the church can learn to preach the gospel well, teach spiritual formation as it ought to teach it, rebuild truly transcendent worshiping communities, and help businessmen and women to understand that they have a vocation from God, then we just might see the awakening Novak is talking about.”

This article stands by itself.

BBC NEWS

A B-person – as opposed to an A-person – genetically pre-disposed to operate better and to be more alert later in the day.

Denmark it seems is full of B-people. So where better to form the B-society?

Six months after it was set up, it already boasts several thousand members.

Now it is campaigning hard for businesses to sign up to its B-certification list.

These guys — and especially the software company that allows you to show up to work whenever you want — are officially my new heroes. I’m almost ready to renounce my citizenship and move overseas… I just knew that someone, somewhere, had to understand that morning people need help and that it’s PERFECTLY normal to find the sun a significant and soothing contributor to the urge to sleep!

(BTW: for all you morning people among us — there is drug treatment available for the problem…)[GRIN]

The Beaumont Enterprise

Helped by aggressive marketing and a new generation of conservative Roman Catholics, convents around the country say they are experiencing an increase in applicants for the first time in decades. The women are inspired by Pope John Paul II and his defense of Catholic orthodoxy, and are seeking a life that draws them closer to God.

Anecdotal evidence about the increase has convinced the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which analyzes church trends, that it should start a formal study of the growth.

“It’s not a huge increase, but for a while there was hardly anybody and now there are some, so something is going on,” said Mary Bendyna, executive director of CARA, based at Georgetown University.

Their founders would tell them to “go to the edges,” embrace technology, says Sister Arlene Scott, assistant vice president of mission at this coed Catholic school in Miami.

That attitude has helped their order, the Adrian Dominican Sisters in Michigan, attract a handful of new candidates in their 20s and 30s this year. They used billboards and hired an ad agency to research what would appeal to younger women.

“We’re not selling ourselves like we’re worried we’re gonna die out,” Scott said. “We’re evolving into something else.”

“A number of religious communities are finding that the Internet is where people are gathering,” said Vieira.

“We’re realizing that we need to have a presence there as well.”

Cool — smashing idea… How about some social networking sites — maybe a means of allowing the learning of the public with respect to Scripture and the voice of God to be shared and interacted with? How about a realization that a batch of celibate lily white priests probably need some online assistance in their interaction with sexuality from the rank and file Catholics who are actually doing it? How about a message board admitting that they don’t have a corner on theology, that some of the people they allowed to write it were basically twisted and weird and that they need to start over from the ground up?

Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, the largest religious order in the United States, hired an outside ad agency to design ads for secular magazines like People, along with Internet banner ads.

Oh, wait… Never mind. [SIGH]

“It’s a radical way of living,” says Sister Catherine Marie Hopkins, of The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville, Tenn.

“When you used to put the habit on, it was conventional. Now it’s radical and I think people want to do something radical with their lives.”

Apparently, even the Roman Catholic church isn’t above spin-doctoring. That being said, they definitely need MUCH more practice…

In Massachusetts, the Sisters of St. Joseph in Springfield is hoping to appeal to the broader public by restructuring memberships to include roles for married women and those with no formal connection to the congregation.

Ok, basically this is the first sign of real hope so far. Finally an organization willing to admit that their long dead human ideas about one organization lead by a dude in a strange hat (The hat loosely derived from the worship of the god Daggon) having the right to arbitrarily decide that 52% of the human race are second class church leadership and that married ones pretty much should sit down, shut up and get pregnant — yep, those ideas are starting to die. Thank God!

They have extended their roles to include people with different levels of commitment to the religious order, said Sister Natalie Cain, coordinator of membership and association for the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Even more hope: The dude’s proclamation that only faithful members of his little club get God’s stamp of approval is even slipping. Now, if only we could get them to admit that God just isn’t that big of a fan of political systems…

Yes, revolutionary change has finally arrived. It’s time for these fine sisters to party like it’s 1997.

Perhaps when they sober up someone can let them know that was a decade ago…

AlterNet:

In the Netherlands people can be naked in their gardens, the beach and recently the gym. But in America, even chocolate sculptures cant be without clothes. What gives?

Another, perhaps sobering, reality: America has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the industrialized world, according to the American Association of Pediatrics, and a rate that exceeds the Dutch by nine-fold. A healthy attitude to nudity as well as sex, something the Dutch are regaled for, might have a positive impact as more exposure typically leads to greater information.

You know, some questions just beg to be asked. Of course, they still missed addressing the obvious rant fundamentalist Christianity has been on for years by asking: What makes anyone think nudity is in any way required for lust anyhow?

www.kansascity.com

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem. You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality. You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor. Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred. The bigots win again.

Finally,somebody says it. Ironically, it took a sports writer — not the most likely suspect as the last hold out of sanity — but hey, he’ll do.

Sultan Knish

When we take someone else’s responsibility on ourselves, two things happen.

First by taking responsibility for something we cannot control, we waste our energies and do nothing to address or resolve the problem.

Secondly, we remove responsibility from the only person who can control it, we give him absolute freedom from his responsibilities. He becomes free to rob and kill and do as he likes, because his victims are responsible now, not him.

All totalitarian systems remove individual responsibility, replacing it with obligation. Responsibility requires informed individual judgment. Obligation simply means doing what you’re told.

A very well written comment about why liberal aversion to responsibility ultimately creates oppression.

The Psychopathic School by John Taylor Gatto

Schools were designed by Horace Mann and by Sears and Harper of the University of Chicago and by Thorndyke of Columbia Teachers College and by some other men to be instruments of the scientific management of a mass population. Schools are intended to produce, through the application of formulas, formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and controlled.

To a very great extent schools succeed in doing this, but in a national order increasingly disintegrated, in a national order in which the only “successful” people are independent, self-reliant, confident, and individualistic (because community life which protects the dependent and the weak is dead and only networks remain), the products of schooling are, as I’ve said, irrelevant. Well-schooled people are irrelevant. They can sell film and razor blades, push paper and talk on telephones, or sit mindlessly before a flickering computer terminal, but as human beings they are useless. Useless to others and useless to themselves.

The daily misery around us is, I think, in large measure caused by the fact that, as Paul Goodman put it thirty years ago, we force children to grow up absurd. Any reform in schooling has to deal with its absurdities.

It is absurd and anti-life to be part of a system that compels you to sit in confinement with people of exactly the same age and social class. That system effectively cuts you off from the immense diversity of life and the synergy of variety; indeed it cuts you off from your own past and future, sealing you in a continuous present much the same way television does.

It is absurd and anti-life to move from cell to cell at the sound of a gong for every day of your natural youth in an institution that allows you no privacy and even follows you into the sanctuary of your home demanding that you do its “homework.”

Ok, some rants just need to be posted — even if written by others.

Think this is the rantings of a cynical lunatic? Think again. This is taken from John Taylor Gatto’s book, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling. This speech was given by Gatto on January 31/1990 in accepting an award from the New York State Senate naming him New York City Teacher of the Year. Yes, he’s a teacher.

I just wish we could find another few hundred thousand teachers to stand up and scream the same message…

www.kget.com

BAKERSFIELD – A family is turned away by a local pediatrician, they say because of the way they look.

The doctor said he is just following his beliefs, creating a Christian atmosphere for his patients.

Tasha Childress said it’s discrimination.

She said Dr. Gary Merrill wouldn’t treat her daughter for an ear infection because Tasha, the mother, has tattoos.

The AMA backs this character and, one one level, I have to agree. It is a free country and the USA has some things figured out here as to freedom that Canada is in grave danger of loosing.

That being said, perhaps he would like to hang another few verses on his wall:

“First, do no harm.” (Hippocrates)
“Suffer the little children to come unto me,” (Jesus)
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Jesus) (If, even under Old Covenant theology, you can somehow make a bit of ink on your hide into a sin.)

It’s totally amazing what we will manage to rationalize under the law. You would think a “Christian” rulekeeper would AT LEAST feel like he was sinning if he failed to love a child — apparently not though. It seems that the Gospel somehow teaches it’s OK to let a child suffer. Really, that’s what irks me about him — he has the nerve to try blame it all on Jesus.

Yes, the same Jesus that turned water into wine and spent so much time hanging out with hookers, thieves and sinners that he got a reputation as a drunk. (This simple fact alone should nominate him as everyone’s a personal Hero…)

Ok, seriously, this is one incredibly weird guy’s personal bias. This Doctor’s logic goes against every teaching in the Christian faith and his idiocy is similar to what fuels much of the strife in the world today. If he wants to treat people like this — fine. It’s a free country and he’s free to be an ass. Just grow a spine, take responsibility for your own stupidity and DON’T TRY TO BLAME IT ON JESUS.

I just hope his Christian patients also stand up in their own free country and vote with their feet by walking out the door.

FrontPagemagazine.com

Throughout the Islamic Middle East, men and women are taught to be vehemently opposed to pleasure, especially of the sexual variety. Men are raised not only forbidden to touch women, but to even look at them. Sex before marriage is not just a sin — but a criminal offence. It is punishable by a severe beating at best, and an execution at worst.

The sexual privileges that are allowed in Islamic cultures are permitted to men. Women’s sexuality and social independence represent major threats to male supremacy and are tightly controlled. Thus, as the Moroccan feminist Fitna Sabbah reveals in her book Woman in the Muslim Unconscious, there is a disturbing conflict in the Middle East between sexual libido and repression. A deep-seated fear of, and hostility to, individuality prevails, and its main expression exists in misogyny.

Ok, this is a disturbing article. Jamie Glazov writes about how deeply embedded same sex sexual abuse is within fundamentalist Islamic cultures identifying how the seeds of rage and fear combine to produce a hyper-masculinization (based upon conformity) that renders the affected male both powerless and controllable — even to the point of death.

His contention is that this damage is both legitimized and then rationalized by a society that teaches that the damage is nonexistent and understands the inflicting of such as a need.

In this culture, males sexually penetrating males becomes a manifestation of male power, conferring a status of hyper-masculinity. It is considered to have nothing to do with homosexuality. An unmarried man who has sex with boys is simply doing what men do. As the scholar Bruce Dunne has demonstrated, sex in Islamic societies is not about mutuality between partners, but about the adult male’s achievement of pleasure through violent domination.

I am unsure of the accuracy of this, though the author is rather prestigious. It has had me reeling intellectually for most of the day — first to assess, then to evaluate this info (and previous experience living in a predominantly Islamic culture) and finally to rethink the implications of such. I’ve run this past a number of evaluators this afternoon and all have — disturbingly — either confirmed or been unable to deny it. Additionally, those who have posted against it seem to be limited to nothing more substantive then mocking the author. (It sickens me to admit it but I have to wonder if Bush was right to invade Iraq — even if his stated reasons were nothing more then an attempt at thought control…)

Given the work I have done with the victims of the damage therein described, this article has a strange ring of truth. We know even from Biblical history that this twisting of sexuality and culture was well under way thousands of years ago. History has a way of repeating itself…

So many authors have recognized that negotiation with the Islamofascist world is nothing more then, “Allowing both sides to reload.” Perhaps it has something to do with an internal sense that to negotiate is to be penetrated again — and nothing will stand in the way of defending against that abuse. War driven by this deeply embedded of a wounding is irrevocable, nonnegotiable and to the death.

The spread of Islam across most of Africa was done under the banner of:

“Know that paradise is under the shades of swords.,” Narrated by Bukhari, Vol.4, book 52, 73

If so, democracy and North American culture/civilization is very possibly not going to stand against Islam for we clearly lack the backbone to exercise the only option we have: All out war to take out a culture (and likely, with it, a religion) and then hold it (as we did with Nazi Germany) for at least a generation to stop this abuse and, thus, the insanity.

*****************************************************
BTW: anyone who is going to email to tell me that Islam is a religion of peace should take note of the following:

“Islam spread by means of proof and evidence to those who listened to the message and responded to it, and it spread by means of force and the sword to those who were stubborn and arrogant, until they were overwhelmed and became no longer stubborn, and submitted to that reality.” Sayed Qutb: Fiqh Al-Da’wa, 217-220 – Fatawa Al-Lajnah Al-Daaimah 12/14

“I have been ordered to fight people till they say, “None has the right to be worshipped but Allah”, and whoever says, “None has the right to be worshipped but Allah”, his life and property will be saved by me except for Islamic law, and his reckoning will be with Allah, (either to punish him or forgive him). Narrated by Abu Huraira, Buchari, Vol.4, book 52, 196

All anyone has to do is watch his or her television to figure out that this, “Religion of peace,” will only be at peace when they have killed or subjugated everyone who disagrees with them.

calgary.ctv.ca

“There is somebody right now watching, and God is speaking to them about RRSPs. They’ve got RRSPs, and they’ve got a sizable amount, and it’s a security thing. Well, it’s not a security thing; your security is in God. And God’s speaking to you to cash those in. And I dare you to do it,” the host said.

Owners of the station have applied for the right to set up transmitters in Calgary and Edmonton that would broadcast the channel over the air for free, an important move that would allow it to reach more viewers.

A CRTC hearing starting Monday will consider the application to expand the station’s broadcasting power. But the regulator will also look into whether The Miracle Channel has adequately responded to complaints about high-pressure tactics and promises of a windfall after money is given.

The CRTC has just discovered a slight problem with our current Christian push to avoid evil… We are it. Evil doesn’t look like a thug in a back ally — it dresses in a business suit, chants, “Thank you Jesus,” promises healings for money and holds meetings with the CRTC.

I just hope the CRTC has enough sense to do what the churches of our nation have failed to do — shoot this scam dead.

FrontPagemagazine.com

We in the Western world did not reason our way to religious freedom. We accepted it (often very reluctantly) because we got tired of fighting religious wars. In his Letter on Toleration in 1689, the philosopher John Locke did not talk about the right of free inquiry or the beauty of diversity. He founded his argument for toleration on one promise: social peace.

“[It is] the common disposition of all mankind, who when they groan under any heavy burden endeavor naturally to shake off the yoke that galls their necks. . . . There is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotions, and that is oppression.”

The Western world learned its lesson the hard way, but we learned. Over the years, many had hoped that the Islamic world and the Middle East could profit from the ghastly example of the West: that peace and justice are achieved not by “commanding right and forbidding wrong,” but by establishing equal laws and respecting all who live by them.

This article is post-worthy for three reasons:

Firstly, it is as clean and accurate of an assessment of what is going on in Bush’s little holy war as I’ve ever found. (Read it if you like.)
Secondly, it is an unintended but brilliant commentary on the state of Fundamentalist Evangelicalism in North America.
Thirdly, it is just as relevant a commentary upon the liberal left and their endless political correctness.

For nearly the past decade, the political landscape of North America has been reduced to a battle between the liberal left and the fundamentalist Christian right — often to the near total obscuring of any real issues. This single minded and rather absurdist battle has been waged for one simple goal: Control.

On the left we have the social liberals. Their goal is simple — the legitimization of nearly anything (Multi-species polyamorous love anyone?) — coupled with the censure of anyone who would stand in the path of said legitimization (Read, “Christians.”) Political correctness and the climate of hatred for Christianity in the universities of today are the pulpit from which this gospel is preached. They seek to command right and forbid wrong — the, “Right,” of a philosophy that says, “If I wanna do it, it’s good for society,” and the, “Wrong,” of believing that anything is wrong. Their enforcement agencies include the courts and human rights tribunals.

On the right we have the nearly endless comedy gold of Fundamentalist Christianity which includes everything from throwing perfectly competent teachers who also happen to be authors who write stories of vampires (which happen to include sex) out of classrooms, charging teens who email naked pictures of themselves to another teen as child abusers/child pornographers (Apparently you can sexually abuse yourself) and almost twilight zone commentary out of Jerry Fallwell who insists that Sept 11th was God’s judgment on America for Porn. Their pulpit is the church and the caricatures of her we know as televangelism. They too seek to command right and forbid wrong — the, “Right,” of the abysmal and (increasingly creepy) failure we call abstinence education and the, “Wrong,” of homosexuality and gay marriage {www dot godhatesfags dot com}. (No, I will not even offer a live link’s worth of support to this order of evil.) Their mechanism of enforcement is aggressive activism at the community level as well as political pressure through funding (hence the Republican party.)

Sadly, both sides seem to have lost the core understanding of what makes a democracy function: Good people uniting to establish good, fair and egalitarian laws which create safety and justice for all. When they lost such, they embarked on a path of attempting to enforce, not justice, but values on others.

Values have a place in the discourse of a society. They are to be promoted, debated, encouraged and even advocated for the betterment of those who would experience increased quality of life should they chose to freely align their lives and decisions within the parameters of such. They are always a function of some order of religion — yes, secular humanism is very arguably a religion — and are usually promoted along with that set of beliefs which seek to provide a rationale for such. None of the above has any business being enforced. By anyone!

Fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity and the Liberal Left both agree on one key point: Islam’s, “commanding right and forbidding wrong,” will never create justice or peace for anyone. But yet, they still somehow manage to believe that their own versions of the same will.

In the last part of the above quoted article, the author laments the fact that the foundational ideals of American democracy have not been absorbed by Islam. He’s right. Perhaps it has something to do with the reality that we have so forgotten those foundational principles that Islam is unable to look across the ocean and see anything different…

Guardian Unlimited

Busch is suing Robertson for what he says is misappropriation of his image to promote Robertson’s protein diet shake.

Robertson has been touting his “age-defying” weight-loss shake for five years on his Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network talk show “The 700 Club,”

And also:

This is not the first time Robertson has been accused of threatening an adversary.

After the failure of an earlier Robertson commercial venture featuring Bible study courses and discount coupon books, the broadcaster fired Mark Peterson, the venture’s top executive.

The two feuded publicly, blaming each other for the failure. Peterson sued Robertson in 1995, alleging that Robertson made a veiled death threat in a telephone conversation with Peterson’s sister.

Apparently the whole turning, “My Father’s house into a den of thieves,” selling health food milkshakes routine just isn’t twisted enough — without adding in the drama of a death threat or two for marketing purposes.

Isn’t it delightful to hear the thunderous roar of his former followers now shouting for his removal from the airwaves — oh, uhh, wait… Never mind.

USATODAY.com

Our young friend, in a moment of teenage brilliance, decided to post some naked pictures of herself to the internet and (GASP) kept copies of said pictures on her computer.

She has been charged with sexual abuse of children, possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography.

Puritan ethics and the American legal system unite in stunning wisdom to create this heart warming example of common sense guidance for a child. (I’d assign 10:1 odds they are also going to add her name to the sexual offender’s list and force her to continually report her address for life.)

For one thing, I can’t help but wonder where we as a society finally lost our collective mind and our ability to differentiate between the stupid pranks of a kid and real criminal behavior. Reality is, by charging her, we have reduced the charges and likely the sex offender registry to an absurdity. Next stop, let’s ban mirrors from homes…

Darker then that though, our sex negative society has finally spoken — her naked body was so evil and offensive that taking self portraits of such is abusive. Even simply owning (forget looking at) those pictures of herself must be charged as a crime.

All things considered, the sexual revolution appears to have been a bust: It managed to take a society where the human body was evil and dirty and sex wasn’t done and make it into a society where the human body is evil and dirty and sex IS being done (By evil and dirty people). Then, we taught our little girls that sex was all they had to offer and that the same freaked out shame is modesty — all the while telling them an inverted flaunting of such is normal. The sexual revolution totally ignored the shame based core of the problem.

This little girl has a problem: her parent’s modeling (and inability to monitor her internet usage) appears to have conspired with society at large to create a hyper sexualized child. She’s a kid who’s obviously hungry for love and is willing to settle for so much less. All of them — especially her parents — need to get help before it’s too late.

Oh, I forgot. Never mind. That would require dealing in reality. It’s more fun to charge her as a child abuser anyway…

Denver Post

Mike Jones, who has a forthcoming book, told The Denver Post that several people shook his hand and told him, “God bless you.”

“I had read a lot about the church, but there’s nothing like seeing it for yourself,” Jones told the newspaper. “It wasn’t to rub anyone’s face in it by any means. I was wanting to get some perspective, to see where they are coming from, what the magnet is.”

Haggard resigned last year as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after Jones alleged Haggard paid him over a three-year period for sex and sometimes took methamphetamine during the encounters.

Interesting how we have a double standard for grace isn’t it. We talk about grace and even (Correctly) show such along with strikingly unconditional love to the non-Christian broken in a welcoming of Haggard’s accuser to his home church. (The same church that just fired Haggard because — like all of us — he couldn’t perform…)

On the one hand, the entire story has stunningly ironic elements of, “You made your [legalism and performance based] bed, now lay in it…” Not that two wrongs make a right or anything but, maybe the experience will finally break his heart of legalism and heal him. (In any case, we can always hope that the new pastor will actually get the Gospel and rescue the congregation.) That being said though, it is a useful case study of our true beliefs here in the church so we can proclaim them to the world:

So, after all these years of mistakenly listening to Paul, let’s get this message of the Gospel straight once and for all: Now that grace and freedom has touched your life and brought you to Christ, the Jesus who died to set you free from the law now (apparently) wants you to get off your butt and perform to measure up to it?

I think the technical term for that is, “Bait and switch.” Trouble is, it’s not even that simple:

On the other hand though, Haggard has obvious talents given to him by God to do what he was doing. I’d love to see Haggard finally get the Gospel and, with all of his broken heart, be restored to ministering to others — but that’s not gonna happen either. Here in the church, we shoot our wounded; then keep them on life support so we can demand they perform anyway.

He’s as good as dead: Dead as in an outcast forever and dead as in forever consigned to the ongoing legalism (as penance and proof of a heart change) that will keep him trapped in the brokenness which was wreaking his life in first place. (Kinda like a wounded soldier being required to shoot himself dead as proof he is still alive…)

Now, we’d like to welcome Haggard’s accuser to join the same system? Do we really think Jones is that crazy? Are we???

VirtueOnline

“The thing that has sustained me through all this is God has seemed so very close that prayer has seemed almost redundant. … Sometimes God calms the storm and sometimes God lets the storm rage, and calms the child.”

Personally, “I couldn’t be happier. I think that’s the best revenge,” he said.

He said his 15,000-member diocese was healthy, but the news he seemed most eager to relay was that immediately after the luncheon he was leaving for the Sundance Film Festival, where a documentary film, featuring his story and those of four other gay families, has been nominated for a grand jury prize.

Titled “For the Bible Tells Me So,” it is about families split by their beliefs about homosexuality and Scripture. He said his own parents talked more openly to the filmmaker than they had to him after his own announcement at age 39 that he was gay and getting divorced.

Well, it’s happened again. This time it comes via the Sundance Film Festival. A new movie is released about the lives of a number of families who have had their children come out of the closet. The same tired, thirty-four year old arguments have yet again been trotted out by the left (E.g., Paul was only talking about homosexual prostitution) to try and make the Bible say God thinks homosexual sex is a wonderful idea and the same well worn rebuttal (Original design) issued by the right. The media is all over it with CNN devoting almost 20min to it.

Honestly, I wonder what’s next? “Gays can sneeze; details on channel four news at 11:00pm,” perhaps?

Frankly, it isn’t news and it hasn’t shifted anyone’s mind. It’s more of a tactic — a tactic to, yet again, pit two sides of evangelicals against each other. On the one side is the fundamentalist right ranting about how Gays are breaking the law of God. On the other is the liberal left trying to show how the law of God is actually not being broken. Strangely, neither side seems to see that they are both on the same side — and it’s the wrong one — and it’s making them both look like idiots.

Even more strangely, neither side has figured out that making them look like idiots was the whole point. As long as they are debating their respective standing as to the rules, they are essentially neutralized and the message of the Gospel is going nowhere.

A message that would clearly say:

God loves you regardless of what you have ever done or failed to do, He just loves you for no good reason and so do we.

He has set you free from the law — and that freedom is total — so that you would no longer have to run from relationship with Him based on your obvious inability to be good as measured by such.

He knows what it means to be fully human and fully alive and longs for you to move closer to such and thus closer to the fulfillment you were created for.

The gay life is so much less then what you can have — can we walk with you and love you towards all that God has for you?

But, of course, it’s just so much more fun to measure ourselves with the wrong measuring stick that the, “Healing of the nations,” can wait…

barna.org

The research found that there are two types of people being attracted to house churches. The older participants, largely drawn from the Boomer population, are devout Christians who are seeking a deeper and more intense experience with God and other believers. The other substantial segment is young adults who are interested in faith and spirituality but have little interest in the traditional forms of church. Their quest is largely one of escaping outdated structures and institutions.

The survey also indicated that there is likely to be more change in the house church environment in the years to come. The ideas of worshiping in homes rather than church buildings, and being led by group members rather than religious professionals, are new to most Americans. The survey suggested that many people are just beginning to think about, and get comfortable with, the idea of homes being the dominant place for shared faith experiences.

Interestingly enough, Rick Warren (Pretty much the epicenter of the problem) has even noticed — though his solutions are, as yet, pretty much the same drivel:

The truth is many people are very open to learning about God and spiritual issues, they just don’t feel welcome at church or feel that it has anything to offer them. That is our problem.

Barna isn’t telling most of us anything new really — he’s just got numbers to back him. Anyone who hasn’t figured out that the members of the evangelical church are rather rapidly draining out the door has been living under a rock.

There’s both an ironic difference and similarity between the two of them though: Barna has figured out that the traditional bricks and mortar church is already facing a tidal wave and it isn’t going to end. Warren still thinks that if he just hypes up the same-old-same-old a little, people will be back. Neither of them, however, has seemed to figure out what is causing it.

Truth is, it isn’t that the young people are really trying to escape institutions — they are basically agnostic towards the existence and validity of those structures. It isn’t that the adults are seeking something deeper — they are fleeing a place where depth is impossible because it is fundamentally opposed to the core message of the Gospel. Somewhere along the line, the unthinkable happened. These people sat down and reread for the very first time those little known books called Romans, Galatians and some other weird names — much, I suspect, to the horror of their church leaders.

They discovered the unmentionable: That the ethical rantings of the evangelical church have been delivered by pastors who had actually been taught the Gospel — but preferred to use legalism to control their flock. They discovered that those people Paul calls, “The Judizers,” or “Those who are of the circumcision,” were at the helm. They discovered that a Church that should have been leading people to maturity preferred to keep them in infancy — because it made a lot of money to build big buildings. They discovered it — and they wanted more. The sad part of this is that all of those churches could keep their members and gain thousands more — if they would just put aside their power, fear and control issues and listen (for a change) to what we have known for hundreds of years.

Father Hughes, in his work God of Surprises, comments on von Hugel’s critical analysis in his two volume work called The Mystical Element in Religion, saying:

Von Hugel takes the three main stages in human development – infancy, adolescence and adulthood – describing the predominant needs and activities which characterize each stage. He shows that religion must take account of and nurture the predominant needs and activities of each stage, and so concludes that religion must include three essential elements, an institutional element corresponding to the needs and activities of infancy, a critical element corresponding to adolescence, and a mystical element corresponding to adulthood. As he analyzes each stage of growth, he is careful to show that the needs and activities of infancy do not disappear in adolescence, nor do the needs and activities of adolescence disappear in adulthood, but they should cease to be predominant if we are to grow into the following stage.

The Institutional: People need structure to get a life of broken chaos under control.

The Critical: People need to be allowed to think for themselves and to do the necessary questioning of the idea that the rules are even relevant in a Gospel of Grace and Freedom.

The Mystical: People are walked into a deep and intimate relationship with Jesus and the entirety of their faith comes down to listening to the voice of God and following.

The key reality that none of these people get is that ethics based religion barely is even useful for those in the Institutional stage of their faith. It is clearly an insult to God Himself at any other stage and considerably offensive to a person in such. People are finally tired of being spoon fed the past Words of God — and a very edited set at that — and are longing to hear the current Word of God deep in their own hearts.

What’s happening? The church is finally waking up and seeking the face of God instead of religion — which, rather ironically, is what Jesus came to suggest in the first place. The operators of those multi-million dollar religious structures are going to have to do with Jesus what the Jews also had to do with Him 2000yrs ago if they want to keep the same control focused, ethics driven and Institutional religion based structures going.

But hey, probably no one will even notice — it’s not like that’s a change or anything… Galatians 3:1-9 (Well, except for the nearly 50% of Evangelical believers whom researchers suggest are already out the door…)

blessitt.com

To open today’s round up of Titans of the Faith, we have a genius who thinks that enough money to feed who knows how many hungry people would better serve the cause of Christ if it were spent launching space junk. (It’s getting way too easy to find this nonsense…)

News Flash, launch date set for Spring 2007! Glory

The cross will be over You personally! The Cross will be over every Nation on earth! Over Afghanistan! Saudi Arabia! Jerusalem! America! The cross in Space Satellite will be in a Polar orbit from pole to pole. As the earth turns it will pass over every inch of the earth like peeling an apple. The cross will circle the earth every one and a half hours. After launch we can tell you on our site when it will be over you and your nation. We have carried the cross in Every nation. Now we will, God willing have it flying above Every nation! We wave the cross in the face of Satan and proclaim that Jesus is Lord over All the Earth. All glory to God.

As if this psychotic attempt at space graffiti isn’t enough, we move onto another fellow brother in Christ who believes God has called the church to a new ministry of eating her own young — I mean sending government agencies to harass fellow churches:

ratoutachurch.org

Our immediate purpose is to fight back against vicious left-wing attempts to silence conservative, Bible believing pastors. Every election year, liberal groups have a field day intimidating and harassing conservative pastors into silence.

Er, could this be the Republican National Convention pot calling the Democratic National Convention kettle black??? Um, never mind… Of course, if you have a problem with this, they have, in the spirit of Matt 18, offered a convenient means to discuss it with them:

DON’T AGREE WITH US?

If you don’t like who we are or what we do please place a note in a sealed container and toss it into the Boston Harbor the next time you are there. At some time in the future we are sure it will drift up the Potomac River toward our office.

All things considered though, who really would want to hang around for this anyway…

ChristianExodus.org

Finally, we have the rats-leaving-a-sinking-ship genius of ChristianExodus.org who have decided that the best way they can be salt and light in a broken world is to simply run away.

ChristianExodus.org is moving thousands of Christians to South Carolina to reestablish constitutionally limited government founded upon Christian principles. It is evident that the U.S. Constitution has been abandoned under our current federal system, and the efforts of Christian activism to restore our Godly republic have proven futile over the past three decades. The time has come for Christian Constitutionalists to protect our liberties in a State like South Carolina by interposing the State’s sovereign authority retained under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Something tells me that the world they are fleeing is going to follow them there — because it is them…

After careful consideration, I’ve decided that it’s time to get ordained and start my own church: (From here on, refer to me as Reverend…) ;-}

themonastery.org

You are about to become an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church. For information regarding the legal aspects of this in your state or province, view the FAQ page on the site.

Before proceeding with your information, please make sure you have complied with the following instructions:

* Please only ordain others with their permission. (This includes public figures as well as cartoon and other fictional characters.”)
* Please only put your true and legal name. Nicknames will invalidate your ordination.
* Please use only factual information in this serious religious rite.
* Please double check your name and email address.
* Please capitalize where appropriate, as this is how our records will show from here on out.

Your privacy is carefully guarded. We maintain this information only for our own uses and for legal reasons.

Finally, the peace and tranquility of having a place to worship the God who actually is there instead of the one we’ve made up — supported by a denomination who’s statement of faith is at least both internally consistent and reasonably palatable.

The Universal Life Church has only two tenets (beliefs/doctrine):

To promote freedom of religion and
To do that which is right.

Sadly, I really wish I were totally kidding…

Friedrich Nietzsche commented that:

God made man in His own image, and man returned the favor.

In case you had any doubt, it wasn’t exactly a compliment to God…

Rick Warren’s latest thoughts/musings/curiosities seem to finally be focusing on why half of evangelical Christians won’t darken the door of a church any more — while still retaining their faith. Considering his own thinly veiled attempt at the insertion of ethics based legalism into the church and the total insanity that seems to define the church in general, it’s highly curious to me that he still seems legitimately puzzled by the phenomenon…

I just have one simple question though: Exactly what are these charlatans going to have to do? How low will they have to sink before millions of real Christians world wide rise up in rage and drown them in hundreds of thousands of emails, phone calls, faxes, blog postings and personal appearances — all demanding that they shut down and do it now?

As long as we stand by silently, we condone them — and are painted with the same brush.

JunkScience.com

The guesses of significantly larger warming are dependent on “feedback” (supplementary) mechanisms programmed into climate models. The existence of these “feedback” mechanisms is uncertain and the cumulative sign of which is unknown (they may add to warming from increased atmospheric carbon dioxide or, equally likely, might suppress it).

The total warming since measurements have been attempted is thought to be about 0.6 degrees Centigrade. At least half of the estimated temperature increment occurred before 1950, prior to significant change in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. Assuming the unlikely case that all the natural drivers of planetary temperature change ceased to operate at the time of measured atmospheric change then a 30% increment in atmospheric carbon dioxide caused about one-third of one degree temperature increment since and thus provides empirical support for less than one degree increment due to a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

There is no linear relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide change and global mean temperature or global mean temperature trend — global mean temperature has both risen and fallen during the period atmospheric carbon dioxide has been rising.

Ok, I just finally sat down and watched it. Strangely, I also feel sick — though not for the standard reasons. It’s a sick feeling that comes from realizing we are dealing with the death of rational thought and the ability to understand information by the scientists of North America (in favor of pure hype and federal science grant chasing.) Al Gore can divorce his own voice and receive it back as thunder a thousand times by referring to, “Scientists,” but the facts simply do not always march in unison with his shrill rhetoric.

I wish I could have just ignored it (like I also do with everything Michael Moore presents…) However, after dealing with a number of clients (And their raw anxiety) who have watched Al Gore’s pathetic little piece of propaganda, I figured it was time to watch it. It’s now clear it’s also time to post some real science from real scientists who can actually do math and who manage to comprehend some basic concepts of statistical analysis (Like: correlation does not prove causation for example…).

BTW: No one is questioning that global warming is happening. What is in question is the degree of such (Remember, most readings from any more then 45yrs ago came from fishermen with buckets/thermometers), whether we have much of anything to do with it and whether it’s effects will actually be any sort of disaster. Geological reality states that for Greenland to do what Gore is predicting we would have to experience a seismic event capable of destroying at least one entire mountain range — so disastrous we’d mostly be dead anyway. (Also, remember, Greenland used to host vineyards in the time of the Vikings and the rest of the world somehow managed to keep on functioning.) Somehow global cooling managed to happen without our help — perhaps we have had as much of an impact on the opposite effect…

The Acton Institute also has a brilliant philosophical commentary on the subject.

Update: Someone also sent me thisand this. They are a much more comprehensive (And less mathematical) debunking of Gore’s static.

www.lewrockwell.com

At the beginning of the scientific era, men had the hope that the ability to discover truth would free mankind from superstition, dogma, and the service of power. The belief in truth was powerful. Truth would deliver justice and bring an end to status-based privileges and the falsehoods propagated by privilege. The faith in truth was short-lived. Today propaganda is everywhere in the ascendancy.

All I can add is that it’s about time someone stood up and said it.

Charleston Daily Mail

Why doesn’t the manger scene have a baby Jesus?

“We try to explain that by law we can’t do that. We have been advised by (city) council not to get into that,” said David Cunningham, superintendent of St. Albans City Park.

Instead, there is a scene that looks remarkably like depictions of the night Jesus Christ was born. There’s a star, a couple of sheep, some camels and a structure that could be taken for the barn where Mary and Joseph had their baby.

“You could call it a manger,” he said. “We call it a place for the animals. It looks like two things coming up on the sides with a roof-like structure. What it looks like depends on your imagination.

A rather brilliant observation posted via Fark.com seems to sum it up better then I ever could:

2006-11-30 04:45:09 PM IdBeCrazyIf

Number40: And to remove Christ from the mix? You gotta be kidding me!

Well… to be fair. It’s not like Christians were using Christ for anything important anyway.

Lord knows they certainly don’t actually listen to what he says.

Isn’t it interesting that a secular society can more clearly see the teachings of Jesus then the church can? Jesus came, he basically took on a religious system that controlled people’s lives (While robbing them blind) and called people to love each other while, moment by moment, listening to and following the voice of God. His disciples demanded to be put at the helm of a new system — and Jesus refused to even name the president or define it’s structure.

He was barely gone before we had a new religious system — run by a dude we call the pope, an organization we call the synod or whatever — and a new set of rules to back an organization that, once again, is usually about money. Worst of all, it’s not about love, grace or freedom.

“It’s not like Christians were using Christ for anything important anyway. Lord knows they certainly don’t actually listen to what he says.”

Yep — Guilty as charged.

BTW: The town officials are using the law to hide their real addenda. The Supreme Court long ago ruled that creches, complete with baby Jesus, do not violate the constitution, so long as they are part of an otherwise secular holiday display. The ruling basically said that Christmas is a secular shopping holiday and that cities have an interest in promoting secular shopping holidays via holiday displays.

BBC NEWS

Sir Elton John has said he would like to see all organised religion banned and accused it of trying to “turn hatred towards gay people”.

Ok, first of all, he’s talking about Christianity, Judaism and Islam. (The rest of the religions mostly don’t care…) As Judaism has a firm policy of not proselytizing and Islam has a much bigger spread of antagonisms then just homosexuality, he’s basically talking about Christianity.

It’s always fascinating to me how those who would ban Christianity for intolerance fail to notice that it is, in fact, from within Christianity that the idea of tolerance was itself conceived.

It’s even more entertaining how, in the absence of that foundation, that their version of tolerance is actually so intolerant it would attempt to ban the freedom of religious practice of the largest belief systems/world views in the world for the sake of the rights of one of the smallest minority groups in the world to perform a particular sexual behavior without someone disagreeing with it. (Note: not controlling or arresting it — just disagreeing…)

However, what is most stunning about their logic is that they would see the stripping of religious freedom from billions as at least a lesser evil if not a blessing to humanity. Here we reach the tyrannical summit of postmodern egocentricity: Because you disagree with what I am doing, I must crush you so the world can finally be free.

Stuff.co.nz

Hell Pizza has outraged family groups and morals campaigners by delivering innuendo-laden condom packets to letterboxes.

The controversial fast-food chain is promoting its meat-lovers’ pizza – named “Lust” – with a mail drop of 170,000 branded condoms.

But it has provoked criticism from groups who say it is indecent to link pizza with sex and inappropriate to distribute condoms where young children might find them.

The packet includes explicit instructions for condom usage.

I wonder when the fundamentalist Christian right is finally going to figure out marketing firms regard their pathetic moral outrage as the best source of free advertising to ever be invented?

I mean, [GASP] what if a child discovered a contraceptive and [SHUDDER] his or her parent had to actually sit down and talk with him or her about [SOB] sex???

11Alive.com

“These groups offer promises they can’t deliver, and deliver disasters they didn’t promise,” said Wayne Besen of Truthwinsout.org. “The destroy families in the name of family values.”

Hattie Ellis’ 25-year-old son is gay. She has a message for the hundreds of parents who signed their children up for the church group’s conference.

“Don’t do it,” she said. “If you try to change your child, you will lose your child. You will break their spirit and you may never get them back.”

Well, Focus on the Family is barely out of the gate with their latest Love Won Out conference (a conference seeking to connect GBLT individuals who deeply long to change their sexual orientation with resources to do so) and, predictably enough, the fur is already flying.

Forget about the reality that one of the key individuals involved in getting Homosexuality removed from the DSM as a disorder (Dr. Spitzer) has published evidence that homosexual individuals can change their sexual orientation to heterosexual and are remarkably better off emotionally for having done such, the strident cries against this supposed bigotry, homophobia and, most importantly, the imposition of beliefs on innocent victims still ring out.

It’s all strangely myopic from where I sit: Christians trying to turn gay people straight is no worse than secular humanists trying to make male children act like female children (because, well, all boys are just nicer on Ritalin…) Everybody has an idea of how to, “Improve,” their fellow man. The difference here is that Christians have to get people to volunteer for the effort, while secular humanism generally uses the public school system to force their more politically correct viewpoint of acceptable behavior on their victims.

Apparently though, they still need to rally against those who would simply invite those volunteers? Seems like a little too much in the way of smoke and fury here for this to really be about freedom…

Slate Magazine

University of California professors Gordon Dahl and Stefano DellaVigna compared what happens on those weekends. The bottom line: More violence on the screen means less violence in the streets. Probably that’s because violent criminals prefer violent movies, and as long as they’re at the movies, they’re not out causing mischief. They’d rather see Hannibal than rob you, but they’d rather rob you than sit through Wallace & Gromit.

A brief but interesting rebuttal of the idea that what people watch makes any difference in the crimes that they commit. Apparently what we have always known is still true: Contrary to the screeches of the fundamentalist right, art still imitates life — and not the other way around.

Family.org:

“The timing of the initiation of hormone therapy is important in significantly reducing the risk of the coronary heart disease (diseases of the arteries in the heart), and there are significant protective benefits if a woman begins hormone therapy near the time of menopause (average age is 51 years). This study, ‘Hormone Therapy and Coronary Heath Disease: The Role of Time since Menopause and Age at Hormone Initiation,’ was published in the Journal of Women’s Health in January, 2006.

Similar to the above findings, women between the ages of 50 to 59 who take estrogen have a lower risk of developing heart disease. Another key conclusion to this study is that women starting estrogen at greater than age 60 will not have a heart protective benefit from hormone therapy, and, in fact, my have an increased risk for heart disease. This study, ‘Conjugated Equine Estrogens and Coronary Heart Disease,’ was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in February, 2006.

If a woman starts taking estrogen around the time menopause begins, and continues to do so for three to ten years, her risk of Alzheimer’s disease is significantly reduced. This study, ‘Hormone Replacement Therapy and Incidence of Alzheimer Disease in Older Woman: The Cache County Study,’ was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in November, 2002.

Women who take estrogen alone (without progesterone) have a reduced risk of invasive breast cancer. Menopausal women who are on hormone therapy and who have not undergone a hysterectomy (that is, their uterus is still intact) usually take progesterone along with estrogen, because progesterone reduces the risk of cancer of the endometrium (the lining of the uterus). Menopausal women who no longer have a uterus take only estrogen. While numerous studies have suggested that estrogen alone carries an increased risk of breast cancer, the arm of the WHI study among women who took estrogen alone found that estrogen did not increase the risk of breast cancer, although there was an increase in the frequency of mammography screening. “

This is intersting because we often only hear the negative.

Ask Theophilus: Truth, Love, and Other Details :

“he important question is not whether he ardently believes something, but what it is that he ardently believes; the Christian faith doesn’t believe in those things! As the early Christian writer Lactantius wrote in his Institutes, ‘Religion is to be defended not by putting to death but by dying, not by cruelty but by patient endurance, not by guilt but by good faith: for the former belong to evils, but the latter to goods, and it is necessary for that which is good to have place in religion and not that which is evil. If you wish to defend religion by bloodshed, and by tortures, and by guilt, it will no longer be defended but will be polluted and profaned.’ The upshot is that cruelty isn’t caused by believing things; it’s caused by believing cruel things. “

This is an inspired article regarding compassion towards those of different beliefs. It encompasses Pascal’s wager. Living as though there were no god will keep you form discovering Him and your humanity. When I prayed abut judging values God seemed to say no. It is important to surrender our beliefs to God and allowing His way in us. Another’s beliefs are God’s business not ours.

The daily record :

One eyewitness said: “He told churchgoers he’d had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus.

“He took his congregation to the beach saying he would walk across the Komo estuary, which takes 20 minutes by boat.

“He walked into the water, which soon passed over his head and he never came back.”

The church seems to have divided itself up into two categories:

1. Those who pretty much ignore the voice of God except as it is written in Scripture.
2. Those who seem to think that they can hear whatever from God, do not need to proof check it against Scripture, the voice of their own God implanted deep longings or the voice of community.
   

NewswireToday

Strange religious groups (or cults) are in vogue in today’s Hollywood. But when it comes to bizarre rituals and crackpot beliefs, even Scientology can’t hold a candle to the Church of the SubGenius, a new religious movement set to take Hollywood by storm.

The Church of the SubGenius is a popular organization often seen as a “parody” of religious cults, including Scientology, the Raelians, the Unification Church, and racist hate groups such as Christian Identity. The organization is widely seen as a satire that mocks organized religion, or as the church describes itself, “a cynisacreligion.”

Hummm… Did we have it coming???

Wired News:

I don’t write much about religion, although in college I minored in the history of Christianity. But I do know that most Americans have sex, most Americans believe in God or a higher power, and most Americans identify with some sort of religion. Of those, the majority are Christian.

It stands to reason that some Christians already know all about adult products while others secretly long to know more but don’t know who to ask.

Those are the customers that Book22 seeks to attract. Book22, named for the twenty-second book in the Bible, “Song of Solomon,” is a new adult novelty store positioning itself as a Christian source of intimacy products for married couples.

Book22 might be the catalyst for more conservative types to stop viewing sexual accoutrements with so much suspicion and fear. Through the “permission” of Christian sex toys, they might realize that what they formerly thought of as deviant or alternate is actually as normal as using utensils to eat pizza. Not necessary to enjoying the task at hand, but a legitimate option nonetheless.

Might that more relaxed attitude filter out to other aspects of their lives?

For the truly shy who can not go anywhere near a marital aid store, this may just do the trick. Sadly though, I highly doubt that this will manage to avoid being viciously slandered by some brand of self-righteous fundamentalist.

My main reason for posting it though is as a result of so many couples finding themselves unable to locate a product I have repeatedly recommended. This store is one of the few online stores that take the time to stock one of the most well researched/designed lubricants — what I consider the best lubricant on the market: Frixion.

BTW: In NO way can I endorse their reading list though… It contains some of the most deluded christian misinformation about sex ever written. (Small case, “C,” intentional.)

Transterrestrial Musings

“Now Sunera, let’s try this again. All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore…?”

Sunera frowns, and sweat appears on her forehead. Hesitantly, she ventures, “Therefore…Socrates is the basis of male-centered western patriarchal violence that continues to brutalize women and grind them under its bootheels…?”

“No, Sunera,” the therapist explains patiently. “We’re practicing logic here. Lo-gic. Remember what I told you about logic?”

I close the door quietly. It will indeed be a long and hard road.

As I leave, I see a general at the entrance with a doctor, staring at the row of beds.

“Where do they find people like this?,” he asks in amazement.

The doctor answers, quietly, “As long as there are schools of journalism, we will never run out…”

One of the most striking effects the advent of personal publishing platforms/blogging and other less then million-dollar mass market publishing strategies has created is the inability of mass media to any longer expect that they represent the only voice. No one has summed it up any better then this author.

The rest of the articles on this site are brilliant as well.

CBS News

For the first time since members of Westboro began protesting at military funerals, someone is using the courts to stop them. A distraught father has filed suit in Maryland against what he views as a gross violation of privacy and intentional emotional abuse.

And further down in the article:

At Arlington, Pastor David Foote of Franklin, Penn., saw the protest and attempted to engage the demonstrators. He told them that “God loves everyone,” prompting church members to descend upon him in a hail of insults.

“A lying, false prophet — that’s what this is,” Phelps-Roper told CBSNews.com, and dismissed him as a “dumb-ass” and a liar.

Though he will never win, all I can say is that it is about time someone at least tried to tie them up in court.

The ACLU has backed Phelps — correctly — arguing that this is an attempt to take away the right to protest. The law must fall on the side of this church (If I dare even call it that…)

However, I also hope that every single family thus treated sues them in civil court and eventually forces them into bankruptcy through legal bills. Freedom of speech laws were designed to control governments — not the actions of private individuals. A similar strategy was used against the KKK. They were and still are free to spread their crazed philosophy — but they were also free to be held liable in civil court for the deaths of the black people they incited.

It’s a bit more of a trick here but Phelps could easily be granted the freedom to speak that he wants — and then held liable for the direct psychological harm it caused. (In a general sense, His freedom to speak and cause harm in the public square is generally protected because those who wish not to hear him can walk away without suffering any further harm.) In this case, his freedom to speak is also protected but the people spoken to could not walk away — thus the harm was direct and intensified. Unlike with the KKK, it’s still probably not provable harm (unless they can prove slander — which is very possible) but it’s credible enough to create serial (And very expensive) court cases. Perhaps legal pressure will force him to come upon a new interpretation of Jesus’ words…

If these people ever actually read their Bibles, they would discover that while Jesus attacked legalistic religious institutions (Um, er, sorta like… THEM???) and leaders with a vengeance, He never once condemned sin in an individual. (The closest he ever came is with the woman caught in adultery — where He told her that He did not condemn her.)

Calling a fellow paster a “A lying, false prophet,” and a, “Dumb-ass.” Can’t you just feel the non-condemning love of Christ here???

Update:
Possibly one of the funniest videos I have ever watched. (Not Safe for Dial-up)

Agape Press

Williamson says the “crazy” goings-on at the General Assembly did not end there. “Someone had made a resolution to declare suicide bombing a crime against humanity,” he notes.

“Now, you’d think that would be approved rather quickly, wouldn’t you? I mean, suicide bombing is not exactly a godly act,” the Lay Committee spokesman says. But against all expectation, he observes, the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, one of the denomination’s official agencies — along with its Advocacy Committee on Racial Ethnic Concerns — lobbied against approval of the resolution.

Committee members “came in and recommended that that thing not be passed because it might offend the Muslims,” Williamson says.

At the same convention, PC(USA) commissioners voted to allow the denomination’s churches to use the phrase, “compassionate mother, beloved child, and life-giving womb” (Yes, all lower case…) instead of “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” when referring to the Trinity (One delegate greeted this news by suggesting that, “Huey, Dewey, and Louie,” would also do…) and approved the ordination of practicing Homosexuals.

At some level, this is totally irrelevant — it’s not like your average member of Hamas really cares what the Presbyterians have to say for themselves. On the other hand, it’s a great example of what happens when a denomination looses their focus on grace (And by default on what it means to be fully human and fully alive) and instead focuses their attention upon tolerance.

Legitimate grace has its foundation in our anthropology. In other words, Grace was offered to us by God because His righteous judgment was separating us from Him. That judgment was keeping us in fear, preventing us from really living and drowning us with shame — the status quo was unacceptable to God so He took radical action so we could be free to be what we were created to be.

Tolerance isn’t concerned with anthropology — it’s obsessed with feelings. The highest good is not a full life — it’s keeping the feelings of others from being hurt (Even if they are destroying everything else about their own or other’s lives.) Tolerance is at war with the good on grounds of momentary happiness.

We were released from Judgment such that nothing we could ever do would separate us from our intimate relationship with God. But, just because we were released from judgment, the absence of judgment does not automatically assert the wisdom of a given set of behaviors. Actually, the absence of judgment throws the insanity of many behaviors into sharp contrast because it removes the reason for such — numbing the pain of rejection.

Love never judges others — but it can tell them the truth about how their choices are making them less human and more dead. Love sometimes has to tell people that God loves them regardless of anything they have ever done or failed to do — with tears running down His face as He sees them wreaking their lives and abandoning what they were created to enjoy. C.S. Lewis said it well when he commented:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

The Weight of Glory (1949)

Salon

Her name is Christina Silvas, a 24-year-old single mother of a 5-year-old in Rancho Cordova, Calif. And as is often the case with vessels of divine intervention, these last few days have not been easy for her. Less than a month before the end of school, Silvas was told by her pastor — Rick Cole of the Capital Christian Center — that her daughter could no longer attend the church kindergarten and that she and her daughter were no longer welcome at the Assembly of God church where they have been loyal parishioners. The problem? Silvas’ job as a dancer at Gold Club Centerfolds.

“If you choose to do the wrong thing willfully, then God’s word instructs me as to what my responsibility is,” Cole told the Sacramento Bee newspaper. “I need to be faithful to my calling.”

Stories like this make my blood boil. The heart of a man who could judge a single mother trying to pay for Christian School for her daughter, throw her out of the only place where her heart could change, offer no other solutions and then toss her little girl out of kindergarten (cutting her off from her little friends) over her mother’s violation of his code of ethics is a heart that is so far from the heart of Jesus I wonder if he ever met the Guy. It’s like throwing someone out of Chemotherapy because they speed on the way to the hospital to get their next treatment — and we don’t want our hospital to be associated with speeders.

But hey — we gotta keep up our image after all… We wouldn’t want any real sinners to mess up our velvet pews now would we? After all, don’t we wanna have our Church be holy — just like Jesus???

Matt. 11:19 “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

Think about it — under every nasty rumor lies a kernel of truth. I’m thinking there is a distinct possibility that Jesus went to a LOT of really wild parties with some pretty rough people — and fit in rather nicely. They needed love — and he went in to love them. Oh ya, and he probably tossed back a few too…

He didn’t ask whether they would be getting drunk, whether there would be peelers present, whether the town hookers would be recruiting, whether gluttony would be practiced or whether he could say a flowery prayer before dinner. He came, partied and wrapped his arms of love around them equally — no strings attached.

The religious leaders were convinced: somehow Jesus just didn’t get it. After all, we have to avoid even the appearance of evil. 2000 years later, we’re just as sure they were right as we fix Jesus’ methods and toss the sinners out of our pews. He’s pretty clear on his assessment of His methods too when he states, “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Translation: Entering people’s worlds and just loving them works.

And you know, Paul clearly records that people’s hearts changed. (Cor 6:11) Their hearts changed because of love — not a good stiff threat of excommunication…

Oh yes, and the Rev. Cole? I’d suggest that if he doesn’t haul his sorry excuse for a ministry down to JC’s Girls and learn how to really love the broken, then his parishioners should make sure he is run out of that church on a rail — tared and feathered.

It’s the only way they will ever get Christina (Read Jesus Himself) back into that church. (Matt. 25:35)

Medical News Today

The word soon got around of a nursing mother with a similar problem at another Victoria’s Secret store in Massachusetts.

Nursing mothers began to protest. 15 mothers breast-fed their babies outside a store in Westlake, Cleveland, Ohio. Breast-feeding in public places has been legal in Ohio since last year.

The mothers’ message is a simple one – breast-feeding is not dirty, it is not something that has to be done in a toilet.

The company said posters will be placed in all stores reminding employees of a nursing mother’s right to breast-feed her child at the store.

It is ironic that a company that promotes many of its products using posters of scantily-clad women with large breasts should squirm at the thought of the breast’s natural function – feeding a child.

I find it rather interesting how the thought process of North America is so bound up within its own Puritan roots that it is unable to see itself.

There are two protests really being waged here: (Both of these protests are founded upon idiocy — to say the least. )

The first is a protest by a group of activist mothers who demand the right to breast feed their children anywhere — in spite of the fact that there’s probably a sign at the front of that store that says the adults can’t have food or drink in that store either… (Yes Sherlock, newly fed infants do vomit…)

It is some sort of crusade for the rights of a woman, mothers and the appropriateness of breasts. The claim seems to be that a woman who is not permitted to feed her child in a particular location is being discriminated against for being a mother and a woman when it is really no different then the women herself being told to leave her soft-drink outside the store to protect the merchandise.

The second is over the exposure of breasts (Which the authors obviously regard as sexual/taboo) and a demand that a place where they are regularly, “Featured,” as sexual accept the exposure of those breasts under other, feared similar, terms if that store is to be consistent. The logic is then that we should accept one taboo behavior because we tolerate another taboo one.

Why are breasts sexual/taboo exactly? Well, we as a society decided to cover them up — though nearly all of the rest of the non-Islamo-fascist world is already topless or at least gets topless at the beach. (Many get totally naked with no real harm done to the society…) In other words, we created a sexual fetish by hiding something that isn’t sexual in the first place. It almost goes without saying that often the least sexual attention gets paid to genitalia proper anyway — and those other parts are usually freely exposed in our society anyway. Complete nudity on clothing optional beaches is usually also completely de-sexualized for all present in only a few minutes.

In reality, this entire story is about control. One side is defending what they see as their divine right to do whatever they want with their children wherever they want to do it — really it’s more about baby vomit on lingerie (though in our civil rights based fervor few will ever be capable of grasping that.) The other is trying to control the public display of those nasty breasts — those twin evil paragons of sexuality that will defile all viewers — out of their strange fetishistic North American world view that has decided which parts of the body are more sexual then others.

It would all be harmlessly stupid except that it’s this sort of insanity that is keeping people locked up in belief systems that teach them that their physical bodies and their sexualities (as well as their status as mothers) are shameful. Both sides do equal damage — ironically one side does it in the name of fixing that same damage. One side teaches women that their rights and status as women depend on where they can feed their children while the other simply teaches them that their bodies are sexual and, therefore, bad. Is this supposed to make us holy???

In some strange way, there’s something refreshing about clothing optional countries like Jamaica — at least people there can just live instead of continually struggling under the shame generated by both those who would repress as well as the misguided efforts of those who would rescue from that repression. At least there you can just forget about the whole absurd game…

Col. 2:20-23 ¶ If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using) — in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

“New American Standard Bible®, by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission.”

Blogcritics.org

On Easter Sunday 2005, ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition aired an especially poignant episode. Five children, ages 14-21, from the Higgins family were orphaned. A couple from their church, with three children of their own, took them in. The result was 10 people living in cramped quarters….

The ending segment is designed to be as heart-tugging as the first. The rebuilt home is always astonishingly beautiful and completely furnished. In the Easter Sunday special, the rebuilt home had nine bedrooms, including one for each child. The show also paid off the mortgage.

The Higgins’ happy ending did not last. The family that took them in asked them to leave the beautiful nine-bedroom home because it did not belong to the Higgins.

I wonder why the Government had to take over charity and make it into welfare — seeing as we’re doing such a great job and all… Wouldn’t Jesus be proud???

News from Agape Press

Cohen’s methods have raised some questions, however; and he has lately taken sharp criticism over a May 23 appearance on Cable News Network (CNN), in which he demonstrated a technique that involves cuddling a male client in his lap. Another of the unusual therapy techniques depicted involved a client hitting a pillow with a tennis racket while shouting the name of a parent or other individual who elicits painful childhood memories.

Cohen, who refers to himself as a reorientation therapist, explained the “holding therapy” exercise as a means of using “healthy touch” on clients, who very often were “touch deprived” as children. He says this technique is one of the most effective ways to help men and women leave homosexuality.

“They’re hungering for that intimacy and that bonding that they didn’t experience in primary relationships with parents and/or same-gender peers,” the psychotherapist asserts. “So what we have to provide then, in the Christian community, is really mentoring these men and women,” he says, “and a lot of them need healthy touch — hugging, holding, just palling around, buddying around.”

You know, some ideas are so colossally dumb nothing more needs to be said except to mention that this is not reparative therapy in any sense of the term and this is NOT PRACTICED HERE!!!!!

DesMoinesRegister.com

A Des Moines pastor shot a mentally disabled boy with a BB gun after he ignored the pastor’s warning not to knock on his door, police said Tuesday.

No more sissy pastors for Idaho — oh no — mess with this Full Gospel pastor and your hide gets ventilated. Onward Christian soldiers — oh, wait…

Truth is so much more fun then fiction…

CANOE — CNEWS – Canada

Club Eden, which opened just last weekend, is a so-called “on-premises” club, which means private and shared rooms are available for members. Other clubs typically meet in hotel rooms or private homes.

The Supreme Court decision allowed Club Eden and others like it to stop being so discreet about what’s been going on behind their closed doors – and to try to open people’s minds at the same time, Fox said.

“There’s a lot of perceptions about (the swinging community). One of the things we’re trying hard to do is to eliminate the negative perspective that does surround it and really bring forward the positive.”

Well, we all knew it was exploding — now someone finally confirms it. What is really striking to me is that one of the key motivations — latent same sex attractions — is largely being ignored in favor of simplistic assessments of repressive society keeping people in the closet. (Exactly the same logic used in the late 70’s and early 80’s with homosexuality/lesbianism proper.)

Los Angeles Times

The below image says it all…

(With thanks to George Orwell — 1984.)

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both. -Benjamin Franklin

Pew Research Center: Are We Happy Yet?

One way to find out is by way of a statistical technique known as multiple regression analysis, which gauges the relationship between each factor and happiness while controlling for all the other factors. That analysis shows that the most robust correlations of all those described in this report are health, income, church attendance, being married and, yes, being a Republican. Indeed, being a Republican is associated not only with happiness, it is also associated with every other trait in this cluster. Even so, the factor that makes the most difference in predicting happiness is neither being a Republican nor being wealthy – it’s being in good health.

Fact or Republican party propaganda? You decide…

Yahoo! News

CHICAGO – Some members of a Lutheran parish on Chicago’s far South Side said they are outraged police arrested the Rev. Jimmy McCants in the middle of his sermon.

Every time, in those dark moments when you think the Body of Christ just can’t sink any lower and you can finally relax, someone pulls out all the stops and manages, yet again, to stun us with their raw stupidity, blatent arrogance and total disregard for the public face of Christ and His church in this world…

Hot sex treats common cold.

Just too much fun not to post it…

The Psychology Behind Homosexual Tendencies (Parts 1-2)

Many priests grow in holiness and happiness in their ministry as a result of the healing of their childhood and adolescent male insecurity, loneliness and anger and, subsequently, their same-sex attractions.

So says Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist, author and contributor to the Catholic Medical Association’s document “Homosexuality and Hope.”

Fitzgibbons shared with ZENIT how some seminarians, candidates for the seminary, and priests can make strides in resolving their homosexual tendencies, and what bishops and religious superiors can do to help them.