The No. 1 Reason Teens Keeps the Faith as Young Adults — Makes sense.  If your parents went to church but obviously didn’t care about God the rest of the week, that would send a very clear message to kids that Christianity is just some social club and not an all-encompassing way of life.

The holy grail for helping youth remain religiously active as young adults has been at home all along: parents.

Mothers and fathers who practice what they preach and preach what they practice are far and away the major influence related to adolescents keeping the faith into their 20s, according to new findings from a landmark study of youth and religion.

I am not making this up: Lena Dunham Threatens To Sue Truth Revolt For Quoting Her — Uh, if you write a book claiming to have molested your sister then don’t be surprised when people quote you on it.  We are in some sort of bizarre state when even the Leftists can’t realize how messed up that girl is.  And of course, she is a Planned Parenthood spokeswoman.

British MPs Vote 181-1 to Declare Sex-Selection Abortions Illegal — That’s great news!  Now if only the U.S. and others would follow suit.  And more importantly, if every one would realize that all abortions (except the very limited number that save the life of the mother) should be illegal.  After all, if killing a human being for not being the preferred gender is wrong, why is it acceptable to kill her for having Down Syndrome, or because she is getting in the way of a love life/career/education, or if she is just plain unwanted?

Wine, Blind Taste Tests, and Your Money — I don’t drink wine, but this is still fascinating.   Good lessons here on expert opinions and pricing.

You’re standing at the grocery store looking at a large selection of wines. You know you want a red wine to go well with your pasta meal this evening. One is $5.99 per bottle. Another is $19.99 per bottle and has a little tag bragging about the score it received in some wine magazine. Which one is likely to bring you more enjoyment?

Believe it or not, the difference between the wines amounts to a complete coin flip. Professional wine judges, when faced with duplicate blind taste tests, fail to accurately repeat their grading of wines. From this study, with my own emphasis added:

“Wine judge performance at a major wine competition has been analyzed from 2005 to 2008 using replicate samples. Each panel of four expert judges received a flight of 30 wines imbedded with triplicate samples poured from the same bottle. Between 65 and 70 judges were tested each year. About 10 percent of the judges were able to replicate their score within a single medal group. Another 10 percent, on occasion, scored the same wine Bronze to Gold. Judges tend to be more consistent in what they don’t like than what they do. An analysis of variance covering every panel over the study period indicates only about half of the panels presented awards based solely on wine quality.“

These results – 10% of the tasters repeating their grading – are within the realm of ordinary luck.

In fact, there has really only been one thing that clearly “moves the needle” when it comes to wine tasting results: the price on the wine bottle.

UK feminists urge parliament to pass bill banning gendercide abortions

14 Ways I Teach Apologetics to My 5-Year-Old — Outstanding tips and attitude.  Highly recommended to any current or future parents!  Hat tip: Wintry Knight (who else?)

Russia against the Sex Pervert Nation — It is sad how our country is exporting oxymoronic “same-sex marriage” and the normalization of perversions.

La Raza Makes Use of WaPo’s Guide to ID-Free Voting — A racist organization (the name literally means “the race” encourages people to vote even though they don’t have identification.  Hmmmm . . . wouldn’t include any illegal aliens, would it?  Save the link for the next foolish and/or malicious Leftist claims voter ID laws are oppressive.

Jonathan Coulton did, indeed, get threatened by the Democratic party of New York state — Very subtle, Leftists.  The good news about their veiled threats against voters: Human nature is such that it may drive people to vote, but for the other party.

Is Your Church Safe? — “Safe” churches are the most dangerous places on the planet. Your guard is down because you think you’ll be told the truth about God, but Satan is there filling you with lies.

I had to follow up with her again to find out what they meant by “safe.”

From what she told me, the idea behind a safe church is one that anyone can come to and be comfortable with the messages being preached. In other words, the messages are affirming everyone in who they are without regard to their… well, eternal state.

US ambassador to Iraq: WH was warned early on about ISIS, “did almost nothing” — They were more concerned about politics and went with their “hate America first” default position.

Coca-Cola’s Anti-Religious Positions — I’m sure Pepsi is Leftist as well, but this is one more reason not to consume anything by Coke.

Clinton, Crapitalism, and the Fear Machine — Read it all.  Great take down of Hillary, plus this take on “Crapitalism.”

My friend Jason Mattera dubs this system “Crapitalism” in his latest book.  The forms of capitalism are observed, and indeed the Ruling Class is very eager to appropriate its language – for example, by referring to Big Government tax-and-spend programs as “investment.”  But beneath this free-market veneer is a squalid normalization of corruption, in which politicians confer billions from the Treasury upon those who donate millions to their campaigns.  It’s not always a straight cash payoff (although if you haven’t read Jason’s book yet, you might be surprised to learn how often it is.)  Often what crapitalists purchase from Big Government vendors is the incredibly valuable service of anti-competition – laws, and more often mere rules promulgated by the endless bureaucracy, that burden competitors and keep established, well-connected interests on top.  A great deal of behavior that would have been dismissed as the most vile corruption a few generations ago is now standard operating procedure.

Did Pervert @LenaDunham Make Her Younger Sister Grace a Lesbian? — Remember that the Left worships people like Dunham.  Look what her parents did and what it produced!

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What is racist is telling people they are too stupid to get an ID.  Hat tip: Glenn

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Good news! More people leaving the plantation!  I’m encouraged to see more of these coming out.

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My only objection is that they use the word liberal instead of leftist.  I try to correct myself when ever I use the former, as it is too generous.

Get This Prayer App — Seriously, prayer apps are extremely useful.  I don’t use that one, but it sounds really good.  I use one called Prayer Notebook.

The River Of God — Great analysis and message from a father to his children — and anyone else who will listen.

New York Times Editorial Calls for Moving Toward Normalization of Pedophilia — Of course!  Right on schedule.  In a few years they will be demanding that you approve of pedophiles the same way the insist that you approve of the rest of the LGBTQX alphabet soup of rebellion against God.

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I enjoyed being able to do early voting here in Texas.  The only minor surprise was that the Democrats’ nominee for governor was listed as Wendy “Abortion Barbie” Davis.  Just kidding!  Probably!  It was fun to vote for Abbott.

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5 Ways To Lose the Battle Against Sin — great reminders!

Transanity of the week: Dan Ennis Changes Sex Three Times, Gets Canned by ABC News — The first change was cheered, of course.  They were so proud of him!  But after three times it apparently got old.  Maybe they figured out what normal people knew all along: This is one confused husband and father of three.

Cosmologist Luke Barnes answers 11 objections to the fine-tuning argument

Decrypting Bitcoin — If you’ve wondered what Bitcoin is, this is a good overview.  No plans to invest in it, though!

9 Things You Should Know About Down Syndrome — Key thing: 2/3 of people with Down Syndrome are murdered because of it.  That should not be.

The Logical Consequence of Treating Your Base Like Garbage — Yep.  I’d never donate to the national Republicans.  They support too many RINOs and demonize conservatives.

Dutch euthanasia law a huge success — Of course they mean it is successful in terms of killing lots of people, just as designed.  This is creepy, evil and entirely predictable.

The good news is that the Netherlands is still capable of creating something other than Muslim extremists. The bad news is that what they are producing is the state sanctioned killing of the sick and elderly by medical professionals.

Pregnant Abortionist Feels Her Baby Kick As She Tears Off Leg in an Abortion — That’s what they do.

An Acts 8 Outlook — Great points, as always, by Stan.

So remember Acts 8. Stephen did the right thing and died for it. Doing the right thing spawned persecution. Persecution scattered the Christians. As a result of persecution, then, they “went everywhere preaching the word”, and “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.” That’s a good thing. That is, confidence in a Sovereign God to take the evil intentions of rebels around you to use their evils for your good and His glory is a good thing. A really good thing.

Moses was ‘Barbaric, Schizophrenic,’ Says ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ Actor Christian Bale — “Bale admitted that he was not knowledgeable about the Bible and had to do some significant research for the role.”  Indeed! This article is one more reason I avoid [allegedly] Bible-based movies.Why would you expect pagans to get anything right? It is in their job description to mock or distort the word of God!  Romans 1:18–20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

CNN Makes a Mockery of the Worst Moment of Bristol Palin’s Life, She Responds — Nothing to see here, folks.  Just more Leftist media hypocrisy.

Bristol Palin was pushed to the ground. She was dragged across the grass. She was called a “slut.” She was robbed.

CNN’s Carol Costello thought that was hilarious.

In what was perhaps the worst moment of Bristol’s life, the media treated her as a laughingstock. Outlets couldn’t wait to report on the “Palin family brawl” or the “thrilla in Wasilla” that occurred at a party in Anchorage, Alaska, and turn it into a TMZ segment. Heck, it was probably even on the verge of becoming a Saturday Night Live skit. MSNBC’s Joy Reid referred to it as a “stunt” and said John McCain should apologize for putting Sarah Palin on the ballot in 2008. But, the worst “report” of all, had to be this insensitive segment from CNN’s Costello.

CNN obtained the audio from the unfortunate incident. In the clip, an exhausted and shaken Bristol describes how a stranger pushed her sister Willow, then assaulted her. To make matters worse, Bristol had her five-year-old son Tripp in the car and she was clearly concerned for his safety as well. It is this audio clip that Costella told her viewers to “sit back and enjoy:”

When the Ray Rice scandal broke and that terrifying video surfaced of the football player knocking his fiancé to the ground and dragging her out of an elevator, Costello slammed Fox News for supposedly making light of it. She also made sure to inform her viewers about the very real dangers of domestic assault. Here she is reading off a few statistics, for instance, that 1 in 4 women experience domestic violence and women 20 to 24-years-old are at greatest risk.

Fast forward a month later, Costello is openly mocking Bristol Palin for…being a victim of physical assault. You’d think she’d change her mind about making jokes about the encounter after listening to the troubling clip, but at the end, she merely says, “You can thank me later.”

What did Jesus think of the Old Testament? — A recent comment on an old post said this:

Isaac Asimov once said, “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.”

My response:

Thanks, that’s a great example of the foolishness of people who rebel against God. Deep down he knew that Christianity was the real, authentic religion. Otherwise, he’d never say something so stupid as that, pretending that if one religion was false then they all must be. As J. Budziszewski, atheist-turned-Christian philosophy professor from the University of Texas say, “Though it always comes as a surprise to intellectuals, there are some forms of stupidity that you must be highly intelligent and educated to commit. God keeps them in His arsenal to pull down mulish pride, and I discovered them all.”

But the Bible is truly the word of God and carries the good news of how to be reconciled to him — even rebels who currently agree with Asimov.

Romans 1:18–20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

The media embargo on “the B word” — No, not that one.  They’ll gladly say that.  They won’t say black.  Apparently it is too racist to note the most obvious descriptor of a person.

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Don’t miss this response to the silly and evil video with little girls swearing (I didn’t watch the evil one, but this one is dead on).

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Great video on the 2nd Amendment.  Watch then save!

City of Houston demands that pastors hand over all sermons on homosexuality — I think they should all do a series on Romans 1 and send her every single sermon.

Romans 1:26–27 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

This is what you get when you elect the blind men (and women) of Sodom to political leadership roles.

Also see Houston: Turn Over the Sermons and No One Gets Hurt — The blind men (and women) of Sodom won’t be stopped by a pesky Constitution.

This is so brazenly unconstitutional that I can’t believe any court will honor the request. But just the fact that there are government officials who think that this is a proper thing to do does not bode well for religious freedom in a country that is becoming more and more hostile to traditional faith, or indeed any form of religious expression that does not march in lockstep with the Zeitgeist.

7 Things Your Church Needs From You — Great list.  See how well you are doing!

Archaeology and the Bible — “The Bible’s best friend.”

Sam Harris on defamation — Schadenfruede alert!  Professional Atheists Sam Harris and PZ Myers are having a Twitter scuffle.  Sam is shocked — shocked, I say! — to see behavior that he finds immoral.

Why are they doing this? Presumably because they think it works for whatever their goal is.

A better question is, why is Harris puzzled? The creation story of new atheism is Darwinism, for which moral values are merely a means of increasing reproductive fitness. (Smart people see that, and as for the rest of us, our brains did not evolve so as to enable us to see it.)

Now both Greenwald and Aslan should know better, of course. But, having read Harris’s book, The Moral Landscape: How science can determine human values, I think he is deeply confused.

One can demand moral accountability only if one believes that the universe is fundamentally moral, and Harris explicitly does not believe that.

Put another way, one can be good without God, but not without a moral universe. All moral discussion just becomes A shouting about what he wants B to do and B shouting about what she wants A to do. And finally, the stronger will prevail.

Be Ready to Answer Your Kids’ Questions About the Bible — Very important!

Concealed-carry permit holder uses gun to save woman from attempted rape — This should be national news about the benefits of gun ownership, but it doesn’t fit the meme.

Video: Protesters inflate “coal plant” balloon with renewable energy. Hilarity ensues — Sweet, sweet schadenfruede.  Use a reliable source next time, guys!

Polar Bear Hunting Still the Rage in Champaign, Illinois — Media too busy generating riots in Ferguson to report on black-on-white armed robberies.

President Obama Already Has An Ebola Czar. Where Is She?

What’s particularly interesting about this discussion, then, is that nobody has even discussed the fact that the federal government not ten years ago created and funded a brand new office in the Health and Human Services Department specifically to coordinate preparation for and response to public health threats like Ebola. The woman who heads that office, and reports directly to the HHS secretary, has been mysteriously invisible from the public handling of this threat. And she’s still on the job even though three years ago she was embroiled in a huge scandal of funneling a major stream of funding to a company with ties to a Democratic donor—and away from a company that was developing a treatment now being used on Ebola patients.

Before the media swallow implausible claims of funding problems, perhaps they could be more skeptical of the idea that government is responsible for solving all of humanity’s problems. Barring that, perhaps the media could at least look at the roles that waste, fraud, mismanagement, and general incompetence play in the repeated failures to solve the problems the feds unrealistically claim they will address. In a world where a $12.5 billion slush fund at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is used to fight the privatization of liquor stores, perhaps we should complain more about mission creep and Progressive faith in the habitually unrealized magic of increased government funding.

10 Things Every Black American Should Know About Dr. Ben Carson Before Forming Any Opinion of Him

99% of Adults With Down Syndrome Report Being Happy in Life — Yet 67% are killed because of their condition.

Model Who Wanted Abortion So She Could Star on Reality TV Show Now Opposes Abortion — Great news!  Hopefully others will reconsider their views and save their children.

Pyromaniacs: Some here, some there — Great points about a lot of “skeptics.”

In the insightful essay Had Sex, Dumped Jesus, Joel J. Miller develops the correct causality chain in much apostasy (h-t Aquila Report). People have immoral sex; that creates painful cognitive dissonance; God or the immorality has to go for peace to reign; God goes.

I wish I’d gotten down verbatim what I heard Josh McDowell say many years ago. He said he’d gotten to the point that, when some teen would come to him saying “I’m beginning to have serious doubts about my faith,” his first response would be along the lines of, “Oh? who are you sleeping with?”

Obama Regime Scrapped Quarantine Regulations — Those might have come in handy with this Ebola crisis.

Homework: An unnecessary evil? … Surprising findings from new research — I always thought that homework was excessive and unproductive.

19 iPhone Tricks And Tips Apple Doesn’t Want You To Know. #7 Just Made My Life — Misleading title, because I doubt Apple is hiding these, but the tips are great.  Example: Holding down the photo taking button will take a burst of pictures.  Great way to quickly ensure you get a shot with everyone’s eyes open.

Gwyneth Paltrow to Obama: You’re very handsome and you should have all the power you need for your agenda — Reason #967 not to listen to people just because they are good at pretending to be other people.

How far do gay activists go in order to silence critics? — As far as the blind men of Sodom have to.  They are only going to get more bold now that the Federal and Supreme Court justices have conspired to overturn the will of the people.

This is actually not unusual for some extreme gay activists. I’ve blogged about things like before – e.g. – getting Frank Turek fired, forcing out Brendan Eich at Mozilla, expelling students from university,discriminating against foster parents, violence at student demonstrations, coercing Christian businesses, leaking the names of pro-marriage donors, closing down adoption agencies, threatening teachers with termination, terminating police chaplains, vandalizing businesses, vandalizing churches, or actually being convicted of committing domestic terrorism by attacking the Family Research Council building with GUNS. Any disagreement with the moral rightness of the gay lifestyle at all – no matter how caring, compassionate or rooted in evidence – could potentially draw a coercive response, or even violent response.

This laundry is never going to be folded: Dear Rachel Held Evans — Great point about why Christian parents should fear people like Rachel Held Evans more than Miley Cyrus.

Look Who’s Data Mining Your Toddlers — Government schools + crony capitalism = creepiness

Anti-Obamacare movie producer randomly hit with first tax audit ever — This administration continues to do things far worse than anything Nixon ever dreamed of.  The difference is that even Republicans knew what Nixon did was wrong.  Leftists defend and even cheer abuses like this.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wants to Punish Politicians Who Question Global Warming — A Leftist wants to use the power of government to punish those who disagree with him?  Predictable.

The Rise of the Professional Slut — The Left wants to pretend the word has no meaning.

Our name for the world’s Lena Dunhams today is not in accordance with the truth of things, and it’s one reason millions of girls do not know how to conduct themselves. Remember that, as a writer once said, stigmas are corollaries of values; if certain things are to be valued, it follows that their opposites will be devalued. I’ll add that proper stigmas are corollaries of “virtues” (which refers to absolutes), and if we’re going to value chastity, modesty and propriety, it follows that sluttishness is going to be devalued — and should be called sluttishness for that reason.

Of course, today’s dominant values are valueless, which is why the Daily News can write something such as this:

Given that Dunham’s story includes therapy when she was in her single digits, ongoing battles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and more failed relationships than Henry VIII, some readers might be wondering what they can learn from this privileged 28-year-old’s so-called life.

Possibly everything.

The reality? She’s a walking train wreck created and enabled by a society that’s off the rails.

And here’s the main thing I suspect will be learned from her story: become a professional slut, girls, and perhaps you also can be rich beyond your wildest dreams.

 

My Body My Rights: Amnesty International’s Latest Push for Abortion — Never support those pro-aborts.  If only they were referring to the baby with their “my body, my rights” slogan.  But like nearly all pro-abortion arguments, they deliberately ignore the child.  And they have the gall to prattle about “human rights.”  The most basic human right is not to get crushed and dismembered just because you are unwanted.

Che Guevara: The Man, the Myth, the Atrocities — Still a dead thug who would have gladly killed the historically ignorant kids who wear shirts with his “cool” picture.

9 Things You Should Know About Pregnancy Help Organizations — great list!

The Lost Virtue of Modesty — Click the link to read it all.

Here are five biblical reasons Christians should embrace modesty as a God-designed, God-desired good thing.

1. Modesty protects what is intimate. There is a certain strand of feminism which says women should be proud of their sexual prowess and that any insistence they cover up what they don’t feel like covering up only serves to reinforce patriarchal notions that men have the right to determine what women do with their bodies. But the Bible’s call to modesty is not based on the supposed naughtiness of the female form. God’s good command to cover up is not meant to punish, but to protect. As Wendy Shalit writes, “The pressure on girls today to take sexy selfies comes out of a culture that routinely equates modesty with shame, instead of recognizing it for what it really is: an impulse that protects what is precious and intimate.” The common refrain of the bride–“do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases” (Song of Solomon 2:7)–is a call from one woman to a group of single women to save sexual arousal and sexual activity for its proper time, with the proper person, in the proper place.

2. Modesty accepts that our bodies also live in community.

3. Modesty operates with the Bible’s negative assessment of public nudity post-Fall.

4. Modesty embraces the strong biblical admonition to refrain from sensuality.

5. Modesty demonstrates to others that we have more important things to offer than good looks and sex appeal.

Federal appeals court: Texas can proceed with tough regulations on abortion clinics — Great news!  The usual “Reproductive choice/rights/health/etc.” claims are being thrown out by the pro-abortion lobby, but those are false, Orwellian terms. They apply to birth control, not abortion, because abortion destroys a human being who has already been reproduced. That is a scientific fact confirmed by any mainstream embryology textbook and basic logic. It is a deadly and evil phrase. Yes, they have a right to reproduce, but no, they shouldn’t have the right to kill human beings who have already been reproduced.

The Judgment Seat of Christ — Some highly encouraging truths.  For Christians.  For others, we need to talk . . .

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,” 2 Corinthians 5:10.

When human history finally comes to a conclusion, and all the people of all time stand up before the final throne of judgment, I imagine there will be two overall responses. The first response will be complete and utter joy on the part of those who are found in Christ. The other response will be shock, outrage and anger on the part of those who find themselves naked and exposed before our Supreme Judge. In this post, I would like to look at the response of those who are born-again.

How God Embraces the Embarrassed — for the inevitable moments when you get embarrassed by something you did.

Embarrassment, rejection, exile, shame, and loneliness are all real. And so the embarrassed are a people who cry “Why have you forsaken me?” with Jesus, who says to them, “You will be with me” (Luke 23:43), and “Can a woman forget her nursing child. . . ? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15–16). To the embarrassed, Jesus is not just with us. He is one of us. Not embarrassed of us, but standing with us. He calls us his own.

In moments of embarrassed shame, loneliness, self-hatred, and failure, God gives the embarrassed his very Son (Romans 8:32), protection, perspective, acceptance, and words to say when (not if) embarrassment comes. The Redeemer is not surprised by our embarrassment, and he is not unprepared for it either.

Liberal BBC Asks, “Is Sport Sexist?” While Promoting Inequality — This should be obvious — especially in a world gone mad and pretending that men can be women and compete in their sports.  Shouldn’t true feminists and LGBTQX advocates want any distinctions about gender in sports done away with, and just let the best play?

There’s a simple answer to any feminist complaint about inequality in sports: You want the men’s money, exposure, standards, respect or something else?

Compete in men’s sports.

And women have the opportunity. Golfers Annika Sorenstam and Michelle Wie have received “sponsor’s exemptions” to play in PGA (men’s) events. Women have tried out for the NBA and have attempted to work their way up to baseball’s major leagues through the farm system. The door, Ms. Allaster, is open — you just have to be ready, willing and, most importantly, able to walk through it.

The point is this: It’s silly and hypocritical to lobby for equality within an inherently unequal system while simultaneously supporting that system. And if you do, do you really believe in equality in principle? Or only as ploy?

To arbitrarily say that female athletes should earn the same as male ones is like saying that lightweight boxers should have the same purses as heavyweights. It’s like saying the best handicapped “differently abled” athletes (as in the Special Olympics) should not only get paid, but they should earn the same as the able-bodied. And what of elite high-school athletes? The mile record for 15-year-old boys is better than the women’s world record, and the boys’ American high-school record is considerably better. And with some variation, these gaps hold across sports, yet most of these hard-working male athletes will never succeed in the men’s professional ranks and will never earn even what the women do. Should these young sportsmen not only be paid but be compensated as handsomely as the pros?

 Obama says ‘they’ underestimated ISIS – ‘they’ sure do screw up a lot

I suppose it was “they” who mocked Mitt Romney’s concerns, “they” who took credit for the Iraq pullout until “they” changed their mind and blamed it on Bush, and “they” who called ISIS the J.V. team. If “they” are so bad at their job, maybe “they” should lose it.

Leon Panetta: Obama refused to use leverage to secure status of forces deal with Iraq — Not surprising, but a major concession just the same.  Of course they could have negotiated more and let the Iraqis save face.  But Obama thought he knew better.  We had a great, hard-fought victory and had helped achieve stability in the Middle East after removing a notorious despot, then Obama threw it all away.  Don’t elect children to do adult work.

How religion affects your likelihood of believing in ET — “Believe in aliens? Then you’re probably an atheist or Muslim: Study reveals how religion affects your likelihood of believing in ET”

Oil Companies: The Last People to Blame for High Gas Prices

If you don’t like paying so much for gasoline, don’t curse the energy companies who provide you with an opportunity to buy it. Exxon, for example, has a skimpy profit margin of 5.5¢ per gallon. In stark contrast, the federal government helps itself to 18.4¢ per gallon, despite the fact that it is the oil companies, not bureaucrats, who provide us with the gasoline.

But it gets worse. This map demonstrates how many cents per gallon states add on top of the federal tax. The greed is extraordinary . . .

Author Went From Atheist to Christian While Writing Book on Horrors of 20th Century

Set to graduate at the turn of the century and looking back on the previous century, Jones decided he wanted to help create a world in which the next 100 years would avoid the horrible crimes of that last 100 years.

The process of researching and writing the book changed Jones. When he started the project, he was an atheist and a libertarian. By the time he finished, he was a Christian and a conservative.

In the book, Jones and Zmirak argue that the horrors of the last century stem from five evil ideologies — racism and nationalism, militarism and “total war,” utopian collectivism, radical individualism, and utilitarian hedonism. These ideologies can be avoided, they say, by advancing five core principles — the unique and absolute value of every human person, natural law (a transcendent moral order), subsidiarity (the defense of civil institutions that lie between people and government), solidarity (which is embodied by The Golden Rule), and a humane economy.

Clueless Soft Porn Cosmopolitan Mag Attacks Jessa Duggar — She rightly ties abortion to the eugenics movement that, in a morbid irony, only lost momentum in the U.S. because of how Hitler implemented it so thoroughly and visibly.  And of course Cosmo went into full freak-out mode over the truth being told.

I walked through the Holocaust Museum again today… very sobering. Millions of innocents denied the most basic and fundamental of all rights–their right to life. One human destroying the life of another deemed “less than human.” Racism, stemming from the evolutionary idea that man came from something less than human; that some people groups are “more evolved” and others “less evolved.” A denying that our Creator–GOD–made us human from the beginning, all of ONE BLOOD and ONE RACE, descendants of Adam. The belief that some human beings are “not fit to live.” So they’re murdered. Slaughtered. Kids with Down syndrome or other disabilities. The sickly. The elderly. The sanctity of human life varies not in sickness or health, poverty or wealth, elderly or pre-born, little or lots of melanin [making you darker or lighter skinned], or any other factor… May we never sit idly by and allow such an atrocity to happen again. Not this generation. We must be a voice for those who cannot speak up for themselves. Because EVERY LIFE IS PRECIOUS. #ProLife”

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This is completely true.  They just forgot a panel where they give the 12 yr. old some condoms.

Please watch this.

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And this . . . Leftists don’t want to help black people.  That would end the gravy train.

For starters, a little Ohio State vs. Michigan battle (of course OSU dominates):

Forget Cat Photos: This Prof Is Making Calculus Go Viral — I love the concept of online classes like this and how it could revolutionize education.  A great example from Ohio State:

Two years ago, when the online-education craze got started, big-name professors began cranking out videos about hot topics such as cryptography or startup engineering. Left in the dust was the old-fashioned mathematics class that no one wanted to teach online: calculus.

Then Jim Fowler entered the picture. The 33-year-old assistant math professor at Ohio State has always been on a one-man crusade to make secants sexy and integrals irresistible. After videoing a batch of calculus lectures over December 2012, Fowler won a go-ahead one month later to roll out his course via Coursera, a leading provider of massive open online classes, or MOOCs.

Against the odds, Fowler’s geeky, high-energy style has become a global crowd-pleaser. The man in the untucked plaid shirt doesn’t just write equations on a chalkboard, he also greets online students with a deep-voiced imitation of a Lord of the Rings character, declaring: “One does not simply walk into calculus!” Soon afterward glowing images of curves and solids appear. Thanks to nifty video editing, these creations devour his desk and jump in front of his face. To help students sense the “wow” factor of some techniques, he slips in a kicky musical soundtrack as lecture ideas reach their culmination.

You WILL Have Sex When Requested — Now to Michigan, where the Wolverines have taken bedroom management to new heights of ridiculousness.  Yet these same people will go into full freak-out mode if you suggest that maybe — just maybe! — it would help the situation if women didn’t get falling-down-drunk at frat parties and bars.

I wonder how many husbands will call the U of M to tell them how violent and abusive their wives have been . . .

The University of Michigan has released a list of relationship behaviors that it considers violent and abusive — including “withholding sex.”

“Discounting the partner’s feelings regarding sex,” “criticizing the partner sexually,” and “having sex with other people” are also examples of “sexual violence,” according to the list.

The school also offers definitions of domestic abuse. Under the section for “verbal or psychological abuse,” it states that not only is “insulting the partner” considered “abuse,” so is “ignoring the partner’s feelings.”

Stay-at-home mothers ‘have the most worthwhile lives’ — Good for them!

How to Switch to Paying Cash for Your Car – The Simple Dollar — Learn to beat the cycle!  You’ll be so happy you did.  Some discipline for a few years leads to zero car payments forever.

Darwinists thought whale hips were accidents of evolution, then science happened — This would be a yawner because it happens so often, except that the Darwinists still control schools and more.

Another win for reason in the long war between science and naturalistic philosophy.

Uber Rich Man With Yachts and Planes Lectures World About Global Warming — The sickening hypocrisy of “climate change” leaders and the sad way their followers don’t catch on.

Venezuelan President Announces 47 Million for Civilian Disarmament Centers — And Leftists in this country actually think that’s a good idea.  What could possibly go wrong?

It’s what happens to gun owners and freedom when a lawless, leftwing, socialist president who doesn’t like America, who uses the power of his office to intimidate his political opponents, and who will do nearly anything to preserve his power gets elected.  On Sunday, Nicholas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, announced that he will spend $47 million for 60 civilian disarmament centers, where people can turn in their privately owned guns.  Venezuela banned the commercial sale of guns in 2012, and Maduro–continuing the fundamental transformation of the country begun by his predecessor, Hugo Chavez–now says “We are building peace from within, and for that, you need disarmament.”

Obama’s NLRB now ordering reinstatement of employees who drop F-bombs on bosses — Yeah, unions are great.

Behind the Increase in HIV Infections Among Gay and Bisexual Men – Washington Wire – WSJ — If you really love people you’ll warn them that the gay lifestyle is a coin flip away from getting HIV.

Gay and bisexual men represent an estimated 2% of the U.S. population but more than half of all people living with HIV and 66% of new HIV infections. They are the only population group in the United States for which HIV infections are rising. Projections have shown that if current trends continue, half of all gay and bisexual men will be HIV-positive by age 50.

The Liberal Entitlement Mentality – Summed Up In Christina – Chicks on the Right — This is what a welfare state leads to.

Christina is a chick who lives in the UK, and like many people in the UK who sponge off taxpayers, she feels she’s entitled to everything she has provided by all those working suckers – and that entitlement currently stands at around 40K US bucks a year – give or take.  She’s 26 years old, has two kids from two different fathers, she’s obese, and now she wants taxpayers to help her become NOT obese.  Because that’s ALSO their responsibility.  You know.

She feels her only hope is for the government to give her more money so she can afford to buy fruit and vegetables and join a gym.

She also believes she should be paid to lose weight as that would give her the motivation to fight the flab. 

She said: ‘I need more benefits to eat healthily and exercise. It would be good if the government offered a cash incentive for me to lose weight. I’d like to get £1 for every pound I lose, or healthy food vouchers. 

‘If the price of healthy food was lowered that would help, too. I need help, but I need it from the government.’

She added that she can’t get a job to gain more money because she’s needed at home to care for her children, especially as her daughter has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and issues with her kidneys.

She explained: ‘There’s no way I could get a job. I don’t feel bad about the taxpayer funding my life and my child’s medical problems, because I don’t treat myself or buy anything excessive. I just get enough money to live on – the taxpayers should help fund my diet.’  

Armed company owner prevents former employee from beheading second woman — Guns save lives.

The media isn’t going to make much of this, but it does show the principal reason WHY law-abiding people should be allowed to own firearms. (H/T Czar B.)

Excerpt:

On September 26, an armed company owner intervened in an attack by shooting a former employee who had already beheaded one worker and was stabbing another.

The attack took place at Vaughan Foods in Moore, Oklahoma.

Fox News reports that the alleged attacker, 30-year-old Alton Nolen, drove his car into another car in the parking lot of Vaughan Foods’ parking lot, then entered the business and beheaded 54-year-old Collee Hufford. He was allegedly stabbing a second victim, 43-year-old Traci Johnson, when company owner Mark Vaughan drew the gun he was carrying and shot Nolen.

Vaughan is C.O.O. of the food company and “a reserve county deputy.”

Moore Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis praised Vaughan’s actions, calling him a “hero.” He said the situation “could have gotten a lot worse” if had not had his gun.

The Associated Press reports that Lewis added: “This was not going to stop if [Vaughan] didn’t stop it.”

Nolen was recently fired from Vaughan Foods. The FBI is “probing whether Nolen’s recent conversion to Islam had anything to do with the attack.”

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A handy feature of iOS 8 is that when you use voice recognition it shows the words as you speak them instead of waiting until you click “Done.”

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Lay Aside the Weight of Irritability | Desiring God — Love is not irritable (1 Cor. 13) but I can be.  Great article on what to do about irritability.

Signs of Spiritual Awakening in Japan — This is encouraging.  I go there annually on business and it is extremely secular.

What are the historical arguments for the empty tomb story? — We have plenty of facts and logic to point to for our foundational belief that Jesus rose from the dead.

Stephen C. Meyer And Marcus lecture on the Cambrian explosion — Facts and logic you won’t get in public schools.

Demands grow to end secrecy – and robbery – at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac — One more reason you don’t want or need Big Government.

This week a new coalition of public policy groups has pressed a key congressional committee to open up the books on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and put an end to secretive policies which they claim are essentially robbing private investors. And the way the two lending giants are currently being managed will likely come as a shock to those who haven’t been paying attention.

. . . The thumbnail version of this rather complicated story is fairly basic. After the financial collapse of 2007 – 2008, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were essentially collapsing under the weight of all those bad mortgages. They wound up being bailed out, but needed investments from the private sector to move forward. The investors were assured that once the two entities became profitable again they would see a return on investment in the form of part of the profits. Well, the two GSEs turned the corner in 2012, but the ROI for the investors isn’t happening. The original deal would have seen 10% of the profits going to Treasury with some portion of the rest being available to pay back investors. But the amendment to the conservatorship referenced above results in all of the profits being swept up by the government. This means that are no effective profits left on the table, so nothing goes to the investors who helped bail them out.

With ISIS arrests, Australians wishing they had guns — They have had a lot of negative consequences since the gun-grabbers won out.  ISIS can and probably will try the same in the U.S., but their consequences will be higher.  Yea for the 2nd Amendment!

LGBT movement working to mandate “gay history” in schools across America — And of course, no criticisms of LGBTQX people or behaviors are allowed. They won’t be hearing about Gays have 40+ times higher rates of Syphilis and HIV, partly because 62% of men who know they are HIV-positive have unprotected sex with men.  Meditate on that for a moment.

Whistleblower cop in Scott Walker accusations paying a heavy price — This is sad.  These Union Leftists hate Scott Walker so much that they will make all sorts of ethical violations and try to destroy a good man who exposed their evils.

A longtime Chisholm subordinate reveals for the first time in this article that the district attorney may have had personal motivations for his investigation. Chisholm told him and others that Chisholm’s wife, Colleen, a teacher’s union shop steward at St. Francis high school, a public school near Milwaukee, had been repeatedly moved to tears by Walker’s anti-union policies in 2011, according to the former staff prosecutor in Chisholm’s office. Chisholm said in the presence of the former prosecutor that his wife “frequently cried when discussing the topic of the union disbanding and the effect it would have on the people involved … She took it personally.”

The Bullies of Banned Books Week — Don’t believe the hype.  This is faux outrage designed to allow more filth in schools.

During the week of September 21 to 27 this year, the ALA (joined by obscene profiteers) will moan about the “freedom to read” while many libraries systematically purge collections of Christian and conservative material, deluding themselves that this is admirable and in no way hypocritical.

In reality, there’s no “banning” happening, in the sense of government removal of material from circulation. What does happen is that certain library or school material at the local level is sometimes openly questioned by parents. This infuriates liberals, who demand the right to quietly make decisions behind the scenes. They choose books/videos that predictably advocate abortion, any-faith-but-Christianity, homosexuality, anti-Americanism, evolution, neo-paganism, atheism, Marxism, and they reject others.

In other words, they practice censorship. But when a wise leftist does it in the privacy of her office, it’s called “choice.”

Savvy parents will question the underlying premise that there’s a huge problem in America with “book banning.” This non-problem is phony, phony, phony. “Parents, leave us alone!” is the real dilemma for librarians or curriculum committees in schools, who want to prescribe for other people’s children a “freedom to read” any kind of jaw-dropping bilge that exists.

Research Shows Zero-Calorie Sweeteners Can Raise Blood Sugar – WSJ

300 Articles You Have to Read to Understand What Is Meant by the Term “Homofascism” — Three. Hundred.  That’s a lot.  Keep that link.

Politics of man who sought to firebomb black congressman’s office won’t surprise you — He’s a Leftist, so nothing to see here, folks!  If he was a Conservative we’d be hearing about this 24×7 for years.

The Huffington Post, for example, crated a “Tea Party Violence” tag to link all the posts they expected would be categorized as such in 2011. They came up with a grand total of three posts, only one of which contained any accounts of violence – and it was an unrelated scuffle between two participants in the same tea party rally in Florida.

Compare this, as many have done, with the epidemic of violence which followed the outbreak of the Occupy Wall Street movement; nearly 7,000 arrested across the country; tens of millions of dollars in property damage, rampant sexual violence, theft and indecent exposure – all of which became a virtual way of life for the thousands who participated in those protests.

Where’s the “Occupy Violence” tag, Huffington Post? Only the Oakland branch of the protests merited such a tag, a group which organized the seizure of an entire shipyard. But so, too, did the police who responded to that anarchism.

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People who think that Communism will work if we just try it again remind me of Homer and his barbecue’d pig.

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This is great!