U.S. appeals court: schools cannot ‘stifle criticism of homosexuality’ – some rare good news regarding the freedom of speech and freedom of religion.  Hope it doesn’t get overturned!

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Why Is That Christian Dressed Up Like a Psychic? – great article about decision making and the will of God and how sloppy some Christians get when it comes to rationalizing decisions.  From the intro:

This is a pandemic problem in evangelical churches. How many times have you heard someone say, “God told me,” “God lead me,” “God laid it on my heart,” etc? One would think that these individuals heard the audible voice of God; but no, they base their statements on their feelings: a liver quiver, a gut assumption, butterflies, etc. The problem is that there is nowhere in the Bible where God spoke to anyone through their feelings… not one example. So, whenever these Christians make these statements, they have noauthority or example in Scripture to prove that God is speaking to them. They thus are playing the psychic.

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Francis Collins Changes His Tune On “Junk DNA” – Hmmmm.  Turns out that “junk” DNA isn’t so junky after all.  Actually, we’ve known that for some time, but I’m glad to see Collins acknowledge it.  I hope he reconsiders his oxymoronic theistic evolution as well.  People like him are useful tools for the Darwinist crowd.  Just watch the movie  Expelled! and see how they patronize those who try to rationalize that God guided Darwinian evolution.

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Question: How Can We Know One Belief Selected for By Evolution is Superior to Another?

. . .

Theist:  Let me get this straight.  According to you, religious belief has at least two characterizes:  (1) it is false; and (2) evolution selected for it.

EM [looking a little pale now, because he’s just figured out where this is going]:  Correct.

Theist:  You believe the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis [NDS] is true.

EM:  Of course.

Theist:  How do you know your belief in NDS is not another false belief that evolution has selected for?

. . .

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Don’t buy the lie that because Texas has lower ACT/SAT scores than Wisconsin that a lack of unionized teachers is the reason.  First, the money quote:

To recap: white students in Texas perform better than white students in Wisconsin, black students in Texas perform better than black students in Wisconsin, Hispanic students in Texas perform better than Hispanic students in Wisconsin

Now, a little more background.

The point being, I suppose, is that unionized teachers stand as a thin chalk-stained line keeping Wisconsin from descending into the dystopian non-union educational hellscape of Texas. Interesting, if it wasn’t complete bullshit.

As a son of Iowa, I’m no stranger to bragging about my home state’s ranking on various standardized test. Like Wisconsin we Iowans usually rank near the top of the heap on average ACT/SAT scores. We are usually joined there by Minnesota, Nebraska, and the various Dakotas; Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire…

… beginning to see a pattern? Perhaps because a state’s “average ACT/SAT” is, for all intents and purposes, a proxy for the percent of white people who live there. In fact, the lion’s share of state-to-state variance in test scores is accounted for by differences in ethnic composition. Minority students – regardless of state residence – tend to score lower than white students on standardized test, and the higher the proportion of minority students in a state the lower its overall test scores tend to be.

Please note: this has nothing to do with innate ability or aptitude. Quite to the contrary, I believe the test gap between minority students and white students can be attributed to differences in socioeconomic status. And poverty. And yes, racism. And yes, family structure. Whatever combination of reasons, the gap exists, and it’s mathematical sophistry to compare the combined average test scores in a state like Wisconsin (4% black, 4% Hispanic) with a state like Texas (12% black, 30% Hispanic).

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Ann Coulter has a great summary of public sector unions.

As Obama rakes in historic campaign contributions from Wall Street money, liberals claim Republicans are beholden to “the rich.” However that may be, it is far more true, and far less remarked upon, that the Democratic Party is the party of public sector unions.

And now, the nation watches helplessly as public sector unions and their Democratic allies say to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Nice state you got there, governor. Be a shame if something bad happened to it.

For Democrats, the purpose of government is to generously provide jobs for people who otherwise couldn’t be hired — because their skills, attitude or sense of entitlement are considered undesirable in the private sector. And no, I’m not just talking about Barack Obama.

Democrats use taxpayer money to fund a government jobs program, impoverishing the middle class and harming the people allegedly helped by the programs — but creating a vast class of voters who owe their jobs to the Democrats.

This is a system designed to ratchet up costs. Look at the history of every entity where public employees have unionized, and you will find that not only are government workers paid more, but there are also a lot more of them doing a lot less useful work.

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Kline accuses KS Supreme Court of obstructing justice to protect Tiller, Planned Parenthood – a serious miscarriage of justice is playing out in Kansas.  Lots of things haven’t been investigated:

What also came out during the trial was what the Supreme Court has never investigated to this day. While it desperately attempts to find unethical behavior on Kline’s part, it ignores actual potential violations of law on the part of state officials and abortion clinics (aside from illegal abortions and rape cover-ups):

1. Opening Kline’s mail, a federal offense: Documents Kline never requested but were sent to him at an incorrect address after he left the DA’s office and then returned, were opened by either the DA or AG and are currently being used against him in the ethics case.

2. Someone in AG Morrison’s office made a cd of all Kline’s abortion files and left it, along with some spreadsheets, on the desk of Tiller’s attorney, who kept them for over a year.

3. The Supreme Court ordered Kline to hand over all information he had obtained to AG Morrison on PPs nationwide.  This included evidence in prosecutions against PP in Ohio, videotapes from Lila Rose’s 1st video investigation of PP nationwide, and the names of PP employees who came forward to Kline from clinics around the country. Kline testified this prompted some of his sources to threaten litigation against him. But most importantly, “I’ve been told all that information was then turned over to attorneys for abortion clinics.”

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Is Planned Parenthood still racist? You decide.  Their founder sure was.  The rate of abortions in the black community is 3x that of whites, and the taxpayer-funded abortions they lust after will make that ratio higher.

1926: Margarat Sanger gives a lecture to the women’s auxiliary of the Klu Klux Klan

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