The collapse of the newspaper
What has long been a daily tradition across the country, scanning the daily paper over breakfast, is fast becoming obsolete. For the fifth straight year overall newspaper circulation saw substantial declines.
As someone with a degree in journalism with a wife working as a newspaper editor, this tends to concern me. The biggest question facing print media is why the decline?
Do you sell XXXXXXL shirts here?
Ok, I’m not into sports, but Walter Thomas sounds amazing. Read for yourself.
Walter Thomas, 21, a 370-pound football player who can execute a perfect forward flip, can bench-press 475 pounds and squat 800.
Terrorists hear Reid loud and clear
Having a major party leader declare the “the war is lost” is not a responsible thing to do, regardless of their position on the war. Those statements do not stop at our borders. They travel well and they travel quickly.
We’d have to create an American jihad
That is if aliens attack and by aliens I don’t mean the illegal kind. I mean the ET kind.
My Two Cents #93 – Islam
- EU Hate Speech Declaration: Several members of the European Parliament (the EU) will be submitting a hate speech declaration next week, which will “banish racism and hate propaganda from the Internet altogether.” Translation? Forget publishing those Mohammed cartoons you drew last night.
- Spain�s Policy of Appeasing Terrorists Backfires: President Zapatero withdrew his forces from Iraq, and has pursued a more gentle, leftist approach to terrorism. The results?  A truce with Islam? No. Muslims still believe that 4/5ths of Spain belongs to them – you know, the parts that were conquered by the Moors, but were then kicked out in the Reconquista (1492).
- Multicultural Failure in Sweden: Try to be nice to Islamists and what do you get? Riots and native flight to places where Islam is not.
- Three choices with Islam:Â We all know of the three choices of dhimmitude under Islam – convert, submit as a second class citizen under dhimmi taxes, or die. First Things has an interesting set of possible outcomes when Muslims move to your country – assimilation of Muslims into the culture, expulsion of Muslims, or Islamic takeover.
My Two Cents (04/25)
- The End is NOT Near: Gary Demar takes on John MacArthur’s pre-millenial eschatology (the predominant modern evangelical position), especially the tendency of such theologies to cause Christians to stop being salt and light in culture.
- Teen trapped in wrong body: This story about a young boy who has always thought of himself as a girl is fascinating. When he got to puberty, and his biology wanted reinforce the idea that he was not a girl, he tried to commit suicide. Now, with hormone treatments, he can stave off the onset of yicky hair and a deep voice until he is old enough for a sex change operation (18). I would like to know about his family life, any significant environmental events that may have triggered his GID, and a biochemical analysis to see if there is any biological component to his problem.
- Denial about media violence’s affects: The reports have been in for a while – violent TV and video games do affect us, even if they aren’t the sole or primary reason that people go postal. So why are we in denial? New Scientist tries to answer this question.
- What is an mp3 anyway? Check out this excellent 50 minute audio lecture about the tech behind the mp3 codec, and more. Geek out to your heart’s content.
- VT Massacre and Abortion: Doug presents the classic spiritual principle that sowing violence (abortion) makes other types of violence more prevalent by lowering the barriers to murder in general. He doesn’t present the best argument, so maybe I need to write it ;)
- Knowing Truth: Quodlibet, the online journal of Christian Theology and Philosophy, has a good article entitled Philosophical Objections to the Knowability of Truth: Answering Postmodernism.
Religion is good for kids
Or so says a new study by a Mississippi State University sociologist and reported by one the right-wing blogosphere’s leading atheists.
Atheist Idol
So, I’m currently in second place in the American Idol pool at work. Each week, we choose the bottom 3, and the person who we think will go home. Also, earlier in the season, we chose whom we thought would be in the top 4, and we get points for each week they are still around. This week, the theme was inspirational songs. But what was really interesting was the difference between those who sang of God, those who sang generic (but good) songs like Clapton’s Change the World, and those like Blake Lewis, who sang the athiest’s anthem, John Lennon’s Imagine.
I’ve always disliked this song because of its anti-religionist, humanist-utopian leanings, not only because they conflict with my beliefs, but because the only humanist, atheistic utopias attempted so far have been the horrible Socialist and Communist experiments. But they do support my contention (and that of our founding fathers) that without God, man can only be brutal when given power unaccountable to God and the higher law.
“The only foundation for a useful education in a
republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no
virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty”– Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence
It’s all the Pope’s fault
ABC News correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg takes Rosie O’Donnell and former law school dean and provost at the University of Chicago Geoffrey Stone to task for their anti-catholic bias and shoddy reasoning regarding the Supreme Court’s partial-birth abortion decision.
Christian Pacifism, Christian War
The Virginia Tech killings have not only kick started the gun control debate, but the idea of Christian pacifism. If a Christian in that classroom had a gun, would they be justified in killing Cho to stop the immediate killing, or would he just be encouraging more violence by committing violence?
Dethroner thinks that "Christian Soldier" is an oxymoron. I think Christian Pacifism is an oxymoron. You decide.
Forced abortion in China (NPR)
Feminists, and humans of good will, it is time to do something about the cruelty and human rights abuses in China. China’s repressive one-child policy has long been known to lead to female infanticide and sex-selection abortion. A very moving and horrific report on Forced Abortions in China on NPR this morning will leave you stupefied. Here’s the face of a woman who was forced to abort at 7 months pregnancy. I can not imagine her pain.
“The doctor said it was a boy. My friends who were beside me said the baby’s body was completely black. I felt desolate, so I didn’t look up to see the baby.”
Public Schools produce whores?
Abtolutelee.com has a provactive article entitled How To Turn Your Daughter Into A Whore In Two Easy Steps
Step 1. Enroll your daughter in public school.
Step 2. Kick back and watch.
Gun control isn’t the answer – just look at Europe
An opinion piece in the L.A. Times criticizes the knee-jerk reaction of anti-gun lobbyists. However, the article makes some good counterpoints as well.
There is no doubt that the existence of some 260 million guns (of which
perhaps 60 million are handguns) increases the death rate in this
country. We do not have drive-by poisonings or drive-by knifings, but
we do have drive-by shootings. Easy access to guns makes deadly
violence more common in drug deals, gang fights and street corner
brawls.However, there is no way to extinguish this supply of
guns. It would be constitutionally suspect and politically impossible
to confiscate hundreds of millions of weapons. You can declare a place
gun-free, as Virginia Tech had done, and guns will still be brought
there.
Legal liability of schools that teach a pro-homosexuality curriculum
Imagine this situation: a young homosexual youth commits suicide. His parents, having learned of the pro-homosexual curriculum in their school, sue the school for encouraging their son in the direction of promiscuity and homosexuality. Fiction? For now, yes, but according to Citizens for Community Values (CCV), this may be the next front in the battle over sexuality in schools.
If abortion is murder, how do we respond?
As I reflected upon our recent abortion discussions, my raving lunatic reaction, and some of the reactions to my reactions, I have asked myself this question. If I really believe that abortion is murder, what should I do about it? I mean, say the government is taking away Jews, or gays, or political dissidents, to jail them, or worse. What do I do? There’s a range of responses, the lighter of which seem totally lame and weak, while others seem too reactive. How do we decide?
Some internet rhetoric about God in schools
This email has been making the rounds, thought I’d post it. Even though it’s pure rhetoric, the point is made. How can you blame God when you’ve left him?
NR on partial victory
The National Review issued a stinging editorial on the reasoning of the four judges who voted to allow partial-birth abortion.
The real lesson of Virginia Tech
As a prime example of why I don’t like politicizing tragedies enter Joe Biden who gives the real reason for the VaTech massacre, Katrina, Iraq, Venezuela, Dafur, Don Imus being a moron, most likely the horrible sitcom Joey and maybe even Paris Hilton’s existence – Republicans being elected over 10 years ago.
Gun ownwership saves lives
In the midst of the gun control debate, this Georgia town that requires heads of households to own a gun is celebrating 25 Years murder-free.
