Winners and losers in the Republican debate
I watched the CNN debate between the 2008 Republican candidates for US President, and here’s my assessment:
Winners
- Giuliani - he gave consistently confident and well articulated answers, and his record on crime in NYC is still a considerable selling point – real results. His supposed intent to appoint strict Constitutionalist judges to the supreme court, however, is still counterbalanced by his support for abortion rights – he’s a little flaky on social conservatism.
- Romney – he is possibly the only serious contender with Giuliani. I liked his answers, though he stumbled on the "do you believe the bible literally" question, as well as the "is water boarding torture" question, which McCain nailed him on.
- Huckabee – Huckabee is still a longshot, but he’s now tied with Romney leading the Iowa polls, and he gave really strong answers, peppered with really well-placed humor. Now, if he can just shed the hick-factor. He may now be considered a top tier candidate.
How you know Iraq is going well (#3,452)
After all indicators have shown that the situation in Iraq has improven dramatically, the press has nothing left to do but poll themselves to generate bad press.
Blogging the GOP candidates
Of course all the major candidates have their own websites and “blogs,” but the real interesting thing is to see which established bloggers are campaigning for candidates on their sites.
This is purely the GOP side of the debate because I honestly don’t care about the Democratic primary. It is also heavly skewed toward evangelical bloggers (though not entirely) because again that’s what I care about. If you have others for any GOP or Democratic candidate, feel free to put them in the comments. I’ll try to add them to the post.
Character Still Counts
During the 2004 election, I wrote (here and here) that a candidate’s character should be a key factor in deciding who to vote for in an election. Four years later it’s still true: a candidate’s character should be carefully examined before deciding who to vote for.
Character is exactly why Hillary Clinton’s support is crumbling among Democrats and why Mike Huckabee’s support is rising among Republicans.
If you look at the positions of the candidates of each party, it’s easy to see they are fairly similar within their respective parties. Policies and voting records are certainly important to consider, but when it comes down to the final decision, it’s a candidate’s character that will matter most. When voters fail to consider a candidate’s character, they do so at their own (and ultimately) the country’s peril.
What would Jesus buy?
While trolling the Numbers, I stumbled upon this satyrical indie film which mocks our worship of consumerism at the holidays. I’ll have to add it to my Blockbuster queue, if they carry it. Check out the reviews of What Would Jesus Buy?, as well as the synopsis at the Numbers.
Bill Talen (aka Reverend Billy) was a lost idealist who hitchhiked to
New York City only to find that Times Square was becoming a mall.
Spurred on by the loss of his neighborhood and inspired by the sidewalk
preachers around him, Bill bought a collar to match his white caterer’s
jacket, bleached his hair and became the Reverend Billy of the Church
of Stop Shopping. Since 1999, Reverend Billy has gone from being a lone
preacher with a portable pulpit preaching on subways, to the leader of
a congregation and a movement whose numbers are well into the thousands.
Bella gently, creatively inspires
While Bella, the product, faced numerous struggles in trying to find a studio willing to finance the indie flick, Bella, the film, faced even more daunting troubles. It could have easily become yet another heavy handed propaganda piece with a barely existent story thinly smeared over the bludgeoning message. Just as easily Bella could have completely stripped the message from the movie in order to appease Hollywood studios wary of promoting a pro-life independent film. Thankfully, Bella was able to balance across the razor’s edge with a simultaneously heart-warming and gut-wrenching story told in a unique and thought provoking way.
Experts: Wrong again; are they experts?
Exactly when can we start ignoring the “experts” and their perpetual wrong predictions? And does the wrong hurricane forcast, based on supposed global warming trends, bode poorly for climate change advocates?
Is the death penalty pro-life?
That debate is now raging, not between traditional conservative and liberal politians or citizens, but between members of the liberal academia.
The greatest discovery no one is talkiing about
If a scientific breakthrough happened that would essentially eliminate a moral quandry and move mankind closer to cures for numerous diseases and no one really talked about it, would it be a scientific breakthrough?
My Two Cents #111 – Creationism
Some great stuff from AIG:
- Ken Miller and 48 to 46 chromosome fusion – AIG attempts to rebut Ken Miller’s interesting, challenging, obnoxious and superficial claim that the chimp chromosomes obviously fused to create to create the 46 chromosomes we see in man. Peppered with weak appeals to biblical authority and Miller’s "blindness," the article nevertheless does a decent job of pointing out the superficiality of Miller’s claims, and the difficulties with his assumption when looking at the gene level.
- Neanderthals and Language – more evidence that neanderthals were merely human, as creationists have long claimed (read "a testable creationist claim supported by science"). Interesting that papers in Nature and Science disagree, but because the Nature data disagrees with evolutionary assumptions, scientists are claiming that the DNA was contaminated in that study, but not the other.
- Science confused about ice ages – this article is a nice overview of the current disagreements and confusion over the ice ages, and how the YEC view makes for a much cleaner and sensical explanation – Occam’s razor applies, and the YEC biblical view of a single, short (<1000 year) post-flood ice age, comes out as simplest. I read this and was very convinced by the YEC explanation.
Love suffers long and is kind
This is the first sermon in a series on love, of which I will preach a few parts. This is one of my favorite sermons so far, and was and is personally challenging to me.
- Download Love suffers long and is kind
Time with God – the foundational Christian discipline
This sermon is broken up a little with humor while having technical problems, but the content is some of my best so far.
- Download Time with God
“Housewife” says what many of us feel about Islam
Ok, here’s another spam from my uncle – he sends me about one a day, but I like to post the ones I agree with or enjoy. I checked snopes for this and couldn’t find it, but it doesn’t matter – the sentiments shared here are shared by many of us who are sick of Islamic excuse making, and the American media’s failure to call a spade a spade – while most Islamic people may be nice, Islam is a hellish religion that poisons those who are taught by it – as has been said, the only reason more Muslims are not murderous is because they are human and realize the atrocity of what it really teaches.
And unlike the intellectually and historically ignorant claims of anti-religionists, all religions are not the same, and few are as murderous as Islam, and certainly NOT Christianity, which has done more good for humankind than any other.
So enjoy.
Desperation Pt. 1
This is the text version of the first half sermon I preached last Sunday night (second half to come later). It has taken me awhile to get all of this down, including links to all the Scripture references. I hope you can benefit from it.
Strength of life
Check out this amazing story of a baby who doctors tried to abort and the great lengths he went to in order to survive.
Romney, evangelicals and the media
Here’s another interesting take on how Mitt Romney’s faith plays into the election and how the media are struggling in knowing how to handle the issues involved.
Uneasy Neighbors – Church and State
Discussions of what the bible says about Christianity and government often come up, and one book I oft refer to is Pilgrim’s Uneasy Neighbors: Church and State in the New Testament. Pilgrim writes that there are actually at least three distinct New Testament doctrines governing the Christian approach to government, not just one simplistic “all or nothing” approach (i.e. theocracy or secularism); submissive confidence, deep resistance, and critical distancing.
In addition to these views, he also outlines the biblical responsibilities of civil government.
