If you have several seconds of spare time and want to help my daughter and future son-in-law win something for their wedding — and I’m pretty sure you do 
— please click here then click Like on their picture.
I, in turn, promise to click on at least one legal, moral and non-Liberal thing at your future request. And I’m not just saying that!
Many thanks to those of you who have already done so!
I’m predicting a moderate-sized Romney win, but the Democrat’s intimidation tactics and destruction of Republican registrations are already well-documented and could swing the results. Given how Obama used your tax dollars to buy votes from millions of people I’m amazed that it could be a Romney victory at all. But I’m encouraged that even with the seemingly non-stop Obama (free) infomercials from the mainstream media that enough people see how he is actively destroying the country and how a second term would be step functions worse. He’ll be as unrestrained as the blind men of Sodom.
And a Romney win will be just as huge of an impact. With some natural business cycle improvements plus Romney/Ryan policies they would sail to re-election in 4 years based on the dramatic improvements in the economy. It would be the easiest campaign ever: “We promised, we delivered. Want some more?”
But it gets better than that. The Clinton Democrats will throw Obama under the bus before the Romney inauguration and keep him there permanently. The Liberal extremists would be damaged for a long time.
Will I still have joy if Romney loses? Of course. That is my birthright as a Christian to have joy and contentment whenever I choose.
But will there still be something to mourn about? Of course. While I’m a huge fan of God’s sovereignty and how we shouldn’t act as non-Christians do when it comes to mourning or celebrating the wrong things or in the wrong way, there is nothing wrong with lamenting a Romney loss. And as one blogger noted, there is no reason you’d tell a Romney supporter, “no big deal, God is sovereign!” any more than you’d say that to someone going through a medical issue.
As I responded on a Facebook thread, I definitely agree that our hope should be in Jesus. Mine is. And we need an eternal perspective. But taking that to an extreme would also mean that the “love your neighbor” command isn’t a big deal. After all, this life is just a short blip, right? But if I love my neighbors, I want them to have religious freedom, I want them to have jobs, I don’t want them to be killed just because they are unwanted, I don’t their minds poisoned with sexual perversions in public schools, etc. And this election deals with all of those things.
The lesser of two evils is still less evil. We aren’t voting for a religious leader. We are electing someone to govern us with the values most approximating a biblical worldview, and our choices are limited. Even if a self-proclaimed Christian ran you can never be 100% sure he is legitimate. Remember, Obama claims to be a Christian.
And remember, it isn’t just about the President. While the incumbent has violated the Constitution at will, most Presidents don’t. So the Congress is crucial. When people long for the “Clinton years” what they are really longing for is a conservative Republican Congress. And the “Bush years” that Obama blames the most were the “Democrat Congress years.”
So get out and vote Republican if you haven’t already! And remind Democrats that until their platform is changed, they are officially pro-abortion: No restrictions of any kind plus taxpayer-funding.
As Steve Jobs would tell you (uh, if he could), sometimes you need surgery and medicine, because eating and exercise won’t cure what you’ve got.
But in many, many cases some exercise and better eating will fix your health problems, give you way more energy, save lots of money and put less of a burden on those you love.
You don’t need to do extreme exercise, but here are a couple impressive success stories from people who used P90X.
http://www.beachbody.com/product/p90x-success-stories-tommym.do
http://www.beachbody.com/product/p90x-success-stories-jeremyy.do
I see a lot of testimonials posted at 24 Hour Fitness as well. One was a grandma who was becoming a burden to her family. After exercising she was able to do so much more on her own and to play with her grandchildren. Another was a common one where a guy lost a lot of weight and was able to get off all sorts of medicine.
I think the key is to remember who you are competing against: Yourself. It is the “you” who won’t do any physical activity today versus the “you” who does something — anything! As the Bible notes, there will always be those better or worse than you, so try not to compare. Just find something you like, no matter how minimal, and do it.
I like doing a hybrid of P90X weightlifting, some cardio (stair stepper or exercise bike) and core work. And we go ballroom dancing several times per week. We’ve met lots of people who lost weight and feel much better since they started dancing. We think of dance as just a fun hobby and not exercise, but you get the benefits either way.
The historical reliability of the Gospels. We have good reasons to believe.
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Common traits of kids who don’t leave the church — some excellent points about youth groups, but I must add that the Bible doesn’t mention youth groups. They have great value if done right, but churches should emphasize the responsibility of parents to teach their kids. Alas, too many parents are biblical ignorant and doing nothing about it.
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The tragic superficiality of the gay lifestyle – I was surprised yet glad that this actually made it in the NY Times. Hopefully some people will reconsider their views.
A fascinating and surprising story published in the New York Times, laying bare what many homosexual activists will never admit publicly. It reports the real life tragedy of a typical homosexual man who sees and lives life based on the superficiality of homosexuality. How you look, what you wear and your “positive” attitude about yourself as a homosexual was the false recipe he sold to countless other gay men, but somehow knew that it wasn’t the truth.
On Jan 1st, Bob Bergeron, a quintessentially positive gay man, committed suicide. He left his friends, past sex partners and acquaintances wondering why. But they are blind to the real issue. The obsession with youth, beauty and sex is a killer. In a suicide note, he summed up the homosexual lifestyle in a single damning sentence:
“It’s a lie based on bad information.”, he wrote.
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Polar bears are thriving – wait, that can’t be right. The global warming / climate change folks who are aggressively fighting for an unprecedented global financial and power grab showed a picture of a polar bear on a small piece of ice.
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NHS bans woman from surgery because her carbon footprint is too big – Socialized health care sounds appealing, provided you don’t know history and can’t think through the logical consequences of it.
This is the problem with socialized medicine. You pay your money up front and then later on the government decides how much treatment you get. They have no reason to be nice to you – you already paid them. They don’t get paid more or less based on the quality of care they give you. You can’t get a refund on taxes paid. And where else can you go? It’s a single payer system.
I saw this on a poster: Socialized medicine may kill you, but at least it is free. Unless you pay taxes, then it just kills you.
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78-Year-Old White Guy Assaulted in Honor of Trayvon Martin – How much more blood will be on the hands of the MSM, Jesse, Al and the rest of the racism industry?
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US State Dept to force gay agenda on foreign nations – Most citizens have no idea how aggressively the administration is exporting the gay agenda.
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Obama supports women at Augusta National as party courts women’s vote – So the Panderer-in-Chief tries to get some easy publicity on this, then stumbles when asked the obvious question of whether his strong principles would have even the slightest impact on his behavior.
When later asked if Obama would play at a men-only club, Carney said the president had not specifically addressed that scenario during their conversation on the subject.
Chalk this up to the most powerful man in the world weighing in on an issue with the equivalent passion of clicking the “Like” button on Facebook. In other words, meaningless hypocrisy.
Bonus question: How many women does Obama golf with?
The president himself, however, has a well-documented history of excluding women, especially on the golf course.
Obama played 23 rounds of golf between January and October of 2009 before inviting a single woman to his foursome, the New York Times reported. This was emblematic of broader concerns over the president’s preference for the company and advice of men:
“The technical foul over the all-male game has become a nagging concern for a White House that has battled an impression dating to the presidential campaign that Mr. Obama’s closest advisers form a boys’ club and that he is too frequently in the company of only men — not just when playing sports, but also when making big decisions.”
“Women are Obama’s base, and they don’t seem to have enough people who look like the base inside of their own inner circle,” former Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers told the Times.
In a 2011 article titled “The White House Boys’ Club: President Obama Has a Woman Problem,” TIME magazine’s Amy Sullivan detailed the president’s fondness for male-dominated enviroments.
Yeah, there’s a real war on women going on, just not from conservatives.
But what’s new? When the Tea Party rallies allegedly didn’t have just the right mix of diversity then the charge from the liberal media was racism. And if you like Tea Partier Herman Cain then you are extra-racist because you are obviously just voting for him to cover up your regular racism.
Yet the Occupy protesters are having the same lack of diversity. Does the media assume it is racism? Of course not. They rationalize it away in the most creative ways. See Occupy protesters eye diversity as movement grows.
The outcry against the nation’s financial institutions that has swept the country in recent weeks has crossed many boundaries, including class, gender and age. But a stubborn hurdle in many cities has been a lack of racial inclusion, something noted by organizers and participants alike.
“We, the 99 percent, have to be reaching out to the cross section of the communities that we live in,” said Tim Franzen, one of the organizers of the Occupy Atlanta movement. “If you come down to the park and spend a day I think you might have a hard time saying this is an all-white movement. We are reaching out, but we’ve got some bridges to build.”
The absence of diversity is particularly notable given that some of the larger issues surrounding the Occupy movement — including the economy, foreclosures and unemployment — are disproportionately affecting people of color. And the legacy of activism present in some minority communities seems a natural segue for such a cause, which has been linked to the strategies of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
African-Americans are more inclined to rally around social justice than financial literacy causes, said John Hope Bryant, founder and chief executive officer of Operation HOPE, a non-profit organization that educates underserved and low-income Americans about personal financial responsibility.
Got that? The alleged lack of Tea Party diversity (ignoring, again, the rise of Herman Cain) was immediately and emphatically attributed to racism, yet the admitted lack of Occupy diversity is because of a lack of concern over financial literacy (Is that guy saying that blacks aren’t financially literate?!) — even when they admit that blacks are disproportionately affected by what they are protesting.
That’s radical bias, even by the mainstream media’s standards.
Hat tip: Chuck from Facebook
As if we needed more evidence that Liberals literally fail at basic economics, this anti-Tea Party piece is floating around Facebook as if it actually proves something: So you say you hate taxes? … well here is the solution. Here’s a sample of the 102 items listed (they really put a lot of work into this logical fallacy!):
1. Do not use Medicare.
2. Do not use Social Security
3. Do not become a member of the US military, who are paid with tax dollars.
4. Do not ask the National Guard to help you after a disaster.
5. Do not call 911 when you get hurt.
I imagine that most of you will quickly spot the straw man fallacy: The Tea Party never claimed to want taxes to be zero. Never. They even used the “backronym” of Taxed Enough Already. Therefore, the “but taxes pay for good things” argument is meaningless. It proves nothing. It was just an extended-play, petty vehicle to demonize one’s ideological opponents.
And you’ll probably realize that just because we need taxes for some things — and the Tea Partiers agree that some taxes are necessary — it doesn’t mean:
Side note: The commenters on the Facebook page included the typical “tea bagger” pejorative. It occurred to me that the anti-Tea Party people must be real homophobes. After all, why would they consider it to be such an effective insult to refer to Tea Partiers by a term describing a gay sex act?
1. Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons: ”There is no emoticon to express I feel!”
2. Pearls Before Swine comic:
As one female caller to a talk radio show said the other day, “She is smart, she is athletic, she loves the outdoors, she hunts, she fishes, she raises kids, she is on TV, she has been a governor of a state, she writes books, she blogs, AND she is pretty. What’s not to hate?”
90% of people abort Down Syndrome children, but she gave birth to hers. Her pro-life position makes Liberals absolutely hate her. You could agree with radical feminists on literally every issue possible except unrestricted abortion and they will hate you with a passion. Seriously.
SP [Sarah Palin] is a stupid moron.
I got this challenge on Facebook from a life-long friend. He has a great sense of humor and thick skin, but sadly suffers from a debilitating case of Liberalism. Out of kindness, I gave him two chances to withdraw the dare, but he persisted (they are a stubborn lot!).
Neil, I dare you to post this on your blog. No, I double dog dare you. Zombies Walk The Halls Of Congress : NPR.
The article highlighted Democrats and Republicans who stayed in Congress after scandals. I wonder why NPR didn’t go after examples like this more aggressively? I mean, sweet Maxine is still there. They could shine a bigger light on this one:
Other survivors? There’s Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA). During the fiscal meltdown, she arranged a meeting with the Treasury Department for a bank her husband owned stock in.
The article forgot to note that Republicans are more likely to resign and more likely to be pressured to resign from their party. Then again, you can only be a hypocrite if you have standards to begin with. Witness Chris Matthews’ claim that the real problem with Weiner is that “backwards” religious people disagree with his behavior — meaning that “progressive” people think there was nothing really wrong with a Congressman exposing himself to bribes and ridicule in sending R- and X-rated pictures of himself to strangers and then lying to friends and enemies alike in a pathetic cover-up attempt. His real crime was getting caught. Hey, at least Matthews clearly reveals his “morality.”
Also note that the NPR article “forgot” to mention Bill Clinton staying in office after abusing his authority with an intern, exposing himself to the possibility of blackmail, trying to destroy her life (and he would have succeeded if not for the infamous dress) and lying under oath. Yet while Nixon became synonymous with deception and scandal, Clinton’s punishment is making $100,000 per speech and having a wife who is Secretary of State.
Back to the dare: My friend’s premise was that I’d never post something from NPR that showed that they were balanced. But the grand irony is if they were truly unbiased then he could send me their links all day, every day. But as it is he found a token piece that was balanced and was so shocked and thrilled that he launched into his double dog dare without realizing that he was proving my point, not his.
Whether NPR is biased or not (and of course they are wildly biased, or my extreme Liberal friend wouldn’t be such a loyal fan), they shouldn’t get government funding.
There you go, my friend. Hope you’re happy!
Rob Bell has gotten a lot of well justified criticism over the universalist heresies (that is, everyone goes to Heaven) in his Love Wins book. Ironically, now Bell is saying he’s been misinterpreted and that he’s not a universalist — which means that Rob’s universalist supporters disagree with him. What chaos!
The Sola Sisters have a good analysis of why Rob’s responses to his critics fall short. Here’s an example they highlight:
…..Hell, as a period of “pruning” in which God is continuing to woo each person who is there until they end up in heaven (Bell’s version, p. 91 “Love Wins”) as compared to
……Hell as an eternal punishment for those who have broken God’s moral laws, and who are paying the penalty of their sins with their own lives (God’s version).
I ended up in this Facebook thread on a friend’s page. The “Pastor Universalist,” as he ended up calling himself, eventually deleted all his comments, leaving mine all alone on the thread (it now reads like some weird soliloquy). Again, this guy is defending Bell and his universalism, even though Bell is now trying to deny his universalism. There’s just the pesky problem of this book he wrote where he seems pretty clear about it.
FB friend: Has anyone wondered why Rob Bell has not been accused of being divisive with his apostate treatise on Hell “Love Wins”?
Me: Good point. It is only divisive to disagree with Rob.
FB friend: I can help but to see the parallels in the insanity budgeting/gov. shutdown blame circus.
Pastor Universalist (PU): Well then what is the alternative …..Either God so Loved the world that he gave his only Son to die for it….or he hates it and is going to kill everyone off….. What does your Bible read?
Me: It is about the definition you pour into the word. Does love win? Of course. But Rob Bell ignores countless scriptures to interpret that as universalism — as if what Jesus said about Hell is true then love lost. Was Jesus being loving when He told the Pharisees that they would die in their sins if they didn’t believe who He was? God wins. Love wins. Justice wins.
PU: BTW ….allow me to address your question as well….The reason that many have not accused Rob Bell of being an Apostate is because there are many who believe that his offerings are scripturally sound and follow the essense and Heart of the New Testament doctrine….
Me: Bell and his followers can’t even get John 3:16 right. John specifically mentions that those who believe in him won’t perish — meaning that those who don’t believe in him will. If that wasn’t clear enough, verse 18 will help
Me: Should you believe Rob Bell or Jesus? (Hint: Go with Jesus) Rob Bell (Love Wins, p. 66): Could God say to someone truly humbled, broken, and desperate for reconciliation, “Sorry, too late”? Many have refused to accept the scenario in which somebody is pounding on the door, apologizing, repenting, and asking God to be let in, only to hear God say through the keyhole: “Door’s locked. Sorry. If you had been here earlier, I could have done something. But now, it’s too late.”
Compare that to Jesus Christ (Matthew 25:1-13): Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, “Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.” But the wise answered, saying, “Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.” And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.” But he answered and said, “Verily I say unto you, I know you not.” Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
PU: And Yes Neil…..It really does depend on your study and Interpretation of Scripture…. Christiaity is a Universal Doctrine….In otherwords….availible to all who ask and recieve… However…To Judge someone as an Apostate is a strong acusation…. Remember that Jesus also spoke that by whatever measure you Mete out….you will also recieve……To build a case for Love winning is a great step of Faith… To Hate is carnal and God is Love… So to believe that God can save is also a great step of Faith….. It is easy to write other people off as lost and unreconciilable to God… But to hold a Vision of salvation is a great Gift….
Me: ”To Judge someone as an Apostate is a strong …acusation…. Remember that Jesus also spoke that by whatever measure you Mete out….you will also recieve”
Seems odd that a universalist would warn me about warning about false teachers.
Me: ”It is easy to write other people off as lost and unreconciilable to God… But to hold a Vision of salvation is a great Gift….”
The question isn’t whether it is easy or hard to do, but what scripture teaches.
PU: That’s Pastor Universalist to you brother…. And again…You are accusing….. I am going to exhort you to be careful here….”
Me: Why be careful? After all, on your view I go to Heaven even if I don’t trust in Jesus. How could trusting in Jesus and making (allegedly) false accusations be a bad combo? Or do you have a passage that says those who don’t trust in Jesus go to Heaven, but those who do trust in Jesus and make false accusations don’t? What if you are making a false accusation against me? Howzabout we focus on the actual passages in question instead of lobbying threats?
I exhort you to heed the many passages about sound doctrine –http://tinyurl.com/4yja58j . And if you are a pastor then that is all the worse. I know of many, many false teachers. Titles mean little to me if their doctrine is false.
PU: OK Neil…..checking out…..believe whateewr you have faith for…Blessings to you…..May you find Christ….”
Me: Ha! Oh, so now I haven’t found Christ? What a hypocrite. Please re-read your quotes about warnings.
Me: My new blog post is dedicated to you: False teaching universalists can’t even get John 3:16 right. Here’s what they think John meant: John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Oh, and BTW, those who don’t believe in him also have eternal life. Which, now that I think about it, means that I should have left the whole perishing thing out of this passage. After all, everyone is going to Heaven no matter what they believe. But I don’t want to have to start over, so I’m going to leave it in. My, I do tend to ramble on sometimes. That’s just me, the Apostle John. Now on to verse 17 . . . V. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. D’oh! I did it again!
What happens when the government pays people to have babies out-of-wedlock? – This is going to come as a big shock, but you get more of them. Please read the Wintery Knight’s account and commentary about a man in England who is soon to have fathered 15 children out-of-wedlock with many women, and the taxpayers will be paying for all of them. How tragic that these children will grow up without a father. Yet the “loving” government welfare policies are the root cause.
The cycle is vicious and interwoven: Higher taxes make it harder for people to raise families themselves, incentives to stay unmarried drive up illegitimacy, a lack of fathers in the home to screen suitors and offer discipline and protection exacerbate the problem, and on and on.
People need to use some discernment and abandon these counterproductive policies. How much more evidence do they need?
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Then here’s more from Roxanne in The Cost of Single Parenthood, Continued
I’ve blogged many times on the social and psychological costs of illegitimacy – the six-fold chance of living in poverty, the nine-fold increase in the chance of being molested by a mother’s boyfriend or a stepfather than by one’s own father, the reduced chance of graduating from high school, going to college, and having a good life.
Jazz Shaw posted an article by Angela Lash about similar problems in the polygamous Mormon community. Physically, psychologically, and economically, polygamy is a disaster for women and children. The economics are straightforward: men who have multiple wives and children with all of their wives cannot afford to care for them all. Those “families” most resemble single-parent families . . .
. . .
In case no one noticed, our bodies are not designed for this situation. The sixth-grade “birds and bees” discussion should have made it clear that there’s something about the union of exactly one man and exactly one woman that produces human life, and that union provides the best basis for raising children. Deviating from that causes problems for children, problems for society, problems for women, and problems for every person involved except for men. It’s almost like traditional Western values and Judeo-Christian norms provide the best protection for the weakest in our society, rather than being oppressive – in direct contradistinction to what feminists, progressives, and leftists would say.
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What’s the Message of the Bible in One Sentence? – 25 scholars and pastors weighed in. I didn’t give it much extra thought, but I did think of a note I put in all my hand written notes to prison ministry participants:
God adopts, completely forgives and eternally blesses everyone who repents and trusts in Jesus.
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New peer-reviewed article argues for irreducible complexity in birds
Let’s take a step back and ask what counts as evidence for evolution for people who actually care about evidence.
Here’s what counts as evidence:
- A smooth sequence of fossils showing the gradual emergence of different body body features across a wide spectrum of body plans.Not just horses and whales, not just micro-evolution. Major changes in body structure, which properly dated fossils, from a wide range of body plans.
- A lab experiment that derives a new organ type or body plan from an unmodified organism, like the Lenski experiments tried to do on a smaller scale.
- A computer simulation that shows a string of mutations that occur on one organism that would give it a new feature or organ within a reasonable amount of time (less than 4 billion years). The mutations must be probable, and the organism must have improved functionality at each stage of its development. And a calculation would have to be done to show that each beneficial mutation would spread to the rest of the population and survive in the next generation, which is a separate question.
Do we have that evidence in the case of bird evolution (feathers and lungs)? Of course not.
Do we have that evidence in the case of evolution as a whole? Of course not.
People who embrace evolution embrace it on the basis of non-rational, non-evidence factors.
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Marxist Democrat Cringes As Russian Immigrants Compare Communism to…Democrats! – The State Senator tries to rationalize it away, but you can’t deny the Russian’s awareness of the links.
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Glenn on drafting women – excellent analysis on the inevitable problems. Do you want your daughters to get drafted? Because that is the logical conclusion of this.
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Evil Health Insurance Corporations Love ObamaCare – Seems like one of the main reasons people wanted health care reform was to get back out those evil insurers – you know, the same ones who contributed to both parties and helped craft the bill. What a shocker that they like it. If you ran a business wouldn’t you like it if the government forced people to buy your products and services?
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“Eggsploitation” nominated for Best Documentary in California Film Festival
I’ve written before about the physical harm of egg harvesting to women, not to mentionconcerns over exploitation of women as human hens. Even liberal feminists are apprehensive. So the film’s growing publicity and affirmation is welcome news.
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15 Reasons the Abortion Industry is Losing Its Support – Hat tip: Robert from Facebook
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Funny and effective video about pastors who twist scripture then twist it some more when called on it. You might have to click again to watch it on YouTube (sometimes the embedding doesn’t work). Hat tip: Touch ya Neighbor Ministries
Here’s an example where the media can get a story largely right but still exert their bias with a misleading headline. See More Palin Bashing: How CNN Misleads With Headlines : Stop The ACLU.
CNN indulged a classic left media tactic by misleading with a headline in a recent piece on former Governor Sarah Palin. The headline, if read by itself, seems to be saying that Sarah Palin delivered a “gaffe-filled message,” when the truth is that her message talked about gaffes, but wasn’t “filled” with them per se. The effect was that the headline made Palin look worse than the story itself did. If all one read was the headline, one would get a far different opinion of what was going on than if one read the story that went with it.
On Nov. 26, CNN delivered this headline on its Political Ticker blog: Palin delivers a gaffe-filled message.
Think about that headline. Doesn’t it say to you that Palin delivered a bunch of gaffes in her message? If all you did was read that headline, you’d think she made a fool of herself with all sorts of incorrect statements in it. One suspects that CNN fully realized this fact.
What atheists think about religion and how should Christians respond? – Excellent analysis by the Wintry Knight (ultimately more of a dig at the ineffective / counterproductive activities of Christians than at atheists).
Wow! I’m impressed by these one-line catch phrases on billboards! So persuasive and rational! So focused on making propositional claims about the external world! So concerned with reason and evidence, not emotions and community! Such a careful investigation of the facts on both sides! The “Join the Club” argument! The “Celebrate Reason” argument! The “Be Nice If You Feel Life It” argument! Wowie wow wow! I’m impressed.
I note that the atheists are not funding formal debates, because that would require a discussion with two sides, and atheism is not something that performs well when the other side is well-represented. So, flashy sound-bite advertisements are used by atheists to present atheism to the public. It’s not rational, it’s marketing.
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The National Council of (apostate) Churches is pro-abortion but anti-waterboarding – Oh, and they get much of their funding from liberal non-church groups and the church leaders that do support them don’t represent most of their members well.
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ObamaCare: Union Waiver Favors Pile Up
Union bosses fought tooth and nail to nationalize America’s health care—even, in many cases, to the detriment of their own members. Now, instead of chewing on and swallowing what they bit off, unions are getting waivers to the very plan that they shoved down everyone else’s throat.
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I disagreed with the conclusions at Libertarian free will vs. compatiabalism but enjoyed the comic. Perhaps my Reformed readers would enjoy weighing in over there . . .
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Keep this in mind the next time you are complaining about your circumstances. Lots of people on the planet would like to have your problems.
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Borrowed these from my daughters’ Facebook pages . . .
I really love keyboard shortcuts. This picture is for me.
Well, I finished the 13 weeks. I’ll definitely do the routine again but with a few modifications. The jumping bothered my neck so unfortunately I need to cut out the plyometrics and a couple other moves. But I’ll just substitute a biking / stair stepper day and a couple other exercises.
I will mix in some more traditional weeks of lifting, but one thing P90X has done is get me to pick up the pace of my workouts. I’ll try to rest less between sets. I’ve learned lots of new exercises that I plan to work in.
I’m going mix in weeks of traditional workouts with another round of P90X, but I can already tell that I’ll miss Tony Horton pushing me and setting a faster pace. Working out to the DVDs really is a bit like having a personal trainer.
I finally broke down and ordered a heart monitor watch. I think my rate gets too high when doing the legs & back routine.
I had already been working out steadily so my changes weren’t that dramatic, but I am a lot more flexible and my chin-ups are at all-time highs. I’ve had periods when I was younger and could lift more raw weights, but as far as overall fitness goes this is probably the best I’ve had. The variety of moves and coverage (strength, cardio and flexibility) is outstanding.
If you’ve thought about trying it, give it a go. But heed the warnings below and on the DVDs! Just compete with yourself. If you can only do 2 push-ups but you work up to 3, then 4, then 5, then you are winning.
Original post
I’m almost halfway through the 13 week P90X fitness routine and wanted to share some thoughts on it. I’ve exercised regularly for 30+ years, almost all just self-training — mostly lifting plus jogging/exercise bike type stuff. When I see “As seen on TV” I take it as a reason not to buy the product in question. But I heard of several people at work and on Facebook who used P90X and liked it so I decided to give it a try.
My philosophy on fitness is that God has numbered our days but that our choices make a big difference in how we live those days. Narcissism and excessive exercise aren’t good, but letting ourselves go doesn’t optimize our work for the Kingdom either. Illness can strike anyone, but I want to accomplish as much as I can with whatever days I have left and I want to minimize any burdens on my family. I like to stay on the giving side of the giving/receiving equation as much as possible. Exercise is also a great stress relief. Therefore, I strive to stay fit.
Observations
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Study: Gay Parents More Likely to Have Gay Kids – This is important on several levels. It demonstrates the rather obvious implications of gays adopting children, it refutes the “born that way” myth and it shows how much ideology drives “science” (just as it does in Darwinian evolution and global warming). Read it.
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Democrats get TWICE the amount of foreign contributions as Republicans – sorta puts the nail in the coffin of the pathetic and false accusations against the Chamber of Commerce, doesn’t it?
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Many people behave ethically when it profits them or costs them nothing, but true ethical behavior is displayed when there is a risk associated with it.
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Hilarious: Left tries to ridicule Governor Palin for “don’t party like it’s 1773 yet” tweet but doesn’t know that’s when the Boston Tea Party happened — I assume those same Lefty history buffs mocked Obama’s “57 states” comment until their throats were raw. Still waiting for the MSM to publicize this with half the energy they used to distort Christine O’Donnell’s 1st Amendment comments (while ignoring all her direct hits on Coons).
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Farcebook is just a little inconsistent on their guidelines
The social networking site facebook has allied with GLAAD to fight anti-gay references on the facebook site. You will get no argument from me when someone tries to prevent juvenile harassment and bullying of gays (I agree with Andrew Wilcow that gay people should exercise their second amendment right more frequently when faced with physical bullying and intimidation).
The wonderful people at facebook have a “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities” for all facebook users. But, this is where it gets a little farcical. There are a variety of facebook groups that deal with the topic of Rush Limbaugh, and when I say “deal”, I mean things like “waiting for him to die”, hoping he “should die slowly”, etc. You get the picture.
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Peer review: How much more believable than fortune telling these days? – No, that can’t be. Scientists are the only professionals untainted by original sin and would never, ever mislead for the sake of personal gain (or to avoid losing tenure, employment or reputation). Right?!
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Wise Latina Update – elections matter. McCain would have never put such an awful judge on the Supreme Court.
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James Cameron: Green For Thee – What. A. Hypocrite. Watch the short video and see what not-so-incredible sacrifices he’s making compared to what he expects you to do.
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The abortion nurse’s daughter: Inside minds at the mill – all this and more. Tragic.
I asked Abigail if the clinic aborted women who weren’t pregnant. Yes, she said, adding the clinic owner often joked “anyone who wants an abortion can have one, whether she’s pregnant or not!”
My sort-of Facebook policy: I keep the comments generally light and leave the politics and heavier stuff to my blog links. I love the banter of my kids, who are very funny. If I want to follow the play-by-play action of a sports team I’ll use my iPhone ESPN app, so I definitely don’t need the details of plays and commentary for teams I don’t follow.
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John McCain was not my first choice for President (or second, or third . . .), but I much preferred him over Barack Obama. I’m really surprised that some people think that things would be no better under a McCain administration. Are you kidding me?! For starters, he would have spent $1 trillion less and would have put qualified judges on the Supreme Court. Those alone would have positively impacted the country for decades. Decades! People get so caught up in irrelevant political details and ignore the major things that impact most people.
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Why doesn’t the church address the issue of modesty? – Great question and answers by Randy Alcorn. Read it all.
I’m all for sex and I think it’s great for a woman to be sexy with one person—her husband. The irony is there are cases where women have gotten so used to appearing sexy in public yet actually have no sexual relationship with their own husbands. So we have two issues going on related to the issue of modesty—modesty in public, and modesty when the Body of Christ is assembled. And this latter one is huge.
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As for the part of the question asking why this is not being addressed like it should be in churches, I believe the answer is fear. I think there are many pastors and church leaders, who, like many husbands and fathers, are afraid to speak up for fear of offending women who are fashion-conscious. Some women think that to be fashionable, you have to have outfits that are sexy—including the split skirts, the very tight skirts and pants, and low-cut tops. All of these things send a message to men, and pastors are very self-conscious about speaking up because they think,There are women who will think I am a pervert for even mentioning this. “Oh, is that what the pastor is thinking about when he’s up front?”
It’s a difficult situation, but it’s an issue I believe male leaders of the home and church need the courage to speak up about and address directly. We also need godly women (especially godly women who can be reasonably fashionable and attractive in the right sense of attractive—not sexually attractive) who will lovingly challenge other women and let them know they are sending a wrong message. And if they don’t care about the message they’re sending, then something’s really wrong and they need to repent. We need open, clear discussions about this so women can become aware and understand the issue.
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Nancy Leigh DeMoss has excellent material on modesty and purity. She has a wonderful booklet titled The Look: Does God Really Care What I Wear? as well as several resources about the freedom of modesty at her ministry’s website,www.reviveourhearts.com.
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Coming soon to a country near you: Greek Health System Opts for Amputation as Money-Saver (Hat tip: The way the Ball bounces)
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Teacher unions block volunteers from working in school libraries
