Wednesday, April 25, 2007
American Family Association
The AFA is one of the most effective and hateful Christian organizations in America. Let by Donald Wildmon, they have mounted boycotts against corporations and media companies whose views they disagree with. But yet they claim to support freedom of speech...
So here is a vid they are pushing which makes the case that all of this free speech we have in America is a major cause of school shootings and other ills.
(Oh yeah, Dr. Spock too. Generalizations are so much fun. My older sister was spanked, but by the time I was around Dr. Spock was out and I didn't get spanked. Neither of us shot up our schools. Explain that!)
Gosh, isn't God a spiteful petulant lunatic!
(link is to an excellent rebuttal vid)
Fred Thompson is their savior!
An ongoing straw poll on the AFA site has Fred Thompson way in the lead. The conservative Christians are desparate for someone to save them from Mitt and Rudy. Fred is their man. Watch him. Here's a synopsis of his record as senator.
They say...
...the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. In Bush's case, perhaps they're one and the same.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
The Killer in the Lecture Hall
By BARBARA OAKLEY
The New York Times, April 19, 2007
THE sticky note on my door was wiggling. It was a gift from a student. Glued to the middle of it was a cockroach.
Don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t that I was an unpopular professor. To the contrary — according to student evaluations, I might as well have had a sign on my forehead that said “Kindly.”
I was told later that the cockroach was a symbol of love from — well, let’s call him Rick. Rick had recently moved into the lab across the hall from my office, where he spent the night in a sleeping bag under one of the benches.
Rick, who had been a student for more than a decade, sometimes whiled away his time discussing guns and explosives with some of the more munitions-inclined faculty members. He admitted that he kept his basement stocked with a variety of “armaments.”
Sometimes I wished I had an armament, although, like Virginia Tech, my university does not allow firearms on campus. I wished that because, not only did Rick attach love-cockroaches to my door and live across the hall from my office and possess a small armory, but Rick watched me all the time. Sometimes he followed me out to my car — just to make sure I was safe.
When I complained about Rick to the dean of students, I was told there was nothing to be done — after all, “students have rights, too.” Only after appealing to that dean’s boss and calling a raft of fellow professors who had also come to fear Rick’s strange behavior was I able to convince the administration to take grudging action; they restricted his ability to loiter in certain areas and began nudging him toward the classes he needed to graduate.
In a strange way, I could see the administration’s point. Rick looked fairly ordinary, at least when away from his sleeping bag and pet cockroaches. It must have seemed far more likely that Rick could sue for being thrown out of school, than that I — or anyone else — could ever be hurt. The easiest path, from their perspective, was to simply get me to shut up.
Many professors have run across more than their share of Ricks. At least one Virginia Tech professor noticed that Cho Seung-Hui, who killed 32 people on campus on Monday, was potentially dangerous and did her best to warn the administration and the police. (So did at least two female students.) But there is only so much a teacher can do — “students have rights, too.”
It’s a simple fact that, for every deranged murderer like Mr. Cho there are thousands more oddballs just below the breaking point. I know one quasi-psychopathic incompetent, for example, who remained on the campus payroll for over a dozen years simply because his supervisor was afraid of being killed if he was fired.
It’s long been in fashion to believe that people are innately good, and that upbringing and environment are responsible for nasty personalities. But research is beginning to show that mean, sometimes outright evil behavior has a strong genetic component. Some of us, in other words, are truly born bad.
Researchers at King’s College London have recently determined that if one identical twin shows psychopathic traits, the other twin, who coincidentally shares precisely the same set of genes, has a very high probability of having the same psychopathic traits. But among fraternal twins, who share only half their genes, the chance that both twins will show psychopathic traits is far smaller. In other words, there is something suspiciously psychopath-inducing in some people’s genes.
What could it be? Medical images of the brain give tantalizing clues — the amygdala, the “fight or flight” decision-making center of the brain, may be smaller than usual, or some areas of the brain may glow only dimly because of low serotonin levels. We may not know precisely what set Mr. Cho off, but we are beginning to home in on the unusual differences in certain neurochemistries that can make people act in bizarre and dysfunctional ways.
Still, the Virginia Tech shootings have already led to calls for all sorts of changes: gun control, more mental health coverage, stricter behavior rules on campuses. Yes, in a perfect world, there would be no guns, no mental illness and no Cho Seung-Huis. But the world is very imperfect. Consider that Britain’s national experiment with gun-free living is proving to be a disaster, with violent and gun crime rates soaring.
In other words, most of the broad social “lessons” we are being told we must learn from the Virginia Tech shootings have little to do with what allowed the horrors to occur. This is about evil, and about how our universities are able to deal with it as a literary subject but not as a fact of life. Can administrators and deans really continue to leave professors and other college personnel to deal with deeply disturbed students on their own, with only pencils in their defense?
Barbara Oakley, a professor of engineering at Oakland University, is the author of the forthcoming (October) “Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend.”
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Take one tablet and call me in the morning
I don't know how I got on these fundamentalist Christian email lists, but no way will I unsubscribe! I wonder what Moses thinks of all this.
Dear follower of God’s Commandments:
Thank you for being salt and light in a dark world, and setting the example in your community for living by the Word of God.
While you are busy ministering to the poor and needy, I must share an important message with you.
On May 6th, The Ten Commandments Commission is celebrating its Second Annual Ten Commandment’s Day nationally, and I want to make you aware of the important role you can have in your community during this historic event.
Last year, the First Annual Ten Commandments Day was celebrated nationally, and its activities were broadcasted with the assistance of many of our nation’s largest ministries and greatest leaders who doing there part to keep America as “One Nation Under God.”
Among the many leaders who have demonstrated support for our efforts or have signed the Ten Commandments Proclamation last year are: Dr. Mark Chirrona, Dr. David Clark, Chuck Colson, Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Jerry Falwell, Dr. Ron Hembree, Pastor John Hagee, Dr. D. James Kennedy, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Bishop Eddie Long, Dr. Myles Munroe, Pastor Rod Parsley, Tony Perkins, Pastor Glenn Plummer, Dr. Richard Roberts, Rev. Pat Robertson, Jerry Rose, Jay Sekulow, Steve Strang, Don Wildmon and many more.
These brave leaders are working towards reestablishing the Ten Commandments to its paramount position in Western Civilization. They understand that God’s moral law is not only a profile of His character, but also a moral mirror to show humans where we have fallen short in honoring Him.
Will you join us in the effort to stop America from falling short?
http://TenCommandmentsCommission.org/join_3.php
The Ten Commandment’s Commission was formed in 2005 by a diverse group of leaders who seek to take this challenge to our fellow citizens. Hundreds of Thousands of devoted citizens have joined us since.
Unfortunately, our country is now filled with people who ignore these commandments everyday. They have chosen to fall short, to degrade themselves and to degrade our society.
Therefore, as we witness the decay of society, we must come together in a spirit of unity, harmony and reconciliation in order to bring the Word of God back to the forefront of our national conscience.
We are already working with community organizations, churches and synagogues to promote the tenets of the Ten Commandments, on the first Sunday in May and year-round.
You and your church can participate in this national celebration by:
- Using your pulpit to deliver sermons expressing the importance of the Ten Commandments to preserve our society and the need to bring them back to the heart and soul of the nation were they belong. We can provide you with sermons and teaching materials that have been provided courtesy of the Heritage Studies Institute.
- Encouraging everyone to wear the Ten Commandments Pin. It is a powerful display of unity and reverence for God's Word. On that day, we encourage everyone to wear the Ten Commandments Pin that we have made available through our website http://TenCommandmentsCommission.org/pin.php or by calling 800-864-1205.
- Setting an example to your parishioners by signing the Ten Commandment’s Day Proclamation on their pulpit which encourages the U.S. Congress to recognize the first Sunday in May as a national holiday. Pastors are also encouraged to invite their members to partake in these efforts. The example of the pastor signing the proclamation is the most effective message to send your flock. Proclamations and signing sheets will be available to your church in advance.
- Adding the name of your church to the list of participating churches in the nation. We will inform the media of your participation and have your church recognized in all of our materials nationally and on our website
http://TenCommandmentsCommission.org/join_3.php. - Sharing this information with your friends, family and fellow pastors who may be interested in participating in this exciting event.
Like you, I believe that no civilized society or government can exist successfully without the recognition, acceptance and adherence to moral law and the standard for value judgment—The Ten Commandments. The United States was founded on these principles and our Founding Fathers accepted the Judeo-Christian tenets as the pillars of the American legal system.
This effort can only succeed with the help of caring people like you, who are willing to open their heart and help promote God’s Commandments.
Will you and your church join in the celebration this year?
Click here to receive to receive your more information immediately.
http://TenCommandmentsCommission.org/join_3.php
Already hundreds of thousands of people have signed our proclamation (http://TenCommandmentsCommission.org/petition.php) to support our efforts. They understand its value to a generation of people who would rather live in sin.
Please let me know if you would like more information on the activities planned for May 6th. Your efforts are the next steps towards preserving the Word of God and ensuring our country remains “One Nation Under God.”
May He continue to hold you and guide you with His strong, right hand and lead you in the path of righteousness for His namesake.
Faithfully yours,
Dr. Ron Wexler
Founder & President
P.S. Like you, I am a person of faith who accepts my obligation to stand up for God and I urge you to join me in spreading His Word this May 6th, (http://TenCommandmentsCommission.org/join_3.php) --America needs you.
Ten Commandments Commission
P.O. Box 811437
Boca Raton, Florida 33481-2527
Monday, April 16, 2007
I wonder...
I knew there was something familiar about Don Imus's now famous slur. Remember that Imus was once a top 4o DJ and played "I Wish" by Stevie Wonder back in the 70s
"Looking back on when i
Was a little nappy headed boy"
Sphere: Related Content
Was a little nappy headed boy"
What Imus meant
Yeah, he was comparing the Rutgers players to a Hawaiian crooner. That's the ticket!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Kurt Vonnegut 1922 - 2007
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music."
- Kurt Vonnegut from "A Man Without A Country"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
