Author Archives: MzEllen

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Godwin's Law: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."
MzEllen's Law: "As an internet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Islam or Muslims approaches one."

Godwin wrote: "Although deliberately framed as if it were a law of nature or of mathematics, its purpose has always been rhetorical and pedagogical: I wanted folks who glibly compared someone else to Hitler or to Nazis to think a bit harder about the Holocaust,"

Well, when a person compares [something] to Islam, I'd like them to think a bit harder about

  • female circumcision
  • honor killings
  • forced arranged marriages
  • beheadings for being raped.
  • being stoned to death for pre-marital intercourse.
  • being killed by your father for dating the wrong boy
  • being stabbed by your brother for going to a dance club

I want you to think a bit harder about those things.
Again, MzEllen's Law (if it's out there someplace else, let me know!)

"As an internet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Islam or Muslims approaches one."

From Wiki:

The concept appears to have entered the public consciousness more broadly, as well. In 2005, the aphorism was the subject of a question in the British television quiz show University Challenge. By 2007, The Economist had declared that "a good rule in most discussions is that the first person to call the other a Nazi automatically loses the argument." And in October 2007, the "Last Page" columnist in The Smithsonian stated that when an adversary uses an inappropriate Hitler or Nazi comparison, "you have only to say 'Godwin's Law' and a trapdoor falls open, plunging your rival into a pool of hungry crocodiles."

"As an internet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Islam or Muslims approaches one."

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Okay...the mother kidnapped, abused, neglected, disappeared...

and the father is PRESENT, but the kids are under the "supervision" of the Welfare Office.   The default custody is generally to the mother...even a kidnapper, abuser, neglecter...

A MOTHER who abandoned her two young daughters with friends in Cyprus is believed to be in her homeland Holland.

Dutch police are now searching her previous addresses to serve her with a summons, after an arrest warrant was issued in Cyprus for serious child abuse and neglect.

The two girls, aged nine and 11, are now with their father, Gerard Roppeveel, and under the protection of the Cyprus Social Welfare Office.

According to Annita Koni, the Head of the Welfare Office’s Family and Child Service, “The Department has already taken the appropriate measures to protect the children and they are in a safe place under our supervision.” (...)

The story came to light when a friend of the family – who frequently took the little girls in to feed, wash and clothe them – contacted the Cyprus Mail and recounted the girls’ awful plight.

She was appalled that crippling bureaucracy procedures were preventing Roppeveel from taking his daughters back home, so they could live “a stable and secure life”. (...)

Courts in Cyprus are hesitant to allow Roppeveel to leave the island as the mother is not present. They are also having trouble trying to get the girls’ passports as they disappeared with their mum, when she left Cyprus over a month ago, leaving her children with the family friend.

According to the Chairman of the House Legal Affairs Committee, Ionas Nicolaou of DISY, there are specific procedures that need to be followed for a father to be able to secure a court order for full custody in the absence of the mother.

“The father must prove that the mother has abandoned her children,” he explained. “You can’t remove custody from a mother without following specific procedures. He must see a lawyer and start these proceedings.”

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MzEllen Reads:  "Save the Males:  why men matter, why women should care" by Kathleen Parker.

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Next up:

Yet another false rape cry.

Clearfield police said a teenage girl's claims that she was raped in the middle of a church parking lot in broad daylight are false.

In a statement sent to the Deseret News on Friday, Clearfield Assistant Police Chief Greg Krusi said laboratory test results and other evidence analyzed did not match up with the girl's claims about being attacked.

"The juvenile was formally interviewed again by investigators at which time she admitted to fabricating the story due to personal issues occurring in her life," Krusi wrote.

At least this one wasn't aimed at a real person whose life could be ruined by a "wolf" cry.

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And...the most offensive site of the week:

Since I followed a couple of links to this site, and the sites that I followed to it are full-egalitarian (and don't seem to much care that "soft-complementarian" is different than "hard-patriarchy"...I really have no clue whether a Godly man who leads his home and church is equivalent (in the eyes of this blog-writer) to the taliban, Hitler and those who kill their daughters for dating the wrong man.

If a picture is worth a thousand words...this says volumes about what the  posters of this logo think about those who disagree with them on the gender issue.
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In the spirit of the above link (NOT), here are a few things to ponder...

"Muslim "judge" rules kidnapped Christian girls "converted to Islam and cannot return home"

Two girls (ages 10 and 13) are kidnapped by a Muslim "fruit vendor" who turned them over to a friend, who organized a "marriage".  Here's the thing...

The girls' uncle does not conceal his preoccupation, and denounces to AsiaNews that the Muslims involved in the kidnapping are acting as a "gang", recruiting the girls in order to "make them work in a bordello". This alarm has also been heard by the Catholic commission for justice and peace (NCJP) in the country, which confirms the words of Khalid Raheel: the kidnappers are believed to be human traffickers linked to prostitution, known to the police and under the protection of some local politicians.

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New York:  Muslim stabs his sister because she was a "bad Muslim girl"

Infuriated because his younger sister was going to clubs, wearing immodest clothing and planning to leave her family for a new life in New York City, Waheed Allah Mohammad stabbed her outside their Henrietta home, prosecutors allege.Afterward, he told Monroe County sheriff's investigators that he attacked his sister because she had disgraced their family and was a "bad Muslim girl," according to court documents.

Mohammad, 22, is scheduled to appear Friday in Monroe County Court on charges of attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault in the May 8 attack on Fauzia A. Mohammad, 19.

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Remember these two girls?

"Contrary to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution headline, he didn’t actually say he was innocent. He said he had done nothing wrong. That’s not the same thing. According to an earlier story on this case, he confessed to killing his daughter, and explained that he had done it to cleanse his family’s honor. When he appeared before the judge, it is unlikely that he changed this story. He just said he didn’t do anything wrong. And by the lights of the Islamic culture from which he comes, which thinks that a father killing a daughter who has sullied his family’s honor is perfectly justified, he indeed hasn’t done anything wrong. "

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Here's something new:

A popular Hamas children's television program shows a giant bunny character who is lured into stealing money — and then is sentenced by a child host to have his hand chopped off.

Oh wait, that's not very "new", Muslims have also made anti-Semitic children's programs as well.
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Contrary to "popular belief", complementarians do not teach that it's "nothing wrong" to kill their daughters, sell them to prostitution rings or stab them for going to clubs.  Nor do we make children's shows that encourage amputations as punishment for minor crimes.

To those who are attempting the comparison between godly male leadership in Islam.  NOT HELPFUL.
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Another set of "black and white" twins!  (although being a fan of a certain adult beverage, I'd most likely call them "black and tan".

😉

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"No Subpar Food for Senators"

The Senate restaurants, which include not just the stately Senate dining room in the Capitol but a huge cafeteria and coffee shops scattered in the two-building Senate compound, have lost $18 million since 1993 and are slated to lose $2 million this year.

Without an immediate $250,000 subsidy from the taxpayers, they won't be able to make payroll next month. The restaurants have lost money for 37 of the 41 years they have been in “business,” but the taxpayers have made up the difference.

The food in the Senate eateries is “noticeably subpar,” said California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who, as chair of the Senate's Rules and Administration Committee, supervises these culinary/fiscal horrors.

MY favorite quote?

And the Senate that knows it can't even run a restaurant will soon vote to have the government run health care.

Indeed.

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File under:  Look, mom...it followed me home...can I keep it?

GORHAM, Maine -- A woman checking her laundry Wednesday afternoon found an 8-foot-long snake wrapped around the clothes inside the washing machine at her Gorham home.

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The pope would not have been impressed

(personally, I like snakes - the big ones...I don't like surprises)

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Global COOLING?!?!?

Late last month, some leading climatologists and meteorologists met in New York at the Energy Business Watch Climate and Hurricane Forum. The theme of the forum strongly suggested that a period of global cooling is about emerge, though possible concerns for a political backlash kept it from being spelled out.

However, the message was loud and clear, a cyclical global warming trend may be coming to an end for a variety of reasons, and a new cooling cycle could impact the energy markets in a big way.

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eatpes.com

(mostly) "clean" (the only off-color one was "roof sex" and that involved furniture.  The part that made it worth watching was the apartment owner getting after the cat for scratching up the furniture).  "Western Spaghetti" is wonderful!

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Photo of the week:

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Born July 10, 1509 in Noyon, France, Jean Calvin was raised in a staunch Roman Catholic family. The local bishop employed Calvin's father as an administrator in the town's cathedral. The father, in turn, wanted John to become a priest. Because of close ties with the bishop and his noble family, John's playmates and classmates in Noyon (and later in Paris) were aristocratic and culturally influential in his early life.

Like many (most) of the early Reformers, Calvin was born in the Roman Catholic church.  Like Luther, Calvin has a disagreement with his father over how his life would be spent.

By 1528 Calvin moved to Orleans to study civil law. The following years found Calvin studying in various places and under various scholars, as he received a humanist education. By 1532 Calvin finished his law studies and also published his first book, a commentary on De Clementia by the Roman philosopher, Seneca. The following year Calvin fled Paris because of contacts with individuals who through lectures and writings opposed the Roman Catholic Church. It is thought that in 1533 Calvin experienced the sudden and unexpected conversion that he writes about in his foreword to his commentary on the Psalms.

I recall that in the time of Calvin, "humanist" didn't carry the negative meaning that it does now.

(per wiki)

Renaissance Humanism was a European intellectual movement beginning in Florence in the last decades of the 14th century. The humanist movement developed from the rediscovery by European scholars of many Latin and Greek texts. Initially, a humanist was simply a teacher of Latin literature. By the mid-15th century humanism described a curriculum — the studia humanitatis — comprising grammar, rhetoric, moral philosophy, poetry and history as studied via classical authors. The early beliefs of humanism were that, although humanists knew that God created the universe, it was humans that developed and industrialised it.

And later...

By 1536 Calvin had disengaged himself from the Roman Catholic Church and made plans to permanently leave France and go to Strasbourg. However, war had broken out between Francis I and Charles V, so Calvin decided to make a one-night detour to Geneva.

But Calvin's fame in Geneva preceded him. Farel, a local reformer, invited him to stay in Geneva and threatened him with God's anger if he did not. Thus began a long, difficult, yet ultimately fruitful relationship with that city.

It was in Geneva that Calvin did the bulk of his writing, studying and teaching.  He remained there until his death in 1564.

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WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast -- a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins -- would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.

What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final "tear down this wall" liquidation. When President Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the day of his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, he was representing a country that was prepared to go to the brink of nuclear war to defend West Berlin.

Americans are beginning to notice Obama's elevated opinion of himself. There's nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?

Indeed.

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"Speaking in tongues" is not only a Christian  phenomenon.  Regardless of whether or not the "gift" is for today, one still cannot point at speaking in tongues as "proof" that they are baptized in the Holy Spirit.

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History of the Church 1:295-297, November 1832: "About the 8th of November I received a visit from Elders Joseph Young, Brigham Young, and Heber C. Kimball of Mendon, Monroe county, New York. They spent four or five days at Kirtland, during which we had many interesting moments. At one of our interviews, Brother Brigham Young and John P. Greene spoke in tongues, which was the first time I had heard this gift among the brethren; others also spoke, and I [Joseph Smith] received the gift myself."

While Mormons share our Scriptures (while translating and interpreting them differently) and are (in their own sense) followers of Christ (although not a Christ who is in full equality and deity with the Father), are not "saved", in the way we are.

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The Oracle at Delphi needed interpreters to pass along her "wisdom".  There is speculation as to whether or not the wisdom was "tongues" or "riddles" that needed interpreting.  There does also seem to be some indication that the trance of the Oracle was due to some intoxicating substances that seeped out of the lower regions of the cave that she prophesied from.

This is not a wonderful example, but it does indicate that "ecstatic speech" was an indicator of the prophetic in religions other than Christianity - and before Christ walked on earth.

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in 1956 Carlyle May wrote an article in "American Anthropologist", "A Survey of Glossolalia and Related Phenomena in Non-Christian Religion."  I cannot get to the entire article, but the first page is here.

"Ecstatic vocalization in the form of incoherent sounds and foreign words has long been on interest to students of religion.  (...)This paper will show that glossolalia and similar speech-phenomena occur in various forms during shamanistic rites of the New and especially of the Old World. (...)

Herodotus (Lombard 1910:90) speaks of an inspired priest in Greece who suddenly spoke in a barbarian language, and Virgil in the Aeneid (1953: vi. 44-49, 97-99) tells of a Cumaean sibyl who spoke strangely while possessed.  The Old Testament (Lombard 1910:89) alludes to a form of ecstatic behavior similar to glossolalia.   Guillaume (1938:144-45) states that in 853 B.C. four hundren prophets raved in ecstasy before the gate of Samaria, and in ancient Egypt (Erman 1894:352-55) necromancers uttered formulas, believed to be revelations from the gods, made up of foreign words and senseless noises.  The more mysterious and incomprehensible these formulas were, the greater their power was thought to be.

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What about xenoglossia?

  • Swarnlatta Mishra:[1] A girl in India who lived entirely among Hindi-speaking people but was able to sing songs in Bengali, as identified by Professor P. Pal of Itachuna College in West Bengal, who studied the case after Professor Stevenson and transcribed some of the songs.
  • Uttara Huddar:[2] Uttara was a woman in India who normally spoke Marathi but, after participating in a meditation during a hospitalization, began speaking in Bengali, much to the bewilderment of her parents.
  • Two hypnotic regression cases: Professor Stevenson is quite skeptical of most hypnotic regression work but he did have two cases that included responsive xenoglossy; that is, hypnotic subjects who could converse with people speaking the foreign language, instead of merely being able to recite foreign words. One is that of Jensen[3], an American woman who, while under hypnosis conducted by her physician husband, described being a Swedish peasant farmer and was able to converse in Swedish. The other is Gretchen[4], an American woman who was hypnotized by her Methodist minister husband and began spontaneously speaking in German. She described the life of a teenaged girl in Germany, and Professor Stevenson, who is able to speak German, was able to converse with her. (from wiki...hopefully the links to the citations are there, the link to the page is here.

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It seems clear that (whatever "tongues" is) and whether or not "tongues" is for today, that the phonomena is not limited to Christianity, or even to religion.

In "testing the spirits", we need to look at all the evidence and not blindly follow.  It may very well be real (in some cases and in some cases not), but we need to look realistically.

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Ok...I followed the plan beautifully!  Right number of points (I even had some left over)...and I gained .8 pound.  I'm not surprised, the heat and humidity is making me retain water so that my feet are "oozing" out of my sandals.

The plan for next week:

  • water.  Lots of water
  • focus more on the "types" of food.
  • More lean protein, more healthy fat
  • Fewer simple carbs, fewer "frankenfoods"
  • with the heat...5,000 steps if the weather is over 85, 7,000 if over 80, 10,000 if under 80.
  • Start Strength training 4 times next week

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    LINKS:

    Bad news: I lost my pedometer (or maybe that's good news).

    Good news!  Right after UPS brought the new one, I found the old one!  (That mean Manda has it).

    Product review coming up...
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    Recipe:  Asian Salmon

    **NOTE:  I used "grilling planks", which I am now hooked on for cooking fish on the grill
    * Exported from MasterCook *

    Asian Salmon - 5 points (core)
    Serving Size  : 6
    Categories    : 5 Point meals, Core, fish, grill, Oriental

    Amount  Measure       Ingredient -- Preparation Method
    --------  ------------  --------------------------------
    2             pounds  salmon -- fresh side, boned but skin on (about 3 pounds)
    For the marinade:
    2        tablespoons  Dijon mustard
    3        tablespoons  soy sauce
    2          teaspoons  olive oil
    1/2      teaspoon  minced garlic

    Light charcoal briquettes in a grill and brush the grilling rack with oil to keep the salmon from sticking.

    While the grill is heating, lay the salmon skin side down on a cutting board and cut it crosswise into 4 equal pieces. Whisk together the mustard, soy sauce, olive oil, and garlic in a small bowl. Drizzle half of the marinade onto the salmon and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.

    Place the salmon skin side down on the hot grill; discard the marinade the fish was sitting in. Grill for 4 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. Turn carefully with a wide spatula and grill for another 4 to 5 minutes. The salmon will be slightly raw in the center, but don't worry; it will keep cooking as it sits.

    Transfer the fish to a flat plate, skin side down, and spoon the reserved marinade on top. Allow the fish to rest for 10 minutes. Remove the skin and serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

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    Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 198 Calories; 7g Fat (32.8% calories from fat); 31g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 79mg Cholesterol; 678mg Sodium.  Exchanges: 4 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

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    and (of course) the political party...

    (from a blog comment: "This not-so-subliminal image of the cross was very deliberate. This guy is like McCarthy, Hitler & George Wallace trying to pass himself off like a boyscout leader.... This guy could actually end up being worse the GW Bush...."

    From Peggy Noonan:  I love the cross. The sight of it, the fact of it, saves me, literally and figuratively. But there is a kind of democratic politesse in America, and it has served us well, in which we are happy to profess our faith but don’t really hit people over the head with its symbols in an explicitly political setting, such as a campaign commercial, which is what Mr. Huckabee’s ad was.

    And then there's Mr. Obama.

    (Edit:  I think this may be where the "sidebar" issue is)

    From CBN: The Obama campaign has consistently believed that their candidate can compete for the “religious vote”. A lot has been made about how Obama hasn’t done as well with Catholics compared to Clinton. But let’s remember one thing: Obama has a story to tell about how Jesus came into his life. You can bet we will be hearing more details about it on the stump in the fall. (if Obama is the nominee)

    (and Huckabee didn't?)

    (EDIT:

    please

    excuse

    the

    editorial

    antics

    while

    I

    try

    to

    drop

    the next post down...)

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    This first one is important...we will begin to see religious freedoms eroded, shipped away at or litigated away.  This is not a "Christian" issue, but it is one that Christians should stand behind, for the sake of the freedom for all.

    From Texas:

    A small rural school district in Fort Bend County and a determined mother are tangled in a dispute over hair.

    Michelle Betenbaugh says her 5-year-old son, Adriel Arocha, wears his hair long because of religious beliefs tied to his Native American heritage.

    But the leaders of the Needville school district have strict rules about long hair on boys and don't see any reason to make an exception in his case.

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    From Florida:

    BRADENTON - A 94-year-old man whose arrest in a prostitution sting here caused an international buzz will not be prosecuted. A judge ruled Tuesday that Frank Milio was a victim of entrapment.

    Milio, who has dementia, was unable to get into a care facility while his case was pending.

    Okay...he's 94!  and demented...

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    All is not well in Democrat-land...

    or Republican-land...

    Oh...it is going to be an interesting election cycle.

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    Tom McMahon by Tom McMahon

    Barack Obama's sitting at a bar when a man comes up to him and says: "Wanna hear a Barack Obama joke?" Obama: "Er, hold on there, buddy — I am Barack Obama."  "Oh. all right then, I'll tell it in Spanish."

    More here.  (the page linked here is clean.  I take no responsibility for where it goes from here - and I didn't go past here)
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