Politics

•

I heard about it on the radio this morning  - the keel will be laid tomorrow.

The ship will be about the same size as the Nimitz class that it replaces, but because of electronics the crew will be around 2,500 (the Nimitz class crew is around 4,000).

Instead of steam launchers, aircraft will be launched pneumatically.  Nuclear powered, the thing will do 40 over 30 knots (46 34 MPH)

•

From the Assistant Village Idiot

Archie has occurred to me a lot recently. I saw very few episodes of the show, but discussion of Archie was always in the air in the 1970's. Perhaps I haven't given it due credit in my journey from left to right on the political spectrum. My politics aligned somewhat with Michael's, but I found him an unlikeable character. The show had clearly lined up to show Archie and his ideas in the worst possible light, buffoonishly so, and this struck me as artistic abuse. As it became clear who Norman Lear and Rob Reiner were in later years, the portrayal of Archie made more sense. They had no understanding of the ideas they were mocking - even I, who also mocked them, found the stereotype to be more worthy of agit-prop than comedy. The artificial setups to always show Michael as the intelligent, thoughtful one held a childish unfairness.

But that wasn't what stuck in my craw. Michael lived in Archie's house. In all the commentary about Archie I never heard that mentioned. I imagine it came up on the show, but it was conveniently overlooked when people absorbed the stereotypes. It seemed the most basic fact about the situation: Gloria had a poorly-paying job, Edith took care of everyone, Archie provided most of the support, yet it was Michael who was delivered the put-down lines.

(...)

The Tea Parties and town halls have brought my thoughts back to Archie. The participants in those events are not Archie Bunker buffoons, but they are portrayed that way. So it occurs to me - even if the stereotype of those Joe the Plumbers were true, isn't it their house? Aren't they the ones supporting the rest? Aren't their critics coming off a lot like Michael - self-righteous, condescending, sarcastic.

•

Charity of the week:

C-snip.

We'll be making a trip here over Christmas break (the vet wants to wait until Toby's skin as really cleared up before we have him "fixed".  For an extra $10 I have have him micro-chipped and registered.

~~~

This sounds like a good series that I may save up for.

(tag: Christianity, books)

~~~

Interesting thought:  "If you consent to it, it's not a crime."

(tag: politics)

~~~

Should Christians Say That Their Aim Is to Convert Others to Faith in Christ?

(tag: Christianity, salvation)

~~~

One way to fund the new "health care" bill - tax life saving and life enhancing equipment.

Speaking as a person who uses a C-pap, and with a parent with multiple joint replacements...yippee.

AND

Shutting Off the Miracle Drug Spigot

(tag: politics, health care)

~~~

For those who claim the Gospel of John was written by a group of people - ummm...yes.

(tag: Christianity, Scripture)

~~~

Brain Cramps for God: Free...and a Slave

(tag: Christianity, doctrine)

~~~

Borrowed Light:  Bare Minimum Required

(tag: Christianity, salvation)

~~~

Resurgence:  What is Scripture?

(tag: Christianity, Scripture)

~~~

Denny Burk: Pro-life Conversion at Planned Parenthood (what a difference a picture makes)

(tag: abortion)

~~~

Of First Importance:  (I like this quote:)

“Spiritual experience that does not arise from God’s word is not Christian experience. . . . Not all that passes for Christian experience is genuine. An authentic experience of the Spirit is an experience in response to the gospel.  Through the Spirit the truth touches our hearts, and that truth moves our emotions and effects our wills.”

-  Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church (Wheaton, Ill.; Crossway Books, 2008), 31.

(tag: Christianity, Scripture)

~~~

Zero Net-carb Bagels - might be worth a try

(tag: food, low-carb)

~~~

White Horse Inn - The Virgin Mary and ECT, a Response from Michael Horton

(tag: Christianity, Evangelicals and Catholics Together)

~~~

Another good quote:

"Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

(tag: Christianity)
~~~

- I like

(tags: Christianity, Reformed, Solas, clothing)

~~~

Why Evangelicals Turn to the Church Fathers

(tag: Christianity, church fathers)

•

One one thing.

ABC News reporter Terry Moran caused quite a commotion tonight Twitter after writing the following: "Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a "jackass" for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential."

oops....

In the process of reporting on remarks by President Obama that were made during a CNBC interview, ABC News employees prematurely tweeted a portion of those remarks that turned out to be from an off-the-record portion of the interview. This was done before our editorial process had been completed. That was wrong. We apologize to the White House and CNBC and are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again.

Can I still agree with him if he was "off the record"?

(Yesterday was politics day and I missed it, so here it is)

• 1 Comment

•

Let's get all spun up...

or...

Pick your battles, and this is a silly one.

~~~

I read one blogger make the point that if you're expecting your students to be in a public school for 13 years without liberalism having an effect on them...one short speech by the president of the United States...isn't going to make much of a difference.

~~~

On October 1, 1991 George H.W. Bush spoke to a group of students...and it was broadcast into classrooms nation wide via C-Span.   This was was in the lead up to the 1992 presidential campaign and he spoke about his education policies.  (as much as I dislike using the Daily Kos, that's where I found this C-Span video)

So this is not the first time that a United States president has been broadcast into classrooms.

~~~

On November 14, 1988 Ronald Reagan gave a speech to four classrooms and the event was broadcast by C-Span and Instructional Television Network fed the program “to schools nationwide on three different days.”

Today, to a degree never before seen in human history, one nation, the United States, has become the model to be followed and imitated by the rest of the world. But America's world leadership goes well beyond the tide toward democracy. We also find that more countries than ever before are following America's revolutionary economic message of free enterprise, low taxes, and open world trade. These days, whenever I see foreign leaders, they tell me about their plans for reducing taxes, and other economic reforms that they are using, copying what we have done here in our country.


I wonder if they realize that this vision of economic freedom, the freedom to work, to create and produce, to own and use property without the interference of the state, was central to the American Revolution, when the American colonists rebelled against a whole web of economic restrictions, taxes and barriers to free trade. The message at the Boston Tea Party -- have you studied yet in history about the Boston Tea Party, where because of a tax they went down and dumped the tea in the Harbor. Well, that was America's original tax revolt, and it was the fruits of our labor -- it belonged to us and not to the state. And that truth is fundamental to both liberty and prosperity.

Here is the entire transcipt.

~~~

Get a grip, folks.

It's not the first time.

It's not even the first time that it''s been used to forward a president's agenda.

It's just the first time a Democrat has done it.

Do the people who were in school then even remember?

Do the people who had children in school then even remember?

Please...I'm begging...stop making the rest of us look like idiots.