HT: Gay Patriot

From Tom McMahon

tags: beatles, flow chart

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More Americans are “pro-life” than “pro-choice” -

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A great blog I discovered by a military wife

Found through “Obama doesn’t “get” the military he commands” – a great post.

tags:  military, Obama, politics

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On the other hand…

tags:  military, W., Bush, politics

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Four Types of Theologians – from Parchment and Pen

“Where do you roast your marshmallows?”

tags:  Christianity, religion, theology

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Well of course!  If there are too many books on the conservative best seller lists…give them their own list!  (That way they’re not competing with the liberals…)

In a Nov. 9 entry on The Huffington Post that laments Fox News host Glenn Beck pulling a feat not done before – holding the number one spot on The New York Times’ four lists: hardcover fiction, hardcover non-fiction, paperback non-fiction and children’s – they suggest a separate category altogether, not for political non-fiction, but conservative non-fiction.

tags: conservative, books, Huffington Post, politics

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How many people died at Fort Hood?  Fourteen…A grim reminder of the ones who are forgotten…

tags: Fort Hood, military

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This is interesting…from the “religion of peace” and all…

Coworkers told police that Hamid’s actions were out of the ordinary and that he had worked at the kiosk for years. (…) Through an interpreter, Hamid requested a public defender and was scheduled to appear in court at 9 a.m. Thursday where he is expected to enter a plea.

What’s up with that?  He’s been working at a mall in California for YEARS…and needs an interpreter to ask for an attorney?

tags:  Islam, politics, religion

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Blackfive…another new blog I’m reading…

this post made me cry. – Lest we forget…

tags: military

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For those who want a “level playing field” – here’s a woman who...well…read.

tags: sports, disabilities

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2009:

President Barack Obama recently told ABC News’ Jake Tapper that he shares Pelosi’s belief that jail time is an appropriate punishment for not buying health insurance.

2008

And I think that it is important for us to recognize that if, in fact, you are going to mandate the purchase of insurance and it’s not affordable, then there’s going to have to be some enforcement mechanism that the government uses. And they may charge people who already don’t have health care fines, or have to take it out of their paychecks. And that, I don’t think, is helping those without health insurance.

and Pelosi dodges…

tags: health care, Obama, Pelosi

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“Christian”?  Or “The Way”?

Both work for me…

tags: Christianity, religion, Jay E. Adams

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I posted on this a long time ago…it wasn’t well received then…or would be now I suppose.

Egalitarianism and Homosexuality:  Connected or Autonomous Ideologies?

Evangelical Christian organizations that hold to a complementarian view of gender roles, such as The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW), have expressed concern over a possible connection between an egalitarian view of male/female gender roles and homosexuality. For example, in the list of central concerns stated in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood-perhaps the most thorough defense of complementarianism-the authors declare, “We are concerned not merely with the behavior roles of men and women, but also with the underlying nature of manhood and womanhood themselves.

tags:  egalitarianism, complementarianism, homosexuality, Christianity, religion

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Let’s play:  One of these things is not like the other.

or…

“Why Can’t Jill BIden Take Mrs. Utopia Shopping Sometimes?”

I like these guys…

tags: politics, fashion, Michelle Obama

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via “Cruising Down the Coast of High Barbaree” who thinks this explains a lot…

“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.” –BHO, 2008

tags: politics, Obama

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“Why I Think Women Need to Study Theology”

I have a confession to make.  I am not fond of women’s ministry programs.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my sisters in Christ and enjoy fellowshipping with them.  But programs that involve some type of teaching, such as workshops or conferences, generally don’t appeal to me.  Why?  In my experience, gatherings to hear teaching have been little more than encouragement sessions to make us feel better about being “God’s women”.  Unfortunately, I find the same thing on women’s blogs, even ones that have been advertised as a place for serious thinkers.  There are a few exceptions, but generally, I find them lacking in rich theological substance.

tags:  women, theology, Christianity, religion

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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.

Although not very important.

The recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor winner that President Obama gave his “shout out” to…isn’t.

I guess his teleprompter wasn’t communicating very well – says it has a bit of a virus, maybe H1N1.

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.

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

(tag: Christianity, books)

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Interesting thought:  “If you consent to it, it’s not a crime.”

(tag: politics)

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

(tag: Christianity, salvation)

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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)

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

(tag: Christianity, Scripture)

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Brain Cramps for God: Free…and a Slave

(tag: Christianity, doctrine)

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Borrowed Light:  Bare Minimum Required

(tag: Christianity, salvation)

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Resurgence:  What is Scripture?

(tag: Christianity, Scripture)

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

(tag: abortion)

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Of First Importance:  (I like this quote:)

- I like

(tags: Christianity, Reformed, Solas, clothing)

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Why Evangelicals Turn to the Church Fathers

(tag: Christianity, church fathers)

“But don’t expect anyone in Congress to admit that taxpayers are paying around $6,000 to provide a $4,500 rebate for a foreigner or illegal immigrant to buy a new car. “ (Lurita Doan)

read the rest (HT: The Foundry – blog of the Heritage Foundation)

I read an article today that makes a few political predictions that I found interesting and makes a commitment to rethink her political views if the predictions are wrong.

The author’s predictions:

So, here are my foreign policy predictions:

At the end of Obama’s first four-year term:

1. The US will still have an active military presence in Iraq.
2. The US will have attacked at least one more country that poses no direct threat to us. (I’m not even going to count his early air strikes on Pakistan.)
3. Military spending will have increased.
4. US citizens will be no safer from terrorist attacks. I say this because I believe the (sadly all-too-accurate) perception of the US as an imperialist warmongering nation will persist. I realize this one is open to interpretation. I would just ask you to honestly ask yourselves at the end of these four years whether this is the case.

[...]

What I do predict is the following. By the end of Obama’s first term in office:

1. More than 1% of US adults will still be in prison. This number will very likely be even higher than it is today, and the black and Hispanic portion of that population will not have decreased by any significant amount.
2. We will still suffer from the kind of police abuse that is becoming more and more common: military-style raids on unarmed civilians in their homes; the shooting and tasering of unarmed citizens; and police and judicial corruption leading to the jailing of many more innocent people than can be acceptable under any system. The militarization and aggressive behavior of police forces will probably become worse before they get any better. This is another one that is somewhat open to interpretation. I would ask you to rely on your own honest judgement regarding whether you believe things have really changed in this area.
3. “No-Fly” lists will still be in place, and there may even be more restrictions on travel.
4. There will be more restrictions on gun ownership and the right to self-defense.
5. The police tactics and suppression of dissent at the 2012 RNC and DNC conventions will be just as brutal as they were in 2008.
6. Government surveillance of US citizens will continue (remember that bill Obama voted for that gave immunity to the telecoms companies that assisted with this in the past?),

[...]

My prediction: By the end of Obama’s first four years in office, the US economy will be in much, much worse shape than it is now. Specifically:

1. The US will have massive inflation. The dollar will lose at least 50% of its value against most goods and services, and certainly against the goods and services most people use every day. This is a very conservative estimate. It will probably be much worse.
2. Unemployment in the US will be worse than it is now. It will be at least in the double digits.

I’m going to post the article in its entirety in June of 2012 and look at the predictions and see how they play out (assuming that the inflation thing doesn’t rule out my blogging.)  (first unplanned difficulty…wordpress won’t let me publish that far ahead…so I’m setting it to publish in Decempber of this year and will edit the date stamp accordingly.)

Okay…so we have a few hundrend billion dollars (this time around) on the basis that it might stimulate the economy, but nobody can really say for sure.

But conservatives are supposed to prove that borrowing from future generations won’t work before opposing the spending package.

Shouldn’t it be the job of those who want to spend the money to prove that it will work – before committing to trillions in national debt?

My son’s car blew its clutch.  It will cost $600.00 to fix it…and it might work and it might not – it’s a 22 year old ford that he paid $400 for.

It’s his job to convince me that fixing the clutch will make the car drivable.

It’s not my job to convince him that it won’t work.

NYTimes finally acknowledges that anti-Prop. 8 mob is harassing traditional marriage supporters

(from Michele Malkin)

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John Kerry: You Know What’s the Problem With Stimulus Tax Cuts? All That Freedom.

(From the Weekly Standard)

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$825 Billion, and Not One Job May Result

“Can you tell me Mr. Barthold, how many jobs will be created as a result of this legislation?” Camp asked.  Barthold replied, “In short, Mr. Camp, I can’t.”  Camp then pressed Barthold to clarify his position, “So we don’t have an estimate of the number of jobs this would create either private sector or public?  We don’t have any estimate of the economic effect that this legislation would have on our economy, whether it would create any growth in our economy at all?  We don’t have that data before the committee today?”  Barthold then nodded his head and shrugged.

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Democrats Look to Muzzle Conservative Radio

Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow says she wants hearings on “accountability” in radio, suggesting Democrats are eying a return of the Fairness Doctrine.

Here in Michigan, we pronounce “Stabenow” …”stab you now”  – as in “in the back”

“Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter. ” Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998, p. S4507.

Fast forward:

UPDATE: February 2, 9:15AM: WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Daschle says he’s “deeply embarrassed and disappointed” about his failure to pay more than $120,000 in taxes.

And

Also, the financial disclosure form Daschle filed about a week ago shows that he made more than $200,000 in the past two years speaking to members of the industry that President Barack Obama wants him to reform.

Obama has said that no one in his administration who has lobbied on a set of issues within the past two years can deal with the same subject matter.

Jenny Backus, a spokeswoman for Daschle, said the money he earned in speaking fees from health care interests do not pose a conflict for the health care reform Obama wants him to lead.

Daschle said in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services ethics office that if he’s confirmed by the Senate, he will resign as a senior policy adviser at the Washington law firm of Alston and Bird LLP. He reported earnings of more than $2 million from that firm during the past two years.

Daschle also earned more than $2 million in consulting fees from InterMedia Advisors LLC of New York, an investment firm specializing in buyouts and industry consolidation. He said he also intends to resign from that firm upon his confirmation.

Glenn Reynolds notes:

from Glenn Reynolds

OUCH: “Tom Daschle never met a tax hike he didn’t like for us. But why the hell can’t he pay his own taxes?”

I thought I had written on the terms “pro-life” and “anti-abortion” before, but there were a few posts that got “lost” when I changed web hosts.  I’ll end up writing again, because I do not self-identify as “pro-life”, but prefer the term “anti-abortion”.

I read an article at “GetReligion.org” about a couple of news stories:

This one is from “Newsbusters“:

Christianity Today Favors ‘Anti-abortion’ Over ‘Pro-life’ Label?

Evangelical magazine Christianity Today is using the term “anti-abortion,” rather than “pro-life,” to refer to a CatholicVote.com ad which NBC has refused to air during the Super Bowl. (h/t @pdavidy8)

The term “anti-abortion” isn’t used by reporter Sarah Pulliam in the body of her article posted at CTliveblog, but it is used in her January 30 article’s headline — Anti-Abortion Super Bowl Ad Rejected by NBC — on the magazine’s Twitter page (see screencap at right).

By using “anti-abortion” in its headline, Christianity Today appears to be following the lead of the Associated Press. The AP calls for the term “anti-abortion instead of pro-life and abortion rights instead of pro-abortion or pro-choice” in its Stylebook. AP goes further and frowns on the term “abortionist,” saying it “connotes a person who performs clandestine abortions,” so a reporter should “use a term such as abortion doctor or abortion practitioner,” it counsels.

The gist of the story seems to be saying that “Christianity Today” magazine prefers one label over the other.  The reality is that the ad being spoke of is not “pro-life” in general, but is specific to the abortion issue.  Thus, if CT generally uses “pro-life”, but for this specific, anti-abortion ad, uses “anti-abortion”, it doesn’t mean that they prefer the label in general, only that it is more accurate for that particular ad.

Here is the CT story in question.

I think that this is a “not a story”, but rather a commentary  on how groups “self-describe”.

I self-describe as “anti-abortion”.  I also make a distinction between those more general “pro-choice” folks and those who have never seen an abortion that they did not support (pro-abortion).

For example:  Roe v. Wade is “pro-choice”.  FOCA is pro-abortion.

A Michigan blog I’ve just discovered:  Torch Lake Views.

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From Dark Roasted Blend (one of my favorite photo blogs)

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Gay activists are angry at Barack Obama;

Pro-lifers are angry at Rick Warren…

heh.

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The Dugger family welcomes child #18.  (profanity alert:  the link goes to the Huffington Post and evidently the only time “pro-choice” applies is when a family is “choosing” a small family…or better yet, abortion.)

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A “New Years Resolution” of a different sort?  Lignon Duncan will be reading and blogging through “Calvin’s Institutes” in 2009

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For those who voted for Barack Obama because his expanded abortion policies would reduce abortion… (HELLO?  what happens when you make a service cheaper and more available????)

It seems that the “office of the president elect” has a page where you can write questions and people can vote on them.

Justin Taylor submitted a question:  “Would you consider rescinding your promise to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, given your desire to reduce abortions and to seek common ground, and in light of the fact that it would invalidate every measure and law intended to reduce abortions?”

notice: it was removed from the vote because “people think it is inappropriate”.

Myself, before I asked a question, I’d consider “Joe the Plumber”

It seems that used coffee grounds are about 15% oil (a little less than the usual feedstock used for biodiesel) and that they make a very suitable material for creating usable fuel…

VERY suitable.

Consider:

- This is already a “recycled” product, so no food product would need to be diverted from feeding people, thus driving the price of the product higher for people who may already be in the midst of a cash or food crisis.

- Coffee (and coffee grounds) are high in anti-oxidants, which would delay rancification – thus making a more stable biodiesel than many other feedstocks.

- The “leftovers” – the grounds left over after the oil has been extracted – is dry and still high in nitrogen, making great compost for fertilizer (note:  I feed my plants leftover coffee and the ones that get that treatment do great.)

- These leftovers can also be made into pellets for heating stoves (like the ones that use corn pellets), taking some of the heating load off of petroleum heating fuel.

In my opinion, these things should make the biodiesel industry sit up and take a look at the trash coming out of coffee shops.  How much of this “stuff” is available and would it be worth it?

Just Starbucks generates about ”210 million pounds of spent coffee grounds per year in the US, the researchers calculate that it could amount to 2.92 million gallons of biodiesel and 89,000 tons of fuel pellets…”

Just Starbucks!  and then there’s McDonald’s…and all the other coffee shops and breakfast shops….

The story is here…

The cost per gallon is high…but so is the $8 million profit.  If this venture were taken on as a low-profit venture, the cost would come down and the profit could still be quite high.

Yippee.  Just as the “big three” are gasping their last breathes, our wonderful legislature is talking about raising gasoline taxes and 50% hikes in vehicle registration.

And Obama tags our faithful (Democrat) governor to be on his economic advisory team.

Okay…”Which state has the worst economy in the country?

Highest unemployment rate?  check.

Highest forclosure?  check.”

Let’s pick THAT governor…yeah…we want HER to explain to fix the economy.”

Business are leaving the state?  Let’s raise business taxes!

11% unemployment?  Let’s raise gasoline taxes!

Massive looming layoffs?  Let’s raise vehicle registration!

Yes…kick us when we’re down.

From the Witherspoon Institute:

Nearly half of all African-American pregnancies end in abortion

The abortion rate for African-American pregnancies is nearly five times the rate for European-Americans.

Finance fraud:

It turns out that half of Obama’s haul in 2008 has come in contributions of $200 dollars or less. These small donations do not require public disclosure under FEC guidelines, and the Obama campaign refuses to make public its list of contributors.

It turns out that half of Obama’s haul in 2008 has come in contributions of $200 dollars or less. These small donations do not require public disclosure under FEC guidelines, and the Obama campaign refuses to make public its list of contributors.

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From PowerLine

I’ve read recent reports of the Obama campaign receiving donations from dubious names and foreign locales and it got me wondering: How is this possible?

I run a small Internet business and when I process credit cards I’m required to make sure the name on the card exactly matches the name of the customer making the purchase. Also, the purchaser’s address must match that of the cardholders. If these don’t match, then the payment isn’t approved. Period. So how is it possible that the Obama campaign could receive donations from fictional people and places? Well, I decided to do a little experiment. I went to the Obama campaign website and entered the following:

Name: John Galt
Address: 1957 Ayn Rand Lane
City: Galts Gulch
State: CO
Zip: 99999

Then I checked the box next to $15 and entered my actual credit card number and expiration date (it didn’t ask for the 3-didgit code on the back of the card) and it took me to the next page and… “Your donation has been processed. Thank you for your generous gift.”

This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or any campaign that is honestly trying to vet it’s donors. Also, I don’t see how this could possibly happen without the collusion of the credit card companies. They simply wouldn’t allow any business to process, potentially, hundreds of millions in credit card transactions where the name on the card doesn’t match the purchasers name.

In short, with the system set up as it is by the Obama camp, an individual could donate unlimited amounts of money by simply making up fake names and addresses. And Obama is doing his best to facilitate this fraud. This is truly scandalous.

Our reader was not yet done. He tried the experiment on the McCain site: “I tried the exact same thing at the McCain site and it didn’t allow the transaction.” He then repeated the experiment at the Obama site:

I went back to the Obama site and made three additional donations using the names Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Bill Ayers, all with different addresses. All the transactions went through using the same credit card. I saved screenshots of the transactions.

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From the NextRight

I just contributed $5 to Barack Obama.

I didn’t want to. Ideally, I could have contributed $0.01 and cost them money. But it was the only way to confirm the root cause of the fraudulent micro-donations to the Obama campaign (“Doodad Pro” for $17,300 and “Good Will” for $11,000).

The Obama campaign has turned its security settings for accepting online contributions down to the bare minimum — possibly to juice the numbers, and turning a blind eye towards the potential for fraud not just against the FEC, but against unsuspecting victims of credit card fraud.

The issue centers around the Address Verification Service (or AVS) that credit card processors use to sniff out phony transactions. I was able to contribute money using an address other than the one on file with my bank account (I used an address I control, just not the one on my account), showing that the Obama campaign deliberately disabled AVS for its online donors.

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DISCLAIMER:  I’VE SEEN A NUMBER OF THESE “EXPERIMENTS” SO I’M HESITANT TO SAY THAT THEY’RE ALL AUTHENTIC.  AT THE SAME TIME I HAVE NO DESIRE TO DONATE TO OBAMA’S CAMPAIGN TO PROVE THEM RIGHT.