If Ann Coulter is "an extraordinarily good Christian", then I hope nobody every calls me a Christian. I just don’t want to be in the same league as her.
Read this vile interview (on a religious website) in which she is just plain mean and rude and self-righteous, not only on the subject matter being discussed, but to the interviewer.
The "Castro is dying/dead" rumors that I mentioned (and dismissed) here on July 11 might have a grain of truth to them:
News that Fidel Castro had ceded presidential powers to his brother Raul after undergoing surgery to stop internal bleeding ushered in a period of uncertainty at home and celebrations by his enemies abroad, while fueling speculation on the gravity of his illness.
The announcement on state television Monday night that Castro had been operated on to repair a "sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding" shocked Cubans on the island and in exile, and marked the first time that Castro, two weeks away from 80th birthday, had relinquished power in 47 years of absolute rule.
Mind-boggling stupid Nathan Tabor is at it again:
Google the phrase “Muslim violence,” and more than 29 million entries pop up. Granted, some of these citations represent violence committed against Muslims, but, unfortunately, quite a few represent violence committed in the name of Islam.
This makes me wonder: What does Islam really stand for?
Only a fool or an idiot would conclude that Islam is a violent religion based on the number of Google hits.
But let’s put that methodology into practice, shall we?
First, let’s back up Nathan’s "research". How many hits do we get when we type "Muslim violence" into Google. Here we go…
Hmmm. 18,900,000 hits. Not quite the "29 million" that Nathan claimed. I guess Islam isn’t that violent.
But sadly, we lack a point of reference. So let’s Google the prhase "Christian violence". Here we go….
WOW! 36,700,000 hits. So according to Nathan’s Theory Of Google indicators Of Violence, Christian faith is twice as violent as Muslim faith.
This makes me wonder: What does Christianity really stand for?
In fact, I challenge anyone to read Nathan’s Islam-bashing post substituting the word "Christian" for "Islam". It holds up pretty well.
So what exactly was your point, Nathan?
I’m guessing that Mel’s deal with ABC/Disney to produce a miniseries on the Holocaust is going to fall through….
NEXT DAY FOLLOW-UP: Yup, I called it.
The ABC television network has pulled a miniseries about the Holocaust it was developing with Mel Gibson’s production company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, quoting an unidentified representative for the network.
Gibson was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving early on Friday and was reported to have launched into a tirade against Jews, asking the arresting officer if he was a Jew and blaming the Jews for starting all wars.
The actor, who holds strong conservative Catholic religious and political views and whose father is a Holocaust denier, apologized on Saturday.
The incident has raised questions about the future of projects Gibson and his Icon Productions company are working on, like the ABC television miniseries based on a memoir about a Dutch Jew during World War II, the newspaper said.
Looks like the morning-after pill may become a reality after all, and will soon be available over the counter without a prescription.
Don’t look now, but I think the abortion wars just kicked up a notch.
The Found Currency Experiment concludes.
A guy decided to pick up any money (mostly pennies) that he sees on the street for one year.
After one year, how much do you think he netted?
Turns out, not that much. Only $25.36 (with $10.36 in coins). Here are the final stats:
Totals coin finds:
Pennies: 306 (4 of which were wheat pennies)
Nickles: 30
Dimes: 28
Quarters: 12
Paper Money: a 5 dollar, and 10 dollar bill.Averages:
– Bent down 376 times to pick up change
– Found 2.84¢ a day
Did he think it was worth it? Seems not:
It wasn’t a huge score but the experiment was fun, and it taught me 3 things.
1 – Humility: When you’re walking to work in Manhattan full speed ahead and you see a coin on the ground – It’s pretty obvious to everyone around you when you come to an abrupt stop in the middle of the sidewalk, to pick up a penny. There have been a ton of scenerios where I’d have to suck it up and just do it. Good times.
2 – Observance: During the last year, I’ve found change in some pretty obscure places. It’s not that I was seeking change out, but once you get into a habit, it becomes really clear to you when there is a shiney Abe Lincoln staring at you from the urine soaked edges of the Newark train station. You pay alot more attention to your surroundings.
3 – Defeat: Haha, SHIT AIN’T WORTH IT! I’m really glad I did this, and It was really satisfying to find out on my own about a curiousity I had a year ago, but for all the time I spent with this experiment on my mind I could have spent 1 day panhandling and probably doubled my profits…. Either that or a day the the Off Track Betting on 37th.
Scientists think that invisibility may be possible in the near future:
LONDON (Reuters) – It’s unlikely to occur by swallowing a pill or donning a special cloak, but invisibility could be possible in the not too distant future, according to research published on Monday.
Harry Potter accomplished it with his magic cloak. H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man swallowed a substance that made him transparent.
But Dr Ulf Leonhardt, a theoretical physicist at St Andrews University in Scotland, believes the most plausible example is the Invisible Woman, one of the Marvel Comics superheroes in the "Fantastic Four".
"She guides light around her using a force field in this cartoon. This is what could be done in practice," Leonhardt told Reuters in an interview. "That comes closest to what engineers will probably be able to do in the future."
This is the third time the bill hasn’t had any success. North Carolina remains the only southern state which lacks an amendment blocking gay marriage. So somebody is doing something right.
NC State Sen. James Forrester didn’t waste any time submitting another marriage amendment bill this year (Senate Bill 1228, Defense of Marriage/House Bill 2438), but Equality NC announced that with the adjournment of the 2006 session of the General Assembly, legislation to amend the state constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying has died.
The language of the bill would have also banned civil unions, domestic partnership or any other form of relationship recognition for unmarried couples. ENC:
“North Carolinians should be proud that their elected leaders spent their time this year on important issues like ethics reforms, the minimum wage, and the state budget, rather than the politically motivated bigotry of this amendment,” said Ian Palmquist, Executive Director. “Equality North Carolina worked closely with legislative allies to block this unnecessary, discriminatory legislation.”
As this bill would have inserted discrimination against LGBT people into the state’s constitution, Equality NC and its supporters led a ferocious charge to help keep the bill in check for the third straight year.
Among the most critical actions taken by the advocacy group was the organization of a lobby day on June 6 in which nearly 100 North Carolinians came to Raleigh to rally against the proposed amendment. Equality NC supporters came from all over the state to lobby their legislators and take part in a spirited rally outside the Capitol Building.
“When legislators hear from real people whose lives would be affected by anti-gay legislation, it opens their eyes to the impact of their decisions,” said Palmquist. “Our lobby day and other efforts enabled gay and straight North Carolinians alike to speak out against discrimination.”
Thanks to EqualityNC, the active and out LGBT community here and all our political allies!
Picture of aborted fetus to be flown over Cleveland
As a shock tactic, a national group that opposes abortion plans to fly a billboard-size picture of an aborted fetus over Cleveland beginning Monday.
The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, which frequently employs such attention-grabbing advertising, hopes to jar people into reconsidering their support of abortion, director Gregg Cunningham said.
He said the banner would be the most graphic picture ever displayed from the air.
"It will be categorically the most shocking we have ever done," he said. "The imagery is so horrifying that I can’t almost stand to look at it."
Cunningham wouldn’t describe the advertisement, which also displays a toll-free number to the organization. But he said the advertisement would compare an aborted fetus to a second graphic image related to the war in the Middle East.
"This thing just sucks the wind out of even me," he said.
An interesting article about an interesting research study, which should be of interest to anyone who is interested in dieting. Interested?
Studies have shown that people have a "unit bias" when it comes to eating. In other words, they don’t listen to what their body tells them — instead, they look at what’s in front of them. So even if their body says "I’m full", they’ll finish off what’s on that plate or bottle in the mistaken belief that the unit of food in front of them is the "right amount":
How many M&MS are enough? It depends on how big the candy scoop is. At least that’s a key factor, says a study that offers new evidence that people take cues from their surroundings in deciding how much to eat.
It explains why, for example, people who used to be satisfied by a 12-ounce can of soda may now feel that a 20-ounce bottle is just right.
***
The overall idea is hardly new to diet experts. They point to the supersizing of fast food and restaurant portions as one reason for the surge of obesity in recent decades. They sometimes suggest that dieters use smaller plates to reduce the amount of food that looks like a meal.
But in the June issue of the journal Psychological Science, Geier and colleagues dig into why people are so swayed by this unit idea when they decide how much to eat.
Geier, a Ph.D. candidate who works with people who are overweight or who have eating disorders, figures people learn how big an appropriate food unit is from their cultures. For example, yogurt containers in French supermarkets are a bit more than half the size of their American counterparts. Yet French shoppers don’t make up the difference by eating more containers of the stuff, he noted.
He and the other researchers tried a series of experiments using environmental cues to manipulate people’s ideas of how big a food unit is.
In one, they put a large bowl with a pound of M&Ms in the lobby of an upscale apartment building with a sign: "Eat Your Fill … please use the spoon to serve yourself." The candy was left out through the day for 10 days, sometimes with a spoon that held a quarter-cup, and other times with a tablespoon.
Sure enough, people consistently took more M&Ms on days when the bigger scoop was provided, about two-thirds more on average than when the spoon was present.
In another experiment, a snacking area in an apartment building contained a bowl with either 80 small Tootsie Rolls or 20 big ones, four times as large. Over 10 working days, the bowl was filled with the same overall weight of candy each day. But people consistently removed more, by weight, when it was offered in the larger packages.
In those experiments, as well as a similar one with pretzels, "unit bias" wasn’t the only thing that produced the differences in consumption levels, but it had an influence, Geier and colleagues concluded.
I think this says something to parents who encourage their kids to "eat everything on their plate because there’s starving children in Africa." The snotty kid who says, "Well, send it to them" may actually have a point.
Very encouraging article in the New York Times:
Disowning Conservative Politics, Evangelical Pastor Rattles Flock
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. — Like most pastors who lead thriving evangelical megachurches, the Rev. Gregory A. Boyd was asked frequently to give his blessing — and the church’s — to conservative political candidates and causes.
The requests came from church members and visitors alike: Would he please announce a rally against gay marriage during services? Would he introduce a politician from the pulpit? Could members set up a table in the lobby promoting their anti-abortion work? Would the church distribute “voters’ guides” that all but endorsed Republican candidates? And with the country at war, please couldn’t the church hang an American flag in the sanctuary?
After refusing each time, Mr. Boyd finally became fed up, he said. Before the last presidential election, he preached six sermons called “The Cross and the Sword” in which he said the church should steer clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a “Christian nation” and stop glorifying American military campaigns.
“When the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses,” Mr. Boyd preached. “When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.”
Mr. Boyd says he is no liberal. He is opposed to abortion and thinks homosexuality is not God’s ideal. The response from his congregation at Woodland Hills Church here in suburban St. Paul — packed mostly with politically and theologically conservative, middle-class evangelicals — was passionate. Some members walked out of a sermon and never returned. By the time the dust had settled, Woodland Hills, which Mr. Boyd founded in 1992, had lost about 1,000 of its 5,000 members.
But there were also congregants who thanked Mr. Boyd, telling him they were moved to tears to hear him voice concerns they had been too afraid to share.
“Most of my friends are believers,” said Shannon Staiger, a psychotherapist and church member, “and they think if you’re a believer, you’ll vote for Bush. And it’s scary to go against that.”
Sermons like Mr. Boyd’s are hardly typical in today’s evangelical churches. But the upheaval at Woodland Hills is an example of the internal debates now going on in some evangelical colleges, magazines and churches. A common concern is that the Christian message is being compromised by the tendency to tie evangelical Christianity to the Republican Party and American nationalism, especially through the war in Iraq.
At least six books on this theme have been published recently, some by Christian publishing houses. Randall Balmer, a religion professor at Barnard College and an evangelical, has written “Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America — an Evangelical’s Lament.”
And Mr. Boyd has a new book out, “The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church,” which is based on his sermons.
“There is a lot of discontent brewing,” said Brian D. McLaren, the founding pastor at Cedar Ridge Community Church in Gaithersburg, Md., and a leader in the evangelical movement known as the “emerging church,” which is at the forefront of challenging the more politicized evangelical establishment.
“More and more people are saying this has gone too far — the dominance of the evangelical identity by the religious right,” Mr. McLaren said. “You cannot say the word ‘Jesus’ in 2006 without having an awful lot of baggage going along with it. You can’t say the word ‘Christian,’ and you certainly can’t say the word ‘evangelical’ without it now raising connotations and a certain cringe factor in people.
“Because people think, ‘Oh no, what is going to come next is homosexual bashing, or pro-war rhetoric, or complaining about ‘activist judges.’ ”
