Archive for January 2011
Best Links of the Week
“The Supreme Courts Back Alley Runs Through Philadelphia.” A story on how Roe v. Wade makes regulating abortion clinics exceedingly difficult and opens the doors for the horrific squalor and infanticide of the clinic in Philadelphia.
Summary of a really interesting survey of evangelicals in the UK.
Billy Graham regrets not steering clear of politics and regrets not spending more time with family.
Mark Sanchez picks his nose and wipes it on his backup QB, video here. (HT: Aaron)
Consumer Watchdog and privacy group is raising concerns over close ties between Google, the NSA, and the present federal government.
Christian Astronomy Professor successfully sues the University of Kentucky for religious discrimination against him.
Iran has cleared a major hurdle in the uranium enrichment process.
Solid WSJ report on their murdered reporter Daniel Pearl.
U.S. Taxpayers have footed the $160 million legal bill for the executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Unbelievable and unconscionable.
Government Unions are trying to court the TSA to join their ranks.
Chuck DeGroat continues his series on dealing with difficult people with an excellent piece on dealing with the borderline (passive-aggressive).
“Bernanke’s Rally Runs into Headwinds”
A fairly thorough dossier on the American mafia.
Check your Munis as a bunch of states are quietly looking at bankruptcy.
Donald Trump has some harsh words on the pomp and show put on for the Chinese president.
Two Italian scientists (with suspect pasts) claim they have successfully found cold fusion. No offense to my Italian friends, but this is very doubtful.
Double dip in the housing market.
UPDATE: The appalling story of the Philadelphia abortion doctor who was charged with eight counts of murder, who had squalid conditions and random baby parts in jars… women are coming forward saying that he left them sterile. Also in this vein, Al Mohler had a good piece on the President’s comments on the Roe v. Wade anniversary speech.
“People are Awesome”:
Best Links of the Week
The Economist has an excellent article entitled “The Disposable Academic: Why Doing a PhD is a Waste of Time”
Delightfully lengthy article in GQ about Mossad’s somewhat botched assassination of a Hamas leader in the city of Dubai. (HT: Phill)
Fascinating article that makes a compelling case that the Stuxnet worm that has disrupted Iran’s nuclear program originated ironically from China (and not the U.S., Britain, or Israel).
50 cent makes $8,700,000.00 off one tweet. As a corollary to this article, there is way more money in self-branding in the entertainment industry than there is in the entertainment industry. I also think it is ridiculous where people will take investment advice from.
I watched Ted Haggard’s little special on TLC last weekend. I won’t delve into analyzing the state of his soul but Carl Trueman does a pretty decent job.
When you hang your head in shame, the last thing you should be thinking about is whether the camera has caught your good side.
“The Lazy Slander of the Pro-Life Cause”
BBC article on the impact of the King James Bible on the English language.
No other book, or indeed any piece of culture, seems to have influenced the English language as much as the King James Bible. Its turns of phrase have permeated the everyday language of English speakers, whether or not they’ve ever opened a copy.
2010 Los Angeles County bill tab for illegal immigrants in public schools was $600,000,000.00.
Utterly appalling story of abortion doctor in Philadelphia. There had been no inspection of the clinic since 1993.
Gosnell “induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord,” Williams said.
Patients were subjected to squalid and barbaric conditions at Gosnell’s Women’s Medical Society, where Gosnell performed dozens of abortions a day, prosecutors said. He mostly worked overnight hours after his untrained staff administered drugs to induce labor during the day, they said.
Best Links of the Week
Dealing With Difficult People: Narcissists. The best article I’ve read this year.
IBM computer to play against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Should be another interesting man vs. machine conflict.
Doug Wilson piece entitled “Calvinism, Eschatology, and the New Media”
Andy Crouch, “Ten Most Significant Trends of Last Decade”
A number of people in California recently won $150 by correctly guessing 4 of the 6 numbers of the California Lottery. The winning numbers were: 4, 8, 15, 25, 47, 42
Apparently the Catholic Church is doing a realty series on exorcism, but I heard this was news to the Vatican.
New US $100 bills to have 3-D technology.
AIG is recapitalizing. Unbelievable… have any lessons been learned?
Banks repossess over a million homes in 2010. Also, foreclosures rising.
Drunk Scientists accidentally pour wine on semiconductors and make some scientific discovery.
WSJ article entitled “Bye-Bye PCs and Laptops”
The Catholic Church and science. Personally, I am a huge fan of science and think there is a fair degree of agreement between science and Christianity, far greater than many acknowledge.
Green blob from Hubble Space Telescope.
Major Dick Winters passed away earlier this month. Thankful for this man and countless anonymous men just like him.
The precipitating event was an essay posted last February on the Huffington Post by Eddie Glaude, Jr., a young African-American religion professor at Princeton who gave his column the eye-catching title, “The Black Church Is Dead,” and continued that with an equally arresting lead:
“Of course, many African-Americans still go to church,” Glaude began, noting surveys that track the higher-than-average religiosity of American blacks. “But the idea of this venerable institution as central to black life and as a repository for the social and moral conscience of the nation has all but disappeared,” he said.
Best Links of the Week
The Truth Wears Off: The Decline Effect and the Scientific Method
Just because an idea is true doesn’t mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn’t mean it’s true. When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe.
John Piper’s report on his leave of absence. I appreciate his honesty and transparency. Thankful for his life and ministry, warts and all.
Some cogent analysis of 16 countries with potentiality of war or conflict in 2011.
Apparently the Armenian government and police have a severe problem with emo kids.
“Home Price Continue to Fall… Raising Possibility of Housing “Double-Dip“”
Bomb kills 21 Christians exiting worship at New Years Mass in Egypt.
Iran says they have shot down several “Western Drones”
Forthcoming solar max.
State of German multi-culturalism
IBM predicts holographic phone calls in the near future.
Constitution has “no binding power on anything because it is over 100 years old.”
Contract free iPhone with 2gigs data for $25/mo. The process is a bit shady but it seems to work for some people. Note: requires and IMEI from an iPad.
In the same vein of nonsense, Nancy Pelosi’s reply to the question of Constitutional warrant of Obamacare:
Peyton Manning stars in new movie “The Darkside”
39% of All NYC Pregnancies End in Abortion
The 2009 NYC health study shows that 39% + of all New York City pregnancies end in abortion. 46% of all pregnancies in the Bronx. 65% of all pregnancies of those age 19 and younger. Amongst those age 20-24 there were 49,964 live births and 50,730 abortions (50.4%). Among non-residents under age 24 there were 1,022 total live births and 2,994 abortions (74.6%)
The full report can be found here. Pages 84-88 at the bottom of the document (pages 75-79 of 106 in your internet browser) outline the “induced” and “spontaneous” terminations.
Appalling.
Also, I should also note that a friend of mine who used to work in labor and delivery mentioned that only 1 in 20 babies she delivered fit the following three criterion:
1. Married to the father
2. Did not have an STD
3. Had not had a previous abortion
Modern Pensées 